Good morning and Happy Saturday. I trust your day is going well. Just the fact that you are alive and up and able to read this tells me that God has already blessed you today. (Well, --- not because you are reading this, but because you are eyes open and reading anything.) So welcome to a new day full of opportunities to do something for somebody today. And who knows --- maybe someone is waiting to do something for you today.

I don't know what has the squirrel's tail shaking this morning but something certainly does. It has been round and round the tulip poplar tree and on and off of the bird feeder next to that tree and it will stop and look around and lash its tail back and forth and then move some more and stop again. Maybe it sees a challenger out there somewhere or maybe there is a cat in the yard some place. It isn't chittering but it certainly is animated this morning.

It certainly is another beautiful morning. It is 71 degrees with a 5mph breeze and no clouds to be seen. Tomorrow we have church service in the outdoor sanctuary and it is supposed to be another day like today. I'm looking forward to that. I plan to take advantage of the weather today and do some stuff in my flowerbeds again. As I look around, I see that I have a bunch of Redbud trees sprouting up all over the place again. So, I need to go chop those out before they get too big. The leaves have stopped dropping for now so my yard still looks good from my work earlier this week. But I have to minimize the miniature forest that keeps popping up in my flowerbeds. I also need to spray some roundup or other weedkiller on the darned ivy that is threatening to take over the area behind my shed again. And --- the large flowerbed on the south side of the driveway needs a lot of work too. There is always something that needs doing around here.

I've been keeping tabs on what is happening through the state of Florida and islands south of that. Hurricane Irma should make landfall directly on Miami tomorrow morning at a Category five level. That will be devastating to the area and yet there people who simply refuse to move out. MKaybe they simply have no where to go or a way to move out. But, I certainly lift them up in prayer and ask for God's shooting hand to be upon this storm. But , --- the irony of that is that even If God did lay God's hand upon this storm and tone it down, those that's refused to evacuate would probably just say; "See, I told you it wasn't going to be anything." So, what can you do but pray for them and all of the people that are about to lose homes etc and hope no lives are lost. This storm has already cost close to a hundred people their live on some of the islands that it has devastated. Let's all pray no more are lost. And --- don't forget that the victims of Hurricanes Harvey are still suffering over on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico, and people in the state of Montana are losing farms and livelihood to forest fires, and Mexico got hit hard with an earthquake yesterday and has a hurricane bearing down on it. God certainlyhas God's hands full with nature that has run amuck. Please keeep your prayers flowing for al of th victims in the path of these things. Peace.