Lunch on an Icy Day

Usually the first Sunday of the month means an afternoon worship service at the community nursing home. Sleet started falling almost exactly when I left, which meant our musicians stayed home and the temperatures kept the residents in bed (the nursing home has adequate heat, but it feels colder inside when you know it's 18 degrees outside). One lady braved the chill and we prayed together. She went back to her room and I went to Braum's.

Near our town is a church home for young women who have trouble with their families and don't live at home while they try to work that out. Some have been removed by the court, and some have suffered abuse of one kind or another, but others just need to learn some new ways to handle ordinary family situations while their parents do as well. My own denomination runs several of these, although this one belongs to another branch of the service. Like many of them, regardless of denomination, our neighbor home offers a pretty full-service livestock training operation, including showing animals at different fairs and events.

A group from the home was returning from a show and stopped at Braum's for some ice cream while I was having my late lunch, all of them in full cold-weather animal tending gear, an impossibly charming blend of Carhartt and chatter that made it all but impossible to remember the sleet and frigid air outside.

I don't know how it's possible to look bulky and cute at the same time, but these young ladies and their well-used jackets and overalls pulled it off. One in a group next to me had ice cream instead of a hamburger ("It's freezing out there and you want to eat ice cream?"), and when the young man behind the counter brought it out to them the consensus was that he was very cute. Said consensus was reached after he had left, of course.

Hope you had a great show, ladies, and may your return home be soon and joyful.