Black Friday!!!! I’m sure glad that I don’t get tangled up in all of that. I can’t imagine the amount of pulsing and shoving and waiting in line, trying to find a place to park and walking forever. But I know a lot of people that are really into that for their Christmas shopping. But without trying to offend anyone, I don’t know a single man that voluntarily gets involved. None of the men I know that have had to go never have a smile on their face when they talk about it. Actually, I don’t understand why they still declare it a Black Friday sale anymore because the sales have been available already from two weeks, and most of the people that I’m close with get their shopping done on Amazon. I don’t remember the last time Kate and I went shopping in a brick and mortar department store. 

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you over-eat? Of course you did; everybody does. As planned, I did 95% of the prep and cooking and cleanup. I just emptied the second load of dishes this morning out of the dishwasher. Man, I so remember the days before dishwashers. The refrigerators are full of leftovers and I have a pumpkin pie sitting beside my IPad here at the table that I am nibbling on. 

Julie came over on Wednesday evening so she could help me on Thursday morning. I appreciated it although I already had most everything already prepped. The extra “get this and get that” help was definitely appreciated. We had the “typical” Thanksgiving meal that all of America had: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole, brussel sprouts, green bean casserole, gravy, rolls, carrots, deviled eggs, and pumpkin pie. It came out well, but I made a lot of trips to the family room with questions of “how do I” from Ms. Kate. She is still barely getting around with her walker so I decided that I would cook with a lot of supervision. We make a good team. Jules was a big help and Jim was a big help afterwards finding containers and room in the refrigerators to put the stuff. Team work makes delicious dream work. 

The temperature is having a hard time getting above 30 degrees today. Kate had hoped to go decorate the graves today for Christmas but it is too darn cold. I’m hoping that it will get just a bit warmer next week and we can get them dressed up for Christmas. 

That’s it for today. I hope your weekend is blessed. Peace. 

 It is 10:30 pm so I guess this will be a Tuesday/ Wednesday note or two. 

It has been a rather busy day for me and tomorrow will be even busier I think. We did our usual morning routine of sitting around, reading the latest Facebook gossip, and playing a couple of computer games. I have one game that I play and Kate has two or three that she likes. Then we both like to “color our daily pictures” on a site called “Happy Color”. It is actually good mental exercise trying to solve the picture. I recommend it to all senior folks. 

Next I got a call from Walgreens that Kate had a prescription that needed to be picked up. Since I needed to go to Ruler’s any way to get milk and bread, I got ready and went and picked up my groceries and her prescriptions. Ruler’s and Walgreen are across the street from one another. Then I went to Ritzies, in the same shopping complex, and picked us up some lunch. 

I came home and we had our lunch and then it was time to eat started on things that I need to prep for our Thanksgiving meal. It was a whole lot of stuff but doing it ahead of time will really help. I cut up a loaf and a half of bread for the dressing. I’m still debating whether to go to Meijer’s tomorrow and pick up some oysters to make some oyster dressing. I love the stuff but no by else is a fan. Kate would eat a small helping but neither Jim or Julie would touch it. But, I maybe will pick up a small batch of fresh oysters while we are out tomorrow. Kate has a hair appointment and assuming she is mobile enough to get in and out of the car and into the beauty shop, we’ll take her to her appointment, then to our doctor’s office lab for her to ge her blood drawn, and then —- maybe to get some oysters. 

Anyway —- I got the bread all cut up, I got the carrots peeled and sliced up for the meal, and I got the celery cut up really small to go in the dressing. Tomorrow will be the day to get dishes out to cook in and to serve in, and I will make two pumpkin pies. I’m glad that the weather is turning really cold because I have no room in the refrigerator for the pies after I bake them, and Kate says they need to be refrigerated because they are a custard pie. With the cold weather, I can just set them out in the sunroom which will be a bout 40 degrees or less. Or, I can take them out and set them in the grill on the patio. I know they will stay cold there. I’m not sure there will still be two pies left by Thursday morning, in fact I can almost guarantee it. 

I got my winter order of food for my aviary friend today. It gets more expensive all the time. I spent $175.00 for this order and it wasn’t all that big. But, this order will get me through December and maybe half of January. Picking up five gallon pecans from my sister-in-laws yard will help a lot. 

That’s it my friends. I hope and pray you have a blessed Thanksgiving Day. Peace be with you. 

 Happy Monday! How was your weekend? Ours was “housebound” except for a couple of errands I had to do. We did “recliner church again today. It is really hard for Kate to get in and out of the car and down the steps etc. So that should tell you how she is doing. 

Friday Kate called in a Walmart curbside order for pickup on Saturday. As I have said in the past this is a “perk” that I really like, —- on most days. Saturday didn’t go all that well. 

Kate didn’t go with me of course but she did go on the app and tell them “I’m on my way”. I got there at 10:30 and called the posted number to let them know I had arrived, per instruction. Unfortunately I got a recording that said “the party you are tying to reach is not available, please tell us which spot you are in and we’ll get back with you”. So I did that. There were several cars in the curbside area and I sat there as one after another was loaded but I never got a call back. I watched as new cars arrived and their order were brought out and loaded and still nothing. So, after about 20 minutes, I flagged down one of the delivery people and told them I had called in but had heard nothing back. The kid check his phone and says, “yeh, it shows you still arriving, okay”. I waited another 10 minutes and still nothing. The kid that I had talked to even came by my car to make another delivery but said nothing. Finally I went up to the door and knock on it, and a young lady came to the door. I told her what was going on, and other answer was “Okay, we’ll be out in a minute”. There was no apology or anything. They did come out about five minutes later and load me up. Not a good day for curbside. One of the problems was that Kate had called in the order on her phone so I didn’t have an order # or the right phone number for them to call because it would have gone to her phone and not mine. But —— it was redonkulous!!!! 

By the time I left Walmart, it was lunch time and I decided to stop by Ms Donalds and get us something to eat. McRibs are “back in season” so I ordered two of them, a large order of French fries for us to split, and two strawberry/banana smoothies. And of course —— “I’m sorry, we are all out of smoothies”. Grrrrrrrrr!

I was glad to get home. We had ordered most of what we would need for Thanksgiving. The turkey is in the refrigerator thawing. Julie and Jim are coming over so I got a 11.5 lb bird. That will give us a meal and will also have plenty of leftovers to send some home with them and also for me to make turkey noodle soup. Today I will start doing some of the prep work for the meal. 

Sunday was uneventful, we watched tv church, took naps and generally didn’t do much else. Minh, from across the street come over and gave us a bunch of sliced ham. She said she bought too much and wanted to just give it to us. I made of dinner out of that. 

That’s it for today. Have yourself a wonderful Thanksgiving week. May God bring peace to you home. 

 Well here it is Friday and it looks like most of the rest of the days this week. It is raining and raw outside and gloomy. It would be a good day to snuggle up in front of the fireplace and read a good book and listen to some soft classical music. But there are other things to attend to today. 

Ms. Kate isn’t doing a whole lot better and that surprises me. I thought by today she would be getting around better than she is. However, she did make it out to her hair appointment. She cancelled last week so she was going to make it this week come hell or high water. We loaded her and her walker in the car and she made it alright. If she doesn’t feel better physically, I know she feels better mentally having her hair looking good.

Yesterday I had an appointment to get my toenails trimmed. I do that once a month because I can’t bend over to do them myself. The young lady I go to does a good job. I don’t like to go to a nail salon because the women there want to do the whole “pedicure thing”. My feet are extremely sensitive and ticklish so I don’t want all of that rubbing and stuff. I just want the nails trimmed and my lady understands that. The nails on my big toes get ingrown so quickly so it needs to be done once a month. Some would call that an indulgence, I call it a need. 

Since Ms. Kate is still down for the count, I did the laundry yesterday too. Actually, I do the laundry most of the time. I find it so simple to do and I have been doing laundry since I as a child once my mother moved up from a “ringer washer”. When I take the stuff out of the dryer, Kate always says “just put it there and I will fold it.” But, I don’t. That just adds  another step to the process. So I just take it on back to the bedroom and stand there and fold it. Then I put my stuff away and she can put hers away. 

Kate needs to put together the grocery list and do an on-line order from Walmart. That on-line ordering thing is a great benefit. I figure we can get all of our stuff for Thanksgiving ordered and I will pick it up tomorrow. Kate wants to do a turkey so we need to get it while they are on sale and then we can start thawing it on probably Monday evening. Personally I’d rather have pork tenderloin but this way, I’ll end up getting some turkey noodle soup which I love. And maybe we’ll have a turkey sandwich or two also. We don’t a turkey bigger than 10 or 12 pounds. Julie and Jim will be here and I can send some home with them too. Kate doesn’t like leftovers. Me, I could eat them anytime. Her mom used to make a large something like a pot of soup and she would eat on it every day until it was gone. 

It’s lunch time so I better se what my patient wants for lunch. Have a great day. Have a great weekend if I don’t see you again. Peace

 Happy Wednesday. It is a damp 42 degrees today. We had rain on and off through the night but I think we are supposed to stay dry today. If I recall, the weather dude said that we will start having rain again tomorrow afternoon and then more on and off through Friday. It’s southern Indiana fall. As I use my weather app and check on the places that the girls live, It looks like maybe Lisa, down in North Carolina gets the award for best weather today. Heather comes in second out in California. The rest of us all suck. 

Ms. Kate had a great night and woke up feeling better. But that lasted until she got about half way down the hall and the leg and hip started hurting again. Bless her heart. But she is improving, just not to the extent that we would like her too. The muscle relaxer she took last night really did let her rest though. She is on her second day of prednisone so maybe it will all start coming together as she goes through the day. 

I wasn’t writing this past January so you didn’t get the neighborhood gossip and news. We had a neighbor across the street and one house down that lost much of their home due to fire. The fire actually totally destroyed the garage and two cars that were in there. But, of course with smoke damage and fire suppression after, the rest of the home was rendered useless too. So, they have left the brick structure of the rest of the house, gutted everything else and are building a new garage on the house and today they are putting on a new roof on the entire house. Allegedly they will have the house ready to move in on February 26th, 2026. I guess we will see if that happens. They had torn off all of the roof on the house on Monday and then of course it poured down rain yesterday and last night. I’m sure that didn’t help anything at all. The house has a full basement and they are going to have it turned into a living area again so that means for sure all new flooring etc to eliminate any new chances of mold. I really don’t know much about building houses but It seems to me that it might have been cheaper to bulldoze the entire structure and start fresh. But, I’m sure they were limited by whatever their insurance company would pay for. I know the name of their insurance company and have never heard anything positive about them. I also know that they have gone back and forth numerous times between the insurance company and the building contractor. It has been a nightmare for them. The only bright light is that no one was hurt during the fire. For that we give praise and glory to God. 

Our cleaning lady just came by and dropped off a pumpkin roll for us for Thanksgiving. She is so sweet. And, she’s a great baker too. Last winter when Kate was sick, she backed up the only Christmas cookies we had for the season. 

That takes care of my Wednesday gossip. I reckon I will jump off. I may either continue reading my book today or maybe do some writing. It depends on what Ms. Kate needs me to do. Have a great afternoon. Peace. 

 Happy Tuesday. It is 2:00 pm and we have been somewhat busy. Ms. Kate had a doctor’s appointment today with her kidney doctor. I forget her title, (maybe Nephrologist???). But, it’s an every four month visit to see how she is doing. I don’t know what that doctor gets paid but for the length of her appointments, I’m sure the price per hour is outrageous. It takes longer for the nurse  to take Kate’s blood pressure, go over her medications etc than it does for the doctor to walk in, look at the results of her last blood test, ask a couple of questions and be gone. It doesn’t help that neither Kate nor I particularly like this doctor either. She’s “cold” and aloof and frankly rude. But, maybe her once every four month appointments are okay since every visit is less than 10 minutes. 

Kate still is down for the count. The steroid shot hasn’t really seemed to kick in yet and to add to the misery, the injection site is now sore too. I’ve had steroid shots several times. They don’t hurt when you get them but always seem to hurt the next couple of days. I don’t know why, that’s just the way it is. We weren’t able to pick up both of her meds yesterday. We got the prednisone but there is a muscle relaxer that she is supposed to take at night that I have to go to Walgreens shortly to pick up. I’m hoping by tomorrow we see a “feeling much better Ms. Kate.”

We are having rain on and off today and into tomorrow. I’m glad I got my yard totally mowed yesterday afternoon and I also went over and mowed Dan’s yard again. He and his wife just got back from visiting her brother and family in the Washington DC area for four weeks. Dan came home sick with COVID and flu. It happens every trip he takes out there. I understand why they spend such a long time there each visit. Minch is Vietnamese and has no cultural connection here in Evansville. When they go there, their family lives in a larger Thai and Vietnamese area and she can speak her native language, eat all her cultural food etc. Plus, she is the oldest member of the family and that naturally gives her the place of honor. Dan says they cater to her every whim and treat her with the utmost respect. No wonder she wants to not come home. Here, I never see her go any where other than to shop once in awhile. Dan has all of his family here and he and his brothers get together and go golfing either here or out of state for a week. 

It has quite a racing for a bit so I better run to Walgreens and get Kate’s medicine. Have a great rest of your day. Don’t get so busy being busy that you forget to take time for a chat with God. Peace. 

Not a very good weekend around here.I told you Friday that Kate was down with her back. It continued to get worse as the weekend progressed. We got her in to see the Nurse Practitioner this morning. She said Kate for sure is have a Bursitis flare up and there may be more. But, she gave her a steroid injection and had a bunch of X-ray’s taken. Also prescribed Prednisone and something else for hr to take at night to help her sleep. It’s a routine that I have been through numerous times and I think it will help her too. In the meantime though, she is a miserable puppy. 

I finally finished up the front flowerbeds. I’m glad to have that out of the way for the year. I mowed our front yard and Dan’s front yard and had all of the leaves mulched away. I’m sitting here looking at Dan’s yard right now and one could never tell I was ever there. His Maple tree is shedding really good right now. I give it to the end of the week and it should be done. The one ion his back yard has hardly started. 

Okay, that’s it. I’m busy taking care of my lady these days. have a blessed week. 

 It’s hard to believe another week is this close to coming to an end. And as they say, “what a difference a day makes”, or two or three days. Monday it was 23 and we had snow and today we are on a fast track to 65-70. I went out for a hair cut and a grocery run this morning and I’m running around in a short sleeved shirt. It feels really good. 

Ms. Kate was supposed to have a hair appointment this morning but she has a problem with her hip. It keeps giving her pain for some reason. It’s not constant, but when it hits, it just kind of grabs her. She felt fine when she got up but by the time she got to the coffee pot it was hurting her. It must be the way she is sleeping or sitting or something that has caused her to pinch a nerve. She has taken her Tylenol but there will be no trip to Planet Fitness today. But, I have some outside work to do today while it is sunny so I won’t need a gym trip. I’ll get enough exercise as it is. 

I noticed yesterday that I was really in the need for a haircut and a beard trim. So, when Kate called her hair dresser and cancelled, we just slid me in to her spot. I’ve been using her hairdresser as my barber for a year now. She does a good job. Kate was my barber for many years. We saved a lot of money over the years by her cutting it, especially in the military when it had to be kept at a certain length. When I was a kid, my dad used to give me my haircuts. That was in the days when people at home didn’t have electric clippers. He always did a fairly good job. I think he grew up cutting his brother’s hair and probably cut hair for guys when he was in the Army during WW2. Of course as a kid in the fifties, the only acceptable haircut for boys was a “burr cut” or a flat-top. In the sixties I wanted what was called a “duck-tail” because that was the cool haircut. But my folks wouldn’t hear of it. They said only “hoodlums” wore their hair that way. So while the other guys got to be cool and have an “Elvis” haircut —— I had to be “Pat Boone”. I look at the young guys today and am amazed at what is acceptable. There was no way a kid in high school was going to be sporting a beard or a mustache. You had to be clean shaven. You went to school wearing jeans and a collared shirt. Girls had to wear a dress or skirt  and the length was to the knees. It’s a different world today. I’m not sure if it is better or worse. 

Time for me to get off of here and get busy. Have a most blessed day and a blessed weekend. . Peace. 

 Good morning on this balmy November 13th. This sure beats walking up to 23 or some of those other ugly numbers. It’s 56 at the moment and would feel even warmer if the sun would come out from behind the clouds. 

As you know, I had my dermatologist appointment yesterday. Of course I have a story to go with it. I had never been to this office before so I was a little confused as to where it was. But the instructions gave me directions that seemed familiar to me. We left in plenty of time to get to Deaconess Mid-Town, park in the parking garage, find the elevator and make it to the third floor. However, none of the room numbers were even close to what I was looking for. I went into one of the offices close to me and asked for directions. As it turned out, I was in the wrong location. I was at Deaconess Mid-Town Hospital, and I needed to be at Deaconess “Downtown”. I didn’t even know there was a Deaconess Downtown Hospital, but I was a good ten minutes from where I needed to be. But, the young lady that was helping us told me how to get there. 

We found our way to the right place and there was no place to park. There is construction going on in a building next door and the construction trucks etc had blocked off a third of the parking spots. Another part of the lot was reserved for a business across the street. So, Ms. Kate went inside to insure that we were in the right place and called to assure me we were. She called up to the office we were supposed to be going to and told them we were there but I was trying to find a parking spot. Anyway, I got to my appointment and they didn’t give me any problem about being a few minutes late. However, we found out that there was an entire parking garage that we could have used and just on the back side of the building was an entire empty parking lot. When I go back for my next visit, I’ll know where to go, and I won’t be in a fuss about being at the wrong place etc. Yeh, it did stress me out some. 

The results of my visit were not bad. The doctor “froze” seven “pre-cancerous” spots on my face and ear, and hands. Those “frozen spots will fall off without any scaring in about a week. He also biopsied one large mole on my back. We should hear the results of that in a week but he was certain it was a Basal Cell Carcinoma skin cancer, which he described as the “wimp of skin cancers”. If it turns out that he is correct, I’ll go back and they will do a bit more invasive something to make sure they get it all. But —- it isn’t a big deal, just needs to be taken care of. 

The leaves on one of my Tulip Poplar have completely fallen off and the other one of about 60% done. I think I will run the mower over them today and then I can put “Bambi”, my back yard JD in the garage for the winter. Whatever leaves fall from the other tree can either lay there and compost themselves or I will drive “Big John” around and mulch them up. But, I want to get Bambi in the garage for the winter before we actually get really crappy winter weather. 

That’s all I have for you today my friends. I hope your Thursday is full of blessings. Take time to have a chat with God today. It will do you good. Peace. 

 On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, all WW1 hostilities were ceased when an armistice was signed with Germany. Initially remembered as Armistice Day, it was renamed Veteran’s day in 1954. It is different from Memorial Day because it recognizes all who have served rather than just those who were killed while serving. I thought I would toss in a little history lesson for you this morning. I know a lot of people, perhaps most of the current generation of people, who have no idea what we celebrate today. I find tat rather sad because it is indicative of the generation today that cares nothing abut learning or even knowing about our history as a people or as a nation. They have been taught that our history is all lies dreamed up and propagandized to us to make “white people” feel good about themselves. 

The weather is “a little better” today than yesterday. We ended up with  a third of an inch of snow yesterday but as I told you, it melted as soon as the clouds cleared and the sun hit it. However, the temperatures certainly did not rebound. It was 33 when I crawled out from my covers this morning. I just checked at we are at 45 now and that is supposed to be the high for today. But the wind is fairly calm so that will make a big difference in the “feels-like” when you go outside. 

I talked to my buddy Brenda a while ago and she and her hubby have a miserable cold outside job today. They are loading hog to take to the market. They have 20 to load. Andy was busy trying to coax them all into a pen with corn. She asked me if I wanted to help and I got all excited telling myself that “Yes, I could do that”. I have done that job in the past. Admittedly it was 70 years ago, but the job and method is the same. But then she told me she was just messing with me. So, I was disappointed —— and frankly relieved. LOL It would have been fun but I would have been more in the way than anything else. Or I would have slipped in the mud and gotten run over my a scared or angry hog. It’s amazing how quickly one’s mind tries to convince us that we can do what we used to do. 

Tomorrow I have to go to a dermatologist and have these places on my head and ear evaluated and possibly even removed. They will be checking to see if I have skin cancer. I think I told you that I had this appointment coming up. It took four months to get in to see this doctor so I hope he does something to help. 

I think I will put on something warm and go to Rule King and maybe buy myself a Carhart Jacket for the winter. I don’t have a suitable outdoor jacket for when I need to fill the feeders or remove snow from the driveway etc. So that sounds like a good plan. Of course maybe a better plan is to stay in the house and wait until tomorrow since it will be much warmer and I have to go out anyway for y appointment. 

Decisions, decisions. Y’all have a blessed day. 

 Good morning on this 28 degree, snowy morning. It’s coming down quite heavily at the moment. There are already reports of accidents around the area. The snow is barely sticking to the grass but I guess the roads are really slick in some areas. Ah well, it’s supposed to be 60 by Wednesday and 72 by the weekend. Nothing to get out of sorts about. 

Would you allow me to reminisce for a few moments this morning? On November 10th, 1965, I entered Lackland Air Force Base and began what would eventually become a 32 year career. At the time, the Air Force was only 18 years old which means I’m older than the Air Force. Along the way I progressed from Airman Basic (E1) to Colonel (O6). I will be the first to tell you that I did that with the help of an extremely supporting and tolerant Ms. Kate, some very wonderful understanding daughters, hundreds and hundreds of excellent fellow service men and women, and a God with a sense of humor. 

During the career I have lived in California (x2), The Philippines (x2), Florida, Turkey, Missouri, Illinois (x2), North Carolina, Texas, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Virginia. I have done extended temporary duty in  Alabama, Italy, Sicily, the Netherlands, Germany, England and Croatia. Needless to say, I have had a wonderful chance to see the world. 

A Military career is certainly not for everyone or for every family. It takes a certain personality for a spouse to follow a husband or wife around for move after move after move. We changed locations every two to two and a half years which meant setting up a household from zero again and again. We lived in base housing most of my career so there wasn’t a lot of choice in what your house was going to look like. Because I served as a unit commander and Chief of Police at my locations, I was required to live on base. Most of the houses were okay. Our place on Nellis AFB in Las Vegas was wonderful and was our first and only “Colonel’s housing”. The down side to all of that is that we had to buy our “forever home” when I retired at almost sixty years old. Taking a thirty year home loan knowing it would be paid off when you are 90 is a daunting thought. (Ms. Kate of course wasn’t going to let that happen and we paid it off two years ago..)

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Tomorrow is officially Veteran’s Day and so I’m taking time today to say thank you to my family and to all of my fellow veterans. If you know a veteran, take time to say thanks to them today. Peace

 Can you believe that the first week of November is already gone??? Suddenly it seems like the year is flying by. It seems like since the days got shorter and we dropped Daylight Saving time, we have less time in the day to get stuff done. I know that is ridiculous because we have the same 24 hours a day that we always had but there was a mental shift in there at some point. 

Yesterday I got another flower bed cleaned up. I filled my freshly emptied trash can to about three quarters full again with peonies and other plants. I would like to do another one today but I don’t want to completely fill the trash can. I need to call Republic and see if they will pick up bags of clippings etc that are not in the trash can. Before the days of trucks that had swing out arms to grab the cans, the guys would pick them up. But I don’t know about now. We are supposed to have some showers today but so far nothing, which is fine with me. 

Yesterday we also had to do a Walmart drive through grocery run. I really like that. Kate just orders on line and sets a pick up time and they notify us when the order is ready. Today we did the same thing with Sam’s Club. I haven’t actually been in Sam’s in at least six months. And I haven’t been in Walmart in at least two months. And the only Walmart we use is the Neighborhood Market Walmart. 

We went out for brunch while we were waiting  for Sam’s to notify us that our order was ready for pickup. The first thing we did today was to take Kate for her hair appointment. We skipped the gym today because I have a sore back from yesterday’s yard work and am walking around like a dang old man. Some may say that I should go “work it out”. My father would certainly have said that. But no thanks, I’m going to take it easy today. If it doesn’t rain very hard, I’ll work outside again tomorrow. By Sunday evening it is supposed to get really cold and the weather dude even used that really nasty four letter word for a Monday morning possibility; (snow flurries). 

That’s it for today my friends. Have a blessed weekend. I may jump on tomorrow depending on the weather and the length of my “honey-do list”. 

Peace. 

 What a beautiful day!! It is supposed to go up to 70 degrees today and that would be super. We have a lot going on today. Our house learning lady is here currently. While she is here I think maybe we’ll go do our gym thing and then get some brunch. This afternoon we have a contractor coming to finally “raise our back sidewalk” and seal up the “caulk” where the concrete meets the house. This is the supposed fix to the water coming into our basement. (Ya’ gotta see it to understand it, but it makes perfect sense.)

I didn’t get nearly as much done as I wanted to yesterday but I did get the tomatoes bed cleaned out and the tomato cages put up until next spring. That bed was really a mess. My tomato plants grew really big this year and produced well. But by end of summer the weeds had grown up in there too. The tomato plants were so thick that I couldn’t get in there around the cages to clean out the weeds. But I got it all cleaned out and have put a good layer of Preen on it to prevent the weeds in the spring. This afternoon I hope to get some of the peonies finally cut off although my trash can is almost overflowing with tomato plants. So, I may wait until tomorrow after the trash man has come and emptied the can. 

The wind is fairly brisk today and there are a lot of leaves leaving their trees and heading off to the unknown. Well, I know because they are in my yard. I will run the John Deere over the yard today for sure. 

Kari, our cleaning lady, brought us pumpkin muffins today. She is a really good baker and has brought us goodies in the past. They didn’t last long. She has promised us pumpkin bread on her next visit. 

That’s all I got today without just rambling. I hope you get a chance to get outside and enjoy a day like we’re having. It’s just one of God’s blessings that He is sharing. Peace. 

 It’s bright and beautiful this morning but I need the temperature to come up just a few more degrees so I can work comfortably outside. 

Yesterday we went to the gym, as you know, and I can tell you that it flat wore me out. We had not been in a week and when I got home I was physically exhausted like I had tried to run a marathon or something. I don’t know why. Our routine isn’t that hard and is more for getting the heart pumping than anything else. But I actually went to bed at 2200 hours last night. We generally don’t go to bed until around midnight or even 1:00 am. We watch television or something like that until we are ready. But I spent yesterday evening reading my new book for two hours and then went to bed. 

Speaking of my new book, it is very interesting. It’s called “The Unseen Realm” by Michael Heiser. It talks about the supernatural aspects to our faith which is an area or at least “word” that most pastors won’t touch. I think that is because it is a “labeling” issues. I have always realized that when we start talking about things that happen and we assign the reasoning to our belief that God, whom we don’t see, caused it, then we are talking about supernatural events. But society seems to want supernatural to only belong to the realm of “magic” and witchcraft, and ghosts and stuff. That is so far from the truth. So, it becomes messy when we assign a miraculous event to angels or a dead relative watching over us and interceding for us. When we talk about Jesus being dead in a grave for three days and then getting up and walking out —- that is a supernatural event, and we (I) believe it actually happened. So, my book is a really great read and one that I can identify with. 

The trees are really starting to turn colors and the leaves are falling in earnest. Dan, my neighbor across the street, has a maple tree in his front and back yard and I like to watch them turn their beautiful red before the leaves fall off.  If I get around to it, I will probably run the lawnmowers over the yard so I can keep up with the leaves. My tulip poplars are losing their leaves a lot now. I know some people recommend that we not rake up our leaves etc but leave them as a winter cover for certain bugs etc in the spring. I can’t imagine not mulching up my leaves. I don’t rake and bag them but I do run the mower over them and mulch them. It is good for the soil. One of my jobs today is to get the tomato plants cut off and pulled up. Then I need to work on getting the peonies and four clocks cut back to ground level. 

Time to put on my work clothes and get busy. I pray you will have a day full of blessings. Peace. 

 Happy November! We woke up to a 35 degree morning but now the sun is bright and we are up to 53. There is more breeze out there than I would like but a good sweatshirt will handle all of that. I’ writing a mote here while I wait for Ms. Kate to get her gym clothes on and we can head down to Planet Fitness for our workout. Then I got stop by and pick up some bread from Ruler’s since to is in the same shopping area. From there we’ll probably grab some brunch before we come home. I have some outside work I want to do today while the weather is nice. I heard the forecaster say last night that a we might actually reach 70 degrees one day the week. That would be awesome. 

Did you have a lot of Trick or Treaters?? As promised, we didn’t do anything at all for Halloween this year. Just left the lights off and went about our business. We had a few doorbell ringers but actually not that many. 

Halloween is over and I saw last night that one of the families in our neighborhood had already put up their Christmas Tree this weekend. I know some people really get in to the Christmas decorating spirit and want their stuff up as soon as possible. I wish I could believe it had any thing at all to with the birth of Jesus Christ and the celebration of that, but I just don’t think it does. I suspect it is all for all of the worldly  celebration. Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at the decorations etc but I’m just cynical about their motives. But, I’m the Christmas Grinch. Were it not for Ms. Kate, there would be no Christmas decorations around our house. I just don’t see the need. If you want to celebrate the Spirit of Christmas; —- go out and do something for someone; share your blessings like God shared His Son. 

We had a family happy brag moment this weekend. My granddaughter Lauren, who lives is SOCAL has been riding Motocross since she was five years old, (she turns 28 this week). Eleven years ago she went professional and competing with some very talented lady riders. Sunday she won the National Women’s Pro Motocross Championship. She is such a good kid and she enjoys riding so much. I’m so proud of her because she embodies all of the good traits of a National Champion. She works hard to encourage all of the young female riders and little girls that look at her like she is a hero. She always has time for them when they are out on the track. She is what I call “Good People”. Her life away from the track also reflects  that. She works as a substance abuse counselor for “First Responders” with addiction problems. 

Enough bragging. Kate should be ready to head out by now. Have a blessed week. Peace.