Happy Thursday afternoon. Another busy day for us today but today’s adventure had nothing to o with going to a doctor. It has been a long time since I have been able to say that. 

Last evening I had choir practice at the church after I had spent the afternoon running the bulletins for Sunday. After choir practice, I asked one of my smart Tekky guys about something to do with my computer and printer. Well, unfortunately, when I left the church, I forgot to take the flash drive out of the computer and bring it home with me. My “church world” lives on that flash drive, all my services, all my sermons and programs I’m currently working on. That meant I had to go back up to the church this morning  and retrieve my flash drive so I can continue my work. So, I proposed to Ms. Kate that we get ourselves ready, go to breakfast, then up to the church and pick up my flash drive. Then, I needed to get a haircut and she wanted to go to the Dollar Tree store to look for some flowers and decorations for the cemeteries,.

So, we went to Sunrise Cafe for a great breakfast and then up to the church. I got to the barbershop and it was packed. I guess it is “Fall Break” for the school kids and every kid needed a haircut. Okay, it wasn’t that bad but, —- there was a long wait. There are five barbers in the shop I go to and I have a particular barber named Mary that I like to cut my hair. I signed in and it looked like there was only one call for Mary. But, I was wrong. There were three guys waiting on Mary, so it took a while. When I get my hair cut, I like to just sit there and let the barber cut my hair without a lot of conversation. Other guys seem to think they need to have a relationship between them and their barber and want to jabber on forever. All three of these guys were takers. In they meantime, Kate is sitting out in the car waiting. I finally called her and told her that if she wants to come in — there is a bathroom that she could use if she needs to. She did come in about the time Mary called my name. But, I got a nice haircut and will be good for another four weeks or so. We never made it to Dollar Tree. I guess we will do that maybe tomorrow. 

The great thing about all of this is that Kate felt well enough to do all of it. She is doing so very much better. Her surgeon called her today and said that her CT scan show that she still has two either abscesses or lesions on her colon, so she isn’t healed. But he is doing a referral for her to Infectious disease people to see if they think it is a problem and if they have something they can do to treat it without going back on the antibiotic pills that have been causing her all of this trouble. So, it is still a wait and see, but they are not seeing anything that requires surgery at this point. So, we will relax about it until told not to relax about it, and we will continue to give all praise to God for the care she has been given. 

That’s my report for today. Have yourself a blessed day. Peace. 

 Good morning on a crisp 57 degrees morning. The sun is shining and it is just a beautiful autumn day. 

It’s going to be another busy day. First thing this morning Kari will be arriving in a few minutes to clean the pace up. She does such an excellent job. One of the smarter things we have done is to have a house cleaner come in a couple of times a month. She does the vacuuming and dusting, cleans the bathrooms, and cleans mirrors as they need it. Basically she does all of the things that require a lot of stretching and reaching and bending that Kate and I just don’t seem to be able to do anymore. And, she’s a great person. 

We’ve spent the last two days doing doctor’s appointments. We don’t have the results back as of yet so we’re waiting patiently or maybe not so patiently on those. Kate read the results on her “My Chart” page but unless you speak “doctoreze” who knows what they are telling us. One would think they could have put in a simple statement like; “it’s better than it was” or something like that. But no, they put all of these medical terms in the report so you still have to guess what is being said. 

I finished my October services and sermons last night. Wow, —- it’s beginning to be real. This morning’s email contained the official announcement from the Evangelical Association asking for resumes for a new pastor for my churches. I have to admit, it gave me a twinge of sadness. I love being at the parish but it is time to cut the cord and bring in a young person to do God’s work in the parish. I just pray that whoever comes in will love those folks as much as I do. I think God and I have an agreement that it is time for me to step down. 

Today I have to go to the parish and run the bulletins for this coming Sunday. I’m going to have to run extras because we are having an infant baptism this Sunday at St. Pau’s and the mom told me that she expects a large crowd. I love a full church. Next Sunday, the 22nd, I get to do another baptism. It’s my lucky month. Everyone knows that infant baptisms are my favorite part of the job. I’ll miss doing that.. 

I reckon that is about it for today. I hope your week is fully blessed. Peace. 

 It’s October 9th, Columbus Day, — and I’m wondering if anyone cares. It is a Federal Holiday which means that banks and post offices and government offices are closed; —- however, the rest of the world moves on. It’s also known as Indigenous People’s Day thanks to President Joe Biden. Anything for a vote. I do remember my elementary school days where we would participate in little skits and have an assembly to honor Christopher Columbus based on a lot of errant history. But, I’m not going to start a political argument. I’ll just ignore the “holiday” and carry on. 

I think I told you that my son-in-law John had had a mild stroke last week. He is now home from the hospital and isn’t too much worse for the event. He still has some peripheral vision problems and must be cleared by the ophthalmologist before he can drive. I can see where it would be a problem because it is his left eye and that is the side that cars and people pass you on when you are driving. Hopefully this will clear up for him. But he is extremely lucky if that is the worst that he comes out with for all of this. Don’t drop him from your prayers just yet. 

We’re getting our selves dressed and ready to take Ms. Kate for her consult with her surgeon. I think this is a “follow-up” from her hospitalization she had here but he is going to have to also look over the records from her hospitalization in Texas. I just hope he doesn’t try to suggest that she take any more antibiotics. I suspect he will ask for to go take another CT scan, but maybe they will have gotten her results from the one in Texas by now. She didn’t go to church again yesterday because of the nausea tat comes from taking the antibiotics. She has two more days of them and I just hope that Dr. Roberts will say she can just stop them, period. The lady is worn out from being sick and nauseous every day. We have to make her “gooder”. 

I think I will stop and buy a Powerball lottery ticket while we are out and about. I stand as good of a chance of winning that $1.5 billion dollars as anyone else. Even after taxes, there would still be enough to fill up both gas tanks and go grocery shopping. My mind can’t even comprehend what I would do with that kind of money. 

Time to get in the car. I hope you have a blessed week. Peace.  

 Friday, Oct. 6th —- which means that next Friday is Friday the 13th!!!

It’s been another one of those days for our family. We got notified by middle daughter Heather that her hubby, John, had a mild stroke last night. Kate and I were just vacationing with them a week ago. What in the world. What is amazing is those two are the most health conscientious people in the family. They eat well and they exercise well. He rides 100 mile bicycle trips in the Idaho mountains and Grand Tetons. One never knows what life is going to bring. The really good news is that they caught it early in the process and got treatment for him to start dissolving the clot. I just heard from her a few minutes ago and they had him in for a MRI. She said he is doing well so far and his most notable complaint was some messed up vision in his left eye. So, my friends, please add John to your list of prayers. 

Today started with Kate going to the beauty shop to have her hair trimmed and fixed. She was going to cancel they appointment but I talked her out of that. I felt that as bad as she has felt, she needed something to make her feel a little better. From there, we went to the churches and got things ready for Sunday services. Then came back to Evansville, went to Walgreens to pick up medicine for Kate and then to the bank to deposit some checks. Now we are home and have taken a snippet of a nap. 

Yesterday I wrote my sermon for Oct 22nd and got the bulletin prepared for Oct 29th. This month has just begun and I’m already prepping for the next month. I will say it again, —— it will be really strange to not have this stuff to do come January. I’m still not sure how I will fill my time. But I don’t intend to just sit on my butt and do nothing. 

The West Side Fall Festival is going on and Kate and I will miss it once again. It all ends as of tomorrow night. Tonight there will be thousands and thousands of people down there just walking around and finding their favorite Fall Festival food. There are people that literally take a weeks vacation during this annual event and have every meal at the festival. This the second largest street festival in the country, second only to Mardi Gras. They expect over 200,000 people to attend this week. There was a day that it was so much fun to be there in the mix. But I was a teenager in those days. I sole contribution is to but $20.00 worth of “Half-pot” tickets. Last night the half-pot reached over $1,000,000.00. I’d be glad to share that with them. LOL

That’s it for this Friday. Have a blessed weekend. uncle up, it’s gong to be. Chilly weekend. Peace. 

 Happy Thursday to you. I’m hearing rain drops the beginning of the rain-drops hitting the roof of the sunporch. The forecast calls for rain most of the day until maybe around 1600 today. We can certainly use some rain to settle the dust. I went out an mulched the leaves again yesterday and there was a cloud of dust filling the air. So this will be nice. The rain is slow enough at the moment that it is neat to watch the large drops as they land in the birdbath and make a splash. I’m easily amused. I cleaned the birdbaths out again yesterday. There was more leaves than water in them. The leaves lay in there and get gnarly. But, the birds still drink the water and take baths in it. 

I have one cardinal that is being a bossy bird this morning. He doesn’t want to share a feeder or a birdbath.  If other birds come near, he runs them off. But I have all-of the feeders full so no one is doing without. But he doesn’t have to start the morning off by being rude. I may have to have a talk with him about manners. LOL. 

Yesterday was another doctor appointment day for Kate. It seems that we have one every other day. I know she is so tired of it and really tired of taking all of the antibiotics because they keep her nauseous. She has an appointment with her surgeon on Monday or Tuesday, I’m not sure which. It’s hard to keep up without my calendar in front of me. 

Besides doctor visit yesterday, it was also laundry day. We had all of our post vacation laundry to get done. It always takes Kate days to get everything put away when we return home. I generally have everything of mine put away within the first hour and my suitcase carried down to the basement. Probably my “stow and go” mentality left over from the military. 

Today I have to “get back on the job”. Prior to vacation I worked extremely hard to get ahead so I wouldn’t have to rush when I came back. But today needs to be a writing day and since it is going to be a rainy day anyhow, why not make use of it. Tomorrow I will go to the church’s an make sure everything is in order. 

So, that’s it for today. Have a blessed day. Peace 

 Happy Tuesday morning. It is 62 degrees and sunny this morning, little to no breeze out there. The neighbor’s “rooster-beagles” as I call them are busy barking to make sure everyone in the neighborhood is awake. 

I thought that maybe by this morning the birds would have discovered that I have filled the feeders but so far, —- no one is around. That’s alright, they will discover it soon enough. One squirrel did just come through the yard and was carrying something in its mouth. I don’t know what that might have been. I don’t have any acorn bearing trees so it couldn’t have been a nut. It might have been a small tomato. What ever it is, the squirrel is looking around for a place to bury it right now. They are entertaining little critters. I do love watching them despite the fact they cost me a a lot of money in Black Oil sunflower seed. But, when one puts things in perspective; I guess it isn’t bad. I spend a little over $800.00 a year for the sunflower seed, and then about $400.00 for the other kinds of bird seed. That’s about $1,200.00 a year for my peace and comfort and relaxation and enjoyment. Some people spend that much for seats at the Super Bowl to see a game that I watch for free on my television. It’s all relative isn’t it?

According to my Google calendar, I should be heading home from vacation today yet. So, I guess tat means that I am still on vacation today. Maybe I need to review or make another chores list for today then.  There is certainly always something that needs to be done around here. Maybe today I could tackle my garage and straighten things up out there. Or, maybe today we could go put fall decorations on the family graves if Kate feels like it. I don’t know, we’ll see what the day brings. 

In the mean time, I hope you have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Here we are, at the end of the second day of October. I made good use of it. I had a long list of things to accomplish today and I managed to get through all of them. That makes for a satisfying day. 

We started off the morning by taking Kate to have her blood draw that she gets every six weeks to check on her Coumadin levels. Her surgeon last week had altered her schedule so we don’t know what  Dr. Jackson is going to say.  I’m glad to say that she is still dong fairly well since we have been home. Still has bouts of nausea but that is due to all of the antibiotics that they have her on. 

So, I got my front and back yard mulched and mowed today. The leaves are starting to fall in earnest. In a month they will be bare. I also put away some yard still and I filled all of the feeders in the Buffet. Everyone of them was totally empty. I won’t get a lot of takers this evening but by morning there will be a crowd. 

Even though Ms. Kate didn’t get out of the house while we were in Texas, (until she was hospitalized), Heather and Joh and I did do a couple of fun things. We went to a winery tat was called the “Rhinory” because it was also a rhino sanctuary. The rhino’s name was “Blake” and we got to eat up close and personal with it and give it “pets and scratches”. That was a first for me. We also did a wine tasting. My son-in-law John found some red wine he really liked. I’ drink white wine and what I tasted was “okay” but not as good as some of our local wines here in southern Indiana. Oliver wine will out pace it any day. 

But —- the most fun I had was going to Lukenbaach, Texas. I’ve heard the song for years and I actually thought that Lukenbach might’ve a rather large town in Texas but had no idea where it might be. It turns out that Lukenbach (pop-3) is just a privately owned wide spot in the road out in the middle of nowhere. BUt, they had a stage with a live band playing good country music, and a couple of souvenir shops, lots of picnic tables and a dance floor pavilion. I could have sat there all day, having a brew or two and listening to the music. It was the highlight of the trip. So, It so ever get to hill-country in Texas, put Lukenbaach on your bucket list and be prepared to sit back and relax and enjoy Cowboy Americana. 

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