My 2026 gardening has begun! I planted my tomato seeds today in their pots. There are 18 pots with two seeds each in them we will see what happens now. We should know in 10 or 12 days whether they are going to germinate. I only intend to “garden plant” about 10 plants and I will share with other folks that might want a couple. They did well last year at first and then they just quit. I think I had too many and planted them too close. I also am trying two new varieties, Early Girl Bush and Bushsteak. I will be interested to see how they grow. I also have my potatoes in the ground. I need to check on them and see if they have started coming up yet. Later, after we think the chance of frost has passed, I have some summer squash to plant. I will most likely put that in a large flower pot too. 

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th!! Are you scared? I don’t know why Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky or whatever.Maybe I need to ask my friend Google. One should always have a good supply of absolutely useless knowledge to fall back on. 

Can you believe that the month of March is almost half over? We are only a little over four weeks from Easter. I only know that because I’m preaching the next three Sundays which takes us through Palm Sunday. 

I noticed today that the tress are starting to get “fuzzy” meaning that they are about to leaf out. That of course will bring on pollen season. At least here in southern Indiana it isn’t as bad as some places we have lived. North Carolina is the worst. Pine pollen turns everything green. It’s a mess. 

Okay, I promised my lady that I will take her out for supper so I better be getting myself ready. Have a blessed evening. Peace. 

 March 10th, 7:30 pm and I’m just getting around to writing something down. We’ve had a busy few days over the weekend and yesterday. Yesterday Kate had two doctor’s appointments, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Her morning appointment was with her chief cardiologist. I’m happy to report that he gave her very good report and she doesn’t have to go back to see him for a year. To us, that is the best report possible. 

From there we went to the church that I’m preaching at this coming Sunday. I had to pick up one of their hymnals so I could pick out the songs for the next two Sundays. I met the church secretary and found out that she is a licensed pastor too and is the pastor of the Disciples of Christ church in Wadesville, IN. She asked me if I would be interested in filling in for her occasionally. Of course I said yes. 

From there we went to Biaggi’s for lunch and then headed home to await our next appointment. That was scheduled for 3:30 pm. As we got closer to the hospital where her appointment was to be, we kept noticing that the traffic lights were out. Sure enough, we got to the hospital and they told her they had no electricity and she would have to reschedule her appointment. So, she took care of that this morning. 

Tonight we are waiting on some severe weather once again. The storms have already struck the upper part of Indiana and Illinois. I just got a text that baseball size hail is falling across Illinois. I pray everyone in the path of these storms remains safe and I also pray that the tornadoes really don’t materialize anywhere. 

My yard is really looking nice. The daffodils, hyacinth, crocus, and forsythia are all blooming as well as the pussy willows. I know if we have  heavy storms and rain tonight it will hurt the daffodils and I hate to see that. Spring bloom just doesn’t last long enough. 

That’s it for tonight. Have a blessed night.  

 Where the heck does time go??? I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I last wrote.  We not only changed weeks, we changed months!

We have been busy though. There have been doctor appointments and shopping trips. And we had a couple of really nice days and I worked outside. I got a nice start on spring work before the rainy days moved in. 

This morning I came through the family room to the kitchen and saw that I had some water streaming down my wall. I had this once before and when the Heads Construction folks went up there to look at it, it was because leaves and limbs had damned the corner up. But I had just looked up there a couple of weeks ago and it didn’t look too bad. But, that was the problem once again. I’m going to have to figure out a way to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Maybe when Jim comes over I can get him to go up there and blow it off, or maybe Lincoln from next door can go up there. It’s totally safe but I have a short person that threatens to kick my butt if I try to get up there. She said something about me being 81 and never seeing 82 if I go up there. 😜

Did I tell you that we not only filed our tax’s we have received our refunds. Yay!!! Done for another year. 

I had an optometry appointment this morning. I’m glad to say tat my eyes are in great shape. The cataracts are gone and the scars from that are gone. No need for a new glasses prescription. I scheduled Kate for her eye exam while I was there. 

I have writing to do today. Although it might take me a bit to get to it because I filled the Backyard Buffet yesterday and I have a lot of guests to keep an eye on. 

That’s it, Have a blessed day. 

 Friday night. I just peeled an orange for my midnight snack. I was going to have a bowl of cereal but saw the oranges on the way to the refrigerator and changed my mind. While I was fixing mine I fixed one for Kate too. I call it my midnight snack but it’s only 2230. We almost always stay up until midnight or maybe 1:00 am. 

Well, I was hoping that my blog today would tell you what a great time Ms Kate and I had on our little anniversary get away. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Tuesday afternoon Kate started getting sick with flu-like conditions. Wednesday morning as you recall, she was to have an MRI. She canceled that too and I cancelled the hotel and the dinner reservations at Cavanaugh’s. We spent our anniversary at home and she slept almost the whole day. 

She had a fairly good night’s sleep but when she got up this morning she was still a little rough and felt “woozy and wobbly”. So she cancelled her hair appointment, and we have set around the house again today. I fixed breakfast (actually brunch) and I fixed our supper. She is feeling better now and I hope by tomorrow morning she is over whatever she had. 

I am including in my blog today a video that I had Julie out together as my anniversary card to Ms. Kate.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNpqaea98at-J6g8V8_pysxmdSWACzXF1t9IcBT

I hope that comes out right for my posperity. I think you can tap on it and it will show up.  

Time to quit. Peace. 

 Well —— today has not turned out as I planned at all. As I told you, Kate was to have an MRI around noon today and then we planned to check in to the local Bally’s Hotel /Casino for tonight and tomorrow night to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary. However, last night she got to feeling bad and thinks she has the flu. This morning she was feeling no better so she called and rescheduled her MRI and I have cancelled the hotel and also cancelled our dinner arrangements for Cavanaugh’s tomorrow night. I absolutely hate that she is feeling bad and hope she gets over this in a couple of days.In the meantime, all I can say is; Crap!!!! I was really excited and looking forward to us celebrating this. 

Dis you watch the State of the Union address last night? I watch the last half of it. I thought the President did a really good job although it was a “typical” Donald Trump speech. It was the usual “the biggest, the best, first time ever” stuff that he always does. And of course the opposition comments given by a newly elected very liberal governor said it was all lies. The same thing happens when we have a Democrat President. Politicians are always good for calling one another out while  getting nothing done. The thing about the event was the terrible disrespect shown by the members of the Democratic Party and the nation is pretty much calling them out on it today. The president asked everyone to stand if they believe the first duty of our elected leaders and representatives was to look after the welfare and safety of the American people. Only one democrat stood. That is shameful and I hope it gets reflected in the 2026 elections. On the other had, —- I think we all know it was a trick question and the president played them like an old fiddle. He knew they wouldn’t stand for anything he said to them and they walked right in to the trap.  The other thing that as so disgusting was to of the Democrat congresswomen constantly screaming at the President as he was giving his speech. Totally disrespectful. But it is a representation of today’s society. I just shake my head. 

Nuff talk about politics.  I hope you have a blessed day. 

 Tuesday afternoon.  It’s been a relatively quiet day, but is still pretty chilly. I think we are up to maybe 40 degrees by now. We started at 19 again this morning. We are supposed to be in a warming trend again. The roller coaster continues. I thank the Lord tat we are not experience in the weather that is still going on in the North East. Rhode Island got 37 inches of snow. I wouldn’t know where to begin clearing that kind of snow away. And I think that some places like New York are looking at least two more snow storms coming in. 

Here in Evansville, I have two crocuses blooming today. And my daffodils are all up and have buds on them. They won’t open though for maybe another two weeks. But the intermittent warm days are going to just get more frequent. And in 24 four days Spring will be here. I celebrated that today by ordering y tomato and zucchini squash seeds. I also ordered an indoor greenhouse for the sun porch. To grow my seeds in. It is time to plant the seeds  now and they should be big enough by the first week of May to plant out doors in the garden. I had not planned to do a tomato garden again this year but I gave in. And I guess I will try to grow some zucchini in one of my big flower pots. But, I need to get fresh potting/garden soil put in all of my pots and spread the old stuff out in the garden. As usual I’m going to be making extra work for myself. This year we decided to raise “bush tomatoes” and see how they work out. Generally I raise “regular tomato” plants that grow to about four feet tall or so. These are supposed to grow to about two and a half feet. The worst that can happen is that they won’t produce and I’ll just end up dropping by the local produce stand. And will have wasted money on seed. I still have okra seeds left over from last year. I guess I will see if it is still any good. Ms. Kate will want to plant a couple of cherry tomato plants too. 

Kate has an MRI tomorrow and I think needs to go have blood drawn again all before we go to the hotel. We can’t check in until 1600 so there is plenty of time. 

That’s my blabbering for today. I hope you have a blessed evening. Peace. 

 Winter is not going without a fight , that is for sure certain. I woke this morning to 19 degrees after us having 70 last week. But, —- we’re lucky. The upper north and east are currently under blizzard conditions. Travel has been basically suspended through New York and New Jersey, Boston and even Washington DC. Snow in some area is expected to reach 18-24 inches. I just read that there are currently 500,000 people without power. So, I’ll just put on my sweatshirt and enjoy what we have, —— and stay inside of the house. 

This is my “big week”. Thursday Kate and I celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary.  I know I have been talking about it for weeks but I’m am just excited to have reached this milestone. So many never get to and so many don’t even try. But when she and I make a promise, we do our best to keep it. I’ve conducted a lot of weddings and marital counseling sessions and I always remind my couples that at least when you are doing a “church wedding” you are making a promise not only to one another, you are making those promises before God, and therefore you are making sacred vows. I’m happy to say that I have only had a couple of my couples divorce. 

Have you gotten caught up in all of the “ICE vs NO-ICE” demonstrations going on across the nation. I guess I have some mixed feelings about all of this.  I think it is time all of the illegal aliens were moved back out of the country but I also think that the enforcement is over aggressive in some cases. I also think that the majority of the “NO-ICE” demonstrations are being funded by some very deep liberal pockets. I also disagree that students should be allowed to walk out of the schools to demonstrate without repercussions. And I especially get upset when I see teachers leading second graders out of the school to protest like happened in California last week. Those teachers should be fired for sure. If these high school kids want to protest, as is their right, they should do it after school. I’m betting the demonstrations wouldn’t amount to much then. But all of that is just my take on it. Thankfully we do live in a country where demonstrating and protesting is legal and allowed. I dedicated 32 years of my life to preserve that right whether I agree with their opinions or not. 

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