Monday morning and what in the world am I doing up at 0630? Well, I woke up at 0500 for a necessary trip and just never really went back to sleep. I hate it when my eyes want to close and my brain keeps reaching over and pulling them open. “Let’s think about Christmas”, my brain says. “How are we going to get the tree up the stairs this year.” “What ornaments is Kate going to want to put on the tree this year? She doesn’t want to use the same ones we used the last three years.” How many boxes are you going to have to haul up and down the basement steps, and can you even get to the ornaments in the basement?” “Or is she going to want the ones that are out in the garage storage area?” —- See what I mean? My brain was being a pain in the rear this morning. And let’s not even talk about the three sermons and. Newsletter article that are rattling around in there waiting to come out. So, at 0630, I turned off the alarm and got up and made the coffee.

We had a good church service yesterday. I’m guessing about 75-80 people there. It always looks slight but then you see the choir of fifteen come in and the ladies working the nursery and children’s church and the numbers jump up. Next week our numbers will drop slightly as I guess six to eight of our snow-birds take off for Florida for the winter. Some of them gave me good-bye hugs yesterday as they will not be back before Kate and I head off to our new parish in Ft. Branch come February 1st. Believe it or not that time is approaching faster than it seems. I’m working on my final three sermons for January at Zoar Church and then I’ll start working on my stuff for the new job. I ordered a new pulpit robe for the new job. Since I’ll have two churches I’ll need a robe for each one so I don’t have to pack them back and forth. I had a second robe when I was pastor of those two church the last time but I gave their current pastor one of them. I don’t know if he still has it or not, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve ordered the new one and it wasn’t all that expensive and I can write it off on taxes.

The place I had my minor surgery on is still draining. It doesn’t hurt but is a pain but the butt to have to deal with. BUt better it drains than closes up and get re-infected again. Dr. Jackson said that could happen and if so, it will take a larger incision. I don’t seem to be able to do anything simple. Gotta drag it out.

Time for me to get cleaned up and ready for my morning at the office. It is cloudy and gloomy outside but I hope your morning spirit is full of sunshine. Ne’er forget that God loves you, —- and so do I. Peace.

A blessed Saturday morning to you. The sun is shining and it is 34 degrees going up to 44 today or at least that is what is predicted. There is however, a very stiff wind blowing out there so I suspect it would be pretty uncomfortable unless you had a good jacket on.

We had a pretty good day yesterday. We started off by going to Sam’s Club for some items Ms. Kate wanted. We came home, put that stuff way and then headed to St. Joe Inn to meet Brenda and Bob for lunch. Lunch was good but not as good as usual. I guess every restaurant can have an “off” day. But, —- the conversation and company were excellent so I have no complaints. I was glad to see that Bob was looking a lot better. He fell face first on his concrete patio last week and really banged himself up. Had to have four stitches across the bridge of his nose. His eyes were blackened but most of that is gone now and he had the stitches removed on Thursday. I’m not sure but I think that Bob must be about 87 by now. Brenda has her 65th birthday today. I need to send her a birthday text.

After lunch, Ms. Kate and I came home and I spent some time filling bird feeders. My guests started flying in almost immediately. This morning I have had a lot of guests already including a couple of squirrels. At the moment we are “between courses”, and only a couple of chickadees and finches are around.

I had my surgery yesterday and it was indeed minor surgery. Dr. Jackson opened and drained this spot on my neck. It was really big, or maybe seemed bigger than it really was, I don’t know. It was at least the size of a silver dollar. Doc said it was just an infection that had grown. He lanced it and drained it and cleaned it; then just bandaged it. He said he wasn’t going to stitch it because he wanted it to remain open so it could continue to drain if it needed to. It did drain some more last evening and Ms. Kate changed the bandage, and then changed it again this morning. My next hurts this morning and that is expected. But, — this too shall pass in a day or two. I’m just glad it wasn’t anything to worry about.

Today, Ms. Kate and I will finish doing the laundry, and I’ll get on the bike for a ride and maybe she will too. I need to check and see if the BMV is open this morning and go get my license plate for the new car too. Then this afternoon I’ll go over my sermon again in preparation for tomorrow, and maybe do some more work on the sermon I’m writing.  I started on my sermon for January 12th, 2020. I got a page and a half written last night while I was watching television.

So, that is my day. I hope you have a great day and that is full of blessings. Do something nice for someone today and it will increase your own blessings ten-fold. Peace.

“Hello Thursday my old Friend; it’s nice to see you once again.” (hummed to the song “Sound of Silence”). What can I say, it is going to be one of those kind of mornings. It is a beautiful morning; thirty two degrees already. That sure beats the eight degrees we had yesterday. I thik we are supposed end up in the lower forties today which would be great. Maybe all of this silly snow will melt today.

I waste a lot of time playing a computer game called “Criminal Case”. Easy “case” should maybe take a couple of weeks if you are a normal person and don’t rush things. I on the other hand am not a normal or patient person. Thursday morning is “new case morning, or t least it is for me. I found out quickly that I can play it on my IPad until I run out of “energy” but then I can move to my computer and play with a fully charged energy bank. And —- I can do this a couple of times a day when I get time to waste and viola’, I’ve finished the entire case by Sunday night or Monday morning. Then I have to sit in “time out” and wait until they give me a new case on Thursday morning. So, —- right now I’m procrastinating and delaying my start on a new case for a few minutes.

Chris, from our yard crew that we hire, came by yesterday and moved the first of our large azaleas from the west fence line to up here by the house yesterday afternoon. We have another two or three to move before the city comes along and starts to clear out the sewer line easement line. We were told that we had until the end of October to get ready for that project but —- now, I don’t know. I was told by a city worker out here marking the area that the city only got one bid to do this huge project and it was way out of line for what they had money to pay. So, heck, this could go on for another ten years. In the meantime, we are doing our part.

Speaking of moving those plants, —- the birds and especially the cardinals are going to love the move. It will give them good cover right up here by there favorite feeders. I absolutely have to fill feeders today. I didn’t have a chance to do it yesterday and many of the feeders are empty today. And now that it is starting to warm up again, it won’t be as bad to be out there doing it.

Our “pig” is ready for pick up at the butcher shop. I told you that we bought a pig from Brenda and Andy and they delivered it to the butcher shop on Halloween. So it has been butchered, cured, some of it smoked and is ready to bring home and put in our freezer. I have no idea how much it will weigh or how much room it is going to take up. What I do know is that we are going to be having a delicious pork roast for Thanksgiving and I’m looking forward to that. I love a good pork roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, hot rolls, brussel sprouts  and corn. Throw in some pumpkin pie and whipped cream and life is just heavenly.

I’ve delayed my game long enough. You have a blessed day. Peace.

Fifteen degrees with a fourteen mph wind equals a “real feel” of one degree this morning. We have maybe an inch of snow out there but the rain yesterday with the sudden temperature drop has left the streets covered with black ice. Schools have been cancelled and my clergy meeting for this morning has been cancelled. So, I have zero reason to venture out into this weather and I don’t intend to. I have the USPS app on my IPad and IPhone that tells me what will be coming in the mail today and I already know it won’t be worth trying to walk down my driveway for. Nope, I’m staying put.

I tried last night to go to the church for the monthly council meeting. I drove about four miles and the wind was driving the snow so hard that it was a virtual “white-out”. I decided to not chance going any further and turned around and came back home. I found out though that Pastor Art and I were the only two that didn’t go. I make no apologies. Old dogs get to be old dogs by being smart dogs.

I have lots of guests here this morning at the Backyard Buffet. As I expected, the starling were here in force first thing this morning and being bullies to the other birds and to each other. They re some grubby, greedy, nasty birds with all of the pecking and flapping at one another. They were here enforce for about thirty minutes and have somewhat now dispersed. Now the cardinals, finches, wrens, junkos, woodpeckers, doves, and mockingbirds are all here. I’ll probably need to fill feeders again tomorrow. But, it will have to warm up some before that happens. Yesterday, I was sitting here in my recliner and saw a huge hawk just kind of drop from a tree limb right in to its prey. I don’t know if it got a small bird or a mouse or a vole. Whatever, it sat right there and ate it and then flew off and sat on the neighbors roof. It didn’t give so much as a “howdy” or a “thank-ya’ kindly”. It just literally ate and ran.

I guess I’ll do some writing today or I’m sure there are something around here that Ms. Kate might want me to do. And I need to get on my bike and ride a few miles. It’s great to be able to ride aa few miles and only have to see snow and not actually be out in it.

Y’all stay safe and warm today. Peace.

It is forty seven outside right now. If that pleases you, ya' better get out there and enjoy it because that will be the high and the weather is going to hell in a handbasket quickly today. We are looking for rapidly dropping temperatures, rain, and then rain turn to a winter mix, followed by all snow. If the temperature gets above twenty degreees tomorrow, it will be surprising. Welcome to an early winter. I simply say --- YUK!!!!!

I'm at work this morning and will be continueing to work on a sermon that I started on the other night. Then, Pastor Art and I are going to met for lunch at the Lamasco Bar and Grill. Today is spaghetti day and I've told you how much I enjoy their spaghetti. I don't think Ms. Kate will be going with us today. She is home working on craft stuff for Christmas and Advent and still making Christmas cards. She has made Advent Calendar Boxes for each of the girls and we need to get those filled and in the mail so that they have them on the 1st of December. Besides, it is going to be getting cold and she doesn't want any part of that. LOL. 

Tonight we have a church council meeting. I hope it is snowing too hard. There won't be much of an accumulation by then but I don't like to drive in it. I'm getting old and only like to drive on bright sunny dry days. LOL But, I'm hoping our search committee will have some good news aboutfinding a candidate for us. You might wonder why Pastor Art and I couldn't be called to be the permmanent pastors. Well, the simple reason is that it is against the rules. Beside this church really needs a much younger pastor than what either one of us is. We have a lot of our members that are in their early thirties and have kids so they need a pastor that is energetic and can relate, not two old dudes that have been around forever. --- Of course I say that as I'm getting ready to go take on a Yoked parish for maybe five years or more; so where's the logic. 

I went out yesterday afternoon as I was filling the bird feeders in preparation for this cold snap, and I decided that I would maybe jump on the "backyard John Deere" and mulch up the leaves. BUt, as luck would have it, the battery was dead as a doornail. I gues I could try to get the little self propelled mower out of the shed and try it out. I haven't used it in two years. I assume it might work. It will be a pain in the rear to get it out. And by now, I'll have to wait a few days for the snow to melt and the leaves to dry some. 

Well, I have an hour left to work on my sermon so I better get to it. Have a blessed week. 

It’s a partly cloudy, balmy thirty two degrees this morning. Doesn’t that just make you want to grab a lawn chair and go sit outside?? yeh, right. At least the wind isn’t more than a couple of miles per hour. You can see the leaves moving but the ones that are falling from the trees are falling almost straight down.

There are a couple of squirrels zipping through the trees in the yards around me with their tails a swishing. The trees surrounding my yard are all big enough that the branches practically touch one another. So it is a virtual squirrel interstate out there. The squirrels jump from one tree to the next all around my yard and into my trees at an amazingly fast pace. They look almost animated and cartoonish sometimes.

I have a couple of woodpeckers and a few finches here this morning. It is still early so the cardinals have not arrived just yet. I give them another thirty minutes or so before they arrive. I had a couple of starlings come by for a quick bite or two about twenty minutes or so ago. But they didn’t stay long. I don’t know what’s up with that. They generally come in and seem to never leave.

I went to Walgreens like I told you yesterday and picked up my prescription. Dr. Jackson prescribed some antibiotic pills for this place on my neck. I don’t know what that is supposed to do for it but I hope it helps to shrink it. I feel like I look like Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I know it isn’t near as big as I imagine it to be but it feels huge to me. Dr. Jackson with a scalpel is not a thing I want to see next Friday.

So, I wrote my last sermon for 2019 last night. I’ll give it on the 29th of December. I have three more sermons to write for Zoar Church before I move on to the parish in Ft. Branch. I’ll give those three, on the last three Sunday’s of January 2020. Who would have thought I’d still be serving as a pastor in 2020, let alone starting a brand new adventure and job for an undetermined amount of time. I feel so extremely blessed to be afforded this opportunity. I’ve said it any times before and I’ll continue to say it; “I love being given the honor and privilege of preaching and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” I believe there are “Ministers” and there are “Pastors”, and I believe there is a very distinct difference between the two. I hope I’m always considered a “good pastor”. Having that said at my funeral would be a validation of my work and life.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I hope you plan to spend some time at your favorite house of worship. If you don’t have one, take a chance and attend one. People might look at you and wonder who the stranger is; but God will be smiling because God will recognize that one of His children just walked in. Have a blessed day.

There used to be a saying that “It is colder than a well digger’s butt”. I don’t know how cold a well digger’s butt gets however, it is 29 degrees outside with with a real feel of 20 degrees. But, from the inside of the sunporch, it looks beautiful because the sun is shining brightly. I’m watching the leaves fall from the neighbor’s maple trees. Thankfully there is very little breeze this morning so the leaves are falling fairly straight to the ground instead of over into my yard. I have enough leaves in my yard that need to be cleaned up.

I thought that today was going to be a sloppy clothes day but I have to go to Walgreens and pick up a prescription. So, while I’m out I might as well get a haircut too. Then I might as well take Ms. Kate with me and have lunch out. See how it just expands?? LOL. I’ve gotten in touch with my doctor because i have a huge lump on the back of my neck that I suspect is an out of control keloid that has grown exponentially in the last couple of weeks for some reason. Keloids are common and there is no real treatment or prevention. They generally come from scar tissue etc. But this one has just grown so quick and it hurts to touch and I haven’t had any scars there. Dr. Jackson had me send him a couple of pictures of it and then he prescribed some medicine. I suspect it will be steroid pills. Then next Friday I have to see him and he will decide if he needs to surgically remove it or not. This silly thing has gotten big enough that it bothers me to have my shirt collars touch it. So, hopefully the medicine will take care of it. I don’t want to have a sixth surgery this year. But, what will be — will be and I totally trust Dr. Jackson. If he says it needs to come out, it needs to come out.

As I look around the yard, I guess I’m going to have to throw a jacket on and fill the bird feeders again. The bark-butter paste feeders are empty. The woodpeckers are finishing up the last bits of that. The squirrels have emptied a couple of the sunflower seed feeders so I need to fill those too. My can is less than half full so I’ll need to be picking up at least one forty pound bag of sun flower seed. The electric bird feeder has been a hit this morning. The non-electric one is frozen over so they are coming to the heated one.

I had a strange dream last night. I basically “wrote a sermon” in my dream, (I guess I was dreaming. It went through my mind regardless of whether I was asleep or not.) It was a very powerful sermon, much more conservative than I usually give and certainly more conservative than what is preached in my denomination these days. It still is going through my mind today so I am going to put it to paper and hold on to it. I’m sure there is a reason it has come to me and a place for me to give it.

Okay, Walgreens called and said my prescription is ready so I need to go pick it up. Maybe I’ll just stay in my comfortable clothes and forget about the haircut etc. In the meantime - you have a most blessed day. Peace