San Antonio Trip -- Where Is That Restaurant Again?

As mentioned earlier, I will draw a curtain of oblivion over late Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday.

I did manage to get out of bed early enough to go to church. I had been looking forward to attending a service with Grace, as her church has a traditional liturgical worship early, and even though I've been non denominational for a long time, I do enjoy the liturgical style. Really, worshiping the Lord with like minded people from any denomination ministers to my soul.

Blossoming was up, but said she needed to rest for the day, and wouldn't be coming with us. In one of the usual displays of timing I have, I got my stuff to take a shower for church just as she decided to get in the tub herself! Good thing the house has a small powder room downstairs. I was able to decamp to it and make myself presentable in time for us to leave.

The church is downtown, and has a ministry for the homeless. There were several men hanging around outside the church, and I felt perfectly safe. These are people who know the church is there to help them, and they appreciate it, watching out for the members who do so much for them.

This is how the church is supposed to function in the world. Reaching out to take care of the real world needs of people, helping them learn the skills to help themselves. If all people who claim to be Christians would make themselves available to truly help those in need, instead of just preaching at them, the world would realize what Jesus meant when He talked about the Kingdom of God being among us. It's not just for the hereafter, it's so we can make a difference here, too.

Then, the service, and the sermon. Wow. A small church choir, very well trained, the old hymns I only hear on occasion now. The sermon was on Lazarus and the rich man. How appropriate, a teaching about who are the Lazarus people in your life, and how will you reach out to help them. That needs to be the title of a book someday, The Lazarus People, about what individual Christians could and should be doing. It fit perfectly with what I had been thinking about since seeing that gaunt man asking for food on the Riverwalk. One meal might not do much for him, but it is a start. A place to learn job skills, to stay out of the elements, to stay fed while he works to earn his way off the streets -- that is what is truly needed.

It was truly special being able to worship and take communion with Grace and her church. She introduced me to some special people after, then we left to meet up with the others at the restaurant around the corner.

The first thing Grace noticed when we got around there was that she had given them the name of the restaurant that was actually a couple of businesses down from where we really wanted to be. That was fine, as it was walking distance from Ninja and CanDo anyway, but then Grace also realized, as she waited in front of one restaurant and I the other, that she didn't have her phone with her. It was in the other purse. Another reason I carry my wallet and keys and phone in my pockets like the Good Lord intended -- I don't leave them in my other pants!

Quite a bit later than we expected, we started to get calls. Eagle was on her way with her 8-year-old granddaughter. CanDo had a headache. Ninja didn't want to walk, and she drove up from one direction. Later CanDo drove up from the other, as did Eagle. Ninja made the block to try to catch up with them, but missed both. It took us so long to get everyone parked and in there, that the breakfast buffet was over! We could order off the breakfast menu for the next ten minutes, but if we wanted the buffet, it would be the lunch.

I decided to go with the buffet, figuring I could have salad. I ordered grapefruit juice, and I know my taste buds have changed -- I could literally taste the added sugar. They had a great deal of fresh fruit on the buffet, though, which I dove into with pleasure. I thought about the sermon I had heard, and poverty, and ate a $13 plate of fruit and took in the irony of it all.

Eagle's granddaughter Susan kept us all entertained. She is a sweet, high energy child, very willing to show her art portfolio or talk about her martial arts lessons. It was fun having her along.

After lunch, we all went back to the parking garage for the drive out to Gruene, where we would spend the afternoon.


Today is:

Alex Kivi Day a/k/a Kivi Day, Finland (The Day of Finnish Literature)

Bodacious Bonza Bottler Day (10/10/10!)

Clergy Appreciation Day (2nd Sunday)

Deed of Cession Day -- Fiji

Double Tenth Day, China (In remembrance of the revolution against the Imperial Manchu Dynasty.)

Independence Day -- Fiji

Kruger Day -- South Africa

National Angel Food Cake Day

National Cake Decorating Day

National Women's Day -- Morocco

Naval Academy Day -- US

St. Francis Borgia's Day (patron of Portugal; against earthquakes)

St. Paulinus of York's Day

World Mental Health Day


Anniversaries Today:

The United States Naval Academy opened with 50 midshipmen and 7 professors, 1845


Birthdays Today:

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 1974
Brett Favre, 1969
Tanya Tucker, 1958
Charles Dance, 1946
Ben Vereen, 1946
Harold Pinter, 1930
Richard Jaeckel, 1926
Thelonious Monk, 1917
Edward D. Wood, Jr., 1924
Helen Hayes, 1900
Giuseppe Verdi, 1813
Henry Cavendish, 1731 (discovered hydrogen)


Today in History:

The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000 to 30,000 in the Caribbean, 1780
The first non-Native American settlement is founded in Oklahoma, 1802
William Lassell discovers Neptune's moon Triton, 1846
The first "Dinner Jacket" is worn to the Autumn Ball at Tuxedo Park, NY, 1886
President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal, 1913
Ho Chi Minh enters Hanoi after the French pull out of the city, 1954
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he is refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant, 1957
The Windscale fire in Cumbria, U.K. is the world's first major nuclear accident, 1957
The opening ceremony at The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite, 1964
The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, comes into force, 1967
In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group, 1970
Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, 1971
After having closed borders for about two hundred years, Armenia and Turkey sign protocols in Zurich, Switzerland to open their borders, 2009