COLLEGE MEAL PLAN: Chick fil-a

When a friend asked me last week about how we dealt

with Sam’s meal plan at college, I had to explain that it

involved sleeping bags, lawn chairs,

a soccer ball and, if the weather is really bad, a tent.

Camping out at the Mechanicsville, VA Chick-fil-a
Oh, and did I mention that he has to leave about 24 hours early

in order to be one of the first 100 in line. Because that is how

popular these Chick-fil-a grand openings have become.

So far Sam is 2 for 4. Two of the openings he was on his way to

attend, were “filled” before he got there.

Those lucky first 100 each receive 52 meal coupons….

enough to eat once a week for a year.

The more grand openings one attends--

the more times a week one can eat chicken sandwiches,

waffle fries & sodas.

Hmmm…sounds like a plan to me. A meal plan.

A long wait...a day and a night but there are things

to do meals, dancing, pick up soccer

www.chick-fil-a.com/#insidersfirst100

Of course, there really isn’t such a thing as a “Free lunch.”

In March, he and his friends endured nearly 24 hours of

nasty weather. There was lightening and rain in the tent,

which meant sitting up all night in a lawn chair until 6 a.m.

when the Chick-fil-a opened the door, fed those hardy souls breakfast

and gave them their precious little box of coupons.

Last week, the weather was summer pleasant in

Mechanicsville, VA (near Richmond)

and the boys slept out under the stars---

on the asphalt parking lot.

Interesting note. At the March event Sam noticed an older man

who spent that stormy night without a tent, covered with

plastic garbage bags and sitting up in his lawn chair.

Last week, there he was again.

Eighty-five years old, a WWII veteran (Normandy),

this was his 10th grand opening. That calculates out to

more than one combo a day....Now that is a meal plan!!

Today my son offered to treat me to lunch at the mall? Guess where??
Surprise!! Guess who we run into??
A few other coupon-carrying Chick-fil-a believers.

One Hundred Years Ago

My grandmother died last year, just 17 months short of a century. Her birth was the same year that Robert Perry became the first man to reach the North Pole and Henry Ford introduced the Model T, the car that “put America on wheels.” And in a small town on the Colorado plains along the Arkansas River, my grandmother was born. The citizens of Swink, Colorado were still on horseback when Edna May Ridgway was born June 11, 1908. Few of them had completed eighth grade, which to many was considered a “higher education.” Most homes in this little town still had dirt floors.

Oh, what changes Grandma saw in her 98 years.

A Rosie the Riveter during WWII, who later took classes to get her nursing license. She taught Sunday School and was active in youth activities with my mother. But her family was her greatest joy.
She & Granddad used to harmonize on car trips. Their favorite song:
"It Is No Secret What God Can Do"

She was always there for my big events.

(Whose expression is most winsome?)

When my baby was flown 400 miles away for heart surgery,

she came to be with me.

Grandma, you're a doll!!

About ten years before her death, Grandma took a pen and a thin school notebook and wrote as much of her own personal history as she could recall or had the energy to put down at the time. Eighteen pages of neat and crisp manuscript, not cursive. It is like sitting across the table and conversing with her. She wrote with the same manner of speech we came to know well. Grammar was not her forte, nor was spelling. Yet, there was a highly intelligent, albeit not highly educated woman reaching out from that notebook and inviting me into a past I had only heard bits and pieces of over the years. There was much more to tell. Not included were stories she had shared with me as we drove to garage sales or reupholstered furniture or sat together in one of our homes.
Today she would have celebrated a century of life. Instead, she left us 17 months before that milestone. When I last saw her, I spoke about the party we would have for her 100th. She said, without self-pity or sentiment, that she hoped she would be going home to be with the Lord before that time. And, indeed, she did.
Shortly before she passed away, I sat next to her in the nursing home parlor, my laptop propped up so she could see photos I’d taken of my sister’s wedding the day before. Suddenly my cell phone rang and she held it to her ear to visit with her granddaughter calling from a distant airport awaiting a flight to Mexico. That nursing home was approximately 30 miles from Swink, but she had come a farther distance in many ways.

How grateful we are for the 98 years we had her. How joyful I am to know that we will meet again. It is no secret what God can do!!! Happy 100th, Grandma!! We miss you.

TORNADOES and TOTO

DANGEROUS TORNADO REPORTED IN COLORADO!!

Two weeks ago, I’d just logged onto the internet. And there it was.

A tornado in my home state. I clicked on the site.

Wow…modern tech & meteorology.

Here I was 2000 miles away watching a tornado

tracking across northern Fort Collins,

right where my sister lives. Would she be home

at 12:30 in the afternoon?

I grabbed my cell phone…and was surprised to

get a signal in my classroom.

Like, how often does it happen??

“Where are you?” I asked as she answered her cell phone.

She was at home.
“What’s the weather like, there?”

She described it as rather strange.
“You’re having a tornado.

Grab Toto and get into the basement,” I warned.

She has a little purse dog, Penny, and

medium sized back up dog named Kita.

Her husband was also home and she relayed my message.

As we conversed, he ran outside to see what was going on.

Within minutes he came back in their home,

“Let’s get to the basement.”

Thankfully, their home was spared.

But only 10 miles away in Windsor, many homes were not.

One friend of hers lost trucks and equipment

from his landscaping business.

However, none of his employees were lost.

Thankfully, 2 had tried to drive away from the storm in their pickup

when the windows blew out. They stopped,

took cover in the ditch & were very lucky,

as their pickup took a tornado trip.

Glad they missed that flight.

Semis overturned on the interstate in northern Colorado

************************************************************

THE MID-ATLANTIC AREA NOT TO BE OUTDONE---
Recorded tornadoes 1950 to February 2008
COLORADO = 1674
OKLAHOMA = 3488

(Oklahoma City has the most twisters of any US city)
MARYLAND = 271 tornadoes….7 deaths.

I am not sure what the sum will be by the end of this month,

but we are having a record number of violent storms here

by the Chesapeake Bay this year. This week was wild.

On Wednesday we had our first ever Tornado Lock down at school.
Congregating away from windows, our biggest excitement was the
4th grader who was on the elevator by himself & the power went out.
Thanks to quick & compassionate facilities’ guys, he was rescued
through the shaft. Giving us all something to talk about.
Later at home we spent 15 hours without electricity

These two last pictures are of clouds not far from our house.

We lost power in the middle of the night.

Overcast skies meant no moonlight.

The darkness was dense as I felt my way

downstairs for the flashlights.

Later as I pondered my desperation to find light when I couldn’t see,
I couldn’t help but think of God’s word being light---
even in our whirlwind. But especially in our “darkness”.

When your dread comes like a storm & your calamity comes like a whirlwind…Pr 1:27
(His) word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Ps. 119:105

Okay, so I may have pieced some verses together.
Nevertheless, He is the light & I seldom seek Him as desperately
as I need to. Or as I do a flashlight in sudden darkness.