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.