Ahhh, Monday morning and I'm up early today. I woke with a vicious headache, which for me is really unusual. I have hedaches so infrequently that I guess any headache feels vicious to me. But this one was a two Advil Gelcap variety. Thankfully it has diminished over the last hour somewhat.

The sky is cloudy; the wind is blowing and it is sixty degrees. A low pressure front  is coming in which most likely accounts for my headache. But, it is supposed to warm to 81 today, so we shall see what happen. In the mean time my coffee cup is still about half full and good and hot. I have one of those Mr. Coffee cup warming plates sitting here and it does an excellent job of keeping my coffee quite drinkable no matter how long I might set here.

I'm still officially on vacation, although I did go downstairs and do some sermon work last evening. Everything is fully ready for this coming Sunday but there is always a "next" Sunday to prepare for. Tomorrow is Byron's funeral and I will do the graveside portion of that. Then Wednesday is choir practice and since we are singing this coming Sunday, Ms. Kate and I need to go to choir practice and catch up on what we might have missed last week. So, --- on vacation or not --- I think we are back to work. The only thing on my actual schedule today though is to take the car in for servicing. My instruments tell me I have only 5% oil life left and I have an appointment at 1600 hrs to have it serviced. The Cadillac uses nothing but synthetic oil so I'm glad that my required servicing is free. That is some expensive stuff. On the other hand, I only have to have it changed every 7,500 miles.

We planted ten new peonies in the new and expanded flowerbed on Saturday. Maybe today we will get some of the iris moved in to it too. Today is also Columbus Day, the day that Christopher Columbus bumped into the Bahamas. I 've studied the glorified history of the event and still don't understand the big deal, and understand even less why it is a federal holiday. It's not like Columbus actually knew where he was; and he wasn't where he intended to be. Nor did he "discover" anything, --- because there were already indigenous people here and had been for a thousand years or so. When Moses was walking people across a parted Red Sea, there were people native to this country paddling across what would become named the Mississippi River. I'll bet you never ran that thought across your mind. See what getting up early does to me???

The clouds are lifting and the sun is burning off any haze that is out there. The cardinals are having a breakfast of sunflower seeds and peanuts. The woodpeckers are at the barkbutter feeders, and the squirrels are chasing one another from tree limb to tree limb. The back yard is a busy place this morning. As I sit here and enjoy all of this I continue to lift up my sister in prayers for comfort. I think they may be coming in tonight but don't know for sure. The funeral visitation starts at 0900 tomorrow morning and it is a five hour drive down here. Like all new widows and widowers, she has some tough times ahead for awhile. So, I'm just asking that God continue to be the strength she needs.  I also continue to lift up the people of South Carolina as they wait for the flood waters to fully recede and they can get in to their neighborhoods and homes and try to salvage something of thier lives. The same goes for the 1600 or more homeowners in California who are without homes that were destroyed by ravaging forest fires. These problems don't go away overnight just because the news reporters no longer cover the story.

I bid you God's peace.