July 15 – “Repairs”

I started off the day yesterday with an upsetting discovery.  The tiny little computer that operates my right side hearing aid was splitting in half.  That’s right, breaking right in two.  Weird.  It still worked, but I had a difficult time getting it into my ear.  Chris was concerned that once I got it in I wouldn’t be able to get it out.  So our first stop on the magical mystery Friday tour was the hearing aid place.  We got there about five minutes before it was scheduled to open, but the receptionist saw me standing there, looking forlorn, and she kindly let me in.  She took one look at the apparatus and said, “Oh, no.  This is one of those things we will definitely have to send off to be repaired.”  Of course it is.  So if you have any face to face dealings with me, be kind.  I’ll be half deaf for the next week or two.

Stop two on the excursion was the county clerk’s office.  The registration sticker on the car needed replacing, and we took care of the inspection last week.  Apparently early morning is the time to arrive there, too.  We were the first in line.  Well, we were the only ones in line.  But we were careful to follow proper procedure.  We walked all the way around the little sign that says “Line forms here” before approaching the counter.  Must be good citizens, you know.  We had all the proper paperwork in order, and even had an actual paper check to write on.  See, you can save a dollar by doing business in person like this.  It costs extra for the convenience of paying with a credit card or doing the transaction online.  Gotta love a small town.

Next stop was the district court.  No, we weren’t turning ourselves in or anything.  We were just there to apply for our passports.  Never know when you might need one, and we heard that after this year it is going to get tougher and tougher to get one.  We had already gone online and downloaded all the paperwork we needed.  But that seemed to be a bit unnerving to the guy waiting on us.  Well, that and their boss walked in and said hello to him while we were standing there.  And he was all alone in the department.  Remember, we got there pretty early.  We actually began to feel sorry for the poor guy.  His hands were even shaking.  He was a nice enough chap.  Said he thought my name was familiar, but the only connections we could make were that I went to high school with his cousin and I grew up on the same street with one of his co-workers.  We turned in all our paperwork and sighed where we needed to sign.  He took our picture (after we paid the cashier around the corner).  And we wrote the separate checks to be attached to each of our applications.  Lots of red tape, but in the end, our new friend didn’t think there would be any problems at all.

We decided that was enough for one Friday “day off.”  Back to the house for Chris to work on a quilt and me to … figure out some way to get repaired a bit before the Astros game. 

James 4:13-15 says, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.’”

Father, thank you for people like David who did a great job helping us out at the passport office.  Give his a calming weekend.  Amen.