October 14 – “You are excused. You may go.”

I didn't spend much time at school today.  I was called for jury duty and had to be at the courthouse by 1:30.  That was kind of unusual in itself.  Usually jury duty starts on Monday and ends on Friday.  Here it was Wednesday.  And the middle of the day at that.  I knew something strange was afoot.      That's why I asked our CSI Guy / Youth Pastor awhile back if he had any big cases coming up.  He immediately mentioned what became known as the "Baby Grace Case."  A mother and father were accused of killing their little girl and throwing her body in the bay.  It was found by some folks and the search for her identity began.  The mother's trial is already over.  She was convicted.  The trial Mike had worked on was the dad.  He didn't reveal any sordid details or anything, but he did let me know he had worked on the case.    Sure enough, I was in the first of three jury pools of two hundred or people in each.  And their purpose was strictly to choose jurors for the Baby Grace trial.  Now I have been called for jury duty many times, but I have never made it actually sitting on a jury.  And here was the biggest criminal case to hit Galveston in years.  And I couldn't serve because I knew someone who worked on the case.   After the two hundred or so of us crowded into a courtroom (I had to sit in one of the lawyer chairs).  The court clerks went through all the rules about serving.  Then the judge came in and excused those who were ineligible or who had a specific reason for opting out.  I was among the first to be called into the judge's actual courtroom.  The defendant was on one side with his lawyers.  He looked just like his photo in the paper.  The district attorney was on the other side.  We packed out that courtroom, too.   Finally, the same judge came in and introduced himself.  The principal players introduced themselves.  The judge explained the case.  He didn't try to hide anything.  He actually said, "This is the Baby Grace" case you have heard about in the paper."  He then asked us row by row to raise our hands if we felt that for any reason we didn't feel that we could be totally impartial.  As row after row were called, several hands went up each time.  And each time the judge very kindly said, simply, "You are excused.  You may go."  I double-checked on my way out to see if we were to call back each night as is the usual protocol.  The clerk said, "No.  You are excused.  You may go."    Romans 7:6 says, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." Father, it felt strange to be released from my obligation to serve just because I knew somebody.  I guess it's like getting released from my obligation to die just because I know you.  Thank you.  Amen.

October 13 – “Tankless”

The plumbers came to take a look at how much it will be to put in a hot water heater at the church building.  One guy came the other day and said the on demand tankless heater was dead.  He said we should consider putting in a regular "tanked" one in the kitchen.  But he also said to call the contractor he recommended and see what he said.  That's who came today.  The plumber with him was a different guy.  Actually, he was the guy who did our house, so it was good to see him again.  He crawled up in the attic and under the sink, and his recommendation was to replace the tankless one up in the attic.  He said they have come a long way, and he gave us some info on one that has a thirteen year warranty.  Not bad.  He didn't think it would be all that hard to replace, so I checked out the website.  They cost under four hundred dollars.  That's a lot less  than I expected.  Looks like that's the way we'll probably go.  Have to have hot water.   I got a haircut this afternoon.  The glass front door of the place had been broken into a million tiny pieces.  Someone had tried to burglarize them for the second time this month.  All the people who worked there were buzzing about taking all their belongings home with them at night and wondering whether the police got the same fingerprints as last time.  Fear certainly brought out the talkativeness in that bunch.   Chris texted and said she wouldn't be home for a while, so Mom and I went on to Luby's.  Where else?  She said it was the only place we could go where she would eat.  And even so, she didn't eat all that much this time.  Hope she's all right.   I have a Seaside Christian Academy school board meeting tonight.  I'm not sure what time.  I emailed and texted the president, but haven't heard back yet.  Guess I'll just be there at 7 and wait.  I think the Peyton Place stuff has played itself all out, so the meeting should be fairly calm.  Fund raising and grant writing and playground building and maybe a minute or two for the INTERIM headmaster to make a report.  I'm wondering where the newspaper ad for headmaster and teachers has disappeared to. Anyway, I hope I get home at some reasonable hour.    Jury duty tomorrow.  I don't report until 1:30, though, so I still have to go to school and do the opening assembly.  I get to leave pretty soon after, though.   Colossians 4:2 says, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."   Father, I am thankful.  I'm not so good at watchful, though.  Help me.  Amen.

October 12 – “New girl on the block”

We had a new girl on the block at the school today.  She came over from the public high school after giving it a try for a few weeks.  She seems really motivated and excited about the chance to work ahead and maybe graduate sooner.  The other kids also seemed to welcome her.  She's really cute, so the guys, at least, were excited.  Now I need to get her a crate locker and some textbooks.  I also need to find three copies of Silas Marner.    Chris is heading back to Bay City tonight.  She was going to wait until tomorrow, but her mom's appointment was changed to an earlier time.  The cat scan results don't look all that great.  Looks like the lymph nodes are involved now.  That's about the last thing there is.  The chemo damaged her heart and the cancer has the rest.  She is still upbeat, though.  She talks about having surgery and getting strong enough to start chemo again.  Chris is doing her best to stay encouraging.   There is a school board meeting tomorrow night.  The lady we tried to hire as headmaster is supposed to be there to give us some pointers on grant writing.  I'm afraid some of our Peyton Place drama may be there as well.  I'm glad we worked so hard on the student handbook this summer.  That should help head off some of the issues.  All I want is someone else to get the headmaster job.  I have reached that not-really-sick-but-just –day-to-day-existing stage.  I don't feel like I can get anything substantial done because of all the operational and administrative stuff that has become "the next important thing."  Ah, alas.  Stricken once again by the "tyranny of the urgent" bug.  Maybe I can trade it off for some swine flu.    Or maybe jury duty.  But that's not until Wednesday afternoon.  A lifetime away. In the meantime, I guess I'll see Chris off and go crate hunting at WalMart.   Colossians 3:17 says, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."   Father, take my "whatever you do" and make something good out of it.  Amen.

October 11 – “A Girl Party”

This afternoon I went from watching the Dallas Cowboys play an overtime pro football game to a six year old girl's birthday party.  Wow.  The football game came after we stopped at McAlister's Deli for lunch and were joined by some of the teenagers from church (and a Mom/driver).  After lunch the Mom had to rush to an appointment, so the kids all came to our house to watch the game.  One of the guys is a huge Cowboys fan, so it was kind of fun.  Especially when it looked like they were going to blow it.   When they left we had to hurry out of the house to get to the birthday party.  The little girl went to Seaside Christian Academy last year, and her parents are homeschooling her this year.  She doesn't have too many friends except from church, so we felt like we really needed to go.  Sure enough, there weren't many there.  It was at an outside pavilion and the weather was not very cooperative, so that had a lot to do with the small turnout, I'm sure.  But the girl was perfectly happy.   But this whole girl party thing was very weird.  Don't get me wrong.  Some parts of it were fine.  They had a Sponge Bob piñata that was filled with candy.  And candy is, after all, candy.  In fact they even had some body parts gummy candy – fingers, noses, ears, and even brains.  That was cool.  And the Dr. Peppers to drink were also great.    They had some of those small pumpkins for the kids to decorate.  Now that could have been fun.  You know, one-eyed pirates and creepy jack-o-lantern faces.  But this was a girl party.  They had glitter glue and feathers and beads.  The little girls all received a pink paper crown to wear.  The birthday girl's dad put one on, too.  That's when it really started to get noisy.  Not regular, run-of-the-mill, let's go nuts kind of party noisy.  This was a girl party.  They giggled.  And they squealed.    No actual birthday cake at this party.  See, the birthday girl helped make cupcakes for everyone.  But not just any cupcakes.  Red velvet cupcakes.  With green icing on top.  And cute little crowns.  I stuck with my Dr. Pepper.    Her presents were interesting, too.  Some of the things I had no idea what they were, other than they were obviously for girls.  She did get one battery powered toy.  Now how could a battery powered toy be all that bad?  This one was a plastic dog with floppy ears and swimming goggles.  It walked around in circles.  They said it can also swim.  Hence, the goggles.  OK.   They gave away a few trinkets to everyone.  One was a curly straw.  When the birthday girl handed me one, she said, "You can only drink water with it so it will last forever or else of you drink something else with it, it will clog up and get all sticky and you'll have to throw it away."  At least I think that's what she said.  I also received a necklace.  Hung around my neck by the birthday girl, herself.  Yep.  Purple beads hung about my neck for almost two hours this afternoon.    Chris made me some pancakes when we got home.  Now that's a great supper.  Maybe later I'll bite into a finger … or an ear. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."   Father, thanks for giving me the chance to do a girl party today.  Now I won't be so horrified when we do stuff for Cailyn.  Amen.

October 10 – “Winter”

It's finally winter in Galveston.  A cold front came through yesterday.  It brought a lot of rain.  I heard Galveston got two and a half inches.  Our mud in the front yard is slimy and gooey again.  But the best part of it was the temperature.  It is actually down into the 60's.  That's winter in Galveston.   We went to the church this morning to clean and get set up for worship in the morning.  It was rather uneventful.  Chris fine-tuned the pew placement.  I went behind her this time and numbered each pew.  One of these days we'll get fixed up where anybody can look at our chart and set up.  That'll be a great day.     We stopped by Walmart on the way home.  Mom needed some more yarn and Chris wanted to pick out an anniversary card for her parents.  We also picked up a plant for the housewarming party we were going to this afternoon.   The housewarming was fine.  Getting there was an adventure.  The directions said to turn off Highway 45 onto state highway 96.  There was no exit marked state highway 96.  We pulled off at 518 and called to get directions clarification.  We didn't miss it by much – just one exit too far.  Come to find out, Calder Road is also state highway 96.  After that the directions made sense.  Except when we turned into the first entrance to a subdivision that said Tuscan Lakes.  We assumed that would be Tuscan Lakes Blvd.  Not so.  We had to turn around and get back on 96 and drive another mile or two.  We finally found it and delivered our flower.  It was good to see some of my cousins.  We used to see them once a year at the famous Turkey Bowl, but they all got too old and slow.  We decided that we needed to play one more time.  In the street in front of their old house on Galveston.  That's where we played the very first game back in the 60's.  We could play four downs for each team, then retire inside and watch videos of old games.  I guess we've all gotten old.   Colossians 3:15 says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."    Father, I do need your peace.  Send it to me.  And to my family.  And to Seaside Christian Academy.  And Seaside Church.  Amen.

October 9 – “Stormy”

I said something yesterday about it being stormy.  Oh, no.  Yesterday was fine.  Today was stormy.  Mom and I had appointments today in Houston with our audiologist.  Neither of our hearing aids is working very well.  Actually, mine isn't working at all.  So I took off from school and we all headed up to Houston.   We both had hearing checks done again, since the last one we had was in 2003.  My hearing was definitely worse.  Mom's stayed about the same.  She wins.  She has two hearing aids already, and one of them was fine.  The other was getting weak.  It was over the five year limit for hearing aids, but was still strong enough that a repair job would most likely take care of it.  $250.  She wins again.  I now need hearing aids in both ears.  And the one that I have is not worth even trying to repair.  I haven't worn it since the storm, so I had no idea.  So I need two hearings aids now.  Technology has advanced quite a bit since 2003.  Looks like they can be more specific in which sounds they amplify and which they allow to be influenced at all.  They have a "louder" switch and a mode switch that includes such classics as "restaurant mode."  They now fit over the ear with a small wire that fits inside instead of clogging the whole ear.  And they are  considerably more expensive than they were six years ago.  For the two I need we'll have to pay $4500.  They did have a new program where you can get a 12 month no interest loan to cover it.  We applied.  After my "wonderful" conversation with their computer, we were approved … then only approved for $3300 … then denied completely.  All before I could push the next button.  The audiologist had never heard that before, so she had a secretary track down a human being to talk to.  They finally said they would loan us the $3300.  Where that figure came from, I have no idea.  But it means we have to come up with $1200 for a down payment in about two weeks when the hearing aids come in.  I guess we'll have to use some of the house insurance money we haven't spent yet.  Not that it is not already spoken for.  The due dates just haven't arrived yet.  Put it on the list.  Chris says this is more important than getting our pecan tree trimmed and the magnolia tree cut down.   My secretary put out some fires at the school today, and I had a few of my own to work on.  Some parents were intervening in squabbles between their respective kids.  I think those will be worked out in due time.  The one I had to deal with is long term, though.  Our science teacher resigned and is moving to Abilene tomorrow.  His situation certainly warrants it, and I wish him the best, but it sure leaves us in a bind.  I emailed one of the board members and asked her to see if her husband wants the job.  He is a former chiropractor who has been working construction, so he's certainly qualified for the sciences.    Oh, and did I mention that we had to drive through the cold front that was hitting today as well?  Pretty hard rain and wind.  It knocked over our picnic table in the back yard.  That would be the one we are going to throw away because it is rusting through so bad Chris put her hand through the top of it.   Colossians 3:12-14 says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."   Father, show me ways to communicate spiritual truths like these to Clark in particular and all our kids in general.  Amen.

October 8 – “Like Jesus”

What an interesting day.  It started off with our science teacher emailing that he wouldn't be there for the next few days, and maybe longer than that.  We can usually cover for a day or two here and there, but this will definitely mean calling in some help.  We have one good possibility, but he is our stand by for whenever the volunteer math teacher gets a job and has to leave.    As I was pondering the situation, I opened another email from our two-day-a-week secretary.  She wanted to know if she could possibly work more than two days a week.  She offered to teach a personal finance class or help with electives or study halls.  I asked what she thought about science.  At least as a sub for a day.  She'll be there tomorrow and we'll fill in the blanks after that.   One of our students approached me today about getting a transcript so he could enroll at Ball High and play soccer.  I would sure hate to lose him.  He's one of our two seniors and definitely an asset.  Not long after I talked to him, a mom came in to ask about enrolling her daughter, a freshman at Ball High.  They haven't been in town long, but the girl already is very uncomfortable.  If all works out she will begin Monday morning.   I was stopped in my tracks by another of the students.  He asked me how I could treat everyone nice.  He said he couldn't do that because he hated pretty much everybody.  He said, "I want to be like you."  I asked, "Why in the world would you want to be like me?"  His answer is what slapped me in the face.  "Because you're like Jesus."  Ouch.  I sure don't think so.  What a heads up on those old clichés, "Watch your behavior because someone else is, too."  And "You're the only Jesus some people will ever see."   Home group is tonight and it's my turn to go to Jachin's soccer game.    Colossians 3:2 says, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."   Father, help me focus on those things above.  I want to live outside the boat, and it sure gets stormy.  Amen.