How do you become a prisoner in your own home? — with a thick coating of ice on the drive way and all of the streets, that’s how. There is no way I could drive up my driveway. There has only been one truck that has traveled our street so far today and there is a a couple of kids out there on a four wheeler but they are taking it fairly slow. It is absolutely dangerous to try to go anywhere today. All of the schools are closed and I imagine many businesses have closed too. Not that I am going to try to find out. 

I was supposed to do a funeral at 10:00 am this morning. That got postponed. They are going to try to have it on Thursday morning now. The ice should all be fairly well melted by then. I think it is supposed to get above the melting point by tomorrow afternoon and hopefully we’ll have a day of sunshine tomorrow. I feel so bad for the family having to postpone the funeral. It is hard enough to lose a loved one let alone having to drag out the funeral process. But, it was the right decision. There are vehicles off of them road everywhere and the last thing we would to have happen is to have one of the mourners end up in the ditch or the hearse end up inn the ditch. It wouldn’t be the first time, that’s for sure. Ms. Kate tells about the funeral for her great-grandpa. His remains were handled by one of our local funeral homes but the cemetery was down in Fordsville KY, about fifty miles away and back in hill country. They got to within a half mile of the cemetery on a muddy back road and the hearse was stuck and couldn’t go any farther. Several of the men said that they could carry the casket the rest of the way but the funeral director said “No. Our contract is to the grave.” They went and found a farmer with a team and wagon and loaded the casket on to that and took it on up the hill to the cemetery for the burial. Then the team pulled the hearse out of the mud. 

I guess I’ll use today as a writing day and work on my service for the 12th of February. Ms. kate isn’t feeling well at all; has an upset stomach and a cough. I hope she’s not coming down with the flu. 

The Backyard Buffet is overflowing with customers today. I posted a short video of it. It has been non-stop all morning with birds flying in and out and fussing and fighting for position. It’s fun to watch. 

That’s it for today. Stay warm, stay inside if your weather is anything like mine. May God bring you peace. 

 Welcome to a new week and by the way, the last week of January 2023. It is a predictable January day, It’s 34 degrees, with a rain and snowflake mix.. Not a hint of sun in the sky. It is a good day to just stay inside by the fireplace. But unfortunately we have to get out in it. Today is the visitation for my parishioner that passed so we need to go to that. Then we need to stop and pick up a few things at the grocery. Tomorrow I have the funeral to do at 1000 hrs. Wednesday Ms. Kate has a doctor appointment and then I have confirmation class followed by choir practice. So, this is going to be another event filled week, and no sunshine to go with it. 

Yesterday was a good but busy day though. Two church services, a luncheon, and then back to church for the confirmation class. What made it a great day was that I got to do an infant baptism during the late service (hence the luncheon afterwards). I love baptisms. I have to say though, my baby yesterday was a fussy one. So was the last one that I baptized. I’ve gone twenty years with all of the babies laying quietly in my arms but these last two were not happy with the proceedings. But as I said yesterday, I hope some day they sing just as loud in the church. 

The other thing that made it a great day was my Confirmation class. These two guys seem to be “getting it” and they are doing a great job. Our last two meeting I have ben having them put together a class statement of faith and thy did a pretty good job. They put down all the basics and now they are supposed to “wordsmith” it and make it a readable and usable document. I have asked every class to do this and they always doa a good job. I have saved all of them and we use them during worship service frequently. I like to do that because it gives them a sense of ownership during the worship service. They can know they created that statement and now they are sharing it with the entire parish. 

That’s it for today. Stay out of the yucky weather if you can, If you must be out, drive carefully. God bless you; have a wonderful week. 

 Hello beautiful Saturday morning. It is so great to wake to a sunshine filled sky with no clouds in site. So, I thank you Lord for starting my day off with a blessing. 

Ms. Kate and I got our running around done yesterday that we wanted to do. We went to Staples and bought her a new chair for her office. She found one that she thought was very comfortable and should last her quite awhile. And it was on sale so that was a plus. Last evening then we put it together and she is in there this morning at her desk playing her Klondike computer game. She plays that and Bingo Bash, and Criminal Case. I play Criminal Case. I used to play the Bingo Bash game too but I got bored with it. I’m actually surprised that I still play Criminal Case because I get bored with stuff pretty easily. I’m terrible about that with television shows. I’ll try a new show and if it doesn’t really grab me within the first couple of weeks, I move on. That’s probably why I only have a half dozen shows that I watch weekly. The rest of the time I leave the tv turned off. Or, I’ll turn it on You Tube and listen to the music. Ms. Kate watches all varieties of NCIS and Law and Order. I don’t watch cop shows or lawyer shows or doctor shows. The things the cops supposedly do and the collateral damage they cause, and the equipment that they allegedly have is so unrealistic. I also don’t like the fact that the criminals are out to personally targeting the cops and their families. I mean how many times have we seen this cop or this lawyer get kidnapped and have to be rescued? That happened all the time on “Walker, Texas Ranger”. I don’t watch factor shows because they mostly portray the doctors and nurses sleeping  with one another or the cops and firemen having affairs. In my books —- Dragnet was a great show. “Just the facts ma’am”. Yeh, I’m boring. Give me a good nature show where the animals eat one another instead of having sex with them. 

I didn’t get any feeders filled yesterday. The yard was still a bit sloppy when I walked out there. I think maybe I’ll go out again this morning and see how it is. It is supposed to start raining again this evening. This has really been a wet winter and the forecast shows more to come through next week and might even bring a couple days of snow mixed in. YUK!!!!!! 

I need to finish up the funeral that I working on. The funeral isn’t until next Tuesday but I want to get it finished. Tomorrow will be a long day as usual for Sunday. But, the really joyful part of the day is that I get to do a baptism of an infant. That is the favorite part of my job. This will be my 30th baptism at St. Lucas and I don’t know how many I have done at St. Paul’s. II always feel so blessed when I get to do a baptism. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed weekend. Peace. 

 It is so great to see the sunshine this morning. Yes, it’s cold, but it is also winter so what else can we expect. The days that are really sunny and a little warmer are just one of God’s blessings that He tosses in to us. Today is supposed to be 14 degrees warmer than yesterday so again —- Thank you God. 

We planned yesterday to go find Ms. Kate a new office chair but the weather was cold and snow flakes were flying, so we decided to wait until today. Our wait seems to have been rewarded. Actually we have several places that we need to go today so we need to map out a route and strategy. I tend to do that every time we go somewhere. I want to take a route that doesn’t have us running from one side of town and back and forth. My car gets great gas mileage but still no need to waste time and gas. I think it drives Ms.Kate a little bonkers when I do that but what the heck. If only that were my only quirk. LOL

I got started on working on the funeral for my parishioner but I need to wait until I find out more details and I want to talk to her husband first for some personal stuff. I try to make my funerals as personal as I can because I try to help with their closure. Over the years I think it has helped several people. 

The back yard has dried up enough that I think I can walk around in it without getting too muddy. I have some feeders that I need to refill and I think maybe this afternoon I’ll throw a couple of steaks on the grill. I got them out of the freezer yesterday but they didn’t thaw in time for supper. So after we get back today, I will take advantage of the sunshine and fire up the grill.  

Okay, the boss says it is time for me to get ready. Y’all have a great day. Peace.

 Well, Thursday showed up again this week and we can all give a big “shout out” to God for that. We have another day and another chance to do something for somebody. 

It’s a cold and windy day; 32 degrees right now and I don’t think it is supposed to go up much from there. But, it isn’t snowing or raining so there is another thing to be thankful for. (Amazing how the blessings just keep on coming, isn’t it?)

It was a busy and a long day yesterday. I did get out and do my visitations and I’m so very glad that I did. One of the parishioners I visited yesterday afternoon, passed away this morning. It was not unexpected. May her soul rest in the peace and glory of the Lord. She has been so ill for such a long time. God has now let her rest and and maybe now her husband can get some rest too. He has been by her side constantly and has been totally devoted to her. 

My feeders have a lot of visitors this morning. Bluebirds, juncos, cardinals, starlings, blackbirds, and goldfinches. The goldfinches have already started to turn color from their winter greenish-brown back to gold. I wonder how they do that. Well actually they don’t “do” it, — it’s just part of the process, but I wonder how it happens. I may have to Google that just so I can fill my head with some more useless knowledge. I mean it isn’t like I’m ever going to be part of a “bar-game trivia contest” and be asked that question. But sometimes I like to just look stuff up so I learn something new. 

We started choir practice again last night and are working on our Easter Cantata. It’s isn’t too difficult so far.  The song we did for Christmas was harder than this cantata will be. But, we also are working on another song. I had heard another group sing the song “Hallelujah” by Sam Cohen and it was done so well that I asked our choir director if we could learn that one too; and bless her heart, she found the music and we started on it too.  My surprise when I saw the music was to learn that it was from the movie Shrek! I might have to watch that movie again just to see where it fit in because I can’t imagine it. I truly thought it was a modern day church song. We had a young couple from the church sing it a few years ago and they were nervous about doing so and I could not figure out what their concern was. Now having read the lyrics —— I still don’t get it. But, I love the instrumental music of the song. As I told our director, being brought up in the band and not the choir, I never paid much attention to the words of a song, just to the melody and the harmony. 

I have work to do so I better get busy doing it. Have a great day. Stay warm. If possible —- grab a cup of coffee, your blanket, and a good book and enjoy God’s world out side of the window from the inside of the house. Peace. 

 Good morning! Happy “hump daaaaaaay!” The week will be half over by this evening and we’ll all start looking towards the weekend. 

Ms. Kate and I went to bed around 0100 and it was snowing, and everything was well covered. I got up this morning and the streets were already clear as was my driveway. Water was running down the street gutters because of the melting. This will all be gone by noon I reckon. That’s a good thing because I need to do some visitation today, and go to Staples and get copier paper, and go run the bulletins annnnd —- go to choir practice. Yep, it is going to be a busy day and I don’t need snow to get in my way. 

Kari, our cleaning lady is here this morning and I try to stay out of her way. We started having someone to help with the house cleaning twice a month last summer and it has really been nice. She does such a great job. One of the benefits is that Ms. Kate and I are more conscious about keeping stuff picked up too. We aren’t messy people but we do tend to leave our little piles of stuff around. Knowing that Kari is coming tends to help us remember to pick up our little piles of stuff. After all, no one wants their cleaning lady to see a messy house. LOL

The squirrels and the blackbirds have emptied a few feeders so I guess I’m going to have to fill them back up. But I will wait until it dries up a bit. I don’t want to slop around out there just yet. This has been a really wet winter and it is only half over. When it is sloppy, I just refuse to go out there. I never let everything get empty so I know there is always some food available. They are just spoiled and like their favorites. 

Time to get busy for the day and I also need to move out of Kari’s way. Have yourself a wonderful day. Take time to be nice to your neighbor and say “hi” to a stranger. Peace 

 With all of that beautiful sunshine out there, it seems hard to believe that this day is going to end in rain and snow. But --- that's what is predicted for today. 

Happy Tuesday, the 24th of January. Do you realize that there is only one more week in this month and then we move on to February. Time does continue to flow and we can suddenly be asking ourselves "where the tine went". I usually ask myself that when I'm suddenly closer to a deadline than I want to be. Fortunately, I got to quit worrying too much about deadlines twenty years ago when I retired from the Air Force. There, everyday was a day closer to a suspense that had to be met or a goal that had to be attained. It's probably like that in the business world out here with the civilians too but as a pastor, I usually only get jammed up if I'm a little late getting my sermon written and suddenly I have a funeral or hospital visitations pop up unexpectedly. That's why I try to work a couple of weeks ahead. 

I think today Ms. Kate and I are going to go look for a new office desk chair for her. Her old one is looking pretty ragged these days and she spends a lot of hours in that chair. So, I managed to get her old one out of the office and have it parked by the front door. I sent my daughter Julie a text to see if she wants it for a craft chair in her garage. If not, I'll put it out on the street with a "Free" sign on it. Somebody might want it. It just really need some duct tape on it and it will be perfectly useable. Duct tape fixes most anything ya' know!!! Then if no one takes it, into the trash can it goes. 

While I'm waiting to go, I've been going through our two church constitutions with reference to their hiring of a new pastor. Both churches have 50 year old constitutions and when they were written , they were not written with much leeway on several points. So they are both going to have to do some hard work to get where they think they want to be. The denomination has changed a great deal since those two documents were written and our churches views don't match those of the denomination in several way.  It will be interesting to see how they resolve their issues. But --- if they don't do something, they are in for a very long pastoral search because the current flavor of pastors is far more liberal than the two churches are. God will provide the right person when God sees fit. It took my home church seven years to find a suitable pastor. 

Gotta' stop and do some other writing. Have a blessed day. Peace.

 Rain - cloudy cloudy, rain cloudy cloudy, rain cloudy cloudy. If you say it in rhythm it sound like “Indian War drums”. LOL But that seems to be our winter pattern for weather around here this winter. Our weather lady did promise us a little sunshine this afternoon to brighten up the day. The other day we got our first and only peek at the sub right at 4:30 - 5:00 pm. There was a thin line of sunshine right at the horizon as the sun set for the day. Actually, it was kind of awesome. 

How was your weekend? Ours was okay, certainly nothing to write home about. We were busy just doing stuff. Yesterday of course was Sunday and that means two church services and a Confirmation class to do. We were thin in attendance yesterday at the churches. Church services have to compete with too many other things like sports tournaments, sports on TV, middle school dances, vacations, school spring break, rainy/snowy cold weather, and the colds and flu season. There is always a reason not to attend church. I’m just glad when folks do come and I’m glad that God doesn’t “take a day off”. It is just another way in which our society has changed since “the olden days” when I was a kid. We didn’t have all of these other activities when I was a kid and even if we had —— there was no way that they would take precedence over attending church. And while “TV church” capability was a blessing during COVID, it has also come to be a curse too as people stay home and watch  or don’t watch but we never know which. I guess in a way, we are like restaurants; we cook up a lot of food for the day but we never know if anyone is going to come in and eat. But that doesn’t allow us the right to serve food of any less quality. 

Ms. Kate and I have a week this week that is almost event free. Wow!!! Of course I have to work on services etc but other than that, we have no appointments or anything else. What will we do with ourselves?? Well, for one thing, we need to run by Walgreens and pick up a prescription and also pick up some Dasani bottled water for Ms. Kate. Then I need to run over to Art’s house and pick up a couple of books he has for me. And then I have to come home and get busy both reading and writing. I’m working on a sermon series and the books that Art is giving me are reference books on my subject. He has given me several of his book; one he wrote and also several articles and research papers he has written and published. He is such a great mentor and an even better friend. I’m blessed. 

Time to put my head together with Ms. Kate and decide what we are going to do about some lunch. I hope you have a great day. And I hope your week is fully blessed. Peace. 

 A happy and blessed Friday morning to you. It’s just another cloudy day in the neighborhood. It’s 31 degrees and isn’t going to go up much from there.

Of course I don’t have much of anything new since I just wrote last evening. Well, actually, my one bit of news is that we had an active shooter incident at our west side Walmart last night. I don’t know anything more than that with the exception that the shooter is dead. I haven’t heard the news yet as to if there were victims or if it was a random nut job that decided to commit suicide by cop or what. What in the world is wrong with people these days? I just don’t get it. If you want to kill yourself, just take your gun and go out in the woods somewhere. Why ruin the lives of people you don’t even know. Suicide is a selfish and cowardly act in the first place. God did not give you the choice of when you will die. But neither did he give you the right to end other peoples lives just because you are mad about something. Well, I bet your reception on the other side of that veil is a whole lot different the your victims. 

So, today I’m going to get dressed and then go feed my birds first thing this morning. II had a slew of cardinals, bluebirds, titmouse, finches and wrens out there this morning all looking for food and most everything is empty. I’m also going to Wild Birds today because they have a 15% off sale on safflower seed and that is a mainstay for the cardinals and other birds —- and the squirrels don’t like it. That makes it a win-win. I’ve been putting hot peppered seed in the feeders except for the sunflower seed. The squirrels can have that. But if I put the hot- pepper seed in the rest of the feeders, the squirrels have learned they don’t want to get on them and that way they aren’t tearing the feeders up. I have lost a lot of feeders to squirrel damage over the years and they are not cheap. I can easily drop $40.00 on a new feeder. Most of the new feeders I buy are fairly indestructible even by squirrels. I try to stay away from plastic feeders if I can.  

The other thing I have to do today is go up and run y bulletins. If I time that right, I can grab a bite of lunch somewhere too. 

But, if I’m going to get any of that done, I better get myself changed and start moving. I hope you have a blessed day.  Peace. 

 It’s a late afternoon and the weather is cloudy, very cool, and just “blah!!!” We did have a little sun today but not much and then we had some off and on sprinkles. Just a good day to stay inside, but —- we had running around to do today. 

Ms. Kate had to go for her mammogram this morning around 10:30. So, we did that and afterwards we went to the bank to do some banking stuff, then to Walgreens to pick up a prescription for her. From there we went to a little deli where they have a spaghetti special every Thursday and had our lunch. That put us an hour away from her next doctor’s appointment and the hospital was basically around the corner so we went and found a place to park and sat there on our phones and IPads for an hour until her appointment. We knew the appointment wouldn’t take long. It was the doctor follow up to a Doppler scan that she had a month ago. She has it done once a year. She told me; “he’s just going to say everything’s fine, See you next year.” She came back out and said —- I told you so. 

From there we came home and had hoped to take a nap. However, I was about to doze off when I got a call from my credit card company asking me about what could be a fraudulent charge on y card. Sure enough, someone had used my card number to try to charge $4.39 worth of something in Florida. I didn’t recognize the purchase or the company that it was tried at, —- so they cancelled that card and will send me a new card via express mail. The thing is, I just got this card two weeks ago as a replacement for the last time someone tried to use my card. They gave me the name of the business where the purchase was attempted. I tried to Google them and they came up but all information as to who they are and what they do has been redacted. So, I called the number their webpage listed and told them why I was calling and they wouldn’t give me any information about the company but they did ask for the card number that I was calling about. I told them I’m not giving it to them and they hung up on me. So —- if you get a charge on your credit card for a purchase at Shebschou.Com, — report it. They have a fancy webpage with a lot of word on it but they do not tell you what they actually do other than they have teams standing by 24/7 to help you out. I hate scammers with a passion. Not only doI have to go through the hassle of setting up my new card, —- but they have ruined my chance of getting a nap today. 

Tomorrow I have to go to the churches, run the bulletins and set things up for Sunday’s service. It’s my weekly thing to do. It doesn’t take long and the weather is supposed to be a little nicer tomorrow. 

I got home today to a message on my answering machine from my next door neighbor. She wanted to let me know that they had found her 23 y/o granddaughter dead last night. She had overdosed on drugs. My heart breaks for the family. Please say a prayer for all families who have to go through a thing like this. 

Have a good evening. Peace. 

 Good morning. I started a blog yesterday and got about three lines written and then we had to go somewhere. I never got back to it so I deleted it this morning. I might as well start over. 

It’s looking gloomy this morning and I hate that because yesterday was such a perfect day. It was sunny and bright and the temperature went above 60 degrees. It was a perfect day to do some of the running around that we had to do. One of the first things we had to do was take Ms. Kate for a hair cut appointment. Those don’t take very long, maybe 30 minutes. Then we went out for lunch at the Friendship Diner. We have eaten there a few time and like their food. I had a breakfast plate and it was really good. Of course it is usually pretty hard to mess up breakfast. Ms. Kate had a pork lunch plate and she said it wasn’t good at all. The pork was shredded, which she didn’t like, the mashed potatoes were instant and she didn’t like the gravy. The best part of her meal was the fruit that came with it and even that was limited to a few grapes and three pieces of pineapple. It was disappointing. Generally their meals are really good. (That’s why I stick to breakfast.)

From there we went to The Vineyard, a Bible book store. I wanted to get some bulletins for my granddaughters wedding. From there we went to the barber shop for me. For once, I was able to walk right in and sit down in a chair. There is usually a 30 minute wait so I felt pretty lucky. 

Today I have nothing on the calendar except to either go downstairs and work on my sermon for the 29th or I need to go up and run the bulletins for the week. Tomorrow we have two different doctor’s appointments for Ms. Kate and they will mess up most of the day because they are spaced apart just enough to be a nuisance and they neither one take all that long.  However, it is supposed to start raining here in the next couple of hours and it’s not supposed to rain tomorrow at all. Decisions, decisions. I think today I will stay home and write. The incoming rain is supposed to be accompanied by some storms, —- so yep, I will stay home. 

Can you believe we are on the second half of January already. I keep looking at my calendar and seeing that we have so many things to plan for and plan around during the first half of the year. I am supposed to get five weeks a year of vacation but it seems that we never get the time to take it. We will take a week in March so we can go to North Carolina for Amanda’s wedding. But, it will be a hurried affair because I have to be back for the following Sunday which will be Palm Sunday. I have to Confirmands this year and they will be confirmed on Palm Sunday. One of the reasons we can’t take vacation now is because I teach the confirmation class every week. That stared last September so that knocks out a seven month period of time that we can’t take a vacation. But, starting June 1st, we will be doing our summer worship service schedule so maybe we can get a week or two in there. Or —- I could do what we do in the military and just save it until the four weeks before I retire. That would put me on vacation as of the 1st of December and my retirement starts the 31st of December. I could handle that. I guess we will see what we will see. 

That’s it for the 18th day of January. I pray you will have a wonderful day. Take some time today to make contact with God. It will improve your entire day. Peace. 

 Good morning on this rainy Monday morning. It is Martin Luther  King Jr. Day and therefore a National Holiday. It is an interesting kind of holiday. I think the only thing that closes on this particular holiday are things that are government related like government offices, post-office and mail delivery and banks. Retail places like shops and grocery stores and restaurants are all open. There will, of course, be ceremonies and speeches made here and there. Some churches will hold poorly attended services, and there will be some marches in the street to replicate the marches that Dr. King led; the participants in those will be mostly people from the black communities. (Am I allowed to say “black communities”? I don’t know anymore.) I guess my point in this is that Dr. King was a man with a great vision for all people. He had a wonderful vision of a society that could get past the color of people’s skin and see one another as just another person. He had a vision of a society that we could peacefully live with one another regardless of the color of our skin and ethnic background and we could and treat one another with dignity and lift one another up. He believed in non-violent protest against racism and segregation and injustice at any level. It got him shot down and killed by a hate-filled racist.

I personally think he would be appalled at all of the directions the movement he started has taken and the lack of progress toward his goal that has been made. No ghettos have been eliminated, school systems in black communities are still horribly underfunded. Education opportunities haven’t improved.  Trust between white people, black people, Asian people has gotten worse and more violent. Movements like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) have garnered millions and millions of dollars but have yet to build a single school. The Black Power movement became just another militant stomping around with their fists held high in the air. The Take a Knee movement during the playing of our National Anthem became the most recent decisive symbol and created more hate than support. 

I know this blog today sounds very cynical and I don’t mean it to; but it reflects our society from my perspective. Declaring a holiday might have been well intentioned but I believe the reality is that it really does nothing to solve any of the social justice problems in this country. I don’t think MLK Day has any more relevance that “Presidents Day” or any of the other “holidays” that are reasons to close government offices. I think Dr. King indeed “had a dream” and it was a wonderful dream. I would love to see our society realize that dream someday. Somehow, we need to move past the façade that we care and actually truly care about one another. Somehow our discussions need to become “prayerful conversations”. I personally believe there is a difference between holding a discussion and holding a conversation. Conversations require listening to one another. Discussions are just people presenting their view. Somehow our our actions need to become “prayerful actions”. Somehow we need to learn to actually see our neighbor. Somehow, we need to learn to love our neighbor and figure out a way to realize that we are in fact morally responsible or them. 

That’s it for today. I pray your day is fully blessed. Peace. 

 This won’t be long today; —— I just want to know who ordered snow?? That was rude of you. My daffodils are up, the bluebirds are eating at my feeders, it’s been 50 degrees, —- and I get up this morning to a coating of snow. Grump, grump, grump! Yeh, yeh, I know it’s melting already and I know by the weekend we’ll be back to mid forties, but that’s not the point. The simple point is that I don’t like snow. 

I writing a quick post today because I’m waiting for Ms. Kate to get ready to go. We’re heading to the funeral home this morning where I’m conducting the funeral of a good friend. I think I told you about her yesterday. She was a sweetheart of a lady and I don’t begrudge her passing because I know she was secure in her faith and was looking forward to being reunited with her husband. He was a great guy too and one heck of a woodworker. He made several pieces of furniture for use at the church that are still in use today. 

Once we get back home today, I need to finish up my sermon that I’m working on for the 22nd of January. I have it half done and have some good note that I jotted down to use or at least use to remind me to stay on track. I do that a lot. While I was sitting here working on this, I came up with an idea for a sermon and stopped and made some notes. Maybe I’ll write it, maybe I won’t. I come up with “sermon thought” all the time and make little notes to myself. There are a lot of “one-line-sermons” laying on my desk that never get developed. I suspect all pastors do pretty much the same thing. But if I don’t write myself a note, —- those thoughts for sure will never see the light of day. 

Okay, time to go. Have yourself a wonderful Friday. Stay warm and out of the weather. Peace. 

 Cloudy, damp, a little foggy and 54 degrees this morning. That’s an absolute recipe to either sleep in or at least take a morning nap. Unfortunately, that 54 is the high for the day and the temperature is going to start going down fairly quickly. Accuweather forecast shows a “winter-mix” for this afternoon and maybe tonight. Don’t we just love our mid-west weather!!!!

I woke up to the sound of loud thunder about 0300 hrs, and the severe weather sirens were going off. We were having the best lightening show I have seen in a very long time. I love a good lightening storm. There was only a little rain coming down and no wind to speak of, just a sky full of electricity. I turned on the tv and the weather guys were on and tracking the storm. It passed by rather quickly because the storms was traveling at 60mph. It was over us for only about 30 minutes. During that time, my weather machine counted 149 lightening strikes. The weather guys said that there were some power outages around in our area but we didn’t lose power. Even if we had, my generator would have kicked in immediately so it would have been no big deal. 

I went for my MRI yesterday. It basically showed that I have a couple of bulging discs and a never pinched somewhere. I’m waiting for the “official word” from my doctor as to what they are going to do about it. In the meantime, I’ll just keep using the cane for support and hope not to fall. The last time II had a severely pinch nerve I had to go to a neurosurgeon and have a minor surgical procedure done to “dig it out” (a lot worse sounding than it really was) and I haven’t had any more problem in that area. That may be what they will do again. I don’t know. 

My yard crew got finished up yesterday morning and the place looks fantastic. I took a bunch of pictures but I have yet to figure out how to put photos in my blog. I have tried numerous times in the past but it never works. Maybe it can’t be done. I don’t know. I guess I could google it. Maybe there is a smart person out there that knows the answer. 

So today I need to go to the churches and run my bulletins for Sunday. Tomorrow I have a funeral to do so that ties up that day. I’m hoping the sun will come out shortly before I go. 

That’s about all I have for this morning. I hope you have a great day. Stay safe and stay in touch with God. 

Peace. 

 It would be silly to think that every day is going to be a bright sunny day. It would also be a desert if it were I suppose. But today is a damp and cloudy morning with just a hint of rain/moisture in the air. That has not stopped this great landscape crew that is working in my yard one iota. They have been out there for an hour already hauling and spreading mulch, and resetting brick pavers. They spent a solid eight hours out there yesterday clearing out all of the leaves and cutting back trees and bushes. I have told you that the place had gotten out of control and beyond my ability to fix. For instance, most people that have Fire Bushes in their yard keep them trimmed back to around five or six feet, My row of them was closer to 15 feet high. My lilac bush had grown above the roof and only bloomed at the top because the trees shaded it so much. The perimeter of the yard had been untouched for two years and the leaves were there just rotting. These guys, a crew of I think six, cut back and cleaned up and hauled literally two dump truck loads of stuff. And I take relatively good care of my yard and work in it a lot as you know. Amazing. I can’t believe how different my yard looks this morning\. It literally looks twice as big. So this morning, they are spreading the last of four cubic yards of mulch and finishing up the job. If you are living in my area, and you are looking for a great yard crew —— hire PMG Landscaping for sure. 

I went to see my doctor yesterday about my sciatic nerve problem. He of course gave me a shot in my rump, but he also has me scheduled for a MRI this morning to try to find out where the nerve is pinched. He said his concern is that I will start falling. That’s not something that I want to do either. We seniors seems to do that a lot and then we get new hips and new joints here and there. Not part of the “golden Years” that I want a part of. 

I lost a friend yesterday Sunday. She was 93 and I have known her since I was five years old. She and her husband were members of my home church. She had been my Sunday school teacher a couple of times and she and her husband had been our Youth Fellowship leaders when I was a young pup. They were just fun adults at a time when other adults were not fun. As her pastor for a couple of years I used to go for parishioner visits with her. My half hour visits usually turned into a couple of hours because we would ll get to talking. She was deeply in love with the Lord and I loved to hear her talk about her relationship with Jesus Christ. II did her husbands funeral back in 2016. They are reunited once again. They had been married for 67 years, now they are together for eternity. Love wins again. 

I better get ready for my MRI. Have a great day. Stop and say good morning to God if you haven’t already. Peace. 

 Happy Monday, welcome to another week of 2023. I hope your weekend was relaxing and full of joy. Did you take time to get to your local house of worship? I hope so. There is no better way to end a week or start a new one, depending on how you count your days, than to start it or end or maybe start it and end it with a good conversation with God. 

We didn’t do much of anything this weekend. I did get to the grocery store to pick up some necessary item. The milk had gone bad and Ms.Kate was out of half and half so that meant we had to go for sure.  Can’t be running out of creamer to ruin her coffee, ya’ know. And without milk, —- well how would you eat your midnight cereal snack? But that was the highlight of the day which tells you everything you want to know about our exciting life around here. 

Yesterday was of course church day. We had the 0900 and the 10:30 and then we had our winter congregational meeting at St. Lucas. Next Sunday we do it all over again at St. Paul’s. The meetings don’t take very long as long as they are kept moving. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. People. Will sit and wait for someone to say something or they will “him and haww” with their thoughts and it seems to take forever. And often, by the end of the meeting, nothing has really been decided at all and stuff gets tabled or the can gets kicked down the road. They are certainly not conducted in the military fashion at all. It’s why I call it operating “at church speed”. And, it isn’t just my two churches that operate this way, I think most of them do. Thank goodness each of my two churches has a small church council. Our councils only have five members each and we have zero “committees”. My home church has a twelve person council and more committees than they know what to do with, and it has always been that way. The silly thing is that when the council president goes around the table asking for reports, most of them say, “nothing to report.” So —- why have a committee??? Civilians are just hard to figure out. LOLOL

I was up way too early today. We have a landscape crew coming today to clean up my back yard and get it “spring ready”. This is the same crew we had a couple months ago that did such a fantastic job on my front yard. For that job, they arrived at 0700, so I expected the same thing today. We’ll I was up and drinking my first cup of coffee by 0640 and it is now 0800 and no one has arrived. I guess it is understandable, it was barely light at 0700 and still pretty nippy outside. But, they will be here eventually. I’m sure of that. And when they do get here, they will go straight to work. They are a good crew and and they are hard workers. 

Tomorrow I go see my doctor about my sciatic nerve problem. Hope to get a fix on this problem 

That’s it for today. Have a wonderful week. Count your blessings and then share them with someone. 

Peace. 

 Another bright and shiny day — can I stand it?? It’s starting to look an awful lot like spring out there and yet I know we only are one third of the way through winter. Did I tell you that I actually have a couple of my daffodils pushing their noses through the ground?  I was shocked. I guess I should not have been surprised, The wild onions have already come up. I had hope that we had killed them out but nope! There is no killing them. 

I did get out and do some visitation yesterday. I had some good conversation with some of our senior parishioners. I always enjoy that. I learn about family histories, I learn about what they think about whatever is going on in the church, the community and the world. I try to never over-stay my welcome when I go. 30 minutes to an hour is what I try to limit my visit to. I always close my visit with a prayer and it does me good and it does them good. It’s a win-win all the way around. I generally \go visit folks once a month. I think that is enough. 

I need to put together my shopping list together and go “see my peeps” at the local Walmart market. Kate was going to have milk last night but it had turned. Then this morning she ran out of half and half for her coffee. That make the trip an emergency. LOL. I also need to throw my butane canister in the trunk and get it filled. I have two  and have been working on the “extra” can for some time now. I don’t want to get in the middle of a grilling session and the flames run out. Spring and grilling weather is on the horizon. In fact, I may throw some burgers on the grill yet this afternoon. I can fill a couple of the bird feeders while I’m grilling.

So, having said all of that, it is time to get busy. Tomorrow is the Sabbath. Please take the time to go to your house of worship and join other in giving God praise for bringing you through the week. Peace. 

 Just how I wanted to start my new day: —- my phone giving me “fraud -alert” messages from my credit card company. grump, grump, grump!  

I just yesterday got a replacement card from my company because I did have a fraudulent charge last month. I only use one card and that is from USAA, my insurance company. I’ve been with them for 49 years now and they are a great company with which to do business. They address me by “Colonel”, my retired rank, and everything is “yes sir” and “no sir”, which I truly appreciate. There are certain things that I pay automatically with that card. 

Anyway —- last month someone used my number to try to make a purchase and USAA caught it immediately which is great. What that means however, is that they put a block on your card, contact you about the purchase attempt and verify whether you made it or not. I told them “no” so they immediately make that card invalid and they send you a new card. I received that new card yesterday and last night I enabled the card through them. This morning I had a new fraud alert on my phone and I get a call from USAA wanting to verify a new purchase. I knew I had not made any new purchases last evening. 

Well, the lady on the other end of the line was a jewel to work with; they always are at USAA. We finally figured out that some of my automatic payments had been held up due to the old card being stopped, and when I put my new card into their systems, it automatically processed those “purchases”. So, —- all is good again. It just took an hour of my morning to get it all straightened out. I know most of you that read this can’t use USAA because it is for military personal and their families only. But they are a fantastic member owned company. So much for my commercial announcement today. 

Another morning of sunshine!! How wonderful is that? It is currently 41 degrees outside which doesn’t make me mad. As long as the wind isn’t blowing too hard, that is an acceptable “long-sleeve” temperature. I never did get out yesterday to do any more visitation. I got wrapped up in writing. So, today I think I will go see a couple of people. I could just call them I guess but face to face is better when it is possible. These days, I never know for sure whether to go or not because the COVID virus is still very much alive and well and now has some new buddies like “flu” and “RSV” running around with it causing havoc for people and hospitals. One never knows whether that will be allowed in a facility or whether I have to wear a mask. Although, most places have forgone the mask routine with the exception of doctor’s offices and hospitals. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Of course , if a person isn’t comfortable without a mask, they can always wear one in for their own protection. We still have one or two people that wear a mask at church routinely and we still have the masks and hand sanitizer available to anyone that wants it. 

What are your weekend plans? Going anywhere fun? Of course, Ms. Kate and I will be at home; —- we’re always at home. I think Saturday the forecasters are talking intermittent showers which is never fun to get out in. It used to be that I didn’t mind it but age does change mentality and we get more cautious about running around and driving around out in inclement weather. I know my reaction times have decreased for sure. 

Time to drop off for today. Perhaps I’ll see you tomorrow. Peace. 

 It seems like it has been a long time since I got up and saw sunshine coming through my windows. I suspect it hasn’t ben as long as I imagine it but this has been a gloomy winter so far hasn’t it? It seems it has rained forever and then we had the polar vortex come through and freeze our rear ends off. Luckily, here in southern Indiana we didn’t get near the snow much of the nation got. I can’t imagine what a person does when they start measuring their snowfall in feet. But, we have a sunny, 46 degree morning and it looks like the wind is minimal. It won’t be bad when I head out a little later to do parishioner visitation. 

I went to the churches yesterday and ran the bulletins for the coming Sunday and put everything in place for the service. The churches still have their Christmas trees up. Which is fine. I think St. Paul’s will take their’s down this Sunday after church. St. Lucas may wait another week because this week they have their winter congregational meeting after church and I suspect the meeting is going to go long. They have some issues to discuss concerning their constitution that will require discussion. That all comes about because they are also needing to discuss how they are going to go about finding a replacement for me. If you had not been told, I am officially retiring as of December 31st 2023. Their current constitution restricts them to  hiring only a United Church of Christ pastor. And what is worse is that they have a clause in their constitution that was written 50 years ago that says that particular clause can never be changed. I mean, who approves something like that, that let’s the cemetery control the destiny of the church?? The denomination has changed drastically since that was approved and the direction of the denomination is not the direction that this current congregation wants to go. So, it will be interesting to see how they go about solving this issue. I have not checked St. Paul’s constitution yet to see if they have a like clause. I need to do that. Well, actually they need to do that. I can have no part of this process. I’m not a member of the congregation and have no voting power and by “the rules” I should not even be giving any input; not that rules have been a big blocking point to my thoughts on a given subject before. LOL

I need to go out and fill some bird feeders today. But, I’m only going to do that if the back yard isn’t too sloppy from the rain. I have to get up on my ladder for a couple of them and I don’t relish getting on a sinking ladder. They have quite a bit of food out there now but some of the favorites are empty, of course. The black-oil sunflower seed feeders are mostly empty, thank you very much you fuzzy-tailed rats! It isn’t the birds that clean those out, it’s the dang squirrels. I was out the other day and happened to look at all of the trees that lined our neighborhood and every tree has a minimum of one squirrel nest in it. No wonder we are over run with them. They have a whole community residing thirty feet above our heads and the trees are a natural highway for them. If a fella was in to eating “squirrel stew” he could live well for a while. I’ve eaten squirrel when I was a kid. My dad would take me squirrel hunting in our woods. We’d get a couple and bring them back to the house and skin them. Then my mom would begrudgingly fry them. I don’t remember much about whether I liked it or not. I know my mother hated cooking them.

Okay, that’s enough for today. I pray you have a blessed day and that you have sunshine in your life and in your heart. Always remember that no matter what is going on in your life, God walks besides you to give you strength. 

Peace 

 Good morning! Yes, I am alive and well, and it is good to be back to the sunporch. I have had several questions about my blog in the recent days; “where can I find it”, “are you still writing it”, “how come I can’t find it anymore” — that kind of thing. The truth is that I just had to step away from it because I was finding it very mundane and boring. It seemed that nothing I was writing was of any value to anyone and therefore a waste of people’s time. But — I also found that I missed writing it. So, I’m giving it another go. I promise nothing with it, except to write whatever falls out of my brain, which may or may not be of interest to anyone, including me. 

To say I’m back to the sunporch is a bit of a mis-direction. It’s still too cool to sit out there very much. The sunporch is not heated nor cooled and Ms. Kate doesn’t like for me to leave the doors open and let the ambient air and temperature from out there into the house where she happens to be sitting, already with her lap blanket on. But, the sunporch is the best place to sit and watch my birds and I miss doing that. I’m still feeding them and will occasionally throw on a sweatshirt and grab a lap-robe and go watch them. I find sitting there watching them to be very calming and gives me a direct contact opportunity with the great Creator and Sustainer of our universe. I figure if God cares so much about them I’m in good company. 

And here we are in the year 2023. This year I will turn 79, and I am in awe of that. Not only will I turn 79, but all things considered, I’m in great shape with no reasons at all to think that I don’t have a lot of years left in this life. True enough, I suffer from the routine things that most people go through as they advance in age. I’m slower than I want to be and I’m physically weaker than I used to be. But your see, I know know who is to blame for all of that too. I’ve gotten lazy and have reduced my activity level exponentially. When you do that, you cause your own demise and it is hard, or maybe even impossible to get back to levels that you once had. What am I going to do about it? —— most likely not a dang thing. I’m loving my simple sedentary life. I will keep doing stuff to keep the joints moving. But, I’m having problems with my sciatic nerve in my lower back and it probably is a result of residue from my fall down my basement steps back in 2019. I had a compression fracture my my L2,L3 at that time and was told that it would give me grief later in life. So, now when I have a flare up, (which seems to be more frequent) I grab my cane to get around and call my doctor who either will prescribe some prednisone tablets for a week or have me come in and give me a shot in the hip. I hate those because they hurt and raise a knot on my butt. 

I’m still working, and I’m still enjoying it. I’ll be talking more about that as we begin our daily chats once again. In the meantime, it is good to be back with you. I hope each of you have had a wonderful and blessed Christmas holiday season and that each and everyone of you will have a gloriously blessed 2023. 

Until next time.