Getting Loose

Kingsdown

This is the larger of the two churches at which I have principal responsibility for the month of August, though I discovered today, that I will also be preaching at Greenford this Sunday night!

Kingsdown used to be called Northfield Methodist Church.  They have a beautiful sanctuary and have recently face lifted their exterior front by adding a very functional narthex and lots of windows.

Again, I was amazed at how well a small group can sing, and not only that, they sang foreign tunes (which I find very difficult to follow) to words which were very familiar to me! 

The service started at 6:30 p.m., and though we finished at 7:35, it is fascinating that the daylight lasts till well past 9 p.m.  But then if you follow their corresponding latitude to the west, you will discover that they are the equivalent of being many miles north in interior Canada.

The weather is astonishing here.  We are faring much better than the blokes we left behind in Houston.  They have sweltering heat and humidity.  We are having fall like weather here, with the high being 71, and the low was 48.  Tomorrow it will not get out of the 60’s.  Is God good or what?

Andrea Ristorante Italiano

Last night we met the Rowley's at Andrea's.  It was fun catching up with them.  But as far as the venue, honestly, I wasn't that impressed.  It was OK.  But I doubt I'll be back. 

1st Class Church Fund Raiser

Last night we went to the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral Greek Festival.  Man, you talk about knowing how to do a fund raiser, it was phenomenal.  Here were just a few of the things that impressed me:

• It is held on 4 successive nights
• Lights were strung up outside attracting people like moths
• A pared down menu that included quality items with lots of meat cooking and the wonderful smells drifting through the air
• Big open-air white tents set up
• Big, portable see-through fencing set up close to the street so that you could see through and get activities closer to the traffic to attract people
• Select beers and wines (I've seen Methodist Churches in Iowa with beer at their church--but it was like one of those under the counter operations)
• Dancing
• Live shows with lots of people
• $5 entrance fee (they could have doubled that and I still would have gone)
• Quality, select, vendors
• They had to have made easily hundreds of thousands of dollars

I'll bet we spent over 2 hours there, and they got at least $70 out of us.  On top of that it was absolutely an impulse decision for us to go.  We were going to stay home and eat, but I had had my car in the J & T Automotive, and I gather that the people who run this place are Greek (the front desk woman's name means "wisdom" in Greek, the General Manager's last name means "God is with us" in the Greek form of the Hebrew, etc.)   Anyway, as I was peeling off the bills to pay for my car repairs, the young man said he couldn't wait to go to the Greek celebration.

I said, "What celebration?"

"It's like a festival."

"Where?"

"On Yoakum Street."

"Where is that?"

"It's a little difficult to explain."

"Yeah?  Well try."

Blank look.

"Is it connected with a church?

"Yes!"

"Which one?"

His mind was whirring, and then he blurted out, "Annunciation!"

"They're having it tonight?"

"Yes!"

I thought, Well that sounds like fun . . . but . . . I'll need to check in with the War Dept. first though to see if that is a possibility.

Ike Strike--14

There is still no electricity or phones at church. I will go tomorrow to join some people to help do some more clean-up of the grounds.

I worked outside some today hauling broken limbs to the curb side, and walked the dog twice. The second time we got to see a couple of bucket trucks work on some high voltage lines. That would petrify me. There cannot be even a pin hole in the gloves they wear to work on those lines, plus the bucket has to be in phase with the voltage line.

When the man finally descended from his bucket, I asked him if he ever got scared working on those lines, and he grinned with the whitest teeth and said, "Only when I’m drunk."

I thanked him for a job well done and how appreciative Houston was for his coming over to help us out (he was from Tulsa).

The weather has held out well, and will be in the 60's tonight. I’m keeping the windows open and am saving on the utilities.

I visited some with my wife on the phone and she talked some about our granddaughter. She said to me, "You sound sad."

I didn’t think I was. I guess it is just a swirl of things that have been going on in life. Maybe the hurricane that came roaring down our pike set off a whirl of things and disarray that it is difficult to get back to normal.

But then, maybe normal has moved.

Ike Strike--13

The electricity came back on about 4 p.m. today. I was shocked when I came home and saw a light burning. I couldn’t believe it. But I was thrilled.

My wife has gone to Kansas City to be with our granddaughter, so I am batching it.

We came through the hurricane fairly OK. No damage to any of our houses. Two trees fell which each damaged a fence: but that was it. We are so fortunate.

After the electricity went out, the hurricane winds blew with incredible gusts that night. The next morning when everything pretty much calmed down and people began going out to see what was what, it was so hot and humid. The next night it was hard to sleep it was so hot and humid. We had no electricity, no water, no land phone, cell phone wasn’t working. It was like being on a camp out in some primitive location.

We had filled two bathtubs full of water and the drain did not hold on one of them, and the water was gone the next morning. (Note to self—next time use the rubber plugs in the drain and do not rely on the mechanical, built in stoppers).

At 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, God provided a rain for us, and we went out in the back yard and took a shower. It was strange feeling so cold, when we had been so hot and humid. But I was so thankful: even shampooed my hair.

For those who cared to show up, we had two services of worship on Sunday morning. Yes it was very humid and warm, and there was no electricity. But we had the sanctuary all decked out in candles. The atmosphere was charming and magical. We went through an abbreviated service for the liturgical people at 9. And a brief service for the non-traditional people at 11. By Sunday at noon, the water came back on magically, for which I was very thankful. You can’t imagine how important water is until you don’t have it. I will never take that for granted again.

And then on Sunday evening, the Lord provided a cooler than usual, and a sooner than usual, cool front that dramatically dropped the temperature and the humidity. It has been and is wonderful. Like being up north in Iowa. Livable. Like camping out. I don’t know how many times I thanked God for water and the cool weather. It has been amazing.

And now I have land phone and electricity. Wow. Am I blessed or what?

This whole experience has allowed neighbors to get to know each other. We’ve all come through a common attack upon our lives and property. It was far better than some neighbor night out.

The church still has no electricity or phone. We are hamstrung there, but hopefully that will get resolved.

Ike Strike--12

Well, the rain has finally hit. We lost our tv signal for a while, but at least as of a moment ago, it was back up.

We are also getting some pretty significant gusts. You can occasionally hear the wind blowing through the trees. The intensity is definitely beginning to pick up where I am.

Our temperature is 78. That’s probably as high or as low as it will get for a while. We probably have some gusts in the 50 mph range. From inside you can definitely hear the wind gusts from time to time.  They are now saying that the wind gusts will be in the 77 mph range.

I don’t know how many more of these I’ll be doing tonight.  And we’ll see if the power holds out.

Vaya con Dios.

Ike Strike--11

Well, we now have a 90% probability of experiencing a hurricane. It’s about 1½ hours out of Galveston and appears to be roaring toward that town. According to The Wall Street Journal the eye of Ike will go north, to the east of me, about 20 miles away. That means that I am not on the "dirty" side of the hurricane. I expect I will experience hurricane force wind gusts of 81 mph.

There is hardly any traffic outside. Neighbors are out walking their dogs. River Oaks, one of the priciest sections of real estate in the United States, to the ESE of me, has already lost power. We have two bathtubs full of water.

I expect no flooding where we live.

It is really fairly quiet here. We get gusts of about 45 mph from time to time, but that is about it. Still no rain.

Of course the news media is covering this like the plague. They have people stationed everywhere.

The things that amazes me the most is the surge way to the east of us in Louisiana. I would not have guessed that. Galveston is probably flooded everywhere by now.

Ike Strike--10 (Weeby)

We be still here safe and sound.

Having time like this, I discovered things I did not know. For example, I discovered that our dryer has a light in it. I never knew that. I saw this plastic tab in the back that had a Phillips head screw. Don’t ask me how much more of the garage I had to tear up to try to find a phillips head screwdriver. Any way, I got the tab off, and incredibly there was a burned out bulb behind it. It takes a little 10 watt night light to go in there.

I also discovered that the fan/light out on the back porch uses a kind of bulb I have never seen before. So someday, I’ll have to go to the store and see if I can find a replacement.

Right now the sun has set. It is dark. I hit on the brilliant idea to wash all my clothes just in case the electricity goes out. Several thousands of people are without power, but that is mainly to the east and south of us.

The last I heard the eye of the hurricane is supposed to go roaring up to the east of me by a few miles. They’ve upgraded the wind. I am supposed to experience gusts of up to 81 mph. I don’t know, but I think I have driven faster than that before. But I know a few trees around that have not gone that speed.

When I look at the national weather, it says that hurricane conditions are expected. That should be in a few hours for me. It’s dropped a couple of more degrees—84, and we’ve had wind gusts up to 59 mph. I still hear quite a bit of traffic around. I have felt just a trace of precipitation.

At this moment, I have a 60% chance of experiencing hurricane force winds, and a 100% chance of experiencing 50-knot winds, and a 100% chance of being in God’s hands.

Ike Strike--9

This sort of reminds me of that section in the movie the 10 Commandments where everyone is waiting for the Spirit of the Lord to pass over and kill all the first born.  In the movie, you hear these men chanting psalms in a low, mournful tone of voice. 

I read on MSN that it's now time for prayers.  The book of Psalms is the prayer book of the Bible, after all.

Ike Strike--8

You know what is sad?  I see I have Twitter on this site, and it has been over 100 days ago since I used it.  I'm not even sure how to access it.  That would really be a better way of doing all of this, than what I am doing on this blog!

Well, we now have about 100% chance of getting tropical force winds (39+ m.p.h.), about an 80% chance of getting 50-knot winds, and a 40 % chance of getting hurricane force winds.

It is now breezy, and we are getting gusts up to 28 m.p.h.

The big blow is a coming.