Extreme behavior, extreme weather

Our daughter Victoria has been a challenge for us. She has never been a discipline challenge, far from that. The challenge has been to get her to participate in anything outside of the family. For several years soccer seemed to be a great avenue to get her out of the house and around people not her family, but some horrible experiences on a team in New Jersey sealed off that expressive channel.


College has not been a very good experience for her at either of the two she has attended and a semester in Guadalajara working at an orphanage did not help open her up. She knows what she wants, but sequestering herself in the comfort of our living room may not be the best avenue to attain those goals. We love her dearly and she knows that so she is content – mostly – to stay close to us.

All that being said, it surprised us when she announced that she was going to drive from Hot Springs to Milton, Florida to visit her sister Cori. This is a road trip of 550 miles; ten hours at best. I had to remark to Mama that the child we cannot get to cross the street to say “hello’” to someone, the child we cannot get to place her own order at a fast food restaurant, the child we cannot get to spend an extra fifteen minutes after church to visit with church friends is going to drive ten hours, by herself, to visit her sister?

Absolutely remarkable! I have no idea what it is going to take for a young man to capture her attention in this way but I am praying for that very thing.

I tried a different way home yesterday. There are only two major roads that lead to Borger from Amarillo and I have been taking the one I was used to from our time in the hotel when we first got here. I took the second of the two roads home to see if there was any appreciable difference. As it turns out, it is faster than the way I had been taking but the road stays on the high plains the entire time so the landscape does not vary much at all.

I left Borger on State Highway 207 heading to Panhandle, TX. I was guessing that I was able to see structures over ten miles away. (The distance turned out to be almost twenty miles.) It was drizzling slightly which is very unusual for the area. As I got closer to Panhandle the light rain turned to snow until I was in the middle of a pretty impressive snow shower.

In the distance I could see the clouds toughing the horizon (indication rain in that area) and beyond that the sky was bright blue. There was one car about two miles in front of me so I was able to enjoy the extreme weather change while it lasted. By the time I headed south on Highway 60 towards Amarillo the dark skies were behind me. I am not sure how long it continued to snow on the plains I had just crossed but that is the kind of snow I like – no real danger, no accumulation, just a light dusting to remind me that it is winter.

It is beautiful now; sunny and sixty degrees and it will be that way for the remainder of the work week. Saturday however, is forecast to be twenty five degrees with a 60 mph wind – to remind us that it is winter. Mama’s yard sale will probably be postponed.

I really prefer my brief snow shower as a reminder.