Good morning on a cloudy Saturday morning. It rained pretty hard here for awhile last evening and night. I expect we will see a few periods of rain yet again today. We are packing stuff up at Lisa's house and getting ready to head southeast to the coast. I have checked the weather for there and we'll be having rain on and off for a couple of days but hopefully nothing too drastic. 

This morning, Lisa and Gary are headed to the shop to take care of a couple of things and then over to his mother's house to take care of her by bringing her breakfast and checking up on her. It is a Saturday routine thing. After that they will come back here and we'll pack the cars and then slowly meander our way to the coast. We have to go by a sports store and Gary, Matt, and I need to get our "5-day" coastal fishing license. Amanda's sweetheart is taking us fishing and I can hardly wait. I think we'll be fishing for flounder. I know Brian, (Amanda's boyfriend) catches some nice fish of all  kinds and so does Amanda. Brian is in a fishing tournament this morning. I'm not sure what kind of fish they are after today. But he has been a professional for a lot of years. He just won a tournament last weekend and picked up a $3,000.00 prize. That will buy a lot of bait and hooks. I haven't fished for flounder since the early eighties and Brian will have to show me what to do, or maybe Amanda will show me. I just know they are "bottom feeders" and you got to pretty much dangle the hook in front of their nose. I've never caught one. When we were fishing in Massachusetts, we generally caught cod and haddock. Haddock was considered the prize fish. Occasionally we would catch a "wolf fish" or "monk fish". They are some ugly critter and if you get your hand close to their mouth while removing a hook, they can bite a finger off. 

I went to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base yesterday to get my hair cut. We haven't been on a base in years so it was a good feeling to drive up to the gate to have my ID checked and have the young Airman say "Good Afternoon Colonel", and give me a great salute. We went over to the Base Exchange (BX) and I got my hair cut with proper military style and then we walked around and shopped for a bit. But, I told the kids that I got enough "military fix" to last me for awhile. 

That's it for today. Tomorrow is Sunday and I'll watch Pastor Brian give the sermon at St. Lucas on the computer. Great news, Our audio/visual contractor got the two 75" television screens put up yesterday. I don't know how much else they got installed. Good things are happening at the churchyard!  Have a blessed day. 

Friday, September 11th, 2020; 19 years ago today terrorists flew two planes full of passengers into the twin towers in New York City and another one into the Pentagon in Washington DC. A fourth plane was supposed to go be crashed into an unknown target but the passengers of that plane overwhelmed the terrorists and the pilot crashed the plane into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania killing all 40 passengers and crew. Over three thousand people died that day as buildings came crashing down. Many of them were firemen and policemen rushing into the destruction. There is no telling how many people have died since as a results of all of the toxins and dust and smoke they inhaled. It was an attack that we as Americans should never forget and yet in today's cancel culture that is demanding anything that "makes them feel bad" be removed or torn down I would not be surprised it it was declared racist because of something or another. Even worse, and I made this statement to some folks the other day, the young people that are currently rioting and protesting and looting , "all in the name of justice" are young enough that many had not been born yet or were not more than two years old on 9/11/2001 and therefore it means no more to them than either of our World Wars or Vietnam or Korea, or even the Civil War. I saw an interviewer on a college campus trying to talk to college students the other day about historical events and many of them could not answer who fought or won the American Civil War. And these are the future "leaders" of our country. 

We have arrived at Lisa and Gary's house and have had a wonderful visit so far. It has rained some and will rain again today but that doesn't bother any of us. Tomorrow afternoon we will head down to Emerald Isle and or rental for five nights. The weather is supposed to be good and again if it isn't --- oh well. We are there to relax and enjoy one another on a long overdue visit. So, while we relax down here, I hope your day is going well, wherever you might be. I bid you peace. 

 Hi y'all, This is going to be short but I wanted to just let you know that our trip is going well. We left home yesterday morning and stopped by Julie's house over in New Albany, IN. We had to drop off something to her and pick something up from her. From there we headed on to Corbin, KY where we had reserved a room for the night. We stayed in a place that we have stayed before. The hotel sits next to a Cracker Barrel restaurant but we decided to eat some of the stuff we had brought along.

We took off this morning at 0900 and headed out to Statesville to our reserved room tonight. Along the way we got hungry and we decided to have lunch the "old style vacationer" way. We pulled into a Cracker Barrel parking lot and pulled up under a tree and sat there and ate our ring bologna and crackers lunch with potato chips and soft drinks. I can't begin to imagine how many times as a kid that my folks would pull over to the side of the road and we'd have a picnic lunch along the way on out vacations. Back then there would be little park like pull offs with picnic tables and sometimes an outhouse toilet. There was no such thing as "fast food" although I can very well remember the first McDonalds I ever went to. It was in Rapid City SD. 

So tonight we ordered pizza delivered from Marco's. It may well be one of the better pizzas I have had. Our hotel was not where we thought it would be, ie on I-40. Of course, as always, Statesville I-40 is hosed with road construction. We looked for our hotel and could not find it. Ten miles past Statesville, we came to a place to turn around and I stopped and called the hotel. Come to find out, it is off of I-77. So we backtracked and found the hotel. As we pulled in to the hotel, we realized thamt had obviously made that mistake before because we have stayed in this hotel before. LOL. Oh well, --- we're on vacation. Who cares. 

That's it for tonight. Maybe I'll get to this again tomorrow, but maybe I'll be too busy hugging necks. Peace my friends.

 Welcome to Labor Day 2020. It’s a cool morning and the overall temperature today is only going to the upper 80’s, but the humidity has made a return, so, I reckon we will close the house back up. It has been nice though having the A/C turned off for a few days. 

I have a bunch of stuff to do today because we leave for vacation tomorrow morning. I haven’t cleaned out the car or gotten it ready to travel nor have I packed anything. I have stuff sitting here and there that we want to take, but that is about all. It won’t take that long to do what I need to do but I just have to get started on it. I’m very excited about this vacation but sure have lagged behind in getting my work done. 

We had good attendance at both churches again yesterday. Then we mad a stop at Target on the way home so I could pick up a “hub” device for my Surface Pro so I can plug in more than one USB device. Then we came home, warmed up the fried chicken form Log Inn that was left over from Saturday night. Ms. Kate fried up some okra and sliced some tomatoes and we had a great lunch. Of course by then it was nap time. 

Last night I tried my hand at making Power Point slides and I think it turned out fairly well. I made up a dozen slides for use during my sermon and service on the 27th of September. I then sent them to Jacob so he can play with them with the new A/V equipment that is supposed to be installed while I am gone. By next Sunday the screens and computer is supposed to be here and installed. The camera is on backorder but hopefully will be here shortly. Jacob is hoping to be able to use the new screens and computer to teach Sunday school next Sunday. I’m very excited to her how it all goes for them. 

One of our parishioners was taken to the hospital yesterday wit a heart attack and is having a double, if not triple by-pass done as I sit here. Lift up Allen in your prayers please. 

That’s it for today. My entries are going to be sporadic for the next few days; bare with me as we travel together. Peace. 

 Happy Friday afternoon on this beginning of the Labor Day weekend. Ms. Kate and I did a bunch of running around today. We were trying to get ahead of the Labor Day crowd. Ms, Kate wanted to get the graves decorated before the weekend so we gathered together our flowers and went to the cemeteries. We spent a little time decorating her grandparents, her mom and dad's and aunt and uncle's headstones. Then we headed out to Zoar Church and decorated my parents headstone. Now they look great for fall with fresh flowers and fall colors.

Next we took a country drive and headed up to Haubstadt for a trip to Dewig's Meat Market. They are a great business and are also personal friends of ours. We have watched them go through several renovations over the years and really have built a corporation. They win meat cutting and sausage making awards all over the world including Germany, the home of sausage. LOL

While we were there we picked up some of their meat spread and some spinach dip, and bread and chips and headed up to St. Paul's church. We ate a "picnic" lunch there in the recreation hall of the church and then did a little work. From there we headed back home and took a delicious nap out in the sun porch. The weather today is absolutely perfect so we have opened up the house and let the breeze flow through. I was actually awakened by the sound of a couple of Cardinals fussing at one another right outside the door. What a great way to wake up from a nap. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be a repeat of today weather wise. I'll probably mow the lawn and go pick up some sunflower seed so I can fill all of the feeders before we take off on our vacation. 

By now, it is almost 2200 hours and time to get off of the computer. Peace my friends.

 Good morning and a Happy Wednesday to you. I hop you got up on the bright side of the beed this morning. It’s 0900 and I want to just basically check in with you. Ms. Kate and I are getting ready to head up to the churches and run our bulletins, and then she has a beauty shop appointment around lunch time. I think I will spend the afternoon writing. We’re supposed to have more rain this afternoon so work outside will be minimal unless that changes. 

A week from today we will be heading out to North Carolina. I reckon I need to make some hotel reservation for a night on the road both going and coming. Everything else is already set as far as where we are going to be staying. Usually we stop in or around Asheville NC and then head on down to Lisa’s house the second day. We’ll be at Lisa’s for a couple of nights before we check into the beach house. We are all looking so very forward to just chilling, ocean-side and listening to the waves and visiting. 

I still have three more weeks of vacation to figure out where we are going to go. So much of the country is shuttered because of COVID. Places that we would normally go aren’t open. I don’t know what we will do. 

I took a break from writing this and we did go run the bulletins, grabbed some drive-thru for lunch, then I took Ms. Kate for her haircut. We picked up a couple of $5.00 Nacho Grande boxes for lunch. I really like them but I feel stuffed to the gills and so does Kate. There was enough refried beans in there to gs up the tank. I’m getting ready to take my nap and maybe in an hour I won’t feel like a fat kid in a candy store.

Okay, time to go. Have a blessed day. Peace.

 Well, September announces itself with a cloudy 74 degree morning. It looks like rain is on the way and prediction calls for a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. I reckon we will just wit and see what the day holds. 

The Backyard Buffet has been mostly quiet this morning. Mostly just a few small birds have come by for a bite. I have a grey squirrel here that is new to me. Because I am somewhat color blind, a lot of colors really blend together for me and I can’t tell what a true color is. Most of my squirrels are brown squirrels I think. But I have a grey squirrel among them and I only notice it because when it sits up on it’s haunches its belles is a solid white. So, I don’t know if he is a color mutation or what, but it is interesting, and none of the other squirrels mess with it. Maybe my neighborhood is getting integrated. 

I don’t know what, if anything that Ms. Kate and I have on our plate today. We kind of talked about maybe taking some hydrangeas up to St. Lucas and planting them around the tool shed. We thought maybe we could put in a couple. Right now they have a flower bed, and I use the term loosely, in the front of that shed that was created by one our young men several years ago as an Eagle Scout project. He put some shrubs in there and I think some pea gravel. It looked fine for a couple of years but has not been maintained and none of the flowers are left, just a couple of shrubs. Kate talked to Jacob about us giving them some plants to put in there but I know that if we don’t take them up there and plant them, it won’t get done. If they live, it will look great, if they die, we’ve lost nothing but some time. We also talked about putting some Black-eyed Susans on the west side of the shed where nothing is planted. 

I reckon while we are out and about we could also check on the local produce and maybe get a cantaloupe or two, and while we are at the church we can run the bulletins for the 20th of September. 

But, none of this is going to get done if I don’t get out of my chair, shower and get ready for my day. Have a blessed Tuesday, and have a blessed September. Peace my friends.