Luke’s Notebook

Last week, I got a call from the pre-registration department at the hospital, and the lady on the phone ran through a bunch of questions about past medical history, medical conditions, et cetera.

“Do you wear contacts? Do you have any hearing problems? Do you have any history of heart disease? Cancer? Lung disease? Skin problems? Kidney problems? Allergies? Disabilities? Any problems with anesthetics” The questions just went on and on and on, and I was almost embarrassed by how I was just rattling off “No,” after “No,” after “No.”

Since then, I have just been thanking God for my health. I’m so grateful to just be whole and not limited in any way. Since I have the ability — right now, anyway — I want to be sure to use it all to serve Him.

One question that really caught me off-guard — and I don’t think I’ve ever been asked it before — was, “Do you have a power of attorney or a living will?” I told her I didn’t, and, to be quite honest, it kind of scared me! I almost thought, “Whoa, why do they need to know this?” I’m sure it’s just a standard question they ask anyone, but I sure didn’t see it coming! From what I know, this knee arthroscopy is a pretty simple procedure. I’m sure it still is, though, and they probably just have to ask that question of everybody who is undergoing an anesthetic or something or another.

Even though I could let myself get a little bit nervous about this surgery, I do very much look forward to having this tear fixed, and to know that I should be good as new once I heal is up is very promising!

Well, Monday night we finished off our softball season. We lost a very close game by a score of 15-14. It was a very, very special night for me personally, as I actually batted three-for-three with three fence-clearing homers!! They were my 18th, 19th, and 20th home runs of the year. So that was a great way to end the season, having my final three swings be homers.

Also, with that good night at the plate, my average went up a few points, and the official total is .617 — quite a bit above the .600 that I was shooting for at the beginning of the year! So I’m extremely happy to have been able to set that goal earlier this year and then actually be able to see it come to fruition. Thank You, God!

I know it’s just a game, and I also know that the numbers don’t really matter, but it is kind of a special treat to have hit that mark. I’ve never before had a season where I batted .600, so I’m just kind of going to relish this for a while. The only problem now is, what do I do next year? .617 isn’t going to be easy to top! Ah… I guess I have time to think about it.

Wow, what a trip! To think we traveled nearly 5,000 miles and were gone for 26 days. There’s a lot to sink in, that’s for sure…

Thank You, God!

Well, we’re on what is likely our second-last night of the trip. We are in Ronks, Pennsylvania, which is located in Lancaster County, near a large Amish community. We left the area of Penn Yan, NY, early this morning, and we arrived at this home in the afternoon.

Tomorrow, we hope to drive halfway home, and if all works out well, we’ll be able to stop by Gettysburg, PA, early on in the drive. We visited Gettysburg a couple of times as a family. It has been a while since we have seen it, and I’ve learned so much about the Civil War since then, that I am really looking forward to stopping at the battlefield again.

If all goes as planned, we should hit the road again Sunday morning and end up pulling into our driveway sometime in the evening… hopefully in time to catch some of Game Four of the World Series.

Today, we drove from Darnley, Prince Edward Island, back to Maine. We made a few stops along the Maine coast, visiting lighthouses and also a really neat bridge with an observation tower. We ended up here in Rockland, Maine. Early tomorrow morning, we hope to hit the road and finish the drive down to the Finger Lakes region of New York, where we’ll be spending some more time. Looks like we have nearly 600 miles to cover tomorrow, so I hope we can be efficient!

Well, we’ve been in Canada for nearly a week now. In fact, exactly one week ago, on Sunday, October 7th, at 12:36 AM CST (1:36 EST), I received this text message from Mom:

Meet us in parking lot at Calias Motor Inn we will wait to cross at border one quarter mile away together

Wow… what a night that was. Thank You, God.

When we were staying at an inn in Rockport, Maine, we ran into an elderly lady with a strong Maine accent (think Bostonian — “lobstah” and the like). Anyway, David must have talked to her about s’mores, because he just said, “When we were at the place with a lot of doors (the motel), the lady said ‘mahshmallows.’” Chub must have a pretty keen ear to be able to pick up on that difference! At any rate, it was especially funny because it was totally random and unprompted; David just brought it up out of the blue!

Monday morning, we all slept in, making up for a lot of lost sleep over the previous few days. In the afternoon, Dad and several of the older guys drove into Summerside and ate lunch at a restaurant called Pizza Delight. Once we got back home, I spent some time exploring the area a little bit.

This house is on the beach, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is a beautiful, beautiful area. The gulf empties into the Atlantic Ocean, so we’re essentially staying on the ocean. Anyway, this afternoon, I spent some time out on the beach, throwing a football around with Caleb, then playing with Peter as he was working with a sand bucket.

This evening, I was pretty much left speechless at the starry night we experienced. It was just incredibly starry. I had never seen anything like it! I mean, the more I looked at the sky, the more stars I saw. There were so many stars; it was just so beautiful and so amazing! I was (and still am) in awe of God’s creation. I have the ocean right in front of me, and I can look up into the sky and just see this countless number of stars twinkling in the sky. What beauty! I even got to see a shooting star, too, which was a real neat treat.

Anyway, I just feel so humbled by God’s majesty, His glory, His power. To think that He made all of this, yet this world is still dying and fading away. It’s amazing. I just can’t help but say “Thank You, God!” for His creation.

Even just looking at the North Star, I was reminded just how amazing it is that we have a North Star! Nowadays, it doesn’t seem to important, but just think about it: How else could somebody navigate in the night? On a pitch-black night, just looking at one star, out of a countless number of them, we can know exactly what direction we are heading. Isn’t that incredible?

What is even more amazing to me is this. Maybe you already knew this

Early Saturday morning, Paul and James were back at it, trying to replace the alternator in the motel’s parking lot. The owners of the motel were extremely friendly and kind, letting us hang around for a few hours as they continued to work on the van. Finally, around 11:00 or 11:30, Mom and Dad took some of the family to visit a nearby lighthouse.

It wasn’t until a few hours later that the repair was finished and the van was ready to go. That must have been around 2:00 in the afternoon, and we finally got back in our caravan and started driving to a couple additional lighthouses in the area

Here’s a trip rundown:

Wednesday morning, October 3, around 5:15 AM, we left the driveway and hit the road in our three-car caravan. Some time in the afternoon, we realized that our trailer had had some problems, and the two-by-fours that held up the bikes in the trailer had actually come loose, puncturing a few small holes in the sheet-metal roof of the trailer. Not good!

Late, late, late Wednesday, around 12:00 or 1:00 in the morning, we arrived at the Canandaigua, New York, KOA. In the dark, we pitched a few tents as quietly as we could, and finally we were able to go to sleep after driving some 800 miles.

Thursday morning, James and I drove over to a Lowe’s in Canandaigua in order to get some supplies for reattaching the bike holders in the trailer. We had some big delays that morning, and it took us until nearly noon until we were able to pull out of the KOA and hit the road.

Throughout the day, we encountered some other delays, and we just weren’t very good with eating up the miles. We made it through Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and we ended up reaching into Maine before stopping for the night at a motel in Sanford, again after midnight. We ended up traveling a good 450 miles that day.

The next day felt terribly inefficient. Friday morning, we left the motel in Sanford and started our drive. We began around 11:00 in the morning, I believe. As we were driving through Maine, we stopped at a couple of lighthouses along the way. The plan was to stop at a few lighthouses, step out, walk around, then continue on our way. Things actually worked out much differently, as around 7:00 in the evening, after progressing only 110 miles on the day, we stopped in Rockport, in a McDonald’s parking lot, because Dad was noticing a really strange smell coming from the van.

Paul and James took a look at it, and they tracked the smell as originating from the van’s battery. Not good! They drove the van over to AutoZone, and eventually they deduced that the alternator was shot. Evidently, a power inverter we had hooked up to the van’s battery may have been the culprit.

Anyway, so they bought a new alternator and began to try to install it, while the rest of the family went off to a motel that Mom, Dad, and I had found a few miles down the road. It was a really nice little hotel, run by an elderly Christian couple, and thankfully they had a few vacancies and were able to accommodate us.

Paul and James started working on replacing the alternator that evening, but they had to stop after a few hours after realizing that they needed to buy another tool from a Wal-Mart or something, and it was after hours.