February 2 – “Happy Groundhog Day”

I hope I have the right day.  I think this is the day Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his hole somewhere up there in New England.  If he sees his shadow he gets scared and runs back into his hole, a sure indication that we will have six more weeks of winter.  Or is it the other way around?  I have never been able to keep that straight.  Especially since we moved to Galveston.  Winter here lasts a month, maybe.  And by winter we usually mean the rainy season.  It's not exactly a tropical island paradise, but it just doesn't stay cold long here.     Yesterday was pretty cold, but today was most assuredly the exception to the rule.  When I woke up this morning it was 24 degrees at Moody Gardens according to Weather Bug.  We did the winter weather preparations yesterday that we practiced for last week but didn't really need.  We carried Chris's pots full of dirt (oh, yeah, they also had plants in them) from the front porch to the garage.  Then we did that little something extra that only happens when we are pretty certain there will be a freeze (that sounds weird, doesn't it?  Either you are certain or you are not.  How can you be "pretty" certain?).  Chris went to the closet and dragged out a stack of sheets.  We had to cover up some of the bushes that were planted in the ground.  Plumbagos and a little Satsuma tree we planted last spring and three hibiscus bushes got the sheet cover.  Another hibiscus in the front got covered by turning over a big old empty flower pot we had and dropping it over the bush.  We did that trick over some Easter lilies as well.  She didn't cover up the poinsettia, though.  It is growing in the ground in the back yard, and its leaves have turned red.  Looks like it must be Christmas.  How many shopping days are left, anyway?     About 5:30 I got a call from Josh.  He wanted to know what people used to do to protect from freezes back in the dark ages before plastic faucet covers and pipe insulation.  He left all his anti-freeze devices way up north in Arlington, because he didn't think it got that cold in San Antonio.  He had been driving around San Antonio and everybody was sold out of the new-fangled gadgets.  He figured since we were so old we might know some antique tricks.  I asked him first if he had access to newspapers.  One of our pipes is exposed in an unusual way, and that's how I covered it.  His answer?  "What's a newspaper?"  I forgot.  Any news he gets he reads news online or occasionally sees on television.  New generation.  We needed a plan B.  About that time Chris hollered out that he could use towels, so I asked if he had any of those.  That wouldn't be a problem, so I told him to wrap the pipes with a towel and hold it on with duct tape.  I asked, "You do have duct tape, don't you?"  That one he did have.  Everybody should have duct tape.  Great stuff.  To top off the recommendation list, I said he could also leave a faucet dripping to keep the water moving.  Moving water is less likely to freeze than water at rest.  He had two more queries.  "Inside or outside faucet?"  How could it be an outside one if you have wrapped them?  "All the faucets inside or just one?"  Just one, Josh.  Just one.   1 Corinthians 9:24 says, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."   Father, help me to give everything I have to this race you have called me to be in.  Amen.