We had a big freezing rain storm last night, and as a result, many houses are without electricity, including ours. We have a wood stove, so we are camping in the living room. I had bacon and eggs that Patty cooked on the stove, and tonight we had chicken, rice, and broccoli all cooked on the top of our woodstove. We also have had some excellent cowboy coffee made on the stove. We have trees all around our house and the limbs all got covered with about an inch of ice. This morning as the ice began to melt big hunks of ice would drop onto our metal roof. It sounded like a war in our house this morning for several hours as very big chunks of ice fell, and our metal roof made it sound like we were inside a base drum.

It was a cool way to spend a Saturday camping in our living room. I stayed very warm, took a nap, got lots of reading done, rode my exercise bike for over an hour, wrote this blog, prayed for everybody at JBC, and did a lot of writing for my preaching and teaching ministry.

One of the characteristics of tough people is that they are flexible, they enjoy the challenge of unannounced difficulties and trials, they are creative in solving roadblocks, and they are always fun to be around, even when the convenience of electricity is gone.