In Which I Am Both Blessed And Freaked Out All In One Night

Remember the Neverending Cough? It is but a fading scar of things past. It's over. Done. Kaput.

And I couldn't be more blessed.

That is, until tonight.

Tonight was the first band rehearsal I've been to since January. I haven't been on the schedule regularly for SIX MONTHS due to the stupid (and now non-existent) cough. I can't tell you how much I've missed singing, and how very blessed I feel to be able to do it again.

So much so that I cried after we did the first worship song.

And as if that wasn't enough, right after rehearsal I got to visit the Treasure Sale my church is having this weekend. It officially starts tomorrow, but there was a "sneak preview" tonight. It could conceivably be called THE WORLD'S LARGEST RUMMAGE SALE, because folks? The bargains were piled to the rafters in that building, and the building is BIG.

I came away with a booster chair for the grandkids to sit in when they eat here, a fax machine for my part-time job, and a movie I hadn't seen yet. All for the bargain price of $14.

All of the proceeds go to support ministries, so it was for a good cause. And yes, I did try to bargain even though it was for a good cause and even though it wasn't even the first day of the sale. I can't help it. It's in my blood.

I'm so ashamed.

Thankfully, they turned me down flat.

In other news, I stopped to get gasoline for the vehicle tonight on the way home and found it at the "bargain" price of $3.39 a gallon. That's down from the $3.42 a gallon I paid the last time I bought gas. I no longer try to fill up the tank. I buy $20 worth at a time and hope for the best.

WHEN WILL THE CRAZINESS STOP?????

And as I was putting petrol in the tank, the sirens went off.

Most of you don't know that several years ago my area of the country had a devastating tornado. We got to the basement only minutes before it hit, and we suffered quite a bit of damage. The house next door had the second floor bedroom blown out of it, and some houses behind us just went away and never came back. Other homes were lifted up and set back down on the foundations, while still others looked as though they'd been pushed over. Amazingly, some were untouched. We ended up with damage to the siding and roof, our heat pump was demolished, the woodpile scattered over the neighborhood, and we lost several trees. Two different branches that were 8" in diameter buried themselves over six feet deep in our backyard. We had to take jacks to get them out of the ground. The cleanup took two weeks, during which time Hubster's back went out and I almost keeled over from heat exhaustion. We were without power for over a week.

Suffice it to say it wasn't fun.

So when the sirens went off tonight as I was at the pump, I got a little freaked out. Thankfully, the tornados were to the north and south of us this time. I've had my fill for a lifetime, thank you.

And so here I sit. Blessed beyond measure, and a completely different person from who I was a mere two months ago.

God is good.