Twenty People?

I was a shut in for much of the weekend. Saturday morning I woke up to at least 8-10 inches of snow, possibly even a foot (I didn’t actually measure it). The snow was deep enough that I had difficulty opening my side door, which is about 6-8 inches above the driveway. I had planned to go to the Auto Show, but that wasn't happening.
After waiting until the snow stopped I made my way out to the garage at about 1:00 to fire up the snow blower. This would be the snow blower that I got for free from my neighbor, that he got used from someone else. This thing looks as old as me. The last time I used it I fought with it for about a half hour trying to start it and keep it running. So I had an idea what I might be in for. I pulled the starter cord over and over and over with no luck. I fought with it. I swore at it. I kicked it. I tried talking nice to it. Nothing worked. It would not start. In desperation I called my Dad to see if he could suggest something. He said ‘I’m not doing anything I will be right over to help.’ He gets there and plays around with it for a few minutes. Pulls the cord three or four times, and nothing happened. Finally it started, and then ran just fine while I cleared the drive. Of course it was about 4:30 by the time I finished. So most of my day was shot.
Today, I am hosting the first meeting of my new small group Bible study. I use the words small group rather loosely. When I volunteered I thought I was looking at 8 to 10, maybe 12 people. I found out yesterday that the list has swelled to about 18 to 20. Yikes! I’m not sure my house is big enough for that many people all at once. Fortunately this first night is just a social thing rather than actual bible study. So I can send a group of people down stairs to use the pool table or whatever. Should be interesting.
Another interesting thing happened yesterday. My bowling team was, yet again, facing one of the best teams in the league, and yet again heading toward a disappointing loss. The first game we started with an 80+ pin cushion (due to out ever growing handicap). The other team beat us by about 15 pins. I won’t say what my score was. Let’s just say I was more than 15 pins under my average.
The second game we watched as our lead evaporated yet again. Like the first time we were in a close game heading into the 10th frame. I had recovered with a 141 game, but I left an open in the final frame. It came down to our last bowler. We had to get a good count on the first throw and a spare on the second. Our last bowler is, well, let’s say he’s not Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series. But wouldn’t you know it, that’s precisely what he did. He finished the frame with a strike, followed by a spare. We ended up winning by about 20 pins. Suddenly my team, and me, believed we could walk away with more than just two points for the fifth straight night of bowling.
In the third game none of bowled great, but we all bowled around our averages, or maybe a tad bit over. Our opponents were getting noticeably frustrated that they weren’t whipping out that handicap deficit as easily as the first two games. This time heading into the tenth we had maintained about 65 of our 80+ pin cushion. I had forgotten what it was like to win 6 of 8. Since my team has plummeted from fourth to tenth (out of ten teams), since early November, these 6 points won’t do much for us in terms of quickly climbing the ladder. However, I’m hoping that we have turned a corner and can build on this, *insert any cliche' you like here*.

A weekend that started out with me reduced to a shut-in ended on a high note. Hopefully I’ll be able to hold myself together with 20 people running around my house tonight.