January 13 – “The round-headed old dude”

So it’s another Friday the thirteenth.  Sounds like another potentially great day to me.  Yesterday we started out with a jaunt to water exercise class.  Gotta keep those creaky old joints and muscles moving any way we can.  And after that we took the car into the shop for a long-overdue oil change.  And how do I know it was overdue?  Because it has been barking at us for some time now.  Well, I guess “barking” may be a little harsh.  It’s more of an aggravating, annoying “ding” accompanied by a flashing message on the dash reminding us to “Change Oil Soon.”  And that message is inevitably joined by one that informs us our stability sensor may be out of whack.  I asked our mechanic about that one.  He said if we still lived in Denver, then that would one to get checked out right away.  It has to do with driving on ice and snow.  And we live on a tropical island in the Gulf of Mexico.  Not really a concern here.  I love our mechanic.  Not that we didn’t need the oil change, though.  In fact we were a few thousand miles past the recommended change date on that one.  But we are known for going at least three thousand over.  Gotta keep up appearances.

Our biggest excitement yesterday came when April called to ask if we could pick up Cailyn from school so she could go work out.  Difficult decision?  No.  We jumped at the chance.  It turned out to be a big surprise for Cailyn.  Apparently she had even asked her Mom that morning when we were going to pick her up again.  She ran up and wrapped me in a big hug, dropped her backpack in my arms and took off in a dead run.  Didn’t stop until she reached the fence.  And when she saw how far behind her we were, she made another dash to catch back up with us.  One would surmise that the girl needed to run off some steam.  The word for the day, though, came as we were in the car heading back home.  She grinned real big and said, “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, DadDad, but with your new haircut your head is really … a lot … rounder.”  Hey, I guess I’m what Charlie Brown would look like as an old guy.  The round-headed old dude.

Philippians 4:5 says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”

Father, thank you for every chance we get to spend time with our little guys.  It is so much fun to see what they might say or do next.  Amen.