My "Jonah" Weekend

A clip from my journal entry dated Monday, October 13, 2003...

"I had an incredibly crazy weekend. I should have been at church as we were beginning a new church-wide study. Deep down, I knew that God wanted me there, but I was bull-headed and did what "I" wanted to do. After all, I had been planning this weekends camping trip for a whole year now! I remember feeling like Jonah must have felt... just throw me overboard and things will go back to normal!

First, before we even left, the kitten, Willy, got sick. On the way, the extra fuel tank wouldn't switch over, then we got stuck in traffic. After setting up in the dark... Rene'e's horse, Flapjack, started coughing. The next morning he had a snotty nose but we rode anyway. While riding down a steep hill of rocks, Flapjack got his foot caught in a hole between the rocks. Rene'e fell off in the midst of the struggle. She's okay. Finally, Flapjack's shoe rips off his foot as he finds just the right angle to get out of the hole. Mind you... this situation spells b-r-o-k-e-n l-e-g as a usual result, but we were so fortunate that the horse didn't panic and got out with not even a scratch. So, shaken, we ride on. Hours later, and many miles... we arrive home to camp safe and sound. As we settle back into camp, we decide that Flapjack now has a temperature. This is NOT good! So we get some medicine (shot) from the ranch owner. The brought his temperature down to normal and now he is all better... except Lee has to put his shoe back on. Thank goodness the shoe came off clean and didn't rip his foot too badly. Later that night, Duke, the horse I ride (which also belongs to Rene'e) colics pretty badly. We got some more drugs from the ranch owner and hit the sack, satisfied that Duke is okay. About 130AM... the drugs wear off and Duke is ill again. So we call the vet and she gives us the 'witch-doctor recipe' which is our only hope. We could have hauled him to Ohio State, but they wouldn't operate anyway because we had already drugged him. So now we have to find whiskey and baking soda at 2AM!!!! We found the baking soda in the ranch kitchen... We proceed to wake up a guy that we thought might have some whiskey, but it turns out that he's not a drinker, but points us to some drunks around the corner of the camp. We found a guy with two girls making out in the back of a horse trailer. Rene'e (shameless) interrupts them and the guy gives us some Crown Royal... only the best for our horses!!! A while later Duke was feeling much better! It worked!!!

The next morning (Sunday) we decided to hang out around the fire and relax and chat before packing up and heading home. Needless to say, it started raining!!! So we packed up and went home. By the way, Willy died at the vet's office on Friday night.

Wow! What a weekend! It really made me realize that I should have done what I knew God had planned for me. I learned my lesson loud and clear. How could all those disasters be coincidental?"