Always Something....

The car was all packed, the dogs seatbelted in place for their ride to their Doggy Vacation Isle, all my forms for the big Double Header this coming week (Matt's graduation and DI Globals) neatly collated and stacked and carefully placed in chronological order in my zip case, when the first of the inevitable "always something" happened.

"The snake doesn't work," said Asherel, reading a last email before we shot out the door.
My bones turned to slime and I oozed to the floor.
The snake is a pivotal character in our DI Skit and I don't want to spoil any secrets right before Globals, but he does some amazing things when he works. Which now, he doesn't. We had sent the giant snake off to another team member's house for safekeeping and transport to Globals since my van is full and also waylaid first at a UVa graduation. Giant snakes are not invited. It didn't matter that our day was chock full.... we had to fix the snake. We made some hurried arrangements with the family to return with duct tape and ingenuity after dropping the dogs.

When we saw our beloved dog guru, I asked how she was was and she was not fine. Dogs were everywhere and one had apparently spent much of the day peeing on her floor. The house smelled and looked great to me, but as you may have surmised from past posts, my standards leave much to be desired.
"I don't get paid," she said, and added something along the lines of there was always something horrible happening.
I handed her my check,"Yes you do!"
"No, I don't , this goes right to the vet."

We hurried home after our dogs were escorted to their rooms and served champagne and sirloin bones, to the giant malfunctioning snake. None of the things that were supposed to work on the snake were working. And this was just after being transported a half mile. What would happen over the 4 hour drive to Knoxville? He might be a giant wombat by the time he arrived!

But Asherel and team went to work and 2 hours later, the snake worked.... sort of. They hope with more duct tape and repairs and fairy dust in Knoxville, they will get him up to full working order. We wrapped him in a giant sleeping bag so that only his fangs showed, and that we tied closed. He looked like Little Red Riding Python.

So, relieved that dogs were settled, snake was working, and I was almost all packed and ready, we sighed a huge sigh and walked into the barkless house. All was still and quiet. If I squinted, it looked clean.....except.... what was that on the floor?

I know you all are thinking that God in His infinite wisdom and desire to shower me with blessing left me the other diamond earring, the pair to the mysterious one I found a couple of days ago. If I were God, that would be the happy ending of this story. But, it may surprise you to learn, I am not God, and that was not to be the happy ending of this story. On the floor was a tooth. A large molar. That is really bad enough, but it was not a whole tooth. It was half a tooth. That means half a tooth remained dangling, likely throbbing, perhaps infecting in someone's mouth. I ran my tongue over my molars.

"Asherel, do you have all your teeth?"
"Last I checked."
"Check again."

I emailed our doggy concierge. It is highly likely that one of our dogs has half a tooth. If your vet feels he needs to have it pulled, let us know.

And I remembered her prophetic statement, "It all goes to the vet."
We don't operate a dog rescue so our pay doesn't all go to the vet...though more than I would like does indeed go that route. But it goes to doctors, and dentists, and roofers, and repairmen, and curriculum developers, and Lowes Depot for giant snake construction..... All money is used for is redistribution. None of us are really "paid".... we are all just momentary holding pens, some more momentary than others. And there is always something to be upset about.... always.

I begin to see more and more why James in the Bible admonishes us to "count it all joy when we encounter trials...."
I think there are many reasons for this, but not the least of it is that much of life is trial... and if you don't count it joy, joy might be hard to find. In the final accounting, the joyful life is probably not the one who only found diamonds, but the one who found broken teeth and still smiled.

James 1:2-3
²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

PS- blogs may be few or even absent over the next many days while we attend graduation and DI globals.