This is a day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!! And glad we will be. The thermometer says it is thirty-nine degrees this morning. Our deep freeze weather pattern has at least temporarily broken.

The backyard buffet is running over with birds and squirrels this morning. I have seven squirrels out here this morning casing and running and eating and playing tag or some kind of squirrel game. It is hard to keep up with them. I just never cease to be amazed at the gyrations and contortions they put their bodies through to eat from these feeders. It is a good thing I don’t live in the country where I can shoot or we could have squirrel pie for days.

I also have at least a dozen Goldfinches out here which is more than I have seen at one time for quite awhile. Then of course there are the bullies of the neighborhood, the starlings. At the moment I only have four or five starlings but they are so busy chasing one another away from feeders that they hardly have time to eat. My other guests are three or four Cardinals, Downy Woodpeckers and Red-Headed woodpeckers. It appears though that I’m going to go out and fill a few of the feeders before the day is over. It’s good to know I won’t freeze my tilly off while I’m doing it.

Did you watch the “Golden Globe” awards on television last night? I did not. I had read that it was going to be a night of the stars each taking their turn protesting the sexist treatment of women. Articles this morning indicate that was in fact the case; a three and a half hour protest with each star bringing an activist. What a bunch of phonies. I guess if there was a bright spot it was that for the first time these same women came actually fully clothed without having their breasts and rear-ends hanging out of their dresses. I wonder how they think dressing like that isn’t inviting sexism in their industry.

Welcome to a new week. I hope your week is full of good things and joy. If you are reading tis then you obviously woke up this morning and are alive. Those facts alone are all blessings. Take time to give thanks for all of the blessing you have received and will receive this week. Then take time to share some of those blessings with others. Have a blessed day.

If it felt as good outside this morning as it looks, —- we’d be out there in short sleeve shirts firing up the grill. But despite the beautiful sunshine and not a cloud in the sky, — it is six degrees. And the steam us rising off of the bird bath; which I will have to fill again this morning.

Good morning! Happy Saturday. I hope your day has started out well and continues for the remainder of the day. My day almost always starts out as a good day because I determine that it will. I think that is the key to a happy life; simply determining that you are happy. I saw a thing on Facebook yesterday about a teacher that told her students that they were having a “pop quiz”. She gave them each a piece of paper and there were no questions on it, —- just a black dot in the middle of the paper. She asked them to describe what they saw. When they were finished she told them there was no grade for the test but then she went on to read what they had said. Every student had gone into great detail describing that black dot and not a single student said anything at all about the complete field of white that surrounded it. Her point was that the dot is like the small things that we focus on in life and we completely miss everything else that is going on around us. It is a good life lesson to learn.

We went to Wild Birds Unlimited yesterday and they had a sale going on. It still cost me $100.00 to restock my supply. I find that amazing because if anyone would have told me that I would be spending $100.00 on food for the birds I would have called them silly. But it happens every couple of months these days and oh by the way, I still need to go pick up sunflower seed. At least it is relatively cheap @ $18.00 for a 40# bag. And it gives me something to grumble about. If I didn’t love feeding and watching my birds I wouldn’t be doing it.

I’m sitting here in the sunporch with a light lap blanket over my legs, writing, and Ms. Kate just came out and brought me a coffee refill and a warm cranberry muffin. I have Andre Reiu playing on the Bose: —- I may be here for awhile. God is good, life is great and Ms. Kate is the love of my life; what else could a fellow ask for.  After awhile I will put my coat on and go top off feeders again and put more water in the bird bath. That is about as complicated as my life gets.

Tomorrow is my day of worship so I’m hoping the pending snow/winter mix will hold off until tomorrow evening. I don’t want to have to drive on slick roads. There was a day when that would not have bothered me at all but those days have gone by the wayside. I like to think that maybe I’m a bit smarter than I used to be. Until our next meeting, have a most glorious, love filled weekend. Peace.

It’s snowing this morning. Or maybe it is more correct to say that there are a few shoe flakes falling from the sky. One could almost count them as they fall, but it still makes for a nice winter picture. My Accuweather App says it is only going to last for another eighteen minutes so we’ll see how “accurate” Accuweather really is.

Red and black are the colors for the morning at the buffet. Red for the cardinals and black of course for those bully-birds, the Starlings. At the moment I have about a dozen starlings here fussing and fighting and pecking at one another and all the other birds too. The finches, sparrows, and other small birds try to sneak in and grab a seed or two before the starlings run them away. The bird bath is still full. I had to fill it twice yesterday because the starlings kept coming in and taking baths and splashing out all of the water. One time I looked out the kitchen window and there were four of them in there at once having a swim party.

Well, Accuweather has updated its forecast and now says “light snow for at least 120 minutes”. At this rate we might actually end up with a light dusting. That would be just fine too. Ms. Kate and I may venture out a little later in the day. I need to go to Pet Food Center for sunflower seed and. To Wild Bird and Things for the rest of my stuff. And we’ll most likely end up at Meijers for some groceries. —— No, we aren’t making a run on milk and bread because of snow. Although —- we could probably use a loaf of bread now that I think about it.

The big storm on the east coast has passsed and people are digging out I reckon. Unfortunately several people lost their lives in this one so I offer prayers for comfort to their families. There are always reports of so many house fires during weather like this. Because of space heaters being used incorrectly. I feel so sorry for folks that end up losing their homes and have no place to go. It is such a sad picture of them standing out in the snow watching the fire destroy everything. The hopelessness always is so predominant on their faces. I just pray they realize that God will continue to be there with them as they rebuild their lives.

Time to refill my coffee cup and maybe even fix a bagel, and I’ll check on the status of Ms. Kate’s coffee while I’m at it. I hope you have a wonderful day. It is Friday and the weekend starts today so I hope you have an opportunity to relax and enjoy it. Stop by your preferred house of worship this weekend. You and I have much to be thankful for and God would like to have us all come for a visit.  Peace.

Brrrrr @ three degrees and a wind chill of minus six this morning. I definitely have “fluffy birds” this morning. They are all puffed up allowing the air between their feathers to warm them up and keep them from freezing. Ms. Kate had a bunch of dinner rolls from the freezer that for what ever reason refused to rise. So, she went ahead and baked them and I tore them in to pieces and threw them out for the birds this morning. Now I have a whole bunch of different birds competing for them. They don’t seem to mind that the rolls didn’t rise.

I talked to daughter Lisa in North Carolina this morning. They had what the weather people are calling a “Winter Hurricane” go through their area, (it’s still going up the east coast) and dropped 2-4 inches of snow and ice on them. By winter standards elsewhere that isn’t all that bad. But North Carolina and those states are totally ill prepared to deal with that kind of weather since they get it so very seldom. She said the roads are terrible, especially any back roads and what does melt today will freeze on the roads tonight. We moved to North Carolina in January of 1988 to our new duty station at Pope AFB and they had two inches of snow and the girls were out of school for two weeks because of melt and re-freezing on the roads. What was amazing to us was that we had just left Massachusetts where we had two feet of snow in our yard and the kids were not missing a day of school.

I filled all of the sunflower seeed feeders last night and all but a couple of the bark-butter feeders. I ran out out of bark butter and a couple of other things. I knew I was getting low on some stuff but I didn’t stop at Wild Birds and Things yesterday while we were out. It’s not a problem though; they have plenty to eat. I also need to pick up another forty pound bag of sunflower seed. I think I need to declare my backyard a bird sanctuary so I can write off all of the food that I buy for them as a business expense. LOL At the moment I have a flock of Starlings here and you know how I feel about those guys. They are the nasty bullies of the neighborhood. They squawk and fight and peck at one another and at the other birds too. Once in a while a woodpecker or a Blue Jay will stand up and fight back but most of the time the Starlings win. They generally stay for about thirty minutes and them they move on. But with me having the only source of water now, they tend to stay around a little longer.

That is it for today. Stay warm and stay safe in this bone chilling cold. Take time to be thankful that you have a warm place to be. Peace.

Welcome to “frustration Wednesday”. Things have, I think, smoothed out now but I spent the morning with internet problems. The worst thing is that when I do get stuff to work, I never know why. But, since I’m able to write this blog, obviously this blind squirrel found a nut after all. I just think that some day I’m going to push the wrong button and daccidently blow up the world. back in 1983 I was stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base in a Program Office. Ms. Kate had gone to work for the government too and also worked in a program office. One day the Communications Squadron came around and started putting Z-100 computers on all of our desks and we were supposed to use them. We had zero training and only a couple of the folks had ever used a computer and actually had a home computer called a Commadore 64. I let my computer set there for months without touching it. Eventually we were forced to start learning how to use them. But rather than giving us all instruction, they would pick one or two oof the NCO’s to go to a class and they were supposed to come back and instruct us. I never did learn much more than how to use it as a glorified typewriter.

By my next duty station, we had progressed to this new thing called “e-mail” and I loved that. By then the Air Force had decided on a single computer language that we would use too. Prior to that, the different Commands were using different computer programs and they couldn’t talk to one another. It was the world of nine inch “floppy disks” and making sure you “shipped” your computer before you turned it off or it would crash. What a horrible way to learn. But —-  now a days, people hand toddlers  an electronic device just to entertain them. It does make me feel ancient.

It is still colder than a polar bear’s butt out there although the week ahead looks promising. We may get back to our “normal high of forty” and or normal lows of twenty five. But then, it will probably start to snow which is fine. My John Deere is on stand-by. Seventy five percent of the nation is in this deep freeze so I have nothing to complain about. I need to just keep my mind on the blessing that I have; a warm home, a healthy family, and money to pay the electric bill when it comes in next month.

My bird feeders are almost all empty and that means I must get out and fill them today. I also need to take down the Christmas tree today and put that stuff away. I’ve been watching the squirrels this morning going from feeder to feeder and finding nothing. I think they are totally frustrated. (At least they didn’t have to fool with the internet!!!)

Peace.

Holy Moly! My accuweather app says it is -2 degrees with a “feels like” temperature of -41. There is steam coming off of the electric bird bath. At least; (thank you Lord) we don’t have snow and ice to contend with like so many parts of the country do. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see a polar bear walking through the yard. (Okay, yes, I’d be really surprised.)

The birds are all puffed up this morning to keep themselves warm. They look like they are twice their normal size. When they sit they get as low as they can in order to cover their legs and feet.  They are coming with regularity to the electric bird bath and drinking but at least they aren’t taking baths. A couple of starlings took baths yesterday in seven degree weather. I haven’t seen any squirrels out yet this morning but it is a bit early for them. I’m up and writing much earlier than usual this morning for no reason at all except that I woke up early.

The advantage to me getting up early was that I got to witness the moon setting and the sun rising at the same time. What a neat phenomena that was. The moon is full now and tonight we are supposed to have what they call a Super moon. I took a garbage sack out to the trash can late last night and I could easily have read a newspaper by moonlight. I absolutely love celestial events. Maybe when I die God will let me help with celestial events for eternity in this or some other universe. —— Well, it beats the idea of sitting on a cloud plinking on a harp. I don’t know how to play the harp and my singing certainly isn’t heavenly. I’m sure God will have a different job for me.

I wonder how many people have already broken their New Years resolutions. I don’t make resolutions, I just send up prayers for help in correcting my bad habits. The closest I ever came to keeping a resolution was in 1989 when I resolved to quit smoking. In January of 1989 Ms. Kate and I went to a “Quit Smoking through Hypnosis” class and we have neither one touched a cigarette since. That’s been twenty eight years. I can’t imagine what my breathing would be like today if I was in fact still breathing at all. Being an asthmatic is bad enough. I’d most likely be on oxygen by now or dead. It is just another one of those cases in my life where God took the lead and saved me. So, I owe Him my life, body and soul.

Ms. Kate took care of insuring “our luck” would be good for 2018. Yesterday she fixed cooked cabbage with smoked sausage, black-eyed peas, and corn bread. I don’t that any of that really has anything to do with a person’s luck in life but it’s still a good tradition and a great meal.

OK my friends, I’m off of here. Take care of one another and look out for the elderly in these freezing days. Have a blessed day. Peace.

First blog of 2018! Happy New Year my friends. I hope your year is prosperous in the Spirit of the Lord. If your have that; —- everything else will surely fall into place.

Our New Years Eve was totally uneventful as it usually is. Since Ms. kate and I stay up until 0100 every night, it was no big deal. The lower half of the street sounded like a war zone at midnight for about five minutes as people used up the last of their 4th of July fireworks. But it died down quickly because it was too cold be be out there enjoying it. As for entertainment —- Ms. Kate watched a couple of movies and I watched HGTV rerun stuff. We are an exciting couple. I made it down and back up my basement stairs; that was about as much excitement as I needed.

It is currently seven degrees with a 15mph wind. That is cold in anybodies book. We are supposed to be in this deep freeze all week. We pretty much need to keep the door open to the sunporch or the plants will freeze. Vectren Electric will love us this month. Ms. Kate has turned the thermostat up by one degree. Then they will send us (and everyone else) a letter telling us that we are using more electricity etc than anyone else in our neighborhood. We neighbors compare notes and we all get the same letter. I figure that as long as I’m paying my bill on time —- the heck with them. What other company sends you a letter and says “you are a bad customer because you use too much of our product.”

I’ve spent much of my morning chatting with all of the girls via Facebook Messenger. I love that technology. We talk constantly and have had a conversation running for years now. It’s now the same as seeing one another but it is a blessing none the least. Ms. Kate has the New Year’s Day Rose Bowl parade on in the family room. We tried to go see all of the floats one year when I was stationed at March AFB. We were taking my parents because my father loved flowers so much. We fought the traffic, found a parking spot that wasn’t too far from the float viewing area, and my father decided that he’d just wait in the car. Well that ruined that. I think we went in and maybe walked around two floats and left. Ms. Kate and I were not happy campers.

That’s it for today. I wish each of you a very happy and faith filled 2018. Peace.