O happy day!! I can’t believe a highway truck just went down our street clearing ice and spreading some sand. And the ice is melting off of my driveway. The prison chains are coming off. 

It is so good to see the sun shining today. It is so good to see that thick glaze of ice melting off of my driveway. I was listening to the news awhile ago and there have been several deaths recorded due to the countless number of vehicle accidents across the nation with this storm. My heart goes out to those families. Dallas / Ft. Worth Texas area is still getting hit hard and is expecting to have as much as an inch of ice on everything. That is horrible and it is city crippling with power grids going out. The USPS in that area has suspended all activities for the foreseeable future because they can’t get anywhere. My grandson Josh works for USPS up in New Hampshire and said that all of their planes are grounded in Memphis Tennessee because they can’t get out. The storm hasn’t hit Josh’s area just yet but it is on the way. This one has certainly been one for the record books. I pray we see some sunny weather for awhile now so the country can thaw out. I went out to my driveway and checked to see how the melting is going and it is doing well. The front sidewalk is clear and the left side of my drive is clear all the way to the street. I have a bag of pet-safe ice melt and spread a lot of that on the rest of the drive so maybe that will help. 

Ms. Kate has been under the weather for the last two days but seems to be better today. It appears to be a 24-36 hour thing with congestion and nausea. Yesterday the only thing she ate was a yogurt and some saltine crackers. But this morning, I fixed a pan of Pillsbury Orange Rolls and she ate a couple of them without any repercussions. So, I pray the “bug” has begun to leave her alone. I just hope she hasn’t shared it with me. I don’t have time in my life for sickness. 

Thanks to the starlings, most of the feeders are almost empty. I have had a flock of maybe twenty out there since all of this storm started. I guess tomorrow afternoon I will get out there and refill everything. It’s too icy to be safe just yet and the last thing I want to do is fall and break a hip or my head. But I have had a really plethora of birds out there for the last two days. I’m glad I got everything filled up before the storm started. 

Time for me to get busy and get a sermon written. I have delayed it long enough. Have a blessed day, stay off of the ice. Peace. 

 How do you become a prisoner in your own home? — with a thick coating of ice on the drive way and all of the streets, that’s how. There is no way I could drive up my driveway. There has only been one truck that has traveled our street so far today and there is a a couple of kids out there on a four wheeler but they are taking it fairly slow. It is absolutely dangerous to try to go anywhere today. All of the schools are closed and I imagine many businesses have closed too. Not that I am going to try to find out. 

I was supposed to do a funeral at 10:00 am this morning. That got postponed. They are going to try to have it on Thursday morning now. The ice should all be fairly well melted by then. I think it is supposed to get above the melting point by tomorrow afternoon and hopefully we’ll have a day of sunshine tomorrow. I feel so bad for the family having to postpone the funeral. It is hard enough to lose a loved one let alone having to drag out the funeral process. But, it was the right decision. There are vehicles off of them road everywhere and the last thing we would to have happen is to have one of the mourners end up in the ditch or the hearse end up inn the ditch. It wouldn’t be the first time, that’s for sure. Ms. Kate tells about the funeral for her great-grandpa. His remains were handled by one of our local funeral homes but the cemetery was down in Fordsville KY, about fifty miles away and back in hill country. They got to within a half mile of the cemetery on a muddy back road and the hearse was stuck and couldn’t go any farther. Several of the men said that they could carry the casket the rest of the way but the funeral director said “No. Our contract is to the grave.” They went and found a farmer with a team and wagon and loaded the casket on to that and took it on up the hill to the cemetery for the burial. Then the team pulled the hearse out of the mud. 

I guess I’ll use today as a writing day and work on my service for the 12th of February. Ms. kate isn’t feeling well at all; has an upset stomach and a cough. I hope she’s not coming down with the flu. 

The Backyard Buffet is overflowing with customers today. I posted a short video of it. It has been non-stop all morning with birds flying in and out and fussing and fighting for position. It’s fun to watch. 

That’s it for today. Stay warm, stay inside if your weather is anything like mine. May God bring you peace. 

 Welcome to a new week and by the way, the last week of January 2023. It is a predictable January day, It’s 34 degrees, with a rain and snowflake mix.. Not a hint of sun in the sky. It is a good day to just stay inside by the fireplace. But unfortunately we have to get out in it. Today is the visitation for my parishioner that passed so we need to go to that. Then we need to stop and pick up a few things at the grocery. Tomorrow I have the funeral to do at 1000 hrs. Wednesday Ms. Kate has a doctor appointment and then I have confirmation class followed by choir practice. So, this is going to be another event filled week, and no sunshine to go with it. 

Yesterday was a good but busy day though. Two church services, a luncheon, and then back to church for the confirmation class. What made it a great day was that I got to do an infant baptism during the late service (hence the luncheon afterwards). I love baptisms. I have to say though, my baby yesterday was a fussy one. So was the last one that I baptized. I’ve gone twenty years with all of the babies laying quietly in my arms but these last two were not happy with the proceedings. But as I said yesterday, I hope some day they sing just as loud in the church. 

The other thing that made it a great day was my Confirmation class. These two guys seem to be “getting it” and they are doing a great job. Our last two meeting I have ben having them put together a class statement of faith and thy did a pretty good job. They put down all the basics and now they are supposed to “wordsmith” it and make it a readable and usable document. I have asked every class to do this and they always doa a good job. I have saved all of them and we use them during worship service frequently. I like to do that because it gives them a sense of ownership during the worship service. They can know they created that statement and now they are sharing it with the entire parish. 

That’s it for today. Stay out of the yucky weather if you can, If you must be out, drive carefully. God bless you; have a wonderful week. 

 Hello beautiful Saturday morning. It is so great to wake to a sunshine filled sky with no clouds in site. So, I thank you Lord for starting my day off with a blessing. 

Ms. Kate and I got our running around done yesterday that we wanted to do. We went to Staples and bought her a new chair for her office. She found one that she thought was very comfortable and should last her quite awhile. And it was on sale so that was a plus. Last evening then we put it together and she is in there this morning at her desk playing her Klondike computer game. She plays that and Bingo Bash, and Criminal Case. I play Criminal Case. I used to play the Bingo Bash game too but I got bored with it. I’m actually surprised that I still play Criminal Case because I get bored with stuff pretty easily. I’m terrible about that with television shows. I’ll try a new show and if it doesn’t really grab me within the first couple of weeks, I move on. That’s probably why I only have a half dozen shows that I watch weekly. The rest of the time I leave the tv turned off. Or, I’ll turn it on You Tube and listen to the music. Ms. Kate watches all varieties of NCIS and Law and Order. I don’t watch cop shows or lawyer shows or doctor shows. The things the cops supposedly do and the collateral damage they cause, and the equipment that they allegedly have is so unrealistic. I also don’t like the fact that the criminals are out to personally targeting the cops and their families. I mean how many times have we seen this cop or this lawyer get kidnapped and have to be rescued? That happened all the time on “Walker, Texas Ranger”. I don’t watch factor shows because they mostly portray the doctors and nurses sleeping  with one another or the cops and firemen having affairs. In my books —- Dragnet was a great show. “Just the facts ma’am”. Yeh, I’m boring. Give me a good nature show where the animals eat one another instead of having sex with them. 

I didn’t get any feeders filled yesterday. The yard was still a bit sloppy when I walked out there. I think maybe I’ll go out again this morning and see how it is. It is supposed to start raining again this evening. This has really been a wet winter and the forecast shows more to come through next week and might even bring a couple days of snow mixed in. YUK!!!!!! 

I need to finish up the funeral that I working on. The funeral isn’t until next Tuesday but I want to get it finished. Tomorrow will be a long day as usual for Sunday. But, the really joyful part of the day is that I get to do a baptism of an infant. That is the favorite part of my job. This will be my 30th baptism at St. Lucas and I don’t know how many I have done at St. Paul’s. II always feel so blessed when I get to do a baptism. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed weekend. Peace. 

 It is so great to see the sunshine this morning. Yes, it’s cold, but it is also winter so what else can we expect. The days that are really sunny and a little warmer are just one of God’s blessings that He tosses in to us. Today is supposed to be 14 degrees warmer than yesterday so again —- Thank you God. 

We planned yesterday to go find Ms. Kate a new office chair but the weather was cold and snow flakes were flying, so we decided to wait until today. Our wait seems to have been rewarded. Actually we have several places that we need to go today so we need to map out a route and strategy. I tend to do that every time we go somewhere. I want to take a route that doesn’t have us running from one side of town and back and forth. My car gets great gas mileage but still no need to waste time and gas. I think it drives Ms.Kate a little bonkers when I do that but what the heck. If only that were my only quirk. LOL

I got started on working on the funeral for my parishioner but I need to wait until I find out more details and I want to talk to her husband first for some personal stuff. I try to make my funerals as personal as I can because I try to help with their closure. Over the years I think it has helped several people. 

The back yard has dried up enough that I think I can walk around in it without getting too muddy. I have some feeders that I need to refill and I think maybe this afternoon I’ll throw a couple of steaks on the grill. I got them out of the freezer yesterday but they didn’t thaw in time for supper. So after we get back today, I will take advantage of the sunshine and fire up the grill.  

Okay, the boss says it is time for me to get ready. Y’all have a great day. Peace.

 Well, Thursday showed up again this week and we can all give a big “shout out” to God for that. We have another day and another chance to do something for somebody. 

It’s a cold and windy day; 32 degrees right now and I don’t think it is supposed to go up much from there. But, it isn’t snowing or raining so there is another thing to be thankful for. (Amazing how the blessings just keep on coming, isn’t it?)

It was a busy and a long day yesterday. I did get out and do my visitations and I’m so very glad that I did. One of the parishioners I visited yesterday afternoon, passed away this morning. It was not unexpected. May her soul rest in the peace and glory of the Lord. She has been so ill for such a long time. God has now let her rest and and maybe now her husband can get some rest too. He has been by her side constantly and has been totally devoted to her. 

My feeders have a lot of visitors this morning. Bluebirds, juncos, cardinals, starlings, blackbirds, and goldfinches. The goldfinches have already started to turn color from their winter greenish-brown back to gold. I wonder how they do that. Well actually they don’t “do” it, — it’s just part of the process, but I wonder how it happens. I may have to Google that just so I can fill my head with some more useless knowledge. I mean it isn’t like I’m ever going to be part of a “bar-game trivia contest” and be asked that question. But sometimes I like to just look stuff up so I learn something new. 

We started choir practice again last night and are working on our Easter Cantata. It’s isn’t too difficult so far.  The song we did for Christmas was harder than this cantata will be. But, we also are working on another song. I had heard another group sing the song “Hallelujah” by Sam Cohen and it was done so well that I asked our choir director if we could learn that one too; and bless her heart, she found the music and we started on it too.  My surprise when I saw the music was to learn that it was from the movie Shrek! I might have to watch that movie again just to see where it fit in because I can’t imagine it. I truly thought it was a modern day church song. We had a young couple from the church sing it a few years ago and they were nervous about doing so and I could not figure out what their concern was. Now having read the lyrics —— I still don’t get it. But, I love the instrumental music of the song. As I told our director, being brought up in the band and not the choir, I never paid much attention to the words of a song, just to the melody and the harmony. 

I have work to do so I better get busy doing it. Have a great day. Stay warm. If possible —- grab a cup of coffee, your blanket, and a good book and enjoy God’s world out side of the window from the inside of the house. Peace. 

 Good morning! Happy “hump daaaaaaay!” The week will be half over by this evening and we’ll all start looking towards the weekend. 

Ms. Kate and I went to bed around 0100 and it was snowing, and everything was well covered. I got up this morning and the streets were already clear as was my driveway. Water was running down the street gutters because of the melting. This will all be gone by noon I reckon. That’s a good thing because I need to do some visitation today, and go to Staples and get copier paper, and go run the bulletins annnnd —- go to choir practice. Yep, it is going to be a busy day and I don’t need snow to get in my way. 

Kari, our cleaning lady is here this morning and I try to stay out of her way. We started having someone to help with the house cleaning twice a month last summer and it has really been nice. She does such a great job. One of the benefits is that Ms. Kate and I are more conscious about keeping stuff picked up too. We aren’t messy people but we do tend to leave our little piles of stuff around. Knowing that Kari is coming tends to help us remember to pick up our little piles of stuff. After all, no one wants their cleaning lady to see a messy house. LOL

The squirrels and the blackbirds have emptied a few feeders so I guess I’m going to have to fill them back up. But I will wait until it dries up a bit. I don’t want to slop around out there just yet. This has been a really wet winter and it is only half over. When it is sloppy, I just refuse to go out there. I never let everything get empty so I know there is always some food available. They are just spoiled and like their favorites. 

Time to get busy for the day and I also need to move out of Kari’s way. Have yourself a wonderful day. Take time to be nice to your neighbor and say “hi” to a stranger. Peace