February 19, 18, 17, 16 – “What day is it now?”

 February 16 – “Happy birthday, Josh”

 

I’m having a hard time getting started today on being all creative and goofy.  I know.  That second part of me in particular should come easy.  But today there are a few reasons for my sluggish start.  The physical reason is the weather.  Who wants to get started on their day when it is 23 degrees with a wind chill of 7?  You read that right.  Single digits.  In Galveston, the Tropical Island Paradise.  Chris and I spent the afternoon yesterday covering up tropical plants and bushes and the like.  And then recovering them when the wind started blowing the sheets asunder.  Although a sheet never seems like quite enough cover when you’re talking about ice and snow all around.  But, yes, I did mention snow.  Not a lot, but there is a sheet (not quite a blanket) of snow on the ground.  The grass is not completely covered or anything, but I suppose there will be enough for the kids of the Island to make a small snowman.  And it does count toward our once every fifteen years or so record of snowfall.  But there is still that one factor that accompanies it.  The one thing that used to be so inspiring so long ago.  It is cold. 

 

But wait a minute.  Today is special no matter what the weather is like.  Today is Josh’s birthday.  It’s important to memorialize people on their birthday.  Especial people who were born into that enviable position in the family structure … middle child.  I was one of those.  I endured the feelings of being forgotten between the brilliant older brother and the cutesy little baby brother.  I was just … me.  So here’s my salute to our own “JJ - Just Josh.”  Happy birthday!

 

Psalms 146:2 says, “I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.”

 

Father, thank you for blessing us with that middle son.  He is something special.  Would you please bless him on his special day?  Amen.

 

 February 17 – “Ice skating on the deck”

 

It was cold last night.  Inside.  No power.  We even let Freddy sleep in bed with us.  It got down to 50 inside the house.  21 outside.

 

Lauren and Stewart brought over some wood and started us a fire in the fireplace.  Really made a difference – at least in that room.  Smokey though. 

 

About mid-morning Cailyn and Lexi came over with some duraflame logs.  Not as smokey.  Oh, and April brought breakfast.  They have an all-electric kitchen, and ours is gas, so she jumped at the chance.  Fresh eggs and sausage breakfast burritos.  Yum. 

 

After breakfast Cailyn chased icicles.  She and Lexi went ice skating on the deck.  Huh.  Never thought I’d hear myself saying that … “Ice skating on the deck.”  Sounds … dangerous. 

 

April left to check on stuff at home and took Lexi home as well.  The rest of us played Egyptian Rat Killer, a card game.  Cailyn won.  Ruthless child.  April returned later with the big news that their power was back on, so Cailyn went on home with her.

Later in the day we borrowed some kitty litter from Corey and Janell to take the edge off the ice on our front porch.  Chris had avowed not to leave the house until it was gone.  Bad memories of a prior engagement with an ice patch.  They kindly shared some with us and we got the ice patch covered. 

 

That was enough to encourage Chris to leave and spend the night with Nathan and April and Cailyn.  I guess we’ll continue the saga tomorrow …

 

Psalms 145:17 says, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.”

 

Father, thank you for the respite from the cold at Nathan’s house.  Be with him at work.  They are having some weird problems because of the conditions.  Protect those firefighters as they work to protect the plant.  And please do the same for our city fire crews.  They have been having tough shifts lately.  Amen.

 

February 18 – “Water, water, every … where?”

 

So the saga continues …

 

We spent the night at Nathan’s.  Their power was holding on, although no one knew for how long.  We made our way over and settled in for the night.  I say it that way because we tried to watch a movie and I kept falling asleep.  It was nice to have a warm bed, though.  At least until around 4:30 when the power went off.  I jumped up to unplug the computer.  Freddy was confused.  I took her downstairs and put her outside for a few minutes.  Didn’t take long and she was ready to come back inside.  Nathan and April both left for work, so we brought Cailyn over to our house.  We got word that the power had come on at our house around 2 a.m. 

 

When we arrived, we discovered that the power that came on at 2 a.m. was already being directed elsewhere.  Great.  And to top it all off, we found out that now there was no water service anywhere on the Island.  Wonderful.  But at least we had the fireplace as long as the wood holds out.  I stoked away and appreciated Ed for bringing us over a refill of firewood. 

 

Our other big news was on the church front.  We did have a pipe burst there.  Jim saved the day, though.  He figured out where the water was coming from and managed to shut it off.  He and Charlette just happened to be there anyway.  Seems the church was warmer than their 30 degree house.  Then the power went out.  And the no water call was made from the city.  Is nowhere safe around this Island?  We canceled the Ash Wednesday service. 

 

Around five p.m. I got a text from Nathan that they had water.  We jumped up and checked, and so did we.  We frantically (and that’s the perfect word usage here.  “Frantic”) started filling up pots and pans and pitchers and even a bathtub in case it went out again.  We already had a five gallon bucket full of rainwater.  Very rustic.  Very 19^th century.  Very camping-ish.  Very not-so-fun.

 

Well, I take some of that back.  It wasn’t all bad.  There was fire involved, so there’s that, although it was wreaking havoc with my sinuses.  And We spent the night playing card games again.  Egyptian Rat Killer.  Kings in the Corner.  Cailyn was doubled over with laughter most of the time, too.  She even made the comment, “We don’t really need TV, do we?”  Wait.  Who is this kid? 

 

She remained consistent, too.  Even after the power suddenly came back on in the middle of a game.  We all jumped at the unexpected intrusion.  I jumped from my chair to … just stand around in the light, I guess.  I couldn’t think of anything I needed to do.  It was fun walking around to see which lights had been on when the power first went out.  I did hook the computer up to power so it could charge up, though.  Chris was the first to call “shower,” so she disappeared for a while.  Cailyn went next and I followed last.  The water pressure when I got in was pretty low.  And it was either really hot or way too cold.  But it was a shower, right?  We were very thankful for what we had.

 

We finished out our game and all three of us, well four counting Freddy, were ready for bed.  It’s exhausting to live like a pioneer.  I was assigned the task of fire stoker, so I slept in the living room.  Cailyn and Nana and Freddy took the bed.  I actually slept all night. 

 

Psalms 145:13 says, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.  The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.”

 

Father, thank you for the power and especially the water.  All of us appreciated the shower.  Please facilitate the work of the guys repairing leaks and busted water mains.  And bless them personally in the meantime.  Amen.

 

 February 19 – “What day is it now?”

 

I think I have my days figured out now.  Yesterday I got up early and took the garbage out.  That’s supposed to happen on Tuesday unless I take it out early on Monday.  Pick-up was postponed to Wednesday when Winter Storm Megan hit.  But then they couldn’t come on Wednesday either, so it was postponed until Thursday.  Phew.  As I rolled the can out to the street, Corey came outside.  His cans were already out.  In fact ours were the only two homes with cans out on our whole street.  We speculated about the existential ramifications of that distinction for a very short minute or two.  After all, it was cold.  Finally we decided to shrug our shoulders, leave them on the street, and let the truck come if came.  The truck came.  Earlier than it ever has.  Not many cans to pick up, I guess.  Anyway, we won that round. 

 

Since the power had stayed on all night, I decided to go ahead and plug back in whatever was originally plugged in behind the tv.  Plan was to get the WiFi back up and running.  And for the first time since ol’ Winter Storm Megan hit, we had internet access on our computer.  I posted my blog yesterday that was a tribute to our friend Patti Jones.  Decided to let that one stand alone for the day.  The rest of the missing fold followed earlier in this post. 

 

Cailyn decided to spend the night and day with us again.  We did take her over to let her dogs out and to feed her chickens.  They are having some issues there with the hot water heater as well as their garage door.  Not very good timing, what with Winter Storm Megan and the fact that they are trying to sell the house.  I checked their breaker, but all was well there.  Nathan decided to check it again when he got off work.  That was all the damage we could do, so we came back to the house and hung out.  Cailyn and Nana made a monstrous chocolate chip cookie in an iron skillet.  Even with the power one, we can’t get away from the whole pioneer days script.  It did taste good, though.  Nathan came by after work and Cailyn headed back home with him. 

 

Last night we attempted to do something we haven’t done all week – turn on the tv.  And it didn’t come on.  I was pretty sure I did something to really mess it up.  I did something, all right.  Forgot to plug it in when I was plugging stuff in earlier in the day.  Hey, in my defense, there are a lot of cables back there.  And did I mention that it’s been cold around here?

 

Psalms 145:8 says, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.”

 

Father, thank you for trash pickups and TV’s that work and internet and all that.  But thanks more for family time and neighbors who care and your continued watch over us.  Amen.