Happy end of the work-week to you! This is the day that people are anxious to have come to a close so they can get on to the weekend. I was once told, and it bears some amount of merit, that when a person is making a major purchase such as a n appliance or a car that they should ask what day the item came off of the assembly line. If it came off the line on a Monday or a Friday, don’t buy it because workers are more distracted on those two days and pay less attention to their job. There is also more absenteeism on those two days so people unfamiliar with the task end up filling in. Having worked on assembly lines in my past, I’d say there is some validity to the argument. —- Wow! That was a real “Seinfeld moment” about nothing wasn’t it??

Blustery and thirty nine degrees this morning; good November weather. It is supposed to go up to fifty four or so today but unless the sun comes out, it will still feel pretty chilly out there. Yesterday I went out and dug out the okra plants and go rid of those. I would have worked longer but I got chilled out there. Normally I don’t get cold to speak of but my hands do. The gloves I have aren’t built really for cold. They are just good leather work gloves. I may have to do a little bit of shopping for something warmer. The problem I find is that when I get warmer gloves, they are thicker and harder to do things with. But, if the temperature does go up today I want to go out and finally get the four o’clocks pulled up. I still haven’t done that and they really look ugly out there in front of the house. And, if it doesn’t warm up —- I may just have to quit being a wuss! We are due for some storms tomorrow so today needs to be the day to get some stuff done.

But —- before I do anything outside today, Ms. Kate and I are meeting Bob & Brenda & Karen at St. Joe Inn for Mushrooms and beer and lunch. It has been Three weeks or so and it is time for our monthly gathering with good food and good conversation.

I look around at the feeders and see that I have a job to do out there too. It appears that most of the feeders are empty. Last night Ms. Kate and I each had a bowl of popcorn for an evening snack. She didn’t finish hers so I threw it out the back door figuring that the birds would clean it up pretty quick today. Well, — the birds never got to see it. I was sitting in the sunporch around midnight listening to music and there at the back door was a fat possum just eating popcorn like it had paid for it. I just watched it and didn’t dother it. I don’t mind having a possum around here. They eat all kinds of things that we don’t want around here including mosquitos and voles and other bugs. And, they are so dang ugly that they are almost cute.

Time to get the jacket on and head out for “Schrooms & Beer.” I pray you will have a most wonderful Friday. Peace.

What is up with this gloomy and cloudy day?? The weather dud said sunny and a litle warmer today but that doesn’t look very promising. It is currently 35 degrees out there. Not that my buffet friends seem to mind very much. My guests this morning include  a lot of finches and sparrows, three or four cardinals at the moment, a couple of wood peckers and of course, a couple of squirrels. At least the fuzzy tailed rats aren’t over running the place like they did yesterday. I don’t know what was up with the squirrel convention in my yard yesterday.

I think today, if the ground dries out just a bit more, I may run my lawn mower over my back yard one last time and then put it in the shed, and pull the battery for the winter. Actually I have a cover for it so I may just pull them battery and leave it covered. I can barely get the thing in my shed. I could rearrange my garage and drive it around and put both John Deere’s in the garage but —— then there would be a death in the family and it would be mine because Ms. Kate would shoot me. You know how people say “You got another think coming”? Well, I better use my other “think” about this situation.

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is one week from today. Ms. Kate has the turkey bought and it is in the freezer. I’ll probably take it out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator on Tuesday so it can start thawing. I guess it will just be Ms. Kate and me and Julie and Jim for the Thanksgiving meal. I just sent an invitation out to Karen but she may be having all of her family over. We’ll see what happens. I have no idea what else Ms. Kate will want to fix. I always count on her to make at least a small bowl of oyster dressing, which means I need to make sure I can get some fresh oysters. I do love that. I’m not much on cranberry sauce of any kind. But, I have no doubt there will be mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, rolls, corn, maybe some green bean casserole, and maybe an apple pie. Ms. Kate is the best cook I know which accounts for the sixty pounds I have gained in the last fifty one years.

I think that is about it for today my friends. Have a wonderful Thursday. Try to make it your best day of the week so far. Then come on back for Friday and the beginning of your weekend. Peace.

Yesterday was fairly bright and sunny and I had to spend the entire morning in a meeting. And while the meeting was somewhat interesting and somewhat productive, it doesn’t equate to a morning of watching my back yard buffet guests. Today, on the other hand, is rainy and cloudy and gloomy. However, I’m still having an eventful morning in the back yard. For some reason, I seem to be having a squirrel convention at the buffet. There’s a minimum of ten squirrels in my back yard right now. They are on feeders, on branches, on the ground chasing one another. I don’t think I have ever had this many squirrel in my yard and at my feeders at one time. I just opened the sliding door and fired off six or seven shots with my BB gun and I think I only missed hitting one of them one time. But, they have gone high in the trees or over to a neigbor’s tree for the time being. And —- as soon as they left, the birds began swooping in to eat. Unfortunately, give the squirrels five minutes and they will be back. If I ever wanted squirrel for lunch, this would be the day to have it. (Yuk). I’ve had squirrel; it doesn’t taste like chicken, I don’t care what anybody says. 

I think it is amazing that the birds and mystupid squirrels all just seem to be impervious to the fact that is it raining like crazy. They fly though it with ease and sit and eat like it is a sunny day. I guesss their drive for food over rides every other drive. I assume they have no concept of it raining or being cold  or whatever. I think God designed them so that their bodies simply adjust to the conditions. If they are cold, they fluff up their fur or their feathers automatically and there is no thought process to it. And, when I stop to think about that I just never cease to be amazed at the complexity of God’s world and the creatures God has created. How anyone could try to remove the concept of Devine intervention and design from our existence and claim this is all accidental evolution is beyond me. As I and so many other s have repeatedly said, —- “Yes, their may have been a Big Bang —- but God lit the match with purpose and power., 

It has stopped raining for a few minutes and Ms. Kate wants me to put something in the mailbox so I’m dropping off for today. I think I will spend the day either reading or writing or maybe a bit of both. It’s gloomy outside so light up the world with your love!  Peace. 

Forty two seems to be the going rate for morning temperatures these days with the exception of last week’s cold snap. It is forty two again this morning and the sun is breaking through a quasi-cloudy day. The leaves are still, what is left of them and my chimes aren’t moving or ringing so I’d say it is calm. Looking around outside I see I need to go to the shed and start filling bird feeders again this morning and I also need to get the leaf blower out and blow off the sidewalks again and take the leaves out of the bird baths. But for the moment, I’m having my coffee and a bagel and enjoying this beautiful day God has given me. 

Welcome to Monday! Welcome to the start of another week. I wonder what the week will hold for us. Obligation wise I have a Pastor’s Circle meeting tomorrow and then Ms. Kate and I are meeting Bob and Brenda for mushrooms and beer at lunch time on Friday. Beyond that, my calendar looks clear, unless some kind of issue comes up at the church. I’m filling in for the pastor this week. I went to the funeral home yesterday to pay respects to a member of the church whose father passed away. I didn’t know the man and barely have met the member, but Pastor Art would have gone so I went. 

I started reading a new book last evening and made it through about the first two thirds before I had to put it down and go to bed. It is called; “Love, Skip, Jump; Start Living the Adventure of “Yes”. It is by a lady named Shalene Bryan and it is one of those books you would find on the bargain book table. I borrowed it from the lady who teaches our Sunday school class; I don’t know where she bought it. But has been marked down from its original price $4.00. My friends, if you can find a copy somewhere, buy it. It will be the bargain of a lifetime. Simple synopsis; it relates her adventures of saying “yes” to God and you can just feel the joy in her heart. I’m going to finish it today.

I think that is about for this morning. It is time to get my day rolling and be a bit productive before I sit back down in my recliner and finish reading my book. I hope your week has started off right. If it hasn’t, stop, take a deep breath, have a word with God, feel God strength as it lifts you up, and press on. The challenges will still be there but they go so much easier when you don’t try to face them alone. Shalomn.  

If birds can be happy, I think mine are this morning. While two of the bird baths were frozen over, the electric one provided a nice spa experience for them this morning. By now the temperature is up to forty so the other two have their ice melted, but the birds were literally in a ring around the lip of the electric one this morning.

We lost our cable connection yesterday afternoon. The neighbor two doors down has a major sewer line problem and had an escalator company out there working. They cut the main feed for cable for a whole bunch of us. That meant we had no land line telephone, no internet, and no television cable! We were in the dark ages. Don’t they realize that a crisis like that could force families to actually have to converse face to face?? Well — Ms. Kate and I weren’t going to to be forced into a situation like that! We whipped out our IPhones and turned on the “hotspot” and used our IPads. Then we figured out that we didn’t need cable to play a DVD on the television. So we watched a movie.  No cable company is going to trick us into personal conversation.  I went to bed around 2330 and Ms. Kate said that the cable maintenance unit showed up around 0030 hours. So, we are back out of the dark ages.

I have had at least a dozen cardinals out here most of the morning. It has been a wonderful sight. The sunflower feeders that I filled a couple of days ago are half empty by now. I may need to top them off before the day is out. It is supposed to get cold again tonight and I want my critters to have plenty of food and water.

Ms. Kate wants to go to a Christmas Bazaar today that one of the churches is having. And we have to go to Mejier’s and get some groceries. We need to take a salad of some kind to the church potluck lunch tomorrow and need the fixings for that. And there are a couple of other things on the list to pick up. Starting tomorrow afternoon I’m covering for the pastor as he and his wife go on vacation to see the baptism of their granddaughter. I’ll be preaching the sermon next Sunday too. We have a couple of people in the hospital that I may need to visit this week too. It wil be like “old times” again.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I hope you will take the time to go to a house of worship. I personally find that starting the week out with worship and prayer just gets the new week prepared. So, I urge you to stop your life long enough to give God some time. Have a blessed week.

A couple of things became really obvious to me first thing this morning. First, I need to get the electric bird bath plugged in. There was a layer of ice on each if them when I looked out there and a couple of birds were trying to peck through it. With even colder temperatures predicted tonight, it is time to plug it in.  Secondly, — I’m not rushing outside to do anything today. It is still thirty nine degrees with a stiff wind. That spells cold, I don’t care what you say.

I did get my (okay, Ms. Kate’s) tulip bulbs planted yesterday. Assuming they come up, they will make a really nice display come spring time. I put fifty bulbs out. According to the directions, I planted them in exactly the right time of the year. Hopefully they will do well. We had planted that area with a lot of tulips several years ago but I think those build are all gone because I didn’t find any while I was digging.

If I have time today, I may go out and cut back and dig out the four-o’clock and the okra. They are both done for the season. And after we get the hard freeze tonight, they will just sit there and look ugly. Since the four-o’clock are by the front door and Christmas is coming we don’t want any ugliness by the front door. Dead flowers don’t make a very festive appearance.

Tomorrow we celebrate Veteran’s Day. I was just thinking about that and realized it was fifty two years yesterday that I started basic training at Lackland AFB. Wow! That made me feel old very quickly. But, looking back, I had a wonderful career that provided well for my family and created lives for our daughters that they would never have had if we had stayed around Evansville. I can’t even begin to imagine what my and our life would have been like. Andso, when I think of celebrating Veteran’s Day, I give thanks to God for looking after me and my family and for opening doors all along the way. And — I thank God for my family that followed along with me; albeit not always happily, as we moved from base to base making them rip apart friendships as we pulled up stakes here and moved to there and then did it all over again every two years or so. If you ask me — it is the families of service men and women who are the real veterans.

Ms. Kate has a “plan of action” for us today so I best get out of my recliner and get busy. Peace.

 There are satisfied squirrels and birds everywhere at the back yard buffet this morning. I filled the sunflower feeders and the bark butter feeders yesterday afternoon and they are all being well used. I have customers everywhere. The ground also looks to be moving once again with the junkos hopping around all over the place. And I have two squirrels that are either having a heck of a battle this morning or they are playing a vicious game of tag. I don’t know which. However, they have been up and down every tree in the yard several times and have circled this entire yard chasing one another back and forth. I suspect it is a territorial thing. I have another squirrel that is stretched out from the branch to the feeder. He is holding on to the branch with his back feet and the feeders with his front feet. And — he is trying to eat his way through the aluminum lid on the feeder to get to the sunflower seeds. It did the same thing yesterday fro almost 20 minutes and finally gave up. Of course, it didn’t even make a scratch on that lid. But, I must admire its determination.

It is a beautiful fifty two degree morning with a fairly stiff breeze. I cleaned up the leaves on the sidewalk and in the yard yesterday but the local maple trees are sharing their beauty with me once again not only by being beautiful but then landing in my yard so I can get a closer look. How nice of them. At least the leaves are much smaller than the leaves from my tulip poplar trees so they ate far less noticeable. Neighbor Dan, across the street has a soft maple in his front yard that is beautiful with all of its orange and yellow leaves. But his trees have lost a lot of their leaves now too so I went over while I had my lawn tractor out and used the mulcher blade on his yard too. Ms. Kate used to do a great job of mulching leaves out my my parent’s house. Dad had a Cub Cadet and there were six trees on the back hill. She would go out there and run that Cub over those leaves until they were practically powder. Dad liked to watch her out there and mentioned what a great job she was doing. Little did he know that she was doing the same thing that I do when I get on my John Deere; — enjoying the peace and quiet, and in her case, — avoiding having to have conversation with the in-laws. LOL

I didn’t plant the tulips yesterday because the ground was still a bit muddy. I’ll try again this afternoon and see if it is any better. It wasn’t terrible yesterday and I think it should be a bit better today. I need to get them in the ground though. And while I’m out there I can get some of the winter weeds dug out of the flowerbed. I suddenly have a rash of what I’ve always called wild cabbage. And I have a real mole problem out front in my yard. We’ve never had moles until the last couple of years and I really don’t know what to do about them. I need to get on Google and do some research.

that is about it for today folks. I need to get on with my day. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Peace.