June 30th; the year of 2026 is officially half over today. That's a little hard to believe isn't it? How has your year gone so far? Have you accomplished any of the things you planned to do this year? It has been a good year for me and Ms. Kate so far. Our health is holding out, mine much better than Kate's. Next week she is to have a cardio ablation to hopefully get her out of AFIB for the foreseeable future. If that doesn't work, then I guess the next step is a pacemaker. Although, she was hearing something about an AI procedure to address AFIB. I guess we will be reading up on that. I didn't hear it but I will certainly check in to it. 

Any way, the highlight of 2026 so far is our vacation that we took down to Tennessee and getting to be with all of the family except for Lauren and Jon. I have said it a hundred times that I really envy all of our friends that have their families living close. I hope they appreciate it too. 

This year we celebrated our 60th anniversary in February and on June 16th we celebrated our 64th year anniversary of our first date. Man oh man, have we come a long way since that first date and even since our wedding day. We have tucked a lot of adventures, love, and miles into that envelope and I'm asking God to give us a few more. 

I bought a new laptop computer last week. My old one would no longer take updates because the system was too old and updates were no longer available. They quit serving Windows 10 last October. My old one only had a 12 inch screen and this new one has a 15 inch screen. Much easier on my almost 82 year old eyes. BTW, I'm only 20 days away from being 82 now. Who would have thunk it. But here I am looking for vacation spots for the next two years. Hopefully Kate and I both will still be kicking that long. 

We're in a major heat wave all across this country. Our heat index is to be 105 today and the same for the rest of the week on into Monday of next week. It is going to be a hot 4th of July. People will drink too much trying to stay hydrated and not realize that drinking alcohol has the opposite effect on you in hot weather. It just makes you thirstier. Of course, I'm not saying don't drink booze, I'm just saying that you won't get the desired impact you are looking for.  

That's enough for today. I need to put some thoughts together for a couple of sermons that I have coming up. Have a blessed week. God bless America.