Friday morning and it is another absolutely beautiful morning. I’m running a little late getting started on my blog and will probably quit in the middle of it. I got a little behind because of doing other stuff and now I have about twenty minutes until we have to leave and go to meet Bob and Brenda for lunch. It’s a mushroom and beer day out at St. Joe Inn.

I have (hopefully had) a mole tunneling right outside my sunporch. As I was sitting here looking at the ridge it had raised up in my dirt, I noticed one of the brick of the walkway bobbing up and down. So, I tip-toed out there and stomped on that Rick as it was moving. Hopefully I crushed its skull. I never had a problem with moles until last year and they really got bad. So now, I sittinghere waiting to see if that brick or any of the dirt around it starts moving again or if that brick is going to serve as it’s headstone. I hate moles. They eat my flowerbuulbs and they eat the roots of my grass. —- Time for me to go. I’ll be back after lunch.
********* 1300 hrs

Lunch was great and the company was better. It is hard to beat tavern food in southern Indiana and St. Joe Inn has repeatedly won Gold and Platinum ratings for their food. The four of us love deep fried mushrooms and they have the best ones around. So we order two orders of mushrooms and a pitcher of beer and have what ever the special is for the day. It is always good to see Bob and Brenda and talk with them. They both miss Ms. Georgia Ann still so very much. So do we. But it gives Bob someone to talk to about her. I’d be the same way if I lost Ms. Kate.

I see tha the “mole-brick” still hasn’t moved so maybe I killed that little sucker. That would be the best I can hope for. The neighbor's cat was here sniffing around the mole’s digging and I thought maybe it would sit there and get the mole. But, it would rather chase squirrels up the tree. It doesn’t seem interested in bothering my birds but it sure like messing with the squirrels. They run up on a branch and just fuss like the dickens at that cat.

I have blue birds out here again today.That thrills me. Maybe they will stick around for the spring and maybe even use the blue bird house that is hanging out there.

Thatis about it for today. I hope you have as good of weather as I do and I hope you get a chance to be out and enjoy it. God’s smile is in the sunshine and His Spirit is the wind. Take time to go out and breathe it all in and accept the blessings God is offering. Peace.

It just would not be right if I didn’t start out this morning by saying; “Thank you God for an awesome morning.” True, the temperature is only 36 degrees but the sun is shining brightly in the sky and there isn’t a cloud to be seen in allof thaat Blue there. I have multiples of guests at the backyard buffet and can hear even more off in the trees in someone’s yard. The daffodils are up enough that I can now see them from my recliner. My coffee is perfectly warm, Ms. Kate is in her office playing Klondike on the computer, There are several cardinals out there glistening in the sunlight and I can see a large woodpecker off in the top of the Red Bud tree. Yep —- just a great morning to be alive. Of course it’s always a great day to be alive it well some days —- they just hit you in the happy spot of your brain. I knew it was going to be tis kind of day before my feet even hit the floor.

My Safelite technician appointment went exactly like I predicted it would. My time frame was from 0800 - 1200 and sure as fire, he pulled in the drive at 1130. It wasn’t a big deal, I didn’t have any place in particular to go although Pastor Art would have liked for me to come to the office because they were going to pick our bulletins for Holy Week and he wanted my input. But, they managed quite well with out another opinion I’m sure.

We need to go to do some minor grocery shopping today. We’re out of milk and bread and who knows —- we might just have a snow storm pop up out of the blue. This is southern Indiana after all. Tomorrow we are going to lunch with Bob and Brenda. EWe awere supposed to go last Friday but Brenda had to babysit for grandchildren because school were closed due to icy roads and snow. So, since it is supposed to be sunny and sixty tomorrow — let’s go eat schrooms and have a bit of beer.

That is about it for the this morning. I hope your day has started off as good as mine has and I hope you feel the full power of God’s blessings. It is a great day to be in love with life. Peace!

I’m up earlier than usual today. My appointment window is from 0800 - 1200 for the glass technician to arrive so I’m waiting once again. If he actually arrive before 1130 I’ll be surprised; but it is what it is. There is nothing wrong with being up early. In fact, if the vote goes right on Sunday at church, I’ll be having more of these up early days because I’ll be going into the office two mornings a week. That will be quite a change. I haven’t had “office hours” for seventeen years which is when I retired from the Air Force. Although I was pastor at two churches for twelve and a half years, I never had established office hours. I did 99% of my work at home. Wednesday was my “visitation day” every week and the day that Ms. Kate and I would go and run the bulletins. So this is going to be a brand new experience. Of course I was available 24/7 on the end of my cell phone and got called often. But —- I guess I’ll have to ask Pastor Art what we do during office hours. The plan is that I will be in the office on Monday mornings, we’ll both be there on Wednesday morning so we can go over things with Karen, the church secretary, and he’ll be in the office on Thursday.

The blessing of being up earlier today was getting to watch allof the smaller birds at the feeders before the bullies arrives. I filled all kinds of feeders yesterday and I have plenty of guests here this morning to enjoy them. But first thing this morning, there were a pair of blue birds here and three or four cardinals. What a neat way to start a person’s day. So I offer my praise and thank you to the Lord above for that special blessing. I also had several junkos and finches. Then the bullies, (starlings) arrived and everyone else let them take over. The starlings didn’t stay long. Just long enough to establish territory, which is why I call them bullies. Currently my only guest is a squirrel. But, everybody will circle and cycle back through several times between now and 0930.

It is a cool, thirty-four degree, cloudy morning but we aren’t supposed to get any rain. In fact it is supposed to be warming up starting Thursday, at least for a couple of days. This is still January ya’ know and we expect it to be winter weather, But the fact that my daffodils are up just warms my heart and seems to be a small message from God that the world shall continue and spring will come as it always does in about eight more weeks. I think Spring might just be my favorite season. All of the new growth and fresh flowers and colors popping up out of the ground. The trees start to fill out again and the earth wakes up from its winter rest.

The families and victims of yesterday’s school shooting are on my mind once again this morning. I have not heard any more news about it. I pray each and every one of them will find God’s peace and comfort. And I lift each and everyone of you who read my blog up in prayer too. I pray you will have a peaceful and Holy Spirit filled day. Until next time; I bid you peace.

Very cloudy, and windy with a fifteen mile an hour wind greet me this morning as I come out to the sun porch with my coffee and settle into my recliner. I have selected The Talley Trio as my morning devotional music this morning. Nothing like a little toe tapping Gospel music to get the Holy Spirit up and flowing though ones body and soul in the morning. I must admit it is a bit distracting though because I tend to stop and listen and humm along. But then, I reckon that is the good part. It puts my heart and mind where it should be.

I had one disappointment yesterday. I told you that I had Safelite come and replace my windshield late last week. I had not driven it since. Yesterday morning I went out and was going to drive it down to get a haircut. The windshield was wet because it had rained so I tried to use the wipers and they won’t work. Obviously the technician did something wrong in the installation. So, I got on the phone and called them. Well, first of all, I never did speak to a human being. Everything was automated. I hate that; —- but it worked, and I now have another appointment to sit and wait for four hours waiting for them to come and fix whatever the problem is. At least I found out that the windshield was installed correctly since I didn’t have any water in the truck that had leaked through.

I did get out and get my haircut yesterday after I finished with fooling around with the truck issue. Then Ms. Kate and I went to lunch at the Hilltop Inn. We were hungry for fried chicken and the Hilltop does a pretty good job. There are better places to get it but they weren’t open yet for the day. We like Popeye’s Chicken too but their “sides” are pretty blah. Hilltop does one of the better jobs of fixing baked potatoes. Of course if I wanted really wonderful fried chicken, I would have gone to the butcher shop and bought a chicken and asked Ms. Kate to fry it. She does the best job I know of. Her mom was the same way.

I just had a blurb pop up on my IPad that the was another school shooting, this time down in Kentucky. They are reporting one dead, multiple people wounded and the shooter is in custody. What in the world is wrong with people??? What demons are in a person’s head that make them think the only answer to their anger is to go shoot as many people as they can?? I pray for God’s presence in this situation. Sigh..

Count your blessings my friends. Join me in prayer this morning for the victims ad families of this tragedy. And pray too for the mind and should of the shooter. He or she is walking through a mental personal hell at the moment. Peace.

Good morning on this rainy, windy, fifty two degree Monday morning. The snow is all gone from my yard and the ground is frozen so the water from the rain just kind of sits there. Rain clouds and no sun shining through makes it kind of an ugly morning at the backyard buffet But a week ago it was snowing like the devil on top of ice and colder than a polar bear’s rump. So, Thank you Lord, I think we will choose to love today.

The bandits (raccoon) must have hit me last night at some point. I have two feeders on the ground in the mud and as I look around, over the last couple of days, my guests have emptied almost every feeder during the bitter cold and snow. This rain is only supposed to be here through the morning so I reckon this afternoon I’ll spend some time filling feeders again. But first, I have to find my rubber boots. I know they are in the garage somewhere but so far I haven’t had any luck in finding them. Don’t you hate it when you put something right where you will know to find it and then can’t remember where that spot is? I’m pretty good at knowing where things are; (unless Ms. Kate wants me to get something out of the pantry or refrigerator) but sometimes my hiding spots are too hidden.

The Safelite fella did get here the other day and had my windshield fixed infairly short order. I haven’t checked it yet but assume he got it sealed completely or I’ll have a truck with standing water in it. That would not be a good thing. I’ll check that out too when the rain stops.

We had a good church service yesterday. Pastor Art had a great sermon and some good music. I got tickled at one of the ladies (my age) that told me she got so enthused at one of our songs that she almost put her hand up in the air. I told her that it would be absolutely fine if she did that, and she said; “Oh, I could never really do that. We just don’t do that.”  I find it amusing that we let “proper decorum” prevent us from fully experiencing the Holy Spirit. There is nothing wrong with getting a little “Pentecostal” once in a while. It is good for the soul. But —- we are a little too “high church” for that. I think maybe we are missing out sometimes.

I think it is time to quit and move on to something else here on my IPad. And I still haven’t done my morning devotional and prayer. I know God is patient, but I don’t have the right to make God wait for anything. Have a most blessed week. make good use of your time and do something for someone today. Peace.

“Safelite repair, — Safelite replace”. That’s how the jingle goes but I wish they would hurry up and get here and do that replacement. Don’t you hate it when they give you a window of time to expect them to be at your home? Safelite is expected to be here sometime between 0800 and 1200 today. I got up at 0700 so I’d be awake when they call to say they are on the way. But —- it is 1015 and so far not a word except an email from “Jonas, my technician” saying he would be here between 0800 and noon. It’s not like I have anything that I need to do this morning except I am waiting to take my shower so I don’t miss a call saying Jonas is on his way. Obviously they have forgotten that I have a life; I have to take Ms. Kate to Sam’s Club and then get my haircut. I mean, what the heck???  LOL

It is forty four, sunny clear sky, and beautiful out there this morning. The snow and ice are slowly melting away. I think most of the once dam I had on the sun porch roof has melted away. At least it has quit dripping inside. I tried to clear thee street again yesterday but the ice is holding strong still. And —- I took a fall on the ice yesterday. It heart my pride more than anything else. I mostly fell into a snow bank that I had created by shoveling snow. But I looked like a beached whale trying to get up again because my foot kept slipping on the ice and the only support for my hands was down through the snow bank. It was not pretty nor was it fun. It is dangerous; our Conference Minister fell on icy steps yesterday and broke four bones in his back.

I’m blessed with Blue birds again this morning. So, I have black birds, blue birds, red birds, yellow birds, grey birds, and brown birds this morning. How fun it’s that?? I have to refill feeders sometime today. I think I’ll ask neighbor Dan if he wants to bring the grandkids over later this afternoon to help fill feeders. I think they would enjoy that. I’m watching one of the starlings that is getting a drink. It isn’t using the heated bird bath with the clean fresh water. It has pecked its way through the ice to drink from that water. Silly birds.

The door bell just rang so I reckon Safelight Jonas is here. Have a blessed day.

Good morning once again. I have yet to decide if this is “Finally Friday” or just Friday. I think though I will go with finally Friday. It has been a long week hasn’t it? Snow and ice and and bitterly cold weather have either kept people cooped up in the house or required them to go out in treacherous weather and on slick roadways in order to be to work. I don’t know about where you are but here the school system has been closed all week leaving parents wondering what to do with the kids since they maybe have to go to work anyway. As for the kids, —- well in this neighborhood, they played outside for the first couple of days but I haven’t seen any of them outside sledding or doing such things since.  So yeh, —- we’ll call it finally Friday because it is starting to warm up today and the temperature is actually going five or six degrees above freezing and the sun will be doing some melting.

The backyard buffet is busy this morning. I filled the feeders yesterday and cleaned and refilled the bird bath. I currently have four of my fuzzy tailed rat friends out there casing one another away from the feeders as they try to grab a bite themselves. The starlings come and go in flocks of six to ten. They fly in, fight over feeders and then fly out again. In the mean time, the cardinals, woodpeckers, finches, wrens, doves, mockingbirds, and junko try to get something to eat in and amongst all of the fray. But —— my best guests this morning again are the blue birds. I had a couple of pair fly in yesterday afternoon and they are still here today. What has surprised me is that they don’t have a lot of problem standing up to the Starlings.

Ms. Kate and I are getting out of the house today too. we are meeting Bob and Brenda for beer and schrooms out at St. Joe Inn today. I of course, got out Wednesday for my meeting, but Ms. Kate has not left the house since church last Sunday. I think she is getting a little stir crazy. We also have to go to the bank and Ms, Kate says I need a haircut. It isn’t often she says that so I must be looking shaggy. Ou subdivision is still a mess to get in and out of. I tried to remove some of the snow and ice again yesterday from the street and from the neighbor’s driveway but the ice is holding fast and the JD couldn’t do much with it.

Tomorrow morning the folks from Safelite will be here to replace the windshield and wipers on my truck. I’ll be glad to have that back up and in operation. I don’t drive my truck very often as is evidenced by the fact that it is a 2007 with only 44,000 miles on it. But, I do love my truck. We generally take Ms. Kate’s car because it is harder for her to get in and out of the truck. But if I’m going somewhere by myself, I prefer to take my truck.

I reckon the timehas comefor me to vacate my comfortable spot here under my lap robe in the sun porch. I pray your day will be pleasant and filled with the Holy Spirit. If you let the Lord plot the route and do the driving, you’ll never be in the wrong place. Peace.