What I did on my summer vacation.
by Doug
This is what I did on my summer vacation.
My summer vacation was fun. There were no article deadlines. It was hot. I went outside every day. I cut wisteria and sprayed wasps. The grass grew very fast. I mowed the grass a lot. I picked figs off the fig tree. I played with Cut-Up. He is a Pitbull puppy. I met my new neighbor Kathy. She is a beautician.
Kathy and her boyfriend John needed help. They needed help moving a sofa. I should have asked more questions. I prayed the sofa was not in their upstairs garage apartment. It was. I prayed their sofa was not a sleeper-sofa. It was. John and I “slid” it down the stairs. I shouldn’t have moved a sleeper sofa down the stairs on a Sunday afternoon. I did. Cut-Up belongs to Kathy.
I watched a pig run down Main Street. He turned right off Main Street, ran through a field and headed down Gibbs Street. I have never seen a pig running down the middle of the street. A pig running is a funny sight. The same week I saw the pig, one of my neighbors took a picture of a bear in their backyard. I suppose my pig sighting was trumped by the bear picture. I forget that our camp is mostly in the country. This summer, driving back and forth the animals stayed out of the road and I stayed out of the ditches.
This summer, I drove my father-in-law to the doctor a lot. Old people are funny. If a B-52 crashed in the backyard, he would not hear it. But he told me to get the WD-40 because the backdoor was squeaking. He likes the way I drive, because I don’t have the radio on, and I don’t talk. He has many doctors. He had cataract surgery in July. Now he can see the letter E on the eye chart. Before that he couldn’t see the wall. He says, “I see well enough to drive again.”
This summer I learned that what I want to grow in the yard doesn’t and what I don’t want to grow does.
I learned about travel trailers. I was on my way to Arcadia to get ice cream for my father-in-law. He only eats Blue Bell Butter Crunch. At exit 67 a guy pulling a travel trailer was on the shoulder of I-20. There were wisps of smoke coming out of his air conditioning unit. Ten minutes later, ice cream purchased, I passed by the travel trailer again. It was gone! All that remained were the tires and the frame. Talk about going up in smoke, that travel trailer went up on smoke during the purchase of a half-gallon of Butter Crunch. I have been pondering trading my boat in on a travel trailer. It is the choice between pouring money in the river or having money go up in smoke.
This summer, our puppy Hazel bit my mother in law on the leg. So Hazel no longer is welcomed at the Gibsland house. Hazel is a sweet dog. She suffers from aggressive ageism. My mother in law is ok. She always asks about the dogs, and Hazel. Sometimes families and dogs don’t mix.
William Barclay wrote a prayer about Jesus understanding our lives.
“We thank you that Jesus did a day’s work like any working-man, that he knew the problems of living together in a family, that he knew the frustration and irritation of serving the public, that he had to earn a living, and to face all the wearing routine of every day work and life and living, and so clothed each common task with glory.”
Jesus knows about your summer vacation. Do you know Him
