Wednesday, May 24, 2017

May 24 – “Little League … swimming?”

We had to deal with weather issues again yesterday.  Actually it was a very pretty day here on the Island up until … it wasn’t. 

We had several visitors.  Christina called to say her gang was coming over after a visit to the library.  Chris immediately announced that we needed to make a WalMart run to pick up some stuff before they arrived.  We rounded up what we needed, and as we were checking out, who do you think we saw walking by?  Christina and the kids.  A few of them opted to join us for the ride back to our house.

Once there Chris received her belated Mother’s Day gift from them, a really pretty bouquet of flowers.  Remember, we were in Waco at AnnaGrace’s baby dedication for the actual day.  They found a spot next to the piggy bank box for Alaska that Josh and his crew gave her.  As they were preparing to leave, who should drive up but Nathan and April and Cailyn.  They were bringing a Mother’s Day gift as well.  Theirs was a lighthouse crafted from three different sizes of upside down plant pots and painted with windows.  It also has an actual working light installed on top that is photosensitive, making the whole thing a massive night light.  But it is also water-tight, so it can even go outside.  No decisions have been made as yet on the final resting place for that one.

Last night we went into Texas for Micah’s end of the season Little League baseball tournament game.  And the closer we got, the darker the sky got.  The team was out on the field warming up when we arrived, but the scuttlebutt in the stands was all about the encroaching weather system and the severe thunderstorm alert we were under at the time.  Occasional flashes of lightning swept across the North sky.  The umpire sat near us and watched his phone weather app to see how close the lightning actually was.  The league president was doing the same, and he decided that the game would be put on a fifteen minute weather delay to see if the system would pass quickly.  And suddenly, cell phones all over the stands starting squealing and making horrendous noises.  Sure enough, there it was.  The National Weather Service was breaking in to advise that everyone take cover immediately.  The thunderstorm watch had just been upgraded to a tornado warning.  As parents scrambled to gather up children, the official word was still a delay.  But it didn’t take many minutes of sitting in our car before it became evident that parents weren’t standing for that silliness.  People were leaving in droves.  Kel and Christina finally drove up and said the game was officially canceled.  They also invited us to their house to wait out the storm, but we decided to try to get ahead of it and head on to the south, to the island, to our haven of calm.  Chris braved the rain that did get much worse.  She could barely see the road in front of us.  Finding the freeway entrance ramp was a challenge.  But the rain let up to a simple stead fall just about the time we reached the causeway.  Gotta love that Galveston rain barrier.  Not that we didn’t get any rain.  We did.  But the severe stuff left us alone this time. 

Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”


Father, walk with those folks who are dealing with the aftermath of these storms.  Amen.

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