So this past weekend we made a quick 4 day trip up to Northwest Pennsylvania to spend some time with the in-laws. It was a good trip, full of plenty of time to relax, unwind, and give thanks. It wasn’t until I got home, though, that the depth of all I have to be thankful for kicked in.

We came home to a mess. A crappy mess. As in a backed up main sewer line so no one could shower mess. And did I mention a toilet had backed up while we were gone? Yeah. A mess. One doesn’t start shouting “Oh thank God we’re home” in such a situation. I didn’t, either. I think I was actually a little bossy and stressed towards my wife. In the end, though, we got things cleaned out of the bathroom and closet and piled out on the deck. I’ll probably need to replace some flooring, but that’s all doable. So I ventured out with my little snake to see if I could clear the clog, and couldn’t. I got some bloody, dirty knuckes, but no draining sewage.

Put a call into a plumbing company – they might be able to come the next afternoon. Tried another company, and lo and behold, they can be there in 90 minutes and it will only cost an extra $70. That’s money well spent in this house on this particular day. Sunday. Post 4-day weekend. School the next day. Hands covered in you-know-what. So at 10PM, the tech shows up, and the drain is cleared in 15 minutes, and should stay that way for a long time.

Monday was a busy day at the office, and Tuesday was just as crazy planned. The end of the month is looking good, which is never something I take for granted. At lunchtime, I decided to go out for a walk. I haven’t told many people, but my knee has been really messed up lately. Limping one day, no weight for an hour after that, and OK the day after that. Very strange. Made me a bit nervous. Called the doc and scheduled and appointment for a few weeks out. The thing was, I didn’t have much pain while we were up in PA. In fact, I wound up being Mr. Jungle Gym for my kids so many times I thought it would be quite sore, but it wasn’t. So I went for a walk today, which turned into a decision to see if I could jog, which I haven’t done in a month. That turned into “wow – no pain!” and I wound up running 3 miles without stopping, at just about my normal speed.

Upon getting home, I was able to spend most of the afternoon prepping some servers for the new year. I’ve written another post today about all this ministry means to me, so I won’t cover that here. Needless to say, it’s extremely rewarding work for me.

So yeah, all these sweet things after the not-so-great welcome home have given me another new perspective. So it cost me a couple hundred bucks. Stressed our relationship. Might lead to cutting out some subfloor and work I don’t “have time” for. But you know, that’s OK. Because there is all sorts of oter things that show up when you put what’s really not that bad in perspective.