Early on, in this time of pandemic, as I talked with Kevin and Jeremy, we commented on how almost all of the newspeople, reporters, everyone, said, “Unprecedented.” “It’s just unprecendented.” “Completely unprecedented.” And so on.

And I said that there are surely more words that might be appropriate, and haven’t we used up “unprecedented?” So I went to Thesaurus.com, where I found words like  “remarkable,” “uncommon,”  and “unparalleled” (along with several others). But the word I like best (and which was at the top of the list of appropriate synonyms), was “bizarre.”

“There’s no more toilet paper!” “Bizarre!”

“I can only purchase two cartons of eggs!” “Bizarre!”

We just don’t feel comfortable going to (“the movies,” “a football game,” “our favorite restaurant,” “church” “add your own frustrating destination here,”). It’s just BIZARRE! The Thesaurus.com website has a brief explanation of the possible origin of the word, but it’s not very interesting.

One thing that I’ve found, well, maybe not “bizarre,” but certainly “different from usual,” is what’s happening at Target. I can understand how they, and really, most stores, had to put in their orders for back-to-school supplies many months earlier. And, there is most certainly a need for school supplies, but going back to school is different this year. Target did get ready for back-to-school shoppers, with school lists for different age groups, backpacks, lots and lots of pencils, pens, paper, composition books, rulers, scissors, et. al. And there indeed were shoppers. But there are also lots of school supplies still lying around. And, the space where school supplies have been is now being taken up by, of course, Halloween stuff.

I stopped by my church a couple of days ago, to drop off some masks, which will go to the nearby elementary school. As I was leaving, I saw a couple of friends in the parking lot. We chatted a few minutes (all masked and distanced) and I said, “How much longer do you think this will last?” And they said, “Maybe six more months.” Bizarre.

Since it’s on most folks’ minds these days, I looked up some quotes about fire.

The most tangible of all visible mysteries – fire.
Leigh Hunt

Fire is a natural symbol of life and passion, though it is the one element in which nothing can actually live.
Susanne Katherina Langer

A small spark can start a great fire
Emmet Fox

Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help.
Jean-Michel Basquiat

People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.
Abigail van Buren

How can we extinguish a fire if we don’t first cut off the fuel that ignites the inferno?
Arun Gandhi

Fire has always been and, seemingly, will always remain, the most terrible of the elements.
Harry Houdini

Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.
Latin proverb

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Latin proverb

It also concerns you when the nearest wall is burning.
Latin proverb

I guess if we (or someone with “know-how”) really could make it rain, some folks would be thrilled and others would be angry/disappointed/frustrated. But for now, the folks in Oregon would be in the “thrilled” category. And we would be thrilled for them.

It rained.

That may not seem terribly amazing to you, depending on where you live. Where I live, rainfall is pretty scarce in the summertime. And, yes, I do know that it’s September now, but summer isn’t done with us yet. Not by a long shot.

So, when rain is predicted at this time of year, we’re skeptical. Really skeptical. Oh, yeah, sure, the sky might cloud up a little. The sidewalks might get a little damp. But we’re not going to stop watering the outdoor plants.

And, rain was predicted this week. I was not particularly excited Tuesday evening, as I crawled into bed and pulled up the covers and went to sleep. Briefly. Then it really did rain. And, not just some rain. Enormously loud thunder, crackling lightening, and wind whipping rain against the windows. Really. It happened. Check the weather data .

I was so excited. I’d gone out a few days ago and scouted out all the pecan trees that were growing around the yard. Not, of course, trees that we had planted. Trees that had come up because the squirrels had planted them, back last fall. I’ve mentioned that before, I’m sure. When the pecans fall, in the autumn, squirrels pick them up and bury them, so that they will be able to get them in the dead of winter, for holiday feasting. But, because they are squirrels, and have teeny, tiny, little brains, they have NO IDEA where those tasty pecans are. So, when the springtime rains come, those pecans, which are, essentially pecan seeds, begin to sprout and grow. ALL. AROUND. THE. YARD. In flower beds. In potted plants. In the garden with all the thyme plants.

EV’RYWHERE!

And here you go–the beginnngs of several pecan trees, who will NOT live to see another day.

After the giant rainstorm in the early hours of Wednesday, and heavy and light rainfall all day, I was pretty sure that the ground was soggy. All Thursday morning, I checked to see if the rain had stopped. It was lighter, but still constant. Finally, mid-afternoon, no more rain. I put on my overalls, rushed out of the house, grabbed the Sharp-shooter shovel, and went to work. It was soooo easy. Quick work.

And, really, you can’t just clip those entrenched trees off at ground level. They are determined to LIVE! Those roots are pretty sturdy, and they’ll just keep on putting out leaves. You really have to dig them up. I did my best.

It’s an important matter from a foundation standpoint. Those little pecan saplings, if left to grow, will grow. If left unchecked, they’ll damage the foundation.

If only we could teach the squirrels to plant their pecans in appropriate places in the yard.

There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot …

Ecclesiastes 3:1,2 (Christian Standard Bible Translation)

If we lived in a cabin in a forest, then we could let lots of pecan trees grow. But we live in a house in a city, so we’re working to make good choices for our flora, without trying to make life harder for the furry fauna.

We’ve heard about distracted driving, that lack of concentration while driving a car when we should most certainly be paying attention to the car, the road, the signs and signals. Of course, on a long, cross-country trip, we might have a lesser level of concentration, and we should STOP IT!! We should STAY CONCENTRATING.

My problem is more of an “at home” problem. I sometimes, often, or maybe usually, get lost in thought. Not important thought. Just … thought.

Maybe … when I’m working in the yard. I start out pulling weeds from the front flower bed, for example. I might also be listening to an audio book. Then, at some point, I realize I’ve completely lost the thread of whatever plot points have been flowing into my ears in the last ten to fifteen minutes. And, when the story’s next sentence is: “Margaret came back into the room and said that dinner was ready,” I might think: “Margaret? Who’s Margaret? When did Margaret join the plot?”

And it’s not like pulling weeds is that distracting. I just end up thinking about how I need to call my sister. That sort of thing.

Sometimes, I make a nice list of what’s for dinner for the week. Sometimes, not. In that case, I look through the stuff in the freezer and think, “Tonight, this, and then tomorrow night, that.” In the meantime, I’ll have thought about a score or so of other things I need to do, and some of them get done, and some have to be shelved. And then, when tomorrow night comes, and I’ve thought about a dozen other important things, I think, “Dinner? What was the plan?” And I have to dig through stuff in the freezer all over again.

Peter was here for several days. Many of the things he’s accustomed to doing, especially on weekends, haven’t been available recently. We ran our errands, all masked up. We made cookies, he got to play with a kid next door, we watched some favorite videos, and he read whole lot. He and David went to a nearby park, early in the morning when it was cooler and only one other family was there. And, on Saturday afternoon, they were able to visit a local museum, which had been closed since March. Masks, limited people, and many favorite, hands-on type activities weren’t available, but, they got to go.

On Monday, we’d gone (all masked up) to Big Lots to purchase items for a Family Resource Pantry that our church helps stock. We had a list, we checked things off, and we also bought several other things that caught his fancy that he wanted, snacks for us, tea for his mom, and a small Transformer vehicle. After everything had been bagged up, we pushed the cart out to my car and put everything in the trunk. Where it stayed, because we take turns with other churches, and our week was the next week. This keeps the space in the church that distributes the items from getting too overwhelmed with stuff. But I wanted him to take part in the helping aspect of this ministry.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” I said. “Right before we leave Waco next Monday, we’ll go by the place where all these things get dropped off. Then, we leave town and go to Fort Worth. That’s the plan.”

All the rest of the week, we hauled all the cereal boxes, bags of rice, bags of beans, cans of vegetables, soup, meats, bottles of shampoo, detergent, dish washing liquid, sticks of deodorant, etc, in my trunk, as we went around town.

Last Monday, I washed and dried all his clothes. We packed up all his stuff, and put the bags in the back seat, next to his booster seat (as the trunk was full of that Family Pantry stuff). We had to drive by the book drop at the library, and he returned the videos and books he gotten. Then, we went to the post office to mail a package.

“Now,” I said. “Here we go!” I drove off to get to the Interstate, and it wasn’t until we were just ready to get on I-35 that I said: “Oh, No!”

“What?” Peter said.

“The Family Pantry!” I wailed. “I completely forgot about the Family Pantry stuff.”

And, because of the epic highway construction that’s happening just a ways back towards town, it would have taken at least 20 minutes each way to get to that church and back to where we were.

So we went on to Fort Worth. I dropped Peter off at his house and visited for a short while, then got back on the road, and drove all that stuff back to Waco. Wednesday, I dropped it off at that church, where it will all get sorted and boxed up and delivered to families.

As we were checking out at Big Lots, another employee came over to help bag up our stuff. Just as the checker was almost done, I pulled out my wallet and retrieved a coupon I’d gotten online. “Oh!” she said. And the other guy looked a little startled, too. “I got it online,” I said, wondering if I’d not paid attention to a date or something. But, it seems that I should have presented the coupon at the beginning of the checkout process.

“We’ll just take everything out of the bags and rescan them,” they said.

“Oh, no,” I said. “We’re not going to do that. That’s ‘way too much trouble.” But they insisted. And I insisted. And I checked the expiration date on the coupon.

“This is good for a couple of weeks, still,” I said. And I explained that I would be back in a couple of weeks to purchase these same things, again.

“This is for a Family Resource Pantry that my church participates in. When I come back, this coupon won’t have expired. I’ll use it, then.”

And they agreed. And I’m sure they were really relieved, to not have to re-scan ALL THOSE CANS! ALL THOSE BAGS! ALL THOSE BOXES!