There are 15 hours left of the year 2021. How should I use them? 15 hours isn’t a long time but — If I left now, I could be in Disney-world if I had a desire to go there. Or, I could grab that Stephen King novel that has been sitting beside my Sunporch recliner for nine months and read it. I could grab my thermos cup, fill it with coffee and head to the basement study and finish up the sermon I have started for next week. I could go out and top off the bird feeders for the last time in 2021 but it has been raining, and is projected to start raining again within the hour, so that’s out. Or —- I could just sit in my recliner in the family room with the fireplace going and listen to Ms. Kate gently snoring over in the other recliner. Life is full of choices even at this late in the year. 

Yesterday I conducted my second funeral of the week. It was a family private affair. The deceased had already been cremated so it was a memorial service. I didn’t know him well but what I did know of him, he was a nice guy and loved his family. And, — I love his family too. I think that makes nine funerals I have done this year. Not all were my parishioners but were family members of parishioners. I was honored to be asked to conduct last rituals for their loved ones. Believe it or not, I consider that an honor requiring a great deal of trust. 

I’m glad to say that Ms. Kate and I are getting past this aggravating cold that we have. I’m hoping that was all it was and not Corona Virus. But, I took all precautions at both of the funerals I conducted this week and stayed away from people and wore my mask just so I didn’t pass anything along to anybody. I’m happy to report that last night was a great night. I don’t think I coughed or had to blow my nose even once during the night and I got a fairly good night’s sleep. Ms. Kate didn’t do too bad either although she got up early this morning and moved to the recliner in the family room. But she hasn’t been doing much coughing etc. either. Praise the Lord, I think we are on the mend finally. But this one has been nasty. We both had COVID last October/November of 2020 and it didn’t seem as bad for me but —- as you know,, we nearly lost Ms. Kate over it. 

Do you have any big plans for New Years Eve this evening. You know we don’t of course. Although, I think I may have to run out and get a can of Black-eyed Peas. Can’t start the year out without them. LOL

Do you have any big plans for the year 2022?  So far, our only planned trips are to Disneyworld at the end of January and maybe to PA for a military reunion in September. I know I have two wedding on the books for young parishioners, one in April and one in November, and we have Julie graduating with her BA in May. So see, ya’ got to have thing on the list to look forward to. One of the members of my St. Lucas church has mentioned that he would like to start a “new member movement” in 2022. I find that exciting because new member movements in rural family churches are a rarity. I’m thrilled to hear his ideas and seeing if he actually has a marketing plan. 

How about resolutions? I quit making resolutions years ago. I just hope to make each day better than the one before and try not to repeat mistakes and or sins. The rest of the time, I’m extremely comfortable to simply walk with God and let God point the way, and trust God if the path becomes difficult. 

As you spend the next few hours in 2021, take time to reflect on your year and give God thanks for each and every day. Then pray for full and confident guidance through out the next year. Peace. 

 Wednesday, December 29th: there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, I think wellness is on the way. I don’t know what kind of bug just hit me but it was a miserable doozy. And now Ms. Kate has it. That’s the benefit of living and loving together; —- the “in sickness or in health” part. But I am glad to say that I am at least 85% better than I was. I still have congestion lodged deep and have coughed so much and so hard that the rib and stomach muscles are really causing me a lot of pain. But that has decreased too. As you know, I had a funeral to do yesterday and of course it was cold, windy, and while it didn’t rain at thhe moments we were at the grave side, there was a lot of moisture in the air. I wore my mask when I was around anyone so as to hopefully not infect anyone else. And I tried to distance myself away as much as possible. But, this too shall pass. But just not soon enough to please me. However, I give God thanks for ever little bit of healing, I’m breathing much better today. I may feel well enough to have a piece of pumpkin pie for breakfast. I think I once heard “Eat pie—feel better”. Maybe it’s an old Native American tale. 

It’s somewhat sunny and 42 degrees out today. I have nothing on my calendar that requires me to go outside today except to roll the trash can down to the curb and get the mail. Remind me to spray the wastebaskets as I empty them with Lysol disinfectant. I’m sure they are full of cold germs. Yesterday we received our new vaporizer from Amazon. Our last one served us well for many years until it finally gave up the ghost. I ran it all night and I think that help both of us with put breathing. Don’t you just love shopping with Amazon??? One of the things that I hate to do is go shopping for clothes. I found out that I can order my “fat waist — short legged” Wrangler Jeans through Amazon and they were shipped to me right away. I haven’t tried them on yet but if they fit, I’m going to order a couple of more pair. That company (Amazon) has got to be making a fortune. 

We’ve only a couple of days left to the year 2021. Can you believe it —- we actually made it through. All -in-all, it hasn’t been a bad year. The highlight of my year was our family reunion last June down in Branson where we had all 21 of the family together for the first time in at least two years. The sad reality is that it will be at least two years until the next reunion. But, we will have a couple of wedding coming up in either ‘22 or ‘23. And we have Julie graduating with her Bachelor’s Degree in May of ‘22. So there are opportunities for at least parts of the family to get together over the next couple of years, assuming any or all of us live that long. I try to plan our reunions two years apart but s they all grow and have jobs etc it get harder to plan everybody together at one time all the time. It also gets harder for Ms. Kate and I to travel each year. So, we grab at every little opportunity we can get. 

I’ve rambled on enough for today. I guess I will spend part of my day at least down in my study working on my January 9th sermon. And maybe I will get some more services put together. May God bless you and bring you to a wonderful ending to 2021 and bring you a wonderful 2022. 

(For Anonymous) just received your message of December 9th, prayers are up and sent. Feel better, God has this under control. 

 Monday, December 27th and I am a miserable pup this morning. I have a cold, (I trust that is all it is) and I’m a walking talking “snot factory” and my breathing sounds like a coffee percolator. I’m about ready to get back in my recliner for the day. But, I have some writing to finish and one funeral to plan yet. I’ve taken my Mucenex and my Robitussin and I’m hoping everything settles drown. I probably should go get a COVID test but they tend to label everything as COVID these days. I’ve had both vaccines and the booster so I’ll hold off for a couple of days and see what happens. I have the funeral to do tomorrow and my doctor will be attending\, I may pull him aside for a conversation. 

So that’s it for today, sorry it isn’t longer but I’m tired. Have a great day. Peace. 

 Happy Birthday to my Ms. Kate. The love of my life turned 74 today. That is an amazing blessing because we have come close to losing her twice in her life. In 1993 she had two heart attacks and a double by-pass surgery. In 2006 (I think) she had a stroke and we could have lost her. But. God is the giver of all good things and has kept her with me. I can’t imagine what the last 28 years of my life would have been like had we lost her. Would I have had the career drive that I have had? Would I be a pastor today? How would my kids life be different? These are all unknowns and maybe not worth the wonder, butI do think about it because I need to constantly give thanks to God for the path we are getting travel together. My lady is a daily blessing. 

Today is Christmas Eve and it is 56 degrees outside. Tomorrow we could be topping 71 degrees. How weird is that?? It certainly isn’t normal. A year ago today it was 17 degrees for a high. The year before, it was 68. Who knows what to count on any more. I ‘m just hoping that it isn’t snowing at the end of January/ first week of February so we can make our vacation safely. 

Tonight we will do two Christmas Eve services; a 7:00 pm at St. Paul’s with the children’s program, Holy Communion, and Candle light. Then at 9:00 pm we do it all over again at St. Lucas, minus the children’s service. I expect a large crowd which will be wonderful. Sunday will be the first Sunday after Christmas and you cam bet the crowds will be significantly reduced. That’s just the way it is in “church-land”. 

So, now, we are waiting on Jim to arrive, Ms. Kate is going to be starting dinner before too long. The fresh rolls are already rising, The corn is thawing from the freezer and the ham will go into the oven probably about the time that Jim gets here. I don’t know how long that needs to cook. We plan to eat around 1630 because we have the services this evening. 

That’s it for this Christmas Eve. HJave a blessed Christmas. Peace. 

 Good morning on this December 23rd. We’re having a great start to our day. As I write this, I have installers here to put in our new double ovens. We ordered these things back on October 11th and it has taken this long for the dealer to get them in. They are just a piece of the supply chain back up that is occurring all over the nation. The really great part is that our installer could get to us this quick after they arrived. I really appreciate that. The oven that we are replacing “still worked”. We had to always make adjustments on how to really set the temperatures because the thermostats were off and each oven had it own measure of “off”. Plus the automatic cleaning feature didn’t work so that was a pain in the rear. So, after 20 years of dealing with that —- it was time to “just do it”. And, I’ll probably do the first baking in it because I want to make Ms. Kate a birthday cake tomorrow. It will be an angel food of course because that is the simplest. We are neither one big cake eaters but we do like angel food. 

I goto notification this morning from another parishioner wanting me to do a funeral/memorial service for a loved one next week. That makes two funerals next week. That’s why I always try to work ahead with my sermon writing and services. One never knows what may pop up at the last minute. People certainly can’t plan when they are going to die, and I always try to make myself available if possible when my folks have a crisis in their lives. Both of my funerals next week will be private affairs so there isn’t a lot of involvement from other people. 

Julie and the pups are coming over today yet after she gets off of work. Jim has to work tomorrow so he will come over after he gets out of work then. They will both head back home on Sunday I think. I am so glad that Julie and Jim decided to move to our “local area” several years ago. Having them “local”, i.e. only and hour plus away is wonderful. For so many years they were more than a day and a half drive from us. 

I got the feeders all filled yesterday. The wrens were tweeting nd chirping about it as I filled them and the squirrels were up chittering about me being in their space and would I please hurry up. A lot of my guests are really rude. LOL

Well, the ovens are in and the installers are gone. They are a good crew; quick, efficient, and very reasonably priced. The ovens look fantastic. 

Have a great day. Peace. 

 December 22 and the first full day of winter. It’s 40 degrees out there but sunny and breezy. I had to go out and go to the grocery store this morning. We did on-line shopping yesterday at Meijer and they didn’t have some of the stuff we wanted. One of the hardest things to find has been Domino Confectionary sugar in a one pound box. Everybody has 2 lb bags but that isn’t what the boss wants. Nor did they have and heavy whipping cream. So they were standing between me and a pumpkin pie and Springerlie cookies. That could not stand. So, I went to Rulers; — nothing. I went across the street to the IGA and viola’ there it was. The sky opened up and the angels sang. I celebrated by going to Dunkin Donuts and getting us a couple of Bavarian Creme donuts. 

I have to fill my bird feeders today again. I think most everything is empty. It is surprising because I haven’t seen many birds out there. Maybe it is because it is still “warm” for the season. No snow, very few mornings have we even had a heavy frost. Sure doesn’t seem much like winter just yet. Weatherman says “no-way” to snow for Christmas. In fact, it is supposed to get up to almost 63 degrees with maybe a small rain shower or two. 

I got notification of a death with in the Faith Family this morning. The lady is not a member of our church  but is related to half of the congregation and has been on our prayer list for quite some time. Unfortunately, her husband is on the prayer list too. She will be buried in our cemetery on Tuesday and I’ll do a brief graveside service for the family. It is such a terrible thing to lose someone at Christmas but she had cancer and had been suffering for quite a long time. So, I give God praise that she no longer suffers. 

That’s about it for today. I hope you have a great day. Peace. 

 Good morning on this Monday of Christmas week. I don’t know how it is where you are but it is a sunny and bright 38 degrees here. The good news, for me at least is that it is supposed to be nice weather all week. Not being a fan of snow, that is great. On the other hand, I know this is because of global warming and that isn’t a good thing. We are supposed to have maybe 63 degrees on Christmas Day and that just isn’t normal. So,, while it is comfortable and pleasant, —- it is also scary to think about what is happening to our planet. 

We had a great weekend. Julie and Jim came over and Chris came by on his way back to Oklahoma. We visited and then went to Turoni’s for pizza. It was nice to see all of them. Chris left after dinner and Julie and Jim stayed the night. They will be back this week. Jules will come over on Thursday and Jim will come over on Christmas Eve.. They will head home on Sunday. Then all settles down for awhile. 

We had good services yesterday and they were very well attended. Of course the fact that we had a children’s program at St. Lucas brought in more than usual. We will have the children’s program at St. Paul’s on Christmas Eve. But that service is always packed. We will do a 7:00 pm service at St. Paul’s and then a 9:00 pm service at St. Lucas. Both services will be candlelight and Holy Communion services. Those are so very special to me. After the services yesterday we went to the cemeteries and laid wreaths on the graves of the veteran’s in our family, six in all.

We have two birthdays in the family this week. Tomorrow our youngest daughter, Lisa turns 50. That seems incredible to believe. Then on Christmas Eve Ms. Kate celebrates her 74th trip around the sun. I was thinking about that this morning and realized that out of the last 47 years, I have been on call, at work, or on duty all but five of those Christmas Eve/birthdays. She hasn’t had a lot of celebrations. Bless her heart. It’s a wonder she hasn’t kicked me to the curb by now. 

This Thursday we finally get our double ovens installed. We ordered those things on October 11th and they just came in on Friday. I’m glad to get them installed prior to Christmas. We ordered aa refrigerator the same day and don’t expect it until maybe January 16th. 

Okay, I got to get my day started, I hope your day will be blessed. Peace. 

 One week until Christmas Day. And minus snow, it kind of feels like Christmas weather out there for southern Indiana. Instead of snow we have rain and 47 degrees. I thought I would just take a moment and wish you all a happy weekend. 

I’m actually sitting here  at 1415 waiting on Julie and Jim to arrive. They are about 35 miles out yet. Then at around 1730, Chris will be arriving. He’s. On his way from Chicago back home to Oklahoma City. But his rout had to take him through Cincinnati so he will be stopping by here to see all of us, have a meal and conversation and then head out again for home. The benefit is that we also get an extra visit from Julie and Jim. Although he will have gone actually past their house this will save him the extra stop and save him time. 

Okay, here they are. Have a good one. 

 Friday morning already. It’s going to be a wet and soggy one, or so it appears. It hasn’t started raining just yet, but the radar shows a lot of dark green just below us. Accuweather tells me it will start at 1000. 

Yesterday was a run around day again. We started off the morning with a doctor’s appointment for Ms. Kate. It was a follow-up from a Doppler test that she had done a few weeks ago. The good news is that her blood is flowing properly with no dangerous blockages. Of course she has to stay on her cumaden \but that’s not a problem. From that doctor’s office, we had to go to another doctor’s office across town and have her routine blood work done. This was for her Protime test that she has to do every 4-6 weeks. I don’t know what that actually shows. But her doctor looks at the results and tells her it’s all ok or to increase or decrease one of her med’s for a day or two. next, we headed back across town and went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Ms. Kate at Walgreens. It’s a good thing my little Prius gets 55 mpg. 

With all of the doctor stuff out of the way, we headed up to the churches to run the church bulletins, but stopped at Zack’s restaurant in Ft. Branch for lunch. By the time we finished lunch, and bulletins making and stuffing, it was time to head home because the sun position in the sky said it was almost nap time and we didn’t want to be too late for that to happen. As it was, we were already thirty minutes late by the time we drove home. But we pressed on and persevered, and got our nap in. LOL, Ya’ just got to be dedicated to the mission.

Today, Ms. Kate has a bunch of stuff on her list to get done and I have got to get next weeks sermon finished. I’m 3/4 finished and it is just sitting there waiting on me to come down to the office and finish it. Time and events are starting to crowd us. Tomorrow morning I start the day off with a Wreaths Across America ceremony at St. Lucas, and then I have a half dozen wreaths to take and lay on our family veterans. Julie and Jim are coming over with the pups for the night and Chris, Steph’s hubby, is dropping by for a visit and dinner. So we have a bunch of stuff to get done. Jim is planning to drop the mower deck off of the big John Deere and put the snow blade on. Who knows, we may not need it all winter, but I want to be ready. He gets that thing on there pretty quickly and I can barely get down on the floor to help him. 

That’s it for today my friends. A week from today is Christmas Eve. Are you ready to welcome the Christ Child and celebrate the day of His birth?  Peace. 

 It’s not as bright, not as sunny. It the temperature  out there is 43 degrees so that isn’t bad. We are expecting some light showers on and of today. I have to go to the grocery store and the post office at some point today so I should do that this morning, and if I don’t do it soon, there will be no more morning. I can’t believe I have already fooled around for two and a half hours on this silly IPad and still haven’t written my blog not have I played my Criminal Case game. I’ve spent most of the time. In texting conversation with my buddy Art Christmas. He and I get to talking and we are worse than a couple of old ladies at the wash line. (You have to be old enough to understand that picture.) Actually we’re more like a couple of old dudes sitting in porch rockers. 

Yesterday, we dedicated the day to “nothingness”. Ms. Kate and I made a concerted effort to do absolutely nothing productive all day. My big accomplishment was to go to Schnuck’s and pick up a couple of needed groceries and then run by Wendy’s and pick us up some lunch. But, as I said, today I need to go to the grocery store because my list is getting long. And I have a small package to take to the post office. We went last week and dropped off our packages and I was the only one in there when I walked through the door. But by the time I walked out, —- there was a long line forming. Timing is everything I reckon and I hit it just right. 

We have several events on our schedule for the rest of the week. I have the bulletin to run at some point this week but I may wait until Saturday to do that. On Saturday we are going to do a ‘Wreaths Across America” ceremony at one of the churches and I have to be up there for that to read a citation. This program is for families to lay a Christmas Wreath on the grave of any family members that are veteran’s of the military service. I told Ms. Kate that as a retired Colonel, I have an obligation to participate in ceremonies like this. The service is at 0900 so I will have plenty of time after the short service to run my bulletins. Some day this week, Ms. Kate has a doctor’s appointment, I think that may be on Thursday, but maybe it is Friday. And we may or may not have company coming this week. Steph’s husband, Chris, is making a business trip through the area and may stop by since he will be in the area. BUt it’s up in the air so we don’t know whether to plan for a meal with a guest or not. 

This coming Sunday the kids will be doing their Christmas program during the worship service at St. Lucas. Then on Christmas’s Eve, the kids at St. Paul’s will do their program. I am so thrilled that this is happening, between COVID and a lack of kids, it has been a few years since this has happened. 

Time to shower and start the real day. Y’all have a most blessed day. Peace.  

 Bright sun out there this morning doesn’t tell its 33 degree secret. It could be worse; it is December after all. I’ll take cold sunshine over nasty rain or snow. 

How was your weekend? I’ve had a good weekend. We got lots done around here. Yesterday of course we had two worship services and they were fairly well attended. There was a death in one of our families some distance away so that took several people away from attending yesterday. I pray for their safe return and we offer our sympathy and prayers for their comfort. Last evening both churches held their annual Christmas party. As I have said, we can only be at one place at a time so we elected too attend the St. Paul’s party. I ate too much of course. It’s hard to beat “church lady cooking”. Ms. Kate fixed a large casserole dish of “green bean casserole” and there was one spoonful left. I love the stuff although she isn’t crazy about it. I’m sure she’s glad that folks finished it so there were no leftovers. LOL

More and more pictures keep coming out of the horrific damage done by the multiple tornadoes in the fours states below us this weekend. The death toll also is climbing. I have asked my churches not to try to do something separate to help but to find other local organizations that are organizing efforts and contribute to those. We can be humble with our efforts and don’t need our label on the box. This isn’t a church parishioner recruitment effort. It’s really sad and heartbreaking to think of all of those lives lost and the amount of homes and businesses that are lying in a state of complete destruction and rubble. Where do you even begin with something like that? How do you even prove who you are or what you had? I don’t know and hope I never have to find out. Over the years our family has been involved in different phases of assisting in disasters like this but, all praise to God, we have never experienced it personally. People say, and I have too, that it terrible that it was so close to Christmas, but there is no good day for your house and everything you own to be blown into the next county. There is no good day for a factory to fall in on someone you love. Massive movement is in the works to help the victims but it will be a long time for the rebuild, and how do you live day to day in the meanwhile? I don’t know. But God will provide. As bad as it is, there will be good things and there will be miracles that come out of all of this. We only need to look for them. The massive amount of people helping people is in and of itself a miracle. 

I think today is going to be a “day off” for both Ms. Kate and I; a day to do nothing. I may do some writing if I get around to it. I have one sermon left to write for this year. Can you believe that??? This year is almost gone!. Of course, I didn’t think that I would be heading into 2022 still working either, so there is that! That’s the problem when you are working for an Eternal God. —- He has no concept of time. LOL

With that, I better quit before the lightening strikes me. Have a most blessed week. Peace

 The sunshine out there sure hides a lot of truths about reality this morning. It looks warm and pleasant but it is cold and a really stiff wind going on. I took the last of the Christmas cards out to the mailbox and it chilled me off pretty quickly. It’s not “terrible” at 41 degrees but the temperature is going to keep on dropping to 27 by tonight. 

Last night was a bad night for Kentucky weather. As you probably went through like I did, there were terrible storms in Kentucky that started in Arkansas and traveled through the entire state of KY. It was a 200 mile pluse tornadoes. At least 50 people were killed that have been reported so far. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones and to those who have lost everything dues to these storms. I have seen some of the damage reports and television reporting of the damage and it is indeed devastating. Ms. Kate and I were down in the area where the stories were the worst Tuesday and Wednesday night. I’m glad we came home when we did. 

Our “Staycation” is over and we made the most of it. Ms.Kate finished up making the Christmas cards and as I got busy addressing them and getting them ready to put in the mailbox, we realized that we still did not have enough so she sat down and made some more. I used all but one of them. But, we have all of our cards made and sent out, all of the Christmas shopping done, (Thank you Amazon Prime), the trees are decorated and we beat the December 15th goal line. Tomorrow both churches will hold their Christmas parties. We will attend the one at St. Paul’s. They are both at the same time and we can’t be at both places at the same time. We attended the party at St. Lucas last time so it is St. Paul’s turn. Lucky them. 

I think we need to go out and do just a little shopping today and I want to run up to the church for a minute or two and take care of some business. I should and could have gone yesterday while I was out doing visitations but it was getting late enough and the storm predictions were making it sound like I needed to maybe be home so I decided to follow that advice. As it turns out, I could have gone to the churches after all but who knows. When you’re on the firing range and someone says “duck”, you duck. 

That’s about it for today my friends. Time to get my butt out of my chair and do a few things. Have a pleasant day. Take some time and say a prayer for the folks that have been impacted by the storms and say a prayer of gratitude that it wasn’t worse. Peace. 

 “When out on the lawn I heard such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.” Well, it wasn’t St. Nick but it was my neighbor’s large awning type gazebo. The wind had picked it up and blew it across his six foot fence and then across my four foot fence and sat it down lodged between my fence and my shed, It is barely touching my shed roof and I have zero damage but he has a mess to clean up. That thing had to have traveled fifty years of so before it got tangled up in the Dogwood tree. I was sleeping and Ms. Kate was on her computer when we heard the thud. I got up and looked around the house and out in the yard but it was 0130 and raining so I didn’t see it then. I went over and introduced myself to my neighbor and told him his gazebo was in my yard. Yeh, this is the owner of the Rooster Beagles. Oh well, it is his problem to solve. 

We are well into our Christmas card list. We addressed almost 60 Saturday afternoon. We’re maybe half done. We used to keep a file for printing labels and wouldn’t have to hand write them out, But we haven’t done that in a few years. 

I need to go up tp my sister-in-laws house and check on her place. She’s gone for a week so I need to see if she had any storm damage. So, that’s it for today. Have a good one. Peace. 

 Well, well, well, Hello you beautiful Friday morning. The sun is shining brightly, it’s 51 degrees, going up to 70 today and the wind is calm. Quite a nice morning out there, I’m having my bagel with creamed cheese and my coffee and enjoying my guests at the Backyard Buffet. It reminds me though that I have a lot of feeders to fill today. I got my order in from Wild Birds Unlimited the other day so I’m good to go for a bit for filling the feeders. Actually, they haven’t been around very much in the past couple of weeks. I think maybe they are finishing off the fields after the harvest. My cardinals, finches, and wrens are the main guests these days, and of course the squirrels, but there are only a couple of squirrels these days too. or maybe there is more but they aren’t all coming at once like they sometimes do. 

We finished decorating the trees yesterday and they look nice. I guess the house looks like Ms. Kate wants it to now. I think adding the second tree is what made her happy, I don’t know. I just do what she asks. It’s a formula that has worked for almost 56 years. 

We have stuff to do again today. We are going to meet some friends for lunch today. We haven’t ben able to do that for months and have missed it. It’s always good conversation and good food. With the stress over Ms. Kate’s health issues for the past three months, it will be good to “download” and relax. I don’t know about you but, we have so few folks that we really consider close friends; you know, the kind that you can turn to and talk with about anything and everything. Ms. Kate and I were just talking about this last evening. For as much as we deal with the public, she and I are really not “social people”. Except for Julie and Jim, I don’t know of the last time we actually had any company in our home. It has been years. And, I may be wrong, but I think much of society might be that way, especially as we get older. She and I love being each other’s company and I, more than she, would just stay home. We’re neither good at “small-talk” and run out of things to talk about rather quickly. Granted, if Pastor Art and I get to “talking” on FB Messenger, we talk for a long tome. And if neighbor Dan comes over, it’s a two coffee pot conversation. But, that is about it for me and Kate only talks to her sister. I guess we are just old fuddy-duddies.. 

After lunch, we need to go out to the cemetery and put winter flowers on my parent’s tombstone. Then I know there is something on the east side of town that we need to do but I haven’t a clue what it is at the moment. It will come to me or Ms. Kate will remind me. 

That’s it for today. The weekend begins today. Take some time to relax, Don’t \forget to visit your house of worship. God got you this far this week. Stop by and give Him worship. Peace. 

 Good morning and happy Thursday, Can you believe another week is over half gone? Tick-tock,  we can’t stop the clock. —— Have you ever wondered what happens to and where the moments go as they pass by? Is there a place for well used moments and a place for wasted moments? Do they go into a special storage place where maybe God reuses them as He creates another universe or two. And if God reuses them, are they infused with all of the hopes and dreams of the people of this planet or are they stripped of all of the thoughts and hopes and dreams as well as all of the hate and violence that we put into our moments. When we pass through the veil that separates us from living into eternal life, will we be assigned an eternal duty of cleaning all of those moments and making them clean and fresh and holy for use by God once again? —— Or, are reused moments part of what we call deja’vu, where we recall thinking a thought before or doing a thing before. Perhaps God has provided each of us with our own little  time wheel and we actually get our own thoughts back again and again to make better use of, —  and occasionally an old thought or action memory slips through. I just wonder about things like this sometimes. However, these are definitely second cup of coffee thoughts for when you are well settled into your recliner. “First cuppers” can’t handle the pressure of thoughts like this.

It is a beautiful morning for us today. Not only is the weather going to be almost 70 degrees on this December 2nd, but we had very good news yesterday from Ms. Kate’s doctor. We have been worrying about the results of some tests that she had to have a few weeks ago, The ultrasounds had showed  several cysts on her kidneys and also a “mass”. That had caused the doctor to order a MRI to see if it was possibly cancerous. I told you that she had the MRI done and we were waiting on results. Well, yesterday she was told that she had some cysts but that they were benign and that she needs to go back for another MRI in six months as a follow-up. Our prayers have been answered in our favor, (prayers are always answered, sometimes in our favor and sometimes not) and we are sighing a huge sigh of relief. We are also giving all praise to God as we also pray for those who don’t receive positive results. 

Today we decorate the Christmas tree and I will start addressing the Christmas cards. I’m in a mood to do that. We received our first Christmas card yesterday. The “Golden Ornament” goes to my cousin Sharon for first card received. LOL

I saw on our Facebook Messenger family conversation that my second grandson, Matt, popped the question to his sweetheart and she said yes. So, another wedding is in the future. Life is good on all fronts this morning. 

So, with that, I think I’ll make some pancakes or a waffle for breakfast. Have yourself a most glorious day.  Peace. 

 I think this will be a short entry today. It’s afternoon and we have had a busy morning. As I sit down to write this though, I’m also watching my neighbor across the street, (Jason, — not Dan) as he is trying to put out his Christmas yard crap, I mean his beautiful decorations. He’s working on a shiny reindeer at the moment and has been now for awhile. It doesn’t seem to be going well for him, He starts at the end of September by filling his yard with all manner of Halloween blow-up stuff. It doesn’t look overly ugly at night but during the day when they are all laying there deflated in the yard, —- well it looks like piles of multi-colored “cow patties” laying in his yard. As soon as Halloween is over, he takes it down and replaces it all with blow-up Thanksgiving stuff, although war Star Wars figures have to do with Thanksgiving is obviously Pilgrims that I never heard of. So now, they lay deflated in the yard and he is starting on Christmas. Bless his heart, at least he keeps a holiday spirit going. I can’t grudge him that. But the deer is new this year so I’ll be interested to see how it all ends up. And —- he obviously has a lot more patience than I do . 

Ms. Kate and I started our morning off very early  this morning. She had to be at Gateway Hospital Campus at 0700 this morning. She was scheduled for an MRI at 0715. The procedure took about an hour. After we finished there we went up to the churches and ran the bulletins for Sunday. Even though I’m not going to be there, I still have to plan the service and run the bulletins. All the guest pastor has to do is show up and preach the message for the day. I don’t know and have never heard the lady that will be filling in for me. The St. Lucas Council president made the contact. But, since we now record our services,  I’ll be able to listen to and see her on Facebook. 

(Jason just finished the first deer and it looks like he’s going for a second!!)

So, now Ms. Kate and I are just waiting for a call from her doctor’s office to give us the results of her MRI. Of course we know that it could be tomorrow before we hear anything. That is why we cancelled our plans to go spend the week with Lisa and family’s at Myrtle Beach. We just didn’t know what to expect but thought it could take a while for results. I hate waiting. 

It is 55 degrees out and I have a front yard that could use the John Deere run across it again to mulch more leaves. It’s a good stress reliever so I think that’s where I’m headed next. 

Have yourself a great day. Peace. 

 Wow, one more day of November; can you believe that?? It has started off as a cold one this morning. It was 21 degrees when I came out to get my coffee this morning. Any Backyard Buffet guests that are out there are all fluffed up to keep warm. Squirrels that were “slim” yesterday are fat dudes this morning, or at least they look that way. Cardinals and other birds too are fluffed out when they are sitting on the branches. The only guys that are not that way were the wrens because I don’t think they ever stop and just sit. 

The weekend is gone. The first Sunday of Advent has come and gone and it was a well attended service at both churches. Julie and Jim have gone home and life is back to a quiet normal around here. And —- the house is warmer because since the dogs are gone we don’t have to leave the doors to the sun porch open. That area is unheated and it does get rally chilly out there. I don’t mind it so much but Ms. Kate says that she is always cold. So, she should be much more comfortable now. 

We are supposed to be going on vacation this week but we are not actually “going” anywhere. Kate has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning and may have a follow-up later in the week so we are staying home. I’m still gong to take next Sunday off as a vacation Sunday. The churches had already made the arrangements for a guest pastor so I decided to just take the Sunday off. Depending on how the doctor’s appointments go, we may take a daytime road trip or two. We’ll just have to see how everything plays out.  The weather is supposed to be excellent all week so we could actually take a trip if we are able to do so. 

I participated in a nice wedding on Saturday. The service was at a Catholic Church and it was a beautiful sanctuary indeed. They have renovated it during the COVID year, They have replaced all of the old wooden flooring with marble flooring, repainted everything, put in new LED lighting  and it is really bright. I can’t begin to imagine what all of that must have cost. But, what I didn’t feel was the “warmth” that I feel when I go into my two little country churches. It was very, what I call “tall-steeple” church. The money was obvious, the love —-maybe not so much. But I’m sure their parishioners love their church as much as our parishioners love our churches. 

I don’t know if \any of you have Discovery Plus on your television sets, but we do, I love many of the shows thy have on there and my subscription gives me no commercials during my shows. They break their shows down by genre and one of the genres that I love is “animals and wildlife” documentaries. I started watching one last night called “Serengeti II” and it is excellent. A couple of years ago they had the first one simply called “Serengeti” and I have loved watching that one several times. The documentary covers a year in the life of several species of animals; elephants, cheetah, leopards, lion, baboon\. It is narrated by Lapita Nuongo, a wonderful actress from Africa. If you get a chance to watch it, I highly recommend it. 

I guess that is it for today. I think we are going to get ready and maybe go to Sam’s Club today. Ms. Kate wants to get some gift cards today and that is a great place to get them for a little better price. Of course while we are there, I’ll sneak in a package of cherry turnovers. 

So, enjoy your last two days of November and then jump right on to December. Give thanks to God for another month in which God blessed you and give thanks to God for giving you another month in which to do some great things. Peace my friends. 

 Thanksgiving has officially come and gone; can you believe it? We are four days from it being December and 35 days from it being 2022. But God has blessed us with a much better and more normal year than we had last year so I give God praise and gratitude for that. Well, I say it was normal, but I guess what I mean is that it was more normal for me and my family. It is sometimes hard to look out side our little bubble and see what is going on in the rest of the world. Yes, people are still dying from COVID in this country and around the world. But I don’t really know what is happening with COVID in the rest of the world because it has become “old news” and back-page news. I know that my grandson’s fiance grandmother just died of “COVID but then she was in her 90’s sos that wasn’t necessarily a COVID death but because she had some of the symptoms, it gets listed that way. 

Did you eat lots and lots yesterday? We had a great meal but we didn’t really “over indulge”. We had our turkey, we had our dressing and the other required stuff. We forgot the mashed potatoes until we were getting ready to sit down but figured out that we didn’t really need them. We didn’t starve for lack of mashed potatoes. Beside, we’ll probably have some today before the day ends. I know we will be having turkey for sure. The bird turned out very well. It was really moist and juicy. 

Jim will be heading back home today but Jules is staying until Sunday. I don’t know if he is taking the pups with him or not. He brought the big Christmas tree up from the storage room yesterday afternoon. I will rearrange the living room today and put that together. We went out Friday and bought another tree to put in the sun porch. It is a little shorter at six and a half ft and sits in a pot and is “flocked. It’s a nice tree and frankly looks good with no decorations on it. 

This afternoon I have to go to the church and pick up my robe and stole for the wedding and then go to the wedding rehersal . Tomorrow is the wedding at 1400 and will take a few hours of the day. I’m just giving the homily for the wedding and the Priest is doing the rest of the service. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day for the wedding albeit cold. 

So, that’s about it for today. Have a wonderful weekend. You can get your house decorated for Christmas now and turn on the Christmas carols. I just put a Mannheim Steamroller album on. Peace. 

 A good late morning to you. It’s 1100 already. But, I just got back from the grocery store. Had a list of items to pick up, some from Ms. Kate and some from Julie. I have become the grocery shopper \\\\for us. I put my list on my phone and walk around in the store like I know what I’m doing. Today I went to Schnucks. Usually I go to the Walmart Neighborhood store. But, I got everything on my list. I usually do. It was a good experience today, no grumpies rushing through the aisles or cutting in front of me. 

Jules and the pups came over yesterday afternoon. Jim didn’t come because he is switching jobs and had to have a drug test for the new job. I’m sure if he will be making it over or not. He is a forklift driver which is a skill in demand for companies that do manufacturing. See, not everybody needs a college education. I keep telling people that and I try to push young people into skilled labor jobs. The country is in serious need of skilled laborers.

Tomorrow is turkey day. We already have the bird out thawing. Kate took the giblets out and went over it to pick off any pin-feathers. That is one big turkey that we have. I don’t know if we have ever had one that big. I have a lady at church that says they get at least a 20 pounder every year. But she always has all of the family over so I guess it works for her. I just know we are going to have a lot of left overs. 

I don’t have much else for you today. I did fill all of my bird feeders yesterday and thank goodness my Wild Birds Unlimited order arrived. I was out of several things. I pray you will have a blessed Thanksgiving. Don’t just make it a day of eating and watching football, make it a day of being truly grateful for your blessings. Peace. 

 

 Brrrrrr! It’s 31 degrees out there and that’s not bad, but —- the wind will drive all 31 degrees right through you. And there is a cloud cover preventing the sun from breaking through to at least make me think it is warm. 

Happy Thanksgiving week. Do you have your turkey or ham purchased yet? I may have told you but we did our grocery shopping on-line at the Walmart Neighborhood market. We had ordered a 10-14 lb bird and ended up with a 22 lb bird. We never buy a turkey that large and since there is only maybe the four of us, —- there will be turkey leftovers forever. But, we’ll send a bunch home with Julie, and we’ll make a large pot of turkey noodle soup. (I need to go to the store and get some wide egg noodles for that). I do like my soups. 

Julie was supposed to come down today but that won’t happen. She had a RA flare-up and will be spending the day on “Flexural” to try to calm it down. Bless her heart, she only got two hours of sleep last night, so she will try to make it tomorrow. We don’t yet know whether Jim will be working or not or when he will make it down. 

Church services went well yesterday. Attendance was pretty good. The taping of the St. Lucas service went well although, we had a problem with the screens. The computer decided to reboot and update just as we were about to start the service and that knocked out the screens. It’s a good thing that I still make bulletins for folks to use and follow the liturgy because they certainly needed them yesterday. Both churches got decorated for Christmas after their respective services. They are beautiful as always. One of the key features of the St. Paul’s decorations is the string of luminaries that run from the highway all the way up the driveway to the church. They gave been putting those out for decades and at night they really show up especially since they are on a hill that is in the middle of a prairie. It all just adds to the “country small-church charm”. Years ago they used to uses actual candles on the church and they kept a bucket of water and a person to tend the tree right there during services. It scares me to even think about that. But, I’ve never heard of a fire being started by it. 

This week I not only have Thanksgiving but also have a wedding to do on Saturday and a wedding rehearsal on Friday night. And, at some point, I’ll need to go run bulletins. We start our vacation next week so I gotta get stuff done. I’d also like to run up to the Gastoff Amish Village Bakery \to get a lemon angle food cake but I don’t know that that will happen. It is a 57 mile trip one way which is a long way to go to get a cake. But. They are soooo good. The village also has a buffet restaurant so  of course we’d eat while we are there. 

That’s it for this morning. Have a wonderful week. Try to stay warm and dry. Peace. 

 Happy cold Saturday morning to you. I’m sitting at the kitchen table loking out at my neighbor’s maple tree. Just a few days ago I took a picture from my seat, through my kitchen window of that tree. It was a beautiful fall picture and the leaves were full on the tree and were a beautiful orange and gold. Today, there are hardly any leaves left on it. That tree made the best out of fall and then dropped its leaves and is ready for winter. I had gone over and mulched up Dan’s leaves while I was out doing mine. Now you can’t tell I was ever there. It’s not terrible outside this morning but is 41 degrees and you wouldn’t want to stand out there in your skivvies. 

We started out yesterday like we seem to do many days now, with a doctor’s appointment for Ms. Kate. But this was a “routine” annual appointment for a Doppler test to check her arterial blood flow. Last year she showed about 40% blockage which the doctor says is still okay. They don’t seem t get worried until you go above 60%. We haven’t heard yet about yesterday’s test, I don’t know if she can go on “My Chart” to find out or not. I need her to check on that. She doesn’t have a follow-up appointment until I think early December. 

Yesterday afternoon we each spent some time straightening out our areas. Kate has finished making all og her Christmas cards (I think) and now has to find a place to put all of her stuff away. She moves a bunch of it out into the family room so she can watch television while she works and has stuff spread across the couch and the floor etc. It works alright for when it is just her and I because we can walk around it, but Julie, Jim, and the pups are coming over next week so she needs to try to get it in her office. She has so much stuff for her various crafts that I think I bed to build a 20’x40’ extension on the house. LOL. That might hold most of it. But, she does beautiful work so I can’t complain.. Besides —— have you been in my garage????? That’s where I started yesterday. I first of all went out back and cleaned up my little storage shed so I could move some of my stuff back out there where it belongs; yard tools and stuff. During the spring through fall period, I just put stuff in the garage as I use it so it is handy. I also have to tackle my big yard barn so I can get the little JD in there for the winter. I think that is going to be at least a two day effort. 

But now, I need to put it away, partly because a certain short person who lives here insists on putting up Christmas trees  and they are in a storage area in the garage that I can’t get to yet. So, I spent a good deal of time \clearing the area and carrying stuff around the house to the back yard. I’ll be spending a good deal of time out there again today. I know Christmas trees are nice when they are put up and decorated and all, but I don’t get it. I’d set a ceramic tree on the coffee table and call it done. Somebody though has boxes and boxes, and boxes of ornaments, many of which she has made, and each one is her favorite, and she wants the trees, (yes, plural) put up so she can decorate them. They will be up for a month and then I have to put it all away again. (SIGH!!!) Except for Julie and Jim and two dogs, it’s not like anybody is going to come to our home and see them. Oh well, —- it keeps me off of the streets and out of the bars. LOL

Enough foolishness for today. I pray you will have a wonderful and faith-filled weekend. Take time to give thanks for another week of blessings no matter what kind of week you had. God did more for you than you know. Peace. 

 Good morning my friends. It is a sunny 41 degrees out this morning but the sun is shining brightly. Unfortunately the sun isn’t going to help much as the temperature is only going to go up another maybe five degrees. I’m glad that I went out and did some yard work yesterday because today is going to be a busy day and yesterday was 70 degrees instead of 45. 

Yesterday I did get on the John Deere’s and mowed one last time and mulched up the leaves. I went over to neighbor Dan’s and did his front yard too. His maple tree had started shedding its leaves and their yard was pretty thick with leaves. We had a lot of wind yesterday and we also had rain last night. This morning it is hard to tell I did anything over there and his tree is now at least 60% empty. He’ll be back from vacation next week so the leaves are all his to deal with. It’s time for me to put the little JD in my yard barn and then change out the mower deck for the snow blade on the big JD. I always tell myself that if I put the blade on, maybe I won’t have too use it, but if I don’t put it on, it will snow like crazy. I think of it as a snow preventer not a snow remover. LOL

This morning Ms. Kate and I have to go to the churches and run the bulletins. I think I’ll run this weeks and next weeks since I have them both ready to print. Next week is Thanksgiving week and there will be enough going on that it would be one less thing to worry about. I left my truck up there Sunday so we’ll bring it back home today. Then this afternoon I have to take the Prius to the dealership for its 25,000 mile servicing. It’s really a great little car. I get 55 mpg with it which is phenomenal. My truck is lucky to give my 19 mpg but it is my baby. I love my truck. LOL It is a 2008 and I only have less than 50,000 miles on it. I think the neighbors have used it more this year than I have. They have a kid that moved into a college Odem so they have borrowed it a few times. It looks as good as the day I drove it off of the sales lot back in 2008. 

Once I get the Prius serviced maybe I’ll still have time to go to the grocery store. If not, tomorrow is another day although it is scheduled to be a busy one too starting with another doctor’s appointment for Ms. Kate first thin in the morning. But, we have to get to the grocery soon. Thanksgiving is exactly one week from today. Wow! Did I just say that?? Suddenly it seems to be rushing up on me. 

I guess I better get changed and get ready for my day. Have a wonderful day. Peace. 

 November 16th already, wow! There is only a month and a half left of the year 2021. Does that seem possible? I guess it is so different this year because at least for my life, we are pretty much “back to normal”. We go where we want, do pretty much what we want, we’re planning vacations, holding church services. For the most part, we aren’t wearing masks and COVID is “back-burner” concern, at least in my life. I certainly know that it is not that way for everyone.. There are still people getting COVID, there are still people dying from COVID, but I think we have become numb and immune to the rhetoric and accusations from politicians and people like Dr. Fauci. In fact we hardly hear from him anymore. I guess he made enough millions from the pharmaceutical companies to be quiet for a while. But, the virus is still raging in other countries and there are flare-ups in this country so we still need to be careful. 

What this is leading me up to is the fact I have been busy planning for the Advent Season and this year, as opposed to last year, we will be worshipping together and holding in-person Christmas Eve services.. And —— we are going too be having a Children’s Christmas program at both churches this year. I am thrilled. It has been at least three years since we did a children’s program at St. Lucas, and this will be the first children’s program I can remember at St. Paul’s. I have had my Confirmands do readings in the past but I don’t remember ever having a children’s Christmas program. I am thrilled beyond words. All praise to God. 

Yesterday I had to have Ms.. Kate at the hospital first thing for a pelvic and kidney ultrasound examination. That came about as a result of her last doctor’s appointments. But, I’m glad to say that the ultrasound show \them nothing of what they were looking for, whatever that was. She’s doing so much better with the diverticulitis. Again, I give God praise. 

This morning I’m expecting St. Vincent DePaul to come and pick up the couch and chair that Ms. Kate and I took out of our bedroom. I have a couple of \rocking chairs that I need to try to bring up stairs once that furniture is out of the way. I may just wait for Jim to come over at Thanksgiving and have him help me or —- I might just try to do it myself. I can maybe get it done if I take my time. However, furniture, stairs and I don’t always make a good combination. I certainly don’t want a repeat of two years ago. 

So, I better sign off and get cleaned up before the truck gets here to carry out the furniture. After that we are going to do a little shopping I think. Have yourself a wonderful day. It is supposed to be sunny and bright around here and maybe even go up to 70 degrees. I need to fill bird feeders today. Peace. 

 Happy Friday. I think my Accuweather app is confused or doesn’t know where we are. According to it, —- rain will be starting in eight minutes and will last for the best part of an hour. However, the sun is shining quite nicely at the moment, at least in the front of the house. Out back and to the west —- well, that’s a possibility. My cousin Debbie lives over in DuQuoin, IL and sends pictures every morning of the sunrise while she is on her walk. This morning it was definitely a “Red sky in morning, Sailor take warning” sky. So who knows? 

We’re doing laundry this morning, already have the second (and final) load going in the washer. It was wash the sheets day and we got an early start because a robo-caller woke us up at 0730. Of course by the time we got out of bed and answered the phone they hung up and left no message. We don’t usually get robo-calls that early. Our first one of the day is almost always “Amy, from Card services”. She calls at 0830 every morning, and frankly I’m just a little worried about Amy because she hasn’t called yet today and it is now 1000. I hope she’s okay LOLOLOL. I’d call her but she uses so darn many different phone numbers. 

Yesterday morning, first thing, we went to the doctor’s office so Ms Kate could have some blood drawn. She was supposed to have it done a week ago and things got wrapped around the axel and didn’t get it done. After that she mentioned going out for breakfast at Denny’s since it is right on the way back home. So we went for pancakes. I didn’t remember that it was Veteran’s Day so the place was packed with retired military guys coming in for the free Grand Slam. I try to stay away from those events and didn’t take advantage of it yesterday because I wanted pancakes. So many guys flock to those and will stand in long lines to get that “free meal” as if it is owed to them. I figure that America doesn’t owe me a thing. In my thirty two years of service, I never missed a paycheck. I figure we each filled our agreement, I serve honorably and they pay me for my work. But — different strokes for different folks I reckon. I get aggravated at the whining that my generation does because they came home from Vietnam and no one said “Thank-you”. But it’s been 50 years, get over it. 

Okay, I’m off before I pull out my soapbox. Have a great day. Peace.. 

 57, (now that’s more like it,) degrees outside this morning. And it is going up to 70 again today. I have rearranged my plans for today so that I can be home and get back out in my garden and flowerbeds. I was supposed to go do a visitation today but I begged off and will do it tomorrow. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all morning and clear off in the afternoon, but get cold again. That’s not good gardening weather but it is fine for visitations. 

Ms. Kate and I “did a thing” yesterday morning. We had a couch in our bedroom that we are giving away to St. Vincent de Paul charities. She and I had moved it into the bedroom several years ago and it was a bear to do it. We’ve been talking about how we were going to get it back out of there for a couple of weeks now and the pick up day is approaching. I think the guys that are coming to get it would have moved it but as tight of a squeeze as it is, I’m not sure. Besides, Ms. kate said she didn’t want any strangers in her bedroom. So, that meant either she and I try it or I wait until my son-in-law Jim could come over from New Albany. Julies had offered to help this past weekend but with her severe RA, no way were we going to allow that. So, —- Mr. and Mrs. Stubborn took on the job yesterday morning by ourselves. It took a while and it took a lot of \grunting and finagling, but we managed to get it to the front door hallway. We felt quite accomplished and have decided to call ourselves “The Old Fart Moving Company”. LOL  Of course we weren’t worth a crap for the rest of the day. 

After the couch move we needed to go to Office Depot. Kate wanted to have a self inking stamp made to stamp “Hand Crafted by Kathy” on the back of all of these cards she makes. We were happy to find out that they can make them right there in the store and it only took about 30 minutes. So we shopped around and I tried out all of the office chairs while we waited. It was a good deal. 

Then, believe it or not, we actually went out for lunch. Keep in mind that this is the first time Ms. Kate has been anywhere except for a doctor’s office in about a month. Granted, she has gone on a quick trip \when we would order food out and go pick it up and go right back home. But — we actually went to Logan’s Roadhouse and went inside and had our meal. It’s been five or six weeks since we have actually “gone out” to eat. It felt wonderful. The take away from that story is that Ms. Kate is feeling that much better and is, (I hope) back to normal. All praise to God. Now we wait for the two ultrasounds to be done. The antibiotics seemed to have done the trick for her though. 

So, after all of those good things yesterday, I went downstairs to my office and I got some good work done down there too. So, all in all, Tuesday was an excellent day. I hope yours was too. Now, I need to get out of my pajamas and into my jeans and get outside. Daylight is burning and during this time of the year it burns quickly. 

Have a blessed day. Peace.  

 Okay, the weekend is over. Back to work. We can’t have any of this lazing around and enjoying life stuff, can we?? —— Well of course we can. In fact I plan to do some lazing around my self today. It is going to be 70 degrees and I plan to do some yard work today that needs to be done that I have been putting off because of this or that reason, mostly weather related. But today promises to be a perfect day. But, somehow I don’t think it is going to meet the “lazy” criteria. But it will be relaxing, at least by the time I plant my butt in my recliner sometime this afternoon, I’ll relax for sure. 

How was your weekend. Ms. kate and I had a good one. She is feeling better. The antibiotics have kicked in and most of the pain she has been feeling has dissipated. She still has the nausea, but I think that is mostly reaction to the antibiotics. And, if she sits very long, she has to go lay down and stretch out because she starts to cramp up. But, she is so much better than she was. Today is her last day of antibiotics. Now we wait for the two ultrasounds that she has to have. Maybe by then we can find out what is really going on with her. We know it is diverticulitis, but there is the possibility that there may be something else in the works. 

But, Julie came down this weekend and spent Friday night through Sunday morning with us. Ms. kate and Julie made two apple pies, and they are delicious. One is already gone of course and the other has a dent in it. I can’t imagine what happened there. I’d say maybe a mouse got to it but I’ve never seen a mouse cut a perfect wedge out of a pie like that. Hmmmmm. What can I say, pies are made to be eaten and I follow the rules. 

We had good fairly good attendance at the churches yesterday. It was really good at St. Paul’s\, we served communion to 32 folks at St. Paul’s. It is so good to see the attendance growing like that and it is especially good to see so many young children in the church. The cycle has come around at that church and a new generation is coming along, and we have two more babies on the way. Attendance at St. Lucas was good, but could be better We only served about 37 for communion at St. Lucas. I can think of at least 15 people that were out yesterday for one reason or another. But, we take what we get and I am grateful for each one that shows up. I just have to always remind myself that it isn’t about me and it isn’t about the numbers. It’s about serving those who do come, and praying for those who do not. Heck, Ms. Kate hasn’t been in maybe six weeks because of her health. And I have a few others that are sick too. 

Do you realize that we are only about six weeks from Christmas??  I was working on my schedule last night and wow, We need to get the churches decorated, probably on the 21st because Thanksgiving is the following Thursday and the first Sunday of Advent is the following Sunday. And I have a wedding to prepare for the Saturday after Thanksgiving; and Ms. Kate and I hope to be leaving for Myrtle Beach SC on the 1st of December to spend a few days with Lisa and all of her family. So, I have to prepare sermons and bulletins ahead of time so we can do that. Ms. Kate has been busy making the Christmas cards and has about 85 of them made. I’ll need to sit and address all of those and get them ready to go in the mail. Thank goodness people don’t do the family brag letters anymore or I would have that to do. I promised myself that I would write a dialogue Christmas reading this year for use at the churches but I haven’t even begun on that. Stuff to do, stuff to do. 

But first, I have coffee to drink and Backyard Buffet guest to watch on this beautiful morning. Have a great week. Peace. 

 Happy weekend, I hope you are having a great Friday and have a fun weekend planned. It’s a brisk but sunny 38 degrees outside and the feeders have lots of guests at them. The better news is that the temperature is going to keep climbing back up to “normal” for the coming week so we’ll be seeing 60 degree temps again.

Last night I fixed us a pot of “steel-cut” oats to have for breakfast this morning. They were really good and they do a good job of warming up the tummy. I had too much liquid on them though. The directions call for 4 cups of water to 1 cup of grain. But I deviated from the cooking instructions. You are supposed to bring the water to a boil and then put the oats in and turn on low heat and cook for thirty minutes. But, Julie says to boil the water, dump in the oats, stir, cover and remove from the heat and let them sit over night. That’s what I did.. Maybe next time I’ll use three cups of water instead of four. We chefs play with our recipes don’t you know. Bwahahahahha. 

I have a couple of counseling sessions going on this afternoon. I enjoy those. Actually, the first one isn’t so much counseling as just going over what my part is going to be in their wedding. They are getting married in her church and she is Catholic. I don’t know if he is gong to change over to Catholic faith or not. Bless him if he does, as long as they keep God as the center of their marriage, I don’t care what church they attend. 

Julie is coming down this weekend. She has to help the manager of the University of Evansville bookstore with an event this evening. She was just up in Indianapolis two days ago doing the same thing. That girl keeps herself too darn busy. It’s no wonder her immune system suffers a lot. Unfortunately, all of our girls are “work-a-holics”. Any way, she’ll be here this evening and work at the college. Then she will spend tomorrow with us visiting and then head home on Sunday because she has some more research to do for for her college class. She is down to just a couple of called until she receives her Bachelor’s  Degree. Ya’ see what I mean ——- a workaholic. 

That’s it for today my friends. I pray you have a wonderful weekend. I pray you will take the time out and observe a Sabbath with the Lord God who has provided your every blessing this week. Peace. 

 Happy Thursday. It is a feel-good morning, at least while I’m inside. It’s still freezing temperatures outside. But the sun is shining brightly, the leaves are falling from the trees in my yard so I have some more raking to do. I may mow the front yard one more time before I ask Jim to swap the mower deck for the snow blade. My trees out back are probably 60% nude now. I can always tell that the leaves are dropping because the afternoon sun gets in my eyes if I am sitting out there. During the summer that isn’t a problem because there are so many big trees surrounding my yard that it is hard for the sun to get through. 

I’m about 3/4th finished with my sermon for the 14th of November. I want to finish that up this morning while the thoughts are still juicing in my head. This afternoon I need to clean out the garden and get it winterized. The tomatoes need to be pulled up and the okra too. That’s going to fill up my garbage can quickly and I just got it emptied this morning. Gotta do, what I gotta do though. Just because it is 32 degrees out does not mean there is no yard work to do. Although ——- if I let it go for a bit, the cold and frost with dry out the plants and take up a lot less space in my cans. That’s something to consider. See how easy it is to justify not doing something. I just walked myself out of some work today. What a lazy butt I am sometimes. Of course I can also justify it by reminding myself that they weather is going to get even better for next week when the temperatures will rebound to the low to mid 60’s. Oh, this is just too easy. LOL

Ms. Kate seems to be feeling a bit better again this morning. It kind of goes that way. She’s better this morning but it is time for her to go lay down and stretch her tummy out. But she did have a bagel with peanut butter and a banana on it this morning so that is a major improvement. As she is getting better, it sounds like several others of my family are coming down with the flu or something that sounds like the flu. Youngest daughter Lisa is off work and sick with it and you gotta know she is really miserable because she never takes off work. Son-in-law Jim is home sick with the same symptoms, and no they don’t live anywhere close to each other so they didn’t contaminate each other. 

Tine for me to clean up and get the day going. I hope you can get out and enjoy the day and the sunshine. Peace. 

 Wow, Mother Nature got serious last night and woke us up to 30 degrees. With a little help from the sun we might reach 50 today. Not a day that you would want to go dip your toe in the stream.. 

Ms. Kate is still “doing okay” by her definition. This morning she is busy setting up future medical appointments for a couple of weeks out. She has to have a pelvic and kidney ultra-sound in two weeks so she’s working on that. I’m just glad to see her up and functioning. That is a major change. For those of you who have been keeping her in your prayers, I thank you. 

Yesterday was a really busy day for me. As I told you, I had a dental appointment and got that tooth repaired. From there I went and picked up a couple of things that we were needing around the house and came home for lunch. Yesterday afternoon I did some of the “to-do” list stuff and then went out and rearranged the sun-porch and brought in the patio plants. I’m glad I did what with it getting down to 30 last night. It wasn’t a “hard-freeze” per-se but it would have curled the leaves a bit. As long as we have been babying these five plants, I’d hate to lose then because I was too lazy to bring them in. So, the sunporch in in its “winter arrangement” until spring. 

I asked Ms. Kate what she wanted for supper and she said she had gotten some ground chuck out of the freezer and planned to make our version of “goulash”. Well, I knew that I could do that, (with a few directions), so I made supper and it turned out pretty darn well. There is enough for leftover for another couple of meals; at least for me. Kate doesn’t like leftovers. I’m like her mom though. Make a pot of something and eat it every meal until it is gone. 

Finally, last night I got down to my computer in my office and did get some writing done. I got a page and a half written that is pretty good and then I quit because I was beat. Maybe I’ll finish it this evening after I watch Survivor. 

That’s it for today. I need to get ready to go to the churches and run the bulletins, or maybe I’ll just wait and do that tomorrow. There isn’t a rush. Just have to wait and see how it all plays out. 

Have a blessed day. Shalomn. 

 November 2nd. Good morning y’all. I just got home from the dentist office. Had to get my broken tooth fixed. It took longer than I expected it to but when you look at my teeth, you can’t tell which one he fixed which is good because there was a gap there before. So I’m glad that I can smile without scaring folks again. LOL

The good news is that we finally got the results back from the doctors and the radiologists. Ms. Kate has some serious diverticulitis. It was classified as “several instances of diverticulitis”. They had put her on two different medications and then in two weeks she has to go for both a pelvis and a kidney ultrasound. I don’t know what else they are looking for but the good news is that she does feel a bit better today. We’ll smile about that. This isn’t going to be a quick-fix by any means but at least she is on the right path now. 

The temps were right down there this morning at 40 degrees. We are under a light freeze advisory starting tomorrow night through the weekend. Night temperature are supposed to get down into the 30’s. Winter is giving us a taste what what to expect this year I reckon. As you know, I don’t mind the cold, I just don’t want snow and ice. It used to be fun, but not any more. But, the cold means that I have to get the patio plants in the house either today or tomorrow. I don’t mind except that they are heavy because we have had rain and the dirt in them is soaked. It means I also have to rearrange the sun porch area. There is always a chore to be done. 

I got a good start on the service for the 14th of November last night. I had a hard time getting started but I think it is going to work out fine. I need to make some parishioner phone calls today and i also need to send my October mileage to the treasurer of each church. I also have some other church business to take care of today so it is going to be a busy one. Tomorrow I’ll go up to the churches and run the bulletins. Friday I have to go up for a marriage counseling session with a young couple that is getting married at the end of the month. It’s all part of the job and I love it. I’m happy to say that of all of the weddings that I have performed, only one didn’t last, and I admit that I had doubts about that one going in. But I’m getting to baptize the babies of some of my couples now and that is a wonderful thing. It is always a wonderful thing to see couple keep their promises to each other and to God. 

I guess I better stop here and fix lunch for Ms. Kate and me. My lip and gum is about fully de-numbed from the dentist so I don’t have to worry about biting my lip. Have a pleasant day, The sun is shining and The Son is watching over you. Peace. 

 Hello Monday, I see you brought along a new month. Hey there November, you look cold!!! It is pretty chilly this morning and it isn’t going to improve a lot this entire week. In fact, I’m going to have to go ahead and bring in the patio plants I guess. The forecast calls for below freezing temperatures this week. 

We’re having a busy morning. Ms.. Kate had an appointment with Dr. Jackson this morning, first thing to se what he can do about her health issues. He was able to get her in for the CT scan that we have ben waiting on right away so w went from there to Radiology Express and had that done. It didn’t take but a few minutes and now we are just waiting on the results to get back to the doctor and and for the doctor to call us with an answer. If I was a betting man, I’d bet he will call with a prescription for antibiotics. As long as he does it soon and we can get on with starting a cure, 

Yesterday I started my day off by breaking a tooth off while I was brushing it. I was getting ready for church so that was helpful!!!! But it doesn’t hurt because it just broke off an old filling. But it is a front tooth so I could go as “Gap-itis” for Halloween. I had been expecting it to break off because I could feel movement when I brushed my teeth. It will be a simple fix. I have a good dentist. I think he’s 12 years old —- LOLOL. Actually he has to be older than that because I just realized that he has been my dentist for almost twenty years by now. Wow, Time is flying by. Okay, he was probably 12 when I first started seeing him. 

I guess I will start on my November 14th service today since I have to stay close to the phone for Ms.. Kate. I want her to get all the rest she can. She has another bad night last night with getting up and down to walk out pain. Bless her heart. I feel her pain, I know what she’s going through because I’ve been there and had that. But it’s hard when you can’t do anything to help. 

Time to wrap this up and move on to something else. Have a great week. Peace. 

There’s not much new on the home front this morning. It’s still cool outside and the rain continues on and off and will for the rest of the day and part of tomorrow. The Backyard Buffet continues to be busy and the level of food in the feeders continues to drop. I’ll probably have to refill stuff again tomorrow once the rain stops and the sun comes out. 

The big event and news is out on the north side of the house though. Once again the robins are swarming through to the Holly tree in my neighbor’s yard. I have told you of this annual event before. There are literally hundreds of robins swooping in and out plucking the red berries off of the holly tree. I suspected they would be along soon because I was seeing a lot of berries on the ground when I was working in the flowerbed. There is this big holly tree on the northeast side of my house. It actually belongs to the neighbor Then there is another one in my yard on the southwest corner of my yard and then Dan has one at the back of the yard of his property, so these guys get their fill when they swarm or flock through the area. They are a lot of fun to watch\ except that they poop a lot too. So the sidewalks will have a lot of Robin poop on them. Maybe I’m blessed that the rain will help with that. The Lord giveth and the Lord washes away. 

Our two new recliners arrived late yesterday afternoon. They are very comfortable. The only problem is that We are limited on “reclining space” and I can’t go back as far as I would like. But I can go back far enough to get a good nap or watch TV comfortably. We still have two pieces of furniture to have taken out of here, an arm chair and a couch.  St. Vincent DePaul will pick those up on the 16th of November. W have so much furniture around this house due to relatives  passing away and having a sweet wife who never wants to give away anything. I could easily supply some young couple with all the furniture they would need to get started in life and still have more than we need here. I don’t know what will happen to it all and I’m glad that I won’t be the one to decide about it cause I’ll be dead. 

That’s it for today folks. Have a blessed weekend. Take time to attend your house of worship and express your gratitude for a week of blessings. Peace. 

 Rain, rain, go away, we’ve had enough of you today. I woke at 0530 and it was pouring and it kept that up for at least another hour and a half. My super duper weather gauge says we have gotten 1.25 inches so far today. I think that is more than they were expecting and it is supposed to rain on and off through Saturday morning. I really hope it is done for today anyway because we are supposed to have furniture delivered this afternoon and I’d prefer that it wasn’t delivered in the rain. 

I’m sitting here having my coffee and some Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls. I do like those things although my preference is the orange danish. For whatever reason those are hard to find these days. Maybe they are more popular and sell out faster ot —- maybe they don’t sell as well so the stores don’t order them as much. What ever, they are hard to find. But frankly everything is getting harder to find with the supply chain backup. It’s not just the stuff sitting out there off shore, it’s everything. The trucking industry is overwhelmed. People don’t seem to want a job. There is hardly a business that you can name that isn’t looking for workers. Unemployment should be at zero because if you want a job —- there are many waiting out there. All of those people thinking they want socialism are getting their way. It’s very scary. 

I actually heard on the news last night that the CDC is promoting the American public to get a fourth COVID vaccine shot. They say it will be for the “extremely vulnerable”. There is no way you can convince me that the CDC and other gov’t agencies all the way to the top are not in cahoots with the pharmacy companies. The rhetoric last year was all about “saving grandma’s life by getting the shot.” Is there any wonder that people are pushing back and saying “enough”. Just yesterday they approved the vaccine for 5-11 year olds and already only about a third of America is supporting it. And the President’s response is to weaponize it and threaten your very livelihood and monetary welfare if you don’t take them. I think that some night I went to sleep and woke up in a communist dictatorship. Thousands of health care providers are now being fired because they have stood up and said, hold on —- all of this isn’t necessary and are refusing to take the shots. Again, tell me how all of this isn’t about money. Enough ranting about that. 

I guess I’ll head downstairs today and work on my stuff for November 7th. I have the service planned but only about 1/3 of the message written. I might as well take full advantage of a rainy day and do some writing and some study. I want to be done with the message by the time the furniture gets here today and take my nap in my new recliner. 

I hope your day is blessed. Peace. 

 Wednesday already again. I guess it is because I generally take Monday and Tuesday off to do work around the house and yard and maybe do some writing in the evening. But, we used yesterday to accomplish other things like laundry and shopping. And I got very little writing done last night because I was watching the idiot box. It’s Halloween week and all of my “ghostly shows” are on. Yes, yes, I’m a real fan and have several that I liked to watch. Especially the ones where people are actually hunting for ghosts. These people get real excited about bumps in the night. Two of my girls are in to this stuff too. 

Today being Wednesday means it is bulletin day at the churches. I’ll go up after lunch and get that done. Ms. Kate is still not up to going with me, so that means it will take a extra time. I hope we have gotten the new toner cartridge by now at St. Lucas. That machine prints so much faster than the one at St. Paul’s because it prints double sided. I generally kill extra trees trying to get it right. 

Ms. Kate is making a dish of jello. We go through stages where we will make mellow for a month and have it all the time to periods like now where we haven’t had any in a long time. She wanted to make black cherry but all we found was black raspberry. I reckon we’ll see how that turned out. 

So, this it for today, I have to get away from the IPad and get my day going. Have a great day. Peace. 

 The sunshine is certainly a welcome sight this morning. The leaves are fairly still so that tells me there isn’t a lot of wind. Yesterday was a really windy one and it was blustery type of cold. But today and tomorrow are supposed to be good weather days before the rain moves back in for a couple of more days. 

Good morning to you. I hope your day is starting off very well. I hope you have lots of things to smile about in your life today. Life goes so much better when we can honestly smile at the world. My ugliest at the Backyard Buffet are having reasons to smile today because I filled the feeders, or at least part of them yesterday afternoon. Silly old “Stretch” came running down the tree as soon as I walked away from the one feeder. I think he must have been parked up in the at tree just waiting to see if I was ever going to come out and feed him. I often will have that happen; I start filling feeders and right away some bird or two will fly in and check out the feeder, then off it goes and starts telling the neighborhood. It’s pretty neat actually. It isn’t as neat when the feeders are empty and they set on the branches out side of my sunporch and stare in at me. It almost disturbs my nap. LOL

Today is “get some chores done” day. Ms.. Kate has a grocery list ready for me. Sop, as soon as I finish my blog I guess I’ll get cleaned up and go do the shopping. I don’t mind it at all, in fact I could almost say I enjoy it. Since I’ve gotten to know my way around the “Neighborhood Walmart” store I can fairly well find what I want. And if I don’t know, I just ask one of the folks that are filling carts for the “on-line” shoppers. They have to know where everything is. So, I just take my time, check my list and get what I need. I don’t go to the big Walmarts, but the ones that are primarily groceries are fine. If I don’t find it at Walmart I’ll go to Schnucks but their selections generally aren’t as good and they are higher priced, although I usually don’t pay a lot of attention to price unless it seems ridiculous. But, everything has gone up. 

While I’m shopping, Ms. Kate will get the laundry started. Ill carry it out to the washing machine, she can load it and start it. By the time I get home, I can transfer it over to the dryer for her. I do that because she’s too short to reach the bottom of the washing machine basket without getting a set of tongs to pull the stuff out. We do make a pair that’s for sure. 

Ms. Kate’s health status today is classified as “not feeling too bad — yet”. I’ll take that as almost good. She generally is this way until afternoon when the stomach and intestines start to hurt again. She has found that if she doesn’t go stretch out then, she will really suffer for it. I just pray we can get some treatment for her soon. We’re almost at a month of this. 

Time for my shower and then head out to Walmart and look for “Walmart People”. Fortunately we don’t see a lot of those here. Have a blessed day my friends. Raise your head and listen for the voice of God. Peace. 

 Happy new week. Welcome to the last week of October. Do you have your Halloween costume ready to go. Are you going out or are you going to stay home and pass out the goodies. So far the weather projection for Halloween is quite tolerable. I’m not sure what we are going to do. It depends on how Ms. Kate feels. We didn’t go to the Halloween party at our St. Paul’s church last night because she wasn’t feeling up to going out. That’s really too bad too because she had planned on either making and talking an apple pie or a freezer of homemade ice cream. Next Sunday is the party at St Lucas and it will be at about the same time as all of the trick or treaters come out. I don’t know what we will do. Again, it depends on Ms. Kate’s health. 

Speaking of Ms. Kate’s health; she finally did talk to the nurse practitioner at our doctor’s office. The nurse set her up with Deaconess Hospital to get a CT scan done but the first appointment she can get is the 9th of November. That’s 16 days away. That just isn’t acceptable that she has to deal with this pain for another 16 days before she can even be seen. She does have a doctor’s appointment a week from today but I’m letting her call the shots on this. In the meantime, I’ll just do whatever I need to to help her out. 

We had low attendance yesterday at both churches. Probably only 53 between the two services. I never know what makes people decide to skip church or attend church. And, with us having our service taped and presented on Facebook, and on You Tube, I never know who watches later because they had something else going on at church time. I pray that if they aren’t there in person, they are at least watching it at some point later. Good news for St. Paul’s is that we finally, after two years plus, got the new copper anchor cross installed on the steeple of St. Paul’s. A storm ruined the original a couple of years ago. It was hard to find anybody to makes a new one and it was harder to keep that person interested in finishing the job. But, it is up and it looks beautiful. I’m very proud of it. I especially appreciate a couple of the guys staying on top of the guy to get it done. 

That wraps up today. I hope your week is fully blessed. Peace. 

 Happy Friday the 22nd of Oct. Cool, cloudy and a breeze today. Sounds like a fall day doesn’t it? And —- it looks like one. 

I know I’m a fairly predictable person, kind of “in a rut” of my daily activities, I didn’t know it was so much so that even my IPad knows my schedule and prompts me with it. LOL I sat down in my recliner earlier, (yes, like I do every morning) and I had two messages posted on the front as suggestions. The first said; “Check Accuweather, based upon time and location.”  The second one said “Google Chrome; based upon time and location.” So, my IPad knows where it is setting and knows that at a specific time I check the weather report and I set and write my blog. I think maybe that spooks me out a little. What else is Artificial Intelligence keeping track on about me?? But, here I am; —- it is 52 degrees and I’m working on my blog. (“I will obey, I will obey, I will obey)

This morning I’m taking Ms. Kate etc the doctor to see if she can get a handle on what has been causing her all of this stomach trouble. We both believe it to be diverticulitis but if that is it, maybe they will start her on some antibiotics and start the healing process. She been sick long enough to really be worrisome. Wish her luck with a prayer. 

I fished up another big portion of the front flowerbed yesterday by cutting back the last of the four-o’clocks like I had hoped to do. I have one more section of the front to do hopefully today, if it doesn’t rain. That will probably take a couple of hours to clean that part up. Then I can move around to the north east side and finish that up. From there I’ll move to the south side and I think I’m going to try to just pull up everything everything in the garden and get that all cleaned up. The tomatoes are still green, but the fruit hanging on them does not seem to be turning. And the okra keeps putting on but we aren’t doing anything with it. I might as well get it winterized. There is a spot that I want to transplant a peony to that currently has the okra in it. That peony really needs to be moved from the north west side of the house to the southwest side. I had moved all of the others that were out there but I missed this one. It and several others were plants that I moved from my mother’s field many years ago, so it is an heirloom plant for us. 

Time for me to get myself ready to take Ms. Kate for her appointment. Enjoy your Friday, Enjoy your weekend. Shalom. 

 

 It’s another beautiful morning and warmer than it has been for the past few. 66 degree this morning and I think it isn’t supposed to go up or down much from that all day. But it is a breezy morning so that will make a difference, and there is a cloud layer overhead keeping the sun out. 

We are waiting this morning for Habitat of Humanity Restore folks to come pick up a couple of the chairs that we have in our family room. We bought them a few years ago from a really nice second-hand store and they have served us very well. They are still good chairs but they sit a little low for us now\ and we have a hard time getting in and out of them. So, I called the Restore and offered them up to them. We also have a couch that we got when Kate’s mom passed and we have a chair that we got when my mother passed that we wanted to also donate. When I called the Restore folks they had me send pictures of the furniture so they could decide if they wanted it or not. I did  and they said they would take the to family room chairs but not the others. I said “okay” even though I think it is a bit “snooty since all of the pieces are in good shape. Anyway, they will be here this morning to pick up the two chairs. I also called St. Vincent DePaul and asked if they would want the couch and the other chair. They said “yes” right away and set a pick up date for November 16th, no questions asked, no pictures required. It kind of makes me wonder about the difference in the mission of the two stores. Is Restore in it for the money or to help folks out. It’s obvious where St. Vincents sits on that scale. 

I had a good afternoon working in my front flowerbed yesterday afternoon. I got he peonies cut back as well as some other stuff too. I still need to Get the Four-oClocks trimmed back on that side and that’s gonna take some work. I really wish we didn’t have those plants but there is no getting rid of them. They drop hundreds of seeds every year so it is an on-going battle. Beside, the Papa John’s pizza delivery dudes know our house as “the house with the good smelling front porch”. LOL I wouldn’t want to deprive them of that pleasure during the summer. Our trash collector hauled off six of those large Lowe’s yard waste paper bags this morning that were stuffed as full as I could get them. So much to do!!!

Can you believe it is Thursday already?  Where has the week gone. As a matter of fact where has October gone? Three weeks of October have passed already and November is only ten days away. Halloween is coming next week, Thanksgiving 27 days after that, Advent starts, then we go on vacation, then Christmas arrives ——— Time flies when you are having fun. 

Now it is time for me to go have some fun and carry the mail out to the mail box. That’s my exciting life. Peace. 

 It is nice to see sunshine once again this morning and it is a tad warmer at 49 degrees, I have a bevy of the “little birds” here this morning; finches, sparrows wrens, titmouse and a nuthatch. There are several cardinals in and around too and one noisy blue jay. The “Rooster Beagles” have been out, exercised their lungs and I guess are back in the house because I don’t hear them barking any longer. The silence from that yard is nice. 

I didn’t do any yard work yesterday after all. I was still stiff and sore from Monday’s adventures out there. And I broke the handle off of my pruning loppers. But Amazon has the quick answer and I’ll have a new set arriving today.  This morning Ms. Kate and I will be going to the churches and will run the bulletins etc, and then this afternoon she says she will come out with me to give me a hand. That would be great. I love it when we can work on this stuff together. It isn’t that she can do a lot but I like having her out there with me. I’m just happy that she is feeling well enough to to actually get out and do stuff.  

So, I’m out of news for today and I’m holding three on-line conversations at the moment with my daughters so I think I’ll just wrap this up by saying I hope you have a blessed day. Peace.