I wish it were a little sunnier today because Ms. Margaret’s crabapple tree is blooming on the other side of my west fence. When the sun hits it, it is just stunning. Unfortunately, it is a cloudy day and will continue to be and will include some showers now and again throughout the day. But, it is relatively warm (62) so there is that.

It is amazing how the trees have really leafed out now. My fire bushes on the south fence line are getting to the point that they will be providing great cover for the birds against the hawks and maybe. Even a nesting place or two. I filled some feeders again yesterday and this morning I have cardinals, and gold finches, and of course a squirrel or two. We wouldn’t want the fuzzy tailed rats to go hungry would we. I also have a couple of hungry robins hopping around the yard. They are interesting to watch; the way they hop along and then stop and listen and the hop again and listen and suddenly peck down at the ground for something. Some people say Robins actually hear the insects or worms going through the ground and other people say they sense the vibrations in the ground. I don’t know which it is and frankly I think any answer is purely conjecture and theory because no one has ever actually asked a Robin what it is doing. What I do know is that whatever the answer might be; —- God designed it and man has no idea how to duplicate it.

This afternoon we are going to the church to record this weeks service. We had planned on doing that tomorrow evening but Jacob needed to move it to today. That’s fine with me; it’s not like I I have anywhere else to be. We did go out yesterday and do a little curb-side service. We went to Rafferty’s and picked up lunch and dinner. Then we went to the Vineyard Bible store to pick up the pre-made communion sets I mentioned yesterday. I was lucky to get them because most of the suppliers are out.  Now I know I will have enough for my “drive-thru” communion next week on Maundy Thursday. I had a long talk with a fellow pastor via phone and told him my drive-thru plans and he is going to try to do that too. He also gave me an idea of how to do communion on Easter Sunday morning for my service via Facebook. I’m going to think about that and may include it in my service. I can conduct the ritual at the church and people can participate in their own homes. It was a great idea I think.

The COVID-19 virus continues to spread and or at least be diagnosed. The number of cases will continue to spike because more people are getting tested now and more tests are coming back rapidly.  What they fail to remind people of though is that most people survive this virus. The media would rather tell the bad news. And worse yet, people are making political arguments out of this pandemic. It is disgusting. And of course, there are the idiots that think they are invincible and that iti won’t change the way they do things. I read last evening that a choir director of a church defied the stay home instructions and had choir practice and now 19 members of the church have the virus and two have died. I also read where the authorities arrested a pastor for having full church service with 250 people there and now many of those parishioners are down with the virus. They arrested the pastor for endangering lives of the congregation and the entire community. Leadership in both of these cases was totally lacking and stupid in my opinion.

That’s it for today. You stay safe and take care of yourself. Call and check on folks that you know. Stay in touch with God. Peace.

Let’s start a fresh new week, what say you?? It’s a sunny morning although at 55 it is a bit cool. Temperature today is going up to 65 or so. The wind has calmed down fro yesterday as the cold front finally came through. Saturday night was a tough one for many residents in our Tri-State area. We had two tornadoes come through. One was over in Henderson, KY which is just across the river. Then we had a second one that went through Newburgh, IN where my sister-in-law Karen lives. In fact, it went along the ridge just above her house. There was a lot of damage done. The Henderson one tracked for seventeen miles and the Newburgh one tracked for just over five miles. Karen said she had some limbs down but her neighbors had some big trees down. Her power was out for about 26 hours.

I finally got the park bench put together. It only took me three years and six hours. I started planning to do this at least three years ago. I bought the lumber over a year and a half ago and of course with my injuries etc, it has set there in my garage taking up space since then. Well, Saturday I decided that I was going to do it. So, I went out in the garage and got started. It took me a good six hours to do the job but it is together and it looks god and is solid. Now, I have to sand it down and then buy some Spar Polyurethane and put a couple of coats on it and it will be ready to sit out in the yard. So, I’m patting myself on the back today as I look at it.

We broadcast our worship service yesterday on You Tube and Facebook and it went perfect. I think Jacob broke the code on how to make it all happen. We had a lot of people tuning in for it too including my family in California, Illinois, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. It was wonderful to be able to do that. We will tape it again this week on Wednesday. This coming Sunday will be Palm Sunday. It will sure be different not doing that service in-person with the church. Holy Week is my favorite church “holiday” season, if we can call it that. Most people get all over the Christmas celebration and the birth of Jesus. I’m much more of a “Resurrection” guy.  I’m still planning to do the “drive-thru” communion on Maundy Thursday. I really hope it doesn’t rain because I think doing this will mean so much to our congregations. If it is only sprinkling, we will set up a tent for me to be under. It it is pouring, everything will have to be canceled. The wind blows across the fields like crazy there sometimes and it would be miserable. So, join me in prayer for some good weather.

That’s it for today. I have sunflower feeders to fill again today. The fuzzy tailed rats are eating me out of house and home. Have a wonderful week. Stay safe and take care of yourself. God bless each and every one of you. Peace.

Wow, Saturday morning already. See, we are making it through the “Stay at Home” orders aren’t we? Have you started to go stir crazy yet or are you like me, you don’t know where the time goes. As i have said, our life around here hasn’t changed that much. I spend time writing, or on Facebook chatting.Ms. Kate has begun an immense project of cleaning out her office and rearranging that. Yesterday I mowed my lawn, Jeff’s lawn and Dan’s yard. None of us have that much grass growing yet so it didn’t take long. I did find out that we don’t have the mower set up exactly right so will have to uninstall the deck and reinstall it.

I think it must have rained at some point during the night because the sidewalk looks damp. We are supposed to have storms his afternoon for awhile and then we are looking forward to a beautiful weekend. That will be wonderful.

I ddon’t have UCC to chat about today and I really need to try to accomplish something productive. So, I’m going to sign off. Stay safe out there. Follow the guidelines and stay away from people. That don’t mean you can’t call them, write to them, Facebook with them, just don’t get within six feet of them. If you neeeed o be close to somebody, bw your head and pray. God is always there. Peace my friends.

Friday Morning and it is a good morning. It’s nor quite as sunny as yesterday was but the emperature is hanging around 65 degrees at the moment and going to 77 before the day is out. Yesterday turned out totally beautiful and we had a record breaking 81 degrees in the afternoon. Ms. Kate went out and pulled a bunch of weeds and put Epson Salts on the plants that require that sort of thing. I don’t now the benefit of doing that but she and her sister are the plant ladies. They get that love from their mom.

I have an entertaining back yard this morning. There are a couple of robins out here that are on a worm hut. Actually, one of them was up on a feeder awhile ago eating bark butter bits. This is the only place I have ever seen robins on a feeders and mine do it frequently. But they only seem to go for the one kind. They have started building nests because I see them carrying sticks etc and mud. I keep checking my downspouts because they often like to build on the crooks of those up next to the house. I heard one out there the other day tapping away but so far they aren’t building there. Sometimes they go to all of the work to build decoy nests.

I had a really silly squirrel out here this morning. I had emptied some broken flower pots out in the flowerbed and broken apart all of the potting soil. There were a lot of roots in some vegetation of some kind in them. A squirrel came along this morning and started digging through that potting soil looking for who knows what. Then it grabbed up a clump of plant and started playing with it. It would kind of toss it around, put it back on the ground and rolled around with it like a cat with catnip.  It was the funniest thing to watch. Pretty soon it just ran off.

I think I may get on the JD today and mow the front yard. There isn’t much to cut but the onions are high and it looks bad. Beside, I like the smell of fresh cut onions in the yard. It smells like spring.
Having said that, I think it is Howe’s time and start a days worth of work. Stay safe and stay in touch with God. Peace.

Welcome to a beautiful Thursday morning. It is supposed to be a perfect spring day. The sun is shining, the temperature is slowly climbing to 73 degrees. There is a slight breeze and I can set here and forget that the world is in chaos. As I was writing that sentence a news notice popped up on my screen that said that four cases of the COVID 19 have popped up in our county. I also learned yesterday that one of my parishioners has tested positive for it. He is a young, 22 year old student that was studying abroad in England. So this thing is getting more real as you start to hear about people that you actually know having it. Needless to say, I have added hi to my prayer list. And back to my original thought, I give thanks and praise to God for this beautiful day.

Ms. Kate and I went to the church yesterday afternoon and taped the Sunday worship service. It will be scheduled to be seen on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. I hope this week it goes a little smoother. Last week the live broadcast came through really choppy. The playback though came through much better. Jacob, the great guy who does this for us, says that perhaps the app that he is going through to do this just got overwhelmed because so many churches were doing the same thing and so very many people were tuning in. We’ll see how it goes. Too many people tuning in to hear God’s word is about the best problem you can have. It’s like running out of church bulletins.

We picked up a couple of Subway sandwiches on the way hoe fro the church and brought the home to eat while we watched Survivor, Then I went down to my office and turned on Expedition Unknown with Josh Gates as background noise and started on my sermon for Palm Sunday. One would think that the major Christian Events like Palm Sunday would be easy to do a message on but I was having a heck of a time getting going. I had a page and a half written but I didn’t like it, and I just deleted it and started over. Sure enough the words and fingers began to work together and I put out two and a half new pages. So today, I need to finish that up and get the bulletin sent to Brenda. Then comes, Easter. It will be interesting to see where we are with Easter services. President Trump says he hopes we can be past social distancng by then, but I have serious doubts. So, I’m just working one week at a time.

Time to get out of the recliner. Thanks for joining me here this morning. Have a blessed day.

It’s mid-week already. This “stay at home” order from the governor doesn’t affect us a lot. We’d be home most of the time anyway. Although, this being Wednesday I would be going to the office this morning. Instead we are going this afternoon to tape the worship service for Sunday. This biggest change in my work is the fact that we aren’t going to run bulletins for the services and I’m not doing any pastoral visitations or home communions. So that is quite different. Instead I’m trying to make phone calls to my folks and as I told you, Ms. Kate has been making”Thinking of you” cards and we sent out 30 of those yesterday.

My UPS shipment came yesterday afternoon. So we have televisions and I have laser printer toner once again. I set up the television in the kitchen and today I may try to set up the one in the bedroom. It is larger and a little heavier so that may be a bit problematic but we shall see.

It is a foggy morning, one of my favorite kinds of morning. I don’t know how much it rained last night but the ground looks sloppy again. We could really do with a couple of weeks of dry weather for a change. It’s not quite time for the farmers to start planting yet but I imagine they are getting anxious. I’m seeing a lot of grain trucks lined up at the Azteca Milling company these days. Farmers are bringing in the corn they sold last fall on the futures market and getting their bins emptied again for this year’s harvest. But first, they have to be able to get out there and start planting. That normally happens mid April. I had planned to do a “blessing of the tractors” this year but that is just one more thing that this “social distancing” thing has stopped. President Trump said yesterday that he hopes to “open the country back up” by Easter. I think he is being overly optimistic and so do a lot of other folks including the medical experts. Of course the Democrats went up in arms and are claiming he’s putting profit above human life. But, he didn’t he was going to do it. He said he would like to do it. We would all hope that it would be possible. But heck, President Trump could find an immediate cure for cancer and the opposing political party would scream that he has put doctors and researchers out of work and is hurting “the little guy”. What a bunch of morons  politicians are.

My foggy sky is all gone and now it os just a cloudy day. All of my buffet guests have eaten and gone so I guess I will sign off too. Have a most blessed day.

Welcome to Tuesday. Another day of self distancing and stay at home orders are in place. The number of positive cases of this virus are growing because more and more people are getting tested. This is expected to happen. However, If you look at the beaches in Florida you’ll see they are still full of tourists that think they have the right to do what they want and give zero thought to the fact that they will carry this virus back to wherever they came from. Selfish people interested in only their own pleasure without regards to what damage they might do. The biggest problem is that the virus doesn’t take effect right away so they are aall out there “feeling fine” unaware that they are catching this thing ben though they have been told and told. The governor of the state said the beaches are closed bu that doesn’t keep them off of them. It is so stupid and careless.

Our governor has issued a “stay-home”order for all un-necessary travel. You can go to the grocery etc. but no entertainment venues or routine shopping or barber shops, beauty parlor, tattoo parlors and things like that are open. Restaurants are strictly curb-side. Fortunately religious facilities are available for really small things. That will enable us to go to the church tomorrow and tape our Sunday service. So, Jacob, Brenda, Ms. Kate and I will meet tomorrow afternoon, do our social distancing and not touch each other, and tape the service. Then Jacob will put it on Facebook on Sunday morning.

I got on my recumbent bike this morning and rode five miles. It haas been probably a month since I rode. I was doing so well with it but then we moved it to the dining room from off of the sunporch because it was too cold out there for Ms. Kate . It shouldn’t make a bit of difference but it does. Sitting out there on the Sunporch I can watch the backyard Buffet in action. In the dining room, all I have to stare at if Dan’s house and that just isn’t very exciting. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Now, I’m sitting here at the kitchen table waiting on UPS or FEDEX deliveries. Since they are delivering two televisions, I don’t want to take a chance on missing them. I also have some printer toner coming today. It is supposed to rain at some point today soI don’t want any of those things sitting outside.

Okay, I have a Bible study that I’m putting together to work on. I’m going to eat busy on that now. You have a blessed day, Stay safe and stay well. Peace.

And a very happy Monday morning to you. I hope your weekend went well. Of course what with the restrictions on travel and keeping social distances, I imagine that your plans changed somewhat. I can tell you that it felt weird for us not to get dressed up and go to church yesterday. It’s not that we haven’t missed church at other times in our lives but those were decisions that we had Nama death at the time. This was different because we “couldn’t” go to “the” church. But, as was planned, we conducted our worship service via Facebook. BTW, if you want to join us for worship on Sunday mornings you can go to Facebook and find the St. Paul’s and St. Lucas United Church of Christ page and tune in at 10:30 a.m. central time. I would love to have you join us for worship. Yesterday we had some technical problems during the live broadcast but afterwards you could pull it up and it worked well. I’m zero techie but I’m sure our technician will figure it all out. If you want to listen to the last couple of weeks, they are still on there.

We have a beautiful day here today albeit a little below normal temperature. I really must fill the bird feeders today. I was going to fill the feeders Saturday and discovered that I had run out of the bark-butter bits and the yard was still too sloppy to be out there. So yesterday I called Wild Birds Unlimited and put in a curb-side pick-up order and we went and got it. Curb-side is the new way of life for us I guess. We went to Dairy Queen drive thru, Wild Birds Unlimited curb-side, and Turonis Pizza drive-thru. I did stop and go in a gas station to get some milk. I discovered last night that the toner cartridge on my laser printer is getting low so I went to the computer and ordered it on-line and they have free delivery. It should be here tomorrow as well as two more televisions that I had to buy. What a strange new world we are having to live in right now.

Saturday Jim came over and installed the new family room television and got Ms Kate all set up again with able television. Bless his heart. I told the other son-in-laws that Jim just moved to the number one spot of the “favorite son” category. My late brother-in-law and I used to have a running thing about who was our mother-in-law’s favorite. She of course milked it for what it was worth. I sure miss that lady. She was a bright spot in the life of me and many others.

I’m not going to talk about the virus today with you I’ll just remind you that God Almighty idds in charge and despite all that is happening in the world; —- God still knows you by name and loves you personally. Pray often and pray sincerely. Reach out to other by phone or letters and cards or by social media and let the know that you are thinking of them. This is how we can share the love of God with one another. Ms. Kate sent out thirty of her beautiful hand-made “Thinking of you” cards this morning for all of the senior people in our three churches. I told her that her gesture will mean much more than any sermon that I might preach because she was practicing Christian love in action.

Have a blessed day. I love you and so does the Lord God.

Happy Friday morning as we keep our social distancing. I hope your day is gong well. We aren’t having rain here this morning which is a nice change. We’ve had three inches in the last two days. It is 67 here at the moment but a cold front is moving in and the temps are going to drop like a rock again.

Let’s see, I don’t think I have told you about our lucky or unlucky news, depending which way you want to look at it. Wednesday afternoon we had a lightening strike on one of the tulip poplar trees just outside the back door. Those trees are at least sixty feet tall. There is a long (20 ft) narrow peel of bark down the south side of the tree but it doesn’t appear to be deep so I don’t think the tree is in danger of splitting. I told the kids it looks like the devil ran his fingernail down the tree. The great part is that it didn’t split; because had it fallen, it would have taken out the house and us with it. That’s the lucky part. The unlucky part is that it fried our TV cable boxes, and all four TVs including my “new” 65 inch television that I got the day I fell down my basement steps. So we went on Amazon yesterday and ordered three new televisions and they will be delivered Tuesday. Two of the TVs were completely fried but two of them, it killed the HDMI reception portion of the TV. But, since they are “Smart” TVs, my WIFI Spectrum in- home app works well with them and that includes my “new” one downstairs. So, I may be in no hurry to replace it. The only problem is that I can no longer record or DVR with the app but what the heck. I paid $1800.00 for that TV, didn’t get to watch it for four months because I couldn’t get downstairs and now this. Frappadoodle. But all side, —- we are fine, the tree looks like it will be fine, the house doesn’t appear to be in any danger and God protected us. Anything is just aggravating fluff.

The Corona virus of course is still running rampant across the nation and the world. We have finally had it it our area. There have been three cases reported in our area. Two of the patients were examined and sent home for quarantine themselves for the next two weeks or so. The third was admitted to the hospital. I think there have been 300 deaths nation-wide from this virus. The country of Italy has had that many a day. I think the majority of the country and our leaders are taking this pandemic seriously. There is still a problem of people hoarding all kinds of stuff and trying to get needed supplies to doctors etc. remains a problem. I don’t know what is in the stores now because we just don’t go. That’s why we ordered our TVs through Amazon. On a normal day I would have just gone down to Target. But not these days. Schools are closed and being conducted on-line. Churches are closed and pastors are taping their services for later. We went up to the church on Wednesday evening and taped our Sunday service and it will bee broadcast on Sunday morning. This is a different world and a new society with no relief date in sight. BUt on the other hand, families are being forced to live with one another at home for the first time in several decades. Evening meals are being held together. I think that parents and children are learning that they don’t have to be going to or being involved in every kind of sporting event. Perhaps in the long run, we will become a kinder, gentler society. That is my prayer anyway.

Have a blessed Friday. Call your loved ones, call your neighbors and talk to them and check on one another. May God be with you as we all go through the “new way of living” for awhile. Peace.

Somehow it got to be Wednesday morning already and I’m just now getting around to sitting down and doing a blog. You are aware as I am of all of the chaos that the world is going through and you are probably as tired of hearing about it as I am. It seems the only thing on the news is the news about the corona virus. I hate to even turn on the news because I’m tired of hearing those two words. But, reality is reality and it is a pandemic. Whole countries are shutting down their borders. Restaurants nation wide are closed except for carry out. Schools are closed, Universities are doing on-line classes the rest of the semester. The grocery stores are empty because people have panicked and rushed out and hordes supplies. Instead of the nation coming together — we have seen the nation at its worst. There are literally fist-fights and stabbing over rolls of toilet paper.  Childcare facilities will be ordered closed the week churches are suspending “in-person” services because the CDC has said that we should not be in groups of more that ten people in order to slow the spread of this virus. We have approximately 362 million people in this nation, 100 people have died from the virus, 50 of which were from the state of Washington and 13 of those were in one facility and we have stopped the world around us. And we are not alone. Other nations are doing the same thing and many are closing their border to any visitors. More restrictions were put out this morning by the governor of Kentucky for that state. We have literally begun to look like an occupied country.

We held church services on Sunday and I am so glad we did. We also learned how to live stream our service for those who were afraid to come to church. Now, all churches are closed and many are going to live stream their messages. Ms. Kate and I are meeting with our organist and church council president from  St. Lucas church and we are gong to tape a version of a service for release on Sunday morning on our Facebook page. I hate this with a passion. “Pajama Church” though is better than no church at all. During a crisis people need to be able to know that their church is there for them and congregating to worship is a vital part of that. But, I’m glad to be able to at least share the word and love of God through social media. I think most of our people are on Facebook and we can share that way. And, if this works well, we will continue to live stream our services even when the crisis is over. I also need to make some calls today to some of our folks just to see how they are doing.

Julie and Jim and the pups came over this weekend. Jim only stayed for the day and bless his heart he got the snow blade off of the John Deere and the mower deck put on. If it ever quits raining, maybe I’ll get out there and ride it around. My grass is not even close to being ready to mow although I’ve. Seen a lot of yards with a different variety of grass that already needs to be mowed. BUt everyone should know that you don’t mow before Easter or the buy will have no place to hide the eggs.

That’s it for today. Have a blessed day, keep the faith. No matter what, God is still in charge.

Another rainy Saturday morning and 43 degrees. Yeah, that would make it feel pretty chilly out there. The birds and the squirrels don’t seem to mind one bit. Maybe that is because the rain isn’t a hard rain. There are a couple of robins out there that are really liking it. They are hopping all over the yard grabbing a walk here and a walk there. I haven’t had very many cardinals today. The starlings were  here earlier as well as a bunch of finches, but that is pretty much it.

We went out and did a little shopping yesterday. Everything they say about empty shelves where the toilet paper and hand sanitizer is true. I had actually hoped to get some hand sanitizer to put at the entrances of the churches but there probably isn’t a bottle to be had in the entire city. And the toilet paper was mostly gone in the stores we stopped at. We went to Target and Walgreens and to a Dollar General Store. I’m told there is also a “run” on  bottled water too. While I was in Dollar General a lady brought up a single bottle and the clerk told her that she had just gotten the last bottle in the store.However, I stopped at Walgreens because Ms. Kate drinks Dasani bottled water, (it’s about the only thing she does drink) and they had Dasani on sale with no limits.  At Target they had noting but “off brand “ water and were limiting customers to a couple of cases. Bottom line: people have gone nuts!!!

More and more events and things have been cancelled and or postponed. Some schools have closed until the Monday after Easter. That is a whole month away. So much for no “snow days used this year.” And yet, —- we went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant last night for dinner and the place was packed and a long line was developing by the time we left. People will probably avoid church in the morning but they will fill the restaurants this evening. I know I made a lot of comments yesterday about the virus but the world and societal panic and reaction is astounding. So far I think we have eleven cases in the entire state of Indiana and none of them have been fatal because 98-99% of the cases are cases where people get well. But no one says that. And yes, I truly feel sorry for those who have lost loved ones. Perhaps taking all of the nation-wide precautionary tactics will help this thing “flatten-out” quicker and hopefully no one else will die. I hope it does help. I suspect that in four to six weeks this will be a bad memory and all of the newly stocked shelves of toilet paper and hand sanitizer will collect dust because people already have enough to last them for the next year.

In the mean time, I would again ask you to simply pray for calm and pray for peace and patience. Practice simple hygiene and stay hoe if you are sick. Noting hard about any of it. God bless you.

There is he most beautiful cardinal sitting on the feeder over there, about twenty yards from me. The sun is hitting it just right and it practically glistens. What a great blessing first thing in the morning. It’s 43 degrees this morning going up to the mid 50’s with sunshine all day. That’s comfortable weather for most people I think. I don’t see a cloud in the sky anywhere and the blue goes deep. It’s just a nice morning to be out here watching my guests at the Backyard Buffet. I have a couple of fat squirrels out there gobbling sunflower seeds. As fast as they can. They are so interesting. Everything they do is animated. They move like they are robots sometimes. Their motions are quick and slightly jerky. It is like watching a cartoon in real life.

The church councils are having discussion about procedures and changes to deal with this crazy Corona Virus mass hysteria. They’re talking things like no shaking hands, having hand sanitizer at the doors, not doing communion or passing the offering plate or things where multiple people are touching the same thing. It has gotten ridiculous the way the mass hysteria has taken over. I’m certainly not saying that people should not be cautious, but this thing has stopped the world. Think about this for a second. If I were a global terrorist, I couldn’t have done a better job of controlling the world. All sporting events in this country are shut down, schools and universities are shut down, the stock market has collapsed, the travel industry has drastically reduced travel, countries are literally quarantined, mass hysteria buying has taken place and hoarding, people are being told to stay in their quarters, and chaos runs rampant. The conspiracy nut part of my brain keeps reminding me that this all started and came from an “enemy state/country”, namely China. And the biggest proponents of the hysteria is the news propaganda people who broadcast “updates” as if it were an indoctrination program. They tell you how many people have now contracted the virus and how many people have died. What they don’t tell you is how many people have gotten the virus and got over in in a couple of weeks, which is literally thousands.

So, enough about that. It is Friday, Julie is coming over for a few days and we’ll get to hug her neck. It is a weekend and I hope you have a safe and wonderful weekend. Stay in touch with God who loves you. Peace.

Are you following the COVID-19 Corona Virus saga? Of course you are, it is about all there is on the news. What do you think about it? Are you scared of catching the Corona Virus? Are you taking precautions? I’m sure that there is aa problem out there with this virus, A couple of thousand people have died world-wide and the World Health Organization has declared  it a “Pandemic” which simply means that it crosses borders of countries. But, lots of people who get this thing will be just fine. Not everyone is going to die. In fact, the odds of you catching the virus and dying from it are minuscule. But world wide panic has set in and people are mobbing the stores to buy of all things, toilet paper. This virus is an extreme case of flu and I have yet to hear that anyone died of pooping themselves to death. The media is doing what they do best, taking half truths and spreading panic and fear. Doctors and health professionals, the ones that don’t want to sound like saviors of the world on TV, are saying that following simple hygiene  precautions are absolutely. The best defense against this thing. Wash your hands, use hand sanitizer if you can’t wash your hands, cover your mouth if you cough, stay home if you are sick; you know, the things you learned in Kindergarten, are the best ways to avoid it. But mobbing the big box store and carrying out iceberg sized loads of toilet paper just ain't gonna save your life. Humans are worse than scared Wildebeest herds sometimes.

Other than that little rant, how is your day going? We are under the gun for some rain and possibly severe storms before the day is over. Hopefully it won’t be too bad. The sun isn’t shining very Ucc today and that is a good thing because it won’t fuel the storms and make them worse.

Ms. Kate is ready to go do some banking etc so I’m gone for today. Have a blessed day.

Wednesday evening, roughly. 1730 hours. It is almost Cardinal feeding time so I have parked my carcass in the recliner to watch. I find it so very relaxing. I went out and filled several of the feeders again because they had either emptied them or had just about emptied them. It would be a lot easier t see the if all of these windows were cleaned. I think  I may have some of the Champion foam spray window cleaner and I should find it and clean these things at least on the outside. Of course, then I’d be blinded by the brightness of the sun coming through. Our weather generally comes in through the west and the rain and dirt and birds crapping etc, makes for a mess.

Ms. Kate and I went to the church office today and ran the bulletins for the week. It didn’t take all that long and then we went to our favorite restaurant for lunch. We came home around 1500, sat down in our chairs and took a little nap. I know, you’re wishing you could get a nap too. But, we try to do that everyday. The naps aren’t very long but they sure freshen a person up.

Well a blackbird just knocked him self sideways slamming into the window. That’s just part of the reason the windows get so dirty. It will be alright though. They do that a lot and only once or twice have I ever lost a bird due to them crashing into the windows.

I’ll sure be glad when the trees get leafed out again. The sun is a killer for about fifteen minutes before it goes behind the horizon as I see it. I have my ball cap pulled down about as far as I can but I can’t afford to look up or WHAMO!!! When the trees get all leafed out I don’t have that problem. Or at least I can kind of move around a bit in my chair and avoid the direct glare.

Time for me to quit watching birds and gather up all the trash baskets. Tomorrow is trash can day. See, I just have one happy event after another. LOL. I hope you have a pleasant evening. God Bless you.

Welcome to a cloudy 52 degree morning. It’s not raining now but has been during the night,  and will again today at some point and maybe at several points.

I had a good day yesterday. After I finished my blog I poured another cup of coffee and watched my backyard guests. Then I called neighbor Dan and asked him over for a visit. We visited through a whole new pot of of coffee. We solved all the problems of the world including religion, politics, coronavirus, military, health issues, global warming and the weeds coming up in the yard and flowerbeds. It was a good visit. We do that about every three or four months.

After Dan left I decided to get busy and try to make the day productive. I had a couple of choices of things I could do; y choices being work outside or head down to the basement and work on sermons etc. I chose outside. I had a flowerbed that I wanted to clean out because it was bugging me that I had not done it yet. I think maybe a little “spring fever” is setting in. I grabbed my rake and gloves and container to put the leaves in and went out and got started. It took a bit of work but I got it all cleaned out and it really looks nice this morning as it is all fresh after the showers from the night. So, that takes care of two of the flowerbeds and they are ready for mulch.

Once the flowerbed was done, I decided that the ground had dried out enough that I could probably till up the garden area. I don’t have a large garden by any means. My spot is a six by forty foot plot on the south side of the house. I have a three by five area of asparagus in the middle of it but there is plenty room for my tomato plants and some lettuce and maybe squash or something. I’m still playing with the idea of raised beds but that is an awful lot of work to do. I would have room for three eight by four beds out there and it would save me a bunch of bending over when doing garden work but —- I’d work myself to death building them and filling them with garden soil and compost and mulch.  So, maybe I’ll just work it like it is. Beside all of the work, it would cost me a fortune to fill it with the  soil etc. Certainly it would not be cost effective. So called “hobby-gardens” are not cheap to establish. Anyway, I think today I may go to the co-op and get some lettuce seed and maybe some radish seeds and put out there. I can have a few fresh veggies by Easter. Once the lettuce and radishes are done I’ll plant it with some wildflower seeds, probably a bunch of kosmo and maybe some daisies.

That’s my tale for today. I hope your day is a fantastic one. Stay in touch with God. God is waiting to hear from you because He wants to tell you He loves you. Peace.

A blessed Monday morning to you. I hope your weekend was was a pleasant one. Did you get your clocks all reset and did you make it to church on time? I read a joke on Facebook; “What comes after the last hymn is sung in the worship service? —- All those people that forgot to set their clocks ahead. “

It is a 54 degree cloudy morning and my app says that we are gong to be having rain on and off throughout the day. I have no complaint. We have had several days of beautiful weather in a row with nice sunshine. And fair temperatures during the day. The weather report last night showed a coming week of upper 50’s and low 60’s. Spring has indeed arrived. I’m sitting here admiring my backyard. Having gotten the limbs and branches all cleaned up from the yard and now the hydrangeas cut all the way back and the flowerbed raked out and cleaned up make everything look fresh. I have a lot more that I could get out there and do and need to do as far as raking is concerned. But, it isn’t going to get done today. I just looked at the radar and there is a pretty healthy big green blob heading our way in just about 20 minutes or so.

What is up with the squirrels today. I’ve had  a half dozen out here most of the morning and they are chasing one another all over the place. They’ll stop and eat for a few minutes and then fight over who gets the feeder and then they suddenly take off like a flea bit their butt. Then they come back and do it all over again.  Now they are all gone. They aren’t in my yard nor do I see them in any of the neighbors trees. Silly things, maybe they can sense the rain coming in and have taken off to wherever they find shelter. But, it’s all good because now the cardinals and the finches are here for a snack.

I noticed while I was raking Saturday hat there was a lot of feathers on the ground under the azelia here in this flowerbed by the house. A hawk took out what I think may have been a mockingbird Friday. I saw it as it lifted off of the ground clutching something in its claws but din’t know it was a mockingbird. I’ve seen the hawks fly in here and take out several birds. Too bad they don’t take out a dang starling. They can have all of those that they want. They need to leave my “good birds” alone. LOL.

That’s enough for today. I hope you have a good week full of sunshine and pleasant thoughts. Peace.

Saturday evening. I have already set the clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Saving Time. It is still early ebough in the evening depending on whether you are lookoing that the a;lready set clocks or the ones that will update automatically at 0200.

I strarted my day out by going to a Men's Lenten Breakfast out at Zoar. I went because Art had asked me to. There were 85 people there and that is a really good turnout. They are supposed tpo be an ecumenical event and at one time there were people of all the different denominations attending these things. They are held every Saturday morning durning Lent and the locations rotate. But, today it was  basically the United Church of Christ chuireches and the Disciples of Christ churches. I've told you I'm not big on segregated events like this. I fiugure there is enough separation in the church that we don't need to create reasons not to worship and commune together. but, I'm way in the minority for that thought process. I noticed that almost all of the attendees wereat least as old as I am. That tells me that this event won'y last a lot more years unless the younger crowd takes an interest.

The rest of my morning and early afternoon was spent relaxing. We were going to do our naps early but I don't think that either one of us actualy got any napping done. Three different phone calls kind of woke us up too much to get back to sleep. Iwent outside and tackled a flowerbed that I rally nneded to clean up. It still had all of the hydrangea stems that needed to be cut back to the ground, and there were a lot of them because my hydrangeas are huge. And all of the fall leaves that had been blown off of the trees and off of the roof had set there in the flower bed all winter. So, I tackled that job and it really looks good now. That much at least is ready for mulch. I got it all raked out but by then I was worn out. So, maybe tomorrow I can get it all gathered up and put into the compost pile.

Ms. Kate fixed us a great dinner and we just followed up it up with the last of the lemon pie that she made earlier in the week. It is delicious, of course. That wife of mine is really a great cook. I don't know why we eat out as much as we do except that it is convenient to do so. I dang sure don't get anythng out that tastes any better than what Ms. Kate cooks.

Okay, back to my television and HGTV. Have a great evening and don't forget to set your clock ahead or you'll be late for church. I send God's peace and blessings.

Friday and the end of another work week, or at least the “standard” work week. I really don’t know whaat people do anymore as far as a “work week is concerned. People work long hours and people work “overtime” hours so what is normal. I mean, look at how I “work”. I go to the office generally one day a week now and use that day to run my bulletins and then go out and do my visitations and my home communions. However, I work on sermons and services and study all hours of the day or evening every day. And if people go in the hospital etc. I go do visitations almost immediately; so I’m basically on-call 24/7. But then there are other “church things” that I’m supposed to attend and of course they always fall on a Saturday, which is supposed to be my day off. Tomorrow morning The Association is having their “Men’s Lenten Breakfast” that they do every Saturday morning during Lent. I understand why it is held on Saturday morning; it’s because that is “everyone’s day off” and guys are “free” to attend. Kind of a vicious circle isn’t it?? LOL.  I may go since it is held at Zoar and Art has asked me to go. Next week I have two Association meetings in addition to my regular stuff.

I filled the bird feeders yesterday and the birds were swooping in by the time I finished and got inside. I was hoping to to sit out n the sun porch this morning but it is fairly chilly today and windy. Our high today will only reach maybe 47 degrees and we have a 15-20 mph wind all day. That make the sunporch chilly and uncomfortable. Ms. Kate is always cold because she is on blood thinner medication. So if I’m out there and leave the french door open so a little heat flows out to me, she gets really cold.

Yesterday I went on-line and. Got the Backyard Buffet officially certified as a Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation. It is’t a big deal; if you provide constant sources of food and water appropriate cover for resting and nesting and control any invasive species of weed or lant growth, AND —- send them a check for “donation to NWF”, you too can be certified. LOL But as much as I feed the birds and make sure they are taken care of around here, my new plaque is going to look good out there in the flowerbed.

Time to shower and get my day started. Have a great day.

And a blessed Thursday morning to you too! It’s 43 degrees and on its way up to the low 60’s today. I see the Backyard Buffet guests only took two days to empty the feeders again, so I guess I’ll put that on my list of things to do today. It’s a good thing I went to Wild Birds on Tuesday afternoon and picked up some more stuff. I had started to fill feeders on Monday afternoon and found out that I was out of Bark Butter paste. I had a good 20% off coupon so it was a good time to go in. Of course, you know I didn’t just stop with what I went in for. LOL. By the time I left, the bag was heavy and the wallet was empty.  But, it is nice to be able to go out and fill the feeders without worrying too much about mud.

Yesterday was “office day” at the churches. Ms. Kate went with me and we spent the day together. We got the bulletins run and stuffed and the pulpit etc. set up for Sunday. Then we went to our favorite restaurant for lunch. I had texted the owner on Tuesday and asked her if she was going to have coconut meringue pie like she had posted a picture of a few days ago. Well bless her heart, she had it waiting for us when we got there and it was delicious of course. We have been going to this place since she opened and her food is really good, but her customer service and friendliness is superb. She is such a supporter of her little town and of small businesses too. Her gesture with the pie was just so very typical of her and her entire staff.

After lunch, we went back to the office and I spent some time and finished up my March 22nd sermon and then started working on the study guide for a Bible Study that I’ve told you about. I’ve read this book twice and I find it amazing how there are questions in the study guide that I have to go back and read the passages again in order to answer the question. But ya’ know, that’s why I like Bible Study with an emphasis on the word study. I know folks that will tell me that they have read the Bible from beginning to end X number of times. Generally they will have a list of favorite verses that they can rapidly refer to. But,, that’s not me. First of all, I think if you just sit down and read the Bible  from end to end like a novel, I don’t think you are going to really get anything out of it. I like to take my time and cross reference this passage with that passage and look at why something was written a certain way and how does it apply to me and my situation or question. That’s probably why it takes me so long to actually write my sermons. The gospels are very much repetitive of one another and in fact are word for word in many cases; but —- each one was written for a different purpose and from somewhat of a different slant. So, if we are going to “learn our Bible” and use it as a guide for our life, we need to carefully study and compare passages and situations as depicted in the words.

Well, that was a rabbit trail wasn’t it?  Time for me to get off my duff and get busy. Have a most pleasant day. Trust Good, walk with Christ, and be kind to all you see. Peace.

What a beautiful morning. It’s nice to be saying that a bit more frequently these days. It is 47 already this morning and there is a stiff breeze blowing but, it looks perfect out there. Hopefully the breeze will help dry out the ground. I think the forecast calls for sun shine for the next few days. However, as I appreciate the scene outside my sun porch, I must lift up in prayer those folks around Nashville, TN this morning that were hit by a tornado just a few frightening hours ago. I’ve seen pictures of some of the devastation  this morning on Facebook. I haven’t heard of any deaths though so I hope that holds true.

The taxes are done!!!! Praise the Lord. It helped that Ms. Kate had almost everything that we would need already in a stack for us to get them done. It took us a little over four hours. And, —- it was accomplished with a minimum of frustration comments. Although. I may have to buy Ms. Kate a new keyboard for her computer. I may have melted it a couple of times with things I said when it would type the letters or numbers I wanted and I had to do them three and four times. Yeh, she’s definitely getting a new keyboard. But, I got my notice from Turbo Tax that both the Federal and Indiana Taxes had been accepted. With Illinois I have to snail mail them along with my $44.00 check that I owed. I never hear from them one way or the other and that is a good thing. My only income from Illinois is my crop check and it is always the same.

Todaay is laundry day around here and we have it going already. Other than that, MS. Kate has a hair cut appointment and I need to finish the March 22nd sermon and get started on the next one. I’m also trying to get through the Bible Study work book so we can begin that about to sign off one. Ms. Julie told me Sunday that she thinks she is ready to go when I am. I’ve read the book a couple of times but th work book will make you go line by line and gather all new stuff from the book. It’s a tough study but man the message from the writer is so very relevant.

My morning just was made perfect as a blue bird landed on my feeder next to the window. Thank you Lord for the extra helping of blessings this morning. So, with that, I think I’ll just sit her for a few, finish my coffee and maybe have a bagel with cream cheese.

Oh no, as I was about to sign off, I had a head line come across my screen that said the death toll around Nashville from the tornado had risen to 19. Please lift those folks for comfort and strength. Peace.

I put a post on FaceBook saying that the theme for the Backyard Buffet today is “Cardinals and Raindrops”. There are certainly plenty of both out there this morning. I just looked at the radar and there is still a large swath of rain coming our way and my AccuWeather app says rain for another hour. But, it is a light rain which fine. It is 51 degrees out side and is supposed to go up to 60 or so today.

Spring is clearly on the way. I just posted a picture of my Pussy Willow “blooms” out there and Saturday when I ws working in the yard I noticed that the forsythia was starting to bud out and bloom. The daffodils are up about six to eight inches and have are also budding out. And, —- as I sit here in my recliner and look out toward the Fire Bushes, they are starting to be “fuzzy” to see through which tells me that they too are about to leaf out. I love the renewal of God’s earth.

Saturday, I spent most of the morning out working in the yard just picking up limbs, and twigs and sticks from the fall and winter. I break them down into 6-12 inch pieces and put them in my commercial 50 gallon garbage can. Well, I filled the can this week and have very little room left to put our actual garbage in it. But, the backyard looks really good now. If it would quit raining and dry out for a week, I could get out there and rake the leaves out of the flowerbeds and then I will be ready for mulch. In the meantime, I guess the leaves will just have to be my mulch. I think if I take my time I can do a lot of it myself. But there is just so much to do and seemingly so little time to do it.

We had good attendance at church yesterday. We did an infant baptism at St. Paul’s and that always brings in a lot of folks. The baby was so cute and just smiled all the way through it, even as I did the “baby-walk”, where I carry the child down the aisle and introduce her to the faith family. My St. Lucas attendance was good too. Although I know some of the folks that were not theere, we did have some “returnees” that I had not seen since I started back up there. I hope they continue to come.

Today Ms. Kate and I are going to tackle doing our taxes. I’d rather be doing most anything else because it is going to be a minimum of six hours of misery and grumbling and frustration. We priced having H&R Block do them and they wanted over $450.00. So, we will go through Turbo Tax again for about half that price. Yuk!!!!

So, that’s it for today. Have a great week. Peace.