This is more like it! Bright sunshiny day, very little breeze, and 55 degrees this morning. I’m heading outside to water my tomatoes in a few minutes and it will be nice to just enjoy the fresh air. I filled the bird feeders yesterday and then had to order more. I can’t believe how much bird feed has gone up. It is redonkulous. I ordered three different 7 lb bags of birdseed and it was right at a hundred dollars. Black oil sunflower seed has gone from $20.00 a 40 lb bag to over $50.00. I won’t quit feeding my birds but it does take some of the joy out of it especially when the dang squirrels set there constantly until the feeders are empty. 

This is the big horse racing weekend over in Louisville. Today is the Oaks race and tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby, aka the most expensive two minutes in sports. I’ve never been to the Derby or the Oaks but I can’t imagine getting in that crowd just to watch a two minute horse race that they will show on television anyway. I assume they have more than one race but don’t really know. We have a local racetrack just inside the Kentucky border and we have gone a couple of times. I’ve made a wild guess bet a couple of times but of course ne’er won anything. So, I really have no interest in it. The last time we went it was because our doctor is part owner of a race horse and it was racing . I think I’m still waiting for it to come in. That was a couple of years ago and I still ask him if his horse is ever going to cross the finish line. LOL

We were up too early today for no particular reason. Kate was up before 0600 and I was up before 0700. Yesterday  we went for Kate’s CT Mapping as I told you. The appointment went fine. But, they use a semi-permanent marker on her to show exactly where to do whatever they do. So, she looks like somebody got to her with a marking pen and drew random marks all over her. And — she not supposed to try to wash it off.  So, I guess she will be wearing her warrior paint for the next month and a half. It doesn’t show of course as long as she is dressed. As I said yesterday, we are just anxious to get started on the treatment. 

I reckon that is enough for today. It is cinco de mayo so go have a frozen margarita. Or, leave the booze out and have a slushy!!  Peace. 

 Good morning from the parking lot of Ascension/St. Vincent Cancer center. I just walked Ms. Kate in for her CT scan mapping procedure. It is supposed to take about an hour which seems like a very long time to be scanned to me. But, it isn’t a painful procedure I don’t think except for maybe having to lay in certain positions. When they did her breast MRI a few weeks ago, that was her big complaint. First of all, as you know she is a short person, so she haas trouble getting on and off of those tables. Then she had to lay for a long time on her stomach, arms over her head holding on to some kind of bar. She said the whole thing was terribly uncomfortable. So, I hope this morning isn’t the same way. This procedure is designed to map out her breast and the incision site so they can be very precise about doing the radiation. That close to the heart, we don’t want any room for error. 

I have this cool tray that I can attach to my steering wheel for times like this when I have a wait involved. I got it off of the internet for less than $5.00 and it works really great. It’s holding my iPad just fine as well as my phone. If I wanted to bring a book — that would work fine too. You can really get scammed or taken buying stuff off of the internet but this was a good one. I bought one for Julie too. 

I did a tour around my yard this morning and had to take pictures of our iris. Everything is just really starting to come in except my azaleas. I don’t know what is going on there. A lot of folks have their azaleas  in full bloom but ours are hardly blooming at all.  I do know that as soon as the “season is over, I really need to get out there and trim them back. I can’t see out of the kitchen windows right now. But you have to wait until blooming season is over before you trim them. 

When we leave here today I think we will go to Nellies, one of our favorite restaurants for lunch. I’ll of course get breakfast, — I always get breakfast. Then I have to stop and get gas in the thing. Even a Prius runs out of gas eventually. But at 52 mpg, it takes a little longer and doesn’t hold near as much as something like our Caddy did or my truck does. I think our local gas is running about $3.45 a gallon still. Then after we get home today, I need to take our plants out of the sunporch and give them a summer’s worth of fresh air. I will plant the Biltmore Ballgown tree again this summer. I planted it last year and it did really well. Then in the fall, I dug it back up. It has the strangest looking blooms; they look like a ladies ballgown. 

That’s it for today. I hope your day is blessed. Peace. 

 Is it possible that spring has actually arrived? It looks like it, but it still doesn’t feel like it. The days haven’t gotten above 65 degrees for about a week now and the lows are hovering in the low forties still. BUt I guess spring is actually only half over as summer doesn’t actually start for another six weeks. My main weather guy said last night that he think tonight will be our last really cool night and that the temps are going to start warming up. Maybe even have 81 by Sunday; —- which will of course be accompanied by storms. 

I spent most of yesterday out in the yard mowing, trimming, blowing off driveway and walks, and watering my garden. It was a great day to be out but I was bushed by last evening. Today I’m working on coordinating a summer Bible Study on Job with one of my parishioners. She is a wonderful teacher and loves to do Bible studies. She was teaching about Job last Sunday and the class was excited about it. 

Okay, I have to go, I had something else come up and need to get on thee road. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 May Day! May Day! May Day!  Okay, not really, I don’t need any help. Well —- I probably do but we won’t go there. LOL

It’s a cool 46 degrees again this morning and the sun can’t seem to decide whether it wants to come out or hide behind the clouds. It has been a weird couple of days but I’m glad that we had some rain. I put 13 tomato plants in the ground Saturday and I appreciate God watering them for me. The weather forecaster said that we aren’t looking for any more rain this week so at some point I’ll need to start watering my “maters”. That’s alright  because I’ll add a little Miracle Gro to the water. I need to get a couple more cages from Lowes or Home Depot. And I think maybe another bag of potting mix or garden dirt. I want to plant at least one cherry or plum tomato plant for salad use. I’ll do that in a large pot. 

Do you ever have those night or times when you are getting hungry but have no idea what you want to eat? Yeh, Ms. Kate and I were at that point yesterday afternoon. We left church yesterday and the sky was looking bad so we decided not to go to a restaurant for lunch like we usually do.  We just stopped at McDonalds on the way home and picked up lunch and came home and ate it. By late afternoon the hurries were rumbling and wanting attention. But noting really sounded good. We had leftovers in the refrigerator and we have enough food in the pantries to feed an army, but nothing sound enticing. So, we were left with the choice of; do we go to Lic’s Ice Cream and have a banana split, —- or do we go to Cold Stone for our ice cream. Well, it started to pour down rain and the wind was blowing at about 25-30 mph so we chucked those ideas and Ms. Kate made a chocolate and cherry dump cake; and for our main meal before dessert, we had a selection of cheese and crackers. I love being an adult, especially and old one when you just do what you want to do and to heck with public opinion. 

We had good attendance at both churches yesterday. This coming Sunday will be communion Sunday and I hope folks come out. There is no such thing as a full church these days it seems, at least in the churches around here. I was talking to a member of one of the older churches in town that has always had large crowds and has done big mission work in the community. They are down to about 35 people these days on a Sunday. What a shame. Our congregation has maintained a steady attendance over the twenty years I have been there but “family churches” generally do that especially in rural farming communities. 

I have stuff to do and I need to get on with it. I pray your day will be fully blessed. Peace. 

 Good morning on a cool and wet morning. I’m up “early” today for no particular reason. It seems though every time I have a morning that I can sleep in, I wake up early. The last thing I said to Ms. Kate last night was that we didn’t have any appointments this morning and could actually sleep in. But, that didn’t happen. I woke up at 0600, (I know y’all are already getting ready for work by then and don’t feel a bit sorry for me.) however, I tried to go back to sleep but just laid there with the mind winding up. I started mentally thinking about my Memorial Day service and what I might want to do in honor of that. I know it’s a month off —- but that’s the way my brain works. When that happens, — I know I might as well get up and start putting some words on paper or my computer scratch pad or it will drive me bonkers. So, I’ve made a few notes and reached out to the mother of one our youth in the parish and am hoping I can get the young lad to play TAPS as a prayer response for the service. If he doesn’t want to or can’t, our keyboard has a trumpet setting on it that will work just as well. 

I also had on my mind one of our parishioners that was taken to the emergency room yesterday afternoon by her son. He called me last evening and told me and I wanted to get an update first thing this morning so I can plan my day to see if it is going to include a hospital visit or not. I got an answer from the son that it appears that his mom has pneumonia and is feeling a little better this morning. I suspect they are pumping her with lots of medicines to help her. I will call her husband in a bit and see how things are going. But, I may do a visitation later this morning. 

I plan on going out to Home Depot at some point this morning. I told you that I have been looking for 5-gallon buckets to put around my tomato plants. I couldn’t find any with the bottom already cut out but Home Depot had their standard buckets and I can cut the bottom out myself. They run about $5.00 each which is about the same price I paid for them the last time I bought some several years ago. 

That’s it for this gloomy morning. Maybe I’ll fix some oatmeal for breakfast this morning. I need to get some blueberries out of the freezer because I want Ms. Kate to make a pie.  Doesn’t a piece of blueberry pie sound good for lunch?  

Peace. 

 It’s late in the day so I don’t have a lot to say yet today. But, will share the news from our “doctor visit of the day” with you. Today we went for Ms. Kate’s radiology consultation and met her radiology doctor. He seems like a nice guy —- for a ten year old. LOL. Yeh, they all look like they are 10 years old these day. I long for the “Dr. Welby, MD” types but I’m now far older than the Dr. Welby character was. LOL 

The visit went well although her radiation treatment is going to be more complicated than at least I pictured. Today was meet/greet/explanation day with the doctor. Next week we see him again where they will do an enhanced CT with extra pictures so they can do exact pin-pointing when they begin the treatment. While they believe that the surgeon did a great job, there is no such thing as a guarantee that it will not return, especially for people like Kate who has all of the markers for a possible return. (Too complicated to explain) So, while we were hoping to start treatment as early as Monday, it could be a couple of weeks before she starts her treatments. The number of treatments is unknown at the moment until her radiation doctor tells us what that will be. 

The rain has started now and and will go for a couple of hours here. Good thing for my plants that are waiting for a permanent home. I did get a new peony planted yesterday. I’ve been scouring the internet for some five-gallon plastic buckets to put around my tomatoes. I used to have a bunch of buckets from Rural King tat I cut the bottom out of. They lasted through a few seasons but eventually they get really brittle and fall apart. But — Rural King no longer carries them. I would love think that somebody would make them with the bottom already cut out but so far I’m not having a lot of luck. If Amazon doesn’t have it —- I don’t know what to tell you. 

Time to watch the news and weather so I’m gone today. This is Thursday and one our favorite night for watching tv together. We watch “Young Sheldon”, — “Ghosts”, — “Swamp People”, —- and “Swamp People, Snake Invasion”. Noting like a good gators and snakes night!  LOL

Have a blessed evening. Peace. 

 Once again, a beautiful morning greets me. Then I look at the weather forecast and I see that I better put on a lightweight sweatshirt and I see showers are predicted. But I will enjoy the sunshine while i can and be grateful to the creator for it. I don’t our predicted rain for the next couple of days is supposed to amount to much and it will keep me from having to carry water out to my tomato plants. 

I’m sure you are wondering what the plan is for Ms. Kate as prescribed by her oncologist. She has to see the radiology doctor tomorrow morning so they can get her started for a series of radiation. The Oncologist said that while the surgery went perfect —- no one can accurately say that she is 100% cancer free which is why they do the radiation “preventative” procedure. She will have a total of twenty treatment  consisting of five days a week for four weeks. Hopefully, we can start them on Monday. That would be ideal because she would get all of it done in the month of May and Monday is May 1st. We expected this and nothing her oncologist said surprised us or worries us. He said the procedure takes about five minutes once you are on the table and has little to no after effect like chemo does. She can expect some redness and tenderness at the site but that is about all. So —- that’s the prognosis. We are so grateful that we found this so very early. She had not had her mammogram since COVID like so many other women. The oncologist said that had she gone for her mammogram a couple of month earlier, they probably would not have caught it or seen it. However, her results are a “triple negative” which is the most aggressive type and had she waited another year for her mammogram, they well may have had to take one or both breasts. We give all thanks and praise to God and His protection that prompted her to get her mammogram done this year when she decided to get it done. I’m positive there was divine intervention throughout this process. So, we will follow up with her oncologist again in October. 

I sent my “backyard John Deere” off to the dealer yesterday. It’s will most likely be an expensive trip because it always is. I think mechanic rates are up to $100.00 an hour now, but letting a piece of machinery sit and rust because I have no idea how to fix it is stupid. I’m have tubes out in the rear tires, and they need to fix whatever is wrong with the fuel line. I think that if they can drain it and get all of the bad fuel/water out (that’s my diagnosis) it will be perfectly ready to go. This year, I’m going to stow the thing in my garage again. Yes, it takes up precious space, but my yard barn is so full I just have no room for it. I have a cover for it but no matter what I do, the wind takes the cover off. 

Today we go up to the churches and run the bulletins for Sunday. Maybe we’ll grab some lunch somewhere. It depends on when we go I reckon. 

I have gabbed on enough tis morning. Time to be productive. Have a blessed day. Peace.