Yes, another week in “Paradise” – otherwise known as the pastor’s home – has gone by, “like sands in the hourglass”. Several of the stories this week have to do with the seemingly ubiquitous power outages in Southwest Louisiana, as well as other aspects of living in “Paradise.”

I’m “Seeing Someone”

Because of the symptoms I have when I stand up, I generally stay in my recliner most of the day. One of the “treats” I sometimes look forward to is walking out to the mailbox. Wednesday I went out to check the mail – but I had forgotten that Cheryl & Michael had already picked it up when they came back from running some errands. When I returned to the house Cheryl asked: “Where were you?”

Me: “I went to check the mail.”

Cheryl: “I showed you the mail a while ago.” Teasingly she added: “Are you seeing someone out there?”

Me: “Yep. I’m ‘seeing someone’ in the front yard!” 😉

No Weed Eating

Michael: “I can’t weed-eat the back yard because it looks like a storm is coming in.”

Me (playing the role of the typical dad): “You aren’t going to skip the weed eating just because there are a few clouds out there!”

“BOOOM!” That moment, a huge thunderbolt hit close by! A storm blew in that knocked our power out. Needless to say, Michael did skip the weed eating Wednesday!

Salsa & Grape Jelly

This week, one of our church members, Mike Paris, was kind enough to bring us a couple of bags of tomatoes, home-grown in his own garden! Cheryl was excited and said that she wanted to try to make salsa with them. I said, “Yeah, I bet we could save some money if you made a big batch of home-made salsa; we go through a lot of salsa!” Cheryl is definitely up for it (she is enjoying making it as I type) but she is skeptical about the “saving money” part. She reminded me of a story from our time at First Baptist, Beggs, Oklahoma in the early 1990’s:

One of our sweet church families had given us 3-4 big paper grocery bags full of grapes. Cheryl was very grateful, but also wondered: “What am I going to do with this many grapes?” She decided to be very industrious and make jelly! So one day she put on her best “Suzy Homemaker” apron and got busy: she washed all the grapes, threw out the bad ones, cooked them all down, ran them through a sieve, made ready the canning jars – it was an all-day process by the time all was said and done. And when it was, she set the finished product before us: VOILA! FOUR little bitty jars of jelly. Amazed that four big bags of grapes boiled down to only four petite jars of jelly, I pondered aloud: “How much does a jar of jelly cost?” Cheryl answered in a droll tone: “About 99 cents!”

So needless to say, though Cheryl is having fun making the salsa, and I am looking forward with anticipation to trying it, we will not be planning on any big budget reductions as a result!

The Drama of Lawn Mowing

I hated to sit and watch Cheryl & Michael take turns push-mowing the front lawn, but with my condition there is nothing I can do about it. Cheryl sometimes enjoys it as exercise, but Michael not so much. He puts his own “dramatic spin” on it, however. As he walked by me to go out and relieve Cheryl at the mower, I said, “Good; are you going to take over for Mom?”

He responded with a quote from Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers: “Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath! Now for ruin!” and charged out into the yard, his army canteen slung over his shoulder.

No lack of drama around here in Paradise!

Another Power Outage

Most nights I am not able to sleep much, so I grab some rest whenever I can. Last Saturday Cheryl came in and woke me up, saying, “Listen, it is 2:00 in the afternoon and you haven’t had anything to eat today. Why don’t you get up and I’ll get you something.”

Me: “I think what sounds good is one of those really good pieces of pizza from last night, and a can of Pepsi.”

Cheryl: “OK, I’ll heat you up some pizza in the microwave, and get you a Pepsi.”

Just then, I heard a big SWOOOSH sound. The lights went out, and the ceiling fan stopped turning. It was yet another power outage. There would be no heating up of pizza now. This was not quickly lost on Cheryl, however:

“Ummm … how about just a Pepsi?!”

Check the Internet?

When the electricity went out Saturday, Entergy, our Louisiana power company, sent an automated call to let us know that our power was out (it was only to 40+ homes, they said, so it was evidently only our neighborhood) but that power should resume in about two hours. This was a nice gesture, as it gave us some idea of what was going on, and when we could expect the electricity back. I’m sure it also saves them from answering a lot of telephone calls as well. But I had to chuckle at the conclusion of the automated message, which said: “If you need any further information, check our website …”. Cheryl & I both laughed. Well, we might check the website – if our electricity was on!

Salsa!

Well I can report that late this Saturday evening, Cheryl has finished making her homemade salsa. It smelled good while it was cooking, but we really had NO idea what it would taste like, as she had never made salsa before. Did we have the right tomatoes? Did she put in the right balance of spices? Etc., etc. At one point, nearing the end, she turned to me and asked: “What if it’s not any good?” I responded: “Then we’ll give them as gifts to our ‘friends’!” 😉

But as you probably figured, there was no need to give any away. I can honestly tell you, it is the best salsa I have ever eaten! Another kitchen triumph for Cheryl. We have twelve jars of this salsa, but I doubt it is going to last long. You figured this was going to have a happy ending, didn’t you? Sure, because after all, we do live in … “Paradise”! 🙂