This Much Fun Could Kill Me....

I got an interesting call yesterday afternoon.

The voice on the other end of the phone was rough
and frustrated. He said "I have a delivery of chairs for Sonrise Christian Fellowship and I don't know how to get them off the truck."

We had ordered 60 new chairs for the church on Tuesday.
We really did not expect them to come in until next
week. Both of our boys and all of the men I would have scheduled
to help were at work.

The truck driver went on to explain that he had no tailgate
to lift these pallets down on. I told him I would be there
in five minutes and flew out the door.

When I got to the church there was the huge truck. No driver.
I went ahead and opened the doors in preparation. I had called
Warren on my way there and we agreed the only thing we could do
was take the chairs off manually. I would cajole the driver into
passing the chairs down to me and I would take them into the
church.

Then the driver came back...he had been at the carpet store across the
street asking for help with a skid loader.

The man who could use the skid loader wasn't there at the time...
although they thought he would be back soon.

We looked into the truck at the two pallets of huge boxes. Four
chairs to a box. My heart sank. No single chairs to be passed down
out of the truck. We would wait.

So, Tom, the truck driver and I went into the church to get out of the
90 degree heat and had a very nice conversation. Turns out he lives near here and has an interesting story involving a car accident and a brain injury. As my Dad had once had a brain bleed when the golf clubs in his car flew forward and hit him in an accident, I could relate somewhat to the sudden impact that can have on one's life. Tom is a very nice man and I am glad I got to know him.

After a while, though, I figured we had chatted long enough and I asked him if he thought we might be able to try to get the chairs out. He agreed. We unwrapped the first pallet of boxes and Tom began passing the large boxes out of the truck and I would ease them onto the ground and then move them to the side in preparation for the next. We got through one pallet...about seven of these huge boxes when we saw the man from the store across the street headed our way with the skid loader.

Relief!!!! When asked what we owed him he said he will send us a bill carved in ice and send it over in August.
Sweet, isn't he?

I ran to get my camera as the skid loader was driving through the front doors of the church to find that I had not replaced the memory card when I left so quickly.

After all fifteen of these huge boxes were in the church we had to open several to make sure there were no damages. Some of the boxes were a bit messed up. I am fairly certain that this was not in Tom's job description. His face was red from the heat as he ripped open boxes and helped me.

I kept thanking him.

Finally, we decided that we had seen enough to think that the order was in good condition. Tom declined a tip...hope I didn't offend him. But I know that we were a truck driver's worst nightmare. Too bad his trucking company didn't let us know they were coming so we could have had help there.

Last evening after our Bible Study the guys assembled chairs. It was so fun to see them working together and enjoying the process. I think that is how men bond best. Working side by side.

The women found ourselves cheering them on as they neared completion and the sang out a pathetic round of the Hallelujah Chorus as the last chair was put in place.

Finally, after midnight we rolled back into our driveway. I had succumbed to drinking a cup of coffee around 11:00pm and so was wide awake until after 1am.

It was a good day and a fun night.

I love our church!