Thursday already! The weeks just seem to be going by too quickly some times, and then other days it seems like time drags along. For what ever reason, it seems like I’m always a step behind and am trying to catch up. I know part of it has to do with the fact that our week’s job haas been skewed. We went yesterday to tape the service for this coming Sunday. So that technically puts my Sunday i the middle of the week. It’s weird and it isn’t going to change anytime soon, or at least thru May.

The daily report on the Corona Virus has been released this morning. (I get so tired of those.) So far, 1,024,000 people in the United States have contracted this virus. Of those, 60,000 people have died. That is 0.05%. The US population in 2019 was 328.2 million. That means that 0.0001 % of the population has died from this thing and yet, we have closed the country, restricted travel, closed businesses and virtually ruined the economy. Politicians and their co-horts are becoming “mini-gods”  and are trying to now change the way we  hold our national elections so that they become more vulnerable to fraud, and just yesterday, four democratic freshmen congresswomen wrote a bill that proposes eliminating personal property ownership rights; all in the name of “taking care of the homeless people” of course. These four have been pushing for the country to become a a socialist nation from their first day. They want big government with the government having control of everything. Sigh!!!!

 I filled the bark butter feeders this morning and the guests are all over them. Bluebirds, cardinals, finches, woodpeckers, robins and of course the danged starlings and blackbirds. They act like it is aviary “crack”.

That’s enough for today. Y’all have a wonderful day. Peace.

I know it is Tuesday because that is the slot I opened on my pill container this morning. Unless, of course, I forgot to take yesterday’s pills. LOL

The Backyard Buffet is a busy place this morning. I filled feeders yesterday so the hungry guests have arrived. Cardinals, woodpeckers, goldfinches, doves, robins, black birds, and one fat squirrel are all vying for the munchie morsels. It is a pleasant morning so far; 62 degrees, a slight breeze, cloudy and promising o rain on and off for the next couple of days again. I hope the rain holds off until this evening. I’d like to put my tomatoes in the ground today. It was still to wet yesterday fro Saturday’s rain, but we had good sunshine yesterday and maybe it dried out the ground just enough that I can work it enough to not be “muddling-in” plants. I need to go out and check that out in a little bit.

I got a lot done yesterday. I got the yard mowed, front and back. The backyard  really needed it. I did the laundry for us. Ms. Kate was busy doing other stuff and there was only two loads. I got the final coat of poly put on my park bench!! I can’t believe I actually have that project finished. It looks so good that I almost hate to set it outside in the weather. But, that's what I built it for and I need to get it out of my garage. I know where I want to set it but I better clear it with Ms. Kate first. She might have a better idea. My idea is to put it where I don’t have to mow around it or move it every time I mow. It’s a heavy thing.

I need to get started on my May 10th sermon today. I was just talking to Art and he saiid he is having a hard time getting started on his May 10th sermon too. That is Mother’s Day and I don’t want to do another “Yay Mom” sermon. So, I need to really scratch my head and get to work.

Between the Maple trees and the Tulip Poplar trees, the air is full of those little Whirly seeds dropping to the ground and covering up everything. And according to my runny nose, and watery, itchy eyes, the allergies are prevalent too.

Time to get myself cleaned up and start getting something done. Have a blessed day. Peace.  

A new day and a new week, the last one of April 2020. How crazy is that? Time sure flies when you are looking through the window. But at least today is a sunny day and promises to be that way through most of tomorrow, or so the forecasters say.

How was your weekend? Ours was like every other weekend for the past six weeks. We stayed home. Yesterday of course we did “Jammie Church”. The broadcast went fairly well. It tended to cut out and in through the Facebook broadcast which is very disturbing and makes it hard to follow. So, most role just switch over to YouTube and watch it. For what ever reason, it plays perfectly well there. So I guess it is a Facebook problem. Jacob is researching it. Next week we will be doing our service from St. Paul’s UCC. We’ve been taping them at St. Lucas but I don’t want my other congregation to feel slighted in any way. The two churches are only a mile apart so it is no big deal as to where we tape. The sound system at St. Paul’s isn’t all that great but I hope the IPad will pick up the sound well enough that it won’t matter.

Over the weekend, we as a family decided to cancel our reservations for the vacation home in Branson, MO. We weren’t planning to be there until mid-June but with all of the restrictions concerning business closings etc we just couldn’t take the chance that things would be fully open yet. So, I cancelled them while i could still get a full refund. last night I went on line and started looking for a place in Gatlingburg, TN. We have been there twice already and love it. I found a property that is available the first week of August and am proposing that we still try to do that this summer. It is so hard to try to plan around school schedules and work schedules and there seems to never be a time when everyone can make it. But, we knew it would be this way once the kids all started college and there are still youngin’s in grade school. I think we are all excited that maybe we can salvage a vacation out of the summer after all.

Today is laundry day and I have several chores that I need to get done so I think I will drop off and get busy. Enjoy the sunshine if you have that blessing wherever you are. If not, enjoy the rain. GGod provided that too. Peace.

Happy rainy Saturday morning. So far it has just been waves of showers that come in for maybe 10 0r 15 minutes and then stop for maybe the same about of time. It is predicted to do this all day. After all it is the month of “April showers” isn’t it? The temperature is 55 degrees so that isn’t too bad. But it is going to be an “inside” day for sure.

I finally got the first coat of poly on my park bench yesterday. It isn’t going to be warm enough to put a second coat on today and besides I don’t want to do it with high humidity. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I can get the second coat on. I know I’m self-bragging but, it really looks good. I’ll be really glad to get it out of my garage and and under the tree where it belongs.

We did another grocery run yesterday. We went to Schnucks and Ms. Kate stayed in the car while I did the shopping. She had a long list of things that we needed and it took me awhile. But, people were  spread out and there wasn’t too big of a line anywhere. Folks just practiced patience and it went well. What was amazing to both of us was the number  of men that were doing the grocery shopping. I’d say that 60% of the shoppers I saw were men and all of us doing like me; —-standing and looking and wondering where the heck this or that product would be kept. But, I got everything on my list except the kind of chips Ms. Kate wanted. She likes her Lays Lightly salted chips and I haven’t been able to find them. They have every other kind of Lays chips but not those. And, when I do the shopping, I always stop by the bakery and pick up some turnovers and maybe even a donut or two.

Our videographer, Jacob, posted the link to the service for tomorrow this morning and I reviewed it. He does such a great job and he gets better every week with his capabilities. We are going to be doing these things probably all the way through May and maybe even into June. We’ll just have to see what the federal guidelines and health officials tell us. I know some states are opening up things but I just don’t trust it yet.

That’s enough for today. I really need to get downstairs to my office and get serious about next weeks sermon. I hope your day is pleasant and full of blessings. Tune in to your favorite orship service tomorrow, Peace.

Another Friday has rolled around hasn’t it? The weeks continue to pass and we continue to be self distancing from one another and are holed up in our houses. It does make it a bit hard to keep track of the days and even the time of day some times. But starting next week, allegedly thee country is going to open back up some. Our biggest manufacturer locally is Toyota and they are calling their people back to work starting next week. I assume they have made some changes in their process to keep people the proper distance apart etc. It won’t do much good to open if all of a sudden folks bring the virus right back in the plant and it spreads. I can see both sides of the argument for re-opening the country and also for keeping it closed for a while longer. We simply have to get the country working again and being productive so people can make a living. But we don’t want to spread the virus either and you never know who has it, even the carriers usually don’t know they have it until it is too late. And if stores do open, are people going to be too afraid to go to them for shopping?

I read an article this morning that talked about all of the things that we call “the new normal” and the author said that we will eventually return back to the way things were simply because we are a social creature. People will go back to hugging and sitting next to one another n church talking face to face without a mask on. The world has been through these kinds of things before and we went back to being social beings. I think the thing that bothers me most, and this is strictly my opinion, is that we have a lot of so-called experts in several fields of study who are suddenly in the limelight and are thrilled to be doomsday prophets. They dwell in worst case scenario and that’s all they know. Yesterday I heard some say that the virus will subside a little in the summer because it doesn’t do well in heat. However, they tell us, it will be back in full force come fall and winter and will be even worse because it will also be flu season. Next I heard some financial “experts” say that the world economy and the US economy will be going into a full depression and we will be decades in recovery and most businesses will fail. They don’t tell us that three quarters of a million people have had this virus and have fully recovered. They don’t tell you that 97% of the population will never get it.  They delight in promoting the “boogeyman”; and the Boogeyman is in charge of population control.

But, you know what? None of it is bigger than God and that is where I put my trust. I hope you do too. End of rant — go have yourself a blessed day, and if you run out oof things to do — well, my bird feeders need filling. You’re welcome to help. LOL. Peace.

Good morning and welcome to a rainy, cool Thursday morning. This is going to be a day of rest I think. We had a really busy day yesterday and worked our tillies off. I started fairly early (post coffee of course) and started carrying bags of mulch and spreading that. I was out there for. Bout twenty minutes and here came Dan from across the street ready to help me. We had 30 or so bags ya to carry and spread and one large flowerbed to do. But, it only took us to about noon and we had it all done. We knew that we were expecting rain at some point yesterday and wanted to get it all done and off of my driveway before it rained and those bags get even heavier. They are a bugger when they get wet. I love the beauty of our yard as it sits on this little rise  but not having a flat yard is tough to work on especially trying to work with my brace on and on a hill I absolutely have to use my brace.

Ms. Kate and I had gone on Tuesday to the other side of Mt. Vernon, IN to a nursery and picked up some plants. We bought two tree peonies, a couple of okra plants, and a half dozen tomatoes. So, yesterday while Dan and I spread mulch, she planted the two tree peonies. We’ll wait until the rain is done and tthe ground is softer and we will plant the rest of the plants then.

Yesterday afternoon we had to go to the church and recorded our Sunday service. This still seems really weird having Sunday on Thursday or Wednesday. But it is going to be this way for a few more weeks. I know people want to get back to work and get back to “normal” and get back to actually gong to church. But, until I feel it is really safe, I don’t want to open the doors up. We are a “hugging” church and that is exactly what we don’t need to be doing at the moment.  Bless their heart. Ya’ gotta’ love a hugging congregation. But sometimes a person can get too close for safety.

So today, I think I will do some writing and work on my sermon for the 3rd of May. And I’ll probably play my keyboard for a while and try to get another song ready for the internet maybe tomorrow. So today is going to also be a lazy day. I’m still sore and plan to just do the minimum. I think I’m authorized a day off a week. As Ms. Kate always tells me — I’m my own worst enemy because I think I have to be busy. So, what say we just be relatively unproductive.

That’s it for today. I hope it is bright and sunny where ever you may be unless if course you need the rain like we do. We’re expecting up to 2 plus inches by Sunday morning. Thee great thing is that most of the farmers that I know are pretty much  done with their planting so God was veery generous with His blessings. Speaking of —- take the time to reach out to God today and give thanks for the blessing you have received today and this week. Until next posting — may God bring you peace.

It’s an early morning for me today. I don’t know, but I guess my body said I had enough sleep and it was time to get up. Oh well, it gives me a chance to see some of my early visitors at the backyard Buffet. Mrs. Robin is already busy this morning running and hopping round the yard. I suspect she may be feeding young ones somewhere. I haven’t seen a nest anywhere but it is that time of the year and season.

My weather app says it is 55 degrees out there this morning but there is a stiff breeze that is going to knockdown any comfortable feeling. I want to get back out to the front of the house and start spreading some more of my mulch around. I finished up one flowerbed yesterday. Used I think, teen bags of mulch on that one. Ms. Kate came out and helped me and I’m glad she did. The bags are 2 cu.ft. Bags and when they are dry, they are fairly light. But these we’re wet and that really makes them heavy. I had a heck of a time getting started on that project yesterday. I had carried a couple of bags down to the first flowerbed and ws spreading it around when Derek from next door came out to walk his dog. He offered to carry some of it for me and did carry a couple of bags down. Then he offered to loan me his trailer that he uses to pull along behind his John Deere. I took him up on that. The problem was, it had a flat tire. It was so flat that the seal around the rim was broken. Well, my compressor is over at Dan’s house so I pulled the trailer over there but couldn’t get the tire to take air.  So, —- we loaded the trailer up into my truck and I took it down to Raben’s Tire and they agreed it up for me. Then I came back and got started. Nothing’s ever easy.

I didn’t get my the poly put on my park bench yesterday It never really got warm enough to let it dry right. And it isn’t going to get to be warm enough any time soon. It should be at least 68 degrees and stay that way or warmer for aa few hours. We are at tthe point where we might see 68 - 70 but it only hits it for maybe an hour in the afternoon and then starts to drop back down. Our night time temperature are often still in the upper 30’s and lower forties. That just won’t cut it. But as I said before, as many years as I have been procrastinating on this project, a few more days won’t make a difference. But, it will be great to get it finished and out of my garage. That’s 10 square feet that I need for something else.

The cardinals are here for breakfast so I think I’ll sign off and just enjoy the blessing. Have a great day.

Happy Monday!. It is a beautiful morning. It’s 54 degrees already and going up to almost 70. The sky is a brilliant blue. Th azaleas are blooming, the cardinals are glistening a brilliant red in the sunlight. The robin is finding worms, the titmouse and the wrens are singing a duet, Ms. Kate and I are up, feeling good and doing our thing. Life is great.

How was your Sunday? Did you grab your cup of coffee and to go Pajama Church? Our virtual church on Facebook went well. Sometimes it doesn’t buffer right and tends to stop and start. However, Jacob puts it on You Tube at the same time and it always does well. I’m glad to say that we are still getting a good “attendance” and people are really grateful that we are able to do this and so am I. Our St. Lucas council is working on a grant request through the Center For Congregations, an Eli Lily entity, for money to really up-grade our technology at the church. We are literally going from zero as a starting point. Our Wifi is brought in via a “hot-spot” device  and we are using our personal IPads to record our service. Then Jacob takes it home and does his technological magic to put it all together and get it ready to broadcast on Sunday morning. He does a marvelous job and he is teaching his young son Brayten to do it too, I think. But, I’ll bet there is a lot of difference between doing it the way we are doing it now and doing it actually “live”. But, we are talking a computer, camera system, smart TV etc.  If we don’t get the grant, well, we’ve gotten along for 100 years with out it.

I finished up my sermon and script for this weeks broadcast last evening. We’ll get together on Wednesday afternoon and do the taping. Today though, since it is so nice out, I’m going to put first coat of poly only park bench and then I’m going to start carrying mulch and spreading that. I do not want to waste a day like this. They have been rare so far this year. So, with that said, I think I will sign off and just wish you a fully blessed week. Be grateful for and share thee blessings God presented you with today. Take time to look around you and you will see signs of God’s glory everywhere. Peace.

I know the calendar tells me it is Saturday but it certainly doesn’t feel like a Saturday. Where’s the relief from a week of hard work? Where’s the exciting weekend plans? None of that seems to be happening these days. LOL, I don’t even get to be excited about going and doing my church service tomorrow because I’ve already done it. So now I just wait and see how it all turned out. It’s a strange world in some strange times.

But today, I must start my morning off with prayers of gratitude to God for an absolutely beautiful morning. Yes, it is cool out there, but the sun is shining brightly and the sky is blue without a cloud in sight. I really wish it had been like this yesterday when I was doing the funeral. It was cold as the dickens out there at the cemetery. The wind is always blowing out there and it was raining/misting and cold. I felt so sorry for the family because of the corona virus, they were limited to ten people hat could actually attend the funeral. They worked it out well that people could rotate in and out during the viewing period before the funeral. But it was still sad. But, so many of their family and friends came along and stayed and just sat in their cars during the funeral and then were in the procession to the cemetery where they again sat in the car while I conducted the graveside portion of the funeral. I suspect that the family will go out to the cemetery today while the sun is shining and express some grief. It will be good for them to do that.

I have a couple of choices today for what my list of things to do should be, I need to fill the bird feeders. I need to open up a section of my backyard fence and bring the JD in and mow the back yard. I have 52 bags of mulch to carry and spread. And, I have a sermon to write for next week, and we are doing laundry today so I need to help Ms. Kate with that. Did I mention not having exciting weekend plans? Sounds like they are there waiting on me! LOL.

But, —- for the moment, I think I will just sit here, finish my cup of coffee and ya be even pour another cup while I watch my guests at theBackyard Buffet. Jesus says we will always have things to do but He is with us only a little while. (Okay, I paraphrased the heck out of that), but it does apply. The point is that sometimes we just need to sit and enjoy the grace and blessings that God has provided. Donn’t forget to tune in to to the church of your choice tomorrow. May God be with you all through the weekend. Peace.

Welcome to a rainy, cool Friday morning. I know that the farmers are glad to see this rain. After all of the rain we have had this year, now they are needing rain because planting season has started and I was told the other day that it was too dry for planting. That surprised me. I bought that they were happy because it wasn’t raining for a change. But, what do I know?? Well, I do know that I’m not particularly happy because I have a funeral to do today and I’m hoping the rain will have stopped when it is time for the graveside service. This funeral is going to be sad enough without adding rain to the equation. The social distancing thing is limiting the number of attendees to no more than ten. I hope That doesn’t include the pastor or one of the guests will have to leave.

The President announced yesterday evening his plan to re-open the country and let things start getting back to normal. Basically  it is up to the governors  of each state as to how they reopen their state. Our family is of course waiting to see what happens with Missouri because we have the family reunion planned for mid June in Branson, MO. That’s two months off yet so a lot could change and I expect it will. —— And now for my rant! —- You know, I continue to remind myself that his pandemic is serious and I feel badly for those who have lost loved ones to it. but I also keep knowing that as bad as it is, less than .03 percent of the population has gotten sick and less than .002 percent of the population has died from it. We lose as many people every year to what we simply call the flu. We have had far worse epidemics in this country and we didn’t wreck the economy, we didn’t confine people to their homes. We didn’t deprive people of their rights as American citizens. We told people to be careful. But that was in a time when Americans wore their adult pants. Now we are coddling to a generation of the easily offended and “safe-space” demanding people. The media and the country’s  leadership keep having press briefings and posting how many people have gotten sick. But they never tell you how many people have had the virus and have gotten over it. For example, my county posts that we have 74 people with the virus, and finally last night hey announced that 51 of those have recovered So in fact, we don’t have 74 people with it, we have 23, and I think hat so far 2 have died. People need to stop and look at how easily we have been controlled as a society and how willingly we have just relinquished our rights. This virus came out of a communist  country and their examples of population manipulation and control has been the guidelines passed out and used in this country including control of the media and propaganda. In my mind, it is like everything else, —- follow the money. Somebody is getting extremely rich over all of this. —- End of rant.  

It has stopped raining for the moment and the robins are busy hopping around in the yard. It’s tie for e to head down to my office and do some writing. I hope you have a safe and happy weekend. Peace.

A good Thursday morning to you. I hope it is warmer where ever you are. It’s 38 degrees here this morning and I must say the bright sun isn’t helping a lot just yet. At least the wind has calmed down.. That will help. I wasn’t up early enough to se if it actually frosted last night. I know there was a freeze warning in effect. I hope no one has planted their garden plants or new flowers yet because we could have freeze or frost yet for a couple of more weeks.

The cardinals are here in force this morning and are being a bit aggressive to the other birds. I don’t know what that is all about. Maybe they are feeding young ones someplace or maybe they are just being bullies this morning. But the blackbirds will be here before long and then we’ll have a new bully at the feeders. It is survival of the fittest out there this morning.

I finished up writing the funeral service that I was working on yesterday. I think the family will be pleased with it. I’m not bragging, but, I do pretty good funerals. People usually say they feel very comforted by them and that is my goal; to relieve some of the stress and grief that they are going through. At least two people are planning to speak. I have done funerals for this family before and they almost always want to have people get up and speak about their loved one or tell how much they loved their loved one and that is okay. But sometimes people get started and they don’t know how or when to cut it off. They are afraid that they “haven’t said enough” so they just keep telling about this and about that and relating stories that would only make sense or be important to themselves and the deceased. But, my philosophy is that every child of God deserves a proper burial so I always offer the opportunity. Some people need that closure.

This afternoon we go to the church and record this weeks service. That becomes so confusing because I’m doing my Sunday work on a Thursday or maybe a Wednesday, which means that come Sunday I’m not working when I should be. I hope this stuff is over soon although yesterday I actually heard some of the “experts” say that we could be in a situation of social distancing and no large gatherings until sometime in 2021. This society will revolt if people try to do that. What is really pitiful is the power trip that people of “importance” seem to be on. Governors and mayors and doctors telling free citizens when and where they can go and how they have to dress when they go out. We see “leaders” (and I use the term very loosely) allowing people to go get abortions, alcohol, and lottery tickets tickets because they are essential to the welfare of people, —- but telling churches they have to close their doors and having the police issue $500.00 tickets and fines if they drive to a local church and sit in their car and listen to the pastor give the worship service on the FM radio station. There is a saying that says “the devil is in the detail”, and I certainly believe it. Okay, I’ll get off of my soap box before I get too far along.

Time to go heat up a bagel and slather on some creamed cheese. You go have yourself a wonderful day. Peace.

Wednesday afternoon. Good afternoon to you all. It has been a couple of busy days around here. Yesterday, as you noticed I never got around to writing. We decided that we needed to try to make a grocery store run again. It has been two and a half weeks since I made the last one. So we went together although Ms. Kate stayed in the car while I did the shopping aty Schnucks and then I stayed in the car while she went in at Dewigs. I wore my mask and my gloves when I went in. But there were people of all manner of dress in there. Many had masks on, some of them improperly but they had them. Many others wore no masks or gloves at all. I was the only customer I saw wearing gloves but maybe they had Purell to put on their hands when they finished their shopping. It is clear that there is a large disparity in how serious peole are taking all of this self isolation and stuff.

Yesterday afternoon the local garden center dropped off my 52 bags of black mulch for me to spread. I went out and did a bunch of weed-eating to get things ready to spread the mulch. However, it was cold as the dickens and I decided to wait. Last night the temperature dropped below reezing and will again tonight. So, those bags can just sit out there until the temperture rises late in the weekend or next week. It's not like I am going to be going anywhere and wil have plenty of time.

As if things weren't bad enough for some folks, I had a parishioner pass away yesterday morning. The young man has been in the hospital for the past two months and has had so many surgeries. His body just finally said "Enough". His funeral will be Friday afternoon and that is going to be a sad affair. Because of the Corona Virus social distancing, there can only be no more than ten people attending his funeral and he comes from a large tight clan of people that are always together. So, I don't know if they will all line up and take their turns goping in or wha they will do. But, I'll do a full funeral at the funeral home and then a grave-side service at the church. My biggest worry is staying the required 10 ft from everybody and keeping myself safe. I'll wear my mask when I'm in and out of the funeral home, take it off while I conduct the service. I for sure don't want to carry anything back home to Ms. Kate. 

Tomorrow afternoon we'll be going to do the taping of my worship service for this Sunday. It should take about an hour total. Maybe after we get home, I can spread a few bags of my mulch if it is warm enough.

That's it for today. I hope you are well and are practicing all of the social guidlines needed to keep you healthy. I have learned to hate the phrase; "We're all in this together", but as a world, we are all in this together.  Have a good evening. Peace.

Monday, the day after Easter Sunday. Did Easter feel really weird to you yesterday? Did it even feel like Easter? I have to admit, there was nothing Easter about it to me and that is probably a terrible thing for me to say, especially as a pastor. With social distancing of course Julie and Jim couldn’t come over so it was just me and Ms. Kate. Yes, I watched church TV. But, I had recorded that on Thursday and we did communion amongst the four of us when we recorded the service. I really missed having the up close and personal contact that goes with our services, especially on Holy days like Easter. Ms. Kate did fix a special meal for us although it wasn’t the traditional Easter Ham. But it was one of my favorite pasta dishes; spaghetti noodles with fresh asparagus, black olives, diced tomatoes, and shrimp. As always, it was scrumptious. But, other than that —- it was just a day like so any others.

We woke to news this morning that at least 19 people were killed by tornadoes in the south last night and 1.3 million people are out of power this morning. My heart and prayers go out to them, and it makes me ashamed of myself that I griped about having a “blah” Easter Sunday. Death and destruction like that is certainly not what anyone in the country needs right now. And — I have friends in the north central part of the country that got several inches of snow yesterday. What is going on??? We are under a heavy wind advisory here today and the temperature is weird. The thermometer says it is 40 degrees but the “real feel” temperature is 29 degrees. I told you it was weird. Just early in the week last week we were a 86 degrees. It is a good thing that I know God is in charge or I would worry.

Our Sunday service did go well and it was very well virtually attended. We had 247 views of the service. That is remarkable. I can’t even imagine that. There has to be a lot of people that viewed it more than once, Although I can’t imagine that either. But, if we reached that many people —- God be praised. Wouldn’t it be great if they all came when we can get back together!!!

I’m not sure what if anything is one our to-do list today. I finished my sermon and script for this week’s service last night. I just need to print it off and re-read it a few times. I’m not sure what day we will record this week. I don’t think it will be on Wednesday because I have a pallet of mulch being delivered that day and will have plenty of work to do with that. That should provide a bit of exercise for me. I think it will be fifty two bags. I don’t know if that is going to be enough or not, but I guess we will see.

Easter the holiday is over but let’s not ever forget that every day is a resurrection day. I urge you to give God praise every day for the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. The promise of eternal life for my soul and forgiveness of my sins is just such an amazing thing to stop and think about. We can never understand that kind of love; we can only participate in it and share it with other. Have. Blessed week. Peace.

I thought if I say here long enough that the sun would burn the clouds off and so it did. We’re up to 45 degrees now with very little breeze going on so it should feel fairly pleasant out there. That’s a good thing. I did step out and take some pictures of my flowers. I don’t know why I can’t seem to move them from my photos to this blog. The capability is probably there, I just don’t know how to use it.

Our fellow Jacob put tomorrow’s service on You tube for us last night and it went extremely well. He really does good work and gets better with it every time he does it. I think folks will be inspired.

My daughter Lisa said that the virus is now going through the hospital she works at. I don’t know her title but in the military she would be the Operations Officer. She’s been putting in a lot of extra hours to keep the place running. Of course the patients never leave and they get no visitors. That means that the workers are the ones bringing it in to the facility. I think she said they have eleven cases now. My daughter Heather runs the 911 system for Riverside County, CA and she said that the jail and deputies   Are down with it. This thing hasn’t slowed down much although the word is that nationally there are fewer people being hospitalized. But, I’m afraid we are still a long way from getting out of our social distancing. But, with seven million people on unemployment, the country has to get back to work soon. All we can do is try to go by the guidelines and pray.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and wow does it seem weird. No one will be in churches except for some hold outs. Faith services will be done on television or via computer like I doing mine. Families will hopefully stay home. And not try to be together. It is sure going to be a different Easter than any of us remember. But, I wish you a blessed day. Regardless of the current circumstances, we are still celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the salvation of our souls. That can’t and won’t be changed. I hope you. Re atch out through phone calls and SoCal Edina to your loved ones —- but stay home!  Peace.

Just a couple of days ago it was 70 degrees when I sat down in the morning to write my blog. his morning it is half of that at 35.  What’s up with that? There was even a prediction for some scattered frost for this morning and again tomorrow morning. I had been thinking that maybe I could take the sunporch planted pots outside for the summer; —- I reckon I better just keep them in for a while longer. It would be a shame to have saved them all winter and lose them because I got in a hurry.

So, good morning on this beautiful looking Good Friday morning. The sun is shining brightly and it looks like the wind haas calmed down some. Last night it was really whipping around midnight while I was in the sunporch listening to some music. That’s what blew in the cold front. I need to go out and see if we have any twigs or branches blown down and if so, pick those up. I think today I’ll also move my fence section aside and bring the JD to the backyard and mow it. It isn’t too bad but it is shaggy and would look better if I mowed it.

Yesterday we went to the church and recorded the Easter Sunday service. We did it in basically one take. Jacob is really getting good at putting these things together and has learned to do some other things with the recordings. I’m anxious to see how it is going to turn out. Ms. Brenda and I did a piano/trumpet duet for the prelude and Ms. Kate said it was really good. Of course she might be a little prejudiced. She’s been listening to me play for almost 58 years now. It’s amazing that this old horn of mine still works as well as it does. I have had it for 62 years. A couple of years ago I took it and had it professionally “cleaned out” for the first time ever. They basically “boil it out”. I was afraid that it might change the sound of it but it did just fine. It looks a little rough but it will last me the rest of my life and who knows, one of the kids might want it or even a grandkid. Although, not a one of them is musically inclined so perhaps it will just be another auction item when they decide to sell off all of our stuff.

It was so peasant to be out driving around yesterday. The redbud trees are all in bloom and so are the dogwood trees. The highways and woods and yards look stunning. A good portion of the trees are fairly well leafed out. We need to drive up to the church again today.  One of the young parishioners girls baked some cookies for Ms. Kate and me and I need to go pick them up. It was very sweet of her. How did she know that I am a “cookie monster”?

We also went by Karen’s house yesterday and I picked up the can of polyurethane that she had for me. But, heck, itt is too cool to be applying it. Oh well, it has been this many years since I was gong to start and do this project, I guess I can  wait a few more days.

Time to drop off for today. This is a Holy day for Christians. Take some time today in prayer for our world and our country and all of those who have been affected by illness or death of a loved one by this virus. Pray for peace among family members as they experience more time together than they are used to and begin to get on one another’s nerves. Have a blessed day.

It is a chilly 51 degrees this morning which is a good drop from the 70 degrees that we had yesterday morning at this time. And the breeze is a bit more stiff too which will make it feel a bit more chilly. It was a beautiful day all day yesterday until last evening. We had a record high of 86 yesterday and then last evening a line of storms swept across the region. I don’t know how much, if any, damage was sustained. We were under a tornado watch for several hours but as far as Ms. Kate and I are concerned, we only heard one clap or rumble of thunder and that was it; not so much as a drop of rain. And that is fine with me.

This Maundy Thursday for the world of Christian faith. This is the day of the Last Supper that Jesus had with his disciples and the meal at which he sanctified the bread and the wine as representing his body and blood that would be spilled and broken for the salvation od the souls of mankind. This is the night that one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot betrayed him to the Jewish authorities; a betrayal that loved to his crucifixion on a wooden cross. During normal times we would have had a service this evening featuring Holy Communion. As you know, I had planed to at least be able to do a “drive-thru” count on for my folks but that got squashed over concerns that we might spread the virus somehow. I totally disagree that it would but I’m not willing to take a chance on it. It’s best to keep everyone safe.

Today we are going to the church and record our Easter Sunday service. I have everything ready for the service but yesterday I came up with the idea that maybe I could add a trumpet solo to the program. Ms. Brenda will be doing “Christ Arose” as one of her musical numbers on the keyboard and I could join with her on the trumpet. I went down to my downstairs off office and riled it and it went pretty well. We’ll just have to see how it goes when we do the taping. We plan to do this round “noon-thirty” so maybe we can go a little earlier and call ahead and order lunch from R’z restaurant via take out.

After we leave the church today, wee’ll goto my sister-in-law-in-law’s house and I’ll pick up that can of polyurethane that she has for me. I don’t think I will apply it just yet. The temperatures are ideal just yet. It should be at least 70 degrees and we aren’t looking at any 70’s for a few days yet now that the cold front has come in.

Time to get my day going. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and stay in touch with God. Peace.

It’s mid-week again already. How long have we been in this stay-at-home condition? I have truly lost track of time other than looking at the calendar and even that doesn’t clue me in. I have lost count of how many on-line services we’ve done and it seems that all I really do is work and not get anything done. Hopefully this isolation stuff won’t last more than a couple more weeks although I know we are basically locked down until the end of April. That’s another three weeks.

On he bright side, I did get the park bench sanded that I have been working on. Tomorrow we are going to the church at 1230 to tape this weeks service. From there we are going to go by Karen’s house to pick up some polyurethane for me to put on it. She will just put it out by the garage door so we can continue to social distance. (What a world we have to live in.) She has some that is called Sikkens brand. I have used it for years and it is the best for out door use. Karen and her husband owned a paint store for probably 30 years and it was a favorite product that he sold. It is great for decks and out-door furniture. It will take two coats and should last for several years. I will be so glad to finally get that park bench done and out of my garage. I don’t know if I took pictures of the thing when I brought it in or not but there is no comparison to what it looks like now. The boards were literally rotted in half and the thing had fallen apart. But, it is now strong and sturdy. It will be great to sit on out in the yard under the tree.

I ordered a pallet of mulch yesterday from one of the garden centers. I had. Called both Lowes and Home Depot to maybe buy a pallet from them and have it delivered. They each had plenty but they wouldn’t take my order over the phone. They both said that I would have to come in to the store  to place my order and pay for it. I told both stores that that would defeat the purpose of trying to stay home and out of he public, so “no thanks”. Then I called Colonial Garden Center and they very happily took my order, let me pay for it with my credit card, and will deliver it next Wednesday  to my driveway. How great is that? I have 52 bags coming and that will keep me busy for a couple of days lugging that around and spreading it out. But at least I will have gotten it done and the yard will look a lot better.

Enough for today. I pray your day goes well and you stay healthy. Don’t let the isolation drive you nuts. Get out of the house into your yard and breathe in God’s world, —- pollen and all. You’ll feel bettter for it. Peace.

Good morning on this beautiful Tuesday morning. It is 65 degrees and going to 80. The sun is shining brightly, and there is a bit of a breeze. I went out a bit ago to take a couple of pictures of my azealias  that are out by the west fence. There are I think four, maybe five young ones out there and they are blooming beautifully. You may recall, we had three very large ones moved from that west fence last year because the city. Water department says they are going to clear the easement of everything  and that includes my fence. They have said they will move my fence but they wouldn’t move any plants and my azaleas back there were huge and I did’t want to lose them. Now, these little guys have room to grow and they are celebrating!! Oh, and by the way, I don’t think the water department is ever ging to get around to clearing that easement.

Well, the corona virus continues to dominate the news and our lives. The restrictions and the “you can’t do” list just gets longer and often sillier. There is so much being put out and it is hard to know what to really believe. And worse yet, the scammers and the low life’s are out in force feeding on people’s fears. People are supposed to be staying home except for essential items and travel. But many are not. If you do go out, you practically have to be dressed in a space suit and then yesterday some “expert” came out and said “even the air in your home is toxic to you”. So what are we to do? We have 327.2 million people in this country. As of today, 367,900 people of the have been infected and 8700 people have died. That is an infection rate of .002 percent and a death rate of .02 of those infected.  Yet we have shut down all businesses and industry and quarantined people in their home. Granted, if it is your loved one that dies or gets infected it becomes very personal and I ask God’s calming hand be placed upon the grieving families. But the media has become the fear mongers of his disease. Politicians have suddenly become medical experts and the country has literally become a police state. I personally have just quit watching anything about COVID-19 because it is so depressing and skewed now for political reasons. Okay, that is my rant for today

I’m going to just sit here for awhile and watch the cardinals, have a prayer, and enjoy thee beauttifaul flowers out in my backyard. Have a blessed day.

We made it to Monday again didn’t we? We made it through Palm Sunday with no in-person church service and that seemed strange. But, we did post our service on-line and we had about 100 people watching, so that was wonderful. I’m very thankful for the technology that allows us to do that. Although I admit that I never thought we would be doing it. I always thought that it would be very expensive to do, that it would be very complicated, that we would need a whole video technician crew dedicated to handling it. Come to find out that all we needed was an IPad and one person smart enough to film it and edit it and post it. Our “guy” is Jacob Reinhart, the president of our St. Lucas council. So here is a shout out to you Jacob. Thank you very much.

I was very disappointed yesterday concerning my “drive-thru” communion service that I had planned for this Thursday evening on Maundy Thursday. I was given “guidance” on all of the COVID-19 safety precautions that I would have to take to be sure that no one caught the virus. Frankly I think 99% of it was”poppy-cock” but I won’t take chances with people’s health. As I told Ms. Kate, doing the event would have added a lot to the mental health and welfare of the congregations. However, not doing it takes away nothing, —- except some of my pride that I didn’t need anyway. We will just do “virtual communion” for the Easter Sunday service. I’ve told folks to come to the computers next Sunday prepared with bread or crackers and juice or wine. We’ll ask God to bless it wherever it might be and we’ll still celebrate the sacrament together.

Today I plan to make a round of phone calls to parishioners just to check on them. I hear from many of them through Facebook but the older folks aren’t always subscribers to social media and I need to check on them. Ms. Kate is in the process of making a bunch of Easter cards to send out to let folks know we are thinking of them. She does some beautiful work on her cards and they are truly appreciated. Some folks have even taken to collecting them over the years.

I have azaleas blooming in the back yard. he daffodils are all pretty much done, the tulips are about half done, the few hyacinths we have are about half done but now the azaleas are just starting. That’s going to put a pop of beautiful color in the yard for a couple of weeks. I haven’t checked the lilacs yet but they should be doing on pretty soon too as well as the Redbud trees. Ms. Margaret’s crabapple tree is still in full bloom for us to look at every day.

Time for another cup of coffee. I pray you have a safe and healthy week. Stay away from people if you can. God bless you as you go through the Holy Week. Peace.

Happy Saturday morning! It is Saturday, right?? Well yes, I know it is Saturday because my whole house generator does a five minute test run every Saturday morning at 0830 and I say here and listened to it

It is a beautiful sunny / partly cloudy morning with fifty degrees and a slight breeze. According to mmy weather app we will be having rain start in about an hour and a half and the radar does show a line of rain headed this way. I reckon we will see what happens.

I have full bird feeders this morning. I filled the sunflower seed feeders yesterday afternoon and this morning I filled up the rest of the feeders. The wrens is singing my praises even as I was doing it. Okay, maybe it was just calling its girlfriend or something, I don’t know; butt I will pat myself on the back and pretend it was for me. the squirrel Olympics are in full session this morning. There are four of them and they are chasing and running and jumping from tree to tree. The cardinals are ‘Twitter patting” this morning too. Love is in the air. If ya’ don’t think so, just watch those two doves. He is chasing her all over the yard as she plays hard to get. I swapped out one of my bird baths yesterday, I put the electric one away for the summer and got out a very nice glass one that we use for the suer month. I’m really surprised that the squirrels have not broken that one by now by jumping on it. We’ve had it several years and they pretty much leave it alone.

Okay, I gotta go. I have some emails to send out and have to do that from my downstairs computer because that’s where the files are. Have a blessed day.

It’s hard to believe that we are at the end of another week. This stay at home stuff has me confused as to what day it is and what I’m supposed to be doing. If this thing goes longer than the end of April, (three more weeks) I think folks will really be going stir crazy by then. But, it is for the best. And yet, we hear of more and more restrictions on our movement and more an more places that are closing because someone in the workplace came down with the virus. There are now over a million people worldwide that have this virus. And actually, compared to the actual population of the world, that isn’t a very high number but it is still very scary.

I actually went to the grocery store yesterday because we had run out of some things we needed, the basics like milk, butter and eggs and stuff like that. It was a bit eerie because the store had few customers and the ones that were there walked way around one another and hardly even looked one another in the face. It looked like something out of an apocalypse movie. I took my precautions. I wore a pair of good rubber gloves so I didn’t touch anything that might have the virus on it. I practiced my own self distancing by doing things like waiting to proceed down an aisle that had someone else in it. And I had my hand sanitizer if I needed it. We have become an occupied nation but the enemy is an invisible virus and one never knows where it may be lurking.

But, on th brighter side, — and there is a brighter side, it is a beautiful day. The sun is shining and the temperature, while a bit cool at the moment is going up to almost 70 degrees today. I think I am going to move the park bench I built outside and sand it it down good, Then I need to see if I still have any polyurethane left around here and and put a first coat of that on. Otherwise, I may need to wait until the restrictions are lifted and buy it then. I’m not going to the hardware store for it. I do need to call Lowes’ though and see if they will deliver a pallet of mulch to me. I’m not sure how many bags are on a pallet but I have a lot of area to mulch.

While I’m outside, I might as well fill the bird feeders again. They are pretty empty once again. I may need to go to the pet food store for some sunflower seed again one of these days but I have enough to last for a couple of weeks I think. Again, I don’t want to be going place that are not critical. I guess oof i run out of bird food, —- thy will have to self-distance from me for a while. We all make our sacrifices, they might as well suffer too. LOL

So, have a good weekend. I know you’ll be at home but read a book or something. My friend and pastor. Art has tasked the congregation with reading a chapter of Matthew every day. By the end of April, you will have read the whole book. I think it is a pretty good idea. I’ve been giving my congregations “homework assignments” too each week in preparation for the Sunday services.

Bless you my friends. Stay healthy. Peace.

Well I asked for sunnier day so I could look at Ms. Margaret’s Crabapple tree and I that is exactly what we have this morning. It is sunny with clear blue skies. It is also 35 degrees. Brrrr. I was just getting used to the 50’s. But, it is early and the temps will rise today into the 60’s so I’ll keep my silly griping to myself and give God thanks for a beautiful day.

I have a plethora of guests this morning at the Backyard Buffet; Cardinals, Chick-a-dees, starlings, wrens, Gold finches, Sparrows, Nuthatches,, Doves, Mockingbird, a squirrel or two and of all things, a Crow. The Crow isn’t actually at the Buffet and I hope it doesn’t decide to come but I don’t think I have ever even had a Crow in the yard or trees here. It is doing a lot of cawing etc. but hasn’t actually landed at the feeders. I thought all they ate was dead animals.

I’m glad to report that Ms. Kate is feeling better today. She has been haven’t a lot of trouble with her diverticulitis since last Saturday. But it all seems to be getting better, She had her first full night’s sleep last night since this started. It was wearing her out. I’ve had that problem for any years but one is under control. But I can certainly sympathize with her because I know the pain that goes with it.

As I look around the neighborhood from my sunporch I see that the leaves are pushing out the blooms on the Bradford Pear trees around the neighborhood. I was also looking at my azealias yesterday and the buds are popping out on them. In another couple of weeks they will be in full bloom I think. I was worried about some of them because we had to have three of the large ones moved last fall. But it appears they are going to do fine. We spent a lot of money to have those moved because the city utility company said that we had to move everything out of the easement. They had said they will move the fence but would not move the plants. So, we did our part and now, I don’t know that they are ever going to do what they had indicated. I don’t care that they don’t move my fence, because I like it where it is. But, I would not have had to spend the money. From what I have been told, they asked for bids for the work they wanted done and only one company bid on the job and their bid was about five times as much as the city was willing to pay or had the money for. So, who knows what is going to happen. I’m not going to worry about it.

We went up to the church and recorded this weeks service last night. We must be getting better at it because we did it in one take. We had almost 300 views of last weeks service. That is wonderful.

Tie to go check on the dryer. We are doing laundry this morning amongst other things. So, I’m going to get busy. You pour another cup of coffee and watch my birds for me. Don’t let the squirrel have it all. Bless you my friends. Peace.