October 28 – “A cold day in October”

“It’ll be a cold October day on a tropical island paradise before the Astros win a World Series game.”  What a sad appellation to be hung on a major league baseball team.  Hung on them it was, however, and they lived up to it for some 54 years.  Until this year, that is.  For some reason both spells were broken in 2017.  The temperature on Galveston Island right now is a blustery 51 degrees.  The wind chill makes it feel like it’s 45.  And the Astros have just won, not one, but two World Series games.  What a great experience for an elderly ten-year-old Houston Colt .45’s fan.  That would be me, of course.

The experience was made even more special last night as Chris and I were invited to a game-watching party at Ed and Lauren’s house.  A few of us were die-hard Astros fans (Sarah and Cory).  At least one of us purported to know absolutely nothing about baseball (Jennifer).  One got so excited she spent the evening racing back and forth between the kitchen cabinets above the refrigerator and a hiding place under a chair (I can’t remember the cat’s name).  Pepper, the Wonder Dog adjusted her evening to staring at whoever happened to have a plate of food on his lap.  And Maddie waited patiently for Ed to burst into his homerun dance (which we only saw once, by the way, and at that I missed most of it.  Couldn’t have been because I was doing a homerun dance of my own, could it?).  Cathy traded seats with both dogs three or four times throughout the evening.  The lasagna was excellent, Lauren.  Sam’s cupcakes that looked like baseballs were a hit.  Bryan did his best to keep the cat enthralled by … his belly button?  And Chris’ brownies did their best to keep Sarah occupied so she couldn’t adversely affect the outcome of the game by her actions.  Oh, and the two chickens … well, the two chickens stayed in their pen and tried to keep warm.  All the forces of our evening together combined to assure an Astros victory.  Looks like we’ll have to pass the baton to some other aspiring game-watching group for the game tonight.  We will expect nothing less than another Astros victory from you … whoever you may be.

1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Father, thank you for the fun time with great friends last night.  And for the Astros win, of course.  Amen.