August 15 – “The Roll with the Hole”

Well, I had a double dose of birthday party.  After the dual celebration the night before with Chris, I discovered that I was also due an actual birthday day birthday party.  It happened at breakfast.  I was presented with a cinnamon roll that had a candle in it.  Another rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday to you” accompanied the pastry.  I even got to eat the roll with the hole.  The candle hole, that is.

So how did my “Actual Birthday Day” go?  I played some more soccer with Luke.  He has big plans for his upcoming season, so he has to practice every chance he gets.  The day before we kicked around a partially deflated beach ball.  Yesterday it was one of those giant exercise balls.  He’s good.

We got together with Josh and Christi on some possible future plans in the works.  Not sure about the one in October, but our usual November trip to Waco for the Texas Baptist Conference looks to be a go. 

We finally dragged ourselves away after Josh left for work.  Great hugs from little bodies always make it easier – and tougher – to leave.  After a quick stop for gas we were on our way. 

Lunch was at our usual stop – Cracker Barrel in College Station.  Fried chicken livers.  Yum.  Great birthday lunch.  As it turned out, we had a waitress with the same birthday as me.  One of us was 19.  The other was 66.  I’m the 66, in case you were wondering.  She was very excited at the revelation.  She also informed me that I had a free dessert coming.  She brought back two spoons, enough cake for both of us, and two scoops of ice cream.  Yep.  She got a nice tip.

We were pretty beat when we got home.  I watched the last part of the Astros game while Chris went to the store.  She came back with a few birthday gifts for me.  The one wrapped in a WalMart bag was a new air pump for keeping live bait fresh.  Perfect since my other one went haywire the last time I used it.  The second gift was wrapped in a blanket.  A brand new pillow.  One of those kinds with the weird-looking sheep on the packaging.  Tried it out last night.  Perfect. 

We did run into a problem.  Our air conditioner is on the fritz … again.  The repair guy came out to check it out … again.  It wasn’t low on Freon this time.  He said the fluid was entering the system at 120 degrees and coming out still over 100.  Should be at least in the 90’s.  Something about the coils being bad.  Recommended that we get a new outside unit.  I asked what kind of discount we would get since this one has given us so much trouble.  He promised to check with his boss and get me some quotes today.  We’ll see.  Sigh.  Guess vacation is officially over.

Psalms 121:1 says, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from?”

Father, thank you for the many folks who thought about me for a brief second yesterday.  Long enough to send me a FaceBook good wishes.  I thought of them, too as I read through the list.  That’s some good friends and family you have blessed me with.  Amen.