May 17 – “And the day began …”

 

 

I knew the day would come.  Alas, I just didn't expect it to be so soon.  Another long day filled with the drudgery of work and the lack of surprises.  No frolicking children bringing laughter and mayhem.  No long-awaited conclusion to a puzzle agonized over.  Left alone while Chris and Mom both ventured out to reconnect with their Wednesday Club world of book reports and banquets.  Left alone with sermon and Bible Study and camp and planning meeting and wedding to prepare for.  And the day began with … coffee.

 

And the coffee had actually begun the day before, as it began the day before that, and the day before that.  At an appropriate time when a break was needed from sitting at the computer, I rose and entered the kitchen, rubbing my eyes and stretching my weary, tightened muscles.  Lifting the lid on the coffeemaker that has served us well since the hurricane of '08, I emptied the used grounds into the trash can.  I lifted the carafe to check for the inevitable tiny bit of cold residue remaining, for rarely do we completely drain it dry, unless of course Nathan stops by for a cup or two.  I drained the pot and replaced it under the drip hole.  Next I filled the cool little water pitcher with markings for ten cups.  That plastic pitcher survived the Big One as well, and it has served us faithfully for many years.  It offers an accurate and easy way to fill the empty water tank.  Putting the paper filter into the proper receptacle could be a frustrating task, especially for someone with pain and swelling issues in the fingers.  But not for me.  Several years ago (yes, also before the hurricane.  It seems the best things stand the test of time and extreme weather conditions), I stumbled across a kitchen gadget that revolutionized the whole process of coffee preparation.  It looks like a pair of tweezers with rubber tips.  As you squeeze the top the two rubber tips gently pick up just one paper filter at a time.  Amazing.  Ah, but then came the tricky part.  Then I pulled out the coffee beans from the freezer.  Yes, I know there are different schools of thought regarding proper storage of coffee, both as beans and already ground.  For us the freezer storage of the opened bag of coffee beans has always proven to work best.  And as for which brand of beans is the best, you can't go wrong with Boyer's Coffee.  Now, I'm not talking about Boyer Brothers, which is available anywhere.  Boyer's requires ordering directly from the factory in Denver, Colorado.  Sadly, since the original owner died, prices have risen and shipping costs made it impractical for us to continue using it.  Kel's association with Starbuck's led us to try out several of their brands, and we finally lit on Sumatra.  Not Boyer's, but close.  I poured just enough into the grinder cup to cover the blades.  I popped it onto the mechanical monster that forces the blades to turn rapidly and chop up the beans into a powder, and the grinding whining began.  I poured the powder onto the paper filter.  I closed the lid.  I pushed the button that activated the preset "on" time.  And I wait until 6:00 the next morning.  The miracle of modern technology then worked its magic, and when I woke up yesterday morning to face the day, I drink a cup of coffee.  There.  I promised a rundown of my coffee making skills.  Now you, too, can enjoy this same success in the privacy of your own kitchen. 

 

1 John 3:11 says, "This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another."

 

Father, that sure says it all.  Love one another.  Amen.

May 16 – “Baseball 101”

 

 

Jachin's baseball practice has become Jachin and Micah's practice.  Since several guys quit the team Kel made arrangements for Micah to play up with the big guys.  He looks so little out there, though.  Micah, not Kel.  He is just five years old and the others are seven and eight.  The last practice was a good one, though.  Micah made contact numerous times during batting practice.  He needs to get some strength in his arms, though.  One time when the ball hit his bat it knocked the bat back into his helmet.  Ouch.  The two new kids - who have never played before a few weeks ago - did pretty well, too.  The older one, a boy, still has a ways to go, but when he remembers to actually look at the ball, he can make contact regularly.  His little sister is older than Micah, but about as tall.  A mere wisp of a thing.  She finally hit a few as well.  She has great batting form.  Her problem is keeping her eyes open.  She always has a smile on her face, though.  So does her brother.  Either they really like baseball and don't care if they hit or not (which endears them to me because I loved baseball and couldn't hit a bucket of balls), or they are just happy to be there.  Either way, it is refreshing to have them around. 

 

Things didn't go quite as well at the game, though.  All the little guys struck out every time they batted.  Didn't seem to quell their enthusiasm, though.  Micah did an admirable job in left field.  Had two chances to get the ball and throw it back to the infield.  On both occasions he threw toward the right base.  And after a few bounces and a roll the ball made it there.  His cohorts the new guy and gal also had a chance or two.  The girl did pretty well.  She picked it up and flipped it to the shortstop who had dashed out to meet her.  Her brother knew he was supposed to pick it up and throw it, but he threw it backwards to his sister instead of toward the infield.  That's OK.  One thing at a time.  Coach Kel was frustrated with an umpire call early in the game.  Our shortstop caught a popup and when he was transferring the ball to his throwing hand, he dropped it.  Should have been an out.  Meanwhile the runner from first was standing on second, so our guy picked the ball up and tagged him.  Should have been a double play, right?  Nope.  The call was that he didn't catch the popup so everyone was safe.  Tough call.  Led to three runs.  Not that it made a difference in the final outcome.  We lost 10 to 3. 

 

I'm working on the coffee making presentation.  Maybe tomorrow.

 

1 John 3:1 says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

 

Father, encourage the little ones.  We all need it.  Amen.

May 15 – “Nice lunch”

 

 

Yesterday I received a great blessing.  I got to go to lunch with my wife.  Just the two of us.  First time in a very long time.  It wasn't a very long lunch.  We just went to Shrimp N Stuff.  I had the popcorn shrimp lunch and she had popcorn shrimp a la carte.  She eats those fried cornbread things off my plate and helps me with the fries.  It's just enough for both of us.  It was even kind of quiet there for a change.  The place is usually hopping around lunch time, but we got there closer to 11:30.  It was nice.    

 

After lunch we made a quick trip over to the bank in front of Target.  Chris had to pick up some papers related to her Mom's estate that she's trying to get settled.  Once again I say that I sure wish that whole ordeal was over with.  Every time she gets an email from the new lawyer it seems she gets distraught again.  Greed is an ugly thing.  Since we were close to Home Depot we ran in there as well.  Wanted to check on their grass sod segments to see if they looked fresh.  They didn't.  We wanted to add a few to the back yard to help it out.  The St. Augustine back there is doing pretty well taking over the big dirt pile section, though.  I guess I'm just being impatient.  We also checked out the 2 X 12 lumber.  Chris wants to put up a rope swing in the back yard that is attached to the deck.  Right now we have a rope just wrapped around some of the slats up there and it doesn't seem very sturdy.  Nathan suggested adding an extension to the decking supports and hanging it from there.  We'll see.

 

Mom seems to be doing better.  She went to Libbie's Place for the first time in two weeks, and they said she seemed quite animated.  She left early for a doctor's appointment.  The report there was pretty good as well, I guess.  They are trying to cut down on all her medications.  I think we are going to today to pick up the wheel chair they told us to get when she was in the hospital.  Maybe that will give us a bit more flexibility in taking her places. 

 

Wow.  It seems so boring to write about the stuff of a simple day.  Why would anyone want to read it?  Can't really talk about the contents of the teaching I'm working on for Sunday, though.  Gotta keep some mystery to maintain interest.  Maybe tomorrow I'll detail my coffee-making skills.  Hmmm.

 

1 John 2:28 says, "And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming."

 

Father, thank you for being Lord of the simple.  Makes me feel wanted.  Amen.

May 14 – “A ‘Siah blessing”

 

 

It sure felt strange yesterday not going to Seaside for church.  Everything was covered.  Mike was set to preach.  I think his Mom was even coming to hear him.  Nice.  The pastor's class was going to bring in personal artifacts from their own trips around the world – the Middle East in particular – to share with each other.  I was sorry to miss that.  Music was ready to go and was certainly great as usual.  It's just different when we go somewhere else. 

 

But it was baby dedication day for Josiah, so we headed to LaMarque instead.  Mom was up and at 'em as well.  We didn't have to be there until 10:30, so she had some extra time to get moving.  Christina's Dad was there, and Jay and Fran came to give Mom some roses and stuck around for the service as well, so our clan took up a row and a half of spaces.  Kel said it was their biggest attendance in a while.  Hey, that's my grandson.  He deserves a big group. 

 

We almost didn't get the ceremony part in.  The music leader forgot to insert it, so Kel had to remind him when they took a break to welcome visitors.  We finally got started, though.  Kel did the introduction, then asked me to join him for the ceremony itself, so he wouldn't have to ask himself questions.  Christina came up and Josiah took my hand and led me up to the front.  We followed a pare-down version of the ceremony that we used when Micah was dedicated.  Kel emailed it to me, so I had a chance to look it over before we left the house.  And I had a chance to add my own "grandfatherly" blessing at an appropriate spot.  Since I didn't have to do my accustomed last-minute preparations for church, I put together a little booklet with some Josiah pictures and the service in it.  Kind of surprised Kel, but Josiah got a kick out of looking at the pictures of himself.  "It's 'Siah," he kept saying.  Glad I made a few extra copies.  Christina's Dad wanted one, and she saved one for her Mom as well.  And of course Chris wanted to keep one.  We had a great lunch at their house and Kel and I dozed through the Astros game.  I even got to end up the day with some fishing.  That was my one bad choice for the day.  Oh, I caught some fish, and any time you can go fishing is the best time.  But it was extremely rough.  And I just used some dead shrimp I had in the freezer for bait.  And my elbows hurt so bad by the time I got home that they felt like they were burning.  But we'll enjoy eating those fillets when the time comes. 

 

2 Kings 23:25 says, "Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did — with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses."

 

Father, thank you for Josiah.  Give him all the strength and endurance he will need to excel as the youngest child in that family full of boys.  Amen.

May 13 – “Eyewitness DadDad”

 

 

I got to do a memorial service yesterday for the brother of one Seaside's great ladies.  He had cancer and lived with her for the last months of his life.  I didn't know him, but from the rousing stories that people told at the service, he must have been quite a guy.  He had a group of friends that named themselves the Sons of the Desert (SOD's, followed by a chuckle).  They apparently traveled all over the world and had all sorts of adventures together.  They even had a "secret sign" of greeting between them.  He loved fishing, too.  Sounded like a great guy to know.  My favorite parts of the service, though, were when my Seaside kids took part.  They grew up at Seaside, so they count as "my kids."  Kelly prayed an invocation that was one of the most spiritual expressions I have ever heard.  Houston and Ashely sang a song together.  Jimmy played guitar and sang, and Lora joined him.  Those two were dressed to the hilt, too.  They were heading to a senior prom, I heard. 

 

After the service I headed over to Kel and Christina's in LaMarque for Josiah's birthday party.  He turned two years old on Friday.  It was just family, but then between Christina's and ours, there were plenty of folks there.  And not all of her family could make it.  Her Dad is an amazing cook, so he was in charge of that department.  I have no idea what the meal was called.  There were a bunch of shrimp that looked boiled, but he cooked them in the oven somehow.  You put those on top of some of those noodles that look like seashells.  The only time I remember eating them was when they were covered with velveeta cheese.  There were also some meatballs a well as some shredded up chicken.  I took a little of everything.  Well, I took a lot of shrimp.  The next things in line were two bowls of sauce.  One looked like the stuff on a pizza.  The other one looked like the cream gravy you put on a chicken fried steak.  I went with the white stuff.  I passed on the salad, though.  I was getting pretty hungry and I didn't want to use up precious stomach space with extraneous greenery.  Whatever you call it, it was yummy.  Since I got there late, everyone was waiting for me to finish so we could have the cupcakes and open presents.  So I rushed through as fast as I could, and we moved on to the important stuff.

 

At one point Christina's niece and Cailyn had a little run-in.  I'm not sure what the niece was thinking, but it had to be something akin to "who are you and what are you doing at my relative's house?"  Out of the blue she advanced upon Cailyn from behind and gave her a shove.  Not hard, mind you, but enough to get her attention.  To her credit, Cailyn, who was bigger and could no doubt have decked her attacker, turned and walked away.  Actually she darted behind her DadDad, wondering what just happened.  Christina's sister apparently saw the whole thing as well.  At least she saw the shove, because she was onto the little tyke in a heartbeat, demanding that she say she was sorry.  Finally, the little one responded by rubbing her hand across her stomach.  Mommy explained that they were working on signing, and that sometimes meant "I'm sorry."  I know a few of those toddler sign languages myself.  Enough to know that one is supposed to be "Please."  I got the message, though.  "Kind of like Aloha, huh?" was my reply.  Mommy agreed.  I don't think Cailyn quite got the Hawaiian reference, though.  She was still looking at her adversary like she was some kind of alien (the kind from outer space, not the kind from out of Texas).  She managed to locate her Mommy and Daddy, though, so after some assurances from good ol' eyewitness DadDad, they granted the assurance she needed.

 

1 John 2:24-25 says, "See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us — even eternal life."

 

Father, thanks for my Mom today.  It's good to still have her around.  Amen.

 

May 12 – “A Blue Bell Pic pic Day”

 

 

I had another "pic pic" last night on the back patio.  This time it was with all three of my beautiful girls – Mom, Chris, and Cailyn.  Actually we had already had supper.  We just adjourned to the patio to enjoy our dessert.  Blue Bell cookies and cream ice cream for the ladies.  A Blue Bell homemade vanilla root beer float for me.  Cool breeze blowing.  Astros beating the Pirates one to nothing on the TV inside (and they eventually won by that same score, so I didn't miss any offensive bursts).  Can't get much better than that. 

 

Mom had a really good day.  There was still a little confusion, but she actually engaged us in ongoing conversations .  She and I even "got into it" a time or two with some good-natured ribbing back and forth.  We used to do that all the time, so that was an especially good treat for me.  My younger brother came by to drop off a Mother's Day card for her.  She said she wasn't sure who he was at first, but "he told me, and it's written right here on the card."  She asked two or three times throughout the evening what kind of doctor his wife was.  That seemed to really fascinate her.  And the most exciting thing of all?  She complained a bit about her teeth, but Chris reminded her that we had just seen the dentist and he said she could eat whatever she wanted.  Very little moaning and groaning.  Sure hope we are past that. 

 

Cailyn ended up spending the night with us.  I was going to try to go fishing today, but I was greeted at 5:30 with a downpour.  It's been raining pretty steadily ever since.  The power has even flickered out twice so far.  Guess that means I'll have that much more time to hang out with the Little Princess.  Guess that also means Micah's baseball game will be canceled.  Josiah's birthday party is scheduled for this afternoon.  Hope Christina has some inside games planned.  I have a memorial service at Seaside an hour before the party starts, so I'll be late.  They'll just have to try to have fun without me for a while. 

 

1 John 2:21-23 says, "I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist — he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also."

 

Father, thank you for the rain.  Fishing would have been good today, too.  Maybe later.  Amen.

May 11 - "Life on Mars"

 

Well, that was a long night.  Mom was up five or six times all the way through, which meant Chris was up in a flash to make sure she was OK.  There were several times that it sounded like she had fallen, but it turned out to be nothing.  Apparently she was just making a lot of bathroom trips. 

 

I hope Chris is able to catch up on some sleep this morning.  She had to make another trip yesterday related to the whole executor of her Mom's estate thing.  This time she went to Angleton to meet with the new lawyer representing her and her siblings.  They finally switched since the other guy had done essentially nothing for a year and a half.  This new one sound quite proficient, though.  I still pray for a speedy closure.  Chris needs it.

 

While she was gone and Mom was resting I actually toyed with our Netflix account.  We are probably going to cancel it.  We rarely use it, and when we do there are just not many good movies available on the streaming part.  And it is very difficult to get it to work through our Wii system, which is why we ordered it in the first place.  Very disappointing.  I did find some old TV shows that I had never seen before.  One in particular caught my eye.  I don't remember ever seeing it when it aired.  It apparently came out in 2008 or 2009.  The name of it is Life on Mars.  I figured it would some sort of science fiction story about a colony of earthlings struggling against aliens on some strange planet.  It was science fiction, I guess, but not at all about space travel.  Try time travel.  That has always been a fascination of mine, even when I was a kid.  Where would you go if you could visit any time in the past?  I know my dream destination changed many times.  I wanted to meet Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig or any of the big time baseball greats.  I thought about what it would be like to go back to the time of Jesus, but I quickly decided I wouldn't be able to understand the language, so it wouldn't do me any good. 

 

So in the series, a police detective is hit by a car, and when he wakes up he is in 1973.  He's still a detective, and everyone there thinks he is a transfer to their precinct.  The story line shows his struggle to return to his home while carrying out his duties as a cop under the much more lax legal system.  I only saw a few episodes, but it was fun to see the people dressed like I remember dressing back in my first years of college.  Hard to believe we pulled off wearing strange garb like that even to church.  One thing still appeals to me, though.  You can't beat a good leisure suit.  No tie is always a win.

 

1 John 2:20 says, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth."

 

Father, forgive me when I act like I am ignorant of the truth.  I know I can find it by looking for you.  Amen.