Hello Friday, you beautiful end of the work week day. My Friday starts with a Backyard Buffet full of guests this morning as we sit down and have our coffee for me and bird food and a bath for them. I have lots of sparrows, house finches and gold finches, cardinals, starlings, a couple of wrens, a couple of woodpeckers, a dove or two and a hummingbird out there plus a fat squirrel It looks like a busy airport with all of the flying in and out. I think I will have to refill feeders today at some point.

The President of the United States was inour city last night. He was here to promote and support a republican candidate for senate. I’ve seen presidents and been involved in presidential arrivals and departures for years as a member of the USAF, including every president from President Lyndon Johnson thru President Geaorge W. Bush. But it is a big deal when the leader of the entire free world comes to your town, The event center where he spoke was packed with about 11,000 supporters. There were also several hundred protesters outside the venue. That was fine because it is our American right for them to be there and protest. The great news is that the protesters were peaceful with their marching and shouting  and it didn’t disrupt anything that was going on inside the building. People from Indiana know how to conduct themselves in a civil manner. I was very proud of our city.

It is a “schrooms and beer” day today with Bob and Brenda. Ms, Kate and I look forward to these days. We’ll meet out at St. Joe Inn as always and the waitress, Linda, will begin pouring the pitcher of Yengleng as soon as the first of us walks in  and she’ll place two orders of deep fried mushrooms right away. It has become that routine for us. And since it is Friday, we all know the special of the day will be fried cod with backed beans and slaw which is probably what Bob and I wil have. Brenda wil have a bowl of chili and Ms. Kate will have to think about it first as she has her diet Ski. Don’t you just love traditions? We’ll talk about family, we’ll talk about church, and we’ll talk about gardening. We are an exciting foursome. Sometimes though Brenda also brings her hubby, Andy —— but Andy doesn’t ever say much, and sometimes we invite my sister-in-law Karen to come along too.

It is Labor Day weekend, the official end of summer. Camp grounds will be packed this weekend and churches will have a few less people in them as folks try to crowd in that “last weekend of fun” before the grind of school starting and all kinds of other events over take their lives. I know at least ten of our church folks are going to be gone camping. Jules and the pups are coming over on Monday and heading back on Tuesday. I suspect tat Jim will not come because he’ll have to work on Tuesday.

Time for me to get cleaned up and ready to head out for some schrooms. Have a blessed Friday. Drive careful if you are heading out on a quick trip. Shalomn.

Happy Thursday morning! It is a bright sunshine day and a hot one already. Our “rain”. Such as it was, has come and gone. Unfortunately it did not cool off much or lower the humidity much. So that men’s that today is going to be a miserable one outside again. Oh well, I might run the JD over the yard in front anyway. The backyard doesn’t need it.

It is bath time for the sparrows this morning. They are all lined up around the bird bath and are taking their turns jumping in the water, splashing around a bit and then jumping out, Then the next one jumps in. It is really cute to watch. Sometimes two of them will get in there at a time and then they peck at one another until one leaves and gets back up on the rim. My always favorite guests, the wrens are here this morning too. They are curious little creatures, They really like to get in the flower pots and scratch around. I don’t have any idea what they find that they like in there but they spend a lot of time daring in and out. The woodpecker crew is here this morning again having breakfast as are the starlings and the cardinals. It is no wonder that I spend so much time sitting here and why it takes me so long to write my blog when I sit out here. Ms. Kate just said basically the same thing. She has moved a bunch of her greeting card making stuff out here in the sunporch for the summer. She says she gets distracted b the antics of my backyard buffet guests too easily.

I need to do a little running around today. As a minimum I need to go to the dry cleaners and pick up a pair of pants that I had to have shortened. I don’t know what else I might need to do. I’m caught up on my writing  although I need to start working on a Christmas drama for church. I’d like to write one for the Christmas Eve service. I have a couple that I’ve written before that I could pull out of the file but I’d really like to do something new. While I’m caught up, I think this might be a good time to work on that. I have an idea floating in the back of my head but I just don’t seem to be able to pull it forward and make it congeal. I’m also toying with an idea for a Spring Revival at the church that I need to put some more thought in to. I put together working paper on it last night to present to the Music and Worship committee. Perhaps by next spring the church will have hired a permanent pastor but we need to plan ahead regardless.

That is it for this morning. I might as well pour another cup of coffee and start on something else. A always, I hope your day is full of blessings and I hope you share them with others. Peace  

Good morning. We all know that if I don’t sit and write quickly before I head out to the office, I’ll end up skipping a day because that seems to have become the pattern,

The sun hasn’t broken through the clouds yet and we are looking for rain at some point in the day. That’s fine by me, we need it. What surprises me is how many leaves are starting to fall from the trees in my back yard. It isn’t a massive fall but there are a lot of them. I saw yesterday that the Farmer’s Almanac says it is going to be a “teeth-chattering, snowy winter”. I don’t want to even think about winter yet; let alone chattering teeth or massive amounts of that white stuff. Although that does provide some John Deere time with the snow blade.

Some of our parishioners posted pictures of the improvements we are making at the chuch this morning. The concrete has been poured for thrsteps to the out door chapel all the way to the top now. The pews in the church sanctuary are about half done with the replacement cushions. It is looking great. We still have a few things on the list to get done but our deacons and elders really seem to have a handle on the needed improvements and the congregation has stepped up to the plate to make it happen. For a church that was floundering around a couple of years ago, this is dynamic.

 Ms. Kate and I went out and did some more running around yesterday. We went up nd checked on Karen’s house, then went to lunch, went to the Apple store and picked up another key pad for my IPad. They only had one left and I snatched it up. It is worth the $4.50 to have a spare since they are phasing them out.

Time’s up, I need to get n the shower and get ready for work. I hope your day is blessed and I hoe good things happen to you all day long. But regardless of how your day goes, stop long enough to have a talk with the Almighty God. Peace.

It is another “weather alert day” for us “old folk” and asthmatics with a heat index this afternoon projected to be over 100 degrees. That’s a yuk! It is only 0915 and is eighty-six out there but we have a thirteen mile per hour breeze going so basically we have what I call desert conditions. The difference being that we have humidity added to it all. I remember many days when we lived at Nellis Air Force Bse that we would have mornings lke this  only the humidity would be about seven percent. That just makes it a convection oven.

I told you yesterday that w had a bunch of running around to do after I finished my office hours and we certainly did do some traveling. Actually, just a great big loop to do it all but we went from this side of town to the east side of town then to about forty miles north to the melon farm and back again.  But it was worth the trip The cantaloupes we picked up are delicious. We always get good melons from Creeks farm up on the other side of Johnson, IN and it is a nice country drive.

I lucked out yesterday on one of my purchases. I was needing to buy a new keyboard form my IPad. The one I had was at the point of breaking in half. It was a plastic case thing and as much as I open and close my IPad it had gotten weak again at the hinges. I just bought the thing maybe a year and a half ago but I use my IPad a lot. So, I went to the Apple Store to see if they had any and what they had was an improved version of the one I was using. And —- the great thing is that what they had was on closeout and I got it for $4.50. I had paid almost $100.00 for the one that was breaking and that was my second one of those. But, This new keyboard is good for only this model of IPad Pro and it is being phased out by Apple. I may go get another one today just to have a spare. I’m hoping my IPad will last a long time. It is really convenient for doing just what I am doing right now; sitting in my recliner with my IPad on my lap to write my blog.

I think we are going to do some more running around today. It is a good day for it rather than just sit in the house. I got a coupon today via email that Old Chicago has Calzones on a two for one deal and we do love our calzones.

That is all of my life exciting news for today so I’m going to get off and take the mail out to the mailbox. Have a wonderful day. Tell someone you love them. Peace.

Welcome to Monday and once again we start a brand new week. We have a local car dealer here in the Tri-State area that begins his spiel with "It's hot, Don!" Well today, it's hot Don. The heat index today is going up to 100 -105. I don't care who you are, that's hot and humid and miserable.

We had 85 in church yesterday. That's a great number; down a few from the 93 of last week but we had more visitors last week because of the families coming to support loved ones that were being baptized. I once had a mentor that told me to try to have something special each week to draw people in. We're in a changed society that seems to need a special event to bring them to church rather than just coming because it is a part of a person's life. Maybe it is a need to "be entertained" on some level although I never thought of church and worship as entertainment.

Good things are happening at the church this week. We have a contractor upstairs in the sanctuary at the moment replacing our pew cushions. The church had agreed that we needed to do this but the cost was going to be $10,000.00. We were getting ready to start a campaign to raise the money when one of the parishioners gave a check to cover the entire cost. God does work in mysterious ways. This morning we also had a contractor out in the Woodland Chapel pouring the rest of the concrete for the steps. Our next (and last for this year) out door service is September 9th and we are hoping to have all of the concrete work done out there including a sidewalk and wheelchair area. This has been needing to be done for several years. It all takes money though and a lot of planning and hard work.

 I went to Pet Food Center on Saturday and picked up another eighty pounds of sunflower seed after I filled all of my feeders. I still have maybe fifteen pounds in my small can and I want to empty it completely and let it air out before I get another forty pound bag. Right now the food is disappearing quite as fast and I finally figured out why. I haven't had any black birds or starling around here to speak of for a few weeks. I guess they are all out in the fields because it will be harvest time before long.  Once they show back up, it will be a daily effort to keep everything filled. Of course if they didn't show up it wouldn't hurt my feelings or or my wallet as often. This afternoon I'll have to get the sunflower seed out of the back of the car and fill up the can in the yard barn.

We have several other things to do today so it is a good thing that I'm caught up with my writing for the moment. Ms. Kate wants to run up to the little town of Johnson and pick up a couple of cantaloupes. Plus we need to go to the Apple store and get a new keyboard for my IPad. Then to Sam's to return a couple of shirts, and to the doctor's office for Ms. Kate to give blood for her blood tests this month. Somewhere in there we will stop and have lunch too. So it is going to be a "run around" day.

I should probably quit "doing my stuff" here at the office and maybe make a couple of phone calls to parishioners. I hope your day is blessed. Peace.

Good morning on this bright and beautiful Saturday morning. It looks extremely pleasant out side although my thermometer via Accuweather says is it is eighty three already. There is a nice breeze that is keeping the leaves onthe trees moving. And it must be a good day for the finches to take a bath. I had nine sitting around the edge of the bird bath earlier all taking turns with their splashing and splashing.

What shall I do with my time today? For one thing, I need to refill the bird feeders again. Several of them are empty and I need to go get 80 pounds (two bags) of sunflower seed and fill the can back up. I have had it sitting outside upside down to air out and dry out for about a week now. My second and smaller can that I keep up here by the back door is still half full and I’ll empty it before I start on the other new stuff. The niger seed feeders are empty and so is the gazebo safflower feeder that the cardinal love. That is the one feeder that I have managed to pretty much “squirrel proof”. It sits on top of a six foot 4X4 wooden post and I wrapped aluminum flashing around the top two feet of it just below a baffle. There has been one or two that have braved it but they generally end up cutting themselves on the sharp edges of the flashing and I guess have decided it wasn’t worth the pain involved. At first I’d find where blood had dripped down the flashing, but not in the last two or three years. Once in a while I’ll see a young squirrel go up the first two or three feet of the wooden pole, but then they get to the flashing and jump back off. Besides, I only put safflower seed in that one and they’re don’t like it.

I have a little yard work that I want to do today, and I might just mow the front yard  to trim it off for the weekend and make it look smooth. I know I have a bunch of weedeating that I could do with the trimmer. And, I might just do a little work on repairing a yard bench that I swore I was going to fix two or three years ago. The wood on it has totally rotted out and I bought the lumber to fix it a long time ago. It has been one of those “some day” projects that a person never get to. —- Then again, maybe I’ll just sit and read some Stephen King for a change.

I have a couple of wrens sitting out here singing a song to me and all of the feeders are hosting guests  looking for food. I guess I better go be productive. Tomorrow is Sunday and let’s all take time to stop our lives and give thanks for yet another week of blessings received. I’ll pray for you, and would ask that you remember me in your thoughts and prayers. Peace.

My Accuweather app says it is sixty three degrees and we will have rain starting in one hour. I have found that app to be pretty reliable so it probably will start raining in an hour or there about. But most locals would tell you that we don’t need an app to tell it is going to rain this weekend. This is Frog Follies weekend and it almost always rains on Frog Follies weekend. For the “non-familiar”, Frog Follies is our annual mega-street rod gathering here at the fairgrounds. There will be around 5000 street rods coming in from all over the mid-west and beyond. It is a huge charity money maker for the area, not to mention all of the money spent on hotels, and restaurants while they are here. But it seems that the weather is either feast or famine. We’ve had years that it rained so much that they were getting stuck in the mud and we’ve seen times that it was miserably hot for them. Hopefully it won’t be too bad for them this year and the rain, while we need it, will be minimal until they all pull back out again on Sunday.  

I’m getting caught up and ahead in preparation for our coming vacation. I’m currently working on the sermon for the Sunday after we get back and have already sent the secretary the bulletin for that week so she can do her part of it all. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have a secretary. I can’t imagine Pastor Art and I trying to do it all on our own. Zoar is a much more active church than my last parish was with a lot more committees and events going on. That is not to say that one is better than the other but Zoar needs a good secretary to keep everything in order, and our secretary, Karen, is a winner. We are blessed to have her to work with. (Or is it for?)

Ms. Kate and I talked about going over to Louisville today for lunch at PF Chang’s. I don’t know if that is still in the works or not. I know she is really busy making her Christmas cards. I think she has. About forty of them done so far. She does a beautiful job and she does get a lot of comments from the recipients of them. So, if we aren’t going to Louisville, she’ll work on cards and I will do some writing. It’s all good.

I have plenty of visitors and customers at the buffet this morning. Oh, I had a strange thing yesterday morning. After I finished my blog I decided to get a package of Toaster Strudels out of the freezer. I noticed that the end flap was open but thought nothing of that because it does happen to the cardboard. However, when I pulled the plastic package out of the box, the package was torn open and there was one toaster streusel missing. All of the icing packages were still there. So, someone in the grocery store had opened that package and stolen one of my streudles. I was almost a little leary about us eating the others because I thought of the possibility of someone “tainting” the rest. But, we chanced it and they were fine. I hope who ever did that enjoyed it —- the jerk!!!

Enough for today. I need to see what my plans are for the day which means vacate my recliner, go back to Ms. Kate’s office for further direction!! LOL. Have a blessed day. Peace.  

I think missing my blog writing on Wednesday is becoming habitual. I started to write yesterday afternoon late but by then I just wasn’t in the mood to do so. And —- it wasn’t like I had any “must tell” secrets waiting to hit the IPad screen anyway.

No —- yesterday was just a routine day. I had staff meeting with Karen and Art first thing. After I finished up at the church I came home and got Ms. Kate and we went to lunch. I needed to go to Sam’s Club to try to get some of those big paper yard trash bags that they sell. Well of course they didn’t have any nor did they know if they were going to get them again. I really prefer to use those because they are bio-degradable in the land fill. I don’t want to add plastic out there. The kid at Sam’s said they had them in the spring but sold out and he didn’t know if they would have them in the fall. I have some of my empty sunflower seed bags that I keep so I guess in the mean time I’ll just use those to put my yard clippings in. And I also have my compost pile that I can put the stuff in. The problem with that is that much of the weeds and  stuff I bag up has seeds on it. If I throw that in the compost pile, when I use that compost I’m just throwing weed seed back in my flower beds and garden. I have enough vicious cycles with weeds around here as it is.

We got home from our shopping in time to take a short nap and then I had to goo back to the church for a meeting. Last night was the activities committee meeting and we planned out at least one new activity a month for the rest of the year.

I have an experiment going on with one of my bird feeders. I had filled two of my feeders with some suet pellets, or what is some times called Bark Butter Chips. There were two different “flavors” of them, one was peanut butter flavored and the other was a berry flavor. The birds have emptied the peanut butter flavored one quickly but they hardly touched the other one. I let them sit like that for a few days but yesterday I decided to see it if was the location of the feeders or the flavor of the pellets. So I put the berry flavored pellets in the other container to see if they would eat it. Initially a couple of finches came and ate for a few minutes but I noticed his morning that the feeder has been left virtually untouched. Nor has anything been at it this morning at all. I will probably just throw those pellets on the ground. I guarantee you that the possum or the squirrels or a skunk will gobble them right up. Then I’ll fill the feeders up with my usual pellets and everybody can be happy again. Dang spoiled critters!!.

That catches you up on the latest non-excitement of my life. Have a happy Thursday and then get started on a grand weekend and relax a little. Peace.

A grand Tuesday morning to you. I’m sitting here in the sunporch and I’mn “Pedi-ready”. Ms. Kate has a hair appointment at 1000 hrs and then we are going to get pedicures. It isn’t my favorite thing to do but I don’t hate it either. The girls that do it get by easier with me because I can’t stand to have anybody touch the bottom of my feet. If I could just go in there and have them cut the nails and clean out the nail beds I’d be very happy. I don’t need all of that rubbing and rasping and other stuff that they do. If I could bend over and trim my toenails myself, I’d do it in a minute. but —- we. get pedicures instead.

It was supposed to rain and maybe even have severe storms yesterday but at our house we had maybe three minutes of a shower last night around 2100 hrs and that was it. It is cloudy today and was sprinkling a few minutes ago but has stopped now. I honestly doubt we’ll get anything more which is too bad because we could use it.

My backyard buffet guests are being well served this morning. I filled feeders yesterday and Ms. Kate scrubbed up the hummingbird feeder and refilled it. It was covered in ants because the little cup that is an “ant-guard” that hangs above it was empty. It is an engenious little device that you fill with water and it has a hook under it to hang the actual hummingbird feeder from. The theory is tha the ants will crawl up the pole and then down to the feeder but they drown in the water. It works very well. It is one of those things that I wonder why I didn’t invent. Some dude probably retired for life because he invented a plastic cup with a hook on the bottom. Ms. Kate also scrubbed up the bird bath. So, every body has food and water this morning and then they can take a fresh bath. Maybe we’ll change the name to the Backyard Buffet and Spa.

I got the yard mowed yesterday afternoon and it really looks a lot better., It was the first time in four weeeks that I have meowed the back yard. I spent as much tome picking up twigs and stuff as I di actually mowing back there.

Time to go. Have a blessed day. Peace.

Monday morning has arrived right on schedule. I'm glad to see that; I'd hate to see the days of the week get out of sequence. How would we handle that?

We had a great service yesterday. We had a baptism, brought two new members into the church and I preached the sermon and played a trumpet solo. We had 92 in attendance. How wonderful to see the pews filling in a little more each week. A year ago our attendance was 56. I guess we are doing something right. I just hope it keeps going at this pace. It would be nice to be able to turn a really healthy church over to the new permanent pastor, --- if we ever actually get one. Right now that process seems to be going extremely slow. I call it working at "church speed" which is even slower than congress.

We are supposed to be having storms this afternoon and maybe even tomorrow. We can use the rain again but we don't need any severe storms. I'm waiting to see if the roof fix the contractor did actually took care of the problem. I really hope so.

Our big news locally is a mess going on with one of the non-denominational "mega-churches" here in town. They have a membership of about 7000 people, although I don't know what their weekly attendance is. Ms. Kate and I have attended that church a few times and enjoyed the service although it is conducted differently than the "traditional way" we do things here. I know they hold several services every Sunday and their sanctuary holds about a 1000 and from what we have seen, every service is full. Their board of elders fired the lead pastor and the "teaching" pastor. Now, two more pastors and an elder have also resigned because of that. I don't know how big their pastoral staff is but it would not be unusual for them to have at least a dozen. I feel for the congregation. Our church here has a long history of inner church turmoil and is in fact the reason we are without a settled pastor today. But, I can't imagine the turmoil they must be going through. From news reports there are several different stories and reasons being given for the actions that took place and thank goodness none of it has anything to do with improprieties on the part of the pastors. It seems to be a difference in theology and how the church should be run. It would be terrible though if the spirituality of the congregation had been ripped apart because of egos. When that happens people storm out of the church mad at the world and the church and God and they often stay away from church because they feel they have been betrayed. My point in telling you all of this is to ask you to add that church and those 7000 parishioners to your prayers  and hope that they can have many prayerful discussions and come together again.

That is about all of the news that's "fit to print" for today. I'll be going out to do some visitation today maybe. I've had some stomach issues today and maybe I should postpone that in case it would be viral. I pray your day will be blessed and I pray you take the time to stop what you are doing and give thanks to God Almighty for a day full of blessings. Peace.

I wonder if birds feel especially vulnerable when they drink. I’m watching the finches as they come to the bird bath to drink and they sit there and they look all around them several times before they dip their heads down for a drink. The other birds such as the cardinals will do that too. I wonder if it is a built in vulnerability instinct. I wouldn’t doubt it; God does some marvelous things with His creation.

And a happy and glorious Saturday to you. Accuweather tells me it is seventy seven degrees with eighty four percent humidity. All in all, that is tolerable. I took the mail out to the box a bit ago and it didn’t feel too bad. So far it has been a cloudy day, but if the sun pops out it will become more humid. I don’tknow what is on our agenda today but at some point I really should get out there in the south front flowerbeds and take on the tigers and lions that are probably hiding in there. If I destroy their jungle habitat maybe they will leave peacefully and not be a danger to passing vehicles and pedestrians.

Wild Birds Unlimited reopened yesterday. It was nice to get back in there. I didn’t spend as much as I thought I might but I did do some damage to my wallet. They had a new bird feeder set up that I may have to eventually purchase. Unfortunately I think it will cost around $300.00. Ms. Kate liked it too so it might get delivered by Santa Clause this year. We’ll have to take a look at it again a time or two and see if it was just a whim or if we really like the set up. I tend to do that; I’ll pick something up in a store that I think I may want to purchase and I’ll carry it around and most of the time I talk myself out of buying it and I’ll put it back on the shelf. The biggest thing is to be able to put it where the squirrels will have a hard time getting on it. That is a tough assignment in my back yard because of the number of trees that I have, however, — I think I have a solution to the problem. It will just take a lot of preparation of the area.

Neighbor Dan did come obviously yesterday and he and I sat and talked for two and a half hours. Ms. Kate said she didn’t think we were ever going to quit gabbing. LOL But we did solve most of the world’s problems once again. If only people would listen to us.

I need to go down stairs and play my trumpet again and go over the song that I’m playing for church tomorrow. I just hope I don’t flub it up. That would be so very embarrassing. So, with that, I’ll droop off your screen and just wish you a wonderful day full of peace an love.

Another week is rapidly drawing to a close. Hello Friday —- where have you been all week? It is a beautiful morning; officially categorized as “partly sunny” by the wether department. It is seventy-five degrees and has rained at some point this morning. The grass is wet and the sidewalks are still damp.

I’m expecting neighbor Dan to come over around 1000 hours so this may be cut a little short. He and I will sit and jaw for probably a couple of hours about nothing in particular but we’ll solve all of the worlds problems over a pot of coffee and some peach cobbler. That sounds like a pretty good plan to me. He’s been gone for about six weeks so we have a bunch of catching up to do. A lot has happened in the world in the last six weeks and we haven’t gotten together to solve any of it. LOL

Yesterday was a very productive day for me. Ms. Kate and I are going to be going on vacation in a few weeks and that means that I have to get worship services and sermons planned and written ahead of time so I’m not fussing about them when I should be sipping a Corona by the Gulf of Mexico. So far though, I have my September 2nd service and sermon done and my September 16th service done. It is a lot easier than it used to be when I was a staff of one and preached every Sunday. Thank goodness for Pastor Art and our secretary, Karen. I have an idea what I want to write on for the 16th but it is still all mulling around in my brain. Later today I’ll at least jot down some thoughts and check them against the liturgical calendar for continuity. 

Also today, I think Ms. Kate and I need to go to Wild Birds and see if they are in fact open for business. I really need to refill my supplies. Right now the birds are not eating as much from me because the fields are full of seeds on plants etc. But, they will be coming back soon and I need to be ready.

OK, Dan is here. Have a great day. 

Good morning on this semi-cloudy Thursday morning. It’s seventy-six degrees and for the moment the air is still. Rain has finally started to grace us with its scattered presence  and we are going to be dodging the possibility of a severe storm though Saturday. I’m glad to to see the rain though. My tomatoes had almost quit putting anything on because of the dry weather.

Yes, I failed to sit and write yesterday. Wednesday just kind of got away from me as sometimes a day does now and then. Of course I had office hours in the morning, and then I stayed and practiced my song that I am playing for Sunday. I had asked the organist to meet me at church so we could go over the number together. Our rehearsal went very well. I just hope that it will go that well on Sunday.

After I got home, Ms. Kate had a wonderful lunch prepared. I put the steaks on the grill while she prepared everything else. After clearing away the dishes and just sitting together and talking for a bit it was our “sacred nap time”. We try to get a nap in around 1430 or so every day. It doesn’t always happen but we do enjoy it when we can squeeze it in our routine. We seldom go to bed before 0100 hours so by mid-afternoon we are ready for a nap. You can do stuff like that when you are old and at least semi-retired. After nap time we got ready and wento the funeral home for visitation. The wife of one of Ms. Kate’s “second-cousins” passed away ay 39 years of age. We don’t know a lot about the cousin other than who he is and how he is related; but family is family and you do what is right. He’s a nice guy though and I hate to see that happen to him. I don’t know the details of her death other than there is a hint of suicide. That would make it even more tragic for the husband. But that is at this point just hearsay. At least there are no children involved.

After our funeral visitation we came home and just each did our own thing until bed time. I worked on a couple of church services and tried to do a little sermon writing but didn’t really even get a good start on that.

Today I have zero things on my must-do list. That gives me an opportunity to sit here. And enjoy my guests at the backyard buffet. I also have a new Max Lucado book that I started and have gotten about a third of the way through. Then I will play my Bingo and Criminal Case games on my IPad, practice my song again a time or two, and then settle in for some writing. Before I know it, it will be time for bed and we’ll do it all over again. Is that called being in a rut?? I think maybe it is.

So, let me get over her in my rut and just enjoy my day. I hope you have a pleasant rut that you can enjoy with time to relax too. Then about 1430 or so, let’s all take a nap! Peace.

I just put a post on my Facebook page that I hope will inspire people to pause for a moment and reflect on what a marvelous thing it is that we are alive and being cared for by God. I’ve read a couple of articles and then did a little more research about stars and galaxies. I’ve always been facinated by the celestial universe in which we live. 

According to scientists, through observation via the Hubble Deep Space probes and telescopes, there are 100 billion “known galaxies” within our universe. That means there are probably 400 billion stars, of which from earth we can observe only about 8 thousand. Now, —- I know “science fiction” and extra-terrestrial talk gets a bad rap, — but in my mind I think it is terribly arrogant of us humans to think that we are the only intelligent species in all of this vast universe. I believe that to say that is to put a very human and selfish limitation on what I believe to be a limitless God. But I also believe that the most fantastic part of all of this is that the God we love and worship still has the power, and the desire, to care about each and every one of us personally. That blows my mind and it is why we as humans can not begin to comprehend the vastness of what God is nor can we truly begin to comprehend the magnitude of God’s love. Wow!! Just wow!!!

So, that’s how I began my morning sitting out here in my recliner, watching the birds and listening to the cicadas as they buzz in the summer sun. My day got extra full yesterday and I never got around to filling feeders. So, today I have to do that. I’m finally getting to the bottom of one of the cans of food and am using up “the old stuff”. Once that happens, I’ll let that can set out in the sun for a couple of days to totally air out and then go pick up some fresh stuff. Although, my buffet guests don’ seem to care one way or another. They eat it. I just find it kind of yucky to mess with when it clumps together. I’m not sure if it is buggy or what. But them —- birds eat bugs too so —- have a little protein. 

I think today is going to be laundry day around here. Ans I also think we need to do something with the remaining peaches we have before they go bad. It may have to be a peach pie making day too. I’d be glad to pitch in and help with that project. After all, it’s going to be ninety degrees out side, why not stay inside and make a pie or two. Oh, and while I’m out feeding the birds, I’ll cut the okra and pick the tomatoes too. 

I’ve wandered around in my mind’s berry patch today so I guess I better just stop here. I hope your day is fully blessed and I hope you can feel God’s love as it surrounds you. Peace. 

A very good morning to you. I hope you had a blessed weekend and are prepared to take on a whole new week. I know I certainly am. We had a really good worship service yesterday with eighty one people in attendance. We did an adult baptism and then received that person into membership of our church. The service was out side in the Woodland Chapel, the temperature was perfect and there was a nice breeze that occasionally came flowing through making it very comfortable.

After church we went to Applebee's for lunch and had a very so-so lunch. Neither of us particularly enjoyed our entree. We each had a pasta dish of some kind and the pasta was dry and almost pasty. Yuk! But we salvaged the day by going to Cold Stone Creamery later in the day. That will make any day a better day.

This week is going to be a busy one with a couple of different meetings at church as well as office hours. We also suddenly seem to have more people in the hospital than normal so that means more visitations. I never mind doing visitations and enjoy going to listen to people as they fill their need to have somebody new listen to how they feel. If I can take communion and share that with them, so much the better. I have a couple to do yet this afternoon. One of which is a fellow that I didn't know was even still around. I knew he and his family had been members years ago but I haven't seen them in years. It is interesting how folks leave a church or just stop attending or making any contribution to the church monetarily or by service, but when when they get in the hospital or are needing some "God work" done, they suddenly remember exactly where they "go to church". But, ---  it isn't our job to judge, we are just to serve. I think that is exactly what God expects from me and that is what I'll do.

I had a lot of visitors at the backyard buffet this morning. The sunflower seed feeders are just about empty and so are the feeders that I put peanut butter on or in. I'm told that Wild Birds and Things will reopen this week so I need to check that out.  All of the work-a-rounds that I found after they closed suddenly seem to do pretty well, so we will see what I need to buy or not buy. I know what ever I buy will be more expensive but then the packages are much larger so maybe it all evens out. The biggest thing is the substituting peanut butter for the "Bark-Butter". I'll have to see how much they are going to ask for their five pound tub. I think it used to be about $11.00 a tub and I can buy a large jar of peanut butter a lot cheaper.

O, I have to get busy and go to work for awhile and then go do my visitation. You have a most wonderful day and a week full of love and joy. Peace.

1600 hours on a Saturday and I’m just getting around to writing a few words. I have had a busy day and got some quality work done. I have spent most of my day out in my front flower beds pulling weeds and deforesting the flowerbeds from all of the sapplings that have sprouted and grown again. Between the vines of different kinds, and the tree sapplings, it is a real battle to keep my flower beds clean. I have filled my fifty gallon trash can almost to the top and there is so much more to do. The heat wasn’t too awful today, only about eighty five degrees, but the humidity was kicking my tail and I had to take water breaks. I also mowed my front yard, Dan’s yard, and ran the weed eater around some stuff. But —- maybe I sweated out enough calories to earn another piece of peach cobbler. Well, I’m going to eat it, earned or not. LOL I think I’ll take a Tylenol too for my sore back.

It is that time of the evening that the birds are coming back into the buffet for their evening meal. I also have three squirrels out there. About ten minutes ago everything went on high alert in the back yard. The wrens were sounding the alarm, one squirrel was chittering wildly up in the tree. The other squirrels were standing on hind legs and then suddenly bolted up the trees. I figure there was either a snake in the yard or maybe a cat was coming through; or it is possible that a hawk was in the close proximity of the yard. Yesterday I found feathers out in the yard where something had snatched a bird. I figure it was a hawk because they will set right thre and eat it whereas a cat will carry it off to hide and eat it. But, all is quiet now in the neighborhood and the buffet is getting a full compliment of friends and visitors.

Tomorrow is church and it looks like it is going to be a perfect day for an out door service in the Woodland Chapel. We are doing an adult baptism and reception of a new member tomorrow as part of the service. That is very exciting.   We currently have three more Sundays lined up where we will be receiving new members. It just gets better and better.

I think that is all for today. I hope your weekend is enjoyable and I hope that you will take time to visit your house of worship. God has blessed you so many time s this week and has helped you through things where you didn’t even know you had a problem. So take time to pray and be grateful. Peace my friends.

The Friday morning alarm clock in the guise of a garbage truck is clunking and bumping out on the street. There are three local refuse collector companies here in town and this neighborhood has people using all of them. There is a Wednesday morning truck, a real early Thursday morning truck, and the Friday morning run. Ours is Thursday morning, and by the way I need to call them because they split my garbage can all to heck yesterday. Obviously the metal arm they use to pick up the cans squeezed it too hard or something. They provide the cans so I just need to call them and they will replace it.

I had a new mystery yesterday. I was out in the back yard talking to the guys that were up working on my roof and I looked T my flowerbed and there was a big hole dug next to and under one of my large knockout roses. Half of the roots were exposed. And there was hardly any dirt around it. I scraped some dirt back in the hole and tamped it down, but I have no idea what would have done that. There was a second hole started and had exposed some flower bulbs. Ms. Kate covered those back up.

I have a wealth of visitors at the back yard buffet this morning. It is cardinals and finches mostly with a couple of downy woodpeckers, three or four wrens, and the hummingbirds. The wrens just tickle me. They are so very animated with their movements. They dart back and forth  and make little quick hops. And when they sing, it is a distinctive and cute little song.

We are doing mushrooms and beers again today with Bob and Brenda. It is always nice to be able to get with them. I reckon I’ll be having cod for lunch today. That is always the Friday special at the tavern. I could of course deviate but why have to think about it?? Bob and Brenda keep us informed about what is going on up in Ft. Branch. LOL

Ms. Kate made a peach cobbler yesterday and it is a scoop of heaven in a bowl. It’s so good I didn’t even need to add ice cream because it wouldn’t have improved a thing. She also made a special entree for dinner. We don’tknow What to call it but is has rice, diced tomatoes, okra, and ground beef in it. I love it.  It’s a one dish skillet meal and I always eat seconds. I even ate seconds, knowing there was a peach cobbler waiting. That’s how good it was.

Time to think about doing something productive before we head out to lunch. You have a most wonderful day. Stay in touch with the Lord; it will make your day go so much better. Shalomn,

There is thumping and bumping on my roof this morning. Ms. Kate came out to the sunporch and asked me if I was “dressed” because there was someone on our roof. I went out and checked and it is the guy once again trying to find the micro-leak. They had put down a tarp before the last rain we had and obviously it covered wherever the leak is because we had a two and a half hard rain and nothing came in. But so far, this fellow is finding nothing. Sigh. I guess the next step will be to start pulling up shingles and looking for water damage or wet spot on the plywood. Water leaks are so deceptive. They are seldom where you think they are and water always wins. There are places in the world where you can see water falling out of apparently solid rock. So, we will see what happens.

I had a busy day yesterday. I started with my staff meeting first thing and that went a little long. Then I went home, had lunch, gathered up my visitation and communion stuff and headed out to the hospital. I got to the patient’s room and they weren’t there. They had just left for her to go do her physical therapy and would be gone for at least an hour. So I came on back home. Later in the afternoon, we went back to the hospital and she was there as well as a room full of company. She says the operation went well; the knee is replaced, and today she will be discharged from the hospital and will be admitted to a rehabilitation facility just down the road from me for four or five days.

Then last night I got a call from a parishioner who is currently on vacation in Florida. Her husband had taken a really bad fall down there and is in pretty bad shape. He did a full “face-plant” when he fell, crushing his sinus bones, a broken nose, loosened the upper bridge in his mouth, tore the corner of his mouth. They had planned to be down there for just a quick turn around to check on their condo but now it looks like they will be there at least five more weeks. He is maybe seven years older than me so healing is not going to occur quickly. As I told them last night, TPG — Time, Prayer, & God is the only solution at this point.

Speaking of TPG, I would also ask you to lift up my sister for healing; she just had a shoulder replaced, and also lift up Pastor Art’s sister who has stage four Pancreatic Cancer.  Each of you who read this most likely have people in your lives with problems too so let’s join together and ask that God provide healing and comfort for all of them.

In the mean time, I pray you will have a most blessed day. Peace.

Time to rise and shine as people used to say back in “the old days”. I used to hear my Grandma Rath say that when I was a kid and we would stay over night at her house, or she would come over and stay with us. But, the good thing about her “rise and shine” was that it came accompanied with a hearty breakfast of eggs, gravy, bacon, biscuits and gravy. And —- her biscuits were home made, not from some canned product. She made a great pie crust too and passed that recipe down to Ms. Kate. I think just maybe that is where I developed my love for a “big breakfast”. It certainly wasn’t from my mother. I guess my mother cooked to my father’s taste. I never knew what a good steak could taste like until I started dating Ms. Kate. Meat around my house was always “wellllll done.” My Grandma Rath was a good cook but she didn’t really pass any of those skills down to my mother. My mother’s sister Dorothy however was a great baker and she made the best kuchens I ever ate. Maybe it was the only kuchen I had ever had, I just remember how good it smelled while it was baking and and how good it tasted. My Grandma Heumann made the same thing for a meal every time we ate there, or so it seems. She always made a pot roast with browned potatoes, peas, and whatever else I don’t remember. I’m sure she cooked other things but her pot roast is what I remember because it was always so good. My mother-in-law’s specialty was fried chicken. Again, I never knew what really good fried chicken could taste like until I started dating Ms. Kate. I didn’t know it was supposed to be crispy because my mother always kind of steamed hers.

I have staff meeting this morning at the church and then I’m going to do a hospital visit with a lady that had a knee replacement yesterday. I didn't know she waas having it done until the last moment. The secretary texted both Art and I. Art was able to get there before she actually had the surgery and say a prayer with her. That is one of the great things about have co-pastors; we can pretty well cover all bases. I was out with Ms. Kate having breakfast when I got the message. So today I’ll go see her. Bless this lady’s heart; she has had more surgery and problems than I’d ever want to deal with. But, she is a trooper and keeps on plugging along.

We made it to the orchard yesterday and picked up some peaches. They smell heavenly but aren’t ripe enough yet to use. But, I see a peach cobbler in my future and maybe even a peach pie. Ms. Kate does spoil me.

It appears it rained just enough to get most of the sidewalk wet at some point during the early morning. It is a cloudy day and I wouldn’t mind if we got some more rain. The temperatures are supposed to drop a little for the next week and stay below the ninety degrees mark. I’m saying prayers this morning for all of the folks in California who are losing homes and property to the out of control fires in that state. My daughter Heather lives out there and they can see the smoke etc from them but are not in any danger. She said they caught one guy purposely setting them in her county. The guys was just driving down the road throwing out flares into the dry grass. I can’t imagine what would make someone do somethng like that.

Time to quit and get ready for work. Have a most blessed day.

Good morning! Man ——- I can not get awake this morning. I got up at 0730 and Ms. Kate was already out of the bed. However, I didn’t hear any “house noise” nor did I smell any coffee brewing. I walked past her office where I usually find her when she gets up first, but she wasn’t there. I went to the family room and she was snoozing on the couch. I turned the coffee pot on and sat down in a chair in the family room and woke up forty five minutes later. And she was still there too. So we were both slug -heads this morning. Now I’ve been sitting out here in the sun porch and have dozed off two or three times. What’s up with that??

The weather guy said last night that we would probably wake up to thunder and rain today but that has not happened. Now my Accuweather app says that we will have rain starting in twenty-four minutes. I see a slight breeze moving the leaves around but I also see just a mostly cloudy sky but it doesn’t look like rain. Something could blow in I guess. The radar shows a big mass of green headed this way. We can use the rain again. I think we have a “cold front” moving this way that is supposed to drop the temperatures, although the humidity isn’t dropping much along with it. If we do get storms or rain, I hope it is done by Saturday because we have an out-door worship service planned for this weekend and I’d hate to see that cancelled.

I haven’t had much company at the backyard buffet until just a few minutes ago. Thena bunch of finches flew in and they chirping and singing and flitting around. I’d say they were “tweeting” but that word has taken on a whole new meaning in today’s society; especially since Donald Trump became President of the country. LOL. I guess “tweeting” became a social media thing acouple of years ago. I’ve never done it nor do I know how to do it. In fact, the only one I hear admitting they “tweet” is the President. Maybe he ruined it for the normal people.

There’s nothing on my agenda or schedule today so maybe I can get the sermon finished I have started. I’m also trying to come up with a Christmas drama but am having a hard time formulating it. I’d like to put one together for Christmas Eve. I have an idea just kind of dangling out there but it isn’t coming together. If I try to force it, it will be bad. If I try to just let it happen —- it may be too late. So, I just try to nudge the ideas forward a little and we’ll see what happens. In the mean timee, I have plenty of other stuff to do.

Speaking of other things to do, I better move on to some of them and put away my blog for today. I hope your day is filled with love and good things. Smile at people today. You never know when your smile just might be the bright spot in their otherwise miserable day. Peace.

It's happy "new week" time again. Welcome to Monday morning. I hope you had a fantastic weekend and are all mentally and spiritually prepared to face another week. I certainly am which is a good thing since it's here -- ready or not.

God has provided another beautiful day. It is relatively cool this morning, almost feels like fall. But, before the day is over, summer will be full effect with a ninety two degree temperature and a high humidity level.

Of course I have office hours this morning and that is where I am at the moment. I sat out in my sun porch as long as I could  so I could watch the hummingbirds as they buzzed around and the cardinals and finches as they came in for food and a drink. I need to refill the hummingbird feeder for sure today and I guess I'll fill everything else while I'm at it. The weather guy says we may be having storms tomorrow, or at the very least some rain. We can use it. The rain we got last week has soaked in and the ground is starting to kick up dust again when I walk around out n the garden or areas where there isn't any grass.

We had a great church service yesterday. Even though we had several families still on vacation, we had eighty people in attendance. Ms. Kate and I had seven members from my former parish surprise us and show up. How great was that?? They are on their summer worship schedule which mean Brenda doesn't have to play the organ every Sunday. They are great people, and as much as I love being the pastor at Zoar, I do miss those folks.

Today will be a busy one. As I leave the office today I will go to a parishioners house and do a visitation and serve communion to them. This afternoon I need to take our car to the dealer for the oil change and servicing. It sure seems different these days because I only have to take it in every 7,500   miles. I'm from the days of changing the oil etc every 3,000 miles. My dad insisted on it. But with today's synthetic oils, you just don't wear the oil out as quickly. Of course the new and improved synthetic oils cost three times the cost of regular oil so there is no savings involved at all. Hopefully there is an environmental impact. I'm a firm believer in recycling and doing everything we can to save this planet that God provided for us. So far we humans haven't done a very good job of not polluting the air and water and ground that provides everything we eat or breathe or drink. The real problem is that it has to take a world wide effort to clean the place up and that will never happen. There are societies that just couldn't care less and only see the solution as someone else's problem.

Enough of my soap box for today. I will just ask that if you don't currently recycle, please do. And now, I need to do something productive since I am being paid to be here in the office. Have a blessed day. Stay in touch with God.

Happy Saturday. It is a seventy-four degree morning and the sky is still partly cloudy which is a good thing. It is supposed to go up to ninety-two degrees today. That would not normally bother me too much except that sometime yesterday afternoon or evening our air conditioner quit putting out cold air. The unit runs and the blower runs, just no cold air. This thing has had a problem in the past where it went low on refrigerant. My basement is. Cool which is where my office and my “hang out and watch TV area is, so I hadn’t noticed it. But Ms. Kate, who is always cold, said it was eighty-one degrees in the house upstairs. So, hopefully it won’t be too long before he can get here. I already know it will cost some bucks because it is $100.00 just for the on-call service guy to get here. And, refrigerant isn’t cheap either. So, chalk it up to the joy of homeownership. Besides, I have no room to complain; there are so many people that never have A/C for one reason or another, so I’ll sit here in the sunporch, watch my birds, and enjoy my coffee and hush!

I think I need to go prep a cantaloupe for breakfast this morning. We’ve had our last cantaloupe sitting on the kitchen table now for two days and the smell is marvelous. It is time to eat it. Speaking of smells, —- do you have any flowers around your house called “Four-O’clocks”? If you aren’t familiar with them, they are a pink flower that grows to about three or four feet tall and they have the most wonderful fragrance. They are called Four-O’Clocks because that is about the time of the afternoon that they start to bloom. I get tickled  at the guys and gals that deliver from Papa John’s because they always comment about them. They tell us that they love to deliver here because the flowers smell heavenly. Last night we opened up the house because of the lack of A/C and the smell of the Four O’Clocks came wafting in. Thhe house might have been a bit warm but it sure smelled nice. Just as an aside though, if you ever get four o’clocks started; you’ll have a hard time controlling them. They drop hundreds of seeds and their propagation rate is tremendous.

Tomorrow is communion Sunday at church. I always enjoy communion Sunday. I may have told you, but August will be an exciting month in the life of our little church. Tomorrow is communion, next Sunday we will have an adult baptism and reception of a new member  as part of our worship service in the out doo chapel. The 19th, we will have another adult baptism and reception of two new members and I play a trumpet solo for church, and then on the 26th we will start off of day with a breakfast, and celebrate Rally Sunday which is the start of the new Christian Education Year. So, there are lots of reason to come to church and celebrate being part of the Faith Family.

That’s it for today. I pray your weekend is full of joy and happiness and the recognized presence of the Holy Spirit. Shalomn.

It’s Friday morning and I’m up early for no known reason. Ms. Kate is still snoozing soundly, so it’s just me, my critters at the backyard buffet, and the house silence. I will say though that there isn’t much true silence. As I sit here, I can hear the clock on the wall clicking each second. I hear trash trucks out in the neighborhood clanging and clunking. I hear the refrigerator running tat sits her in the sun porch; and I hear a wren fussing about something out there in one of the trees. There are creaks and pops as the house wakes up from night time cooler temperatures changing over to the warmth of the sun resting on it. So to say that I am sitting here in silence would be totally misleading.

The local electric company has been upgrading the electrical lines in this neighborhood; actually I think it is a city wide project. All of our electrical line are underground and they have been replacing them and they are putting in new junction boxes. I guess they are transformers, I’m not sure. Yesterday they made the switch over for our particular area consisting of probably four houses. They had the power off for maybe four hours. We weren’t without power though because I have a whole-house generator that kicks in within five seconds of losing power. It runs off of my natural gas line. We had that put in three years ago. As much as we travel, I don’t want to come home to sump pumps that didn’t work or freezers with thawed food running out of them. We’ve had both experiences and neither was cheap or pleasant. I like my air conditioning in the summer and my furnace to be able to blow warm air in the winter. Of course with these new power upgrades the possibility of power loss has been minimized, or so they say. But —- better safe than sorry.

We went to the melon farm yesterday and picked up a couple of cantaloupes and a couple of watermelons. We ate one of the cantaloupes last evening and it was absolutely delicious. Ms. Kate’s cousin also brought us a couple dozen ears of corn, so we had a couple of ears of that and threw some hot dogs on the grill aand had a fantastic “summer supper”. This morning Ms. Kate will finish canning some tomato juice. She did all of the prep work yesterday so today it won’t take very long. We’ll probably have five or six pints out of this batch. My tomatoes are tally putting on now so this coud just be round one.

It is a beautiful morning and I have plenty of guests out here to keep me company. Ms. Kate is up by now and our day has officially started. So, I’m going to jump off. Take time to look around you today. If you see someone that needs help, don’t wait for someone else to do it. If you see someone that needs a smile; give them one of yours. It doesn’t cost a thing. Go with God today. Peace

I think somebody took my Wednesday. Where did it go? Maybe it was the whole August 1st thing and I just didn’t get around to writing. However, here it is, Thursday and it is sunny, and it is beautiful outside,and the birds are singing all of which makes it another fine morning, brought to me courtesy of an amazing God. So, let’s start the day with a heaping helping of gratitude and praise for blessings received.

Actually, my Wednesday was a little busy. I had office hours and staff meeting first thing yesterday and then Pastor Art and I spent another hour just talking about “stuff”. We talked philosophy, and theology, and the direction the national church is taking and what we DOD and don’t like about that. We talked about how we think our church is going and our hopes and prayers for whomever they find as the new settled pastor. We don’t forget that we are only interim pastors for the church, holding down the fort until they hire permanent pastor. But we both are of the mindset that we aren’t there to just hold the door open but rather to keep the faith strong and advance God’s work. So, we stay busy and try to insure the church is always looking forward. Pastoral search is a hard job, especially when your church isn’t particularly wealthy or large. Zoar, our church, is in the midst of its third year and doesn’t seem to be any closer than they were three years ago. So, I ask you to keep us all in prayer. Art and I absolutely love what we are doing but —- we’d like to get on with our retirement too.

The feeders are all full in the backyard buffet. My usual guests are in and out. The wrens, finches, cardinals, and woodpeckers are my main guests so far this morning. So far the squirrels haven’t come tromping across the roof and taking over the feeders. Hey! — The good news is that Wild Birds and Things has put out a notice that theey are going to re-open soon. I am happy to see that, although I must admit my work-around solutions to feeding my birds has worked very well and has been a lot less expensive. The “Bark Butter” paste that I was paying a king’s ransom for has been replaced by jars of “store-brand” chunky peanut butter at abou a third of the price and the “bark-butter-bits” that they all love has been replaced by another local brand of the same stuff. So, we’ll see what happens. If other Wild Birds customer have found the same work-arounds, the new management may have a tough time re-establishing themselves.

I spent a good deal of my time working on liturgy last evening. We have a couple of baptisms coming up and the people wanting baptism are also wanting to become members of our church. So, I work of that last night. It was joyful work.

We never did get out to pick up a cantaloupe and I want to do that today. But right now, I have a new case starting today on the Criminal Case computer game I play and I want to start that. So, I’m out of here. I hope you have a most blessed day. Peace.