Murphy Makes three
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Murphy Makes three
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Riverside Bulletin--0909-07--"Just Donna and Me and Murphy Makes three""Just Donna and Me and Murphy Makes three"
Was it the Beatles who made the song "Homeward Bound"
popular? Was it Tom Jones who touched hearts with "The Green,
Green Grass of Home?" I don't know who composed the song "My Blue
Heaven," but I do want to adapt a line from that old song: "Just
Donna and me and Murphy makes three." Who is Murphy? He is the
legendary fellow who makes the claim that "anything that could go wrong,
will go wrong." He, in fact, "formulated" Murphy's Law.
Picture the scene: Late Sunday night, after our
customary worship at Riverside and fellowship at Culvers, we are going to
print out the airline boarding passes via the internet for two passengers
going to South Africa. Did it many times before--no problem. "Not so fast
there, Mr. Horne!" Mr. Murphy steps up to the plate. Unbeknown to
us, KLM has changed the routing, the departure time and no internet boarding
pass would be issued. "Security requires all details--passport, and luggage
information--to be verified by an agent." Time lost: a mere two
hours of wrestling with the internet to no avail. Now at 1 AM, packing must
be finalized and the house must be left the way we mean to find it. Finally
at 5:45 AM, two weary travelers slink off to bed. Just before 8 AM, bright
and breezy, the Bairds make their faithful appearance and we are off to San
Antonio airport. Oh, yes, I would like to make a bank deposit before
leaving town. No problem. The drive-in bank should be open. Oh, no, it's
not...not on Labor Day anyway! "Murphy, get thee behind me!"
Houston's George Bush Airport (IAH) terminal D gate 5 is
the customary place for the KLM 747 departure. Attempting to navigate
through the huge airport, we eventually take the train to our destination. A
huge thunder storm is dumping tons of water on all the planes including
ours. This guarantees a delay of departure. We see a ray of light--they put
us in the bulkhead--hooray for this blessing. Donna puts down beside
her a designer cloth bag with her brag pictures of our grandchildren on the
outside. Murphy seizes the moment. The open loading door to the
galley during the storm was taking in water creating an unnoticed pool. As
the 747 became airborne, dropping a wing to turn, the pool decided to make
an adjustment by mercilessly drowning Donna's brag bag. A soggy Reader's
Digest magazine attested to a baptism, but not for remission of sins! An
apologetic purser's words did little to console grandma!
Two zombies board the second KLM 747 named "Beijing" of
all things. The pilot announces delay of departure "due to heavy air traffic
congestion over Germany." We are in Holland. We are heading for South
Africa. What has Germany got to do with it, pray tell? Murphy
grins, "It just happens to be in the flight path." "I might have known. . ."
I mumble under my breath. A little turbulence over the Alps and over north
Africa made us scramble for our seat belts. I am sure that the Lord heard
many strange voices about that time. Exhaustion rendered us virtually
comatose for the next several hours.
The recently renovated "Oliver Tambo" airport (JNB) is
anticipating huge international crowds of fans during the 2010 World Cup
Soccer tournament that South Africa is to host. By the time we disembarked
from the airliner, we had been traveling 32 hours. The distance from the
gate to the immigration and customs halls seemed like a hundred miles. So
much for progress in the name of Soccer. After waiting close to an hour for
our luggage, we were told that the turnstile-luggage dispenser had a
malfunction. So, what's new? Murphy had traveled with us and, no
doubt, preceded us to the luggage dispenser.
Finally, there was the Jerry Hogg Welcoming Party at 10
PM Tuesday night. On the way to the open air parking lot we encounter a
light drizzle. Soon we would be able to take off our shoes and rest
a while. Nope, that was not to be. Murphy had messed up the exit
boom with the shark-like teeth protruding below it. This effectively blocked
departure until for some unknown reason, the thing starting functioning
again. Finally, we made it to our "other" home.
Murphy became tired of harassing us and "got
lost." We wish that Murphy would "morph" into a turkey!! Then we
would have him for Thanksgiving. End of Murphy! We thank our
gracious Lord for a safe journey in spite of old you-know-who. Hey, we miss
you already.
Love to all,
Al --"The Horne of Africa"
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