The Theory of Weekend Relativity

Monday morning -- THIS morning, the last Monday of 2014 -- I've gotten the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's house where they stay when Martha and I are at work after delivering a load of Sarah and Jeffrey's outgrown clothes and toys to our local Goodwill store (which they picked out yesterday, not us -- I knew they could do it) and they spent a few hours watching old Brady Bunch episodes on the couch, the same episode on two different screens so I'm hearing them within a minute of each other, after Martha left for work and I delivered the papers this morning on our route (Monday's my day) which was decidedly non-slick with ice yet was fifteen degrees below zero. But knock on wood, we do not have near the snow we usually expect in our area this time of year. Not that I'm complaining, but it's at least one good thing about "global warming" (the problem I have believing it is that the consequences are SO long-term -- by the end of the century we'll notice one degree of average worldwide temperature rise. ONE?

I want to get worked up about that, believe me, but the life I have left is short enough anyway, even shorter than yesterday. No, what works me up even after prayer because it's -- or rather they -- are in such close proximity to me is when something happens to my family. This Saturday when it was Martha's turn to do the paper route (and the paper arrived a few hours late so she was trying to hurry since I had to be at work that morning) she slipped on some ice on the steepest driveway on our route. She screamed loud enough when she fell that the residents heard her and Martha told them to call me, so at about a quarter after seven I hear she was helped to the car and I rush with Sarah and Jeffrey to meet her and finish the route. In my case, finish most of it with them as I had to head straight to Marketplace for the next eight hours in dairy/frozen food. I admit I started out thinking "oh crap, if she has to go the hospital how much more will this set us back" but as the day went on and I saw Martha could barely turn her neck, I figured it would be a good idea to get checked out.

I just wanted to suggest it before her family did. And after church Sunday morning, Martha, Sarah, and I headed over to Trinity Hospital's emergency room and got her rushed to the trauma ward, or rather they rushed her there -- Jeffrey decided to go with Grandma and Grandpa instead and we later picked him up at Donovan's. It took three hours, just one with that brace, for us to get in and checked and out of there; x-rays didn't show anything broken, and my wife was advised to keep on the painkiller regimen she'd been taking, all non-prescription. Apparently that fall hurt some muscles she didn't even know she had! By the time we got out everybody was hungry and we took advantage of the gift cards our niece (the kids' cousin) Breanna got us and went to Applebee's for lunch. Ate good, played that game console they've got at the table, and got home and settled in as much as we usually do. And there's ONE MORE WEEK of Christmas Vacation for the kids -- but hey, by the grace of God and in the will of God we can hand and do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

We just have to let Him, David