Wasps 1 / Paul 1

Today was a day of partial successes. We had a beautiful cool fall day. I decided to once again try to mow the lawn and clear the way to put up the nativity figures on the front lawn. I cranked and cranked the mower to no avail. Yes it is getting gas. Yes it is getting spark. It just won’t catch. I got fresh gas and that didn’t work either. The next step is to get a new spark plug. If that doesn’t work I may have to open the thing up and look inside.

Lacking a freshly mown lawn to place the Nativity on I decided to string lights around the windows and garage doors as I do every year. As I was stringing them over the front door – I saw it! Another wasps nest! This one was small and it only had one wasp on it. I’m glad I saw it before I startled him. I was standing on a ladder. My last encounter with wasps 2 months ago did not turn out good. I’ve still got sore spots on my cheek, my mouth and my hands. As I stood there looking at that wasp I knew he had to go. I couldn’t get the lights up with him there. I got the wasp spray, tested it and walked over to the little nest. This time I gave the process some thought before squirting. I had on good shoes, I had a clear escape route and I knew that getting stung was not as bad as a trip to the emergency room. One squirt and it was curtains for Mr. Wasp.

Now I’ve got lights on the roof and an angel too. They aren’t turned on yet because of gaps due to burned out bulbs. I need to spend some time replacing bulbs. The lights around the windows are up and lighted. The garage lights are up but not turned on.

Tomorrow may see a mowed lawn and a Nativity. Then again with this great weather we may want to run off and take pictures somewhere.

We did do one worthwhile thing today. We ordered a used laptop computer for my brother Lou to use for journaling on his travels around the country doing God’s work. We decided he would be this year’s angel tree. Penny did most of the legwork, finding what appears to be a perfect computer for his needs. Now that we’ve ordered it we both feel it was the right thing to do. I did a lot of hand wringing before deciding to go ahead with this but when I saw Penny get into her angel tree “zone” and locate exactly what we needed at a good price I knew this was what we should do.

My fear now is that the seller will come back and say they are out of stock or back ordered. I don’t think that will happen - usually when things line up this way they continue to go well, especially when brother Lou is involved. He seems to have someone watching him. When I called him and told him we ordered the laptop he got very emotional. He literally cried tears of joy. I actually could sense this weight coming off his shoulders. His journaling is important. It keeps him grounded. He is about to give up everything, go homeless intentionally and let God take care of him as he does volunteer work for the We Care ministries. We’re hoping the laptop will help him in his work.