DECEIVED & LIED TO--WHAT A BLESSING

Lied to, Deceived--what a blessing!

How could I know? There really was no warning and it all started out so innocently. Who was first?


Probably Jackie. Or maybe it was Jackie. No,that’s not a typo. I’m sure my loving wife had this all thought out, but oh the depths of deception she so deliciously served up.

The other Jackie (T O J ) emailed and said she was going to be in Jacksonville for work and could she come and stay with us a couple of days. “Sure, we’ve always got room for one more in our house.” Glynn and Bum were going to be here at the same time as they were traveling down to Palm Beach. So like I would never expect, they all lied and misled me so that I would have the biggest surprise I’d had in I don’t even know how long.


Right: Leah & Bum

And Nathan joined in to say he was
busy and would be down Sunday
some time because he was shoot-
ing a wedding and couldn’t come by
to see the others staying here.


Left: Bum, Glynn & Nathan

So Saturday afternoon comes along and Glynn and I go out to my deacon’s house to visit a little. He and his wife break out the fruit and some goat cheese & we start chowing down and get to talking and before too long it’s after 2:00 PM. and I get a text message that the Jackies are wanting to hit St. Augustine to do some touristing and I’m to be the tour guide. So we go to the museum for an hour and a half and had a good time looking at stuff and then head on home. When I pulled up to the house there was no where to park because the place is full of cars. I don’t know how the girls did it but they had people at my party that came from all eras of our lives. T O J was my girl friend back



Right: Hula Bob



when I was 14; Tom was a high school surfing buddy that shared my wild days in CA surfing and then coming to Christ; Rick was another surfing pal from our Mobile days and then there were people from our Baptist era; our Priest and Deacon from our Orthodox church; Fr Ted who was so instrumental in sharing the Orthodox faith with us; and of course Glynn and Bum here on loan from Thailand and many others that are so dear and vital to our lives. They dressed me up in the Hawaiian get up and I had more fun than a person should be allowed to have. I had no idea becoming a 60-year-old could be so awesome. What a blessing it was to have all these people with me in one place and how blessed I was that they cared so much to do something so nice for me. It was humbling. So that’s what it’s like to become a senior citizen. But as I’ve always said, “I won’t be ‘old’ until I can no longer paddle out and surf.” By that scale, I’m still in my 30s. And I constantly remind myself that Christ is my future so I’m heading in the right direction regardless of age, health or anything else. Thanks to all of you who showed me so much love.







My Favorite Jackies

Jackie, Bum, Bob and Jackie