Perhaps you have had Days like this. You know the ones filled with a variety of complicated, difficult and ultimately laughable happenings.
A shock in the morning.
I’ll begin with my usual routine. I imagine most of you have such a routine. Mine goes like this. I turned on the coffee. Then while it is brewing, I check my blood sugar when that is finished. I grab my 1st cup. I open my Bible Gateway app and read the days verse then I check my website to see if I’ve had any visitors. I played the New York Times Wordle game and post my results to a friend in Sydney Australia. Then I turn to Facebook.
The first thing I see is a post from the Lutheran Church where I will be leading worship this coming Sunday. I am shocked to see a notification that a friend of mine suddenly died and there will be a funeral that day. Phil was a parish of mine some years ago. He was an electrician and I’ve had him at the house on several occasions. These were good times of sharing and getting some needed work done. Also, I was so happy when about a year maybe two ago he remarried Ginny, who had been Organist at first Lutheran when I was there. My heart goes out to her I know from experience how painful it is to lose a spouse. I was glad that I would be able to attend the service.
Next a disappointment
The first outside event on my calendar for the day was a meeting with another friend. He and I have been fantasizing for the past month about the possibility of planting a church together. Well, it’s not appropriate to go into everything about that. I can say this. We agreed that at this time we are not ready to do that. Although disappointed, as I thought about it over the next few hours, I was able to turn my attention back to plans for working on Kairos’s Prison ministry here, and in Arkansas.
Visit to brother in-law
Next on the agenda was to take my wife to visit her brother who is in a rehab facility. Gary is my age just a couple of months older. It is a cautionary tail for me as he is an uncontrolled diabetic with several other complicated issues. we have been concerned about his health and whether he will be able to recover enough to move out of town to live near his daughter. This visit was up for the day. He has taken a good turn for the better and we are hopeful for him.
Missed the funeral
After bringing Brenda back home, I turned around and headed to the funeral. However, when I reached the church, there wasn’t a single car in the parking lot. I thought perhaps I had read the notice wrong. I thought maybe they had changed the venue. The only phone number I had was for Phil, I thought maybe that Ginny would answer. However, it went to voicemail. Then I tried calling another former member. However, they didn’t know that Phil died. Once more, I looked at the notice on Facebook and read it more carefully. Attached was a PDF of the service program for the Funeral. Then I saw it, that is the date. The funeral was yesterday!
Helping in a family emergency
I returned home agreed to take Aiden our grandson to buy some groceries. We give him a certain amount of cash and let him buy his own food. It’s a good learning experience for him as I was headed out the door. My phone rang. It was our son, Ethan With a car emergency. With many young couples, they are driving old and somewhat fragile vehicles. He was requesting that I hook up my trailer and haul our daughter-in-law‘s car to the garage. It died on her again.
Aiden help me hook up the trailer to the truck and we headed out. However, we only got about 20 yards from the driveway when the trailer became disconnected from the truck. In my tiredness, I had a connected it correctly and it came. We got it back on easy enough, however, in the process the electric wire connecting the lights of the trailer to the truck had been severed. As we were in somewhat of an emergency, I decided I just drive it without the lights and fix it the next day. We were about halfway to the place where Aubrey was parked when Ethan called again to say that another friend of his who had a tow truck was coming and I could turn back. I could fess I was not particularly happy with him and had to explain it had been a tough day and I wasn’t really angry him. I was just tired and frustrated at my difficult day.
Groceries, shopping, getting gas, and to stop at the hardware store
We turned around and headed back to Brookeshire‘s so that Aiden could get his groceries. I realized that the truck was about an empty and so the first thing I did was pull into the gas station. I gave him money for groceries and told him I’d be parking out here away from all the rest of the cars. Parking lots are not the best place for trailers? I tried to relax by having a smoke on my pipe and one of my few games that I like on my iPad.
Next stop just up the street at Ivy’s hardware so that I could get some electrical tape. This included a brief lesson for my grandson about how to fix a break-in some wires.
An unexciting dinner
Returning home, it was time to fix dinner. we had agreed earlier to have corn beef hash and scrambled eggs. It’s actually a relatively easy meal to fix and enjoyable. However, although Brenda didn’t mention or complain, I managed to slightly burn the hash.
Early to bed and a rude awakening
Being a man of certain age, almost 75, I retire early anyway. So I got my shower and was in bed asleep by about 845. Then perhaps the most memorable part of the day occurred.
I was awakened by a lot of noise. There were shouting and commotion coming from the living room then the bedroom door open and a bright flashlight was roaming around. Brenda was yelling at the dog. I couldn’t imagine what was happening. She called me to wake up and come help.
Jasper, our German Shepherd had caught a baby possum in the backyard and carried it into the house. Brenda has been able to get him into his kennel thinking that the possum was dead and that she could then retrieve it. However, that baby was not dead at all, and ran out into the kitchen. Jasper caught it again and took it to his kennel where he promptly dropped it, and it escaped again. Then it went in the bedroom and into the closet.
Finally grasping the situation, I decided that a towel would be the best tool to capture this animal. It came out of the closet and squeeze behind a bookcase where we were able to trap it. Eventually with some maneuvering between Aden, me, the flashlight and the towel I was able to grab it behind its neck. Relieved, we all had a good laugh, and I carried it out and released it over the fence into the neighbors yard.
Conclusion
I hope not to have other days like this in the near future. Perhaps you will be able to cry and laugh along with me for this one.
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