Hello Monday; what are you doing back here already? We would prefer that it was the weekend still but here you are, most likely dragging a weeks worth of things for me to do behind you.

I guess if it has to be a Monday, at least it is a beautiful Monday. It is 59 degrees and going up to 69 and the sky is empty of clouds. That will make it feel a bit warmer. Our only agenda item for today is the furnace folks are supposed to come do their fall service. I could just tell them it works, because we have already had to use it a couple of times was this fall. Indications are that the cost of gas and electric are going up again this fall; and I heard on the news last night that the water and sewer rates are going up over the next five years by 30%. That totally sucks.

Attendance at church was weird yesterday. At St. Paul's we only had nine or maybe ten. That is about half of what we normally have. Twenty is usually a good Sunday attendance there. Then at St. Lucas we had a relatively full church; pretty close to 60 I'd say. I only have five Sundays left as the pastor of these two churches. My retirement is that close. Tomorrow Ms. Kate and I are meeting with the fella that is most likely going to replace me. We are meeting with he and his wife to kind of give them the low down on the churches as to who are the prominent families in each church, traditions and that kind of stuff. The face and make-up of each congregation has certainly changed over the past twelve and a half years with the death of so many of the older members.

There are a lot of birds flocking around just above and in the tops of the trees this morning. I'm not sure what they are, however I did have a robin land in the yard at he birdbath a while ago. It is possible that the holly trees are full of berries again and they are coming in to clean all of the berries off of the trees, That is an annual occurrence. When that happens, I get hundreds of robins in here because there are at least three giant holly trees in yards around mine. I enjoy watching it happen but they sure do poop a lot all over the sidewalks. I've also had a lot of cardinals here this morning and my finches and downy woodpeckers. I haven't had to fill the feeders yet though for two or three days. I guess the birds are getting their fill in the fields still. As I continue to watch those flocks, I've come to the conclusion that they are blackbirds in migration. The flocks are large, fast and they flock and fly in swirls which is indicative of what we see out in the fields and also what I will see around here if the snow starts flying and they return to my feeders.

Ms. Kate just brought my breakfast and filled my coffee cup up again so I think I'll just sit back and watch the goings on outside. Then a little later I'll go out and do some more yard work. It certainly feels strange knowing that I don't have to get downstairs and start working on a sermon or a worship service first thing this week. Those are all written through my retirement.

Have a most blessed week and a wonderful day today. Take time to tell someone you love them, share a smile with someone who looks like they need it. Peace.