Well good morning. It’s great to stop and write a note or two. First of all, let me tell you it is a beautiful day. We have had so much cold weather and snow and crap that a day of sunshine from start to finish with the temperature supposed to maybe get to 60 —- that’s some good stuff right there. 

How was your weekend ?  Did you watch the Super Bowl? We watched half of it. we neither one really cared who won although we have rooted for the Patriots for a few years just because we lived up in that area for five years; and I wouldn’t support anything out of the state of Washington state just because of their radical politics. The same goes even more so for Oregon. I always thought that I would like to live up there but, they are so radically left skewed in their politics, I couldn’t do it.  But anyway, then we had heard so much about the proposed halftime show and knew we didn’t want to watch that. I’ve seen some snippets since then and am so very glad I didn’t wast my time; I think it would have made me angry. So, at half time the Patriots were losing and not playing well enough to win, we turned it over to the TPUSA alternative halftime show. It was a decent show. After the halftime show was over we switched over to watch a movie. 

Yesterday Ms. Kate had two doctor’s appointments. First she went to her pain management doctor. He prescribed another medication that is supposed to help relax the nerves that are causing her back pain.  Then in the afternoon, she had to go to her cardiologist because she was fairly sure she is in AFIB. Her doctor is new to us and I think probably fairly new to the profession because she’s quite young. But she seemed to be thorough. She confirmed that Kate is in fact in AFIB. So that means scheduling another cardio version. Hopefully sooner rather than later. It seems as though we just go from one doctor to another but actually she had her last cardio version a little over a year ago so hopefully this will do the trick again for awhile. I really feel for her and hate that she has so many health issues and she gets so frustrated with it all. 

We are just 16 days from celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary. I am very excited about it because I feel it is a real life accomplishment. We received a two free nights offer from our local hotel/casino and we are going to take them up on it as a celebration. We also want to go to Cavanaugh’s for dinner which is a very upscale restaurant  at the casino. I think it will be a great couple of nights. It seems silly to stay at a hotel in your hometown but we made it 60 years by being silly. 

Okay, enough for today. Have a blessed week. Peace. 

 Thursday evening; where did the rest of the week go?? Well, it went with a bunch of “stuff” that we had to do. We’ve had some appointments to take care of. One of the things we had was to meet with our lawyer to do some estate planning. We have a will but the girls had said that we might want to consider putting our estate in a trust. So we met with a lawyer and were impressed with her and have decided to go with the trust. Of course we’ll not see the results because we will have passed on so I hope it all works well for them. 

Today I had a haircut appointment. My hair and beard had really gotten rough looking. I don’t think I have had it done since before Christmas. I feel so much better having it cut and the beard trimmed. I told my stylist (yes I go to a stylist. She is the lady that cuts Ms. Kate’s hair.)  that it even bothered me to sleep in the beard. I don’t know how people sleep with long beards. 

After my haircut we had to take Kate to get her blood work done. She has doctor’s appointments next week that require blood work prior to the appointment. One of her appointments is for her pain management and I think her doctor is going to be pleased with her progress. Her other appointment is for her heart. She has been in AFIB now for a couple of months and she finally got in touch with the right doctor. He changed one of her medicines and it appears that her heart rate has slowed back down to normal. But she needs to be seen and we were lucky that she was able to get an appointment this quickly. 

Other exciting events include me has a dental appointment to repair two teeth. It is amazing how exciting our lives are. I think most of our “friends” names begin with Doctor. 

Tomorrow Kate has her hair appointment. Then we will come home and probably do the laundry. (more exciting fun.) While we’re doing that Kate will probably work on Valentine cards and I will work on one of the sermons for the up coming Lenten season. 

That’s it. We’re hoping for some warmer weather but it won’t be here on Friday.  Forecasters say though that next week will be so much better. 

Have a great weekend if I don’t get back tomorrow. Peace. 

 Monday, February 2nd. I can’t believe I’m writing that date already. One whole month of 2026 is already gone. 

The temperature outside has risen to a balmy 32 degrees. I think it’s pretty bad when I celebrate getting up to freezing. But, this is the first day in eleven that we have gotten up that high. Heck, it might even go above freezing today. Wouldn’t that be something. 

I was supposed to preach at two churches yesterday, my former parish. Well, I did the 900 service at St. Paul’s but couldn’t do the 10:30 at St. Lucas because their parking lot still was clear enough to use. But a few of the St. Lucas folks did come up to St. Paul’s. It was really great to see everyone again. They are all good people and I feel like I’ve gone home for a visit when I go back for a service. Ms. Kate was going to go with me but I asked to not go because I was afraid that the parking lot might be too slippery for her to walk on and I didn’t want her to fall. In the past she has had two falls on that sidewalk and driveway and rally hurt herself during one of those falls. So, she agreed with me and stayed home. 

Today we have an appointment with a lawyer. We want to talk about whether we should put our money and estate in a trust for our kids to prophecy them from tax burdens later or just continue with our will. The girls all think we should put it in a trust but I really don’t know anything about a trust. But it is good to ask the questions because we aren’t getting any younger. I’ve known a lot of people that haven’t lived as long as I have. 

My kids and grandkids in North Carolina just got a heavy dose of winter. So they are dealing with between 4 and 10 inches of snow, depending where they live in that state. Guaranteed that they will have some messed up roads for a while. NC doesn’t have the snow clearing equipment like northern states have. I told my daughter that the closest thing they have to a snow plow is the sun. She and Gary are supposed to leave on a cruise to the Bahamas on Wednesday. I understand that the Bahamas are having  very cool weather too and there is no way I’d want to be on a ship during this kind of weather. A friend on mine is on a cruise and sent a Facebook post that said they were having 12 foot swells and it was difficult to walk on deck. No thank you very much!!!!!

That’s it for today. I pray you have a great week. Stay in touch with God on a daily basis. Peace. 

 I almost forgot to stop and write today. It’s been another day where we did things out of order. Ms. Kate normally has her hair appointment on Friday at 10:00 am. But she had it today because her hair dresser has a funeral tomorrow.  So, the snow storm has messed up all normal event s for the week and now today we had Friday’s events which will screw me up tomorrow. LOL

We didn’t do anything else today. I thought about maybe trying to go to breakfast but decided against. The roads are pretty good and where we went the roads had been cleared of snow. I hope it just keeps on getting better because I have to go up to Ft. Branch on Sunday. I’m preaching at both of my former churches on Sunday. I really looking forward to that and I don’t want the weather to come along and cause it to be cancelled. It will be wonderful to see the folks again, assuming they can get out of their driveways etc. It is supposed to be super cold this weekend so maybe it won’t actually snow again. This has been the winter that was predicted. I think next week is Groundhog Day. If that garment sees his shadow, it ‘s time to go hunting. 

That’s enough for today. Have a great night. Peace. 

 I am so very relieved. My driveway and sidewalk are cleared of snow. I was awake  most of the night wondering how I was going to get all of that snow off of it and finally this morning I put on my winter clotehes and walked over to the neighbor’s house and asked if their son’s might be interested in making some money by cleaning off my driveway. They could not have been nicer. I told them what I would be wiling to pay  and they didn’t want me to pay anything and said they would be right over and even apologized for not knowing I might need some help. Long story short, the dad and his two boys did come right over and it took them about an hour and a half and now it is clear and getting dry in the sunshine. I insisted on paying them what I said I would and the two boys were very thankful; (probably a new video game is coming.) I have several odd jobs in mind for young Lincoln, the oldest of the two boys. 

It is so great to have neighbors with kids that are willing to help. I have lived in this neighborhood 25 years and this is the first time I have seen any kids willing to help. They are all too busy being run to this or that activity or they are in the house playing video games etc. So, these neighbors are new and they dad and mom both said that we can call on them any time we might need some help. 

It’s very hard for me to ask anyone for help. I think I get that from my dad who always said “Do your own work. Don’t expect anyone else to do it for you.”  We were to be the one who helps other people, and that is just the way I am. 

I’m told that the roads in the subdivision are still terrible but that the main roads are okay. Luckily we don’t have to be anywhere till at least Thursday. 

So, with that worry off of my mind, guess who is going to take a much needed nap this afternoon?? THIS GUY!!!!! 

Have a blessed day. Stay safe and stay warm. 

 A few days ago I was grousing because it was 14 degrees outside. I apologize Mr 14, would you please come back? It was 3 degrees outside there this morning. That is unacceptable. —-And on top of that we have a foot of snow on the ground. This is the second largest snow storm this area has had this century. In 2004 we had 22 inches. Having said that, —- we were very fortunate, There are a couple of million people without power today because they got a lot of ice and wind which is a dangerous combination.

This is the Backyard Buffet and as you can see, the feeders have been cleaned out and with a foot of snow out there they will just have to wait a while. If I am going to spend time pushing snow, it will be out front so we can get out of the driveway. 

There was a snow plow truck that went down our street yesterday afternoon but I haven’t seen any cars go by at all. My next door neighbor to the north cleared his driveway yesterday afternoon. He has young boys and I saw one of them out there shoveling. I may put my boots on and go see if his son wants to make some money by shoveling my driveway. I don’t have their phone number so I’ll have to walk over. That sounds like a Brrrrrrrr idea. I know I always rely on my JD to move the snow around here b it first of all, the bade isn’t on the JD and even if it was, it wouldn’t be much help moving this stuff. I’d just end up in a bigger fix with a lawnmower stuck in the snow in the middle of my driveway. 

That’s enough for today. Since we’re snowed in, it’s a good day to get the laundry done.

Have a wonderful day, Stay safe, stay warm, and give God thanks for a beautiful world. Peace. 

 Good morning! I am just running through and dropping a note. The anticipated snow storm has arrived and it is really coming down and the wind is whipping. If is goes as predicted, this is just phase one and should amount to two or three inches. Then tonight the “real storm” hits us and will continue through much of the day tomorrow. I’m hearing all kinds of wild predictions. The latest said maybe 21 inches. I don’t believe that at all. I still think we’ll get a foot which is bad enough. But my weather guy did hit the “start time “ right on target. 

Y’all stay safe out there.