April 20 – “the doorbell rang …”

Ah … more craziness on the Seaside Online front.  Right towards the end of the teaching, the TV screen behind me went blank.  So did my computer screen that was attached to it.  And therein lay the source of this irksome malady.  It was the computer’s fault.  Well, the computer operator’s fault.  It had suddenly chosen to go into full-on screen protection mode. 

That of course shut down the screen pairing with the TV, which caused it to switch back to the regularly scheduled programming.  I don’t even know what it was.  Something from the Food Channel, I think.  That meant I had to excuse myself - again – and reset everything.  I don’t know how it looked to the viewing public, but at least everyone got a chance to see a tiny portion of what I have to go through to set up every week.  And, hey, if nothing else, when you tune into Seaside Online, you never know what madness may happen.  By the way, I did figure out how to prevent the screen saver from doing that again.  I think.  We’ll see next week.  Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

Yesterday afternoon we were talking to some more really good friends, the Winkles.  They are one of the two couples we went to Alaska with last year.  Just doing some checking in and catching up.  They are about to become grandparents for the first time, so the quarantine is hitting their world pretty hard.  We love those two.

At one point in the conversation, our doorbell rang.  Now, the doorbell ringing was a shock, given the world’s situation.  I was actually really excited to see what was going on.  It was our neighbor from down the street a ways.  Seems a friend’s church in Texas City had been given, by their local WalMart, a bunch of the random Easter supplies that people didn’t buy.  They church up there had way more than they needed, so they were spreading the wealth, so to speak.  He invited me to come over and take whatever I thought we might be able to give away to kids that we knew.  He invited Corey and Brennan to come as well.  I ended up with a handful of Frisbees with rabbits on them, a few boxes of Easter egg dye, a stuffed cow, some plastic eggs filled with Minion tattoos (not sure what that has to do with Easter), and one chocolate bunny.  Brennan was a little hesitant, so I hooked him up with a big ol’ stuffed green frog.  Very cool item.  And our neighbor even provided us a taste from a bottle of his best hand sanitizer to cleanse our palms when we were done.  It’s great to have generous neighbors. 

1 Corinthians 13:6 says, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”

Father, be with the Winkle’s in their wait for a grandbaby.  And keep that baby safe as well.  Mommy and Daddy are both nurses.  Essential personnel.  Oh, and please bless our neighbor.  Honor his generosity.  Amen.