Saturday afternoon! --- What the heck is going on? --- It has been a busy couple of days; that's what is going on. But right now, I just finished a quick "cat-nap" here in the sunporch and Ms. Kate is still deeply involved in having one in her recliner next to me.

Yesterday morning we had to get ready to go to a funeral over in Mt. Carmel, IL first thing in the morning. That is about forty five miles from our house The deceased was an elderly relative of some of my parishioners and we thought right that we go.

After the funeral we decided to call Julie and see if she was working or home or what. We really wanted a chance to go by and see the house that she is going to buy. Well, she was tied up and still bushed from a night of work at the morgue haunted house and planned to take a nap before she headed back to the morgue haunted house over in Louisville. But she said we could meet around 1600 her time (EST), go drive by the house, and then she would take us through the haunted house with the lights on so we could see waht she does there and then she could get ready for another night of  haunting. So, by now it was getting to be full-on lunch time so I asked Ms. Kate if she wanted to head out to Louisville now, (a two and a half hour drive) have lunch at her favorite restuarant, PF Chang's, and then go meet Julie. That is what we did. It was a nice drive, Julie's house looks great from the street. The owners are still in it though, so it was a quick drive by. Then we went to her haunted house, which is actually documented as a haunted morgue, and we walked though that. In fact, one of the players got bumped twice and pushed once last night while he was in a room all by himself.  He had been laying on a guerney that had been in use while the morgue was in actual use.

We got home late in th evening last night.  Today, I mowed and mulched up the leaves in the back yard again and trimmed out the rest of the phlox here in the flowerbed. We were supposed to get rain today but didn't, and now that the cold front has moved in, we aren't expecting any rain for at least a week.

The sad news to report is that my brother-in-law Byron is now under Hospice care at home. He saw his oncologist on Friday and was told he has a few weeks to maybe a few months left to live. Cancer has won yet again and it was not unexpected. But God has given him a few extra months of quality time with his family and grandchildren through the use of some experimental medicine. So, we give God praise for blessings and we pray that his remaining time will be relatively pain free and his passing will be peaceful. That is about all any of us can ask for. Our immortality is defined by the memories others have of us and Byron has left his family and loved ones with a lot of good memories.

The wind has kicked up again and by morning we won't be able to tell I cleaned up the leaves at all. I think I'll go out and run the John Deere over the front yard one more time this season. I hope our weekend is a pleasant one.