The Boy who cried, "Uh-Oh!" The "Maestro". And a 3-legged cricket...
It's been another buy week here. Strange and exciting in many ways. Some friends had their baby - a beautiful little girl named Dallas. I had several hospital calls to make. I had the once in a lifetime privilege of doing a funeral for a woman from Juarez, Mexico who died in the faith while visiting family here in town. I love this job because you just can't tell what any given week is going to bring.
The week began with a fun note. On Monday afternoon Jed joined me on his first house call with me to a home bound man and his wife who is still in good enough health to regularly attend church. So I put him in his car seat, strapped him in, and took off. We made our way through town where the speed limit never seems to get above 25mph. We passed through Flushing's one block long "Magnificent Mile" and headed out the other side of town to the west of Flushing. There finally the speeds pick from a half mile before I had to make a sweeping right hand turn on to another road. I was nearly through that turn when I heard Jed say, "Uh-Oh!"
Now, the first thing you need to know is that this is a phrase that the little guy says literally dozens of times a day. And so here he was again saying, "Uh-Oh!" So I flip down the tab on the rear-view mirror to get a better look at what is going on and I am surprised that Jed is nowhere in sight, but his feet are! There are his little feet pointing out in a 2 o' clock position. Well, the long of the short of it is that Jed's car seat had swapped cars over the weekend, and I forgot to make sure it was put back in correctly - oops! Poor guy, there he is strapped into a car seat that has tumbled over and all he has to say, in a very understated fashion, is "Uh-Oh!" Let me tell you, I laughed hard at that one.
Some big news here in Flushing... We got a new restaurant down on Main St. It's called Maestro's Sandwich Foundry - Artisan Sandwiches and Homemade Soups. I think that is the longest name of any business on Main St. And when you stop to think that a lot of the other establishments go by such simple names as "Jack's", "Skip's", and "Kathy's" you begin to get a sense of what a big deal it is to actually get a "Sandwich Foundry" in downtown Flushing.
Well, as I said earlier it has been a long week. So tonight, Megan, Jed and I headed out to the Flushing Township Nature Park. It's a great place and even though we live in a pretty quiet town, it is really quiet. We arrived and were looking forward to spending some time together, but we had no idea that Jed would have such a blast. He took off down the trails, checking out flowers, running through grass taller than he is, picking up crab-apples and throwing them.... He generally had a great time. But he also made a discovery - the wide world of insects! There were grasshoppers and flies and there was even a 3-legged cricket that cross his path. His first reaction was to try and stomp it out of existence. But thankfully, even missing a hind leg he was able to evade Jedzilla. That's when I intervened. It even took me a full minute or two, but I finally caught that little cricket and put it in Jed's hand. He looked at, smiled, and proceeded to dump it back on to the ground. I can't tell you how stunning it is to watch the little guy discover more and more of God's awesome creation. He learns so much every single day and in the process he is teaching me more than I knew I had to learn. Pretty cool to be a dad!