Blessed Relief

After a week or more of 100 degree days and heat indexes approaching 110, it was a glorious sight today to see buckets of rain coming down most of the morning. The Weather Channel says today is going to have a high of 80, which is amazing, and it's not supposed to get over 92 for the next week. Still warm, but not nearly as oppressive as the last few days. Of course, if you are looking for the cloud in the silver lining, that means the grass is going to grow and I'm going to have to mow again, assuming I can get my mower fixed.

That last is the total opposite of my friend Jennifer's philosophy, which has spread around our church until it's brought up in almost any conversation. "There's joy in every situation," has been her motto the last year or so, ever since her first mission trip to Honduras. While it can sound simplistic, it's amazing how after a while, you start looking for that when things are going bad.

For example, back in June the family and I were returning from visiting the wife's family in Ohio. The trip had been fairly routine and we'd had a good time in Ohio, even though throwing off the routine seemed to bother Benjamin some. Anyway, somewhere in Tennessee the car starts wobbling. I'm not really sure what's going on, but I drop the speed down to about 60-65 or so and continue that way for about an hour or so.

As we approach Memphis, for some reason I decide to up the speed back up to about 70. Almost immediately, a loud noise comes from the back of the car and I hear "flap, flap, flap." I immediately get to the shoulder of the road (which happened to be right next to an off-ramp) and check it out. Sure enough, the tire is the problem. Those that know me (and even if you don't, you're probably figuring it out) know I'm not mechanically inclined. I've changed a tire once, and that was in a little less pressure situation than the interstate. After unpacking the trunk to get to the spare, jack, etc., I get to work, but it's pretty hot and with Benjamin in the car as well, I went ahead and called 911 to get some help.

Help arrived, and the guy assisted me in the changing of the tire. I wasn't too excited about going far on a donut, and I asked him how far they'd go. Realize that this is Sunday and I don't know Memphis well at all. I figured the odds were that anything that could work on it was probably closed.

"Oh, they can go about 20-30 miles, I'd guess."

Fun. So I start to get everything gathered up and he tells me to make sure I take the tire. I'm figuring it's a litter thing, but there was no room at all to put it in the car, so I left it.

We make it over to West Memphis (always good to be in Arkansas!) and I find the Wal-Mart. Three hours later, they finally get to my car and ask where the rim is. It finally dawns on me why I should have taken the tire.

"Back in Memphis," is my reply.

Of course, they don't have a rim that will fit, so they put the donut back on as I call my parents. Thankfully, they were able to meet us roughly halfway between home and West Memphis, but that meant that we had to drive about 55 to meet them.

And the next day, I realized that the tire had not gone flat, that the tread had just come off. If I had realized that and limped it to West Memphis, at least we'd have had a new tire when we left there.

All that to say that as we were sitting on the side of the road in Memphis, my wife tells me, "There's joy in every situation."

I told her, "It's getting darn hard to find it in this one!"

But she was right. Nobody was hurt. We had a cell phone so we could get in touch with people. Wal-Mart was air-conditioned and had a place to eat. Things could have been a lot worse. Without that simple motto, though, it might have been too much to take.

Wow, I really didn't mean to get into that story, but that's what happens when you give me a blank page and let me talk. Rambling comes with the territory!

Cards won their late game last night, as the Irregulars took out the Padres 4-2. Of course, the main regular, Mr. Pujols, did help with his 27th home run. At least they didn't beat up on Woody Williams too badly. I always liked Woody when he pitched for the Cards, though it was time for him to move on after last year. Woody had a heck of a run with the Cardinals. I still remember reading about that trade on my birthday in 2001. Nobody knew that we were getting a potential ace. It just looked like a salary swap to move Ray Lankford.

Tonight's going to be tough. Jake Peavy can beat up on the best of lineups, but against the almost AAA one that the Cards will be fielding? This could be bad. But then again, the Cards tend to have trouble with mediocre pitchers and take it out on the good ones. It's like Jouquin Andujar said, "You can sum it up in one word: you never know."