August 14 – “Happy birthday to me”

How’s that for a self-serving title?  But, hey, after sixty years I deserve a little bit of self-indulgence, Right?  Well, probably not. 

The firefighters from Bryan who spent several months here in Galveston after being severely burned were back in town yesterday with several of their chiefs.  They brought down some challenge coins for the Galveston department. Challenge coins are souvenirs a little bigger than a silver dollar that commemorate key events or designate department uniquenesses.  I think the idea is a really good one.  It has apparently been around for years.  The Galveston chief has quite a collection of them.  One of the Galveston guys showed me one the other day that commemorated their service during Hurricane Ike.  It had the satellite image of the hurricane in the Gulf on it.  The one the Bryan guys brought had the Galveston department logo and one side and the Bryan department logo on the other, each surrounded by the words, “Two Departments, One Brotherhood.”  They did some short speeches thanking Galveston again and again for the help they were to the fire fighters and their families while they were on the island.  Then Chief Wisko asked me to bless them all.  I prayed a quick prayer, and then we went outside for a photo op.  Everyone gathered by the side of the ladder truck.  Fifteen or twenty Galveston fire fighters were there, so it was a really good showing.  The city public information officer took the picture, so it may be in the paper before long.  If it is, I want to know who buys the ice cream?

After the photos, a group of us went over to Mario’s on 61^st Street for their lunch buffet.  I sat next to the injured guys, so I had a chance to talk to them a little bit.  We connected when we realized that we were taking some of the same nerve pain medication.  Interesting thing to find in common with someone, I know.  But severe injuries and old age make for some strange bedfellows. 

Psalms 104:34 says, “May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the Lord.”

Father, those Bryan guys are looking really good after all they have been through.  Keep healing them and walking with them.   Amen.

August 13 – “An unexpected surprise”

We are back in Galveston.  It’s great to be home, but it is always a humbling experience to be included in someone’s special family events.  Thanks so much again to the Dammeyer family for trusting us with being part of Ashley and Josh’s wedding, and for hosting us to experience part of New Jersey.  Maybe next time we can get in that trip into “The City.” 

At the Newark airport we got all checked in for our flight home, grabbed a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, and settled in for the brief wait for our boarding call.  It gave us a chance to talk a bit about our time with friends and our New Jersey excursions.  We slowly began to think ahead to the flight home.  We were already in a reminiscing mood, so that brought back memories of the flight to New Jersey.  We recalled the in-flight Wifi that enabled us to watch the progress of the airplane on the Southwest Airlines website and wondered if we would have that same amenity going home.  We chuckled when we remembered little Elizabeth, the baby on the flight who so desperately wanted out of her carseat that she wailed on and off all the way from Houston.  Chris made the comment that at least the flight home would be Elizabeth-less. 

Our reverie was broken when we heard the call to line up to board the plane for our flight home.  We didn’t have quite as good a position as we did on the way over, but we were still in group A.  We found our marker, adjusted our carry-on backpack, and turned our eyes toward the boarding screen.  And that’s when we noticed it.  At first it was just a glimpse out of the corner of our eye, one of those fleeting glances where you aren’t really sure you saw what you saw.  I looked again.  And then again.  I couldn’t believe what my eyes were telling me.  I was afraid to say anything out loud, but it couldn’t be.  Surely not.  Chris’s voice invaded my stupor when she exclaimed, “Oh, look.  It’s …” (Are you ready for this?  I sure wasn’t).  “Oh, look.  It’s Elizabeth.”  Yep.  There she was.  In the flesh.  The same Elizabeth who “entertained” us on the flight to New Jersey was lining up to board for our flight home.  What are the odds?  To her credit, though, she did very well this time.  She was allowed to sit in her Daddy’s lap, and apparently they had done enough to wear her out, because she slept the entire almost-four hours.  Another little one had a few outbursts, but they were all quite brief, and hastily extinguished by whatever means the Mom was using. 

Kel only had to make one circle around the pick-up area before we claimed our luggage and met up with him.  The trip home was an easy one, and, to fast-forward to the bottom line, it was sure good to sleep in our own bed last night. 

Psalms 104:33 says, “I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.”

Father, thank you for Dammeyers, for the miracle of airplane flight, for crying babies, and, of course, for home.  Amen.

August 12 – “Farewell”

Today we are homeward bound.  Our New Jersey “business trip” comes to a close.  So long to our hotel where Abraham Lincoln once stayed on his way to be inaugurated.  We learned that fun fact from a plaque on the wall on the way to our room.  Goodbye to this quaint little town with its “no left turn” signs and Bruce Springsteen’s high school.  No more deer on the side of the road or heavily wooded acres or horse ranches or huge pumpkin patches or boardwalks by the beach.  Oh, by the way, Galveston, at these beaches you have to pay at least ten dollars to park and then you have to pay again to actually walk onto the beach.  How long before we start attempting that?  Someday we may have to come back up here when we can do an actual vacation and really partake of some of these amenities (other than the beach, of course.  We live on an island.  Why would we go on vacation to the beach?). 

Yesterday we joined the Dammeyer’s for church, where we saw many of the folks we met at the wedding.  The bride joined her brother to lead worship, and they both have great voices.  The afternoon we spent taking a leisurely drive through the countryside and then back out to the beach communities.  They are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, so we were able to relate to the sand everywhere and some houses still in need of repair.  We didn’t have time to drive into New York City, so I guess that remains on our long-term bucket list of things of do “in the future.”  I must confess that on the drive I apparently reached my limit of “up” days.  I started feeling really whipped.  I even dozed off and on, which didn’t really help.  I did feel some better after supper.  Ashley and Josh (the bride and groom) and Allen joined Mark and Melissa and us.  We reminisced about the wedding and about the comments they had been receiving.  Sounds like all in all it was a good experience for everyone concerned.  They also asked me to tell about my strangest wedding experience.  Didn’t take long to recall the “wedding from hell” that I did on the beach years ago.  It will be hard for anything to top that one, but that’s another story. 

In an effort to kick the feeling that I was on the verge of a cold (you know it.  Almost a sore throat.  Almost aching.  Almost … just sick), I tool a Benadryl when we got back to the room.  We put on HGTV and watched Brother vs. Brother.  Gave us a link to our routine at home, I guess.  I slept better than I have any night since we have been here.  Of course, the hotel bar band had the night off as well, so that sure helped.  It actually got quiet before 12:30 a.m.  Now we have that three and a half hour flight back to Houston, so maybe we’ll have more opportunity to catch a few winks. 

Kudos to Mark and Melissa for their incredible hospitality while we were here.  It’s always great to see good friends.  Here’s an “Attaboy” to Allen for his worship leading and an “Attagirl” to Lindsey for the job she’s doing raising her two kids and being … well, Lindsey.  And back on the home front, thank you to Bryan and Jennifer for caring for Mom while we were away.  See you soon. 

Psalms 104:31 says, “May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works.”

Father, thank you for our week in New Jersey.  It certainly added many good memories to our life scrapbook.  Amen.

August 11 – “The Carrot Blessing”

Well, our New Jersey wedding turned out fine.  The weather, after three days of muggy, hot humid conditions, was beautiful.  Cool and beautiful blue skies.  There was even a nice breeze as we began the ceremony.  The bride’s Dad had really gone all out in his creative preparations for the affair.  Along with the caterers, he hired people to park cars so the event would have that VIP feel.  Some of his ideas were not just funny, but practical as well.  He rented a port-a-potty that he called the VIP restroom.  It had flowers inside and even running water to wash your hands.  Not like any I have ever seen at a construction site.  And to top it off, he set up a red carpet and roped off poles leading up to it.  Now that’s VIP.

Of course that cool breeze blew out the unity candle, so we had to improvise that one.  Ended up doing it after the ceremony with the bride and groom’s mothers cupping their hands around the flames to keep them lit.  Funny thing was, once they got the center candle lit and replaced the two outside ones, all three stayed lit through most of the reception.  Guess they just needed that circle of power from the mothers’ hands to inspire their inner flame. 

I always try to create a personal blessing for the couple based on something I have learned about the bride and groom.  Here’s what I came up with at the last minute for these guys. 

THE CARROT BLESSING

I’ve known Ashley since she was born, but I haven’t had a lot of time to get to know Josh.  So I selected the one thing I have learned about him to be the source of this blessing.  At this point I pulled out one of those fresh carrots you can get from the produce section.  I asked the groom to hold it for me for this part of the ceremony. 

Carrots are one of those strange creations of God that really trick you.  When they are in the ground, all you can see is the green part on top.  And when people see the two of you together, they will often make judgments about what they see.  That’s not important.  Don’t worry about them.
But the substantial part, the part that you can eat, and that nourishes you, and that your Mom always said is good for you, is the part that grows underground.

So in the same way,

May the part of your relationship that is not so easily seen—
the part that really defines who you are as a couple—
the part that connects you in commitment to each other—
the part that reflects God as the ever-present third person of your marriage trinity—
May that part of your relationship be what nourishes you and what is good for you, starting today and continuing on into your future together.  Amen.

I know.  Not your usual marriage blessing.  But the people were very kind to me and didn’t throw rotten tomatoes or anything.  Or maybe they were just shocked to see the groom holding a carrot in one hand and his bride in the other.  Hey.  Bugs Bunny would have been proud. 

Today the plan is to attend church with the Dammeyer family.  Ashley and her brother Allen are going to be leading worship.  Now how’s that for unusual?  The bride is postponing her honeymoon so she can lead worship at church with her brother on the day after her wedding.  I met their pastor at the wedding.  Young kid.  He asked me if I wanted to preach for him today, but I think he was kidding.  Stranger things have happened.  Maybe I should have a sermon in my back pocket just in case.  Or maybe they have had enough of that weird guy from the island off the coast of Texas. 

Psalms 104:24-26 says, “How many are your works, O Lord!  In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.  There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number — living things both large and small.  There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.”

Father, thank you for celebrations and friends and the excitement of new beginnings.  Amen.

August 10 – “Handfasting”

The groom’s parents drove down from their home in Maine and arrived without incident.  The wedding party is all here and ready to go.  One of the guys couldn’t make it, but the bride’s brother will be standing in for him since he was going to be singing a song anyway.  So as far as people are concerned, we can do this wedding.  Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Nevertheless, we spent yesterday helping out as we could with preparations for the wedding.  Since it will be in our friends’ (the bride’s parents) backyard everything is falling on their shoulders up until the actual event itself.  That means setting up all chairs and tables in their proper places (that would be according to the layout scheme that exists only in the head of Melissa, the bride’s Momma who is playing the role of our beloved wedding coordinator), placing two arches and anchoring them and decorating them (again, according to that vision residing in Melissa’s substantially overstocked brain), keeping drinks on ice (which actually has been going on for several days now.  I have been on one of the Sam’s runs to get more ice), running Christmas lights all along the bushes (I presume for dramatic and romantic effect.  We left that one entirely up to Melissa and Chris, and the end result is very nice), and tweaking the outdoor wireless sound system that Mark had installed for the event (a pretty amazing feat, I might add.  The music can be operated using Mark’s cell phone.  Problem is, if he gets too far away from the wireless router the music become erratic and the whole system goes down.  I think he got that figured out though, but someone else will have to operate the system during the wedding, and Mark is not one to give up control so easily).  Some of the preparations are being kept a secret so the guests will be surprised as they arrive.  Some very funny stuff.  Practical, but funny.

The rehearsal went off without a hitch.  Well, if you don’t count the fact that right as we got started it began to rain and we all had to run inside.  I did a hand-fasting ceremony while we waited for it to stop.  That is a little extra bonus I like to do as early as possible after a couple has decided to get married.  It is loosely based on the betrothal idea and an actual ancient custom of tying the bride and groom’s hands together.  In this case, I looped a rope around the bride and groom’s hands, tying “tying them together” and I pointed out a few things.  The two circles represent each of their lives.  The knot in the center represents their love-commitment to each other.  If you loosen the knot it becomes a third circle, showing that God is actually the third person of their marriage trinity.  I pulled it tight again and said there will be times when their relationship get all knotted up.  But if they will just ease up for a moment (I loosened the knot again) and return to God and refocus on him, then all will be well, and they can renew their love-commitment (at this I had the two of them pull the knot tight again).  They get to keep the “love knot” as a souvenir.  I guess it went well enough.  At least it was a reminder of the marriage counseling principles from the night before.  I have faith in Ashley and Josh that they will hang in there. 

By the time we finished the handfasting, the rain had stopped, so we ran through the logistics of the ceremony outside.  Mark started grilling some hot dogs and hamburgers and the rehearsal dinner was underway.  Check off one more step in the Jersey wedding extravaganza.

Psalms 104:13-15 says, “He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate — bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart.”

Father, thank you for the window between the rains so we could get the rehearsal done.  Could we have another for the wedding?  Amen.

August 9 – “Meeting New Jersey”

Yesterday we did some running around in Freehold.  Very interesting place.  Quaint little town with a lot of very old buildings.  Lots of character.  And characters, too, I suppose. We went over to Lindsey’s house to meet her two little children and her dog.  The house, by the way is across the street from the high school that Bruce Springsteen went to.  Rock music trivia.  Her son Parker was the star of that show by far.  He took us on a grand tour of the house that even included an explanation of such intricacies of décor as names of the types of balls printed on the rug in his bedroom.  I was most impressed with the toy garbage truck he had.  It brought back memories of the Galveston Beach garbage truck I worked on for a summer or two back in the day.  That was when we would station someone in the bed of each truck (after picking up about half of our load).  Since it was extremely early in the morning, there was no one on the beach, so we would then line up facing each other.  On no particular signal we would drive toward each other and at the last moment veer off.  That’s when the fun started.  The guys in the back would pelt each other with random items of garbage – rotten tomatoes and the like.  It was moments like those that made me particularly glad I was a driver.  Ah, memories.  I hope young Parker grows to experience something … not at all similar. 

Chris and I were separated for a time when she went with Melissa to babysit and I went with Mark to run some of his pre-wedding errands.  He has arranged for some surprises for everybody.  I have at least one up my sleeve, too, that Allen helped me with, so this wedding holds great promise.  While we were out and about he drove over to the New Jersey shore so I could do some beach comparison studies.  Strictly business, you know.  We didn’t go down on the sand or into the water, though.  Just stayed on the Boardwalk and took a few pictures so I could text them to Chris.  I wanted her to share in the experience.  For some reason she didn’t seem at all thrilled to be included in my good fortune.  We drove through Asbury Park.  That seemed to ring a bell somewhere in my vast, unclaimed memory.  The homes there were amazing.  Massive structures valued by how many steps away from the beach they were.  Even the “small” ones put some of the high dollar bayfront homes in Galveston to shame.  Literally millions of dollars, all owned by people who work in New York City, but don’t want to live there.  We drove by a place called The Stone Pony and Mark almost stopped the car so he could get out and genuflect.  Seems that place is where Bruce Springsteen and several other rock music superstars got their start.  He didn’t mention the Beatles, though.  Or the Beach Boys. 

We finally made our way back to Freehold.  Now that was easier said than done.  The streets here are arranged … well, they are not arranged.  You can’t turn left for one thing.  I don’t know why.  There are signs everywhere saying no left turn.  You just have to know which street to take to the right so you can circle through some neighborhoods to get to where you are going.  Couple that with the traffic caused by people returning home from their commute to “The City,” and even a simple trip to Sam’s seemed like an ordeal.  I did get to see the city’s preparation for a special outdoor band concert.  It was going to take place right across the street from our hotel.  Of course.  (Un) fortunately, we wouldn’t be at the hotel during the concert, so we would have to miss that one. 

I did finally get a chance to spend an hour or so with the bride and groom to get in their counseling.  I feel really good about their commitment to each other and especially to the Lord.  I think they will do fine. 

In spite of the face that we missed the city concert, our very own, personal hotel band was back last night in all their glory.  I finally managed to fall asleep while the band still played on and on and on …

Psalms 104:10-12 says, “He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.  The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches.”

Father, would you hold back those waters just a bit so we can get this outdoor wedding done this weekend?  Amen.

August 8 – “Rabbi Convention”

We made it to New Jersey with very little problem.  In fact the flight was quite peaceful save for some turbulence and the fact that a fourteen month old named Elizabeth really wanted to get out of her car seat.  She was cute as she could be, but she could only make it about thirty minutes at a time before she thought about getting down and walking around.  Then she went into a tirade of screaming for a while.  We felt sorry for the folks immediately around her.  Our seatmate was a girl heading to New Jersey to be in a wedding.  Not the same one we were going to, though. 

The ride from Newark airport to Freehold was beautiful.  The countryside was full of trees.  Chris even saw some deer.  It just wasn’t what I expected.  It was great to see Mark and Melissa again.  Their house, and hence the wedding venue since it will be in their back yard, backs up to some woods, so it should be gorgeous when they get everything set up.  We had supper there and did a lot of reminiscing, I even showed off some of the old pictures I had just scanned from the many years we have known each other.  Gotta love those old home movies. 

Our hotel room is very nice except for one thing.  We are on the third floor right above the hotel’s outdoor bar.  And the bar just happens to be the happening place in Freehold, New Jersey.  Live band.  Packed house.  Add to that the big rabbi convention taking place in the hotel and it made for a … noisy night.  At least the band stopped playing at 11:30.  I think it is supposed to keep going until 12:30 the rest of the week, though.  That’ll be something to look forward to.  Maybe we should give in and join the crowd.  I could get some pointers from one of the rabbis. 

The whole time change thing is odd here, too.  They have a weird schedule for television programming anyway.  The news doesn’t come on until 11:00 at night, and all the shows are pushed back an hour.  That’s probably why they have such a reputation for being cranky up here.  They don’t get enough sleep.  As I’m typing this, my computer is telling me that it’s almost 6:00 a.m., but the clock by the bed says it’s almost 7.  The alarm on my phone is set for 7, so we’ll see what happens here in a few minutes when Chris hears it.  We are meeting Mark and Melissa for breakfast at 8:30.  Guess I better go get ready.

Psalms 104:5 says, “He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.”

Father, thanks for the great trip.  Here begins the New Jersey adventure.  Amen.