February 28 – “Catching up with Katie”

Last day of February.  No Leap Year.  Tomorrow is March.  That’s supposed to be Spring, right?  Except we’re supposed to get back down in the 40’s next week.  Can’t put my winter coat away just yet.  Hope it warms up soon.  We have a lady who wants to be baptized before she moves away from Galveston here in a few weeks.  And then there are the Easter Sunrise service baptisms.  The water is gonna be chilly.

Speaking of the water, I just heard the legislature is considering changing the bag limits on speckled trout from ten to just five.  That won’t go over well with the local fishermen.

We did our three miles yesterday, but we deviated from our usual course.  We ended up walking through Nathan and April and Cailyn’s neighborhood.  Didn’t stop, though.  Figured they were probably still asleep. 

I made a quick trip to the bank.  Got to see Tammy, the lady who used to work there for many years.  She is now manager of the “big” branch over on Broadway.  Congrats to her.

We had a surprise visit from one of our kids in the afternoon.  Katie spent some time living with us back when she was a young teenager.  She subsequently joined the Navy and had a successful career with them.  She returned to school and hopes to graduate in August with a Master’s in American Sign Language and Deaf Education.  She is also looking at nursing school.  Even started some of her college basics for that.  She told us she is just not sure yet what she wants to be when she grows up.  I know the feeling, Katie.  Well, the “when I grow up” part, anyway.  Not particularly interested in doing that anytime soon.  Oh, and it sounds like she is active in a church near where she lives.  Good for her. 

Luke 16:10 says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

Father, thank you for the chance to catch up with Katie.  Bless her in her schooling and in her ultimate career choices.  Amen.

February 27 – “Not life or death”

I got one of those notices on FaceBook today.  You know, the ones that tell you what you posted years ago?  This one was from 2012.  It was just an announcement of my blog post for the day.  The title?  Life or Death.  Wow.  What in the world was happening in February of 2012 that I would consider a life or death situation?  No, I didn’t go to the blog site to check it out, although that is not entirely out of the question.  It just struck me as interesting.  Mainly because I really don’t have much to write about at all today. 

Oh we did go up into Texas to help celebrate Kel’s birthday.  Christina made shrimp gumbo for the first time in her life.  And I must say, she did a bang-up job.  Apparently when they have had gumbo in the past, it has been Kel who has taken over kitchen duties.  This gumbo had loads of shrimp, plenty of shredded chicken, sausage, and the ever-present okra.  Jachin patiently removed all of the shrimp and okra from his bowl and placed it in its new home – Micah’s bowl.  Micah loves gumbo, and was a bit put out that we were even there to eat some of “his” dinner.  He did his part in coaching Josiah to try some of the odd-looking green stuff.  “It doesn’t really have a taste” was his go-to encouragement.  Nana tried to get Ezra to give it a try, but his two-year-old mind was too quick for her ruses.  Even when she hid it among a big spoonful of rice, he spotted the offending greenery and picked it out.  Noa did give it a try.  She wasn’t particularly impressed.  She agreed with Micah’s take.  No taste.  Why bother? 

After dinner we gathered around the couch where Kel sat to watch him open presents.  Each youngster gave him something.  He ended up with quite a haul.  Several Heroclix figures, a white Houston Texans cap, and from the two youngest … bags of Skittles.  He seemed quite pleased with the outcome. 

To close out the evening we listened to the kids explain Heroclix.  Not that it did us a lot of good.  We just don’t seem to have that particular geek gene.  Give me ERA’s and batting averages any day.  I just don’t understand the powers that a middle-aged, chubby “Daddy Spiderman” can have.  Oh, he’s a riot to look at, as are many of the other figures, but the whole gaming thing on Friday nights at the local Geek Shop is beyond me.  Sounds like they are good at it, though.  More power(s) to them.

James 1:19 says, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry”

Father, thank you for the joy of a family birthday party.  Certainly not life or death, but nice.  Really nice.  Amen.

February 26 – “Transformation”

Well, happy birthday to the one who transformed us from happy-go-lucky goofballs into serious, stern-uous parents.  From what I am told, 42 years ago today our first son Kel was born in a Houston hospital.  Boy, did he ever open the door to a new way of life for us.  And on top of that, little did we know that he would eventually sire five children of his own.  Thanks for the memories … and the grandkids.

Meanwhile, we managed to get our walk in yesterday.  Significance being … three miles.  That would be for me.  Chris went her usual four or five.  I still did some steps afterward, but I passed on the lunges.  Last time I had some residual pain - in my old knee.  Chris said that was absolutely not allowed.  Can’t have that with the Alaska trip now in sight. 

Once back home I waded into my Monday work projects.  Then, in spite of some pretty hefty thunderstorms, we decided to float our way up to Sugarland to watch Jachin play baseball.  The coaches continued to assure everyone that the game was still on, so we fought the Beltway 8 traffic.  After … let’s just say “many” … traffic delays, primarily for construction, we finally arrived in Sugarland.  We made our exit off the freeway and onto the side streets.  And just as Google Siri indicated that we were two minutes from the field, we got a text from Kel.  Simple and to the point.  “Game canceled.”  Of course it was.  Apparently lightning struck not far from the field, and officials cleared the boys off in a hurry.  Jachin was none too happy.  This was the fourth or fifth time a game has been called on account of rain.  That, my friends, is why baseball is a summer sport.  February is just too early. 

I texted back to not leave yet.  We could at least say “hi” and give him a birthday present.  They waited for us, but we decided to stop by their house on the way home as well.  Had to get Chris her thirty minute grandkids fix before heading home. 

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, thank you for our oldest son Kel.  He really did open up a new world to us … and we love it.  Amen.

February 25 – “An unexpected blessing”

I had an interesting experience before church yesterday.  Before I share it, you have to understand one little tidbit of background.  Galveston has been shrouded in fog for at least a week.  Cold, foggy, often rainy, for the most part just plain yucky winter weather.  But yesterday was different.  The fog cleared.  The clouds drifted away.  And for most of the day we had absolutely gorgeous weather.  A little cool, but we can live with mid-60’s coolness.  Just a beautiful day all around.

Now back to the story.  One of our great laymen, Mr. Bob, asked me to join him in the Fellowship Room before we got started.  He led me over to a part of the room that faces Southeast.  He eased me around with my back to the blinds that cover a floor to ceiling window.  He reached behind me and slowly opened the blinds, allowing the sun to shine fully through.  I was still admittedly perplexed by this time, but certainly intrigued.  I fully expected him to just grab my hands and pray for me, as he does most Sunday mornings that he is in town.  This time was a little different. 

As the long-missing sunshine fell on my back, Bob placed his hands on my shoulders and quietly said, “Do you feel that?  As you feel the warmth of the sun flowing on your body, may you also feel the warmth of the Holy Spirit flowing over you and inside of you as you share God’s word with us today.”  Then he took my hands and prayed for God to use the words he had given me to touch some hearts.  Wow.  Certainly one of the best blessings I have ever received. 

Psalms 91:1 says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

Father, may you continue to bless Bob as well in his ministry with men’s Bible study in his home, with his wife, and with his fishing.  Amen.

February 24 - “Zookeeper”

Have you been watching that new show where they try to guess who is singing behind the weird masks?  Quite odd.  It is kind of captivating, though.  Not that I have done well at guessing who the singers are.  I have no idea who most of the people are, other than Terry Bradshaw, and that’s just because he’s an ex-football player.  I don’t even know who the supposed guest judges are.  Guess I’m living a sheltered life. 

Chris almost has the store room back to full again.  It certainly looks cleaner … crisper … now.  I have left that process to her discretion until she calls out for help.  Grunt work.  That I can do.  Meanwhile, I volunteered to do the difficult task of familiarizing myself with the controls and operation of the new television - cable TV – system.  I know.  That’s a tough job.  But somebody has to do it. 

We did make a WalMart run.  All this fog and nasty weather has really put a damper on our walking schedule.  So sometimes we just go over to the Big W and walk around the store.  Chris did get a storage tub for an old sewing machine she uncovered.  Unfortunately, the dimensions marked on the tub didn’t match the actual dimensions of the tub.  Unusable for our purposes.  We won’t take it back, though.  It will go into our stack of evacuation boxes.  On a positive note, we ran into a few Seasiders.  Joseph has a collection of snakes and other critters that they were picking up some food for.  He’s a  veritable zookeeper.  He shows the snakes at local pet stores.  It was a lot of fun to hear him talk about “my big girl” and how she and the others all have distinct personalities if you just take the time to get to know them.  Chris listened patiently, but I could see her hair beginning to stand on end.  Snakes are right up there with mice on her list of “Uh-uh” species. 

Colossians 2:6 says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him”

Father, be with Joseph and Jenna and their zoo of critters.  Amen.

February 23 – “Installed”

Well, it wasn’t easy, but the creative AT&T technician finally figured out how to get us hooked up to their fiber optics system as well as to U-verse TV.  We played with the new remote last night.  The system is a lot more user-friendly than the Comcast system ever was.  At least for us.  And we can DVR up to four shows at once instead of just two.  It just seems like better technology all the way around.  The only difficulty we had was finding the channel that the Astros games will be on.  The tech and I were poring over the little handout he gave us of the stations available.  Chris calmly picked up her phone and googled it.  Had the answer in seconds.  100 mg/sec modem speed is a lot faster than 1.5 mg/sec.  That appears to have been a good move.

So what was the difficulty?  For him to get the wire run to where our TV is located, we had to completely empty out our climate-controlled storage unit.  Well, not completely.  The freezer and fridge and two storage cabinets stayed, but we had to move them away from the wall.  Chris said she had wanted to do Spring cleaning in there, but she hadn’t counted on doing it this weekend.  Once we stacked all the boxes and sewing materials and craft stuff all over the den, Chris immediately leapt into high gear, sweeping and mopping while the tech was working outside.  By the time he was ready to work inside, she had the place spotless and smelling clean as a whistle. 

Because of the different styles of technology, I suppose, we now have an extra box-looking thing on the wall near the TV, and the computer modem sits on the TV cabinet instead of on my desk.  The phones and fax machine still work as usual, but I have some extra room on my desk now.  Oh, and he told me the back-up battery that they installed for the old modem was no longer in use.  In fact he said they stopped using them a long time ago because they are kind of dangerous.  “But you paid for it, so it’s yours.  I’ll leave it and you can decide what to do with it.”  Well, alrighty, then.  Let’s get that baby unplugged right away. 

So today I get the honor of calling Comcast and canceling service with them.  I have to find out what they want me to do with their cable box as well.  It is a real dinosaur, so I know they won’t reuse it.  They probably don’t want it floating around for some pirates to make use of, though.  We’ll see. 

Psalms 139:17-18 says, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.”

Father, be with Edward the tech who did the install for us yesterday.  He worked really hard.  Amen.

February 22 – “In update mode”

I was chided a bit for mentioning yesterday that I had an appointment with my surgeon, but then never reporting on the visit itself.  Well, my question for her this time was twofold.  First, how long could I expect the soreness in my quads to last?   And second, was I maybe doing too much and that was causing the soreness?  I mentioned the two-mile walk/stair climbs/lunges three times a week regimen.  I also let her know we had been on one semi-challenging hike.  She laughed at me.  Not rudely or anything.  She just said, “Let me say it this way.  I have patients – a lot of patients – who come in for their three month post-surgery check and they can’t even bend their leg.  Whatever you are doing … keep doing it.  And as for the soreness, that varies from person to person.  Remember how after the surgery you couldn’t lift your leg off the bed?”  I interrupted her.  “Well, I did lift it.  But that’s because I heard horror stories about the quads, so I worked on strengthening them beforehand.”  She shook her head, turned to the medical student with her and said, “See?  I told you.”  (Wait.  She told him what?).  Anyway, she said it often takes a full year from the time of surgery for the soreness to go away completely … “but it WILL go away.”  I’ll take that as a promise.  I don’t go back again until my six month anniversary, and then if all is well, again at the one year anniversary.  So there’s my report.  Next up on the rehab list … chair jumping?

Since I’m in the update mode, here’s the update on our AT&T saga.  A tech came out Monday because we had zero internet all weekend.  He fixed it.  Well, until Monday night.  That’s when the service became spotty at best, kicking in and out at random times, and when it was son, it was way slower than we had before Monday.  I called back and set up another appointment.  Tech number two came yesterday.  She was quite helpful, actually.  As her diagnostic equipment ran, she explained that the other tech had purposely lowered our internet speed from about 6 mg/sec to 1.5 mg/sec. according to their protocol.  Apparently our antique copper wires can’t handle any more than that unless they are brand new.  She joined the other tech in recommending fiber optics, but she was willing to try to track down the difficulty.  Her machine showed multiple points of failure along the line, either between us and the main box or somewhere beyond the box.  Guess what?  We have another tech coming this afternoon to install fiber optics and Uverse TV.  So long Comcast.

Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Father, thank you for the good report on my knee.  It’s frustrating to live with the soreness, but knowing it’s to be expected – and that it will go away in time - does help.  Amen.