The Conclusion of the “Griswold Family” Vacation (Part 2 of 2): Last week, I started to share the events of the last 24 hours of our family vacation. If you
didn’t see the article, please look it up online or get a copy of last week’s bulletin. I focused part one on my drone taking a swim in the lake, repairing some broken glass and once again messing up on dumping the "black water” tank of the RV!

After I got the RV “dumped” with the help of our friend’s septic cleaning truck
and getting “sprayed” while washing down the hoses, I felt like a disgusting mess. At this point, I only wanted to change my clothes and take a shower. But I still had to make the journey to Caro, Michigan to return the RV. It was a race against time because it was getting so late; I didn’t want my friend Ray staying up so late because of me. As I passed through Almont, again feeling like a disgusting mess as if I had just cleaned a septic field myself, I stopped at the local grocery store. I was trying to race through the store to buy water and some additional cleaning supplies. OF COURSE, I ran into people who knew me. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I then started the additional hour drive to Caro. Being that I didn’t want to fill the RV with diesel until I got close to Caro, I let it slide too close to empty. I was really sweating it because my GPS took me on some of the most desolate and empty roads from Almont to Caro. Eventually, I made it and was able to find a gas station but it was a pretty intense journey. I kept thinking it would be just my luck I would run out of gas. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. I made it to Ray and Ann’s house in Caro and all was fine. I made the exchange, thanked him for the use of the RV and began what would be a two hour drive back home. It was now 11:00 p.m.

About 15 minutes into the journey, I called my sister Cindy. As I was talking to her, I noticed this humungous bug crawling on my windshield. This thing was about 5 inches long, was green and had huge legs. I was amazed how this thing (which seemed big enough to be classified as an animal) was withstanding the wind on the windshield. As I focused a bit more and moved to tap the windshield, I realized this thing was on the INSIDE of my car!! UGH! I told my sister I had to pull over to try to get this thing out of my car. In the end, it was a huge praying mantis. How it got inside my car, I’ll never know. I opened all the windows and tried to coax this thing out of the car. That took a bit of work. The first thing I thought about was that Jackie was lucky she wasn’t with me. If she has a problem with spiders the size of a pin head, could you imagine her reaction to a 5 inch praying mantis on the inside of the car. Eventually, I coaxed it out of my car and I quickly closed the windows. My heart was racing a bit not only because I got startled but I was doing all of this about 11:15 at night on a dark and isolated country road in the middle of nowhere! Eventually, I made my way onto M-53; it would be a breeze from here … so I thought. I made another phone call and started to talk to some other family members. As I was yapping away just minding my own business on this quasi-dark section of M-53, I remember passing a traffic light and seeing the light disappear in my rearview mirror. All of a sudden it was like Christmas and I was on stage with huge spotlights and blinking lights! As I looked up, I thought to myself, “Can anything else go wrong.” At this point, I had been on the road about 12 hours and I just wanted to get home. The lights? Well, if you haven’t guessed it yet, a nice 
police officer decided he wanted to have a chat with me; and he wasn’t looking for pastoral advice! He asked if I knew why he pulled me over; I said I really didn’t have a clue. He clocked me going 67 in a 55mph stretch of road. At first, I thought given I was going about 70 or 75 most of the day because of all the freeway driving on I-75, I was lucky I was only going 67. Thankfully, he understood my plight (and I didn’t even tell him my drone, the broken glass, the RV or praying mantis stories). He just told me to slow down; I assured him I would do so!

At this point, I still needed to stop at a Coney Island to talk to someone who needed to chat because of some serious matters going on in their family. As I got out of the car at the Phoenix Coney Island in Sterling Heights, my friend asked me to come around to the passenger side to look at something. Much to my complete and utter astonishment, the praying mantis had traveled with me for about an hour and a half; it was still alive but its legs were slightly stuck in the passenger side window. It was fluttering its wings trying to get away. Unbelievable! I rolled down the window and it flew off. I could only shake my head. I was definitely ready for a good “Geno’s
Special” at this Coney Island even though it was close to 1:00 AM at this point. I couldn’t think of any better way to end the last 24 hours of my vacation than eating a delicious “Geno’s Special!” It was a great vacation but what a week. And people wonder why I don’t go on vacation often! It’s exhausting work!

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – A Holy Day of Obligation: On Wednesday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a Holy Day of Obligation. Our mass schedule for the solemnity will include a vigil mass on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. On Wednesday we will have our usual 7:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. followed by a 12:00 noon and 7:00 p.m. mass.

What exactly are we celebrating with the Assumption of Mary? “The dogma of the assumption affirms that Mary’s body was glorified after her death. While for other human beings the resurrection of the body will take place at the end of the world, for Mary the glorification of her body was anticipated by a special privilege (Pope John Paul II, general audience, July 2, 1997).”

For more information about the Church’s wealth of teaching about the Blessed Virgin Mary visit the University of Dayton’s special website dedicated to her: https://www.udayton.edu/imri/mary/.

Enjoy the week. Know of my prayers.

In Christ,

gmb
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