It’s going to be a beautiful day —- unless the wind blows the sun away! Last night it blew pretty hard and the rain came down pretty hard for a little bit. But now, it’s 69 degrees and the sun is shining again. So, who knows what the day will end up to be. But, 69 degrees in February is not always a healthy situation. News reports this morning show major damage across mid America from tornadoes and storms last night and this morning already. So far, there are no reports of deaths. Thank you Lord. 

We had good attendance at the church services yesterday and the service went well. Brenda, our organist at St. Lucas did a version of “Room at the Cross” yesterday for an Prelude and it was beautifully done. 

Yesterday was the 57th anniversary of our wedding. We got so very many well wishes and congratulations; it was really heart-warming. Fifty-seven is a good number, but as I told my sister-in-law, sixty sounds so much better, so we’re gong to keep on — keeping on, and try to make sixty a minimum. 

Ms. Kate and I have a busy week this week that we hoped we would never have. Tomorrow she has her initial meeting with her oncologist to talk about her breast cancer. Then Friday, we meet with the surgical team to discuss a plan and options. We think we have caught this thing early enough that the surgery will be minimum (if there is such a thing) and maybe radiation following that. But, that is only preliminary guessing and talking to our family doctor, Dr. Jackson. But, he has hooked us up with great doctors. They are the team that took care of his wife’s breast cancer. And Kate was talking with the women at church yesterday and two of them had had the same surgeon and loved him. So, I think it will work out fine. I ask that you keep us in your prayers. Kate and I certainly have a desired outcome but —- we are prepared for whatever God’s will for us is. 

I guess that is enough for news for the day. I pray your new week goes well. Only one more day of February and then off we go to march into March!  Peace. 

 A blessed Saturday to you! The coffee is good, the sun is hiding behind the clouds and it is a chilly 42 degrees at the moment. A little bit of sunshine could help with that. 

But it is a good morning because we got our taxes finished yesterday and have gotten notification that they have been accepted at both the federal and state level. This morning I have to physically mail my Illinois return because I’m a non-resident but recited my “cash-rent” check from my property over there. I absolutely loathe doing taxes. Even though we use Turbo Tax to do them, there is always something to frustrate me about it. But, I “beat their goal time” for doing them. They have a goal time of five and a half hours to finish them and I beat that by ninety minutes, albeit not without a few inappropriate phrases. But they are done for another year. And, we got them done two weeks earlier than last year. 

So today we will take a relaxing day for the most part. I have to go to the church and so some stuff but that  won’t take too long and it is peaceful and quiet with no frustration. Then maybe I’ll come home and watch a little tv or take a nap. 

Tomorrow is our 57th wedding anniversary! How wonderful is that? We have grown old together and I am so very grateful to God for that. We’ve had so many adventures and wonderful life experiences together. I can’t imagine having made this trip with anyone else. I pray that God will allow us to continue this journey for a few more years. 

That’s it for today. It is a weekend and tomorrow is the Sabbath. “Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.” Peace. 

 Good morning on this Thursday, the second day of Lent. I hope you had a chance to get your house of worship last night. Does your particular church celebrate the Lenten season? Some don’t, and I was surprised by that. I thought all Christian churches celebrated Lent. I know that not all Christian churches celebrate the “Imposition of Ashes” as part of their services. It was mainly considered a “Catholic thing” when I was a kid. The Catholic kids that rode the school bus would have the cross of ash on their forehead when they got on the bus on the way one from school. I’m not sure when the practice began to catch on with the Protestants. But, it is called Ash Wednesday for a reason isn’t it??

We had a good attendance at our service last evening. I was worried because it was raining fairly hard for an hour before the service and when the service started. But, the church was mostly full. We did altar communion along with the ashes. My two confirmands did a fine job with their part of the service. They served as liturgists and they also helped serve communion. Last night we used the Statement of Faith that they wrote. I think they we’re proud of their work; and they should be. It was well written. 

I think today we are going to take it rather easy here at home. I do have a couple of things that I need to work on for work and I need to go get a key made. We got to the church last night and I didn’t have a key to get in. Our car doesn’t use a key to start it, only a key fob. As long as either one of has a key fob, the car will run. I have the keys to the church on my key fob ring but forgot to bring it and since the car started and ran, I didn’t think an anything about it until we got to the church. Luckily, the president of the council has a key and lives next door; —- and was home. So, she came over and let us in. So, I’m going to take my key and have one made and put it in the side pocket of the car door so I always have a spare. This isn’t the first time I have done this. It’s a fifty mile round trip to go back home and get my key. 

We need to get started on our taxes. I loathe doing taxes. I think I have everything I need to get them done but it makes my stomach queasy to do them because I’m always afraid that I’ll make a mistake and they won’t get accepted or worse yet, they decide to audit me. I’ve never had a problem and we use Turbo Tax which really thorough and pretty much fool proof. But until, I see that “accepted” message, I worry. It usually take five hours for us to do them. 

That’s my story for today. Have a good week. Peace. 

 Good morning and a blessed Ash Wednesday to you. Assuming my readers are Christian of course, I hope you are planning to attend an Ash Wednesday service sometime today. Kari, the lady that cleans our house every couple of weeks asked to leave early today so she could make it to Mass. Of course I said “yes”. We are doing a combined parish service this evening at 7:00 pm. It is supposed to rain and storm today but I hope it is all gone before we have to be there. We’ll be doing Holy Communion and the Imposition of Ashes. It is a service that I really enjoy. I have my two Confirmation students that will be conducting a majority of the service and helping with communion. 

We found a new pie place yesterday on the west side of Evansville. It is called “Be Happy Pie Company”. Some friends from church told us about it and bragged on their pies. So we searched for it and found it yesterday. I bought a 10” Cherry Crumb pie and we tried it last night. It did not disappoint. They have homemade crusts and it wasn’t filled with cherry pie filling. Really tasty. 

I’ve been busy trying to narrow down a place for us for our vacation. We going to the Texas Hill Country for a few days and I have been searching the VRBO website for a place that will hold five of us. Karen is going with us and Heather and John will will join us there. Last night I found a place and reserved it. From there we are going to San Antonio for a couple of night. Karen has never been there and we want hr to experience a city that we have been to so many times for the Air Force. From there, I have no idea where we will go. I’m taking two full weeks of vacation. We might drive I-10 from San Antonio and go to either New Orleans or Biloxi or both.  New Orleans is only 90 minutes from Biloxi. Two weeks is a long vacation for us. 

Time for me to get busy. Have a great day. May God bring peace to your soul. 

 Good morning! Another week another funeral. This time I was only an attendee and not conducting it. We lost a member of my home church. He was eleven years my senior so I didn’t know him well, but I do know he seldom missed a Sunday; always sat in the same spot. (I wonder why people do that? I do it too.) I have tried unsuccessfully to get people to move forward, especially when the attendance is light, but folks will still hug their back row seats. It’s become humorous by this time. 

After the funeral I went by Walmart Neighborhood Market and picked up a few things that were on the list. I do almost all of the grocery shopping and most often go to this Walmart. By now I know where things are at least supposed to be. I get aggravated when they do a swap around with stuff. If I have something on my list that I can’t find, I always just ask one of the employees that are picking up stuff for on-line shoppers. It works pretty well. I don’t do too bad with the self check-out although I really don’t like to do that. I only had 18 items yesterday so it didn’t take too long. They did have one cashier that would check you out but it had a line of people that really needed help because of wheelchairs etc. 

Today, Ms. Kate has a hair appointment to get her hair cut at 11:30. I drive her everywhere she goes so if I’m going to drive her and sit and wait the half an hour —- she has to buy me breakfast!! There is a price to be paid for the chauffeur. LOL

My job today is to get some writing done. I worked really late last night putting together worship service for the month of March. I need to go ahead and work on my Palm Sunday, Easter Sunrise, and Easter Sunday services too. Then I can concentrate on writing the sermons. With my vacation coming up, as you know it always puts me in a rush mode if I don’t plan ahead. So, better to work a few extra hours and not stress about the work I have to do. After Easter, things will calm way down as far as work is concerned. But we have other issues floating round that are going to be requiring some of our time. More about that some other time. 

This morning the “811” Call before you dig fellow was here. I’m having a section of my fence replaced and a new gate put in so I can drive my John Deere to and from the back yard. I knew it was supposed to be done soon so I reckon the contractor is getting ready to do the job. I’ll be glad to have that done because I’ve needed to do it for several years. 

Time to clean up and put my chauffeur uniform on. Have a great day. May God bring peace to your heart. 

 Don’t you love a sunny Saturday?? It’s late in the day by now but we had a busy morning. But the sky has been cloud free all day and the thermometer has climbed nicely from 30 degrees this morning to maybe 50 degrees now. 

We haven’t had any big things today but had some running around to do and errands to accomplish. We went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription for Ms. Kate. Seems like we are always going to Walgreens for a prescription pickup. I guess that is because we get most of our meds through Express Scripts via mail and we get 90 days worth at a time. Walgreens gives her 30 days at a time. (I wonder if that can be changed??) But, it isn’t but a couple of miles so it isn’t a big deal. 

Next we had to go to the USPS and drop off a package. This particular package mailing is only about a year and a half in the making. A year and a half ago we had a military reunion and I ended up with the unit “flag”. I was supposed to write a history of it and we were going to try to donate it to the USAF Security Police Museum. It wasn’t a high priority but it was now on my “list” of things to do. I eventually got the history written and approved by the members of the unit. One of the other members was going to make contact with the museum and determine their interest in have the item. She did — they were — and the flag sat on my shelf.  I finally reached out to the right people at the museum about it, I sent them picture of the flag and the description and we waited for a reply. And we waited for a reply. And we waited for a reply;  Finally — after more contacts to the museum we were told that they are going to accept it. So, today, it went in the mail and off of my list. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have that thing gone. I did not want to be the guy that failed to take action, and someone finds the flag still sitting on my bookcase after I’m dead and they would be wondering what the heck it was and throw it in the trash. 

After the USPS I had to take Ms Kate to Ulta for some cosmetic stuff. She claims she told me she wanted to go a month ago, I don’t know —- I was busy worrying about a flag! LOLOLOL. Anyway, we went and she got what she needed.

Next we went to Nelllie’s Restaurant up in Newburgh for brunch. We met Kate’s sister  Karen there and had a great lunch and visit. By the time we finished we were crowding up against nap time so we came on home and got back on schedule. 

I know you are reading this and thinking that you wish you could lead the exciting life we do, but —- ya’ gotta get old first. Have a great weekend. Don’t forget to visit your house of worship. Peace. 

 Happy Friday, — happy end of the work week. I hope your week has gone well and that you are happy with your work. Being happy with what we do is so very important. If we are happy, we work better, we get along with people better, we work as a team more efficiently, and our mental health is so much improved. As a military commander, I spent a lot of my time out of the office and out in the field with my people. I don’t know what other services do when they “aren’t at war” but in the Air Force, everyone has a job and 99% of those jobs are civilian relatable. My AFSC or “career speciality was Law Enforcement and Security. I started off at the absolute bottom of the enlisted tier as a guard, walking around aircraft and guarding entry gates keeping our USAF resources secure. I did that for four years and had the opportunity to work with some really great people in a specialized unit for my last year as an enlisted man. After I got out, I went to work here in Evansville at Whirlpool Corp and again, I enjoyed the work but realized quickly that I was making the same pay as the guy next to me who had been there for 25 years, so I went to college and got my Bachelor’s degree and returned to the Air Force, this time as an Officer, —- and also returned to my Career field, this time leading folks that were doing the job I had done as an Airman. I loved my job, I loved being in the Air Force, and I loved being a leader, and rose to the top of my profession, retiring as a Colonel. 

I attribute that success to the fact that I was always (well almost) happy with my job, my assignments, they people that I was lead by, and the people that I was fortunate enough to lead. It was a good 32 year career and life for me and my family. I was fully blessed by God. 

My second career and life is also a full blessing from God. In 2002, I began my studies to become a lay/licensed minister for the United Church of Christ. I know I could certainly have gone on to Seminary and gotten my Master of Divinity degree and gotten ordained but after dragging Ms. Kate around the world for all of those years, I was not going to ask her to put up with me going off to Seminary for another  three years. And being a Lay pastor has been everything I could have hoped for. I have been blessed to be able to preach the Gospel for almost 20 years. I have been surrounded and welcomed by three wonderful congregations and we have created blessed Faith Families over these past twenty years. 

Be happy in your work! No matter what that job might be, find the million ways to look at it as a blessing. God did not put you on this earth to be aa grump and make life miserable for yourself and others. You know, on this cold and somewhat dreary morning it would be easy to make it a frumpy day, but —- I looked out my window and my neighbor’s daffodils are blooming. I’m happy. 

Peace. 

 A blessed “good morning” to you today. It was already 55 degrees when I got up this morning. That sounds wonderful and in fact today is supposed to be a really great weather day —- until it isn’t, which will be tonight sometime when the rain and the heavy winds come through once again. Then I guess tomorrow we will have to really batten down the hatches to keep stuff from blowing away. Late winter/early spring is such a roller coaster here in southern Indiana. Tomorrow could go as high as 70 and then Friday we are predicted to have mid-30’s. 

My schedule has filled rapidly today. We have a Sam’s order to pick up at 1:30, then I have to get up to the churches and run my bulletins. I have a confirmation class at 4:30 and then choir practice at 6:30. Sometime in there, I need to get a haircut because I’m getting “shaggy” again. I thought “old guys” lost their hair —- mine seems to grow faster. But, at least the Barber shop I go to is open on Wednesday. So many are not. And, they do an “okay” job. 

I finished up everything for this Sunday and for Ash Wednesday services last night. I need to get started on the service for the 26th but I don’t have time to do that today; — maybe tomorrow. Ms. Kate has a MRI first thing in the morning but I think that is the only thing on our schedule. You do realize that all of this is messing with nap time, don’t you??

I think I told you that I needed to get a new keyboard for my iPad. The old one was starting to “double type” certain letters. Well, I had what I thought was the box from the old one but lo and behold, it had a new keyboard in it. So, I’m good for now. I’m still going to get a new one because this is just the keyboard and does not have a protective case for my device. I think I can get one through Amazon in a couple of days. Or, maybe I could stop by Staples today while I’m running around like crazy today. 

Time to get to work. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 February 14th, Valentine’s Day! Cue the wildly over priced candy and roses and cards. It’s a fun tradition I guess but you know it’s also a social experiment in panic and terror for young men and boys. “What if she doesn’t like it?  What if she doesn’t think it is enough? What if it is too much? What if she thinks I’m a nerd?” Pressure, pressure pressure. And you know what —- it doesn’t get any easier for a long time. I wonder if women go trough the same angst??? I don’t know if kids are still allowed to give out valentine cards at school or not. I remember those days where you had to make sure you had a valentine card for every child in the class; boys and girls. So, parents would buy the “variety pack” of 30 or 40 cards and you’d spend time printing your name on them. It was indoctrination into the social mores of the day. The traditions were extended even into the Sunday school classroom where we would makes hearts and cards for our mom and give them to her hoping it would find a place of honor on the refrigerator at least for a few days. 

Eventually, we “grow-up”. What a shame. But we get to the point where we learn that “stuff” isn’t the fabric of love at all. It’s not good for the merchant, but it is great for the world. A gentle touch, a kiss here and there, holding hands, doing for each other become the elegances of love. This morning I fixed Ms. Kate a bagel for breakfast like I frequently do, but today I cut it into the shape of a heart. And her Valentine Day card came from “BlueMountain.com”. We might be old farts but we can still be silly and playful. 

I did my parishioner visitation yesterday. At the moment, I only have one in a nursing home which is a great thing. But he was doing well. He gets a lot of company from the family. In just my short visit, one of his daughters came by to see him and one of his grandchildren came to see him. I am so glad to see that. He’s going to celebrate his 91st birthday this coming weekend and appears to be in good health. I’m convinced that all of the love in the family keeps his spirits up and that affects his over all health. Love does make the world go around. 

I have writing to do today so I’m dropping off. I think I’m going to have to get a new keyboard for my iPad. I’ve had this one for quite awhile and it is starting to double type a lot of letters and I have to go back and make corrections. It aggravating. 

Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 I am fully aware that I’m in no position to “grade” God on anything but let me tell you, today’s weather is a big ole’ TEN! Brilliant sunshine, no clouds, 34 degrees but no wind; —- Ya’ done real good God. Thank you. 

February 11th, it’s almost the middle of another month. I think this year is going to go pretty quickly. At least it seems that way as I look at the Lenten season and the Easter Season coming up. We have a Amanda and Bryan’s wedding in about five weeks and I still have things to do for that. Confirmation class is still going on but the boys will be finishing that up as of Maundy Thursday. We planned the Ash Wednesday service this last Wednesday because it is coming up in ten days. But —- once Easter is over, and the extra services are done, and the vacation is over —- time will slow down. Shortly after that we will be starting our three or four months of Combined worship services. What am I going to do without all of the suspenses to work against. I’ll probably lose track of what day it is. That’s what happened the last time “I retired”. 

I was thinking about that the other night — what will I do with my time. Well, as I have told you, I have a lot of books to read and or re-read but that can get old and boring fairly quickly. I have my birds to feed; —- that never goes away. I always have weeds and yard and garden to care for as long as I am able;  but I think I need something else. I may decide to do some volunteer work. I did a day at the Tri-State Food Bank and I enjoyed that, and I’m sure there are other places that can use help. I also used to do a lot of wood-working and I still have all of my equipment. I’ve forgotten how to use half of it, I’ve even forgotten what some of it does. But, I could give that a try again. The problem is that I have no place to put anything that I could build and my kids don’t need me to build them anything either. And —- my last brilliant idea is that I could do some serious writing. My mentor and friend Art Christmas is trying to convince me to write a book because he says I have had the most interesting life story and should share it. I don’t know about that but, I could at least write something for my kids so they would have some family history. We’ll just have to see what life brings after December of this year. Maybe I’ll just take long naps and make a lot of pots of coffee. 

With that thought in mind —- I bid you Peace. 

 Today is a much calmer day than yesterday. It’s cooler but the wind that blew this cold front in has passed. We could use some sunshine though. But —- we take what we get. 

I don’t know if you have been following the news about the earthquake in Turkey and Syria or not but last night the news channel reported 21,000 people have been killed by that earthquake. 21,000 — how horrible is that? The video footage is horrible to watch and I can’t imagine being there on location. I spent a year plus in Turkey as Commander of a unit and it was one of my better assignments. Being away from Ms. Kate for that year wasn’t fun but the assignment itself was great. The location was way out in the middle of nowhere. The closest town was Malatya and it was I think nine miles from the base. The hills surrounding the base were “short-grass” covered and rocky. It was good for sheep to graze on and that was predominantly what people did for a living anywhere around the base. Houses were mostly made of wood and mud, or so it seemed. The absence of trees made the hills appear to be barren and I could just imagine the Apostle Paul walking along the sheep paths on his way to Greece. This area was part of the area Paul in fact traveled through. 

I loved dealing with the Turkish people. I found them to be very genuine and they were honest extremely hard working people. One of my people lost his billfold in town and a Turk found it, and came the nine miles to the base to return it to him. Everything was still in it and the man refused to take a reward for his effort. I loved the Turkish food and I loved the Turkish hospitality. Being the base Commander, I was invited to a local resident’s home for a meal one evening. It was an eleven course meal and went all night long. I was both stuffed and exhausted when I returned to the base. So — to hear about this terrible tragedy breaks my heart. I urge prayers for them. No, they are not Christian and most are Muslim, —- but they are God’s creation and God’s children. They are men and women and children with broken lives and broken hearts. 

Ms. Kate is doing fine since her biopsy as expected, and we are still of course waiting anxiously for the results. Patience is a virtue and sometimes I am not very virtuous. But, pacing and worry has no effect on some unknown doctor who takes these things one at a time. So, I will set it aside and wait like a good soldier who learned to “hurry up and wait” many years go. 

That’s it for this Friday. Have yourself a wonderful weekend. “Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy”. Those aren’t my words; — they came directly from God. Peace. 

 I am surprised that the wind hasn’t blown Thursday off of the calendar. I guess we are supposed to have high gusts (40-50 mph) all day, and it is blowing in colder weather. The temperature has dropped six degrees already this morning. So we started at 56 this morning and who knows, we could have snow by this evening. It is the typical “if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes” scenario. 

Yesterday was another busy day. Early (0800) Ms. Kate had another doctor appointment. She had to have a biopsy done. We will probably not get results until sometime mid-next week. The radiologist suspects cancer but the spot is small if that is what the spot is, and can be removed. But — we won’t borrow trouble and will just wait to see what they results are and of course send up prayers for good results. 

Besides the doctor, I had a meeting with a church member in the afternoon, then I had the bulletins to run for the churches, then I had Confirmation class to teach followed by choir practice at 1830. I was worn out by the time I got home a little after 2000. The fact that it was a blustery-rainy night didn’t help with the drive home either. It was almost like my daily life as a military commander. So, today, I’m going to just take it a bit easy and do some sermon work. The basement is a good place to be. I really enjoy my office and relaxing area down there. I won’t call it a man-cave. But, it is a good office and I have a nice couch and a couple of good chairs, my 65” tv, my Kuerig for coffee, a microwave for popcorn and a fireplace. What else does a fellow need. Oh, and a book case overflowing with just Stephen King novels, and two more bookcases full of my books I used for research for work. Ms. Kate says that if I had a bathroom down there she would never see me. I may need to buy another bookcase and put down there because I have that many books at the church that I need to bring home when I retire this coming December. I don’t know where I will put that. 

Time to quit. Have a great day. Peace. 

 I’m not sure how it got to be 3:15 pm already; but here we are and I’m just now getting down to jottings down a few notes for today. 

It has been a dreary day around here. It isn’t cold, per se, but it is chilly and damp. It has kind of sprinkled on and off all day and the temperature is hovering in the low 50’s. We’re totally cloud covered so that keeps the sunshine warmth out. I guess it is one of those days where just sitting in front of the fireplace with a blanket and a book, and a cup of coffee or maybe even a glass of wine would seem ideal. But — II got no time for that now. 

Ms. Kate had two doctor appointments this morning. They were in the same building and one followed the other pretty well. Because we were at Deaconess Hospital Mid-Town, I generally drop her off and and go try to find a place to park. It isn’t easy to find a place because that facility is always busy. When she is done, she calls me and I pull back around and pick her up. So today, I asked her as we were arriving if she had her phone —- and no she didn’t. I gave her mine and said I would go back home and get hers, which is what I did. It’s only five and a half miles from my front door to the hospital and isn’t a big deal most of the time. On the way back I stopped at Donut Bank and picked up a half dozen “tiger-tails” for later on snacking. I goto back to the hospital and the lot was still was still parked full so I went into the parking garage and had to go all the way to the 5th floor to find a spot. Her appointments took almost two hours, but she eventually called and I went to pick her up. 

When we have morning appointments, I like to go eat somewhere afterwards and today we went to the Cross-Eyed Cricket on the west side of town. If you are from around Evansville and are looking for a place to get a really good “home-style” meal, I highly recommend this place. It had been there forever it seems. Back when we were youngsters, it was called Muhlbauers Restaurant. It was a set up as a cafeteria type of place and the food was “good”, not great, but had a steady clientele of \customers from the Mead Johnson Plant across the street and from workers from other local businesses. Kate used to go over. And pick up lunch there when she was working as a secretary just a couple blocks away. The old folks who ran it eventually passed away or just sold it , I don’t know which, but new folks bought it and it still remained “ok”.  I don’t know when everything changed because we were gone from Evansville for 32 years with the Air Force, but the place has totally changed. They got rid of the cafeteria and are serving standard restaurant sit down order off a menu meals and they are so good. —- That’s my commercial for the day.

We came home, grabbed a quick nap and now I’m headed to the basement and my office and I have to get busy working on my service for the 19th of February and the Ash Wednesday service for the 22nd. February will be over before we know it and I have to get ahead because we are talking a week of vacation in March. 

That’s it for today. We have a lot of rain coming in the next two days so stay dry. Also stay in touch with God. God loves to hear from you. Peace. 

 Wow!! Happy brand new week! Just look at that sunshine out there and my thermometer says 50 degrees. That’s a great start to the day. 

I am scouring my computer, well, actually my iPad trying to lay out a vacation for Ms. kate and me. II don’t want to be a braggart by any means but frankly, as much as we have traveled, we are running out of places that we actually want to see, or worse yet; —— are still able to get around in. There are many destinations that we could go but just aren’t on our radar. I wouldn’t want to go to many places like New York City, or Chicago; too much traffic and I don’t feel they are safe. My daughter Heather and her hubby John love, love, love NYC. They go and they rent an apartment with some friends for aa week and the walk all over the place. Ms. Kate and I are many years past that ability. But — I have five weeks of vacation a year from my churches and we seldom ever use them all. For 2022 I think maybe we used three and for 2021 maybe three, I’m not sure. I just know we end up not taking them and a lot of that has to do with the church calendar year, up coming weddings etc. but this year, being my last year, I want to try to take them all; —- call it practice retirement, or “what do you do with yourself when you don’t have to be working?”

We were looking at going to Custer State Park in South Dakota for the annual Buffalo Roundup. It is always the last Friday of September but we have ruled that out because all of the lodging around there is already booked. And —- as much fun as that is to do, there isn’t a lot of restaurants around there and we have not only done the round up, we’ve done Custer, and Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons several times. 

We settled, I think on Fredericksburg Texas. We visited there one time several years ago and it was a lovely place to go. It is in the Texas Hill Country and is a German/Bavarian type community. The scenery is beautiful, and the food is a good combination of German food, Texas ranch type food, and Mexican food. There are lots of wineries around there and I think it is going to be fun. We’ve invited Heather & John, Steph & Chris to join us and I think we’ll also take Kate’s sister Karen with us. I began my early search and there are a lot of vacation homes in the area to rent and the prices are very reasonable. So, I’m going to go for it. I’ll let you know if it is going to work out. 

We had good worship services yesterday although I don’t know what took so many people out. The congregation was small at both services. Some Sundays are like that though. It will get worse I suppose as the weather starts to get a little better and then planting season will be coming along just after Easter. That’s life in a rural community. 

Times for me to move on to other stuff for today. Have a blessed week. I wish you peace. 

 Saturday morning! Good on us, we made it through a tough week didn’t we. Cold weather, iced in and couldn’t get anywhere. I find it hard to believe that we still have a lot of that frozen sleet on the ground out there. I would have though that the sun would have melted it yesterday but it’s still there anywhere that is covered with a little shade. I went to Subway yesterday and was surprised at how much ice was still on the pavement one the side of the building that gets very little sun, and there was nothing anywhere else. 

This morning I’m going to have French Toast Casserole for breakfast. Ms. Kate made a couple some time ago and we put one in the freezer. I decided yesterday to get it back out, thaw it out and eat it. It is as good as it was when we put it in there. We have a bad habit of putting stuff in the freezer “for later” and then not talking it out and using it before it gets “freezer old”, if you know what I mean. I hate pulling something out of the freezer and it is all full of frost and ice. So, French Toast Casserole it is. 

I have two jobs on my list today; fill the bird feeders, and refill my pill containers for the next four weeks. I’ll wait for a couple of hours before I fill the feeders until it gets a little closer to 40 degrees. Why’s should I freeze my tail off? Speaking of freezing your tail off, My grandson, Josh and his family live up in Pelham NH and they are just getting all of the crap weather that we had earlier this week. Last night they had -40 degree wind shill with 40 mph gusts. This morning I read on the Weather Channel that Mt. Washington, NH, which is always cold, had -100 degree wind chill and 100 mph winds going on. I can’t imagine being up there. A person couldn’t even think about stepping outside in that. Amazing. Exposed skin would frost bite in about two minutes. And you couldn’t try to walk. He and his family go out there during the summer once in a while and it is still chilly. I think I will pass on that trip.  

Time to open up my pill bottles and start filling them. I’m very lucky; I only take four pills a day. So, I can do my months worth of pills in about ten minutes. Ms. Kate takes I think 14 pills a day and it takes her forever to get her pills lined up. My pill all look distinctively different, so many of hers are almost identical so it is hard for her to know which ones she has or has not put in the container. 

But, they ain’t gonna fill themselves. You have a wonderful day. Don’t skip out on church tomorrow. Peace. 

 Friday, February 3rd. It is a bright and shiny morning. But the temperature is 20 degrees and promises not to go up more than five more degrees today. Somehow, that just doesn’t seem fair. I mean, we get a beautiful day with no threat of rain or snow or ice or even particularly heavy winds or breeze, shouldn’t maybe just go one step closer and leet the temperature be maybe 30 degrees warmer?? Yeh, I know, —- then it would probably be stormy. I reckon I’ll just settle for “it looks nice outside” and be grateful. 

Yesterday it was sunny too for most of the day. We had the funeral for my parishioner yesterday and it was still pretty cold out at the cemetery. I don’t think the wind ever quits blowing up there at the church area. It burial time it had gotten up about 32 degrees but the wind made it miserable anyway. Those funeral tents don’t do a lot to help anything, but they are better than nothing. The funeral went well and the family was pleased with the service. I’m glad we were able to finally have it. I hate that it all had to be dragged out due to the weather etc. But, I guess on the other hand, it gave the widower one more chance “to be with his wife”. The funeral was well attended considering that it was at 10:00 am on a weekday. 

I guess I will spend the day doing some writing and try to finish up my service stuff for the 12th of February. I really need to stay busy and get ahead because we do have a vacation coming up and that always rushes me. Then the Sunday after we get back it will be Palm Sunday, then Maundy Thursday, and Easter. So, lots of crunch time coming up in the next couple of month. 

I’m trying to look ahead and maybe do a little planning ahead so than Ms. Kate and I can take a week or two of vacation in September. I would love like to maybe go out to Custer State Park South Dakota again this year for the Annual Buffalo Roundup. It is always the last Friday of September. I have asked my daughter Heather and her hubby John if they might want to join us but I haven’t gotten an answer yet. If we want to really think about it, we need to be looking for lodging now because many place are already full that week. I checked on rooms at the lodges and they are totally booked already. Wish me luck. 

Time to up off and get busy. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 O happy day!! I can’t believe a highway truck just went down our street clearing ice and spreading some sand. And the ice is melting off of my driveway. The prison chains are coming off. 

It is so good to see the sun shining today. It is so good to see that thick glaze of ice melting off of my driveway. I was listening to the news awhile ago and there have been several deaths recorded due to the countless number of vehicle accidents across the nation with this storm. My heart goes out to those families. Dallas / Ft. Worth Texas area is still getting hit hard and is expecting to have as much as an inch of ice on everything. That is horrible and it is city crippling with power grids going out. The USPS in that area has suspended all activities for the foreseeable future because they can’t get anywhere. My grandson Josh works for USPS up in New Hampshire and said that all of their planes are grounded in Memphis Tennessee because they can’t get out. The storm hasn’t hit Josh’s area just yet but it is on the way. This one has certainly been one for the record books. I pray we see some sunny weather for awhile now so the country can thaw out. I went out to my driveway and checked to see how the melting is going and it is doing well. The front sidewalk is clear and the left side of my drive is clear all the way to the street. I have a bag of pet-safe ice melt and spread a lot of that on the rest of the drive so maybe that will help. 

Ms. Kate has been under the weather for the last two days but seems to be better today. It appears to be a 24-36 hour thing with congestion and nausea. Yesterday the only thing she ate was a yogurt and some saltine crackers. But this morning, I fixed a pan of Pillsbury Orange Rolls and she ate a couple of them without any repercussions. So, I pray the “bug” has begun to leave her alone. I just hope she hasn’t shared it with me. I don’t have time in my life for sickness. 

Thanks to the starlings, most of the feeders are almost empty. I have had a flock of maybe twenty out there since all of this storm started. I guess tomorrow afternoon I will get out there and refill everything. It’s too icy to be safe just yet and the last thing I want to do is fall and break a hip or my head. But I have had a really plethora of birds out there for the last two days. I’m glad I got everything filled up before the storm started. 

Time for me to get busy and get a sermon written. I have delayed it long enough. Have a blessed day, stay off of the ice. Peace.