This wasn't the first time I'd experienced this type of thing happening to my knees. But in the past it was only while going down steps and the pain stopped after only a few steps. This time it wasn't going away so quickly.
I put my leg up and put some ice on it. After a few minutes it felt better. I got ready for church but still had to favor my left leg.
I drove Paula's car to church; sitting with my left leg bent at a 90 degree angle as I drove. When I got out of the car my knee was fine. It was as if the problem had never happened.
So that made the prospect of this day turning out okay a lot better. But the incident reminded me that sometime in the future I'll be facing the challenge of knee problems. But I'll deal with that when it happens.
We went to our Sunday School class down in the church fellowship hall. I hadn't been there in about 4 weeks. Our class had a good discussion about waiting for God's timing in the fulfillment of His promises in our lives.
After class I went upstairs to the sanctuary because I was going to be doing singing at the beginning of the morning worship service.
I found my a place to sit in the pews on the left side of the sanctuary. I turned around and sang the Beatles song "Birthday" to a little girl who was having a birthday too. I couldn't resist singing "Today is your birthday. It's my birthday to yeah!"
Just then my daughter in law, Brandi, came in with her niece, Alexis and my grand daughter, Aria. James wasn't there because he was had army training this weekend.
I was not expecting to see them at all on my birthday. I was absolutely overjoyed. They sat down next to us in the pew.
I kissed the baby and went to look for my wife to tell her they were there. I went down into the fellowship hall to get her but she was nowhere to be found. When I got back upstairs she was sitting in our pew.
I opened the morning worship service by singing a song written by one of my favorite gospel song writers, Neil Enloe.
It was also the first day of the 2012 NFL season and my song was about football in it. So to get everybody's attention, I played the Monday Night Football theme song over the PA system.
Then the music track to the song started. It was called "You Won't Scare God Away". The lyrics point out how as football fans we go all out to cheer for our team at the game. But as Christians we are told to be quite in church despite God's glory being incomparably better than football. The song says "Go ahead and shout, you won't scare God away".
The first couple of lines of the song mentions scoring a touchdown. When I sang them I turned to the right side of our platform and threw a Nerf football to my friend, and our associate pastor, Mark, who was sitting behind me in the back row of the choir.
He caught the ball and spiked it celebrating a "touchdown". It was a fun addition to the song. Thanks for helping me, Mark.
During the song's 2nd chorus I encouraged the congregation to participate. So at just the right time I cued them to shout "Praise The Lord" and then raise their hands saying "Hallelujah".
The song went great. I've known that song since I was a teenager. It was recorded by my all time favorite gospel group, The Couriers.
After I finished singing our pastor got up to give the "official welcome". He complimented me and told everyone that it was my birthday. They all clapped and wished me a "happy birthday."
During the children's sermon, Pastor Tim, mentioned that it was "Grandparent's Day". This made having Aria and Brandi there all that more special.
Tim had all the grandparents stand and got the children to go around the sanctuary and give them hugs. I got hugs from two little girls that I teach in children's church.
After church was over I got the chance to just sit and hold Aria on my lap. Various church members came over and to see the baby and wish me a happy birthday.
Pastor Tim's and our Family Pastor Duane's sons came over to see us. They made a joke that Aria was "Cecil Jr." because she was sitting on my lap like my turtle puppet does. They thought it was really funny. They started saying "Hi Cecil Jr." to Aria. It was funny.
Here's a picture Paula took IPhone so I would remember this special day.
My birthday afternoon was spent at home watching the Yankees play the Baltimore Orioles in a game that would determine first place in the American League East.
Although the Yankees took a 5-0 lead in the top of the 4th their starter, Freddie Garcia, gave up 3 runs in the bottom of that inning. I was a bit upset.
Ever since we saw them lose the first of three games in Chicago, the Yankees have let game after game slip away along with their divisional lead.
But the Yankees offense came to life during the game. They scored 13 runs including home runs by Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter. The bullpen pitchers did a great job as well holding the Orioles scoreless over the last 5 1/3 innings.
I fell asleep on our living room love seat for the last 3 innings or so but woke up enough to see the end of the game. The win may be a turning point in the Yankees season. It was a nice "birthday present".
Another good thing that happened on my birthday: the Washington Redskins' opening day win over the New Orleans Saints.
At 5:30 Paula and I went over to James and Brandi's house for dinner. James was back from training and Brandi invited us over.
She made a chicken and rice dish that was very good. She also made me a pineapple upside down cake. It was delicious. Thank you Brandi. You really made my birthday a special one.
I got to spend some more time with Aria. The best thing was that Paula got to spend some time with her. "Nana" hadn't gotten to see her grand daughter as much as I had lately. Just watching Paula play with her was a joy. She even got the baby to fall asleep on her shoulder.
About 8:30 we left Richardsville to come home. I finished proof reading the last in a series of blog posts about our August vacation to Chicago and then published it.
I got lots of birthday greetings by way of Facebook and phone text and cards. I appreciate each and every one of them.
Paula went to bed about 10:30. I stayed up and saw my birthday "officially" come to an end. After dozing once again on the
It was a very good birthday filled with the joy of spending time with James, Brandi and best of all my grand baby.
Tomorrow starts my 53rd year of life. I have been thinking that this may be a good time to set some goals. More on that in a future post.
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