A Body in the Trunk or Oh Lucy VI

Every year my husband and I went deer hunting on a family farm about 4 hours from home.  One year he got a doe on Sunday afternoon.  The processor near the farm was not open on Sunday so we had to bring the deer home on the roof of our Suburban.  It was unseasonably warm that year so we covered it with a tarp packed with ice.  That night he hung it in the garage and we planned to transport it to our local processor when he got home from work the next day.

Monday afternoon he called and told me that he had to work late and since it was so hot we would probably end up paying for its disposal.  Our family loved venison and the meat would really help keep the grocery bills down for the winter so I decided I had to try and save it.

It was hanging right above our chest freezer in the garage so I put a tarp over the freezer and tried to release the pulley rope slowly to gently lay it down.  I should have stopped right after several hundred pounds of dead weight crashed down onto the freezer but I was determined.

 The next step was to back the car up and pull the tarp and deer into the trunk.  Unbelievably, it worked but suddenly I knew it had all been too easy.  The deer was lying in the trunk with its legs sticking straight up.  I grabbed a leg to fold it down but it was then I realized that rigor mortis applied to deer too.  I could not close the trunk and I wasn’t about to drive to the processor like that.  I literally had to climb in with the dead body and push with all my strength to wedge its legs beneath the back of the trunk.  The legs were so stiff that the deer was locked into position by the tension.

 Game usually appeared at the processors in the back of pick-up trucks so when I told them it was in the trunk they seemed amused, until it took 3 of them to get it out because it was wedged in so tightly.  The best part was trying to convince my husband that I had actually managed to get it there by myself.  I don’t think he believes it to this day.

It's Just a Game or What Do You Mean There Are No Directions?

Is a Comic Con a felon?

            Are two Wii a Wheeze?

Sorry, but the gaming world

            Is not my cup of tea

Don’t get me wrong I’ve played a few

            From Pong to Mario

But my gaming heart belongs

            To Scrabble and Uno

That doesn’t make me old you know

            Just a connoisseur

 I’ll stick to classics that I love

            They're cheaper that’s for sure

Room at the Table

Divorced was not something that I had ever imagined being and the aftermath not something I would ever have expected.  The pain of rejection, failure and guilt mixed with the feeling of somehow being out of place and time, took my breath away.

 I had a good friend that I could cry to but who never let me give up. She kept reminding me that God would always be there for me.  I knew it was true but it just didn’t seem as real as the pain.  One day I was suddenly overwhelmed by the smallest thing.  I wanted my children to come to dinner at my new apartment but I didn’t have enough plates.  It touched off a flood of emotions and I found myself at my friend’s kitchen table sobbing once again.  I couldn’t even explain why. 

 After I pulled myself together we took a walk and stopped at a garage sale.  I only had $2.00 in cash on me so I wasn’t really expecting to buy anything.  I noticed a cardboard box under a table that was marked “$1.50 for all”.  I pulled it out and opened it.  My friend thought there was a spider in it because I let out a little yelp.  It was a box of dishes but not just any dishes.  They were exactly like mine.  If I had won the lottery that day it would not have meant as much to me as that box of dishes.  The pain wasn’t about needing the dishes but about needing to know that I was loved and not alone and someone understood my deepest fears and emotions.  He really was and would always be there for me.

 Whenever I use those dishes I think about the comforting words of the 23^rd Psalm and the verses that say that “He prepares a table before me…..  He is a loving God that longs to comfort and provide for us in the midst of our deepest sorrows.  We have a standing invitation and there’s always room at the table.