Wednesday, October 2, 2019

October 2 – “Neighborhood connections”


Our three-miler went well yesterday.  We almost made it the whole way without interruption.  This time it was the famous dog lady.  She had to tell us about her husband’s back surgery.  Apparently the only reason he agreed to go to the doctor at all was because she saw how well I did with my knee surgery.  That’s where he was having problems.  Or so he thought.  The surgeon let him know in no uncertain terms that his back was a lot worse than his knees.  He was kind of on the ropes at that point, so he agreed to the surgery.  Sounds like it went well for him.  At least his wife is happy about it. 

We did a WalMart grocery run.  Had to pick up some fruit as well as some things Chris had on her list.  My list only had two things on it.  Weedeater string and a certain Spiderman movie that just came out on DVD.  We almost couldn’t find the weedeater string.  It had been relegated to a nondescript aisle in the main part of the store usually reserved for sale stuff.  Why?  Because it’s Christmas in the Garden Center, of course.  Come on.  It 30 days to Halloween and two months to Thanksgiving.  Christmas is still sometime after that, I suppose.  But of course we need to put out the Christmas stuff.  Ho.  Ho.  Ho.

We had “pick up the girls at school duty” again.  Nathan is still working every day at the plant during their turnaround time, and April was on shift again at the hospital.  Lexie’s Dad was off his fire department shift, but he had one of his side jobs that he had to get done.  Not a problem.  Nana and DadDad to the rescue. 

Lexie went on home.  We offered to drop her off at a gas station or the airport or the local elementary school, but she appreciated the ride to her house.  Cailyn came on over to our house and got her homework done.  She’s good about doing that, too.  Then she came with us over to the old Lutheran church around the corner for our Neighborhood Night Out.  It was really nice.  Not a huge crowd, but the ones there really enjoyed it.  There were many of the regulars who always come, but we had some newcomers to the neighborhood as well.  A girl who moved here from Macedonia brought some European chocolates.  Good stuff.  I met the chicken people from the next street over.  They have three chickens and were especially excited because they gathered three eggs yesterday.  Breakfast this morning looms exciting for them.  I also met a guy who is an elder in training at Galveston Bible Church.  He’s really taking the responsibility to heart, too.  We are going to go for coffee next week and get to know each other a bit.  Ladder truck four stopped by to say hi.  Cailyn was excited to see someone she recognized.  Former judge Susan Criss was there.  She’s running for state senate now.  Our new city council guy came as well.  Didn’t take long for him to be inundated with “comments” about the nature of the streets here in the neighborhood.  He started out his discussion with our table with, “I already know about Sycamore.  I’ve driven down Sycamore.”  All righty, then.  We didn’t have to say anything.  Oh, and the police chief made an appearance as well.  I’d say that was a pretty good representation.  Oh, and the most exciting part … I won one of the door prizes donated by Kroger.  A box of brownies from the bakery.  Cailyn snatched those babies from my hand before I ever got back to the table.  She said they buy those all the time, but they “usually have to get three or four boxes of them because me and Mommy eat them fast and they are all gone before you know it.”  I haven’t had a chance to taste them yet, but with that kind of recommendation, I think I’ll have to.  We did send a bag of them home with her.  Hey, she was really helpful.  Served the little ladies at our table.  She deserved a reward …

Matthew 22:37-39 says, “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your souls and with all your mind.’   This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Father, thank you for the chance to meet some new neighbors and to renew acquaintances with others.  Amen.

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