Thanksgiving is upon us and we’ve had a few things happen to remind us what we’re thankful for.
THANKFUL FOR A NIGHT OWL. At the time of writing this we aren’t sure how serious this might have become. I am an early riser and Vicki is a night owl. Between the two of us there aren’t many hours in the day when at least one of us is awake. It was the wee hours of Sunday morning when Vicki was getting ready for bed (she had fallen asleep on the couch). It was a little after 2:00 am when the power went off and back on, really a rare thing for the circuit our house is on. A few minutes later Vicki started smelling smoke. She woke me up and we spent the next 30-45 minutes inspecting the house inside and out. I had immediately turned off the heat to help us localize the odor. After about 20 minutes of looking around we noticed the smell was fainter. We turned the heat back on and the smell came back strong as ever. To be cautious I went outside and killed the furnace at the service disconnect. Within an hour there was no trace of any smell.
The problem smelled worse than it actually was. The inside walls of the furnace are lined with insulation. Some of this had come loose and was touching the heat exchange tubing. While the insulation is flame retardant, it sure smells bad when it is being scorched. Of course, I didn’t know this as I sat up for an hour after our little scare. A lot of things run through your mind about blessings in life and the people you love in a situation like that.
ANOTHER CLOSE CALL. Krisle Elementary lies halfway between our house and Springfield. Mom and Aunt Mar were on their way to town yesterday. As they were driving past Krisle a truck topped the hill ahead. Then a second truck (a pickup) appeared in their lane passing the first truck. At first Mom thinks “He sees me and will give up passing the other truck.” This driver chooses to continue passing even though it is obvious he can’t make it without causing an accident. As Mom heads for the ditch she notices that this guy has changed his plan and is heading for her ditch as well.
The ditch at this spot is very shallow. When everything is over Mom finds that the car rolled smoothly to a stop in the side yard of the school’s campus. Both trucks managed to stay on the road and neither of them stopped to see if Mom and Aunt Mar were okay (a lady in a car behind the trucks did though). They were very glad to have gotten through it without a scratch to themselves or the car. We all think the Lord was watching over them at that moment. There aren’t that many places along the highway to Springfield that offer a smooth shoulder and ditch like that. The timing was impeccable.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE. We had our annual community Thanksgiving service Sunday night. This year it was at Hopewell Baptist Church (there are five churches that participate). We had a joint worship service and then went to their fellowship hall to eat. This all started as light refreshments several years ago. It is now a notch short of a full meal. I ate too much. Janyth Henry, a lady from our church, was commenting on how Hopewell has raised the bar for us as it’s our turn to host the service next year. I told her we could all join Hopewell for a few weeks next November. All joking aside, it’s always fun to see people you don’t normally attend church with. One of Ben’s classmates was really happy to see him at her church.
This is out of chronological order but another fun holiday activity was the Cross Plains Heritage Commission’s pot luck dinner Thursday night. Vicki, Mom and I had a good time and I must say that Ken Thomson, our vice president, comes up with the neatest things to discuss. This time he talked about the socially acceptable ways to use tobacco in the 1800s. He brought several things to show which included snuff boxes, cigar wrappers and cigarette pipes. By the way, we are getting our web site started for the Heritage Commission and will be adding content as much as time allows. We already have several interesting articles posted.
ONE BUSY VOLUNTEER. Vicki has been really busy volunteering at school lately. Between Book Fair, the canned food drive and the Thanksgiving meal I think she was up there every day last week and several days the week before that.
DO I MEASURE UP? I enjoy hearing old stories like the ones I ran the last few weeks. They make the past come alive. It’s like adding color to those old black and white photos of your family. Without these stories, those pictures have about as much meaning to me as the ones you see in Cracker Barrel.
I was talking to a cousin on the phone last week about Amanda Ayres. We talked about many of the things he remembered her telling him as a boy and about how hard life was in the years after the Civil War when she was growing up. He said he asked her how they found the will to survive all those hardships. She corrected him saying, “We didn’t have hardships. They were challenges.” I had never heard this before.
Amanda is in a family picture that hangs on the wall in our study. She is looking over my shoulder as I type. I’ll never look at her image the same way again and I hope to live up to her outlook on life.
Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving,
Joe
