TV Stand, Footstool, Lamp, Dumb Dog

Josh and I drove across the state recently.  I wanted to see  my sister and her family.   Josh wanted to see all kinds of people in the region we were going to.  (He’s a very gregarious fellow.)  We stayed at Mom’s house.  She’s not there ‘cause she winters in Florida, but she foolishly gave me a copy of her key, so that’s where we stayed.  It’s convenient.  She lives in town (near the college some of Josh’s friends attend).  My sister, Heidi,  lives out in the country, miles from any place you want to get to, unless you want to get to a field, barn, cow or goat.  Heidi was going to have to re-enter civilization to spend a little time in her office, which happens to be close to Mom’s house, so it made sense to stay at Mom’s.  We would get together when she was done with work. 

Just before Mom left for Florida, she picked out a TV stand that had to be ordered and would be ready for pick up in a few weeks.  It was eventually delivered to the store.  A few days before Josh and I arrived, Heidi had gone to the store, loaded the stand into her van, and dragged it into the house (setting off the security alarm in the meantime—but that’s another story involving the police and phone calls and special passwords).  She only had time to set it down in front of the old TV stand (which was really our brother’s old dresser that had been lugged up from the basement to hold her new big, fancy flat screen TV until a nice stand could be found).  The dresser held Mom’s collection of DVD’s, CD’s, and other entertainment paraphernalia rather nicely.  What it didn’t hold was her cable box and her DVD/Video player.  They had been placed beside the dresser on a rustic twig footstool  that went to a rustic twig rocker that sits out on the deck in the nice weather.

I figured Josh and I could move the TV and the other stuff to the new stand so it would be all set for Mom when she came back from Florida.  It was kind of payback for camping at Mom’s house.  But as usual, when I was ready to get to work, Josh couldn’t be found.  He had slipped out to visit the aforementioned friends.  OK, it was gonna be all me, apparently.  I veeeerrrry carefully moved that big screen TV from one stand to the other—praying the entire time.  Everything went well.  The TV stand has an open shelf for the extra pieces of equipment  so they were unplugged, moved to the new unit, and plugged in again.  And let me tell you—they come with a lot of wires—white, yellow, red, blue, green.  Thankfully the manufacturers color code the back panel—probably to keep some of us from sitting down on the floor and bursting into tears when we have to mess with them.   Once that was done,  there was no use for that little Adirondack footstool anymore.  I picked it up and started for the garage. 

Unfortunately, Mom has a side table that happens to stick out in the path I’d be taking through the living room.  There’s a lamp on the table.  The lamp is made of cut glass.  I was holding the footstool up chest high as I tried to pass.  Somehow one of the legs of the stool  must have come in contact with the edge of the lampshade and it started to tip over.  There was no question--it was going to fall off that table and hit the ground.  In a split second I thought, “Oh shoot, that lamp is made of glass!  It’s going to shatter all over when it hits the new hardwood flooring!  Mom’s going to kill me!”  So I did what anyone would do—I stuck my foot out to break the lamp’s fall.  The footstool was still being held up in the air as the lamp came down on my foot.  Somehow I got tangled up and my right foot ended up inside the lampshade (because the lamp was now on its side on the floor) which made me stumble a little.  I started to lose my balance.  My arms must have come up, because the edge of the wooden footstool smacked into the bottom of my chin.  (I still have the cut and bruise to prove it.) Then my foot came down and landed right on top of the light bulb, which broke into a zillion pieces, of course.  Thankfully I was wearing shoes.  (A little tiny sliver of broken light bulb still managed to land in one shoe, however.)  But guess what?  The glass lamp survived!  An added bonus:   the lampshade made it too!  Wish I had a video of those 10 seconds—it had to look absolutely ridiculous.  Do these things happen to other people?  Talk about feeling like a clod….

A weird post script to the story:  I thought all the broken light bulb had been swept up, but a short while later I heard a crunching sound.  Cambridge was lying in the middle of the rug chewing on something.   What do you think it was?  How about a big piece of light bulb.  What in the world?  You should have seen the confused look on his face when it was taken from him.  There’s definitely something seriously wrong with that puppy. 

Ps 19:14

Random Topics

Cambridge has taken a fancy to chasing laser beams.  I don’t remember how it started, but The Man discovered at some point that he could get the dog to run after that red dot for ridiculously long periods of time.  I have to say, it’s much nicer having him exhaust himself in that manner than by playing fetch with his saliva soaked tennis ball.  He tears after that dot like it’s the most precious, prized rodent on the planet.   And if you manipulate the laser just right, you can get him to make the full round:   kitchen, dining room, living room, front hall and back to the kitchen. 

  

Praise and Sharing time at church today:  One of our young boys had to have emergency open heart surgery.  He was back home and doing well, until he started having pain and trouble breathing.   He’s back in the hospital.  Fluid had to be drained around his lungs.  It was clear.  But the fluid behind his heart wasn’t.  Everyone is praying.

Another member  has been battling various cancers for 20 some years.  He said today he’s had 6 different cancers.  Well, he went in this past week to have a couple tumors removed, but the doctors said they couldn’t find them.  He and his son had been praying.  

A woman who recently married a very nice man who sells cars for a living, stood up for Praise and Sharing time and applauded her husband’s faith.  It’s been very slow at the dealership lately, but he hasn’t been stressed out.  He knows that God will take care of them.  She was proud of him and it was heart-warming to hear her praise.  No wonder he loves her. 

Next, a man who a couple weeks ago had badly injured his knee playing sports at the men’s retreat, stood up and leaned on his crutches as he spoke.  His wife was supposed to go away with some friends on a short cruise when he returned from the retreat.  He was to stay home with their young daughter.   This poor man had been in excruciating pain after his accident—that fact was well-known, but he was able to let his wife keep her travel plans.  So here he was standing up and telling the rest of the congregation that he thinks God was trying to tell him to slow down a little.  He had a wonderful week with his daughter.   Now there’s a good attitude for you.

  

The story of David and Goliath was the topic this morning in our 5^th grade Sunday school class.  The Man had an ingenious idea to make a mock-up of Goliath to hang on the wall, so the kids could see how big he was.  So last night we ran out to Walmart and bought some posterboard.  After measuring our son, doing some math,  marking the posterboard with my quilting chalk, and  doing a little fancy cutting, there appeared the torso of the most well-known Philistine of the ancient world.  He hung conspicuously at the front of the class during the lesson.   We knew the project had been a success when the boys came back 10 minutes after class had let out to cock their heads back to re-examine the fierce warrior downed by a sling-wielding, God-fearing young man.

I joined Facebook—mostly to keep in touch with what’s going on with the Women’s ministry.  It’s OK, but not all that exciting.  And what’s with people you hardly know wanting to be “friends” with you?  It’s hard not to view them as voyeurs, you know?  Especially when they don’t do any posting themselves… 

My Mom fell—again.  Her bill for some meds, a night in the hospital, and a CAT scan is something like $26,000.  Does that sound reasonable to anyone who’s not insane?  I didn’t think so.

I finally made the pillows for the living room.  (They match the dining room curtains.)  It feels good to cross a project off the list.  

Snowless Winter

So we have no snow.  I mean NO snow—not a bit of it.  Here we are in upstate New York looking out our windows at dried grass.  It’s unbelievable.  We usually head into the winter season with a bit of trepidation.  How long will winter last?  How much snow will we have to deal with?  How many storms will we have to suffer through?  Are the shovels in good shape?  Should we give in and buy a snowblower?  Should we cover the bushes so they don’t get smashed by the snow from the neighbor’s snowblower? (Like the poor little lilacs did last year.)  But, I repeat—we have no snow.  Even if we got clobbered now—it can’t possibly be a bad winter.  It’s February 8^th, for Pete’s sake! 

There have been no days when you wake up, look out the window and see several inches of snow coating the trees, yards, cars, and driveways.  The usual winter snow removal noises are absent also.  No plows roaring up and down the streets, no scraping shovels, no small-engine machines whirring away, throwing arcs of snow high into the air.  No sound of neighbors’ voices shouting things like, “Hey, how ‘bout all this snow?  I’m sick of it—we’ve had enough!” 

 

Before you know it, the spring bulbs will have pushed their way up out of the earth and the trees will start budding.  The grass will go from tan to green and winter will be officially over. 

There is a down side to this moderate and mostly snow-free winter, however.   The bugs may be ferocious this spring and summer and there might be more plant diseases wreaking havoc in our gardens.  Those things aren’t good.  But on the other hand, it’s been of great comfort to walk confidently down the driveway with no fear of slipping on the snow and ice and breaking an arm or some other body part! Yeah, it's been a great snowless winter.

This is what winter looked like from a back window LAST year.