Another rainy morning.This is the second in a row and I think tomorrow is not supposed to be any different. The grass is getting tall and the weeds are now a jungle. Sometime during the night a huge dead limb came down off of the tulip poplar tree. I reckon I’ll have to deal with that once it quits raining. Thankfully it missed the house. But it will be an hour or two of work. 

We’ve ben busy being busy around here. First thing this morning I got the laundry started. There will be the usual two loads but it hamper was full so it was time. Laundry is a chore that I don’t mind doing with or without Kate’s help. Heck, I’ve been doing laundry since I was a kid. I go back to the wringer washer days. Mom had a wringer-washer and a set of “wash tubs”. I don’t remember how it all worked. I know that the wringer was a dangerous piece of equipment and you could get your hand and arm caught in it pretty easily. I know that in the winter we hung the wash up on clotheslines in the basement and then in the summer we would carry it up the stairs and outside to the clotheslines. We had a set of “T” poles that dad had welded together out of four inch and two inch pipes that set probably fifty feet apart and then ran aluminum wire through them. We also had a couple of maybe seven foot 1x2 with a nail at the end to use to prop the lines up when the lines began to sag from weight of the wet clothes. I was a lot of work, but part of my “chores” as a kid. So, I don’t mind at all doing today’s laundry. It’s so simple; —- separate clothes, put clothes in washer, have coffee, take clothes out and transfer to dryer and put new load in washer. Have coffee and write a blog, take clothes out and fold, have coffee, etc. etc, etc. 

Ms. Kate and I went up to the churches yesterday and ran the bulletins. It was Kari’s day to come and clean so when she got here, we took off so we were out of her way and she would feel that we were looking over her shoulder. We got home around 1:00 pm and she was gone as we thought she should be. Then yesterday evening we decided to go for dinner somewhere. Thee first place we went, Hornville Tavern, was closed so we took a leisurely drive through the backroads to the Log Inn. The meal was delicious as it always is when we eat there. It is an old stagecoach stop from long again and Abraham Lincoln actually ate there one time. They have named one of the rooms “The :Lincoln Room”. The original building was a log building and you can see the the logs from the inside. It’s a neat place. It really gets crowded on the weekend nights. Their specialty is fried chicken and “Catfish Fiddlers” which is a whole small catfish. Their German fries are great too. 

Today, I want to get my sermon for the 7th of August written. I already have my service and sermon for the 14th of August done, and I have the worship service done for the 7th and have started on the sermon. It is one of those that is just hard to get started on, but it will flow once i concentrate on it. 

So, that’s it for today. Have a blessed day and a blessed rest of your week. Peace.  

 It’s Friday, or is it Fryday? It’s coming up on 1100 and it is 85 degrees with a “feels-like” of 97 right now. The ambient is supposed to go to 97 today and the “feels-like” up to 110. As the local car dealer says; — “It’s hot, Don”!

I started my morning off by getting my outside work done first thing while it was still cool enough to breathe. I got the plants watered, the yard mowed, and the bird baths cleaned up. They birds go through a lot of water during the summer, especially the blackbirds. They spend a lot of time taking their baths and they splash a lot of water out. Then of course they poop in their bird bath and I have to clean it out again. They are a pain in the butt to deal with. However, God made them too so I do my due diligence and take care of them too. 

This morning I had a Pileated Woodpecker visit the Backyard Buffet. It has been quite a while since one came through. It didn’t stay very long. Just grabbed a bite or two and took off again. I knew he was in the area because they announce their arrival in an area with their call. I’ve told you before how much I enjoy seeing them. 

Yesterday we went to the church and ran the bulletins and went over the hymns with the organist. Our regular player is on vacation and we have another parishioner filling in who also a very talented player. She is also the choir director for  St. Lucas. I’m very happy that St. Lucas is going to try to make a go of the choir again. COVID shut us down and we never got going again. That happened to so many choirs because some “expert” said we shouldn’t sing because it spreads the virus faster. I don’t know if that was fact or fiction. Of course this was the same people that said we should shut down the churches so they basically ruined worship experience for millions of Americans. The only good thing is that one. Of my churches got a matching-grant to buy and install video technology and we had a very capable parishioner that knew how to do it. Just proves to me that God’s people want to spread The Word; —- God will help them find a way to do so. After we finished at the church, we ran to Creek Farms and picked up a couple of cantaloupe and a couple of watermelon. I fixed one of the cantaloupe this morning after I came in from mowing the yard. They are delicious.

Julie and Jim are coming over for a turn-around trip tomorrow. Jim did the caulking in my shower last week but didn’t have the right tool to finish it up. So, they are coming over, he’ll do that and we’ll celebrate my birthday and they will head home to their pups.

Beyond that, I’m sitting here waiting on a friend to drop by with some corn on the cob. He brings us some every year and we really appreciate him sharing his crop with us. Some times he’ll just drop off a couple of dozen and sometimes he brings enough for us to put some up to freeze. 

That’s it for today. Stay inside if you can, and don’t get out in this oppressive heat. Peace. 

 Well, God actually did it!! God allowed me a full 78 year of life here on earth. I think that is pretty amazing. I know so many people who never got that chance. But then, I have many friends that have lived longer. But, I have gotten to the age where you begin to think about things like death and “not being here anymore”. Death, being dead, doesn’t scare me or bother me one bit. I have full faith in our spiritual resurrection through Jesus Christ. My only reservations about death are the manner in which it will happen. I’m like everyone, I don’t want to linger or suffer: —- just go to sleep and not wake up. But, I;m not going to worry about the when. 

Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year to date. I had planned to go to the churches today but I’ll wait until tomorrow, I did my parishioner visitations yesterday. Visits went fine. Lots of driving because the facilities are quite a few miles apart. I’m sure glad we bought the Prius that gets 54 miles to the gallon. 

The Backyard Buffet has been really busy the past few days. I have a couple of Hummingbirds that constantly dance and challenge one another to get to the feeder. That’s quite entertaining. I filled all of the feeders three days ago and they are mostly empty today. This evening I’ll probably go out and fill them after the sun goes down.  The Blue Jay is sittin on a limb right outside the window and is fussing at me because his feeder is empty. He can just get his tail-feathers down on the ground and clean up some of the dropped stuff down there. There is never a lack of food for them around here. But sometimes they have to remember they are wild birds and not kept pets. 

I guess now I will celebrate my birthday bu taking a morning nap and or finish my coffee and read my Stephen King novel. . Have yourself a wonderful day. Peace. 

 Happy Saturday to you. It’s a rainy morning. It has been since about 0530. We’ve had a lot more thunder and lightning than actual rain but what we have had has really been a “good rain”, meaning it has been slow and is soaking in. I think we are supposed to have this through noon tomorrow or so. That all good with me. My tomatoes will enjoy it as well as my petunias. 

I don’t have much today. Ms. Kate and I have had a fairly easy week and a relaxing week. I carried the laundry out this morning and got that started. We do two loads a week and it is really nothing to do. Put it in thee washer, move it to the dryer, take it out and fold it. We have an iron and an ironing board around here somewhere, or at least we did when we moved in here 20 years ago!! LOL Needless to say, ironing is not on the list of things to do. But —- I know some folks that still iron their stuff, even their blue jeans. Why???????

Lisa is doing well, —— thank you dry much for your prayers. She had an appointment yesterday so they could work with her wound vac and told her that she’s healing very nicely and everything looks good. She doing her walking around the house and the Physical Therapist told her that she doesn’t need them. She amazes me. I will tell you that her attitude and her faith is a major part of her healing. Thursday her son, Matt, and husband, Gary, put her office back together for her and have her all set up with a desk with three laptops so she can begin to “tella -work”. She will start that most likely next week. She is currently the administer for two state-run health care facilities. And, —— she does all of the financial book-work for the business they own. And —- she is currently “wedding central” for her son’s October wedding and her daughter’s March 2023 wedding. So all of this was a pretty huge bump in the road but my girls all know how to smooth out a bump and use it to their advantage. 

Tomorrow is the second of our Congregational meetings. We had St. Paul’s last week and tomorrow is St. Lucas. To the best of my knowledge there isn’t much on the agenda so it should be relatively short. We’ll do it right after the service. That works very well but —- I miss the days of bringing in food and having a lunch before hand. Just one more thing that COVID ruined. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed weekend. Go to your house of worship and give thanks for all of this week’s blessings. Peace. 

 Our baby girl, (yes, she’s 50) got home from the hospital yesterday. We are all so relieved. Granted, she has months of recovery to go yet but at least she is home, She is off of machines, she’s in her own bed and can get up and walk around her house when she feels like it and her dog will be sitting right beside her the entire time. Actually, keeping the dog off of her will be the initial problem because the dog is huge and does like to cuddle up on “mama”. I remember when Ms. Kate was home and recovering from her heart surgery and from her knee replacement, our dog, Lexie, never left Ms. Kate’s side the entire time for either of the recovery periods. I would take her out to do her business and it was right back top beside ”Mom”. 

Lisa has Home Health coming first thing this morning. They will do wound maintenance and other stuff that she requires. I’m sure there are several things that they will have to help her do for a while, but eventually she’ll be released from Home Health and have to do it all on her own. And she has Gary there to help when he’s not at the shop working. It’s just a blessing to have her home. It’s so scary to think that this thing could have killed her if that colon or intestine had burst and flooded her body with all of the abscess that had built up. Again, we just continue to give all the praise to God. 

I got a lot of outside work done yesterday; yard mowed, lots of sticks and twigs picked up. Cleaned out most of a long flowerbed and fence area. I bought a few new yard tools last fall made by “Worx” and they are really good tools. I bought a new leaf blower and weed eater and they really have a lot of power. They are lightweight and cut through most anything. That flowerbed I worked on yesterday had some really tall stuff in it and a lot of vines and ivy. The trimmer walked right through all of it. Sop, if you are looking for new garden stuff, check out the Worx product. I got mine on Amazon but I think Lowes carrries them too. 

There was nothing worth anything on TV last night so I put together my service for the 24th of July. Of course I still have to write the sermon, but it was a great start. Today, we are going to the church to run the bulletins. We were going to do that yesterday but decided to wait. 

That’s it my friends. My day is officially started  and I have work to do, beginning with having a piece of peach pie that Ms. Kate made yesterday. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Good Tuesday morning. Can you believe that I’m actually doing a second day in a row? I can’t, LOL

We have a our cleaning lady here this morning. She comes every other week for about four hours. I’ve been wanting to have Kate use a cleaning lady but she was never ready to give up the control. But her health continues get more limiting and she finally gave in. We don’t keep a messy house but there are places that we just can’t get down and do anymore. Dusting and vacuuming get harder to do. Of course, Kate is like her sister, they both spend a day “getting the house ready for a cleaning lady to see it” the day before she comes. 

My daughter Lisa is supposed to go home from the hospital. She is up and dressed, waiting on the insurance people to approve the hospital sending along a “wound vac” which she absolutely must have at this point. I hate bureaucracies; I understand them, but I hate them. They are generally made up of people that have no reason to hurry with anything, put in their eight hour day and go home. And they are regulated to death. 

Anyway, she’s well enough to gone home and start at home recovery. It’s going to be a sixth month effort for sure. 

Time for me to get out of the cleaning lady’s way. Maybe we’ll go up to the church and run our bulletins etc. Or, I should maybe go outside and mow the yard first, We’ll see, Have yourself a great day. It’s going to be hot but the humidity is a little better today. Peace. 

 Monday morning again. And it has been another week since I put anything in a blog. I guess my life is just getting more dull every day. 

The good news is that Lisa thinks just maybe she will get to go home from the hospital today. I think she is being a little bit optimistic but I pray she is right. I know she is so mentally ready to be out of the hospital and in her own home. Her recovery still has months to go but doing that at home changes ones attitude and a changed attitude can increase healing. 

We had a wonderful weekend weather wise. Last week we had several days of very much needed, God-given rain. It came in many days of off and on showers and was a perfect soaker. You can hear the corn growing and sprouting tassels and ears now. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch of the imagination, but I think the earth is pleased. 

We went out to the farm stands again on Friday, I think it was. Actually we started at the peach orchard just up the highway,  then up into rural Gibson County to the far stand and picked up sweet-corn and cantaloupes and green beans; — then down to New Harmony for lunch and back home. It was a great “day-trip” and a nice drive. 

Ms. Kate has had a sore throat off an on for the past few days. She didn’t go to church yesterday. She give herself a COVID test and it came out negative which is wonderful. So, it is a “summer-cold” and those can be miserable. Julie has bronchitis again and has been suffering with that. So I have a bunch of sick ladies to worry about. But they are all three doing better today so I have just one more, or maybe three more blessings to give God thanks for today. 

We had a well attended worship service yesterday and then the St. Paul’s summer congregational meeting after that. There were no big “shake-em-ups” at the meeting, just the routine kind of stuff that these meetings always entail. My days of congregational meetings as an active participant are beginning to draw to a close. With my retirement date announced, I only have five more including the St. Lucas summer meeting this coming Sunday. St.Paul’s selected their three members to be on the Pastoral Search committee and this Sunday, I suspect St. Lucas will do the same. I am required to stay out of the process and will do so to the best of my ability. It’s hard to do though when you want the best for your parish. 

That’s it for today. I need to go to the optometry shop. I have a lens that keeps falling out of my glasses. I’ve had it fixed several times so I don’t know that I might not have to get new frames. Yuk. 

Have a blessed week. 

 Believe it or not, I actually wrote a full blog yesterday and somehow, I hit some key —- and it all went away. So, I said to heck with it. I was not going to try to rewrite it. 

Wednesday, the 6th of July. It has been a week since my last post and you haven’t missed anything important in my thoughts, that’s for sure. But, I have been busy. Today I am busy not going out in to the heat. Yesterday we officially hit 101 degrees actual temperature; — that is the hottest day in 10 years. The feels like was 110 degrees. Today and tomorrow promise to be no better. I may go out to the churches and run my bulletins and maybe run by the bank to deposit a couple of checks but that will be the extent of it. 

My daughter, Lisa, and her family were supposed to come up from North Carolina for the 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately she ended up going to the hospital with a very severe colon blockage and abscess.  That was a week ago and she is just this morning having surgery for it. She went into surgery at 0615 our local time (0715 her time) and is still in there. It is a very delicate surgery requiring both a general surgeon and a urologist. Ms. Kate and I, as well as the rest of the family are all waiting almost patiently to hear from Gary that the surgery is over and hopefully is a total success. We’re coming up on four hours now. For those of you that have lifted her up in prayer, thank you very much. Please continue to do so, she has another 5-7 days of hospitalization for recovery after the surgery is over. She has been one very sick girl for a long time but just didn’t know how sick she was. And she is a work-a-holic who grabs an over the counter medication and presses on because “she doesn’t have time to be sick”. Unfortunately, she comes by this trait quite naturally from her parents and siblings. None of us are very smart sometimes in the “self-care” arena. 

Ms. kate and i have been “binge watching” the television production of Game of Thrones (GOT). I don’t know if you have seen it or not but the country went wild over it when it first came out. Kate and two of the girls watched it but I never did. I would occasionally walk through the family room when it was on and stop and gawk at it for a few minutes, (men do that a lot) but I never sat down and watched a single episode. But, since TV is all reruns for the summer, I decided to watch it. I don’t know now if I’m glad I did or not. The best part of it is that Kate and I have watched more TV together in the last week than we have in a year or more. From my perspective, it was a very good story and perhaps I should have found the books and read them instead. But —- I remember the days when this show would have been rated XXX and not allowed to be seen on public television. The display of constant nudity and sexual activity, and vulgar language went way beyond actually contributing to the show to the point of becoming boring. So, if you have not seen the show, —- go find the books and read them. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed day. May God bring peace to your soul and mind.