Story Time Christmas Edition

 I got invited to a candle light service today.  I went and it was a very nice time.  Got to eat at someone else's house, too.  Great conversation and fellowship.  I just about got hypoxic.  There is a definite limit to how much I can talk and laugh now.  I almost turned into a pict.

But the candle lighting reminded me of a great Christmas story from my youth....

I met this cat name Deberry in eighth grade.  He wasn't a very big guy, but his wit was huge.  He was the type that funny stuff just swirled around him like millers around a porch light.  Think mid 1970's.

 

He was talking about a candle light service at the First Baptist Church a year or two before.  Almost every Southern Baptist Church had the same general layout.  Like the soviet gulags, the floor plans were in a big book of standard facilities for different size populations.  This "youth room" had the accordion room divider and the gray tiles on the floor.  Gobs of those gray metal folding chairs in rows, too.  

Seems this big kid was bugging him.  Manhandling him, pushing him, hitting him and generally being a jerk.  So the youth director settles everyone down and hands out the unlit candles. 

They sang Christmas carols and had Bible passage readings.  The lights were lowered and each kid would light their candle from the kid next to them, and say a prayer (free style praying, no rote memory in the SBC).  The next kid would light his candle, and it went across the front row and then looped around to the back row.  As the candle lighting got close to Deberry, he closed his eyes.  *BANG*, the jerk in the front row slapped him upside the head.  It was dark, everyone heard it but no one saw it.  So, they just carried on.  When Deberry lit his candle he had this thought wash over him.  He extended his arm and put the candle just under the hair of the jerk.

There was a flash of light in the darkness, then FOOM! WHOOOSH! the fire ran up his head fast as lightning!  Deberry reacted like we all would, he unloaded a slap and hit the jerk right above the ear, trying to put out the fire.  The jerk sprawls out and hits those metal chairs.  The noise is unmistakable as they skid all over the floor.  Then the thud as he falls over and the "UHHHhhh" as the wind is knocked out of him.  He is sitting there, spradle legged, with his hair smoldering...

Without missing a beat, Deberry says "AMEN", then turns to light the other kids candle. 

 I thought about that right in the middle of the candle light service.  It was all I could do not to laugh out loud.  I haven't thought about that story for forty years or more.  What the heck!

Chuck 

Got the chuck rubbed down some.  Lathe chuck jaws needed to be reversed first to hold the smaller chuck body, then, used a bit of sandpaper on a stick to rub the spigot down so the scroll fits semi-perfectly.

 Handling 20 degree metal sure pulls a lot of heat out of you.  My hands took several minutes to warm back up.  Dang.

75 degrees and humid next week, so everything metal will sweat like a glass of iced tea.  I gotta paint the tools up with some oil to be sure they don't start to rust.  Such is winter in south Texas.

Needs another bath now

 

The heaters are running, got some quiet Christmas music playing in the background.  Dog is curled up on the carpet, and I'm close to calling it a night.  It's cold and clear outside, just like a Christmas eve should be.  I'm wore out and ready for a nap.

Happy Christmas to you and I hope you get what you want, and not what you deserve.  Unless you still burn coal, then a whole truckload would be great.