Friday from Lisa's house! It is a cold Carolina morning, currently 45 degrees which will be our high for today. I was just out walking around Lisa's yard with Patches the cat as my morning companion. Lisa and Gary have had eight of their huge pine trees removed and one can hardly tell any are gone. They still have thirty two more out there and probably seventy five azalea bushes left out there and some Camilla bushes. It was a super beautiful yard until Amanda got two dogs that are unruly, untrained, and have dug and torn the heck out of her yard. Not my problem, not my yard; but those dogs would have been history if it were me.

Our trip down here was uneventful and an easy drive. No snow or rain made it a good trip. For most of the trip we had relatively light traffic until we got to the major cities like Nashville, Knoxville and Raleigh. Then we looked for go arounds and they proved useful.

We came down to be with Lisa while Gary and Matt went to New Mexico to see his dad. We thought they were flying out today but they actually fly out tomorrow. So, that gives us a chance to visit with them. Sunday we are going to the rehab facility to see Amanda. She seems to be doing alright with this rehab so far, although we could tell by the sound of her voice and what she had to say she is not as enthused about it as she was the first few days. But --- addicts are like that she is following the path that is quite normal. She will now be trying to "bargain"her way out and it will be crucial that her parents don't give in. When we go Sunday, the first thing we will have to do is to sit through a class of how to deal with her which I think will be extremely valuable. Then we will have up to three hours to visit. We are really looking forward to that.

There is a noticeable lack of birds here in Lisa's yard and that is puzzleing to me. I would have thought there would be a lot of them around here simply because she lives farther south than us. I asked Lisa about it and she said that is because her cat will snatch them right out of the air. I reckon that makes sense then that they would avoid her place.

I guess I'll make this short and we are about to head out and do some running around. One more day left in 2016 and then we start a whole new year of God given opportunities to improve our lives and the lives of people around. This morning I am lifting up a young family who desperately would like to have a baby but just had their third mis-carriage. Please offer your prayers for them. God has a plan for them, I pray they will be able to see that through their sorrow.

Have a most wonderful day and make the best use of the few remaining hours of this year. Peace.