Hello Monday. Well you've started off like you think you are winter or something. We got you cold blast of Artic air and your little snow flakes, but you can knock it off now. I've seen all of the snow that I care to se for this year; --- or next year too for that matter. 

How was your weekend? Our was very benign. We did nothing and we went no where. I did venture out and pick up a few groceries and four cases of water. It was nice to get out and do something productive. Today I made another run. I had bought a container of watermelon this weekend and we had eaten it all. Ms. Kate found it especially refreshing and we were out of the liquid Mucenex that she is taking, so I bundled up and went to Schnucks and got what we needed. Of course I don't go to Schnucks and not buy some pastries; so my grocery cart claimed of sweet pastries that will make for a tasty snack later on tonight and tomorrow. 

Ms. Kate continues to improve and gain some strength. It has sure been slow though. I guess if the is any consolation that this is normal; --- we found out that our own doctor has the virus and is having the same fatigue symptoms that Ms. Kate is having. We were looking at some of the paperwork that the hospital sent home with her and she is supposed to make an appointment with our doctor sometime this week. But --- he's still off. I guess they will have one of the other doctors cover for him. 

Our worship service went very well yesterday. Jacob, our technician, really does a wonderful job of putting those together for broadcast. I've had other churches comment on our broadcasts because they look so well done. It keeps our people from at least one chance to catch this virus. My St. Lucas church still is doing Sunday school but there are only like ten of them and they really practice all of the safety measures. 

Well, I need to get back to my writing. These sermons won't write themselves. Have a great evening. Peace

 A Good Friday morning to you all. Is this what they call "Black Friday"? I think so, it's that day when shoppers start early and shove and push and physically fight one another over "bargains" and deals for "Loving Christmas presents". No thanks, I'll stay home. We've never gone out on Black Friday that I know of. But, I know several ladies who live for this day. They start early and shop all day. I wonder how cyber-shopping affects that these days. There was a lady interviewed last evening on TV that said her Christmas shopping was all done and that she had done every bit of it on line. Amazing.

How as your Thanksgiving? Ours was pretty benign. Some friends dropped off a full Thanksgiving meal for us at 1500 hrs. She brought ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, rolls, Cole slaw, pretzel salad, corn, green beans, and coconut cream pie. Wow! oh, and cookies and Chex Mix. She is obviously a good cook! It was so nice of them to think of us. Of course, I think I told you that Sister-in-law Karen brought by a huge dish of oyster dressing, regular dressing, green bean casserole, and veggie soup on Wednesday afternoon. So, we have a lot of good food around here for the next couple of days. Karen is a great cook too. I had to laugh  though last night when Ms. Kate said, "All of this good food and yet I miss not having the cranberry sauce and the sweet potatoes." She's right. I miss not having the sweet potatoes; I can do without cranberry sauce for the rest of my life. I never was a fan but given the choice, I'd take the canned stuff. 

I guess I'll spend most or at least part of the day writing again. I'm just getting started on my sermon for December 13th and need to finish that one today. And if I have time, I'll start on the December 20th program. Just trying to make good use of my time. I also need to go to the grocery store or maybe call in an order and just go pick it up. There are a few things that I think I need I think I want to pick up a steak and put it on the grill. Ms. Kate and I both need to get some proteins in us and a steak sounds good. 

That's about it for today. I hope your day is filled with love and joy. Peace. 

 Good morning and a very Happy Thanksgiving to you. I hope wherever you are that your day will be filled with good thoughts and good food. I also hope you are doing your Thanksgiving "virtually and not crowding 87 people in to your house. We want you alive at Christmas too, you know. I saw a meme on Facebook the other day that said something to the effect of: "Before you cancel you family Thanksgiving and Christmas, remember we are not guaranteed a single day of life. So, don't live in fear; celebrate together."  Okay, I understand the sentiment, I really do. But what a dangerous thing to put out there and plant in people's mind. We hear case after case of families that have defied the precautions and had big birthday and other celebrations together and then 10 or 15 members go home with COVID. It just is not worth it. Ms. Kate and I followed all of the precautions and still came down with it. Why in the world would we chance it?  But, emotions often over rules caution. So, my friends, I just urge you to be safe. 

Karen came by yesterday and dropped off a bunch of dressing; both regular and oyster, and green bean casserole, and some veggie soup. I had a plate full last evening and Ms. Kate even ate some dressing too. It was delicious. Karen brought enough for us to put some in the freezer. Today a lovely family is going to drop off a plate of food for each of us and some coconut cream pie. People have ben so wonderful about calling to see if we need anything from the grocery or if they can go by and pick up something for me/us to eat. Ms. Kate and I have a lot of love in our life. 

I guess today I will work on some more writing. I have my service for next week all done and also have the worship service done for the following week. I need to work on the sermon for that service. I'm really trying to get it all done through Christmas because I also just got word yesterday that one of my parishioners has ben diagnosed with a huge brain mass tumor and has been given only 4-6 weeks to live. How very sad. He and his wife have been going through so much illness recently, and they are  nice people. But, that is a funeral that I know will be coming up. Unfortunately with this stupid COVID, I suspect we will be back to very minimal attendance, and I know I can't even go visit. I will call him today and if he is alert, I will pray with him via phone. 

I've talked to all of the girls via Facebook messenger this morning. It's a thing we do daily. If Facebook is good for nothing else, it is good for that. I love being able to just jump on and join in on the conversation or start a new one. With our kids being spread literally coast to coast --- it is a blessing that I don't take lightly. I know not everyone likes their family --- but I love mine!!!

That's it from me today. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Tuesday, Tuesday, what do I do with you today? I can’t believe that I am still sitting around waiting on a plumber. These guys are most generally so very responsive. But they did tell me they were really backed up (I think that was a plumber-pun) up that they would be out either on Monday or Tuesday. Yesterday afternoon I got a text that they were putting me on the schedule for today, so, I sit next wait. It isn’t like I am going any where anyway. I have Ms. Kate here and need to look after her. She is doing well but we still have some issues to watch after for her. She has someone from Occupational Therapy coming this afternoon. I’m not sure what that will entail so I need to be here for that session anyway. She had a rough night for awhile and sat up in a chair an slept. But now, her systems seem to have calmed down and she is sleeping peacefully in the family room in the recliner. 

I think today, rather than go downstairs to my office, I’m going to bring up my flash drive, my Bible and a couple of other needed things and I will work from up here. Ms. Kate gets around fairly well, but I’m taking no chances. Thank goodness I have my Surface Pro as a backup to my PC and I do everything on a flash drive anyway. That way I can just carry my work with me whether I’m downstairs, up stairs, or at the church working on the computer there. 

I fixed us both a little lunch. My sister-in-law brought by some ham and fresh made bread yesterday as well as some of what we all call goulash. All Ms. Kate wanted was some soup so I fixed that for her. I had the goulash. It made for a good lunch. 

I know this is short but I really need to get some work done. Have yourself a blessed day. 

 A happy and wonderful Monday to you. I have my lady home from the hospital. I brought her home about 1600 hours yesterday afternoon. We stopped on the way and dropped off her prescriptions at Walgreens and I took her home, got her settled in, and then went back and picked up her meds. She doze on and off and I woke her at 1900 and had her get up and come watch television so she would sleep through the night. 

We both slept like logs last night. I think just the sheer relief of having her home let us both relax for the first time in well over a week. All praise goes to God. She is weak but is getting around the house pretty well. I brought in a walker for her but she gets back and forth pretty well with out it. Her joy this morning was a shower and washing her hair. She has sat in her chair for a good portion of the day but I did make her get up and come to the kitchen table so we could put together a weeks worth of her pills. I don’t know how she keeps up with all of that. She wanted me to try to gather them together for her but I knew that it was an activity that we could do together and would be be good home OT for her. 

I’m waiting for the plumber to call here and come fix the minor problem that I have. I almost feel embarrassed having a plumber have to fix it but heck, he won’t care —- he’ll get paid. At least I can say I tried to fix it. I hate plumbing and electrical problems because I am so inadequate at fixing either. 

The wind blew over one of my new bird feeder poles. I thought maybe an animal had pulled it over but the food , although spilled, was untouched. The ground was saturated from rain and the wind has been really kicking the past couple of days, so it doesn’t really surprise me. I got my on-line order from Wild Birds yesterday. I want the ground to dry out a bit and then I will fill feeders and of course, put the pole and feeders back up. There is always something to do. 

Wednesday afternoon we are going to meet at the church and record the service for Sunday. I have a lot of work to to to stay up with all of that. But I can manage it. It is almost impossible to believe that Christmas is only 32 days from now. We have addressed a card, we haven’t bought a single gift, we haven’t put up a single decoration and I suspect none of those things are gong to get done. Gosh, I hope 2021 is a better year. 

Have a great day my friends. May God bring you peace and comfort. 

 Well —— crap on a cracker! I was really hoping that I would be able to go see Ms. Kate today but she is still not allowed to have visitors. I certainly understand it, and I understand the desire to not want any chance of COVID spread but it was disappointing especially since so much of her nurse’s report was positive. I know that a visit together would  do so very much for both of our mental states. I hate to break the news to her. 

It is a rainy, yucky day. The temperature has dropped and one would  think it is November. It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just a few days away and Christmas is only like five weeks away.  This will be the least “Christmasy” Christmas I think we have ever had and Thanksgiving will come and go. I just hope to have Ms. Kate home for Thanksgiving even if I have to just fix us some Ravioli or something. 

I have been wanting a DQ Blizzard in the worst way for over a week. I kept thinking about it and how good it would be. I finally went to DQ last evening and got myself a medium Butterfinger Blizzard, and I was so so disappointed. I usually get a large blizzard but this time got a medium. Well, they put way too much of the Butterfinger and chocolate in it. I couldn’t even taste the ice cream. I ate down to the part where all of the chocolate and stuff was and through it away. I should have gotten a banana or strawberry. Either of those would have been better. But, it is what it is. 

One thing I am finding out is that with Ms. Kate gone, the days are sure long around here. Were she here and healthy, we would be in two different levels of the  house doing our own thing. I’d be on the computer downstairs and she’d be working on making cards up stairs. But —- we would still be together. We currently are able to talk three or four times a day but that just isn’t the same. I’ve only been up for about three hours today but it seems that I have been up a long time. 

I guess I might as well make use of the day. Have a great weekend. Peace. 

 A glorious good morning to you on this Friday, November 20th. Today my middle daughter celebrates her 50th birthday. That is so very hard to believe. I can so easily picture that little blond “toe-head” running around this house at lightening speed. She never stopped; just ran. She never wanted to sit at the table to eat; she wanted to eat on the run and she was a “nibbler”. Ms. Heather was always the “instigator” and never the guilty. She invented stubborn. What a wonderful child. 

Our three girls were all so very different. Julie, our oldest was the one who dared life to get in her way; and that came with a fair amount of headaches for parents who had no idea how to raise children. But she was born with an “old” sense of loyalty and love and dedication. She’ll give you her last dime and hold you when you hurt, —- and throat-punch you if you cross her. I’m so glad she decided to move here to the area. We talk most every day and she looks after us and brightens up our weekends every chance she gets. 

Lisa, our youngest, is the child we always called “our nature’s child.” If you can picture, a young blonde barefoot girl walking through a meadow with a deer walking beside her, a bluebird on her shoulder, and a ring of daisies in her hair, that would be Lisa. One of my fondest memories if Lisa is watching her sit in the street gutter in front of our house in the Philippines. She was wearing her “tu-tu” that we could never get her out of, holding an umbrella over her in the middle of a down-pouring rain. She was just enjoying life to the fullest and the giggles rang all the way to the porch from where we watched her. Lisa has always taken life one day at a time and used that day for all it is worth. Tomorrow will come and there will be another day to use, but today is too full of life to experience to waste it. But, never, —- mess with her family. She will make a Mama Bear look like a baby bunny. 

Ms. Kate continues to improves but I don’t know to what extent. I talked to her this morning and they were running X-rays. She says they keep giving her different medicines but she really doesn’t knoow what. But she sounds good when I talk to her. I pray she will get to come home soon. 

I filled bird feeders yesterday for the first time in at least two weeks. I was really limited on supplies but do have plenty of black-oil sunflower seed and the “Bark-butter paste” that the woodpeckers like as well as some other “no mess” bird seed. I did an on-line order for  $141.00 worth of re-supply yesterday afternoon. FedEx should be delivering it today. Got to keep the Backyard Buffet going. 

That’s it for today my friends. I’m waiting on Julie to arrive from New Albany. She said she will be here around lunch time and is bringing me some chicken and dumpling!!!! That sounds marvelous. So, go have yourself a wonderful and safe weekend. Please use your masks. 

Peace. 

 What can I say except; “All glory and power and praise to God above”. I am writing to you today from outside of the grip of COVID and have declared myself “well”. I declare myself well because there’s no one else to do it. 

You know, I went in to this thing, not knowing I had it, not knowing where I got it, not knowing what to expect, not knowing how to treat it. All I knew was that suddenly, I felt like I had been run over by a truck! And my friends —- I know what that feels like because back in 1977 I in fact did get run over by a truck and drug for a block; but that is another story for a different time. So, I told Kate, I thought I better get tested, made an appointment, and went. My results of course came back positive. At the same time, Kate was also being infected, maybe by me, but her symptoms were totally different than mine. In fact I couldn’t tell what her symptoms were, she was just totally tire and exhausted all the time. I’m fix things for her to eat and she wouldn’t eat because she wasn’t hungry. Her only description was that she didn’t feel well. 

We tried the “My Chart” route to find out what and how to treat this thing and we talked to nurses that we love and everything said there is no treatment, just treat your symptoms. I could do that with ibuprofen and Mucenex. But I still didn’t know how to help Kate and she still wasn’t eating. All of this started on the 6th of November. Little did we know how critical Kate was becoming By this past Saturday night, early Sunday morning, Kate had passed out in the bathroom and it took us two and a half hours to get her back into the bed. Even then she was still refusing “outside help”. Sunday morning, she passed out again when she trie to get out of bed. I called 911 and she has been in the hospital since; first the COVID unit an then the Cardiac Care unit where they are working to get her heart rate back down to where it needs to be. 

Welcome to today. I am totally symptom free and have been for three days. I have taken myself out of quarantine and in fact I went to the hospital this morning and dropped off a bag of stuff for Ms. Kate. Except for being tired, which I understand will linger for awhile, I am fine. Ms. Kate sounds much, much stronger when I talk to her. 

So again, all I can do is give all praise to God. The amount of prayers that have flowed our way is humbling and overwhelming. God bless you all an thank you so very much. 

Peace. 

 Welcome to my Wednesday. This is, I think, day thirteen of having COVID and I am doing so much better. I’m breathing much better and I’m moving around much better and I’m not taking any medications that I was. In fact —- I’m craving a DQ Blizzard so I must be alive and well. I m sure I am past contagious and I may sneak down to the DQ drive through later. I figure I will not be putting anybody in any danger and my stomach is talking to me. It often speaks louder than my brain so I must think about this. LOL

I’ve talked to Ms. Kate twice this morning. She was moved in the middle of the night to a different room because they needed her specific room for another patient and she was doing well enough to move. She is still in the Cardiac care unit, just a different room. She is sounding good as can be expected but we have no idea of a release date for her. Her nurse told her this morning that this COVID and the effects can easily linger for three weeks or more. I can believe that. Our nephew had it six weeks again and is still tired and lethargic. 

So, the decision has been made about church services for the rest of the year. We will be going to virtual only through December. I hate that but 100% support and encourage  it. Much of my congregation is as old or older than I am and they are all high risk. The other side of the coin is  we have young children that we just don’t need to even consider exposing to this thing.  I just refuse to put their lives on the line for “tradition”. It will be a strange year with no church decorating, no caroling, no special Christmas Eve service or Christmas tree. Pastor Art says the Grinch has stolen Christmas. I said all the Grinch got was a “worldly tree”. The manger with the Christ child is an immovable object and if it is missing, it is because we gave it away!! And that is where I am going to start my Advent and Christmas sermon themes from: “How we found the true meaning of Christmas”.

It is still cooler than I want to deal with today but I have to gather together my trash and take my trash can down to the street. I wish this were also recycle week but it isn’t and my recycle can is full. You know, I was looking at the amount of Amazon boxes I have received and wished I had the cardboard contract to build Amazon boxes. I could be having COVID on some South Pacific Island!!! 

Enough of that silliness. I pray you have a wonderful day. Go in peace. 

   

 Wow, it has been two weeks since I posted my last blog, that is hard to believe. As you know, Ms. Kate and I both have COVID-19. She has it much worse than I do and our symptoms are so different. I think I followed “the pattern”; Shortness  of breath, too weak to feel like moving, just basically “sicker than I ever wanted to be.” Ms. Kate on the other hand has so many underlying conditions that COVID attacked those. COVID basically attacked her heart and kidneys and by Sunday morning I had to have her taken by ambulance to the ER. She remains hospitalized. I just spoke to her nurse and they have moved her from the COVID Ward to the Cardiac Ward so they can give her some special medicines. They say she is doing well. 

So, so, sooo many prayers and well wishes have come our way and I can’t be grateful enough. As bad as this has been and continues to be, Ms. Kate and I are so very fortunate. We may be separated but we are both still alive and there is a bright spot at the end of the tunnel. I just pray it’s not the light of an an-coming train! But what would we do without the love of our families and our Faith Families. 

We are needing to make decisions about church services and Christmas and things like that at the church. Gatherings are very limited by state guidelines. I admit that our two churches have gotten way too comfortable about not doing social distancing and if we are to continue to meet in-person, we have to really enforce that again. Luckily, we have a great capability to do all virtual. But our churches are so solidly rooted in their traditions, that it will be heartbreaking to not do their usual things. 

I have not been on the sun porch at all to watch my birds. I’m out of almost every kind of bird food and of course everything is empty. Thursday is supposed to be a nice day so maybe I can so out and see what I have left to make my guests happy again. 

That’s it, I think I will hit the recliner again. Have a blessed day. Thanks for a hanging in there and waiting on me.   Peace. 

 Happy Wednesday, November 4th. It is another bright and sun-shiny day here. It’s 53 degrees at 0830 and believe it or not, it is supposed to go up to the lower 70’s today. That will be a welcome thing. 

We’re up early around here because we have a contractor here this morning already to install the new Leaf-Filter gutter guards on our house. He arrived right on time and says it will takes him two or three hours to get the job done. I was surprised that they only sent one guy to do the job but I can just hope he knows exactly what he id doing. We have  leaf filtering system up there  but I think I told you that it is getting weak and the design of it tends to trap the leaves and dirt on top of the gutters. This new system is designed to be put on with a slight slant so the stuff rolls off. At almost $4,000 bucks, I certainly hope it does as planned. It is supposed to keep me from having to get up there on the roof. It is expensive, but a lot cheaper than medical bills from falling off of a roof. 

I finished up my Nov. 22nd sermon last night so now I’m ready to go on vacation without worry about having to hurry back to get my work done. Now, I need to start working on the Advent season and then Christmas. It is all right around the corner. Heck, I think Thanksgiving is the week after we get back from our vacation.

Yesterday was Election Day for the nation. We still don’t have the results of the election and may not for as long as a week. And of course both sides are gathering their lawyers to protest the results and ballot counts. At the moment, it would appear the challenger is in the lead but that will go back and forth. You know, I never really thought about it before but I wonder how our early settlers voted for president and how they learned who had won? I wonder if they cared. I can imagine that the election results may not have reached the frontier for as much as six months or more. Maybe we were better off then. All of the “instant news” gets so confused with the media giving their take on everything, and when I was listening for a while last night, it was so very obvious that the media was all for the challenger and against the President, but that hasn’t changed since the president was elected four years ago. They news network dudes are trying to analyze this thing from a hundred different ways and they make it so confusing. Sigh, oh well; no matter who wins, — God is still in control. We all need to remember that. We need to remember that we are not one another’s  enemy. We are citizens of America and we have to drop all of this hate and vile language against people we don’t know and have never met. And yes, —- I’m talking to some members of my own family here. How would you like it if people who don’t know you, have never met you, talked about you with vile and foul language on Facebook? Shame on ya. 

Other than that —- have a most blessed day. God loves ya, and so do I. Peace. 

 Good morning on this Tuesday, the 3rd of November. It is Election Day in this country. Lots and lots of candidates across the land for offices ranging from School Board member to President of the United States. The rhetoric, name calling, accusations, and character dismantling have been the worst I have ever seen in my life. It is going to be a long day today and of course nothing else will be discussed on television until the results are in and that might be a couple of days because of mail-in ballots that all have to be hand-counted. Many states won’t even open the ballots until the end of the day. As you know, Ms, Kate and I voted last week and I’m so glad we did. We have our candidates that we support and we hope they win of course especially at the Presidential level and the Governor level, but more than that, we pray for peace across the nation as the results are announced. I fear it is not to be though. May God place his hand upon this nation and its people and remove all of the hate that has been generated. 

Halloween came and Halloween went no was totally uneventful. We had maybe a half dozen trick or treaters really early, like right after school. Then I got a call and needed to make a run to the church and by the time I got back, it was all done. I think that COVID kept the kids in and there were many “Trunk or Treat” opportunities around for kids to attend without them having to go door to door. So, as Halloweens go —- it was a bust. Now, my neighbor needs to get his annoying decorations out of the yard so we can stop hearing his sound track of ghostly sounds. Of course, he replaces all of that blow-up crap with Thanksgiving blow-up crap. He obviously likes his holidays and he also obviously has more storage room than I do. 

I think it is supposed to go up to low 60’s today and we are supposed to have lots of sunshine. I need to refill bird feeders today and I really need to go to Wild Birds and get some bird feed items. I also need to plug in the bird bath. Yesterday I got up and they were frozen over. So, it is that time again. While we are out I guess I will run by the grocery and pick up a few needed items. Exciting day isn’t it?

I also need to finish one more sermon before we take off on vacation. I’m about half way through my sermon for the 22nd of November which is the Sunday we are back. That Sunday finishes up what we call the “Church Year”. November 29th is the first Sunday of Advent which starts the four weeks before Christmas. Yes, we are that close to Thanksgiving and Christmas and the end of this terrible year of 2020. I certainly pray that 2021 will be  much happier and healthier, and safer year. 

With that said — go have yourself a happy, Holy Spirit-filled day. Peace.