A Rainy Day in PA

Sasha woke me up early this Sunday morning, letting me know in her own inimitable way that she had to take care of business. Our little window A/C unit was humming away (although the temp outside this morning showed 69º) as I tossed on a pair of cargo shorts and my sandals and headed downstairs to her leash and the door. The original plan was to walk her down the sidewalk a few yards, let her pee, and bring her right back in...I was going back to bed, oh, yeah!

I hooked the leash to her harness and walked both of us to the front door, and opened it. Uh-oh! It's pouring outside! I had not heard the rain because of the A/C, but now I'm committed, and so is Sasha. I remain on the front porch and let the leash out as far as it can go, and Sasha immediately squats and goes. Good girl! Now it's back inside, wipe the dog down with a towel and go back upstairs to bed.

That doesn't last long barely an hour later, Sasha again signals an urge to purge. Now I'm up for the day. It's back downstairs, but this time I have an umbrella, and we go for a short walk, until she does her thing and we return to our dry house. It looks like I'm awake for good now, although I'm not quite sure I want to be.

It's days like this that show me the difference between Florida and Pennsylvania. I walk out back and look up at that mountain behind our house, and the top of it is covered in cloud.

 

That's something I've never seen before. I look to the west, to the pass where we come into the town, and it's also cloudy and wet.

 

So I walk out of the back yard to the alley, and it's drizzly and wet, but very peaceful, so I head down the street a bit along the stream, to see what that looks like this morning.

 

It's barely flowing, but still... It looks like I could easily wade across it to the other side - it's not too deep. And then I remember our landlord showing us pictures of a brown bear that had done just that, coming into town and strolling down the neighborhood sidewalks before disappearing back into the mountains. So I might even run into a bear or two around these parts. There are also deer and wild turkeys, and a common road sign in this state is a deer warning...I've seen pictures of encounters between deer and cars, and I have no desire to hit one in our little Escort.

And so I walk back to the house, where Jen is just now waking up herself, and together we look for a good Bible teaching on the tube. We haven't had time yet to find a church, but we love Pastor Bob Coy and Calvary Ft. Lauderdale, and watch him on-line. We also love Dr. Charles Stanley and In Touch, and find him on the cable, so we settle in to some good teaching. We know that God has brought us to PA, Jen back to her family and me...I don't yet know. But I know that Jen and I are at home when we are together, and since I have no family of my own, her family is mine, too. I love her two daughters as if they were mine, and I am grandpa (I think the grandkids have decided to call me "Pappi" instead) to 7 wonderful children (well, one of them is 19 and on his own). I think that is why God brought me here - to live out the best part of my life. He has rewarded me for being obedient and for loving Jen, and has given me greater purpose in my older years. 

Thank you, Father!