Birthdays and Rain

My brother Butch's surprise birthday party was on July 24th by the shores of Lake Thonotosassa. Butch's girlfriend Gail threw the party and my mother invited us to come. So after church we traveled from Tampa to Thonotosassa. Of course, we got lost. I don't know how we manage it but this is a frequent occurence in unknown territory. It's not like we have never been to this little redneck town, in fact I once purchased and boarded my horse there many years ago! But back to the story, we had directions--that Doug left at home. Oh well, we still would've gotten lost 'cause the directions were bad! We were supposed to turn at the Jesus Saves sign only nobody told us that and there was no street sign on the corner....

Anyway, no one showed up except my mom, Butch and Gail and my niece, her boyfriend and my nephew and us, of course! And it started to rain. A Florida thunderstorm.....type rain. We all huddled under two umbrellas, the food got wet, we braved getting struck by lightning (leave it to me to think of the worst!) and we laughed. We actually had fun! My brother remarked that it was a lot better than most birthday parties which are boring 'cause all you do is sit around and talk! Hey, is he trying to tell me something?

Thank God for the rain that cools and refreshes and birthday celebrations that don't always work out the way we plan but that turn out to be surprisingly fun.....