Down days, making snow, Airsoft battles

Have you ever had those days when overall you should have been rejoicing yet you felt burdened and heavy- hearted? Yesterday was one of those days. I finally mastered a program I had been working on for months. I got an answer to a prayer I had been praying about for almost a year. It was not the answer I had been looking for, but God did answer. Church services were great. Mama still loves me. There is so much more, yet I went to bed feeling like I had failed somehow.


Those times are hard to beat. Unlike a movie or TV show, life does not always have a happy ending. You don’t get to retake the shot, rewrite the lines or replay the event. A friend of mine once told me, “This is not dress rehearsal.”

Honestly, it all stems from a selfish attitude. It is kind of like an adult temper tantrum. I will have to check with Mama today and see if there are any fences to mend. I do not think I was harsh, only distant; translate that unloving, at least. (For her, that seems harsh.) I am not much better now. The circumstances have not changed. But I refuse to sacrifice what sustains me on a day to day basis for the sake of promoting my own pity party.

Andrew Kim sent us a video of a snow making experiment that he and his classmates were doing in Colorado. He is stationed there in the Air Force and the temperature was about ten degrees below zero. It was reported to be -40◦F with the wind chill. One of the guys in his barrack boiled a cup of water, carried it outside into the cold and tossed the contents into the air. It instantly became snow. Chase was all over that.

He and Seth did the experiment here in Amarillo. It was not as cold, only 6◦F, but the overall effect was the same. I am not sure how many times he and Seth repeated the test, but Mama finally told them to stop. Seth told her they were trying to get to sledding conditions in the back yard.

We still have some frozen water lines. With the temperatures overnight near zero it is understandable. What is troubling is that neither Mama nor I thought about running the water through the night in the areas most susceptible to freezing. I sure felt foolish. Added to that the problem we are having with the leak from the shower in our bathroom and it makes things difficult. Not impossible, just difficult.

I think Chase is enjoying his new school. At every break the boys have Airsoft battles. Fortunately, I bought one of the guns several years ago, so Chase was readily armed to charge into the fray. He wears the welts like trophies.

For the moment those plastic pellets have replaced basketball. At least in this game he gets to play.