Mr. Safety

Merry Advent Four. Walking out on to the upstairs screen porch I meet a beautiful day, perfect Florida predawn -- warm, humid, 76F and the wind blowing in across the Bay from the Gulf. Four o’clock and still dark as pitch. Lights of the upstairs Christmas tree are glowing, making it light enough to sit out here on the porch to think and write; however, it is windy, so back inside where the air conditioning is on to calm the humidity. But the blinds in the door are open so I can watch for the day.

Yesterday while we were at St. Thomas by the Sea for a funeral, Joe arrived. I love for him to bring me things from his company store, sometimes a shirt. This time he brought me a travel mug with his company’s name on it, which I filled with coffee when I went downstairs for the MacBook a couple hours ago to rewrite my pulpit nonsense. Now enjoying a second coffee made in the upstairs Keurig, typing while sipping from the travel mug, and trying to be quiet because Linda is still asleep in the far corner of the house in what she calls her snore room. 

There’s the a/c kicking in, doesn’t seem right for a couple days before Christmas, does it.

Joe drove down from NC in his new Volvo S-60, which has the highest safety ratings for any sedan. It’s about the same size as our Buick Regal and has the same profile such that from the side they could be twins. 

IIHS, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave the S-60 top ratings for their new small overlap crash test, which has not been awarded to many cars. When car shopping my top consideration is safety and I always rely on ratings by the IIHS at http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ratings at http://www.safercar.gov/. Sadly, I have noticed that when a local high school student has been killed in a car crash, the car almost inevitably was not one with a top safety rating. It’s the best investment and the cheapest insurance a parent can buy to protect a beloved son or daughter. 

Today: my sermon which is neither a sermon nor a homily but a chat. Well, a chat can be a sermon, but it can’t be a homily which is about Scripture that was just read aloud. But I won’t dignify it with “sermon,” it's a chat. And something colorful for the children to munch. Adult Sunday school? Come enjoy.

TW+