July 10 – “Best sight ever”

We put on our Galveston Island Tour Guide hats yesterday.  We took our Arlington friends on a driving tour of some of the old homes in the East End.  Well, it was a little more extensive than that.  And we didn’t actually drive into the homes, just past them.  It was a lot of fun, though.  They were impressed with the wrap around porches and with the ones that hadn’t been renovated yet but showed great potential.  Chris’ inner HGTV was yearning to be set free.  Much more of that and we might have buy one of those diamonds in the rough and play the reno/flip game.  You know, that actually does sound like it would be a lot of fun (This coming from the guy who needed help just to put up a garage door opener).  We’ve been watching way too much TV. 

We had quite the crowd at home group last night.  We incorporated a surprise birthday party for Jennifer and Mrs. Betty.  People of all shapes and sizes.  Kel and Christina had a meeting and a lot of preparing for a garage sale to do, so we had their four kids.  Mrs. Betty was there, of course.  Bryan and Jennifer.  Anne and Cedric.  Heather and Chris and their two kids.  Corey and Janell and Brennan.  By my count that’s eighteen people.  Ten adults and eight children.  Whew.  That made for some exciting chaos.

Now I thought we were going to just do the party.  Problem was, Bryan had to go pick up the cake without Jennifer knowing what he was doing.  That meant I was to start the Bible study.  Good thing I had it prepared anyway.  He made it back and snuck the cake into the kitchen, so after prayer I said I had one more song for us to sing.  I cranked up the computer like I usually do for our “Jesus songs.”  But this time it played the “Happy Birthday to You” song, and we all joined in.  Thanks for getting born, Jennifer and Mrs. Betty.  Love the excuse to have a party.  Although if we keep having all those children, I think it might be time to develop a kids’ Bible study for them.  Maybe they could meet in the office while the old folks are in the den.  Sounds like fun to me.  Watch for details, all you Moms.

Kel’s kids spent the night with us, so that meant a trip to the donut shop this morning with Micah.  So far he has always been the first one awake.  Great tradition, though.  I am happy to be a part of continuing that one into the foreseeable future.  Makes for some happy faces in the morning.  Best sight ever for a morning person like me. 

Isaiah 40:11 says, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

Father, thank you for mornings and donuts and happy faces on little children.  Amen.

July 9 – “Bonus of all bonuses”

We were visited yesterday.  Not by some mysterious ghostly figure that seeped through the walls and wailed in the darkest corners of our back closet.  Nay.  This was an actual, real-time visit from some of our bestest friends in the world from Arlington, Texas – Cary and Kay Lynn Winkle.  It was rather confusing at first when they arrived.  There we sat, watching one of the Harry Potter movies, when we heard the unmistakable sound of the doorbell.  Now anyone who knows us well knows that around the Vaughan house there is little reason to ring the doorbell once you have been here once.  That means you are considered one of the family.  If the wooden door is open, come on in, holler out your welcome, and make yourself at home.  In this case, however, the Winkles actually rang the doorbell.  I don’t understand what their reluctance was.  Perhaps because they have been on a vacation swing through East Texas.  But come on … Cary helped build this house back after Hurricane Ike.  He chain-sawed trees and replaced siding and hung sheetrock.  This guy is a beast when it comes to the home improvement category.  He more than most should feel at ease coming through the front door.  And Kay Lynn has some of the most incredible flower-lip capabilities I have ever encountered.  She can come up with words of encouragement that make one feel absolutely wonderful.  Come into my house and start talking any time, Kay Lynn.

And it gets better.  Not only did we get to spend time hanging out with them, but they took us out for a seafood dinner at Jimmy’s on the Pier.  Fried shrimp and an array of delectable “local vegetables.”  I don’t know exactly what that means, though.  The only ones I know of on the island with a garden that could handle broccoli and squash like that are Ed and Pat Jackson.  I’m pretty sure it just means they bought it at WalMart, though.  Our waitress was the hit of the meal.  Donna was from Khazakstan (or however you spell it), and could speak four of the Eastern European languages.  I asked her how to say “rabbit” in one of them.  When I tried to pronounce it, she laughed at me.  Apparently what I said didn’t exactly mean the furry little long-haired Bugs Bunny that we all know and love.  She corrected me carefully, though.  She plans to learn Spanish next.  Know what impressed me most?  She said “Bon appetite.”  Not even one of her repertoire of linguistic accomplishments. I asked if that meant she was offering us a dog biscuit, because I didn’t really like bones.  After our meal we had a chance to walk around on the pier and watch people fish.  No major catches, though.  A whiting and a few hardhead catfish.

The bonus of all bonuses came after we returned to the house.  I took Cary out to the garage to show him my workbench.  Before we came back inside we had installed the new garage door opener and pulled down one end of our fishing pole creation.  Cary managed to get it screwed back up temporarily, but I’ll get some more permanent bolts later and redo it.  All we have left on the door is to install the wireless keypad and program it to work with door.  Oh, and find a place to store all the extra parts we didn’t use.  See, Cary and I have worked together many times in the past.  Our primary targets have been automobiles, but we are experienced enough to have contemplated starting a business called “The Other Side.”  That’s because we have discovered that the second side, for some reason, is almost always easier than the first side.  Thanks again, Cary.  Once again you have embedded your mark on our house.  You have permission unto eternity to enter without ringing the doorbell.

Isaiah 38:20 says, “The Lord will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord.”

Father, thank you for Cary and Kay Lynn and for the connection of friendship we have had with them for so long.  Ride with them the rest of the way on their journey.  Amen.

July 8 – “The Ever Watchful Eye”

Major crisis around the Vaughan house this morning.  We knew we were getting a little low on groceries, and a trip to WalMart or Randalls was most assuredly in our near future, but when we realized that we were out of both fruit and sugar, that was the last straw.  Why does sugar hold such a prominent place in our realm of priorities?  Sweet tea, my friends.  Sweet tea.

I went to a meeting of the City of Galveston Planning and Zoning department yesterday.  I know.  Sounds like a real snoozer, doesn’t it?  At least it was in the City Hall building.  That meant I got to stop by and see the fire department station one crew as well as those with “administrative duties” upstairs.  The meeting was about a new use special permit that was applied for by the group that received the old Zion Lutheran Church building in our neighborhood.  Several of the residents were becoming concerned that the permit would allow it to become “a halfway house or some other such horrible creature.”  That was not how I understood the notice we received, so I went to the meeting to verify.  Sure enough, the group needed a special use permit to designate the site as a retreat center for groups coming to Galveston (a lot like Seaside’s.  But we are first a church and second in Jamaica Beach, so we don’t have to worry about such permit issues).  But in their case, since the building was no longer a church, everything that happens there is now under the purview – the “Ever Watchful Eye” of the City.  I’ll be able to report back to my neighbors now so they can once again get a good night’s sleep.

The most interesting item on the agenda came after that one, though.  A business owner wanted the city to close off one of the streets next to his property and let him have it as a parking lot.  That didn’t set too well with the neighborhood residents.  They didn’t want to have to go all the way to the next intersection a whole block away to the traffic light before turning into their neighborhood.  Emphasis their’s, not mine.  I have to say, though, I could relate.  I would want the easiest possible means of access if I was trying to get off of the seawall to my house.  Especially during tourist season.  There were many public comments, but as it turned out, the board had already pretty much made up their minds to reject the request.  They did recommend an alternative.  They are going to ask City Council to in turn ask the Planning and Zoning Commission (Wait a minute.  That’s them.  They have to ask council to ask themselves.  Gotta love city politics) to come up with a plan for allowing angle parking in that area.  Sounded like a good compromise all the way around.  I’ll be watching for that one.

Job 25:2 says, “Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.”

Father, thank you for being a God of order amidst all of our best attempts that inevitably result in chaos.  Amen.

July 7 – “Rafter punching”

I got my test results back from the blood tests I had the other day.  Apparently they didn’t like the first run, so they did it over again.  I had two completely different test results in my online chart.  And of course I have no idea what either of them mean.  I’m waiting for Cailyn to get Chris good and awake so she can interpret them for me.  One of them shows what my cholesterol is doing - good, bad and extraneous.  The other one is a repeat for my rheumatologist.  He wasn’t pleased with my Creatinine levels.  There’s a fun one for you medical buffs to play with.  Has something to do with how badly the medicine to fight joint pain is affecting my kidneys.  Again, I’ll wait for Chris to get the interpretation on that one.  In the meantime, I’m still here, so I guess I’m OK for now.

Yesterday’s big event was another garage project checked off.  After Hurricane Ike I inherited around 30 fishing rods and reels.  The reels have been easy enough to store, but most of the rods have just been leaning against the wall gathering sawdust.  I have about eight or nine that I actually use.  The rest are ones from Dad or from our neighbor that I just hated to see tossed in the trash.  Chris has been doing some digging online, and she came up with an idea for hanging them from the ceiling.  As it happened, we had some leftover lattice from a backyard project of many years ago.  The idea was to hang to lengths of that from the ceiling and slip the rods through the lattice openings.  Great idea.  But how to make it work?

Now our garage is just a one-car affair, so every inch of space is golden out there.  For this project to work, it would have to hang above the area where the garage door comes up.  Pretty tight quarters.  I had to cut the lattice to match that space.  Still left us with two rows of openings.  Plenty for the extra rods we have.  We did have to make a quick trip to Home Depot.  We needed a piece of 1X2 to provide a brace for the top of the lattice.  Oh, and some longer screws to go through the sheetrock on the ceiling and into the rafters.  We already had some 90 degree angle brackets that would work to attach them to the ceiling.  All went well with installing the brace piece and brackets.  Then came the fun part – locating a rafter to screw into.  Oddly enough, I found one on the first try, and installation, part one was completed successfully.  And then came part two

Of course I was basking in the glory of my success as I measured carefully to locate the rafter I knew would be there.  Before drilling for the screws, though, I went all old-fashioned on the project.  I pulled out a skinny nail and hammered it into the spot.  And no rafter.  I moved it over a bit.  No rafter.  I moved it a bit more.  No rafter.  I ended up with fifteen or twenty holes in the ceiling and no rafter hits.  When I finally did get one, it was nowhere near an appropriate place to connect the contraption we had.  So what do you do when your best laid plans just aren’t going to work?  Switch to sheetrock anchors and put the pole with reels where the weight is on the opposite end.  Sheetrock anchors are plenty strong enough to hole up the tip ends of 20 rods.  Plan B was on.  And now the project is done.

Of course I failed to mention that it took me several hours more than it should have to get it all accomplished.  As I went along I did some culling and combining of garage storage stuff.  Meanwhile Chris was inside, busily going through the boxes of things we had out there from Mom and a host of other places as well.  The good thing was, Kel and Christina are having a garage sale this weekend, so we could clear the stuff out right away.  We still have a long way to go, but check off one more thing.  And thank you, my HGTV home audience, for tuning in once again to The Vaughan House.  See you next time.

Exodus 9:16 says, “But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Father, thank you for creativity and flexibility.  Two of my favorites among your inventions.  Amen.

July 6 – “No, he’s not”

Well, this promises to be an interesting day, if its start is any indication.  My computer’s google and weather bug programs are suddenly telling me there is a 404 error.  I have run Norton and even downloaded a program that promised to fix it, all to no avail.  Any computer whizz, techie types out there … I am open to suggestions. 

We had a family visiting at Seaside yesterday from Ennis, Texas.  They obviously stopped by the Sam Houston statue on I45 on their way down here.  They had a youngster about four years old named Noah who was excitedly showing his Dad’s phone photos to anyone who would look - and listen to his play-by-play.  One of our ladies did a kids’ story about Jesus walking on the water.  She introduced it by asking the kids how big God was.  Most of them held their hands as wide apart as they could get them.  But not Noah. His hands were barely separated.  As Dana worked to get them to see that God is bigger than they were showing, Noah was obviously not agreeing.  Dana said again, “God is sooooo big …”  And Noah finally had all he could stand.  He quietly but firmly stated, “No, he’s not.”  Dana assured him, “But he really is.”   Nope.  Noah would have none of that.  “He can’t be,” Noah insisted.  Dana was getting a little bit flustered, but handled it well.  She asked, “Why do you say that?”  And Noah replied with all the theological soundness and certainty that he could muster, “If he was that big he couldn’t fit into our heart.”  How’s that for a leap from the concrete to the realm of ideas? 

Chris got on a roll after church.  Well, after we crashed out on the couch for a bit.  Well, after I watched the Astros game (code for took a nap).  She decided it was time to go through the boxes we had out in the garage.  I jumped at the chance.  After all, I still have another phase of my workbench to complete.  Oh, and she found an idea online for hanging fishing poles from the ceiling.  That’s on the Home Depot list as well.  So clearing out some boxes is a grand thing.  And what discoveries we made.  There were sewing boxes and glassware boxes and even toy boxes.  In fact most of it is still strewn about our dining table and the floor in the den.  Chris is in the processing phase.  That’s where she looks at it all for an undetermined length of time and figures out where it can all go.  And suddenly she will just know.  It is an amazing thing to behold.  I can’t wait to see what happens.  The best find of all, though, was the box with her lighthouses.  She collects little lighthouse statues.  I even carved her one.  Her eyes really lit up when she saw that box.  That one will mean another project in my very near future.

Psalms 68:34-35 says, “Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the skies.  You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.  Praise be to God!”

Father, thank you for being just big enough to fit in our hearts.  Amen.

July 5 – “Gruntese and fireworks from the deck”

Our Fourth of July holiday was an unusual one.  Well, at the very least it had a most unusual start time.  We woke up to the alarm at 4:30 so we could be on the road by 5:20 to Aransas Pass, Texas, near Corpus Christi.  Not that we were going to the beach down there.  Why would we do that when we live on Gilligan’s Island?  Since we couldn’t get a hotel room the night before, we decided to make a long day of it and headed on to the funeral of April’s grandfather. 

The funeral was scheduled to start at 10.  We arrived right at 9, so we went to the McDonald’s across the street for some breakfast.  Chris grabbed a set next to the window, and we ate and watched the comings and goings of the metropolis of Aransas Pass.  At least we did until we saw Nathan and April’s car pull into the funeral home parking lot.  Cailyn seemed genuinely surprised and excited to see us.  She ran across the lobby at full tilt and leapt into my arms.  Oof.  Did the same to Chris.  Nice to feel loved.  The family seemed to be doing well.  Grandpa George was a Christian, so they were comforted in knowing he was with Jesus.  April looked really tired, but she’d been up late every night preparing slide shows and talking with relatives. 

The service was packed.  The preacher was biblically sound, but very soft-spoken.  I confess our early morning caught up with me, and I dozed off a time or two.  I did better when Chris slipped me a pack of Smarties to munch on.  What miracles sugar hath wrought. 

After the graveside service we went to their church for lunch.  A lot more people than they expected showed up.  I think they even ran out of food.  It was some good barbeque brisket, though.  It was fun to see April’s Corpus Christi family again.  They are really sweet folks.  I even met a few new ones.   I was trying to find out what radio station carried the Astros games in that area.  April sent me to Uncle George, who sent me to his son … by the time all was said and done, I had the answer AM1230.  I was all set for the ride home. 

Our trip home was uneventful, at least for me.  The Astros suffered a defeat, but I didn’t hear most of it.  I just couldn’t stay awake.  Chris insisted I was even snoring.  Actually I was just communicating with her in the only language available to me at the time: Gruntese.  Very rare.  I was just letting her know I was OK. 

After we got home we went out on a date.  Best one we have had in a long time.  We walked up onto our deck.  That was pretty much it.  We walked up there around 9:15 and watched the Galveston city fireworks display.  And before it ended the Moody Gardens fireworks show started up behind us, so we had fireworks in stereo.  Not to mention all the wildcatters setting them off all around us.  I know there were plenty of calls to the fire department about those renegade fire crackers.  I prayed more than once for the guys on duty.  The fireworks ended around 9:40, and so did our amazing date.  We made the trek down the stairs and went to bed.  No traffic hassles.  No fighting the crowds.  Maybe we’ll host a party next year.  9:15 on our deck.  Party ends at 9:45.  The ultimate senior citizens night not on the town.  Gotta love it.

Psalms 67:1-2 says, “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.”

Father, continue to watch over April’s family and help them with the decisions they now face.  Ride with Nathan and April and Cailyn as they head home.  Amen.

July 4 – “Change of plans”

Well, it’s a holiday weekend on beautiful Galveston Island.  Practically speaking that means something very different than waving flags, attending parades, watching fireworks, eating barbeque, and appreciating America.  Don’t get me wrong, it is certainly all that.  But for Galveston Island it also means an increase in our population in the realm of twenty to thirty thousand people.  Yep.  I’m serious.  That many people come to the beach to play, and they stay for the long weekend.  They bring their money and support our hotels and vendors, so in that sense it is a very good thing.  But they also bring their cars along.  And that tends to make for some crowded conditions.  Most Islanders stay at home on weekends like this.  And if they have to get out, they use the well-established back road routes.  Others get out of town. 

Yesterday it was our intention to drive to Corpus Christi for the funeral of April’s grandfather.  We got gas in the car and even were packed and ready to leave.  On a whim I decided to check and see if I could find a hotel in the same group that was stayed in on our vacation.  To my horror virtually every hotel in the area we were heading to was completely full.  I checked e very website I could think of, and they all said the same thing.  No vacancies.  Well, that’s not entirely true, I guess.  There were some rooms at some swanky places.  The kind where rooms start at $250 a night.  So much for a trip to Corpus Christi.  Later on Chris was checking out the news on her phone.  And what should pop up but a story about a major traffic tie-up right on the road we would have taken.  Cars had been stopped for over an hour and a half with no relief in sight.  Hmm.  Maybe it was a good thing we didn’t go to Corpus.

That plan changed, we decided to go by the post office to get one of our bills paid on time.  Holiday mail always messes with my bill paying schedule.  Just when you need the mailman to come pick up some bills, there is no mail service.  As we headed toward our major hub, 61^st Street, on a whim, I decided to check the fire department ap on my phone.  A major accident came up – rollover on 61^st and Broadway.  Of course.  That’s exactly where we were headed.  But that coincidental check of the ap saved us a lot of time and grief.  We managed to pull into a restaurant parking lot and get turned around.  We did go to WalMart just for fun.  Well, we needed a specialty light bulb for the church, but that was just an excuse to people watch as far as I was concerned.  And WalMart was loaded with tourists.  Great place to watch people any time, but especially fun when they are on vacation and have let their hair down.  We finally went back home and settled in for the duration, when what to our wondering eyes should appear, but ... the mailman.  I raced out the front door and gave him our bills to mail.  Why he was delivering on the holiday weekend, i have no idea.  Well, wait.  I think maybe I do.

So we didn’t do so well with the plans we had made.  And we were a little peeved about it.  That is until we saw what was going on that we could have been involved in if our plans hadn’t been altered.  Hmm.  Maybe God does know what he’s doing.

Jeremiah 29:11-14 says, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Father, thank you for your protection.  Feel free to invade our itinerary any time.

Amen.