Gas

You know the story in the bible of the ten virgins? How one group ran around with just enough oil in their lamps to get them through part of the night, and the smarter half brought extra, just in case? There are so many lessons to be learned in that story, and I found myself thinking about it recently. I feel like I might have some bumps in the road and some little trying times in my life, but I can honestly not remember the last time I told someone, "Today was a bad day, and I just want to go home." And it almost happened twice last week. One day involved like 20 little things that came right after another, but suffice it to say that what earned the "bad day" title involved the dog and some poop, and it was really, really disgusting. I almost ran him over on purpose.

The second almost bad day was Saturday, and that's where I wanna talk about the ten virgins, the smarter one's being the one's who monitor their oil lamp levels.

So this last Saturday my Dad volunteered me to teach at the Webelo's One Outing, WOO for short, from 7am to set up til 12pm ending. There were about a hundred kids registered. I also was going running at 5am with Shelby and PG, Jeff had to work at 6am, and we only had his truck as my car was in the shop. Jeff decided that getting up at 5am was more than he could handle, so I drove the truck to go running. Of course, this meant I had stop halfway through the run and turn around so I could get back to the truck to get him to work. Not as fun as it sounds, and he was still a few minutes late. Then I ran home, showered, got the rest of my art stuff together and headed out to the activity, some fifteen miles away. That's when a scene from the night before flashed through my head. "Jeff, you're on empty, we need gas." So he stops and puts $6 dollars into a truck that gets 12 MPG. Of course, as I am walking out the door thinking of this, I can't find my ATM card anywhere. Gone. I had a sinking feeling. I knew where this was going... but needless to say if you're dumb you have to be tough, so I headed out the door... and promptly ran out of gas almost to the destination, on the uphill of an overpass. But somewhere, someone upstairs loves me because as the truck was having a seizure and decided to quit working, it rolled uphill... and then... ever... so ... so... slowly..... reached the top, and then ... barely rolled downhill, and coasted into a gas station. I was so relieved I cried. Then, realizing I still had no money, was half an hour late, decided not to stop crying. But somehow through the tears I said a quick prayer, and magically found my ATM card... and got gas. Then I had to teach ninety eight Webelo Scouts how to make a mobile out of pipe cleaners. Needless to say, I will never, ever have ninety eight children. Especially if they're boys.

... Then Chunky fell out of the truck. That's another story-he's totally OK but let's just say he won't be sticking his head that far out of the window again.

The rest of the day ended well, the weather was pretty, Chunky got meatloaf for lunch (I felt so bad, and he loves it), I hung out with some great friends and I got nine hours of sleep the next night.

The point is, all is well that ends well. And always, always keep your lamp full.