It’s Wednesday and it is the last day of January 2024. I recall a year ago thinking that I only had 11 more months until I retired and now, here I am, already retired for a full month.  I wonder, am I supposed to have anything to show for that? If so, I failed because I can’t say I have anything to show for it. One day has gone by just like the one before it. We go from doctor appointment to doctor appointment for Ms. Kate waiting for a surgery date. We thought and hoped we would have her surgery out of the way before Christmas but as you know, that didn’t happen. But, we have all of our part of the deal complete, she has all of her clearances and the thing we’re waiting for now is word back from the family doctor on how he wants her to handle her Coumadin prior to the surgery. Certainly she has to be off it or risk “bleeding out” during surgery. The options as I understand it are that she goes off of the medicine for “x” number of bays to get it out of her system or we do what is called a bridge by me giving her Lovenox shots. But waiting for an answer is frustrating. Today we have to take her in for blood work again. (Sigh)

Kate and I went out to dinner last evening. It was the first time we have done that in I don’t know how long. We went to St. Joe Inn for some good “tavern food”. The special was fried chicken and their fried chicken is better than a lot of places. Combine that with some good German Fried potatoes, homemade bread, green beans, fried mushrooms and Cole slaw and it is a meal that is hard to beat. We so seldom go out to eat, mainly because Kate is  the “drive-thu and pick it up” queen. She has had to really watch what and how much she eats for over a year now so going out to a sit down restaurant just is not worth the time and money. When we fix food here at home she will eat a few bites and then is done. And she doesn’t like left-overs. It has not been fun fixing meals here for the past year. But, the “good side “of things is that we have both lost some weight and we needed to do that.

I have started several writing projects. I’m not sure what they will turn out to be. They might be sermons for some future use or they might just end up as files for someone to delete from my computer when I’m dead. But, I get these things running through my head and I write them down. Who knows, one of them could turn into a book eventually. 

With that —- I’m done for today. Have a wonderful day. Take time to give thanks to God for your blessings. Peace. 

 “Rode hard and put away wet”. That’s a saying from when I was a kid. It was generally used when a person was coming down with a cold or they had been outside doing hard labor all day and then come in and plop down in their favorite chair. Or it could be used to describe how a person might feel after they got a Shingrix shingles vaccine and a RSV vaccine on the same day. I fall into that category. But — I’m glad to say that it isn’t anything that a coulee of Tylenol can’t handle. I got to feeling a little rough last evening about 12 hours after the shots and I took a-couple of Tylenol and it gave me a fairly good night’s rest. This morning I started getting a headache and my arms and muscles were sore. But I’m glad to say that another two Tylenol quickly took care of it; —- ah and a nap also helped. 

It is a sunny/cloudy day and is currently 46 degrees with little breeze which makes it an okay day. It rained enough earlier this morning to get everything wet, maybe a tenth of an inch. That’s supposed to end our rain chances for the remainder of the week. Tomorrow I will go out and fill all of the bird feeders again and the yard dries out a bit. Don’t want to bring a bunch of mud in on Kate’s floor. 

This afternoon I have to take Kate to the Heart Group for a Doppler Carotid Artery test. This is an annual thing she has to do. It doesn’t take long and is non-invasive. We will go back next week for consultation withe the doctor. We are still waiting on word from from the surgeon’s scheduler on a date. I kow it hasn’t taken as long as it seems it has but waiting is stressful. 

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

 Hello Monday, my old friend’ I’m glad to see you once again. ( Should I sing that to you? I think it would be done like the beginning to a Simon and Garfunkel song.) Actually, I know a lot of people hate to see Monday morning come around but when you are retired and have nothing on the calendar it is just another day. 

How was your weekend? We had a good weekend. It rained all weekend as you know but that just makes for good reading days or good writing days. Yesterday we went to church at our home church. It is the first time that we have gone back since I retired. I have “gone” to that church since I was adopted at the age of five years. I was baptized and then confirmed at Zoar Church. However, to say I have “gone” to that church is not the same as saying I have attended that church. In reality, I have been away from my home church far more than I have actually attended it. Being gone for 32 years with the Air Force and then serving as pastor of the Ft. Branch churches for a total of 17.5 years has taken us out of the Zoar pews for long periods of time. But —- whenever we came home on leave or I had a vacation Sunday, or during the other periods when we were living in Evansville, I, and then we, —— attended Zoar; and I love my home church. It sits on 19 beautiful partially wooded acres, and the church. is simplistically aesthetically beautiful. I always feel so very at peace when I go and sit in that sanctuary.   Speaking of returning to Zoar, Ms. Kate and I got such a warm reception when we walked into the sanctuary. The smiles and hugs were wonderful. The Zoar congregation has always been so very supportive of me and my ministry. 

Today I went to Walgreens and got my shingles vaccine and my RSV vaccine. I found out that my last shingles vaccine was taken way too long ago, well over a decade, and was “the old style” and even when new had been only 50% effective; which I paid almost $400.00 out of pocket for a vaccine that was only 50% effective.   So, I got a “new first shot” of the new Shingrix vaccine today and will have to go back in 3-6 months for my next one. The new vaccine is 90% effective. I got the RSV vaccine too because it was recommended by my doctor. All of us “old people” are supposed to get it. With my asthma, I don’t need to take any chances of coming down with a pulmonary infection. Old dudes and toddlers die from that and I still have plans. The nurse said I may experience fatigue and some soreness but so far, I’m doing fine. 

That’s enough for today. I pray you will have a blessed week. The weather is supposed to be a bit more pleasant than it has been the last week or so. When you step outside and it is a nice day, —- look up to the Creator and Giver and give thanks. Peace. 

 Wow, is it really Wednesday?? My blogs and the urge to write a blog seem to get further apart all the time.  Maybe that’s because there is nothing on the daily calendar except for taking Kate to the doctor or going to the grocery store. Feeding the birds keeps me with one extra small thing to do, but that’s about it.  

So, what have I been doing since last entry ???? It has snowed at least once and I got out and shoveled the driveway. I didn’t use the John Deere because I haven’t gotten the blade put on yet, but that was fine. My snow shovel made easy work of it because the snow was light and fluffy and this way I got in some “steps” for my exercise. Yesterday and today and probably again tomorrow we have had rain. Nothing heavy, but still rain. And it brought  some warm weather with it. It was in the mid fifties already when I got up this morning. 

I started on a new Stephen King Novel, I think maybe Sunday evening. Monday afternoon I read for awhile and then yesterday I spent the entire day reading, and finishing that book. It was rely a good read. That book has been sitting on the table beside my sunporch recliner for probably a year untouched. But now that I’m retired, I may have to learn new ways to relax. I do have another SK novel sitting here waiting on me to “crack the binding” and get started on it. And I have pre-ordered King’s next novel that will be released in April. 

But for today ——— It’s laundry day. What fun! What excitement! 

Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Happy Saturday. I think we are up to maybe 8 degrees by now today. But it isn’t going to get to more than the mid-teens. But, I have no place to go so it is no big deal. We had another 3/4 of an inch of snow Thursday night but it again was a “dry snow” and was easily removed. I think I maybe spent an hour yesterday morning pushing the snow off of the driveway. I wanted it all off before we drove on it and picked it down. 

Yesterday, we met with Ms. Kate’s surgeon and the discussion was good. If everything continues as it seems to be going now —- we are looking at the middle of February for her surgery. She has to have another appointment with her heart doctor next week. The last one was when they discovered she was in A-Fib and she had to have the cardioversion. But, she is doing well now and we expect no problem.  The only hold up is a required minimum amount of time to pass after the cardioversion, which is 35 days. But the surgeon was satisfied with what he saw. We are so anxious to maybe get this all over with. 

I have a had a lot of visitors at the Backyard Buffet. I had to do a refill on some of the feeders. The starlings are just a bunch of greedy grabbers. Certainly not my favorite birds but I remind myself that they must serve some purpose on the earth or God would not have made them. 

Time to go make a pot of vegetable soup. Have a great weekend . Peace. 

 A chilly 10 degrees good morning to you. However, the sun is shining and the temperature is supposed to rise to almost 30 degrees today. That is a heatwave. And it is supposed to be that way again tomorrow except that by evening we may be getting some snow of some amount. It won’t be anything major, maybe an inch, but I’m not anxious for it because this time it will be a “wetter snow” and the temperature is supposed to drop back to the low 20’s on Friday. It has been some weird weather all across the nation. One could almost say that we were getting the “good weather” here. Else where they are having snow by the foot or they are having tornadoes and other strong storms. My daughter Heather and her husband went over to Star, Idaho where they built a new home and they got almost a foot of snow. Being from Southern California, they were thrilled, but none of their new neighbors were quite as happy about it. That region usually get maybe 24 inches for an entire winter season and they got a foot in one snowfall. My grandson, Josh and his family live up in New Hampshire and they posted picture of them all going snowmobiling and it looked like they were having a blast. Oh to be young again. 

I got all of the snow we had cleared off of the driveway and the sidewalks on Tuesday. The snow we got was only about 1/4 of an inch and it was light and fluffy. So, I took the leaf blower out there and got it all cleaned off. I wanted to do that before we drove on it and packed it down by driving on it. But I will end up shoveling the next one I suspect, since it is supposed to be wetter. Or maybe, since we don’t have a lot of places to go, I’ll just leave it. It is supposed to get back to normal temperatures of 41degrees next week. 

Today we are meeting Brenda and Andy for lunch at St. Joe Inn. It is a tradition we started many years ago with her mom and dad. We meet for lunch and have a great visit, some fried mushrooms and a pitcher of beer. 

Kari is here this morning to clean the house so we are going to head out shortly and get out of the way. I hope you have a blessed day. Stay warm and pray for those folks who don’t have the warm home to go to like you do. We had a homeless man die of hypothermia here in town. He had been offered a place in a shelter but reused it. Maybe he thought it was just his time to lay down and give up on living; I don’t know. But, may his soul Rest In Peace.

And my God grant you peace today. 

 January 15th; the month is half over. 2024 is now on a roll. It is 4 degrees outside and does not promise to do a lot better today. I think 16 is the goal for today; and the same for tomorrow. By Thursday I think it is supposed to reach 32 but then drop off again on Friday. And —- it snowed. Not a lot; just enough to maybe make the driveway slick. I will put my “winters” on in a bit and see if I can use the leaf blower to blow it all off. I went outside a while ago to put some stuff in the garbage can and it was COLD!!! I didn’t stay out there long. 

My Backyard Buffet is still “the place to be” according to “Aviary Weekly”, if that was a thing. The Starlings and Robins are still the main visitors but we have plenty of Cardinals and other small birds like Juncos, Chickadees, Bluebirds, and a couple of Doves. The Starlings spend more time fighting over the feeders than they do actually eating. I don’t actually care, they are all fun to watch. 

We only have a couple of things on the calendar this week. We were going to go to the clinic for another blood draw for Kate today but we decide to wait until tomorrow. Then on Friday we meet with her surgeon. Hopefully we can get a better idea of her surgery date. We are both so anxious to get this done with. So far, the cardioversion she had last week seems to be doing what it was supposed to do. 

So, that’s it for today. Stay warm and if you must go out, stay safe. Peace. 

 Good morning on this wet, sloppy, soggy morning. It has been raining since midnight but we have only gotten about 3/4 of an inch so far. But it is supposed to continue to rain through the day. And — as the day progresses, the temperatures will continue to drop. And, —- as I look at the rest of the country, we have the good weather. At least here we don’t have a blizzard like they do up north or tornadoes like they do down south. So, no matter where you are reading this —- your weather sucks too. Just be safe y’all. My son-in-law, Jim says he is planning to come over to put the snow blade on my John Deere tomorrow. Maybe that will be our “defense against the snow-gods” and will keep us from getting any. 

This haas been a pretty good week for Ms. Kate. She has actually felt pretty good the past couple of days and has been able to eat what she wants to. She has more energy. That tells me that the cardioversion obviously did her some good. We are both thrilled about that. We also give God praise for giving people the knowledge and skills to perform such things. God uses all of us in some way to do his work if we just allow ourselves to be His instruments. 

That’s it for today. Stay dry and stay out of the cold if you can. Peace. 

 Tuesday afternoon. Second day of the week and second doctor’s visit. But —- at least this is the last doctor’s appointment for this week. Our next scheduled appointment is in the last half of next week; and that will be with her surgeon. So, we feel like we are making some progress. Yesterday’s appointment was for a cardioversion appointment to shock her heart back into rhythm. It is interesting that it takes about 40 minutes to get her all set up for them to do the test. Then they “put her out” and do the procedure and it takes less than ten minutes, and they wake her up again. The designed result is that she should have more energy because her heart isn’t pumping at an unreal pace. The downside is that she isn’t supposed to have her surgery for at least 30 days after the cardioversion. So, we’ll see how it goes. 

We’re having a rainy day today which is a really good thing. We are in a mild to severe drought so this rain is a real blessing. What isn’t a blessing is the wind and storm that is supposed to happen yet this evening and night. We could be getting 30-40 mph gusts. However, it seems all of my girls are also looking at some bad weather at their locations. North Carolina family is looking at storms and maybe even a tornado. California kids are looking at wind and rains and colder then normal temperatures. Joshua up in New Hampshire is shoveling more snow than he wants. So, maybe we are in the sweet spot at least until the weekend. Next week we are looking at the possibility of snow an maybe ice. Not fun! But Jim is coming over on Saturday morning and wil put the snow blade on for me. And —- I went out and bought two 40 lb bags of ice melt, before thee rush starts at the first snow flake. 

So, that’s it for today. Have yourself a great week. Peace. 

 Saturday morning and it is a misty 37 degrees outside. Not going to be a very inviting day at all. Long range forecasts show us to be going through several days of on and off rainy weather. But, we actually need rain. We are below average and it doesn’t look like we will be getting any or at least not very much of the snow that is going to sweep across the country this weekend and next week. But then I don’t want any snow because I don’t have my blade on the JD yet. 

We’re finally getting the appointments lined up for Ms. Kate. She has to be at Gateway Hospital at 0800 on Monday for her cardioversion. It is a two and a half hour appointment but hopefully when she is done, she will have a lot more energy. Then Tuesday she has an appointment with our family doctor’s Nurse Practitioner. Then on the 19th, she sees the surgeon again, although she is supposed to wait for the surgery until 30 days after the cardioversion. This whole things is really dragging out. 

In the meantime, I made a good pot of beef-vegetable soup yesterday and an excellent Meyer Lemon pound cake. I am expanding my cooking repertoire Of course I spend a good amount of time asking Kate how to do stuff. I also went to my local Neighborhood Walmart and did the grocery shopping. I didn’t think I had bought much until it was time to pay the bill. It doesn’t take long to jump past the hundred dollar mark these days and that was without buying any meat. One of the things that I bought that really shocked me was cottage cheese. They had a large size container of it and it was $17.00. I certainly didn’t buy it but that really shocked me. 

Well, that’s it for today. Have a great weekend. This is my first weeekend of retirement and my first time not preaching (except for vacation) in a very long time. It does feel strange. Peace. 

 January 4th of this brand new year. Time is weird all of a sudden. It seems like it was forever ago that I retired and it hasn’t been a week yet. And yet, I keep thinking that I need to get things done for this coming Sunday to prepare for the services. Sigh; I reckon I’ll get my brain straightened out soon enough. 

Our week has been busy with doing stuff for Ms. Kate of course. She had an appointment yesterday to meet with her heart doctor’s Nurse practitioner to get a pre surgery EKG and get signed off so she could have the surgery. Instead, they quickly determined that she is in AFIB again. So this morning we went for blood work and now we are waiting for lab results and for someone to call and give us an appointment date  for her heart cardioversion.  We have an appointment next Tuesday with our family doctor’s FNP and then another appointment with her surgeon on the 19th. It’s just one thing and then another. We know the surgery can’t happen now until 30 days after the cardioversion. So it all just continues to drag out. It does tend to get depressing. 

In the meantime, the most exciting thing in our lives is watching birds at feeders and bird baths. Although, I did take down the Christmas tree. That was a real “hoot”. LOL

Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Good morning and Happy 2024. It is the first day of a new month and the first day of a new year. I pray that 2024 will be a much better year for Ms. Kate than 2023 was. 

I am officially retired. After 32 years of service to the nation and another 20 years of service to the church, I woke up this morning with absolutely nothing and no “out of the house” obligations on my plate. I have been looking forward to this day for the past year and now that it has arrived, I’m not really sure how I feel about it all. It’s way too early in the game to try to figure out what I’m going to do with myself to keep busy. Granted, I have a self generated list of things that I want and need to do around here but that is just “putzing” around doing “make work”. But it will get me to Spring when it will be lawn and garden time again.  My first priority of course is to take care of Ms. Kate. We have doctor’s appointments lined up through the end of the month, that will culminate with surgery. Our thoughts now are that her surgery will probably be the first week of February; although she has been having several issues that could move the date forward. We’re planning a call to the surgeon’s office tomorrow to discuss these issues. 

We had a really full church yesterday for my last service. I felt very honored. It was wonderful to have two of my daughters and a son-in-law there for the service. Ms. Kate was just not up to the task. I was also honored that my friend and mentor was there. As a faith community/family we shared a lot of love yesterday. It will seem really strange to not make that trip up to Ft. Branch any time soon. However, I can still watch their services via Facebook. I’m not really supposed to return to the church any time soon but Facebook will keep me informed as to how they are doing. And several people do read this blog, so they can keep up with what is going on my the life of Ms. Kate and me. 

That will bring you up to date on me. I celebrated New Year’s Eve by doing laundry. Having had company for the past ten days, it was starting to back up a bit. I’m finishing the last load in the dryer right now so we can start the new year off all neat and shiny!!!  I did the same thing with my soul too by starting the year off with a prayer of gratitude and a request for guidance through the upcoming year. Peace my friends; May God bless you and guide you as you start out on  another year of adventures.