May 16 – “I called the fire department …”

I got a haircut yesterday, so there’s that.  Feels great in all this warm weather we have been having.  It’s supposed to get up to 80 today.  Of course it is.  I’m scheduled to do some more fence-tearing down in the back yard.  Oh, my haircut lady – never know whether I’m supposed to call her a barber or stylist or what – was learning all the ins and outs of their new computer system.  It’s the same one that Randall’s Pharmacy and UTMB use.  How do I know?  By the time I got back to my car I got a text from the business that my appointment was confirmed.  The one I just had.  Good to hear.  Good to hear.  I wouldn’t want to step on someone else’s appointment time. 

Oh, wait.  I almost forgot the real excitement.  The fire department was called to Nathan and April’s house.  No, not a fire.  It was for a rescue.  No, not for Cailyn.  Not for April, either.  And Nathan was at work at one of his second job, so it wasn’t him.  It was a dog rescue.  All of their three dogs.  Two boxers and a Boston bull terrier.

Seems they were in their usual spot in the laundry room while April got ready for her rousing, junior-high-school-reminiscent trip to a concert to see … New Kids on the Block.  She was also getting some last-minute laundry done.  She decided she had better let the dogs outside for a while to get their business done.  And that’s when she discovered it.  The washing machine had become imbalanced (Gotta watch out for those imbalanced things, you know).  It slowly worked itself up just enough that it was blocking the path for the door to open.  The dogs were trapped inside.  Nathan was an hour and a half away in the midst of a safety operation. 

April called us to see if we could take Cailyn to an orthodontist appointment, but April had already made the decision to call in the big guns … “I called the fire department.” 

By the time we arrived, a fire department vehicle was parked out front.  Not a whole crew.  Just one guy.  I stuck around and Chris took Cailyn on to the dentist.  It took a while – assorted tools like small flathead screwdrivers and big hammers and levels, and numerous stops and starts and grunts and groans.  But with the use of one of those long levels, Stewart on the ground and me pushing the door at the top, it suddenly slipped.  Release!  The dogs were free.  April didn’t have to get out the new chain saw and cut the door in half after all (Apparently one of the options she pitched to Nathan on the phone before the cavalry arrived).  Here’s a big thank-you to Galveston Fire Department once again coming to the rescue.  It’s great to be part of that awesome family. 

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Start children off in the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Father, thank you for good old-fashioned fire department ingenuity.  Amen.