Winter has arrived

This is the County Courthouse of Greene County in Xenia, OH.

My very good friend, Barbara, sporting her face mask that I sent to her.

Bill and I got into the cold weather.  The temps began to drop rapidly. We had looked ahead and tried to stay in the warmer temps until the last minute. We put fuel conditioner into our tanks to keep our fuel from gelling. We ran our bunk heater and opened the cabinet door where our water tank is to allow heat inside. We made sure our winter parkas, hats, gloves and warm shoes were handy. 

We live where you learn to be prepared for anything in the winter so we know. 

I am so glad that we planned ahead. The temps got down to -29 degrees, and for most of the day the average was -11. We never saw the temps rise above 0 degrees until near sunset, then they fell again.

We saw many many trucks sitting along the highways with their hoods up. I'm guessing they had frozen fuel. Oh, what a horrible situation in which to find yourself. Frozen fuel means that you can't move your truck and you have no heat. Diesel fuel will gel easily in cold weather.

We survived well. We were warm, as long as we stayed inside. Our water did not freeze. We had a nice warm meal cooked in the crockpot. 

We made our delivery, another pickup and we are now heading to somewhat warmer temperatures.

I did feel really bad for all those truck drivers that were stranded in the cold. I wonder why they did not think to prepare for the cold. Maybe they didn't look at the weather forecast. Or maybe they just didn't think it would happen to them. I don't know.

But all of that reminded me of the Bible parable of the 10 virgins.

"Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him. ' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the prudent answered, 'No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, lord, open up for us.' But he answered, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.' Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour. (Matthew 25:1-13 NASB)

Being ready and prepared is the key. Would you want to be found unprepared?

This is one of our "loads." Lol

A little less than 200 miles to get to our destination and we have a flat tire, on the front. So we aren't going anywhere for a little while. 

We make some calls and someone tells us that they will come right away. 

We have 6 1/2 hours to make our delivery today, otherwise it will hold over until tomorrow. 

So, let's think this out... The service tech will locate a tire of the right size and load it onto his truck. Then he will gather any tools he might need. Maybe he better go to the bathroom before leaving the garage. And oh yeah, better grab a cup of coffee to keep warm. It is only 7 degrees. Maybe he better run back in and grab his other gloves and another jacket, only he doesn't run. He walks, slowly, after all he's not really awake yet at 7:55 am.

Now he has to drive to the place on the turnpike where we are. 

Our truck must be jacked up, the old, very frozen, blown out tire must come off. He gets out all his tools, he gets out a piece of cardboard to kneel on. He decides to put on the second coat. He climbs up on the back of his truck to get our new, very heavy tire down and closer to our truck.

He must have said his prayers and be living right because everything went smoothly (how often does that happen?)

Our tire is off, now he removes the bad tire from the rim. It takes a sledge hammer. Can you imagine the shock of each hit on your cold arms and shoulders? The tire is off the rim. He rolls it to his truck, picks it up and tosses it onto his truck. 

The new tire is on the rim and he airs it up.

It is going onto our truck. 

I feel the jack lower us.

Now he begins to gather his tools and put them back into his truck.

Then he comes to us for payment. We give him our credit card and he has to go do our paperwork and run the credit card. 

After a while he returns for us to sign the receipt. 

We talk a moment but I see icicles in his mustache. He returns to his truck and drives away. 

We now have 4 1/2 hours to drive 200 miles and make our delivery in downtown DC, just 2 blocks from the Capitol Building. 

Ugh! We would be cutting it close. 

You see, as most of you know, my husband and I are truck drivers. We drive for FedEx but more specifically, Custom Critical. Our freight is always something very important that has a very critical time frame for delivery, think: donated organs, very needed medications, we even delivered a machine that keeps a heart alive outside a body during surgery just minutes before the scheduled surgery. The surgeon was waiting on the docks as we backed in. 

Anyway, we are always in a hurry. A big hurry! So we were chomping at the bit, so to speak.

The tire man was faster than what we thought he would be but his timing was different than ours. We were just customer #1 of his long, cold day. 

Do you understand what I'm getting at? 

All of this reminds me of 2 Peter 3:8-9. God's timing is different than ours. Sometimes we get so anticipatory that we want Him to come for us right now. We long to go home. 

But we are child # ??? In God's eyes. He wants all to long to go home with Him. So he is patient. He waits. He's not in a hurry.

But one day, that day will come. It will. 

I can hardly wait.

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

2 Peter 3:8-9 ESV

This is a sonogram picture of our grandson, Mason's foot. He is grasping his big toe. 

Bill and I had 3 loads this week which is one more than the past two weeks. Our last load now leaves us sitting near Atlanta, GA. 

It has been pouring down rain here and the temps are in the 40s. Most of the eastern half of the United States is bracing for a massive winter storm. 

I am watching the posts on Facebook as schools are getting out early, it is snowing a little already here and ice has begun there, stores are selling out of bread, milk, eggs and water. 

Forecasters are predicting 1 inch to 3 feet depending on where you live. This storm is dominating everyone's minds. 

Why?

Well, it interferes with our plans. It changes our routines. We may have to alter how we do things.

Bill and I are no different. We have scanned the nations weather. We have to know where or where not to go when accepting a load. 

We already went to the grocery store instead of waiting until Sunday as usual. 

We have a church already picked out in case we are still here and have already contacted them and heard back.

We have several unwatched movies waiting to be viewed.

Our tv reception has been tested and we are set for watching football. 

We are hunkered down. It is supposed to snow 1-3 inches here during the night. It will probably be gone by the time we wake up. 

It is a little amusing seeing what people do to prepare for the storm, a storm that will come and be gone in just a few days.

Jesus is coming! 

What are you doing to prepare for that? When He comes it will change everything for ever. When He appears in the sky, eternity begins. There will be no more preparation, no more planning, no more getting ready, and no hunkering down. 

"Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel." (Amos 4:12 NASB)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NASB)

Lord, help me to always be watching and waiting for You to return. I pray that you send those to me that will encourage me to remain fixed in You. I thank you for Your word which is my forecast and helps me to know to stay alert and ready. Lord, I long for the day when You come and we go home with You. 

In the meantime, use me as your instrument to help others to be ready and watching. 

So the Blizzard known as Jonas has hit 1 out of every 4 citizens of the United States. The eastern half of the nation was crippled by snow, winds and flooding. 

Pops and I are in Atlanta, GA. We did see a little snow, but a lot of rain. 

Here are some shots of my family.

This is our son Tom, playing after the shoveling was finished.

Tom and Sophia

This is Bill P. Shoveling his grandma's walk.

This is my sister's car.

There hasn't been much more to talk about other than the storm. Bill and I watched a live stream service this morning. We have been not being able to find or get to churches lately so we have been following Crossroads Christian Church's series: What If? Today was titled, No ifs, ands, or buts. It was from Romans 8:35-39

We have been blessed by this series. But we are really missing the interactions with other believers. I sure hope that it soon works out that way for us. But we are very thankful for the technology that allows us to be fed even when we can't literally be there.