June 11 – “You have to go to customer service”

Zak received an interesting birthday gift from his parents.  A full-sized replica of an English broadsword.  Now they weren’t expecting him to learn how to use the thing.  At least I don’t think they were.  The accompanying certificate explained the significance behind it as a symbol of his rite of passage into teenage-hood.  Somebody, somewhere once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”  I think the essence of the words were something similar.

As we were getting ready to leave for Galveston yesterday, Zak was getting ready to leave for youth camp with his church.  Pretty exciting time around there.  Christi sat at the table with the list of things he would need, and one at a time he would locate the item and she would check it off the list.  Gotta love lists.  Sometimes they just make the world go ‘round.  Meanwhile I was playing indoor wiffle baseball with Luke.  That kid can hit some baseballs.  And his pitching is pretty good, too. 

On the way out of town we stopped for gas at the HEB station.  Then Chris surprised me by wanting to go inside.  Why?  So we could fill our little ice chest with Minute Maid frozen lemonade.  We haven’t found any around here lately, so it was an awesome surprise. 

After our traditional lunch at Cracker Barrel in College Station, we made another stop at Sam’s to get supplies for the church.  And we hit a snag.  The checker, despite my protestations to the contrary, did not record the purchase as tax exempt.  I even reminded her before she hit the final total button.  She just looked at me, hit the button, then said, “You have to go to customer service.  They will give you the tax in cash.  We briefly ensured that she knew we were less than happy with her snafu, but she refused to accept responsibility, and never even said she was sorry.  So sad.  Of course then we had to stand in line at customer service, which took another twenty minutes.  At least there they had been trained in the fine art of saying, “I’m sorry.”  Not that anything would be done beyond crediting our account with the tax.  Again … so sad. 

On our way home from there we picked up our truck from Kel and Christina’s house.  The other car they have been using was returned to them.  After unloading from the trip at our house, we made a final quick trip over to WalMart for some fruit.  And finally we were able to begin our decompression from the weekend.  Whew.  Hope it doesn’t take too long.  I have lots to get done for next week …

Matthew 5:9 says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”

Father, thank you for safety on this flying trip to Waco.  Thank you again as well for the hospitality of the church there to let us join with them for camp.  Amen.