...basking in the warmth

this time of year, the sun comes in at a lovely angle...
and because it is colder, any patch of sunlight becomes a real blessing...

when I taught, my music room faced south...
and for 17 years, I enjoyed basking in the late fall & winter sunshine...
leaning against a pole, as I monitored my students arrival...
warning those lollygaggers when the bell was about to ring...
and always being a bit sad when I had to leave the sun for class...

in the late spring and summer, it was really too hot to stand there...
but sunny days in this time of year were always my favorite...
warming in the sun, looking at the fall foliage across the street...
taking a breath before the work day continued...

storms bringing rain always seem to come from the southeast here...
so on windy or stormy days, I couldn't really wait there either...
making the perfect days for "sunning", all that much more of a blessing...
one that I find that I miss now...

as I write this in the church office, with my back to a sunny southern window...
[the office faces south...] I'm reminded of those sunny days...
much like this one, where the deep blue sky...
though developing thin clouds in the west...
is still full of sun at this time and warming my back...

another one of those,"little blessings" that God has been sending lately...
[let's be clear...God sends them all the time...
I've just become more aware of them lately...]

yesterday, I finally decided to try and do something...
about a situation that has vexed me for some time...

I am a fan of the TV series, "The West Wing"...
and purchased the DVDs of each season as they became available...
but I didn't watch the DVDs as long as I still had TV service...
because I could catch reruns on Bravo, etc...

since cutting off cable at the end of April...
I watch DVDs from my massive collection...
and have recently embarked on the 3rd time of "TWW"...
unfortunately reminding myself...
that Season 2, disc 2, is blank on both sides...

8 of my favorite episodes[9-16] are "missing"...
so I decided to try to do something yesterday...

I spent quite a while searching my online records...
for the purchase record from B&N to no avail...
55 pages going back to 2001... nada, zip, zero...
so then I tried Warner video, who made the set...

I found several websites that after a lot of search time...
yielded nothing... not even contact information...
finally, I searched a site,[Warner Home Video], that I had skipped at first...
after spending a lot of time, I found a way to make "a comment"...

figuring that I had nothing to lose, I wrote of my plight...
and when I checked my e-mail later, from my phone at home...
was not only surprised to have a response, but an answer...

I was told to reply with my mailing address...
and that they would send me a shipping label...
so that I could return the entire Season 2 set to them...
after receiving it from me, they would order & ship me a new set...
at no charge !!!

I didn't buy the set from them...
don't have any of my purchase records [from 2004]...
but they're doing this anyway...FREE...
now I call that, a blessing...



God is good, all the time...