Welcome to Friday. It is noon and I’ve just come in from the garden and yard. We have had a couple of sprinkles this morning and I expect we might get more before the day is over, so I decided to get out there and do my trimming and mowing before it gets any wetter. I mowed my front and back yards and Dan’s front and back. I had a lot of trimming to do as I told you the other day. My garden was full of weeds of all kinds and rather that take the “hula-hoe” to it, I decided to take the trimmer to it and cut them to bare ground. It worked well and looks good again. I also have a flowerbed back here in the backyard that I really needed to trim around before I mowed. So, — I’m caught up for this week. Ta-daaa! I hear a lot of other people out there mowing too trying to beat the rain. But at the moment, they are getting wet because it is coming down a little harder now.

I also need to go back out and fill the bird feeders. They are all mostly empty. I’ve had a lot of visitors to the Buffet but there isn’t much for them too chose from. But again, it is raining pretty good so — oh well. They will have to be wild birds aand forage for themselves.

I’m sitting here waiting on FEDEX to deliver my new gas griddle. I love cooking on a griddle. Maybe it takes me back to my teenager days and first job ay Franklin Drug Store. I was pretty much a “jack of all trades” in that job. I did deliveries to customers, I mopped floors, I stocked shelves in the store and unloaded delivery trucks. But every once in a while, when someone was absent fro thee “soda shop, I filled in there too and flipped burgers and cooked eggs and bacon on the griddle. Those are happy days to look back on; I was sixteen and it was my first job, and I bought my first car; a 1954 Studebaker “hard-top”. Unlike today when half of the high-school student body drives to school, I was one of the few who owned a car. I paid $125.00 for that car.

The rain has stopped for the moment so I’m going to feed birds. Have a beautiful weekend. Peace.

Thursday morning already again. I knew that Monday holiday would mess me up and throw my days off. The sidewalks are wet and the water is now glistening on the grass as the sun shines on it. I don’t know when it rained last but my Accuweather app says it is going to be showering again before much longer. I need to mow my yard but I suspect that may not happen today. Although, I could go out with my weed trimmer and do some of that. I was trimming last week and I ran out of string on the reel and had to restring it. Then my battery got too low for the trimmer to be effective. So, I put the battery on the charger and haven’t touched it since. Needless to say, it should be fully charged by now, if in fact the battery still takes a charge. I have a blower that uses these Black and Decker batteries and it seems that they just don’t last very long and they are expensive. The batteries just get to a point where they will no longer charge. The same thing happened to my Dewalt drill. The batteries just wouldn’t take a charge anymore and new batteries for that drill are hard to find. I have a source for them but they are more expensive to buy that a new drill combo kit. That’s the way it is these days. Father’s Day is coming up in about three weeks and I’m waiting on the Father’s Day sales and will buy a new set. I have enough Lowes gift cards to but a nice set, and my girls will probably give me a couple more. They know I love my Lowe’s gift cards.

Ms. Kate finished making her “Thinking of You” cards yesterday afternoon and I got them all signed , addressed, stamped, and put in the mailbox at the post office. She made 34 this time. That accounts for almost every family in the parish. I included a notice in each one that we are starting in-person worship services on the 7th of June in each card.

This afternoon we are going up to the church and tape this weeks service. I still need to read through my stuff a couple of more times before we go. I just like to “rehearse it” in my mind several times Before I give it. A lot of pastors do so well at kind of talking through their services but I write my stuff out and stick pretty close to the script. Ms. Kate says if I don’t do tat, I get to rambling and get off subject sometimes. And, nobody ants a rambling preacher who can’t keep track of the time.

Got to restock the Backyard Buffet today. There are a lot of empty feeders out there. I wouldn’t want the guests to think I’ve gone out of business.

That’s it for today. Have a blessed day. Take time to stop and give thanks to God for your blessings. Peace.

Wednesday morning, 66 degrees, and raining. That is a recipe for a lot of things isn’t it? Book reading, writing a sermon, calling parishioners, playing my keyboard, bingeing on Star Trek Discovery or Picard, or just lazing around are all possibilities. Ms. Kate is busy making cards again for another round of “Thinking of You” to our parishioners. They are really appreciated and she has gotten so many comments about them. They are great.

I’m glad it is raining today. The new plants that I have put in the ground this past week need it. I planted four okra plants to replace the other two that had just died. Hopefully these will do well. The cucumber plant is looking good. I do need to hoe around it though. The weeds are getting too high. I also think that I am going to remove the buckets from around the tomato plants. I always start them by putting a five-gallon bucket around them to keep the rabbits from eating them. I cut the bottom of the bucket out so they get plenty of rain and sunshine. Normally I just leave the bucket on them but I think that maybe the bucket conducts a bit more heat than they really need. The stalks are always more spindly than I want them to be. So, I’ll try a different tactic this year. They are doing well at the moment. We have a couple of pots of cherry tomatoes on the patio and they have blooms on them already.

I finished up this weeks sermon and service last night and now I’m ready to start on next weeks sermon. I’m hoping that the weather is great on June 7th so we can have our “tent meeting” service out side. If not, oh well, we’ll just do what we did before all of the shuttering of the church, I’ll do two services and we’ll press on. I read an article this morning on Facebook that was depicting what church services may be like when we return and it was the most depressing thing I have ever read, and I said so too. If that article becomes reality, there is no way people are going to want to ever enter a church door. Believe me, I fully understand the precautions and “guidance” by all of the “Learned Clergy Leadership” of the denominations. But all I hear is “It’s not time yet. You’re putting people in danger. You’re not showing love for your fellowman. You’re just killing people.” So my question is; “When is it time?” This virus is never going to be eradicated totally so do we just bulldoze the buildings and never go back? Or do we dictate that our parishioners become robots that come to the church building in single file, take our assigned seat and sit silently six or more feet apart while the pastor speaks in a muted voice behind his mask giving his sermon, and then we march back out of the church in single file, go directly to our car and leave. All of this might sound like a rant, but it was the prediction stated in this Facebook article by a California pastor.

Enough for today. Have a wonderful week. Peace.

This is Tuesday. I really need to remind myself that this is Tuesday, not Monday. Ya’ see, that’s what a holiday on a Monday, quasi-retirement, and a COVID-19 two and a half month stay home order does to you. Time just seems to cease to exist. It’s either daylight or it’s dark. Not much else matters because you ain’t going anywhere anyway.

But, all of that being said, we had a nice, no, actually wonderful Memorial Day weekend because Julie and the pups came over on Friday and stayed until yesterday afternoon. It was the first time we have seen her since all of this stuff started. Jim stayed home. I think he was mowing yard and stuff. He still is allowed to go to work every day and in fact they are putting in a lot of extra time to keep up with production. He’s one of the “essentials” of the American workforce. In, fact every one of my kids and their family are working through all of this. And, so am I but I normally work from home most of the time anyway. The biggest difference is that I still can’t do any visitation to my parishioners that are in nursing homes or hospitals. Nor, am I conducting two worship services on a Sunday morning. But, Ms. Kate and I do go to the church one afternoon a week and do the taping of the virtual service for a Sunday release on Facebook.

This past week we taped the service at my home church in their outdoor sanctuary and it went wonderfully. The drone footage that they shot was stunning. The weather was perfect for the shooting and the drone operator did a marvelous job as did Jacob when he put it all together. I’m not sure which day we are going to tape this week. But —- the good news is that we are going back to “in-person” services on the first Sunday of June. I think we have the church “safety ready” with all of the proper precautions of self-distancing and masks, and sanitizers. The big question now is how we ill open on June 7th. If the weather is predicted to be great, I plan to do an out-door service under a tent with a combined church service. I had hoped to do this once earlier and it got shot down, and that probably was the right decision. But that was weeks ago and the guidelines have loosened way up by now. If the weather forecast is for rain, I’ll simply do a standard church service at each church. Well, I don’t know how “standard”  it will be. I’ve never done a church service where we couldn’t sing and make a joyful noise to the Lord. So that is going to take a lot of thought. In the meantime, the churches are both being sanitized and prepped.

Ms. Kate’s gout episode seems to have subsided although the side effects are evident. Prednisone messes with her blood thinners so now she looks like she went three rounds with somebody. All it takes is a bump and she gets an ugly bruise. Even resting her arm on the table while making her cards gave her a bruise. But — she is feeling so much better and for that I give God praise.

Time to go down to my office and get some work done. Have a blessed day. Stay always in prayer. Peace.

A Good Saturday Morning to you. It is once again a sunny morning at least temporarily. Rumors and propaganda and weather forecasts say maybe rain this afternoon. That wouldn’t be a bad thing today if it were only some light showers. I planted okra yesterday and some iris and it would be good to water everything in.

Yesterday I got the yard mowed and trimmed and it really looks good. I still can’t get my “little” John Deere to run right. I get it started and it runs really rough for about three minutes and then it quits like it is out of gas. I have a a young man that is one of our parishioners And he works for the local John Deere dealer as a mechanic. I have sent a text to see if he would be interested or is allowed to do any “side-work”. I hope he will get back to me and can make my little JD well again. I do love my two lawnmowers.

Julie and the two pups came over last evening and will be with us through Sunday afternoon. It is so great to be able to hug our sweet girl. I wish we could do that with all of our daughters. But that isn’t realistic at the moment. Today we are just sitting around enjoying each other, I made another “dump-cake” last night. This time it was peach and was excellent. We put a little ice-cream on it and it just made our tongues slap the roof of our mouths.

I think now, Ms. Kate and I are going to get dressed and goto one of the cemeteries and change out the flowers that are on my folks graves. I noticed yesterday that we still have Christmas trees on them. So, I’m dropping off for today. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Walk with God. Peace.

Well, praise the Lord, we got sunshine!!! What a nice surprise this morning. I’m not sure but I think it has been almost a week since we had a bright day. But —- forecast is that it will be short lived. We should be having showers on and off today.

I don’t have much today on my mind. I’m just celebrating not seeing rain. Ms. Kate is still having problems with her gout but is starting to get around a little better. The Predisone and Tylenol seem to be helping. The doctor had said it would be a couple of days before she was feeling much better and suspect he was right. I’ll sure be glad when she is up on her feet. I hate seeing her feel bad.

I have a couple of things on my list today to do. At 11:00 I’m going to my sister-in-law’s house and dig up some iris that Ms. Kate wants. Kaaren has so many iris and they are so beautiful. Then I have to dig some of our iris up because Kate is sharing some of ours with a lady at church. That’s the great thing about flowers and other joys, they are so much better when you can share them. I have a lilac bush that was from a start from an aunt that has long since passed. We have peonies and iris all around our house that are from starts from my mother-in-law and they are some of our favorites. I have a some peonies from my mother too. It’s nice to be able to look at those flowers and bring back memories of enjoying those flowers with them.

Today is going to be taping day for Sunday’s service. I’m really hoping the rain holds off because we are supposed to tape it out doors. It can be cloudy, but we don’t need it to rain. (Nothing like me telling God how to run the weather department.) But let’s hope the sun stays out until say, —- maybe 1700 hours and we get it all done.

Speaking of church; at St. Lucas we had put in for a grant through the Center for Congregation for some technology equipment and Praise the Lord, the grant went through and was awarded. This is very exciting. We had put in for equipment amounting to around $3,900.. The church has to match up to $500.00 of it. So, now Jacob has to get busy purchasing a lot of stuff. And —- we are going to have to figure out where we are going to put it all and train a couple of people on how to use it. As the character, Mr. Spock, from Star Trek once said; “There is a huge difference between “wanting” and “having”. The biggest thing is that this has all happened since the COVID-19 virus has kept us out of church, so the congregation knows nothing about it. There will be a lot of decisions to be made yet.

Time to get cleaned up and get started on my day. Have a wonderful day. Take time out of your life today to give God praise. Peace.

Wednesday Morning and of course it is once again raining. I feel sorry for the technician from Schneider Heat and Air that has to come out for our annual A/C check up. He has a window of 1100-1300 hours so maybe by the time he gets to our place it will have quit. This low pressure system is kind of stalled out over the Ohio River Valley so we are going to see a couple more days of this; just showers, on and off. We are supposed to tape this weeks worship service at Zoar UCC’s out door chapel. So, hopefully it will not be raining by tomorrow afternoon. It will be, what it will be.

Yesterday I went out to Zoar and shot some video footage to add to our service video. I sent it to Jacob and told him he could use some, none, or all of it if he wanted to. He told me that he has a friend that has a drone and he is going to try to have him do a video of the location.That would be really super. It is such a beautiful location. I think drone footage could be dynamic.

Ms. Kate finally got hold of her doctor’s off and had a virtual office call. They said the problem she is having with her ankle and foot is probably another gout flare up. She is already taking medication for gout but that doesn’t mean it won’t flare up. She was/is having to use our walker to get around and barely making it with that because of pain. I’ve never had gout (knock on wood) but everything I see and hear tells me it is terribly painful. Tylenol helped her some but the doctor has prescribed Prednisone. I got her prescription picked up and we got her going. She feels better this morning but the pain will still be with her another day or two most likely. The worst thing was that this gout flare came on the heels of a bit of a stomach bug and she went from one thing directly into another.

With Ms. Kate down and out for the past week, I’ve been doing the chores. I’ve been keeping us fed but only as much as out of a can or run and pick up allows. Yesterday I tackled vegetable soup. No one makes better soup than Ms. Kate, no matter what kind of soup it is. But, with a lot of questions and proper guidance, I got it made and I must say —- it doesn’t suck at all.  And — while I’m getting my mind set to tackle that she tells me that I’m also going to make a “Dump-Cake”. What boy, how do I do that? But again, careful instructions led to a pretty good dessert. See, I’m still trainable.

Today, I need to go over my sermon one more time and print out a couple of copies. Unless Ms. Kate gets to feeling a whole lot better she won’t be doing liturgist duties this week so I’ll be doing “double duty” . There are a lot of steps to go down to where the altar is and I’m well versed in doing those steps with a bum leg. It’s no fun.

The A/C folks just called and my technician is on the way so I’m gone. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and the best way to do that is to stay in touch with God. Peace.

Good morning on this Monday and start of a new week. I haven’t written for a few days simply because there has been nothing going on around here. And — actually nothing has changed about that. The biggest news around our house is that Ms. Kate has been sick for the last five days. It started off just feeling sick and it seems that she will have a certain kind of symptoms one day and the next she has different symptoms. She has slept an awful lot. Today she is having a real problem with her foot and ankle for no apparent reason. She thinks today it is her arthritis and took some Tylenol and said she feels some better. With all of the Corona Virus crap going on, we are of course worried about that but she has literally been no where except the church and wasn’t close to anybody there. Nor, does any of the symptoms she has match up with any of the Virus symptoms. So, hopefully she will get over this quickly.

Our virtual worship service went well again this week. As I’ve said, they are neat to do but — I’m really ready to go back to in-person worship services. My current plan is that we will be back in church on June 7th. We’ll still live stream the service still for those that are not comfortable with being back in church just yet. And we already have things partitioned off for social distancing and we have masks and sanitizers. According to the Governor’s plan, we will move to phase 3 of our opening this coming Sunday, so by the first Sunday in June we should be fine. Under Phase three, social gathering up 100 people is allowed.

With Ms. kate feeling bad, I got a bunch of things to get done today. I have laundry going at the moment and I also need to do some grocery shopping. Milk, bread and other essentials are on the list. Also on my list for today is to finish up my service for next Sunday. It will be a busy day.

I hope you have aa great week. Stay in touch with God and stay in touch with your friends. Peace.

Finally a little sunshine again, thank you Lord! Unfortunately, it won’t last for long, we are supposed to get another couple of inches before the weekend is over. But —- the temperature is maybe going up to 82 today. Yesterday the high was only about 60 so the warmth will be nice.

I have lots of guests this morning at the buffet. Unfortunately for them, I’m letting it get empty. The blackbirds and starlings are raising sand about it too. Certainly there is still food out there but the expensive stuff that is in the “favorite feeder is gone. That gaggle of starlings stayed there until the last morsel was gone so now they can go be wild birds for awhile. There is plenty of food for the cardinals and the woodpeckers and the smaller birds. And the squirrels can go find another food source too for a couple of days. It appears that we have a batch of new young squirrels now. I guess the babies have been born and are big enough to come out of their nests and start foraging for themselves. There are two small ones running around here this morning and they are exploring everything. One actually climbed up my screen door and looked in at me for a bit.

We went to the church yesterday and taped the service for this coming Sunday. It went well. It doesn’t take us all that long now that we have it down pat as to what we need to do. Jacob will put in all of the graphics sometime between now and Saturday. He does such a wonderful job. We are still working on the re-opening of the church. I had asked for a combined parish council vote about doing the “tent” service either the 24th or 31st of May. Of course it came back almost tied. It was a four part question. Some folks are ready to open today and others are still afraid to open until at least June if not later. That of course just throws the decision back on me so I can be the bad guy either way we go. I had originally said we would open come June, but a chance came up to do and open air service so I threw that out there for them to think about. It wasn’t supposed to be an emotional issue but has turned out that way. (Heavy sigh) I guess I have no real choice but to err on the side of caution despite the fact that I truly believe the actions are over the top. But, I truly believe that people playing god caused this thing and now a world suffers through it. Satan is in the details of this and a lot of his agents are working tirelessly to establish a new world order for control of the world population. So far they have done a good job of it. It is cutting down the world population, it is ruining the world economy, it has remodeled the social actions of the entire world, It has shuttered the churches and free speech and movement. The media is “under control” and only touts the “party line” of gloom and doom and questions every move the leadership of this country makes in order to cause loss of confidence. Is all of this just my opinion —- “yes”, and can I prove any of it? No, this is just my opinion of what is going on in the world and I don’t expect anyone to take my word for it. I just keep reminding myself that no matter what —- This world belongs to God and His will be done. Job went through a lot of crap, but God rewarded him in the end because he was faithful. I will be too. Peace.

It was a sunny Monday so I guess we have to have a Cloudy Tuesday. But it is another cool day, at 55 degrees. The forecast calls for sporadic showers today. The only thing on our agenda is a salon appointment for Ms. Kate at 2:30 this afternoon. She will of course have to “go through the drill” of having her temperature taken and the wait in the car until it is her turn to enter the shop. She is going for a perm today and it will take a while. Normally the beauticians can work on a couple of people at a time but now hay have to only work on one at a time. But, at least they are open again. She had made this appointment before this corona virus crap started so she was lucky to be able to get in.

I have had a flock, or gaggle, or murder, or whatever a large group of starlings is called, here all morning. It appears to be a group of about twenty. They have totally emptied the large bark-butter bits and the other one is almost totally empty. I think I am going to let those feeders stay empty for a few days. They are going through a seven pound bag a week. I bought five seven pound bags a couple of weeks again and have emptied two of them so far. That’s $42.00 worth of bird feed. I don’t need to be spending $100.00 a month just to feed starlings. The worst thing is that they drive other birds off.

We are working hard to get back to in-person worship services. One of the folks has volunteered a large tent for us to use to hold an out door service. I spent sometime last night drawing up some “needs and guidelines” for us to try to do this. I’ve sent it out to the councils for discussion and planning purposes. I hope they get back to me shortly. If they decide it is a go, then we’ll just pray for  sunny weather. I know folks are really anxious to return. I’m shooting for either the 24th of May or for Memorial Day. This year Memorial Day also happens to fall on Pentecost Sunday and I think it would be really neat to have a “Tent Meeting” on Pentecost Sunday. There is a lot to work out though. It’s become clear that staying home and doing “virtual church” is a lot more work than actually doing my normal services.

That’s about all for today; there’s nothing exciting going on or if there is —- I’m not in the mood to care. LOL. Y’all have a very blessed day.

And here we are, starting another new week. God has opened up another seven day period for us to make a difference in somebody’s life or maybe make a needed change in our own. So what better way to start out the week than being grateful for another load of blessings being dropped in your life.

How was your Mother’s Day? If you are a mom, did you get some extra lovin’? Did your children make contact with you. Did your husband do anything special in appreciation for all of the work that you do and have done in making a home for the kids? If you are the dad, did you make sure you gave some extra attention to your wife and did you make sure the kids did the same? Around here, Ms. Kate and I didn’t do anything “special”. I grilled a couple of steaks and together we prepped and cooked some veggies also on the grill. But, neither of us “got dressed” for the day and we basically lazed around for most of the day. We watched our worship service on our computers, had our lunch, planted some new iris that Karen had given us on Saturday and took a nap. I didn’t buy her any flowers because anywhere you look in our yard you will see beautiful flowers. I didn’t buy her candy because we really don’t need to be eating it, and I didn’t buy her anything else because at our age, if we want something, we just buy it. I did have a card for her though. Beyond that, it could have been any day of the year but the day made her happy and that was all I really cared about. I also called my one remaining aunt and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. She is such a sweetheart and has always been my favorite aunt; always the one wild flower standing above a bland wheat field.  I told her that since I no longer had a mother, I was borrowing her for the day. She seemed pleased.

I’m working still on how and when to re-open the church. A parishioner texted me yesterday and said that he has a 20 ft by 40 ft tent that he is willing to bring to the church and set up. People then can bring lawn chairs, self distance as families or even sit in their cars to hear the service. I’m excited about the prospect. We may look at doing that on Memorial Day weekend. Lots to work out first though.

I filled bird feeders again yesterday and the Backyard Buffet haas been busy this morning. The robins, cardinals, woodpeckers, and blackbirds have all been fighting over one feeder despite the fact that all the others are full. I also had a Pilated Woodpecker fly in for a bite or two. I always consider that a real treat and blessing when one of those visits us.

That’s all for today. I hope your week is full of blessings and love. Peace.

Rain yesterday, sunny today. But, rain again tomorrow. Sigh! But, I’m not complaining except that it is going to be a little muddy to go out and fill the bird feeders. It was supposed to frost last night so I went out this morning and checked the plants and flowers. It appears that nothing got hurt so maybe it didn’t frost after all. But at the moment it is 55 degrees and beautiful outside. So I must give thanks to God for another day of life and another chance to observe His wonderful creations.

I finished my sermon for the 17th last evening. Now I need to just finish up the “script for the service” and finish the bulletin to send to Brenda and Jacob. Then I can take a couple of days off before I start again. We are mid-way through the month of May almost and soon we will be starting some variation of in-person worship services again. I’m still not sure what that is going to look like. We could continue doing what we are doing and it works well. But I know there are members of the congregation that are not receiving he message because they lack the technology to be able to get it. They may not have internet or have Facebook etc. And I have people that really just want the closeness to “being in God’s house”, and I totally understand that and feel the same way. So, we are going to have to figure out something soon. There is all kinds of “guidance” out there from medical people and politicians and church hierarchy people. It ranges from keep the doors to the church closed, to worship in small ten person groups with no touching or singing, to throw the church doors open and trust God. My smallest church generally has an attendance of 20 or less and we have plenty of room to come and self-distance, so we may start in June with having something close to normal worship with them. And we also have enough room to practice good self distancing at my larger church. We can begin to have worship services and continue to “live stream” the services from there and those who want to come can attend and those who aren’t ready to commit to that just yet can continue to tune in from home. No matter what, I will not allow God to be silenced from this parish if I can help it at all. June will be interesting to see what transition begins to take place. I ask you to pray for all of us as we make decisions.

Time to go feed the flying critters. I pray you have a most blessed weekend. If you are a mom and are reading this; Have a wonderful Mother’s Day and thank you for doing the job that God appointed you to. Peace.

Happy rainy Friday morning. The feeders are fairly empty and most of my guests are hiding out anyway. There is one Gros-beak sitting in the gazebo feeder just staying out of the rain and occasionally taking a bite of safflower seed. Other than that, the place is deserted. I guess if I were a compassionate guy I would go out in the rain and fill the feeders, but that ain’t happening.

So, let me tell you my good news. I always say, “Turn it over to God” and I try to live that life, often without success because I tend to be a control dude too often. But, You’ve all been with me for the past year and a half as I went through all of the stuff with my Achilles’ tendon. Yesterday was my final appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He confirmed what I already suspected, the tendon has regenerated which is virtually unheard of. He felt of it a couple of times and looked at me and said, “I can actually feel it.” He had never seen that happen. I suspect that now I will be the subject of a paper for him. LOL. I still have limitations and will always have, but the fact that the tendon regenerated in any form is simply a God created miracle. Dr. Richardson said he expected I would be in my brace for the rest of my life. But, I use it maybe 10% of the time now. I can’t run or even walk very fast, and I tire quickly if I have to walk very far or stand for very long, but that is true whether I wear the brace or not. So, when someone tells you to give it over to God, think about my miracle. God, be praised.

We celebrated my good visit by going up to Haubstadt to Dewigs and picking up a little meat, and the we drove on up to Owensville to a farm stand and bought five quarts of strawberries. They are sooo good. On the way back home we stopped at Ft. Branch and picked up some Thai spring rolls from the mom of one of my parishioners.

Ms. Kate and I made 17 jars of freezer jelly last evening and she made my favorite dessert of all times, a Kistorte. It is basically just a baked meringue cake, and we put whipped cream and strawberries on it. It will make your tongue slap your face. So, we’re eating good again today.

I guess I need to vacate my recliner and get busy. The rain is going to be around most of the day and then it will get cold. We may even have a late frost tonight. Yuk! I hope your day iS pleasant and full of blessings. If not —- Give it to God.

Happy mid-week. It is the middle of the week and no special special day to celebrate. What will we do with ourselves? It is a bright sunny day and currently 51 degrees with a wind. That spells chilly in my books. Although the critters at the Backyard Buffet obviously don’t seem to mind. I filled up the bark butter bits feeders yesterday evening and they are half empty this morning again and as usua, it is the darn blackbirds and starlings that are the flying pigs.

We went to the church yesterday afternoon and taped the service. It seemed to go very well. I reckon we will see about that come Saturday night on You Tube and Sunday morning on Facebook. We are currently having discussion on how to re-open the churches again. It is very complicated and also a very emotional thing to people on all sides of the argument. We want to keep everyone safe of course, but we also have to discern what actually makes up worship in a holy manner. I’ve been reading the guidelines put out by our Conference and they are depressing as a minimum. My interpretation of Themis the while the say they are given in Love and concern; to me, and yes it’s my own interpretation, they are given in fear. What I read in these guidelines is: strip the church of bibles and hymnals, have a constant ability of hand sanitizer and wipes and bags to throw them in. There should be no singing and therefore no spoken liturgy such as a responsive Call to Worship, Unison Prayers of Confession, or Lord’s Prayer. People must be staggered in and they must be wearing masks and sit six feet apart. Everything must be wiped down before and after the service or when anybody touched a surface of any kind. Bathrooms will have to be “single use” or sanitized in between. No offering plates and no communion trays can be used. So basically, put on your body condom and come and sit six feet apart from one another in fear and distrust. Oh, and this is all done because we love one another. I’ve seen movies about these kinds of societies. Again, my rant and my personal thoughts.

I think Ms. Kate wants to go to the cemeteries today for some genealogy work. I reckon I better quit grousing and get myself ready. Have a blessed day.

Happy Cinco De Mayo! Do you find it odd that this day is in honor of a battle where the Mexican Army won a battle over the French and yet it’s not really celebrated in Mexico, but is here in the United States? But then, we celebrate St. Patricks Day too and we’re not Irish. I reckon though if Cinco De Mayo uses a cold beer and tacos as their elements of celebration, it can’t be all bad. Just make sure it’s not Corona! We’ve heard enough about Corona.

It is another rainy day and much cooler at 55 degrees this morning. It is only going up to 61 today and if there is any breeze and the showers linger, it will really feel cool. I think I heard last night that by Friday, the high will only be about 55 and the lows could get down into the upper 30’s. That’s not good.

I did get my area around my little tulip poplar tree cleared out yesterday. It wasn’t a hard thing to do except that pushing on a spade with my “bad foot” doesn’t go as well as I would like it to.  But there is always a work-around and I got it done. I still need to get a bag of mulch and put around the tree and maybe widen the area a bit. I want it easy to mow around without worry about hitting it with the John Deere.

Ms. Kate is still busy making “thinking of you” cards for the parishioners at the parish. The ones she made this time are extra cute and I know the folks are going to love them. I addressed and stamped thirty yesterday and she has another ten to make. I would call that her ministry. This afternoon we are going to the church and tape the service for this coming Sunday. The councils are beginning to discuss the “opening” of the church and how we can do it safely. It was even suggested that we could do a “drive-in” style of service where we could ave folks come to the parking lot and stay in their cars and I could broadcast the service on a low frequency FM channel. They would sit in their cars and listen and I would be on a microphone under a tent. Sounds a lot like a revival to me. And folks would at least get to see one another as they worship. Jacob is looking into the possibility of an FM station and I know where we could possibly borrow a keyboard. I must say, I’m not totally against the idea. Other churches do this, some even go so far as to use Drive-in theaters. We could also “live stream” the service on Facebook at the same time for those that don’t want to come out to the parking lot. Anything to get the word out. Compared to what Jesus and the disciples of Jesus went through to spread His word — this is just a bump in the road. People say we need to “think out of the box”. (by the way, I’ve always hated that saying.) But in today’s world there doesn’t appear to be a box. And if there is, —- you better be wearing a mask and standing six feet apart while you are in it.

That’s about all I have to say today. I hope your day is filled with the joy and the glory of The Lord. Jesus says, “My peace I give unto you”. Hold out your arms and embrace that peace.

Okay, I think everyone else has said it so I may as well say I too; “May the 4th be with you”! There, I got that out of my system.

So, happy Monday to you. We have a sunny 63 degree morning here at our house. The starlings and blackbirds have once again emptied the large Bark Butter Bits container. There seems to be at least one blackbird or starling on it at all times. I don’t know how to get rid of them beyond going out there with my BB gun and shooting them and I don’t want to do that. I guess I’ll just keep feeding the greedy little buggers.

How was your weekend? Ours was of course very benign. Ms. Kate worked on her cards most of the weekend. I got the lawn mowed and the garden planted and got a start on my May 17th sermon. Our service went well on Facebook and YouTube and we had good “attendance”.

So today’s adventures will include some major endeavors like watering my garden, blowing all of the “helicopter seeds” off of my sidewalk and I need to go out front and do a little digging around the “Harley Tree”. It is a Tulip Poplar that I planted in the front yard a few years ago that had been just a rogue thing in my flowerbed. It has grown well but has some damage at the bottom from something. It looks like it got nicked by the lawnmower but I don’t recall hitting it. Neighbor Dan sent a picture of the damage to the county extension agent and he said that I had the tree planted a bit too deep and needed to free up some space around it and let it breathe. But other than that, he said it looked really healthy. I think I planted it three years ago and it was only a foot tall sapling. Today it is easily seven foot tall. I really don’t want to lose it. We call it the “Harley Tree” because Julie put the ashes of her dog under that tree. So it has meaning. Digging around it will also mean that I don’t have to get the mower as close to it.

We dodged a big storm yesterday. It went south of us and I guess there was a lot of wind damage associated with it according to the weather reporter. I haven’t heard of any deaths associated with it but supposedly there were lots of trees damaged and some roofs blown off.

The state has started to “open up” again as the COVID 19 virus continues to sicken people. I think it looks like it is slowing down in some places but still people are dying. There is a whole range of reactions and emotions over this whole thing. Some people are demonstrating because they are tired of being “locked down”. Other people don’t want anyone outside with out a mask until no one on earth comes down with it. Politicians and media have totally turned it into a blame war. The guidance is so confusing and of course there are those that say that if you don’t follow every CDC guidance to the letter then you are a serial killer and should be jailed. And they play the guilt trip. If you go out, you may become a carrier and not know it and will infect your grandmother and kill her. In my opinion, they are the worst because they lay it on so thick. Hundreds of doctors are speaking up and saying that we really do not have to be doing all of this hiding but no one in the power places listens to them. They are too busy being “important” and being in the news. Granted, this is all just my opinion and daily rant.

In the meantime —- God will handle it anyway. Have a great day.

Two mornings ago I filled the feeders; both the bark butter pellets feeders and the sunflower seed feeders. This morning they are mostly empty. The blackbirds are out there fighting over the last morsels of the pellets as I sit here and watch. There is a squirrel on one if the sunflower feeders and it has been there for a good thirty minutes. Another squirrel has just climbed the pole on one of the other feeders. No wonder I go through so much bird feed. Just yesterday, we went to Wild Birds Unlimited and I spent another $100.00 on Bark Butter Bits, and that was with my discounts. I’m about to think I need a new interest. I need to go to Pet Food Center today and pick up another 80 # of sunflower seed. Unfortunately, I think quitting feeding my birds will be like when I quit smoking; — I’ll do it tomorrow. (Wow, I just realized that it has been 31 years since Ms. Kate and I quit smoking. Good for us.)

Our governor has released his “open the state plan”. It will be done in five stages.According to the newest guidelines we can begin in-person worship as early as next week. I’m not ready to do that. I don’t want to preach from behind a mask and I don’t want to look at a congregation all wearing masks. I have proposed to my parish that we continue to do virtual services through May. Normally, we would begin our combined summer services the first Sunday of June. I have proposed that we postpone that until July. By then we should have some idea of what the effect of re-opening will have on the country. I reckon I’ll wait and see what the two councils say. Until then, we’ll continue to do our virtual services and they seem tto work just fine.

I’m having an extremely lazy Saturday morning.Ms. Kate made a great french toast with an apple compote for breakfast and now, I’m sitting here being lazy once again. At some point today I need to put some tomato plants in the ground as a couple of cucumber plants and okra plants. But this is my first real day off with nothing to do for the church and I intend to make the most of it. I’ve opened up the sunporch doors and am Letting the breeze flow through. I hope your day can be as relaxing. Peace.