Monday, December the 19th. Merry Christmas week! It is a cold --- really cold --- start to the week with a temperature of 10 degrees this morning and a windchill "feels like" temperature of 3 degrees. Of course, I don't think that if I were out side that I could tell the difference between 10 and 3. It's like when we lived in Las Vegas and the temperature would sore over 100 degrees; it didn't make any difference whether it was 100 or 105; --- it was hot -- period.

It has been a non-adventurous weekend. The cold and weather kept Ms. Kate and I in for the most part. I did get the mower deck off of the John Deere and the snow blade put on. Now it can do whatever and I think I'm prepared. We did go to Sam's Club on Saturday morning and pick up some stuff and then hurried home because the bad weather was supposed to be moving in. Yesterday we didn't bother to get out to go to church. I saw on Facebook that our churches that we have been going to were closed. However, we could have gone locally, we just didn't want to go out when it was single degree temperature. And yes --- I know that is no excuse. But, I did take time for a conversation with The Lord. However --- instead of doing two church services yesterday ---- I watched three football games. Welcome to retirement.

I've started going through some of the boxes of pictures that we brought home from my mother's apartment. After she passed away a year and a half ago. So far I have only emptied a box and a half. Most of the pictures we have are pictures they took of scenery and collections of postcards. All of that goes straight into the trash. However, if there are pictures of their friends, especially of ones we don't know, as well as pictures of people that we may know but don't want --- I'm running them through the shredder. Ms. Kate says she doesn't like to think of pictures of folks being thrown into a landfill for just anyone to find. I guess it makes sense to her, I'll just do what she asks. Anyway, it is just one of those tasks that I said I would tackle after I retire.

I think the squirrels have on two layers of fur coat this morning the way they are puffed up. They look fat; and they look cold. I've had mostly cardinal and starlings this morning. Those beautiful red feathers on the cardinal just brighten up an area when they land. With no leaves on the trees at all, it is easy to pick them out sitting up here in the poplar and maple trees. I always especially enjoy the little birds though. The junkos and the wrens hop around here in a frenzy. What I don't see is very many Chick-a-dees. That surprises me. I wonder what has happened to them.

As we begin tis all to the manager this week, I pray you will find nothing but peace and love for your soul. This gift from God to the world is simply the most amazing act of love possible --- with the exception of the death and resurrection of Jesus. I pray that the peace of Jesus somehow catch the world on fire with a sense of spiritual love. What a gift we the people of this world could give to one another if we just spent a week being in love with life and one another. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.