April 15, 2023 - Blessings

     Some days we’d just as soon forget.  I had a couple of those this week.  Some days we cherish for a while.  Yesterday was one of those.
     I’ve been trying to scratch some stuff off my “get it done just in case” list.  Some stuff around the house, work stuff, church stuff, etc.
     One thing on the list was to meet with a customer who is opening a new restaurant.  I had told him that I would meet him earlier in the week, but appointments coupled with regular stuff didn’t afford the opportunity.
     I hated to take a beautiful day and head to Dry Ridge but that's what I did.  My dad’s philosophy was TCB.  Take care of business.
     I am not sure if I have spent a better hour with a potential customer.  Sometimes you just click with another person.  After looking over his store and discussing products, we finally sat down at one of the tables outside and shared together.   What I was dreading turned into a blessing, even if he never buys a thing from us.
     A second thing on the get it done list was to take my trolling motor to the repair guy who has a shop in his basement.  When I was given the address, I remembered that I had taken one of dad’s motors to be repaired there 25 years ago.
     The man lives at the end of Jack’s Creek Pike.  Some folks in Lexington would never believe there are roads like it in Fayette County.  It’s a long seven miles.
     When I got to the house Dave comes out to meet me and takes the motor in hand.  He has a large bandage on the back of his neck from a “small” spot that was removed about lunchtime.  He said, “they are never small.”
     He looks over the motor and says that all the switches should be replaced.  He sits down on his work stool and commences to repair the motor while I was there.  His wife comes home.  Libby is a lovely person.
     Two days in a row someone has given me a gift.  I’m pretty sure that he did not feel like working and I know that he had no clue why I wanted to get the motor repaired before next week.  After about an hour he had it repaired.
     When he was finished I thanked him more than once and then I told him why it was so important to me that I wouldn’t have to make a second trip to pick it up.   The three of us shared for maybe 15 minutes.  They have considered moving to Beaver Lake.  I invited them to come to dinner sometime to see if maybe they’d like it.  The time with Dave and Libby was a second blessing.
     Getting home from the east side of Lexington to Lawrenceburg on a “Keeneland” Friday afternoon was what I expected.  When I finally got home I thought that maybe I ought to test that trolling motor.  It was about 7:00 when I finally got the boat in the water.  
     The clouds were dark and the wind was blowing as the front went through.  Sometimes the fish bite just before a front and often not after.
     For an hour it appeared that the fish at Beaver Lake were going to rack up a second victory.  At least the motor ran better than it ever had, so there was some solace.
     Teresa called at 8:06 to be sure that I was okay.  I was just about to take it to the house.
     I stopped at one more spot.  For the next 45 minutes the fish weren’t quite as smart as they had previously been.  These are the moments why I like living on the lake.
     Fishing is good for my soul.   Beyond those times of “having a little talk with Jesus,” fishing does for me what little else does.  When the fish are biting I don’t think of anything else but making the next cast.
     For 45 minutes I didn’t think of any of the things that have been pressing on me.  I didn’t think about cancer, I didn’t think about results of a biopsy, I didn’t think about how chemotherapy would affect me, and I didn’t think of a thing on the “gotta get it done list.”
     Three blessings in one day, none of which I expected nor deserved.  All days we should cherish, some though more than others.