Nagging rain showers again this morning. Yuk. The rain is so lite that hearing it on the sunporch roof sounds like someone on old typewriter. Then it stops, —- then it starts. Just enough to keep things wet. But, the garden is loving it and so are my flowers. And  —- my backyard guests couldn’t care less, one way or the other. 

I don’t have much to talk about this morning. There’s not much happening in my world. I did get an email this morning from the property owners of the home we are going to rent starting Saturday afternoon, She sent me the entry code for the doors. As I told the girls this morning, you know you’re getting close when you get the entry code. Today between showers, I’ll pack some more stuff in the car. I haven’t packed my suitcase yet. Tomorrow we’ll do the laundry and some that will go in my suitcase and in Ms. Kates. The suitcases will be the last thing that gets put in, and there is no real rush to leave here on Friday morning. It’s only a six hour drive and I need to time my travel to avoid St. Louis rush hour traffic. We’ll stop in Springfield, MO for Friday night and will have all day to drive the 44 miles down to the property. All of the kids will be on the road on Friday except granddaughter Amanda and her fiancé Bryan. They fly out Saturday morning. 

This afternoon I have an appointment with a plastic surgeon to look at my eyelids. My optometrist has recommended that I have them lifted because they sag over my vision. My sister has the same problem and called me a couple of weeks ago to see if I was going to have to have it done. She wants to see if it helps me before she does it. Chicken!!! It doesn’t bother me too often although sometimes I do have to reach up and pull it back into place. Just one of my perks for getting to live to be a senior citizen. LOL Today is just an evaluation appointment I think. Or maybe it is something that she can do right then and there. I don’t know. 

That’s it for today. God has given us another day to do something good. So, let’s be good to one another and that each other kindly. Peace. 

 It’s raining again this morning. But it is only a “spring-like” shower, nothing hard or stormy. It’s just part of the weather pattern that is coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. We expect this on and of stuff for the next two days. I got out and mowed the back yard yesterday. I had planned to use the weed eater out there today and if it quits raging before long, I may still go out and do that. 

I got my vacation haircut yesterday. The guy did a pretty good job. The last time he cut my hair it didn’t look so good when he finished. But, I’ve been using him for a lot of years and very seldom do I get a haircut that I’m not as happy with as I should be. I should have had it cut last week but just never did get around to it. If I didn’t do it this week, I wouldn’t be able to do it next week, so I’d go back to church looking like a bum. I can’t do that. 

We did some more running around yesterday too. We went back up to the nursery and bought a couple of cherry tomato plants for Julie since she had not had time to get hers and I returned four of the potting soil bags to them. They are really nice bags and they’re use them. The lady gave me another tomato plant for free. So now I have seven regular tomato plants and two cherry tomato plants of my own. They are all looking really good too. 

While we were out, we stopped and had lunch at Mac Callister’s and then went to Sam’s for some items that we couldn’t live without and forgot at least two of the items on our list. Yeh, that’s the way we are. Next I went to Wild Birds Unlimited and took my feeder back to see if I could get he part i needed to repair it. They took it from me and said they would repair it because it was under a lifetime warranty. They will call me when it’s ready. Then we came home. I planted my new tomato plant and mowed my back yard. I got about half way through the second round in the backyard and ran out of gas. I didn’t have any here so I had to go get some. It’s always one thing or another. 

I had to go out this morning and fill a couple of the feeders . The bark butter feeders were empty and the Pileated Woodpecker was looking for some food. It wasn’t rainy at the moment, so I quickly went out and filled those two feeders. WBU called and said they had my feeders repaired, so I’ll pick that up tomorrow and also pick up a bag of Bark Butter bits. 

That’s all I have for you today. I pray you will have a blessed day. Peace. 

 I’ve already had a great morning at the Backyard Buffet, First thing this morning the Bluejay clan flew in. There are four of them and that’s unusual, —- at least to me. Sometimes you’ll see two come in but not four. They are generally solitary birds who come in and claim their territory. So, this is a treat. I also had my pair of Pileated Woodpeckers here and several cardinals. The cardinals have been missing from the Buffet for a while. But then they’ll come in as if in a flock. So, I don’t know what is happening there. And I had a Bluebird, as well as a couple of Downy Woodpeckers, wrens, finches and a big red headed woodpecker. It only a couple of starlings came in and the “big birds” ran them off. So, it has been very interesting to watch the dynamics of the Backyard Buffet this morning. I hung a different feeder up last week. It is an old one that I had previously hung outside Ms. Kate’s office window. It’s just a square box with a mesh bottom. I put sunflower seed in it. The Cardinals really like to eat from it and apparently so do the Doves. There is almost always a Dove on it. 

W had a really good crowd at church yesterday. I told you that we have started our summer All Parish Worship services. We had close to 60 that came forward and took Holy Communion. It was a blessed event to be a part of. We used actual bread and juice for the first time in a long time. We’ve been using the “communion sets” all through COVID, and that was an option yesterday for those who might feel uncomfortable. But no one took one of those until we got to the last six people, and they only took one because we had emptied the communion juice tray. Folks are so anxious to do “normal worship ritual and practice”, and it felt really good to do it. 

Well, this is the week! Our family reunion vacation week has finally arrived. This vacation of actually getting all of the family together has been five years in the making. Everyone of us is truly excited. Ms. Kate and I will leave Friday and head on over  to the Branson area and spend the night in Springfield, MO.  We can’t get into the house until 1600 on Saturday, but we will have plenty of time to scope the area out ahead of time and go do a little grocery shopping. I have the car half way packed already just to see what will and what won’t fit. I think we are going to be fine. The weather this week is gong to be sporadic rain showers every day this week, but the forecast for next week still continues to look fantastic. But, —- even if it rains every day while we are there, —- we aren’t there for weather, we are there to hug and love, and catch up on one another’s lives in person instead of just on Facebook Messenger. 

I got to go get a haircut today. I’m looking shaggy. I should have donee that last week before went to church, but I just never took the time. So, today is the day. In the meantime, I hope you have a blessed day. 

 Aaah! There is blessed sunshine out there this morning and it is already a beautiful 72 degrees. As soon as I have some breakfast I’m going out and fill the bird feeders. I have a lot of guests out there this morning and they are hungry. I also have a bird feeder that I need to repair. The critters didn’t tear it up, the small cable wire that it hangs from finally broke, I assume due to rust. I think I can repair it with some wire. But first, I want to take it to Wild Birds Unlimited because I think it has a lifetime warranty. Maybe they will just trade it off to me. I really like that feeder and it is the one that the squirrels eat out of most of the time. It’s worth a try anyway. 

We made it to the churches yesterday to run the next three weeks worth of bulletins. We had debated all day about doing it because of the rain. We had kind of dodged passing storms all day. We went to Target to look for a couple of items for our trip, and then to Biaggi’s for lunch. While we were at lunch, it came another down pour and my radar indicated that we were going to have another one coming through soon. So we went home and took a short nap. It never did come another storm and the sky cleared out, so, off to the church we went. I’m glad to have that done, It’s just another thing checked off of my list before we go on vacation. 

I see a lot of cars coming and parking along the street and then leaving again. I guess my neighbor is having a yard sale once again. We could stand to have a yard sale around here. We’ve never had one and frankly don’t want to put the work into conducting one. I don’t even like yard sales because I figure that 90% of the stuff people are trying to sell is just junk they don’t know what to do with. My sister and her husband were big into yard sales and we have gone on “Yard Sale Road trips” with them and they filled the van with stuff. My Brother-in-law and sister-in-law on Ms. Kate’s side were auction people. Oh, my Lord, he would buy boxes full of junk just to get one item that he had his eye on. And she is no better. They have a basement that is approximately 3000 sq ft and a person can barely get through it because of all the stuff they have bought on auction. I have found that one of the biggest problem with have a lot of “stuff” is that nobody really wants it. I have a Kenwood stereo set down stairs that I bought many years ago on sale at the BX. I also bought two what was state of the art speakers to go with it. But it is all big stuff and with the technology advances, I get the same if not better sound through by Bose earphones and my IPad. If I were to put it out on a yard sale, I might get $25.00 for the whole thing, and I paid around $1000.00 for it. The same goes for the extra piano that sits in my living room.  No body wants it. It’s all just going to be left for the kids to find a way to dispose of it when we are dead. 

Time to go feed my guests. Have a great Friday! Peace. 

 Do you need some rain? We have extra that we don’t need. Good morning! Yes, it is still raining, quite heavily at the moment.  Hope this thing rains itself out today. I’m tired of it raining. Again though, there hasn’t been any large accumulation here. It’s just aggravating because I can’t mow my yard and I don’t want to go out in it to fill the feeders. I have a couple of places that I need to go but I don’t like to drive in the rain, so here we are, just looking out the window wishing it would stop. Come August, we’ll be looking out the windows wishing it would finally rain. That’s the way we “never satisfieds” are. 

We decided to not go up to the churches yesterday because of the rain so we still have that to do. Maybe we’ll just go ahead and do it, although right now my lightening indicator is doing a lot of beeping because of a passing storm. 

I’ve gotten a good start on collecting my stuff for our trip. We’re down to 9 days. I’ve been doing a countdown for the past six months, not that I’m excited or anything. Ms. Kate and I are taking an extra day up front and driving over most of the way. That way we can be there right on the money when we are allowed to be in the house and we can go to Walmart and pick up the groceries that we want, assuming we can have room in the car! LOL. That’s why I want to do a dry fit of stuff before we actually leave. Again though, it needs to quit raining. I’m hoping it has quit raining over in Branson, MO. That’s where we are going for vacation. I have a great house rented over there for a week. The owners had a pool put in this spring but they haven’t been able to pour the concrete pad around it because of all the rain they have been getting. I don’t know if that means it can be used or not. I wouldn’t want grass and dirt in my new pool for sure. Right now, the forecast for our vacation period looks very promising. 

I’m out of chit-chat so I guess I’ll sign off. Thanks for reading along with me. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 More rain showers today —- all day. High to be 72 degrees which is 12 degrees below normal. I’ve been sitting in the sunporch watching my birds this morning although they are having to scramble to find food because they have emptied a bunch of the feeders again and I’m not going out in the rain to refill them. Suck it up birds, you’re on your own. LOL So, I just sit here, drinking my coffee, eating a Coconut Creme Parlour Doughnut, listen to some music and enjoy my life. 

Actually, for as much as it has rained, — it hasn’t accumulated a lot. My weather station says we’ve picked up a quarter of an inch. So, that makes it a “good rain” because it has come in spurts and is fairly light. Nothing damaging about that. Elsewhere around the region though they are posting flood warnings.

I guess we will go to the churches today and run a bunch of bulletins. I have three weeks worth created and ready to print. It won’t take an awful lot of time, and it needs to be done. If I do them today, I won’t have to go up and do any next week. And everything will be set for when we get back from vacation. 

I keep telling myself that I need to start gathering stuff together to pack the car. I talked about that yesterday, but nothing has been done. I think I know everything that needs to go, but then I think of something else. Yesterday we went around to different locations getting stuff that are “special requests” from grandkids that they remember from spending time with us. Yes, —- they are in their twenties and we still spoil them. A person only has one life to live and one opportunity to spread as much love as we possibly can. Our only legacy as humans is the memories that others carry with them and that legacy is only good for a couple of generations and is then gone. I want my legacy to be; —- “He was a good person, and He loved us dearly.”

I guess that about does it for today. I pray that you will have a most wonderful day, full of God’s blessings and joy. Take time to be grateful for those blessings. Peace. 

 

 Good morning and a blessed June 1st. Can you believe it is the 6th month of 2021 already. In 30 days this year will be half over. And, I must say, it has been a much better year than it predecessor, 2020. 

How was your Memorial Day? Did you have friends or family over? Did you grill out in the back yard and sit around and relax? Did you go to a cemetery and watch a local VFW or American Legion Honor Guard conduct a 21-gun salute to our comrades in arms who have passed? That’s how Ms. Kate and I honored the day. We went up to our St. Lucas church cemetery where the local VFW was doing a ceremony. I was very impressed with it. It was very well done, and the members of the honor guard were sharp looking. What impressed me the most though was the number of people that turned out to watch the ceremony, and the fact that they brought their children. From St. Lucas, they went up the road to St. Paul’s  and did the ceremony at that cemetery. They have done this for years and the fact that people brought their children to watch gives me hope that the next generation will continue the tradition. 

Our Sunday All Parish Worship service went very well and was well attended. Due to the cool temperatures we had to give up the idea of an outside service. At church start time it was 58 degrees with a breeze. It would have been fine for a lot of people but a lot of others would have felt like they were chilled to the bone. It is best to err on the side of caution I reckon. There will be plenty of hot days to have a service outside. The summer is only getting started. 

I finished my June 27th sermon last night with the exception of the Pastoral prayer. I told Ms. Kate that I’m holding off on writing that because we may have a whole new set of things to pray for or about by then. But, this week, I need to get bulletins run for the next three Sundays. That way I will have everything set and ready for when I return on the 20th. 

It’s a cloudy morning and 61 degrees. I thought that today was supposed to be a sunny day but now the Accuweather forecast is showing ran this afternoon and evening. We have some running around to do today to get ready for our trip. I guess we better plan on going earlier in the day. Right now Ms. Kate has the laundry going so we’ll wait until that is done. 

I need to start “dry-fitting” the load that we need to take for our vacation. Our Prius is a small car and we will be taking a lot of stuff with us, so the logistics will be interesting. Thankfully we also plan to stop at the Walmart there in Branson to pick up stuff too. But, I just need to figure out how I’m going to pack it all. If I had a cover on my pickup bed, I’d put it all in there but I don’t and besides, I like the 55 mpg I get with the Prius. 

Well the first load of laundry is ready to come out of the washing machine and go into the dryer, som I guess I better get busy. Have a great rest of your week. 

Peace.