Sunday, September 17, 2017

September 17 – “Man Down Two”

Well, after Lauren’s announcement the other day that she was Seaside’s fire “man down” as a result of the storm relief efforts (she was sick from the mold exposure), I have to announce that it looks like I am Man Down Two.  I have officially reached my lift limit for my back and neck and knee.  The pain got to be bad enough that I finally agreed to call for a neurosurgeon appointment.  That would be for my neck.  Tingling, itchy streaks shooting from my neck up into my ear.  Very weird feeling.  Problem is, I wake up at night and realize I have scratched at my ear enough to make it bleed.  Last time I saw him for my lower back he basically said I should try to live with it and avoid surgery unless it got too difficult to walk.  But he added that if I ever had issues arise with my neck that I was to give him a call.  The knee?  I don’t know.  Maybe if I just rest it …

We did manage a little bit of an adventure yesterday.  We drove to League City to see Jachin play a baseball game.   Well, two games.  It was a doubleheader.  Now, if anyone tried to leave the Island yesterday via the causeway, you know that traffic was backed up onto the bridge.  Construction had everyone funneling into one lane.  But hark.  The voice of Google Siri came to our rescue.  She suggested an alternate route through.  With some difficulty (we made a wrong turn or two) we finally located a little known road that led us right to Highway 3.  It enabled us to avoid the treacherous roadwork that has already put a crack in our windshield and apparently hundreds of others.  It was an adventure to us, though.  Especially the part where we laughed at the many other vehicles who couldn’t understand Siri’s route suggestions. 

We did make it to the games.  And was it ever hot.  The field had no shade, either.  And we were far enough away from the Island that there was not much of a breeze.  The boys were absolutely dragging all through the second game.  Even Chris almost threw up.  The guys did pretty well, though.  Jachin’s team won one and lost one, but in their loss they came back from a 9 run deficit and made the score a bit closer.

Oh, and I did something I have never done before.  I dropped my cell phone.  Well, I have dropped my phone before, but this time when it hit … the screen cracked.  Not shattered like some I have seen, though.  It is just a crack across the top.  So now I have to poll my friends and family who have preceded me in cracked-screen-dom to see what I’m supposed to do next. 

I almost made it through a whole post here without a comment on the relief efforts taking place.  But I do have one thing.  We were going to stop by some folks’ houses in Dickinson to check on them, but we were both feeling woozy from the heat, so we headed home.  As we drove down the freeway through Dickinson, however, we glanced to our right and saw the massive appliance graveyard.  Stoves, refrigerators, washers, dryers completely filling the parking lot of a former furniture store.  Absolutely sobering as to its sheer magnitude.  I wasn’t able to get a photo since we were on the freeway, but if you want to see a representation of the destruction from the flood, drive I45 through Dickinson and look to the west.

2 Peter 1:3 says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”


Father, thank you for protecting those boys as they played in the heat yesterday.  Speaking of protecting, be with the folks who have the responsibility of gathering and disposing of all those appliances.  That is an unsung and absolutely necessary job.  Amen.

No comments: