Happy Halloween! Can you believe that we actually had snow flurries this morning. It is 1500 hrs and the temperature is 36 degrees and a stiff wind is blowing making the “real-feel” temperature a balmy 24 degrees. I generally go sit at the end of my driveway on my John Deere to pass out the candy to the trick or treaters. Not this year. I have set a basket of candy out on the porch and they either take it or they don’t. If the kids do go out tonight to trick or treat, there will be some sick kids tomorrow.

One of the first things we did today was to get the patio plants in to the house. We are expecting our first hard freeze of the season tonight and in the morning. I’ve disconnected the hoses from the taps outside. I don’t think they would have ruptured with just one night but I’m taking no chances.

The news of my leaving my home church hit cyberspace today via the monthly newsletter and I’ve already had feedback. I must be a popular guy. LOL. But,, I just hope we can get a co-pastor to help Pastor Art out quickly.

Ms. Kate and I had to get out and go to MsDonalds for lunch. The McRib is back for its limited time and we do like those. Then we had to go see Bob because he had some turnips for Ms. Kate that he had actually gone out in the mud to pull for her. So we went up to his place and picked the up from him. We love them raw the best.

That’s it for today. Have a Happy Halloween. Can you believe that tomorrow it will be November already? Tie to start thinking about Thanksgiving.

Tuesday afternoon and it is a cloudy “thinking about being warm” day. Ms. Kate and I had an early morning appointment for her at the doctor for a routine visit and while we were there we both got our flu shots for the season. It was time. People are already starting to claim they have the flu although in most cases it most likely doesn’t amount to more than a cold. Not that it matters a lot; either way you feel crappy.

After the doctor’s visit we went to breakfast and called my sister-in-law to come join us which she did. We went to “Nellie’s” one of my favorite places. They have a great breakfast as well as other  meals but I can eat breakfast any time of the day. I had some delicious pancakes covered with bananas, blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream. After breakfast I had to go to Wild Birds Unlimited and pick up some more safflower seed for the Cardinals.

YesterdayMs. Kate. And I joined Julie, Jim and their friend Karen at the Louisville, KY zoo. They have a baby elephant that has grown enough to be viewable by the public for a few hours each day. I have told you before that if there is such a thing as a “spirit animal”, the elephant is mine. We got to the zoo and Julie, Kate and I rented electric scooters to get around. There would have been way too much walking had we not done so. That little elephant is about as cute as it can get. It sticks right beside it’s mama most of the time and imitates the things that she does. But it did take off once and run around with it’s trunk up in the air and it’s ears flapping in the breeze. After our disastrous news last week with the former son-in-law passing away, we needed a day like yesterday. It put some joy back in our hearts.  After the zoo, we went to PF Chang’s  for lunch and then headed home.

I am free to tell you this news now, after the first of the year, I’ll be changing jobs —- again. I am currently the interim co-pastor at Zoar UCC, my “home church” and have been for the past two years.    In November of 2016 I had “retired” from pastoral work because I felt I was no longer being an effective pastor to the Parish that I was serving. I had been there twelve and a half years and just was looking at burnout. So I retired. After a couple of months rest I began to know that God still had work for me to do. In October of 2017 the Interim Pastor at my church came to e and asked if I would come be his co-pastor as the church continued to search for a settled pastor. There had been rumors that our search committee was closing in on a candidate and should be hiring one shortly. So I quickly said yes to the interim co-pastor job. That was two years ago and I’m still there. In January of this year the pastor that had replaced me at my former parish announced that he would be retiring at the end of 2019. They formed a search committee there and began their search. t some pot in their search, they asked me if there was anyway I would consider returning to the Parish as the settled pastor. After much prayer, I said yes. Bureaucracy of the denomination requires that a “trial sermon” be given  so that all of the church members can vote as to whether to accept the candidate or not. Sunday I gave my trial sermon  and was accepted for the job, I’m told by unanimous vote of the parish. Today I sent notice to my current church that I will not be re-contracting with them and will be moving once again. I am thrilled to be returning to such a warm and loving faith family. Being asked to serve as pastor in my home church was a prayer and dream answered by God. Being asked to return to my former parish to once again serve them as their spiritual leader is just blessings upon blessings. God just continues to heap blessings on me and I totally deserve none of them. So, my friends, keep me in your prayers as I again step off in to another journey. Peace.

Good morning. It is a rainy, soggy, 54 degrees morning. The weather perfectly matches the mood in our house this morning. We received a text yesterday afternoon from our middle daughter, Heather, that her daughter Lauren has found her dad dead at home. I don’t know the specifics but suspect possibly a heart attack or stroke. He had a history of both. Heather had divorced him I think six years ago and Lauren lived with her dad and son Jon lived back and forth between his mom and dad but mostly with his mom. Needless to say, our hearts are breaking for our grandchildren. They are 22 and 19 and far too young to have to deal with this. So I’ll ask you to lift them up in prayer for comfort from God.

We’re supposed to have a full day of rain today, maybe up to two inches. That should take us outOf a drought situation. Heck just a week ago we were all under burn bans here in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky. We are told though that even with al of the rain today, we won’t be in any danger of flash flooding because the ground will soak it all up. It’s a good thing as Martha Stewart would say.

My co-pastor, Pastor Art asked me yesterday morning if  I knew how to get rid of raccoons. I guess he has several and they are doing damage to his yard barn. I told him I had just the traps he needs and I took them over to his house and set them for him. He used some dry cat food; I would have used wet because it is more pungent.  It is too rainy and wet in his back yard for hi to go check so far this morning. He said he checked on them around 1700 last evening and still didn’t have one. He has two acres of yard surrounded by woods so it is a natural habitat for raccoons. I hope he starts catching them though.

I guess I’ll finish this and then my cup of coffee and then get on the bike for a ride. Have a blessed weekend; stay in touch with God. Shalom.

It’s a cloudy, dreary Friday morning and fifty one degrees. My Accuweather app says we’ll have racing starting in 34 minutes and it is generally spot on. Forecasters have predicted showers on and off today and then tomorrow we are supposed to get a real soaker. But we are still officially i a drought situation so bring in the rain and bust that drought!

Wednesday we went with the church group up to an Amish restaurant in Washington Indiana which is about an hour drive from us. The food was good as it always is and we had I think about 27 people go. It was a nice time.

Yesterday we had the plumber come and put in a new garbage disposal. He told me that the old one had been leaking for quite a while as it was full of gunk. I think we had that one put in about 2004 so I got fifteen years of service out of it. Anything over 10 years for an appliance like that is gravy so I have little to complain about. My one complaint though is that this seems to be a week of $300.+ expenses. Between the truck and the garbage disposal my billfold has gone dry. Today we’ll get all of the stuff put back up under the sink and can maybe put our kitchen back in order.

I’m working on the park bench still and it isn’t going all that well. I’m having trouble keeping things lined up to put them together. It is not only heavy, but it is awkward to work with. It is definitely a two person job and I ain’t two persons. But where there is a will, there is a way. I went to the hardware store last evening to get some new bolts and what I got is too short. I should have bought inch and a half and bought inch and a quarter instead. There is a common saying that doing FIY projects always requires at least three trips to the hardware store. I’ve had two now so no telling what else I’ll need. But, I will probably go today and get what I think I need. But, as aggravating as it might be, it feels good to be doing something wood working relate again. It has been too many years.  I don’t know that I’ll actually work on the bench today though. I twisted  my knee last night working on the thing, (yes, the same leg as the ankle problem) so I may lay off of it. I want to ride my recumbent bike today for awhile and maybe kind of work the soreness out, or it may make it worse.

It has been a busy time at the Backyard Buffet this morning. I have a few cardinals out there but mostly it has been squirrels out there running and chasing and fussing and fighting. Their running across my roof sound like a herd of elephants. Very entertaining.

Speaking of elephants, Ms. Kate and I are going over to Louisville, KY on Monday and meet Julie and Jim and their friend Karen at the Louisville zoo. They have a new baby elephant that is old enough now to be on display and we want to see that. As you know, I love elephants.

The weekend is here so I'll remind you to take time to go to your house of worship and give God God’s due. We’ve ll had another week of blessings and we need to acknowlege where those blessing came from and be grateful for them. Have a great day.

It is a chilly morning to say the least at 43 degrees. But the sun is shining brightly and I don’t see a cloud anywhere.

Yesterday was a roller coaster of a day. It was a day of good things followed by periods of “well, crap!” I decided that I was going to try to figure out what was wrong with my truck so I took a couple of gallons of water down to the street and poured a gallon into the radiator. As I was looking at what I was doing, I saw water starting to drip from under the engine block. As I suspected, the water pump was bad. So, I called AAA to have them come tow it.  Amazingly enough AAA had a tow truck at our house within thirty minutes and we had it towed to the garage owned by one of our parishioners. Two hours later, I had a new water pump and the truck was ready to roll. Win, win!!!

But, for every up, there must be a down I guess. I decided that I would work on the park bench that has sitting in my garage for two years and rebuild it. About the only tool I required was a drill. However, every battery I had for my cordless drills was dead as a door nail. One was even sitting in a charger but I guess the charger doesn’t work anymore either. So, sometime today I need to go to Lowes and get new batteries and charger. In the mean time, I pulled out an old hand drill to do what I was working on.

Ms. Kate was busy making apple sauce yesterday evening. She had cooked the apples and was going to put the waste down the garbage disposal. It didn’t work. We had been noticing a bad smell somewhere around the kitchen sink but had not been able to locate it. Well, she reached under the sink into a pan to reset the disposal and found that the pan under there was full of water and it smelled just like sewage. Yuk!!! That’s a win for apple sauce and a loss for disposal. We have pulled out some of the stuff from under the sink and I have called a plumber. They will be here tomorrow.

Today we are going with the senior folks from the church to an Amish Restaurant about an hour north of here. Hopefully today is going to have ore “wins” than bad. Although, if the day goes like trying to write this blog has gone, it is gong to be aa long day. I have missed more letters in words and had to go back and correct more words than I can count. Some how I keep missing the “a” and it is driving me a little crazy.

Have aa great day. Peace.

Hello Tuesday my old friend. I’m glad to see you back again. It’s eleven degrees cooler this morning than it was yesterday morning. The temperature is sitting at fifty degrees with a nine mile an hour breeze. I took some stuff out to the compost bin a little bit ago and it felt a bit chilly.

Had a busy day yesterday. My big news though is that I finally made my goal of doing ten miles on my recumbent bike. It took me 76 minutes. I was pooped by the time I got off of the bike and stiff too. But, I was determined that I would make ten miles for no other reason than I wanted to. BBut, I’m not going to ride today. I try to ride three maybe four times a week for at least thirty minutes. And —- I did it without my orthotic. I can hardly believe how well my ankle area is doing. God has truly blessed me through this process.

Cardinals, finches, Woodpeckers and a fat squirrel make up my guest list this morning at the Backyard Buffet. i still haven’t made it to Wild Birds to get more safflower seed. That feeder is n’t totally empty but is getting very close. I like to use that because for whatever reason, the blackbirds and starlings don’t eat it but the cardinal love it. I see the nuthatches going after it too once in awhile. And, I have the wooden 4x4 that that feeder sits on shielded with a three foot wrap of aluminum flashing and the squirrel have given up on trying to climb it. There has been more than one trail of blood running down the pole from where they cut themselves trying to get up there. I think I have had that feeder for ten years now. It is a wooden gazebo with a plastic cylinder in the center to hold the seed. I bought it at an Amish woodworking place on one of our day trips and it has really held up well.

Today I need to see if I can figure out where I’m losing the water from my truck. My son-in-law gave me some ways to try to figure it out. Then I’m going to call AAA and have it towed to the garage. I don’t want to be driving it and be worrying about it running out of water. And, I pay for AAA every year and never use their benefits.

Ms. Kate has apples cooking this morning for some apple sauce. We bought a bunch of apples before we left for vacation and by now many of them had big brown soft spots on them. We bought them knowing they were “seconds” but I think they had been picked up off oof the ground. We still have enough good one left to make a pie or two though.

That’s my life for today. I hope you are having a great day, I certainly am having a blessed day thus far. Peace.

Good morning on a rainy warm (61 degrees) Monday. We’re having what folks Call “a good rain”. It is slow and sporadic meaning it will rain for a few minutes and then stop for a few minutes, and then start again. My new grass is coming up nicely and this is exactly what the yard needs. So, all praise to God for  yet another morning of blessings.

I’m doing “Pastor on Call” this morning and working from home. The office at the church is being renovated still. Right now all of the furniture is out of the office. It has been painted and new drywall has been put up but the old light fixtures have been taken down and new ones have yet to be put up. The secretaries office is the same way. I don’t know what she is doing but all of her office stuff was in our conference room yesterday stacked everywhere. I think this is the last of the renovations that we are doing at the church for awhile. I know we need to be thinking about new A/C units but that will have to be on next year’s budget. Hopefully Zoar will have a new “settled pastor” by the time they put those in. We’ll be on year six of the pastoral search come January.

We have a busy week lined up. Tomorrow we meet with or financial dude to take care of some investment stuff. Wednesday we are going to Washington IN for a “Senior’s Day” trip for lunch t a really good Amish restaurant, then Wednesday evening will be choir practice. I haven’t looked at the calendar beyond that. But, I’m still tinkering with my sermon for next Sunday and need to finish that up.

My Backyard Buffet guests are sporadic this morning. A few cardinals come by in between the rain showers as do a couple of woodpeckers. The squirrels are staying in today so far. I guess they don’t get hungry if it is raining which is too bad. It is fun to watch them try to climb wet metal poles and they get part way up and slide back down. I need to go to Wild Birds and get a bag of safflower seed for the cardinals. That feeder is almost empty. My sun flower can is down to half too and I could pick up another 40# bag of that. The weather forecast call for sunny days for most of this week sso there will be a lot of birds coming by.

Right now though,, I need to finish this up, drink the last of the coffee in my cup and get on the bike and ride. I hope you have an excellent day full of blessings.

Until next posting —- Peace.