Author: William Douthwaite

Posted in dogs

“Are you saying you want a piece of me?”

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Martin Katler on Unsplash

As I pulled into the driveway of a friend’s house, the neighbor (also a friend) was walking a tan french bulldog in her front yard. She dog-sits in her home, and this was her latest guess, a little girl named Poppy, just a year old.

Of course I walked over to say hi, but Poppy was having none of that. She got into a defensive stance and let out her fiercest growl, letting me know that I was not welcome. I can’t help but laugh when I am held at bay by fifteen pounds of pup. As I chatted with my friend, I sat on the ground about five yards away. Once I did that, Poppy’s curiosity got the best of her, and she took a cautious step in my direction. Numerous sniffs and steps later, she was smelling the back of my hand, her stumpy tail beginning to vibrate back and forth. Once I ran my hand down her back, she crawled up into my lap and my friend said, “Now you’re speaking her love language.” I only had a few minutes to pet her back and scratch her tummy, and we parted as each other’s new best friend.

The night before, at the meal before bible study, I met a first time attender, Troy, who shared a very different dog story with me. After a moment of small talk he told me about the dog who bit his seven-year-old daughter. The daughter was across the street at a neighbor’s house for a birthday party. Something triggered their friendly and familiar German Shepherd to attack, and the little girl had to be airlifted to a trauma center. Thankfully, doctors were able to save her life and repair the damage. In fact, his daughter was there that night for the children’s program and she looked just fine.

I asked, “Did they put the dog down?”

He replied, “No. The case was dismissed. She still lives across the street.”

Yes, that would make me very uncomfortable. Plus, I’ll bet there’s a lot more to this story.

Anyway, when it comes to dogs or people, it’s not always the gruffest and grouchiest ones you need to watch out for. The friendliest ones might be the ones who really want a piece of you.

Posted in Life

I guess we only need one car

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Marius Christensen on Unsplash

It’s been a while since we only had one car. Just about forty years to be exact. My wife and I each brought a car into the marriage and we’ve always had at least two. Until today.

With both of us working and three kids to raise, we drove off in directions more often than not. As a nurse and a pastor, my wife and I spent a lot of time driving to hospitals all over northeast Florida. When our three children attended three different schools, they needed rides to dance classes, band rehearsals, sports practices, and friends’ houses. When they learned to drive, we parked three cars in the driveway.

All of that has changed in retirement. Without daily trips to church, hospitals, nursing homes, and members’ homes, I drive a lot less than I used to. Most of the time, one car sits idly in the driveway. So why do we have two? Good question. Could we get by with just one car?

About half the homes in our neighborhood have more than two cars parked in the driveway. Few can squeeze a car into their junk-filled garage. My neighbor has two Corvettes in the garage, and another two cars in the driveway for him and his wife. Around the corner, another neighbor has four cars parked in a circular driveway, two of which haven’t budged in over two years. I believe single-car households are the exception rather than the rule.

Here is our strategy for owning just one car:

  • Keep and frequently check Google calendar to avoid conflicting appointments.
  • Work towards going to the grocery store once a week, rather than every day. The trick will be better lists and better planning. How often have you had to start a new shopping list as soon as you started putting away the groceries you just brought home from the store?
  • If we put our minds to it, we can bunch our errands together into one outing rather than several.
  • When I need something at the store or I want to go to the library, I can always ride my bike. Many of the places I drive are just a couple of miles away. In a pinch, there’s always Uber or Lyft. Or a neighbor.

Cutting car expenses in half is a welcome improvement in our budget. Gas, insurance, maintenance, and payments can consume large portions of our income. Or not, if we don’t have as many vehicles.

So we’ve got one car parked in the driveway. We’re going to give it a shot.

Posted in Food

It’s alive!

Posted on by William Douthwaite

We were going to travel. I had a few loaves in the freezer. My sourdough starter didn’t need daily feedings. All the Instagram experts advised, “Just put it in the refrigerator and it will go to sleep. When you take it out and feed it, it will be fine.” I believed them. I just stuck my two mason jars way back on the bottom shelf with about 25 grams of starter in each. “I’ll see you when we get back.” (Yeah, I talk to my starter. Don’t you?”

Anyway, I left it in hibernation for about two and a half weeks. When I retrieved it and looked in the jars, the starter looked like hardened paint in the bottom of an old can. Or the cracked, barren ground of a drought-ridden farmland. I guess I should have put lids on the jars rather than just a coffee filter and rubber band.

Of course, I Googled “dried up sourdough starter.” Everyone said, “Don’t give up on it. It will come back to life.” I believe in the resurrection of the dead, but this was a whole different ballgame. I chipped out pieces of dried starter with a knife and soaked them in some water. If I could soften it up, I could mix in flour and water. If. Hours of soaking later, I had a bowl of dried up pieces floating in water.

So I tried to mash them up with a spoon. The pieces were a little softer, but still hard to work with. I decided to go for it. I poured them into the bottom of a jar, added fifty grams of flour and water, covered them with the coffee filter and pushed them back in the corner of the kitchen cabinet. If nothing happened, I’d just toss it and start over. If they came to life, I would be amazed, but would be baking bread soon.

I was skeptical when I peeked at them the next day. I was amazed. The starter hadn’t doubled in size, but I could see little bubbles on the side. Like Dr. Frankenstein, I shouted, “It’s alive!” I discarded a bunch, fed it again, and left it to fully revive.

The next morning, it had doubled, was filled with little bubbles, and had fully come back to life. I fed it in preparation for making dough that night, and the next day I was baking bread.

Some approach sourdough bread as a science project. Others would call it an art. For me, it’s mysterious and magical. I use a scale to measure my quantities. Visual cues tell me when it’s ready. But I am always astounded when I put a ball of dough into the over and pull out a crusty loaf of bread.

If I were still preaching, this would have made a great Easter Sunday illustration.

Since then I’ve learned that some dry out their starter on purpose, to store it for long periods of time. One person kept theirs for fifteen years! It came right back to life with a little flour and water

Posted in Life, time

Right on time: we missed all the excitement

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Stan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/car-side-mirror-showing-heavy-traffic-191842/

As I came down the highway exit ramp, I saw the red flashing lights off to my left. I saw the police car first, then a car with a smashed in driver’s side, and then a pickup truck up against a tree. I shifted lanes to pass by, noticing more lit-up police cars approaching from both directions. Within a quarter mile, two fire engines, three more police cars and an EMT flew past us. A response like that means a fatality. Just a few minutes later, the radio reported all lanes closed in both directions.

We missed it by a minute.

If we had left the house one minute earlier, we might have been the ones involved in the crash. If we had left the house one minute later, we would have been stuck in stand-still traffic.

We didn’t experience either. We left at the right time, drove at the right speed, and missed all the excitement. Coincidence? Providence? Who knows. Grateful? Absolutely.

In some cultures, time isn’t relevant. On mission trips to Haiti and Kenya, morning departure time for the clinic was when the trucks arrived. Lunchtime? When the food showed up. What time should we be ready for supper? When we no longer heard the sound of chickens from the kitchen, there was still time for a nap before washing up.

The inner city church where I interned started the worship when it looked like most of the congregation was present.

In my grandchildren’s world, it’s always snack time. It doesn’t matter if only been minutes since lunch or just a few moments before supper, they’re trolling for snacks. With the last bite of a snack in one hand, they are already pleading for the next.

In other settings, time rules. I remember family members missing a baptism because they showed up ten minutes late for worship. Leave those spritz cookies in the oven one extra minute and the bottoms are burnt. If I don’t check in online exactly twenty-four hours before my flight, I’ll end up sitting in a different row than my wife.

Early? Late? On time? In retirement, it doesn’t seem to matter as much. Except when I miss all the excitement at the scene of a crash.

Posted in lessons, Life

Listing ended: better luck next time

Posted on by William Douthwaite
I could have had this watch for $3.25

I’ve begun doing some running again after a few years off. My feet still ache a little, but not enough to keep me away from a few miles here and there. I started carrying my iPhone with me so the Map My Run app could figure out the time and distance of each run around neighborhood streets.

I don’t especially like carrying anything on a run, so I thought I’d look into getting a GPS-equipped running watch. I had a bare-bones Garmin Forerunner 10 a decade ago. It did the job, but had lousy battery life. Some of the latest model Garmin watches can set you back more than a thousand dollars. Surely I can find something in-between on eBay.

And I did. Someone was offering a Garmin triathlon sports watch. Had some wear and tear, but fully waterproof and had nice battery life. It had one bid for $2.25 with five days to go. It was tested, working, included a charger, and could be returned for a refund if I wanted to send it back. What did I have to lose? I bid $3.25, with automatic increases up to $10.

With a day to go, I was the highest bidder at $10. But you know how that goes. Bidders lurk until the last minute to out bid you. No problem. There were lots of other watches for sale.

Then I got an alert that the auction had been cancelled. The watch was no longer for sale. A note said, “The item has been lost or broken.” Oops. But, an hour later, it was listed again, with the same $2.25 bid and a buy now option of $39.95.

The seller either didn’t know what he or she was doing, or they weren’t getting the bids they anticipated. Or, they were messing around and broke the watch. Or the dog chewed it up. Or they started working out again. Or they lost it. Who knows?

I know I’ll find a bargain. I’ll bet there are as many unused running watches out there as there are unused gym memberships. I come across new listings every day.

This happened to me once before, when I was bidding on a vintage Monopoly game. The price was low, I was the winning bidder, but the seller suddenly ended the auction. I found another one in minutes. Their loss.

Posted in Travel

Plenty of time, right?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Hanson Lu on Unsplash

“We’ve got all the time in the world.”

Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave for two hours. As soon as we stepped out of our car in long term parking, the shuttle was there to pick us up. No one else was in line to tag our checked bags. We waltzed through security. The people mover was waiting for us. Before we knew it, we were at our gate long before boarding began.

“Let’s get something to eat.” We walked right up to the counter and ordered breakfast. There were plenty of places to sit and watch the planes arriving and departing. I glanced at phone. Departure is on time. “We can sit in the comfy seats while we finish our coffee.” We passed the time by watching people, checking email, and enjoying a little leg room before a few hours in coach.

No sooner had I said, “Let’s head down towards the gate,” when we heard our names (pronounced correctly) on the PA system. Not only was our flight boarding, but this was a final boarding call. What? For the first time ever, we were the ones running through the airport to get to our gate. And run we did, afraid we wouldn’t make it before they closed the door.

But we did. Last people on the plane. No problem. We often like to be the last people on the plane, standing as much as we can before sitting for a long time.

As long as we’re on the plane!

Posted in DIY

Rehabbing my grill and saving a bunch of money

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A long time ago, I decided I would not spend much money on a grill that was just going to rust out and end up on the curb in a couple of years. So I bought a relatively inexpensive one along with a decent cover from Covermates. Four years later, I’m still using my four-burner Nexgrill from Home Depot. It’s lasted longer than any other I’ve owned.

But nothing lasts forever. The innards were rusty and barely hanging together. Do I spend money on parts? Or on a new grill?

When I checked to see if I could get parts, I found a whole replacement pack for forty bucks. It included 4 burners, 4 heat plates and 4 ignitors. Sweet. Thanks to Amazon, it arrived a few days later.

Once I removed the rusted out pieces, I wiped out years of grease from the inside. I was amazed at how much had accumulated in there. All the replacement parts then fit perfectly. It looked and worked a whole lot better.

The ignitors presented a puzzle. The new connecting wires would plug right in if I could figure out how to get the old wires out. I watched a few unhelpful YouTube videos and decided to go for it. I grabbed one with pliers and yanked on it. Once it was out, I could see exactly how to plug the new one in. Piece of cake.

Anytime I can rehab and old grill and save a few hundred dollars is a good day. I grill meat just about every day, so it’s always a good investment.

Posted in prayer

First thing on the agenda: prayer

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

The men’s bible class I attended last week began with prayer rather than saving it until the end. Usually, the leader gets sidetracked or the table discussions is really good, and we don’t get to prayer until 7:59 (class ends at 8). But this time, the leader said, “I’m going to let you guys share with each other and pray for about twenty minutes. Then we’ll get into the study.”

Four or five men were seated at each of the six tables. Even though I know most of the guys who come each week, I had just met the three others at my table. One had been a member of the church for about thirty years. Another had just moved to Florida from Oregon. To my left was a thirty-something guy who just started a data science degree program at the local state college.

Typically, the majority of prayer is devoted to those we know who are ill or recovering. Tonight was different. At my table, our petitions were all ones of gratitude. Bob’s son had come back to church, his faith renewed. Kevin was adjusting well to a new home, job and church. Mike’s life was getting back on track and enjoying his studies. I was thankful for time spent with grandchildren.

After we jotted down our prayers, we all took turns praying. Sometimes people are reluctant to pray, but not this group. Not one of my new friends hesitated to offer up thanks for the stuff going on in our lives. I thought to myself, “This is a powerful time, praying with these men.”

The class leader commented that talking about our prayers usually took up more time than the prayers themselves. He was right. We only prayed for about five minutes. But that’s OK. God was listening in on our pre-prayer discussions. That was prayer time, too.

The plan worked well. The leader lost track of time and we didn’t even get through half the night’s discussion questions. It’s a good thing we started with prayer.

Posted in Ministry, youth

A few youth ministry memories (from way back)

Posted on by William Douthwaite

When I was growing up, our family was always involved in the church. My parents were involved in teaching and leadership, and as soon as we were old enough, my brother, sister and I were involved in the youth ministry.

Youth ministry looked a lot different in the early 1970’s. The high school youth group was called the Walther League. The Junior League was for those in Junior High School, which was grades 7 through 9 in our community. I don’t remember much about Junior League, except that we could wait to be old enough for Walther League.

Walther League was run entirely by the youth. There were a couple of adults there to make sure we didn’t break anything in the church and provide transportation. Other than that, they watched us have our meetings. We elected a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. The president ran the bi-monthly meetings, the secretary wrote down minutes in a notebook, and the treasurer kept a little lock box with our cash in it. Meetings consisted of reading a devotion from a devotional magazine, reading last meeting’s minutes, hearing how much money we had, ate a snack, played a game, and decided what else we wanted to do.

The only activities I remember were going to play miniature golf, going to a movie, going out for ice cream, and raising money to play miniature golf, go to a movie, and buy ice cream. The church gave us half of the Sunday morning coffee and donut money if we helped serve and clean up. We collected newspapers which we could take to a dump and sell for $2.00 a ton. My dad actually let me weigh down the family station wagon for trips to south Philadelphia to make a couple of bucks. I don’t think we ever accumulated more than twenty dollars, but that’s all we needed.

Not everyone in our group was allowed to go see the 1969 movie “True Grit” starring John Wayne. The film included some gunfights and the dialogue included a few obscenities (“Son of a b****”). I know, sounds mild compared to what’s on TV and in films now, but at the time, it was a big deal.

I don’t remember what else we did. By the time I was out of college and involved in youth ministry, much had changed. The leaders did the programming and teaching, and the youth came to be fed and entertained. In fact, parents expected the church to feed and entertain their children to keep them out of trouble. This became harder and harder to do since the world offers much more and better entertainment on TV, devices, and the internet.

I believe the best youth ministry happens when we give our young people something to do. They couldn’t wait to take on leadership responsibility during Vacation Bible School. Summer mission trips were times of spiritual growth. They benefitted by the experience of being part of the body of Christ, hearing and learning, going and telling.

2014 summer mission trip to Chattanooga, TN