It’s “Hump Day” again already. Can you believe that? But the great news is that we are above freezing and heading to 57 degrees today. And to add to the happiness, we might even hit 80 degrees on Sunday. That would be super. 

Kate and got our “run around” done yesterday so we have nothing on the schedule today. That will give me time to go over my sermon for this Sunday. I know it is done but I always end up “tailoring” them at the last moment with an extra word here or there or maybe even delete a word or phrase that I thought important when I wrote it but now seem unneeded. 

I “did a thing” yesterday. Sunday Kate mentioned that she couldn’t find her white gold earrings that she wanted to wear. So, she thought that maybe we could go to Sam’s and see if they had any that she might like. I told her at the time to just let me worry about that. She told me to just be sure it was white gold, and maybe even diamonds, and laughed about that. So yesterday, we had to pick up a prescription at Walgreens and just a block up from Walgreens is a nice jewelry store I have used in the past and like them. I went to Walgreens and picked up her prescription and then over to Droste’s To see what they might have in earrings. I didn’t see anything that really struck my eye and I asked the lady about diamond earrings. I recalled that our 60th anniversary was called the Diamond Anniversary. Well, I found one that I liked and it was only about ten times what I had hoped to spend when I walked in there, but —- she is now wearing new diamond and white gold earrings. Hey, she’s put up with my butt for 60 years, which means she has more than earned those earrings.  I love spoiling her. 

I need to go out and se if I have any asparagus today. I went out yesterday and there were a couple of stalks up but they were wilted and useless because of the could weather. Hopefully today there will be more since it has warmed up some. 

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

 Well, here we are, Monday the 16th of March. Remember those warm and balmy days we had a few days ago?  Where it was almost warm enough to work outside in short sleeved shirts??? Well they sure aren’t here today! It is 3:00 pm and I think we have reached our “high” for the day and it is 32. But —- tonight it will go down to 17. We had our part of a weird winter storm come through last evening around 6:00 pm. Winds were gusting up to 65mph, verified at the airport. This thing is literally sweeping the nation from west to east. Tomorrow won’t be much better and then on Wednesday, the temperature starts rising and we are back to spring weather.  That’s a good thing because Saturday is the first day of Spring. But what a weird winter we have had. And —— we are the lucky ones with this particular pattern, the upper part of the country is getting a foot of snow. 

How was your weekend? I got my tomato seeds planted in their little pots to start germinating, or maybe I told you that. They are under a “grow-light” in the sunroom. That room isn’t heated so I’m sure it is chilly enough to slow germination, hence the grow-light. But for other gardening news, I picked asparagus this weekend and my potatoes are sprouting through the ground. I’m not worried about this cold snap. They will be fine. I can’t say the same for all of my beautiful daffodils. They really look sad today. 

I got the opportunity to preach yesterday at Christ Church down on Washington Ave. The congregation is an elderly congregation and attendance was maybe twenty five. But the service went well. They are without a pastor. I don’t know how long they have been without a pastor and with a congregation that small they will have a hard time getting a new one. So, they rely on “supply pastors”, retired guys like me to come in. Luckily they seem to have a dedicated team of “elders” to keep things running.They would like to find an interim so they could have some consistency and frankly, I would love to take the job but it is just too much at this point in my life. I’m preaching there the next two weeks. 

That’s about it for today. Try to stay warm til the sun comes back out! Peace. 

 Friday the 13th and it has been a busy morning and day so far. We got Kate to her Doppler appointment on time this morning. It didn’t take very long because there was no student involved in the process. Deaconess is a teaching hospital so they often have students involved in whatever process you’re having. For today’s Doppler testing it would have taken at least twice as long for a student to do the test. Granted they have to learn, so I never mind because the teaching is done one on one. 

Anyway, since she was done so quickly we went o the donut shop and picked up a couple of donuts and went home for donuts and coffee. Then we went to our appointments, Kate to hair appointment and me top get my toenails trimmed. I do that every four weeks. If I don’t they get really ingrown and it hurts like the dickens to get them back in order. 

So, I checked on my potatoes this morning and I have potatoes plants sticking their noses through the ground. They are of course a couple of month from getting to dig them but it is good to see them up. And —— I cut my first asparagus today!!! But, while these “spring-like” things are happening, we are getting another blast of winter coming in starting Sunday evening. Monday night is supposed to get down to 16 degrees and Kate just told me that Minnesota and Wisconsin are looking at maybe getting as much as two feet of snow over the weekend. That would totally suck. 

Well that’s my news of the day. I hope you have a very blessed weekend. Don’t forget we are in the middle of the Lenten season. Take time to have good conversations with God. Peace, my friends. 

 

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.