April 13 - “A LOUD Altercation”

Well, that was an interesting thing to wake up to. I was sitting at my desk reading and enjoying a cup of coffee. Suddenly there came a loud honking from the house next door. That was followed by another ten minutes of a very loud altercation. 

To be honest, “very loud” is not all that uncommon for the residents next door. That’s why I let it go for that long. I did finally go outside to see what exactly was happening. There were at least three females screaming at each other. The one guy seemed to be trying to play peacemaker, but his efforts weren’t all that successful. 

At one point one of the girls squatted down near a tire (Not sure why. Any guess would be my speculation. After it was all over there were some dents in the car, but they may have been there before). She didn’t really have time to do anything before she returned to the shouting match at hand. 

When the fighting appeared to be escalating to the point of physical contact, I finally called 9-1-1. And just before the police arrived, two of the girls squared off, face to face, yelling and daring the other to take the first punch. The guy bravely forced his way between them. And as the police exited their vehicles, one girl walked away down the street. Another sat on the curb, huddled over a blanket. The third stood her ground. I never could tell who was yelling or what they were saying, but they were obviously intensely angry about something. 

The lady who actually lives in the house finally came outside in her bathrobe. She appeared to know at least some of the combatants, but best I could tell, she was not involved in the altercation. When all was said and done, one of the girls was in handcuffs. An ambulance arrived and checked out another of the girls. It started to leave, but the police asked them to come back and check out someone else. 

A third police vehicle eventually pulled up to join the fray. He must have been CSI. He had a camera with him. I guess he was there to verify injuries or damages to the vehicle or something. 

Meanwhile, another guy walked up who had not been around at all, but he obviously knew at least one of the girls. Police took him aside for a brief chat. Oh, and the ambulance left, this time for real. 

All in all, the police officers and paramedics handled the situation calmly and professionally. They stayed a long time. I guess that was to make sure everything had calmed down. They finally left after about an hour. Phew!

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬ says, In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Father, please watch over the officers and paramedics, especially when they have a call like this one. Amen. 

April 12 - “Fighting Evil-ity”

Chris disappeared out into the backyard yesterday. That was my cue to follow, so I could help with the more difficult manual labor she might have in mind (read here: So I could keep an eye on her. She’s been known to pass out back there).

She was raking dead grass with a plan to get some Weed and Feed to treat the yard. Not sure when that will take place. 

I went right to our ornery old shed. I was gonna give it another try to get it to close properly. I didn’t time my efforts, but let’s just say Chris came over to see if she could help. I got out the level. No help there. It read perfect with the shims I have under it. I tried different orientations of said shims, to no avail. I even pounded on the top of one of the doors to get it to fit right. If it had been made of wood, I would have just planed off some of the top. I finally got it to at least close. Of course, next time we open the doors … they will fall off. 

My second task was a little more risky, but had much greater rewards. I got to trim back the booger villa bush. That’s the evil one with huge thorns. It mercifully died back when it got cold. Problem was, there was a mass of dead branches covered in thorns sticking out into our walkway. That’s what I was called on to chop down. 

There was another problem though. The thing wasn’t really dead. Deep down beneath all the protective, helicopter mom-ish thorns was new growth. Aaarggh! That meant I had to be careful not to cut new stuff, but to still make sure I nabbed all the dead stuff. How did I do? Well … sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good. In the process I got stabbed multiple times. Chris had to go sit down more than once - managing those impending pass-out spells. We got it all done, though. Filled up both of our trash cans with that evil-ity. 

While chopping down that dreaded thing bush, I began pondering the trials and travails of certain tragic songs. One in particular kept running through my head, over and over and over. Do you remember the classic, “The Fly Has Married the Bumble Bee”? Tragic. So tragic. 

Imagine. They get engaged. They share glorious protestations of everlasting love.  Sounds so romantic. But think about it. I checked. A bumble bee typically lives about 6 weeks. A fly, however, is lucky to make it 20 days. So when the bumblebee made his ardent plea, I hope he did it early in the first week. And I hope the poor fly wasn’t well into her less than a month lifespan. 

Sigh. Tragic. Fiddle-dee-dee. 

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ says, Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

Father, thanks for the work we got done in the backyard. Help us sleep tonight. Amen. 

April 11 - “Computer challenge”

My computer challenge for the morning was to figure out how to change my Microsoft Publisher documents into Word docs. Formatting. Margins. All the things. Microsoft announced that beginning in May, they will no longer provide the publisher platform. Sadly, that’s where all my wedding and funeral files have been generated. So … guess Zak and Lindsay’s wedding will be my template for all future ceremonies. 

I also got some birthday cards addressed for the next few weeks. 

Meanwhile, Chris worked with her plants, but when she went outside that upper respiratory gunk really hit her hard again. 

I gotta admit, somewhere in there we both took a nap. I think we’re still catching up from that Spain jet lag. 

After lunch we had some important business to attend to. Bananas. There were some other things involved as well, a prescription for Chris among them. But we all know the bananas were at the top of the list. Mission accomplished. 

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭145‬:‭18‬ says, The Lord is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him with integrity.

Father, again I ask that you heal Chris quickly. Amen. 

April 10 - “Easier said than done”

I was back at the computer again. We had a home group photo watch scheduled for last night, so I was trying to combine the photos from our two phones and the actual camera. Easier said than done. With a break for lunch, it took until 4 pm. I don’t know how together they really are, but at least they are separated into which day on the cruise they happened. 

We almost called off the home group photo party. Not because the pictures weren’t ready. Chris was having a terrible time with allergy symptoms. Sneezing. Sniffling. Eyes watering. Sounds like a TV commercial. She decided to stick it out, though. We have been off for several weeks, and we won’t meet again next week, either. So we dove right in. 

Most of the folks seemed at least a little interested in all the photos. We enjoyed sharing them and getting to talk about them, so thanks guys, for putting up with us. Thanks for the pizza and chips and watermelon as well. 

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭12‬ says, There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.

Father, please heal Chris’ head stuff quickly. Amen. 

April 9 - “Drag and drop. Done”

I had the desk work task again yesterday. I was downloading our photos from the trip onto b the computer so we could have a big picture party for home group Thursday night. The easiest one was copying the camera card from the big camera. Point. Select. Drag and drop. Done. And my phone cooperated fairly well. Plugged it into the computer and found the extended files. Point. Select. Drag and drop. Done. 

But the came Chris’ phone. For whatever reason hers wouldn’t cooperate at all with the computer. That necessitated several extra steps. First I had to air drop the pics from her phone to mine. That was an ordeal in itself ended up having to do it two or three at a time, over and over. 

Then I plugged my phone back into the computer. Should go just as smoothly as the first time, right?  No such luck. The phone and the computer were having all sorts of issues with each other. They just didn’t want to play nice together. 

Suddenly, an error code popped up on the screen. Never what you want to see on a computer, especially when you are nowhere near nerdy enough or young enough to have a clue what to do. Fortunately, this message anticipated my ignorance and spelled out the issue. The USB port I was using had failed. Just no good anymore. 

Surely it couldn’t be something as simple as that. I unplugged the cord and switched it over. Bam! Worked like a charm. I found the files that kept going missing and got them transferred over. 

Now the only issue is dealing with three separate sources merged into one. Not really looking forward to attempting that. How about we leave it and explain as we go along?

As it turned out, Chris was ready to dive back into the dress shopping scene anyway. So back up into Texas and back to the mall again. Two days in a row. That’s gotta be a record. For me, anyway. But hey. She found a dress. Success! 

Since we were in Texas … again. We had to swing by Nathan’s … again. And to no one’s surprise, they were absent … again. But this time we let the dogs out. And relaxed on the back porch and watched them run. The rest of the family eventually got there.  It was great to just hang out and talk. 

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬ says, So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

Father, thank you for giving us a safe trip (and for helping Chris find that dress). And thanks for the chance to hang out with the Santa Fe bunch. Amen. 

April 8 - “On the hunt”

How’s this for some catching up? Yesterday I read through all of the newspapers that arrived while we were on our trip. It was quite the stack. Most of the national stuff I had already heard about. There were a few local stories that grabbed my attention. No real hot gossip, though. Our beloved newspaper is really good at hot gossip. 

Now there is no connection to that last topic here, but we had back-to-back appointments to get our hair cut. Had to get that wedding look down.

And speaking of wedding … we did something we haven’t done in years. Maybe longer. We went to the mall. Not the little strip mall, either. Baybrook, the biggest one around us. I don’t count our stroll through that bull fighting arena turned mall in Barcelona. No real purchase intent there. 

This time, though, we were actually on the hunt for something. Chris was determined to get a dress to wear to the wedding. And I needed a cowboy-ish looking long-sleeved shirt to go with my jeans. I was also thinking about checking out a new belt. You know. The kind with the buckle big enough to cook a pizza on. Maybe even some full-on cowboy boots with motorcycle treads on the bottom. 

Well, OK. No boots.  But I did need a new pair of SAS shoes. Those things last me at least a full year. Better than any other brand. I got my last two pair in Waco. But we did find a store in Clear Lake. I walked in, held my foot up, and declared, “I want a pair of these.”  They looked at them, asked what size, and within minutes I had them on my feet. Even got an extra pair of shoelaces and a shoehorn to boot. 

Sadly, we didn’t find a big belt. Or a cowboy shirt. Or a dress for Chris. I’ll happily give up my belt and shirt for her dress. Maybe another day. 

Since we were off-Island, we decided to swing by Nathan and April’s to see if by chance any of them were at home. Just wanted to say hi. They weren’t home so we waved to their boxer named Tilley (she was guarding the front window) and settled for texting to say hi. 

‭‭John‬ ‭5‬:‭24‬ says, I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

Father, help Chris to find just what she needs for the wedding. Amen. 

April 7 - “Dyein’ for Easter”

I spent the morning at my desk. Haven’t done that in a long time. Felt almost like I was back at work again. I was actually trying to catch up on stuff that has piled up while we were gone. 

The LaMarque Vaughan’s came over for lunch. Me and Jachin grilled some burgers and chatted outside while things were getting made ready inside. 

Then after our burgers, the kids dyed Easter eggs. I know. We were a day late, but it was still fun to watch their interactions. Ezra even co-opted the camera, so we do have some pictures of the day. 

It feels weird to stop the blog there. After writing so much each day over the last few weeks, it seems like I ought to have more to say. But … that’s all. 

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ says, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Father, thank you for blessing us with grandkids. They are pretty special. Amen. 

April 6 - “HE IS RISEN …”

Well, it was up super early again. 11 am in Spain. But we’re not in Spain anymore, are we? I’m pretty sure the clock read 4 am. So why so early? HAPPY EASTER! Of course. 

Seaside’s Easter sunrise service on the beach began at 6:30, so we had to get in gear at dark thirty. For us it has become like the Palm Sunday parade through town was for the tens of thousands of locals and tourists in Málaga. Just a really special time to celebrate Jesus and what he has done for us, as well as to join together with an incredible community of believers and seekers alike. And it’s all done out on the beach. 

I have no idea how many people were there this year. It wasn’t Málaga’s tens of thousands.  But it was definitely in the hundreds. There was rain all around Galveston. However, for the period of time we were on the beach, no rain. It was cold, too. Pretty strong north wind. But still, to put it scientifically, lots of people came. The music was powerfully. Kel shared the story of the resurrection. The pastor of the church that goes in with us on the event did an altar call. And then came the baptisms. 

We were blessed to witness 12 baptisms. Kel knew of about 4 of them. So God called 8 more people of all ages to identify themselves with him. One big strong guy kind of panicked as he was going under, grabbed Kel, and took him under with him! Another was confined to a wheelchair. Kel adapted to that situation by pouring some water over his head. 

It was pretty awesome. 

After the service we hosted a few hundred people for breakfast. The breakfast team put together an incredible venue in our retreat center. Many brought breakfast dishes. About 800 breakfast burritos were available. Everyone had plenty to eat with plenty left over for the rest of the morning services. 

And then … some of us hung around for the next worship service. And how many were at that service? 100. Pretty much maxed out the building. And God didn’t stop there. We had a third service with 90 more people. And those last two services were full of families with little kids. That’s some God doin’s. 

During one of the services I noticed a little guy, maybe six or seven seated between two teenagers. He was giving them fits. Mom was seated behind them. She tapped the little guy on the shoulder. When he turned to receive the anticipated corrective measures, instead she gave the boy who was cutting up a handful of candy. His eyes lit up and stared at candy, then at Mom. Not what he expected. Slowly he turned and went to put it in his pocket. She stopped him and signed that he should eat it. Now his eyes got even wider. He started eating and was quiet the rest of the service 

Here’s one about a little girl and her mom. Mom was getting some coffee. The cute little girl simply stare at a huge pile of candy in a dish. It was all I could do not to tell her it was fine for her to get some. Mom apparently noticed my struggle. She let her get some. As the Mom grinned at me and started to reach for her now-finished coffee,  I told her, “I think I need to leave this room. I am a grandpa, and my answer to everything is yes.” She chuckled knowingly and kind of sighed, “We know about grandpas.” Yep. We are a species unto ourselves. 

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭6‬ says, He is not here! For He has been resurrected, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay.

Father, thank you once again for all those folks you drew to the three services. Amen. 

April 5 - “First order …”

I woke up at 3 am with a horrible cramp in my lower leg that tracked all the way down into my ankle. Very painful. Even when it started easing up, I couldn’t get back to sleep. After all, it was about 4 pm in Spain (and in my body) time. After an effort to restart my bedtime routine by working a crossword puzzle, I finally gave up and got up. And when I started moving around, I was sore all over. 

It took a long time, but I did manage a quick nap around five.  I spent the majority of time otherwise reading through mail and newspapers. Oh, and it suddenly hit me. I had forgotten to take my evening meds. That explained a lot. 

Once Chris got up, our first order of business was a Walmart run to do some major replenishment of supplies. Like bananas, of course. Then we went over to Randall’s to pick up a prescription for me. We also grabbed some milk (Walmart was out of one percent) and ice cream (on sale) as well. 

Back at home, Corey came over to show us his new violin. We even got an impromptu concert. He played one that sounded like an Irish jig. Reminded me of Joe, the Irishman who sat at our table for dinner each night. Fun guy, for sure, and he has an incredible testimony about how he was introduced  to Jesus. That’s an image that will forever be in my mind. 

And once Corey was finished, it was Janell’s turn. She wasted no time in convincing us to come across the street. Seems she got a new toy as well. There in her driveway was a brand-new Prius. She was so proud of all the bells and whistles. Now Brennan has a slightly used car waiting to assist in meeting his every whim.  

I watched an Astros game on TV in the afternoon. It sure is easier to stay awake at three in the afternoon than at three in the morning. That’s when they played while we were in Spain. Oh, and Chris got started on our massive pile of cruise laundry.

All in all, it was the quiet day we were hoping for. 

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ says, This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.

April 4 - “European Falls”

Well, now. Yesterday was a … day. It started about 1 am local time (something like 6 pm here). Chris apparently had a dream or two. Maybe she was reliving her two crashes. She has certainly given new meaning to the term, “European Falls.” 

Not long after the noises began. Our portable fan sputtered noisily, then died completely. I don’t think it liked the European power. It worked fine when we woke up around 6 though. 

A dog started barking outside. Sounded like it was right outside our fifth story window. Surely that wasn’t the case. Then again … we were not the U.S. anymore. 

The final sound was clearly the sound of a ufo landing and taking off. It happened numerous times between one and about 2:30 when I was finally able to get back to sleep. Explains the dog barking. Hmm …

During the hour and a half while the ufo was doing its maneuvers and the dog was barking at it, I played with ChatGPT. I downloaded it a while back, but never opened it. I used it to look at views of the airport terminal in Barcelona. Very nice and new. Looked like wouldn’t be TOO intimidating. 

Oh, I found out the final tally of the distance we traveled from home. 6411 actual miles. From what I understand, that’s 5571 nautical miles. And that doesn’t count all the miles we drove and walked through Barcelona. 

Whew. Feels like a full day’s report already, but I’m just now getting us to the airport. Our driver came a little early, 6:20 am. He didn’t say much, but hey, it was 6:20 in the morning. 

We arrived at the airport around 6:50 or so. After a few wrong attempts, we finally found the American Airlines checkin line (around 7). And the line wasn’t all that long. 

Once we got our bags checked, we wandered around until we stumbled upon a Starbucks (that’s Spanish for Starbucks). Chris had orange juice and an egg and cheese sandwich. I had some good ol’ American coffee and the same kind of sandwich. 

From there it was just a matter of finding our gate. That was easy. It became evident early in the process that the flight was going to be sold out. There were people everywhere. And the workers approached us twice trying to get us to check one or more of our carry-ons. 

Barcelona ATC airspace caused us a one hour delay because they didn’t have enough workers in the department. We finally started taxiing at 11:45. Off the ground at 12:13!

By 2:15 or so we had already had the proverbial sack o pretzels as well as our meal. That was chicken in tomato sauce with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies for me. Chris had the no taste meal. Dried chicken with all the fixin’s (except maybe salt). And then we faced eight hours of ocean. 

The lady next to Chris talked her ear off from the time she sat down until they brought food. Nice lady. Just chatty. But after the meal both of them went fast asleep. I watched a movie, walked to the back of the plane to stretch, then put on what I hoped would be a good movie to sleep to. 

No such luck. I did watch a movie, and I did sleep some. Just not at the same time. When I woke up … why not? I turned on a second movie. Chris tried one, too, but we had a hard time getting her screen to behave. She finally gave up. Not me. I finished my movie. About the time our real surprise showed up. Caramel sea salt ice cream. That was some good stuff. And I even had a cup of coffee to follow it up. 

By about 6:30 pm Spain time we were within spittin’ distance of North America. OK. Nobody was gonna test that theory, but the little screen that tracks the flight showed land, for sure. And it said the time in Dallas was 11:30 am. 

Which called to mind our next dilemma. Our ETA in Dallas was now 3:30 pm. Our connecting flight to Houston was scheduled to start boarding at 4:06. Not much time to grab suitcases, throw them through customs and get to a different terminal. About halfway through a notice appeared on our app that they were delaying departure from Dallas until 5:46. That kinda changed everything. Little less stress. Landed at 3:36, but had to hang out for a while due to a medical emergency on board. 

And then the fun began. We had to go through Mobile Passport Control (AKA Customs). Then we had to go down a huge escalator to baggage claim to get our luggage. But they had turned off the carrousel because there were too many bags on it, so we had to wait for it to come back on. Once we finally got them, we went down a long hallway to the place where “all you have to do is switch moving belts.” However, for some unknown reason, there was a backup of suitcases there, so we were sent to a different terminal to put our suitcases on theirs. From there we had to go to the TSA line. It was long, but moved surprisingly fast. And through all those checkpoints, I only had to have an extra knee scanning twice. Yay me!

Once past that last checkout line, we went right to a guy driving a cart to ask where we should go next. He scanned the tickets and wrote down the gate number. It was in an entirely different terminal, and we had to ride the infamous Skyline train to get there. No, he didn’t offer to drive us. 

A long escalator ride -down this time - and a brisk dash at the end (for me, not Chris) led us to the gate he had pointed us to, just as they called the final boarding call. She took our tickets and the scan revealed … American had moved us to another flight, in a different terminal yet. It didn’t even leave for another hour or two. I guess our faces looked particularly downcast as we turned to leave. She stopped us. And lo and behold - there were two seats available. So she hurriedly made us a couple of new tickets. 

Sounds like a happy ending, right? Well …

Remember how American moved us to a later flight? They moved our luggage there, too. So it didn’t arrive in Houston for about an hour after we did. Poor Christina couldn’t make sense of when to come get us. Neither could we, Christina. Thanks for being patient. 

We did finally arrive in Houston. Round about 6:15 or so. Found a spot to greet our luggage when its own flight got there. And after a quick chicken nuggets supper at Chick-fil-a (first sweet tea in 18 days!), we got our luggage before any of the people from that plane even got on the ground! 

We’re baaaack!

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53‬:‭5‬ says, But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.

Father, thank you for this grand adventure that was our trip to Europe and back. It’s good to be home. And just in time to celebrate Easter! Amen.