Wednesday, October 1, 2014

UDF Fun

October 1, 2014

It's been quite a day, beginning with an observation from my morning's reading in the Psalms. Every so often, I re-engage in a pattern reading of the Psalms and Proverbs that takes me through them both in a month. Proverbs is easy; one a day. With the Psalms, on the first of the month I read Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, 121. The second day of the month is Psalm 2, 32, 62, 92, 122, and so on through the month.

Other than the opening psalm which is somewhat of an introduction to the rest of them, today's readings dealt with God's faithfulness when we go through trials. I thought about this, and am grateful that at the moment, I'm in between them. I remember all too well those times when I clung to these Psalms for dear life. The storms were raging, and without them, I wouldn't have made it through. Right now there are plenty of people who are riding out the storm, and today's readings were God's reminder to me to pray for them. Everyone gets his or her turn; right now, it's my turn to pray for those who might be having difficulty praying their own prayers, knowing that the day will likely come when they'll return the favor. I am grateful to be on the praying end at the moment.

Other than the usual morning routine, it started with a bang when as I was getting ready to head out on a bathroom remodeling supplies run, pastor Joe comes wheeling in the driveway, hops out of his truck and motions me to the back of his pickup where lay a beautiful and huge eight point he took at about 7:20 opening day of archery. Quite a nice birthday present, I'd say!

He heads home, and I head out for my supply run to Fredonia (Couldn't do that on my old Sportster!). On the way, I stopped at Denison's in Cassadaga to arrange for my truck inspection. Mark called yesterday to tell me it was overdue (I bet Midas never does that!). He came out to talk bike, so we yammered a bit. I was overdue on the inspection because with the Ural's sidecar being so handy, I've hardly driven the truck this summer. I guess I'll have to next Monday when I take it in. After chewing the fat for awhile, I move on up the road, stopped by the credit union. Came out to find a guy looking at the bike; conversation time.

At Home Depot, one of the employees comes almost running into the parking lot to start talking about my bike. He knew a little about Urals, has a 6 year old son, and thinks this might do the trick. I told him how much fun I've been having with it, how handy it was for trips like this. I told him about the Soviet Steeds forum that has been invaluable, gave him my phone number, and told him to call me to arrange taking it for a test ride. While we were talking, a guy comes up, turns out to be a friend I hadn't seen in about ten years. Another 15 minutes disappeared. Came home with the tub full of supplies and a mirror bungeed on the sidecar rack.

An hour or so later, I had to make a second run, a little shorter, to the local grocery/hardware for a drain extension for the bathroom sink. I've got a box full of plumbing supplies, but of course, none of it fits what I'm working on. As I was coming out of the store, two guys were looking the bike over. One asked if he could take pictures. No problem, except my wife both times was getting worried that I'd been run over by a truck or something. She hasn't yet gotten used to UDF ("Ural Delay Factor"). I figure the conversations added about an hour to my trips.

Supply runs were super; my plumbing was not. When I opened the valves, water started  spraying all over the basement; I think it's time to quit for the night. There was a time in my life when this setback would have set me off, but I'm older, perhaps a bit wiser, or maybe just a bit lazier. Tomorrow's another day, and although the remodel didn't go quite as I had hoped, I AM going to win! Meanwhile, I'm grateful for my morning time with God, the fun rides, conversations with friends new and old, dinner with our daughter and her kids while her husband is out of town on a business trip, and especially that we have another fully functional bathroom. Small stuff, but it's the life I've been given, and I'm grateful for it.

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