Cloudy, damp, a little foggy and 54 degrees this morning. That’s an absolute recipe to either sleep in or at least take a morning nap. Unfortunately, that 54 is the high for the day and the temperature is going to start going down fairly quickly. Accuweather forecast shows a “winter-mix” for this afternoon and maybe tonight. Don’t we just love our mid-west weather!!!!

I woke up to the sound of loud thunder about 0300 hrs, and the severe weather sirens were going off. We were having the best lightening show I have seen in a very long time. I love a good lightening storm. There was only a little rain coming down and no wind to speak of, just a sky full of electricity. I turned on the tv and the weather guys were on and tracking the storm. It passed by rather quickly because the storms was traveling at 60mph. It was over us for only about 30 minutes. During that time, my weather machine counted 149 lightening strikes. The weather guys said that there were some power outages around in our area but we didn’t lose power. Even if we had, my generator would have kicked in immediately so it would have been no big deal. 

I went for my MRI yesterday. It basically showed that I have a couple of bulging discs and a never pinched somewhere. I’m waiting for the “official word” from my doctor as to what they are going to do about it. In the meantime, I’ll just keep using the cane for support and hope not to fall. The last time II had a severely pinch nerve I had to go to a neurosurgeon and have a minor surgical procedure done to “dig it out” (a lot worse sounding than it really was) and I haven’t had any more problem in that area. That may be what they will do again. I don’t know. 

My yard crew got finished up yesterday morning and the place looks fantastic. I took a bunch of pictures but I have yet to figure out how to put photos in my blog. I have tried numerous times in the past but it never works. Maybe it can’t be done. I don’t know. I guess I could google it. Maybe there is a smart person out there that knows the answer. 

So today I need to go to the churches and run my bulletins for Sunday. Tomorrow I have a funeral to do so that ties up that day. I’m hoping the sun will come out shortly before I go. 

That’s about all I have for this morning. I hope you have a great day. Stay safe and stay in touch with God. 

Peace. 

 It would be silly to think that every day is going to be a bright sunny day. It would also be a desert if it were I suppose. But today is a damp and cloudy morning with just a hint of rain/moisture in the air. That has not stopped this great landscape crew that is working in my yard one iota. They have been out there for an hour already hauling and spreading mulch, and resetting brick pavers. They spent a solid eight hours out there yesterday clearing out all of the leaves and cutting back trees and bushes. I have told you that the place had gotten out of control and beyond my ability to fix. For instance, most people that have Fire Bushes in their yard keep them trimmed back to around five or six feet, My row of them was closer to 15 feet high. My lilac bush had grown above the roof and only bloomed at the top because the trees shaded it so much. The perimeter of the yard had been untouched for two years and the leaves were there just rotting. These guys, a crew of I think six, cut back and cleaned up and hauled literally two dump truck loads of stuff. And I take relatively good care of my yard and work in it a lot as you know. Amazing. I can’t believe how different my yard looks this morning\. It literally looks twice as big. So this morning, they are spreading the last of four cubic yards of mulch and finishing up the job. If you are living in my area, and you are looking for a great yard crew —— hire PMG Landscaping for sure. 

I went to see my doctor yesterday about my sciatic nerve problem. He of course gave me a shot in my rump, but he also has me scheduled for a MRI this morning to try to find out where the nerve is pinched. He said his concern is that I will start falling. That’s not something that I want to do either. We seniors seems to do that a lot and then we get new hips and new joints here and there. Not part of the “golden Years” that I want a part of. 

I lost a friend yesterday Sunday. She was 93 and I have known her since I was five years old. She and her husband were members of my home church. She had been my Sunday school teacher a couple of times and she and her husband had been our Youth Fellowship leaders when I was a young pup. They were just fun adults at a time when other adults were not fun. As her pastor for a couple of years I used to go for parishioner visits with her. My half hour visits usually turned into a couple of hours because we would ll get to talking. She was deeply in love with the Lord and I loved to hear her talk about her relationship with Jesus Christ. II did her husbands funeral back in 2016. They are reunited once again. They had been married for 67 years, now they are together for eternity. Love wins again. 

I better get ready for my MRI. Have a great day. Stop and say good morning to God if you haven’t already. Peace. 

 Happy Monday, welcome to another week of 2023. I hope your weekend was relaxing and full of joy. Did you take time to get to your local house of worship? I hope so. There is no better way to end a week or start a new one, depending on how you count your days, than to start it or end or maybe start it and end it with a good conversation with God. 

We didn’t do much of anything this weekend. I did get to the grocery store to pick up some necessary item. The milk had gone bad and Ms.Kate was out of half and half so that meant we had to go for sure.  Can’t be running out of creamer to ruin her coffee, ya’ know. And without milk, —- well how would you eat your midnight cereal snack? But that was the highlight of the day which tells you everything you want to know about our exciting life around here. 

Yesterday was of course church day. We had the 0900 and the 10:30 and then we had our winter congregational meeting at St. Lucas. Next Sunday we do it all over again at St. Paul’s. The meetings don’t take very long as long as they are kept moving. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. People. Will sit and wait for someone to say something or they will “him and haww” with their thoughts and it seems to take forever. And often, by the end of the meeting, nothing has really been decided at all and stuff gets tabled or the can gets kicked down the road. They are certainly not conducted in the military fashion at all. It’s why I call it operating “at church speed”. And, it isn’t just my two churches that operate this way, I think most of them do. Thank goodness each of my two churches has a small church council. Our councils only have five members each and we have zero “committees”. My home church has a twelve person council and more committees than they know what to do with, and it has always been that way. The silly thing is that when the council president goes around the table asking for reports, most of them say, “nothing to report.” So —- why have a committee??? Civilians are just hard to figure out. LOLOL

I was up way too early today. We have a landscape crew coming today to clean up my back yard and get it “spring ready”. This is the same crew we had a couple months ago that did such a fantastic job on my front yard. For that job, they arrived at 0700, so I expected the same thing today. We’ll I was up and drinking my first cup of coffee by 0640 and it is now 0800 and no one has arrived. I guess it is understandable, it was barely light at 0700 and still pretty nippy outside. But, they will be here eventually. I’m sure of that. And when they do get here, they will go straight to work. They are a good crew and and they are hard workers. 

Tomorrow I go see my doctor about my sciatic nerve problem. Hope to get a fix on this problem 

That’s it for today. Have a wonderful week. Count your blessings and then share them with someone. 

Peace. 

 Another bright and shiny day — can I stand it?? It’s starting to look an awful lot like spring out there and yet I know we only are one third of the way through winter. Did I tell you that I actually have a couple of my daffodils pushing their noses through the ground?  I was shocked. I guess I should not have been surprised, The wild onions have already come up. I had hope that we had killed them out but nope! There is no killing them. 

I did get out and do some visitation yesterday. I had some good conversation with some of our senior parishioners. I always enjoy that. I learn about family histories, I learn about what they think about whatever is going on in the church, the community and the world. I try to never over-stay my welcome when I go. 30 minutes to an hour is what I try to limit my visit to. I always close my visit with a prayer and it does me good and it does them good. It’s a win-win all the way around. I generally \go visit folks once a month. I think that is enough. 

I need to put together my shopping list together and go “see my peeps” at the local Walmart market. Kate was going to have milk last night but it had turned. Then this morning she ran out of half and half for her coffee. That make the trip an emergency. LOL. I also need to throw my butane canister in the trunk and get it filled. I have two  and have been working on the “extra” can for some time now. I don’t want to get in the middle of a grilling session and the flames run out. Spring and grilling weather is on the horizon. In fact, I may throw some burgers on the grill yet this afternoon. I can fill a couple of the bird feeders while I’m grilling.

So, having said all of that, it is time to get busy. Tomorrow is the Sabbath. Please take the time to go to your house of worship and join other in giving God praise for bringing you through the week. Peace. 

 Just how I wanted to start my new day: —- my phone giving me “fraud -alert” messages from my credit card company. grump, grump, grump!  

I just yesterday got a replacement card from my company because I did have a fraudulent charge last month. I only use one card and that is from USAA, my insurance company. I’ve been with them for 49 years now and they are a great company with which to do business. They address me by “Colonel”, my retired rank, and everything is “yes sir” and “no sir”, which I truly appreciate. There are certain things that I pay automatically with that card. 

Anyway —- last month someone used my number to try to make a purchase and USAA caught it immediately which is great. What that means however, is that they put a block on your card, contact you about the purchase attempt and verify whether you made it or not. I told them “no” so they immediately make that card invalid and they send you a new card. I received that new card yesterday and last night I enabled the card through them. This morning I had a new fraud alert on my phone and I get a call from USAA wanting to verify a new purchase. I knew I had not made any new purchases last evening. 

Well, the lady on the other end of the line was a jewel to work with; they always are at USAA. We finally figured out that some of my automatic payments had been held up due to the old card being stopped, and when I put my new card into their systems, it automatically processed those “purchases”. So, —- all is good again. It just took an hour of my morning to get it all straightened out. I know most of you that read this can’t use USAA because it is for military personal and their families only. But they are a fantastic member owned company. So much for my commercial announcement today. 

Another morning of sunshine!! How wonderful is that? It is currently 41 degrees outside which doesn’t make me mad. As long as the wind isn’t blowing too hard, that is an acceptable “long-sleeve” temperature. I never did get out yesterday to do any more visitation. I got wrapped up in writing. So, today I think I will go see a couple of people. I could just call them I guess but face to face is better when it is possible. These days, I never know for sure whether to go or not because the COVID virus is still very much alive and well and now has some new buddies like “flu” and “RSV” running around with it causing havoc for people and hospitals. One never knows whether that will be allowed in a facility or whether I have to wear a mask. Although, most places have forgone the mask routine with the exception of doctor’s offices and hospitals. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Of course , if a person isn’t comfortable without a mask, they can always wear one in for their own protection. We still have one or two people that wear a mask at church routinely and we still have the masks and hand sanitizer available to anyone that wants it. 

What are your weekend plans? Going anywhere fun? Of course, Ms. Kate and I will be at home; —- we’re always at home. I think Saturday the forecasters are talking intermittent showers which is never fun to get out in. It used to be that I didn’t mind it but age does change mentality and we get more cautious about running around and driving around out in inclement weather. I know my reaction times have decreased for sure. 

Time to drop off for today. Perhaps I’ll see you tomorrow. Peace. 

 It seems like it has been a long time since I got up and saw sunshine coming through my windows. I suspect it hasn’t ben as long as I imagine it but this has been a gloomy winter so far hasn’t it? It seems it has rained forever and then we had the polar vortex come through and freeze our rear ends off. Luckily, here in southern Indiana we didn’t get near the snow much of the nation got. I can’t imagine what a person does when they start measuring their snowfall in feet. But, we have a sunny, 46 degree morning and it looks like the wind is minimal. It won’t be bad when I head out a little later to do parishioner visitation. 

I went to the churches yesterday and ran the bulletins for the coming Sunday and put everything in place for the service. The churches still have their Christmas trees up. Which is fine. I think St. Paul’s will take their’s down this Sunday after church. St. Lucas may wait another week because this week they have their winter congregational meeting after church and I suspect the meeting is going to go long. They have some issues to discuss concerning their constitution that will require discussion. That all comes about because they are also needing to discuss how they are going to go about finding a replacement for me. If you had not been told, I am officially retiring as of December 31st 2023. Their current constitution restricts them to  hiring only a United Church of Christ pastor. And what is worse is that they have a clause in their constitution that was written 50 years ago that says that particular clause can never be changed. I mean, who approves something like that, that let’s the cemetery control the destiny of the church?? The denomination has changed drastically since that was approved and the direction of the denomination is not the direction that this current congregation wants to go. So, it will be interesting to see how they go about solving this issue. I have not checked St. Paul’s constitution yet to see if they have a like clause. I need to do that. Well, actually they need to do that. I can have no part of this process. I’m not a member of the congregation and have no voting power and by “the rules” I should not even be giving any input; not that rules have been a big blocking point to my thoughts on a given subject before. LOL

I need to go out and fill some bird feeders today. But, I’m only going to do that if the back yard isn’t too sloppy from the rain. I have to get up on my ladder for a couple of them and I don’t relish getting on a sinking ladder. They have quite a bit of food out there now but some of the favorites are empty, of course. The black-oil sunflower seed feeders are mostly empty, thank you very much you fuzzy-tailed rats! It isn’t the birds that clean those out, it’s the dang squirrels. I was out the other day and happened to look at all of the trees that lined our neighborhood and every tree has a minimum of one squirrel nest in it. No wonder we are over run with them. They have a whole community residing thirty feet above our heads and the trees are a natural highway for them. If a fella was in to eating “squirrel stew” he could live well for a while. I’ve eaten squirrel when I was a kid. My dad would take me squirrel hunting in our woods. We’d get a couple and bring them back to the house and skin them. Then my mom would begrudgingly fry them. I don’t remember much about whether I liked it or not. I know my mother hated cooking them.

Okay, that’s enough for today. I pray you have a blessed day and that you have sunshine in your life and in your heart. Always remember that no matter what is going on in your life, God walks besides you to give you strength. 

Peace 

 Good morning! Yes, I am alive and well, and it is good to be back to the sunporch. I have had several questions about my blog in the recent days; “where can I find it”, “are you still writing it”, “how come I can’t find it anymore” — that kind of thing. The truth is that I just had to step away from it because I was finding it very mundane and boring. It seemed that nothing I was writing was of any value to anyone and therefore a waste of people’s time. But — I also found that I missed writing it. So, I’m giving it another go. I promise nothing with it, except to write whatever falls out of my brain, which may or may not be of interest to anyone, including me. 

To say I’m back to the sunporch is a bit of a mis-direction. It’s still too cool to sit out there very much. The sunporch is not heated nor cooled and Ms. Kate doesn’t like for me to leave the doors open and let the ambient air and temperature from out there into the house where she happens to be sitting, already with her lap blanket on. But, the sunporch is the best place to sit and watch my birds and I miss doing that. I’m still feeding them and will occasionally throw on a sweatshirt and grab a lap-robe and go watch them. I find sitting there watching them to be very calming and gives me a direct contact opportunity with the great Creator and Sustainer of our universe. I figure if God cares so much about them I’m in good company. 

And here we are in the year 2023. This year I will turn 79, and I am in awe of that. Not only will I turn 79, but all things considered, I’m in great shape with no reasons at all to think that I don’t have a lot of years left in this life. True enough, I suffer from the routine things that most people go through as they advance in age. I’m slower than I want to be and I’m physically weaker than I used to be. But your see, I know know who is to blame for all of that too. I’ve gotten lazy and have reduced my activity level exponentially. When you do that, you cause your own demise and it is hard, or maybe even impossible to get back to levels that you once had. What am I going to do about it? —— most likely not a dang thing. I’m loving my simple sedentary life. I will keep doing stuff to keep the joints moving. But, I’m having problems with my sciatic nerve in my lower back and it probably is a result of residue from my fall down my basement steps back in 2019. I had a compression fracture my my L2,L3 at that time and was told that it would give me grief later in life. So, now when I have a flare up, (which seems to be more frequent) I grab my cane to get around and call my doctor who either will prescribe some prednisone tablets for a week or have me come in and give me a shot in the hip. I hate those because they hurt and raise a knot on my butt. 

I’m still working, and I’m still enjoying it. I’ll be talking more about that as we begin our daily chats once again. In the meantime, it is good to be back with you. I hope each of you have had a wonderful and blessed Christmas holiday season and that each and everyone of you will have a gloriously blessed 2023. 

Until next time.