Monday is here, and what a beautiful one it is. The middle of Winter and the sun seems to have shone more often than not. The cold snaps have been quite intense but never very long.
Today I had my 3rd training ride. I skipped Saturday owing to it being the Sabbath and needing to get myself , wife and kids sorted out for church and collecting Auntie Helen on time too, I hate being late, but I find being too early is also no good.
I went to Plumstead church first and then on the the Grassy Park SDA congregation to witness for our DVD Ministry. I think that ministry is going rather well.
Sunday was my youngest son Brynn's birthday party out at the Chrysalis Academy in Tokai forest. We had a Bootcamp party for him and it was fabulous, sunny but not too warm with fantastic staff running the event.
There is one particular obstacle which is my oldest son's nemesis, he did not conquer it last time, nor this time. But, being a galant dad, I was eager to show him that big people can do it. Basically you have to hang from a thick rope and cross a water pit that is more akin to a bog with tyres in it.
I am still not sure of my motive, whether really to encourage Marlo or if it was pride, however, partway across something dropped from one of my pockets into the murky depths of the water pit that one has to cross. Someone said, "what fell from your pocket? It was green". I could remember nothing green in my pocket, besides, I had already given Marlo my cell phone and camera to hold while I showed him how it was done. A little moment later something else fell out of a pocket, but hey, I was almost there. Standing on the edge eventually, another bystander said that something had fallen from my pocket and enquired if I had everything important, I recounted that my son had it in his hands.
Well, then this same person said "what about your car key?"...............! OH, NO WAY ! My car key had been in my pocket and was now ensconced in the murky grave of the tyre and water pit. Some moments later I found myself resolutely stripping off my warm clothes in the cold shade of the edge of the forest, knowing that I had a huge task ahead of me. I climbed in......Yaahhh!, the water was freezing. (Praise God that our Baptismal Font is warmer than that, we may otherwise have to treat the pastors for hypothermia afterwards.) I started removing tyres, there were lots of them, check inside each one and then shuffle on to the next one all the while systematically probing the sludge at the bottom with my toes hoping that I find the keys quickly.
My beloved brother , Kyle jumped in too, thank the Lord for that. We removed all the tyres and pine cones and bricks and concrete blocks and branches and his feet found the errant key first, then we searched for another person's cell phone that had been dropped in about a month ago. Turns out that it is a waterproof Samsung that they were playing with to show that it is waterproof and then some unlucky soul dropped it in the drink. When Kyle found that, it too looked in good nick and as a bonus the electronics on my car key remote still worked too.
There were 81 tyres in that pit.....
I had been humbled....profoundly. There are maybe not many things in this world for a proud father more humbling than traipsing around at your own child's birthday party in nothing but your long johns and then having to clean up a bog. Man, that's one for the books!
Oh yes, my training ride this morning was awesome. I feel like going a different route but know that I should stick to this one for a week, then make an adjustment. Turns out that I need a new rear tyre too, pity.
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