A Word from God’s Waiting Room

Building 1 is one of three here at Parkside for Independent Living.   It is the one we live in.  Each building has a name as well as a number.  The name of our building is DEERFIELD.  I was under the impression that someone (probably Marketing personnel) thought it was a good idea for the buildings to have names: they were so they named–Deerfield, Oakview, Meadow Rose.  I really wonder about Oakview and Meadow Rose because residents in those buildings do not have views of oak trees or rose bushes.  That’s why I think Marketing Personnel did the naming.  They just think that way.  Deerfield is another matter.

This morning I exited our building to wait for a van ride to a barber shop.  To my amazement, a small fawn was resting beneath a tree in my full view.  Why do such photo ops occur when your camera is not available?  I thought about the camera capability of my cell phone so I tried it–to no avail.  The image on my phone was so blurry, I could not discern what the desired object was. That shouldn’t surprise me as I’ve never gotten a good pic on that thing.

Well, now I know something about the origin of the name of our building.  We can see deer on occasion.  But, you know, I don’t think this present marketing staff had a thing to do with its name.  The building preceeded them by several years and that’s a fact. 

From God’s Waiting Room, you only have to open your eyes to see all sorts of things–moving van, cars, people, and once in a while a deer, another of God’s creatures.  God is good, He is always good.  We, too are good.  Love you much.

As you think on the above title of this post, you might think some sinister person cut the power line, it was time for some quiet meditation or the old folks got tired of re-runs of re-runs and wanted some peace and quite while catching up on their reading or petting their cats.  But.

It was a stormy-weather day; sheets of rain streamed almost straight down, virtually hiding our view to the northwest.  (Our two windows open only to the northwest.)  The rain let up and it appeared the weather front had headed for St. Louis and the Cardinal Stadium.  Not quiet.  Darker clouds began to head our way; rumblings of thunder could be heard, then the skies began to light up with lightning spikes; the thunder became louder.  Another front was upon us.  Suddenly, a loud blast of thunder and a sharp and very bright bolt of lightning shook us out of our lazy chairs; probably lasting no more than 15 to 20 seconds, if that long.  The cats were restless.  Something was not quite right.  Had our beloved 32-inch, high deft set been destroyed? It was blank?  What should we  do?

As most people would do, Virginia pushed the Power-On button.  Pushed it again, then pushed several other buttons–sometimes two at a time.  Nothing.  Our sniffing did not detect melting electrical wires.  Then we heard our computer re-boot.  She pushed more buttons.  I tried the connected entertainment system, no problem; worked beautifully.  The smaller TV in our bedroom worked without difficulty.  We wondered, would we be forced to watch the news, Dr. Phil, Oprah, re-runs on our smaller TV set in the bedroom?

At this point, it seemed logical to make a search for the Owner’s Manual.  Usually one can find a Trouble Shooting section located near the back.  To our disgust, we found it but it was written in French!  We thumbed through pages closer to the front to the English section and viola, there it was; it contained 15 steps.  The batteries in the remote were replaced, no help.  Then Item 13 described our system’s condition–blank screen, power button in operative and a red light was blinking.  Ah, here it was.  The suggested remedy, however, made no sense at all.  One was to use the mouse on the computer.  What?  This TV didn’t come with a mouse!  It was not connected to a computer.  That did it.

We called our favorite Tech Guy, our grandson, Andrew.  After a brief discussion, he agreed to come the next day and we’d try to find some solution to the problem.  We thought, well sure, we can wait until the next day.  Andrew is good with such problems, but we couldn’t let this problem lay still.  Panic began to set in.  Did we have an expensive entertainment box that wouldn’t perform?  The Renter’s Insurance policy was confusing regarding coverage.  Under “Coverages,” we got the impression of “YES,” but under “What is Not Covered,” one part was a No but another part was a Yes.  Wow, we sure hated to think about having to make another major purchase or resign our selves to watching TV on our 20-incher.

Now, at our age, the mind seems to work well at times and not so at other times.  But for some reason (I give God the credit for this), a light came on.  It was related to an earlier experience with a kitchen range.  After an electrical outage, we pushed buttons, consulted the “Trouble Shooting” guide and finally called a manufacturer’s representative.  Virginia needed to bake something for a church pot luck dinner.  We needed that stove to work. I’ll spare you of the frustrations of getting through the automated response system to finally be able to talk to a live, knowledgeable and willing person.  He suggested several things which we had already tried; finally, he asked us to pull the stove out far enough to unplug it from the electrical outlet.  We were to keep it unplugged for a minute and then replug it.  Eureaka,  It worked.  Well, it if worked on a stove, would it also work on a TV?  Behind the TV were about seven electrical wires, the one for the TV was finally isolated and unplugged for a minute.  With crossed fingers, it was replugged and as you might suspect, IT WORKED!  With thankful hearts of a remembered experience, we watched the news.   But before going to bed, we prepared 3 x 5 cards for each major appliance.  On each, the words: UNPLUG, 1 MINUTE, REPLUG were written.  Hopefully, you may be able to benefit from our experience.  Just remember, before you do anything regarding a problem such as we had, before panic sets in, before you call the manufacturer’s rep, try the magic procedure:  Unplug, wait a minute, replug. It worked twice for us. The next post will be shorter, I promise.

Oh, yes, Andrew, Karen and Khai came over the next day, took us out for lunch and a good visit.  What a pleasure to hear Khai say new words and eat food by himself.  All is well here in God’s Waiting Room, we’re happy.  God is good, He is good all the time.  Now, it’s your turn.  Love and blessings to all of you.