The day started with my three year old throwing up all over her shoes. Which was better than my shoes, but still it caused me to run a little late this morning.
My dad and I (mostly my dad) successfully hitched our borrowed trailer and loaded it down with books, and we were off to our first stop.
Johnny Williams caught up with us along the way. Johnny works nights, so when he comes to book bus he's giving up a few hours sleep. We were a three man team (Teri had other commitments); one down from our preferred number for a team.
At our first stop, I saw someone I knew as a kid. I didn't recognize him at first, but as we talked I felt both joy and sadness. Joy because he is still the funny, smart guy I remember; but sadness because that smart, funny guy doesn't seem to be living his dream. Sadness because I dream about making connections that matter in an eternal way, but this meeting had been nothing more than a little superficial. I'm not sure how it could have been any different, and I'd like to think that what seems superficial to me is sometimes more; but still I walked away kinda sad.
And, that was the beginning of what could have been the end of the day. We took a back road from Melrose back to High Ridge, and Johnny Williams was driving the truck at that point. All of a sudden I realized the truck was slowing down, and he said, "Any chance we could be out of gas?" And next thing we knew, the fumes were gone and we were on the side of the road. Johnny called his dad who brought us some gas, and then we cranked the truck, and cranked the truck, and cranked the truck...but the truck didn't crank.
So, there we sat, on a back road with a borrowed trailer full of books loaded on a truck that wouldn't crank, and we were supposed to be at our first High Ridge stop right then. We quickly assessed the situation and decided the best plan was for Johnny to ride home with his dad, pick up another truck, and come back so we could load the trailer onto that truck.
Johnny got back to me and the trailer of books about the time we were supposed to be at the second stop, so we quickly loaded up. I moved our cups and stuff to his truck, while he and his dad managed the not so easy job of connecting his truck to the trailer on a pretty good incline.
Johnny and I laughed a lot about the whole thing, but it was more than a little frustrating. We were supposed to be one place, but there was absolutely nothing we could do to get there any faster. It was just one of those days when you wonder, "Is it really worth this? Maybe we should just go back home."
But, when we did finally make it to our first (which should have been our third) stop, this is what was there....
and it WAS WORTH IT! We had people waiting on us at every stop today! And the truth is, I didn't really talk to any of them about anything that wasn't superficial, but something told me maybe it still mattered.
