Good Monday!!! (Is that a thing we say??) It’s a chilly morning at 38 degrees but the week is predicted to be actually pretty nice. I think the forecaster last night predicted mostly sunshine for the week with temperatures topping out in the mid sixties. That’s not bad at all. I just wish my darn yard crew would give me a call and tell me when they are coming. It is perfect weather for them to be out there. I really thought I had gotten my request in early enough to be early in the schedule before the rain and or snow moved in. 

Speaking of snow; I keep seeing al of these “El Nino” predictions about a terrible winter. I don’t know what to actually believe. As you know, I’m not a fan of any weather that I have to shovel and I keep seeing them hedge around about how much snow we might get but then they finish up their long scientific report with things like; — of course none of this is any kind of a guarantee. Well, duh! Of course you can’t guarantee it. However — leave off the 15 minute history report and give me an educated guess. One of the best weather reports I ever heard was being given by a young Navy Lt to the Admiral. He said “Sir any prediction of weather beyond three days out is strictly being pulled out of the reporter’s rear end!” The Admiral loved it. 

Yesterday was rather long at the churches; two services and a council meeting. Bless their hearts, they aren’t getting any responses to speak of for my replacement so they are constantly having to go to the drawing board and re-think their situation and make new plans. Pastoral search committee duty is extremely tough especially when the parish is small with a matching budget. And, we are a conservative/traditional parish and therefore not in tune with the denomination which has gone very liberal in their beliefs and practices. So, the denomination is in no hurry to find candidates for us and we are having to go outside the denomination to search for candidates. But, I remind them that diligence and patience will be the norm if they are to be successful. The right person is out there. And the answer is not for me to change my mind and just stay on. 

So today, I guess I will just stay home and work on sermons. I hope your day will be a really great one. Peace. 

 I see it got to be Saturday without any help from me at all. Obviously I'm not the center of even my own universe.  Oh well, welcome to the weekend. 

It has turned cooler again which is just what should be happening. It is almost the middle of November after all. Middle of November?? Did I really say that?? Where did the other ten and a half month go? Of course I've been talking about them, but that thought that it was the middle of November just seemed strange. 

What's on your agenda today? I need to get a haircut today. I suspect the barber shop will be packed. If I go early, maybe I can get in rather quickly. I took Ms. Kate to the beauty shop yesterday and she got her hair looking great for the weekend. Mine isn't "bad" particularly, but it does need to be trimmed over the ears and on the back of my neck. I'm not sure it couldn't go another few days, but I need to look proper for church. Nobody wants to see an unkempt pastor. 

Yesterday I did a pastoral visit with a man that I have only briefly met a time or two. He is the father of a member and has some severe health issues. I'm told that many years ago he was very active in the church. So, when I was asked if I would go see him, of course I said yes. I will go back  to see him again as long as I am still the pastor of the church. He's in a facility that is close to where another of my parishioners is so I can go se them two of them on the same day.  

We were supposed to have our yard crew come this week and that didn't happen. I'm disappointed in that because it has been such a perfect week for them to work. But I guess it has been a good week for them to be other places, but I did make sure I got on their schedule in plenty of time I thought. Maybe they are like so many other places and are having a worker shortage. But that doesn't excuse them from reaching out and letting me know, nor does it make my place look any better. 

I got my Wild Birds Unlimited order yesterday afternoon. There were two heavy boxes sitting in front of the garage door when I got home. This should last me through Christmas at least. That reminds me that I need to bring out the electric bird bath and take in the Hummingbird feeders. Those guys won't be back until mid April. 

That's it for today. It's time to clan up and had to the Barbershop. Have yourself a wonderful weekend. As always, I'll remind you to go to your house of worship. The Lord God has looked after you all week and has filled your life with blessing you don't even know about. "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good."   Peace. 

 Thursday Morning, and it is another nice one. Yesterday's wind cleared a lot of leaves off of the neighborhood trees. Dan's front yard Maple is almost void of leaves, and he did a good job of getting them cleaned up. His backyard Maple however, is one big beautiful red ball above his roof line as I see it from my kitchen window. I suspect it will be another week before it drops.

Yesterday was productive at the churches. I got several things done as far as bulletins are concerned. I also finished my December 3rd sermon. That leaves me three more to write, and I have those "kind-of" thought out and have jotted down some notes for them. 

Much of my day today will probably will be spent with a group of pastors. I belong to a group of what we call "Traditional Pastors", i.e. pastors that try their best to keep their ministry and messages on the conservative side and try to keep their messages "Biblical". So many churches, denominations, and pastors are jumping on all of the latest "worldly practices" and are perverting the scriptures. As a result, many churches and people are leaving the mainline denominations. I belong to the United Church of Christ (UCC) and it has gone "totally woke" in its interpretation of the scriptures and gospel. It breaks my heart to see it happening. Our local UCC churches belong to a subset of the denomination and conference called the Evansville Tri-State Association, (ETSA). When I began with my ministry there were 33 UCC churches in our area. Today there are 22 churches remaining in the ETSA. Another one of our churches left the denomination just two weeks ago. Now that I'm retiring in a few weeks it will be interesting to see what the parish does; will they stay UCC or will they leave the denomination too. They have already attached themselves to another more conservative association; but so far have not left the denomination because I have encouraged us not to leave but to try to stay and stand up for what we believe. But, as the world get crazier, and our denomination gets farther out in left field, It gets harder to defend staying. Whoever is going to come and fill my position, will have to address these issues . 

So, It's time to fix some breakfast. Have your self a wonderful day. Peace. 

 I can really tell that the leaves are off of trees in the back yard as I set here in the sun porch. It is really almost too bright to see my IPad screen. I need my ball cap to cover my eyes. But, I will take the sunshine and 75 degrees any November day. It is beautiful outside. 

Ms. Kari, our house cleaning lady is here this morning. She generally comes on a Wednesday but she has a scheduling problem tomorrow so she asked if she could come today. Of course I said yes. And she brought us some pumpkin crumble cupcakes and a pumpkin roll for the freezer. She is a really good baker. 

I still have not heard from my yard crew. I was hoping they would be here yesterday. I have a two day job for them for sure. But, maybe they will be here later this week. I hope. They are sure missing some good weather to work in. But maybe they have a bigger job hat they are currently working on or maybe all of their people didn’t show up —- I don’t know. I just want them to get here and get it done so I can mark that off of my list of things. 

I filled bird feeders again yesterday and put out some different stuff. I also cleaned the bird baths but it is almost time to change the one out for the electric one. I also put in a $250.00 order to Wild Birds and Things for food. That should last me to at least Christmas. The dang birds eat better than I do and they get it brought to them. Speaking of eating, I’m about ready to think about lunch time. I still have some of the pulled pork that Jim made and I think I’ll heat some of that up for a sandwich or two. 

The feeeders all have a lot of visitors about now. Several cardinals, finches, sparrows and doves. I had a couple of squirrels running around but they have gone off to the neighbors trees. That works fine for me. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed Tuesday. Do something kind for someone today. Peace. 

 Happy Monday, after a great Sunday. Yes, yesterday went very well with church services that were fairly well attended. 

Today we had to start our day out with Ms. Kate’s Infectious Disease appointment. Her surgeon had recommended this appointment as a measure to rule out other options such as surgery. However, The ID doctor said that “yes, she does have a couple of small abscesses on her colon; but all of the antibiotic in the world will not “heal them” and he didn’t recommend any at this time. His opinion is that at some point she will have to have surgery to get rid of them; However, she is showing no symptom such as any pain or temperatures etc. So she has a colonoscopy and endoscopy coming up in mid-December. He says to have that and then start thinking about having the surgery. So, all in all — it was a great visit. —- So, we celebrated by going out for breakfast and now it is nap time. LOL. We neither one got very good sleep last night so a mid day nap is in order. You get to do that when you’re old. 

Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 What a beautiful Saturday. We’re on our way to 65 degrees and a day of wall-to-wall sunshine. 

I’m sitting at my kitchen table looking at neighbor Dan’s Maple tree. It has so far gone from green to red and now a yellow & brown. The leaves have begun to fall and there is a good layer on the ground around in his yard. They plan on heading out on vacation in another 10 days or so. It will be interesting to see if his tree loses its leaves before they go. He has another Maple in his back yard. I went over a couple of days ago and it is still summer green and has not even started to turn yet. Well, the leaves will all be waiting for him when he gets back. My trees have all lost their leaves and I have them cleaned up pretty well, except in the flower beds. I’m leaving that for the yard crew that is supposed to come next week. 

Yesterday afternoon I went out and pulled up all of my tomato plants. I gathered the last half dozen ripe tomatoes off of them, pulled them up and put away their cages. That’s another thing that I’m going to have the yard crew do; reconfigure those two raised beds. I want them made a little thinner so I can drive my mowers back and forth from front yard to back yard if need be. 

I think I’ll see if Ms. Kate wants to go out for some breakfast and then we’ll go up to Karen’s house and I’ll pick up pecans. I keep wanting to do that but today is such a nice day, It would be a waste not to go today. I think I told you that I’m just going to put them out under my tree for the squirrels. Kate can’t eat nuts any more and I’m not crazy about them but the squirrels will love them. 

So, that’s my story for today. Have a very blessed weekend, Don’t forget to set your clocks back tonight. And don’t neglect spending some time at your house of worship. Peace. 

 Welcome to November. I started a blog yesterday but didn’t more than a sentence written and got interrupted. Then I didn’t get back to it because the day was just that busy. 

How was your Halloween? Did you have a lot of tricksters and treaters? I did my usual thing. I get on my lawn mower and go sit down by the street. I have a monkey mask that I wear and have worn for years but this year I couldn’t find it so I just put on my warm clothes and sit there and pass out candy. I did have several of the kids ask me “Where’s the monkey?” It was a miserable cold evening this time for the kids and us adults too. On my little section of the street thee are four of us that sit out and wait for the kids. Across the street from me is a guy that goes all out for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with all of that blow-up stuff. He couldn’t possibly put any more things out there. I have to believe that it raises his electric bill up. Then he always has some elaborate costume that he wears to scare the kids. Reminds me of me many years ago when I was his age. All of my decorations though were home made and our house was always the one to gravitate to. 

It was 43 degrees when I went out to begin the evening and I stayed for two hours. By then the temperature had dropped to about 37, the wind had picked up considerably, and I had served at least 90 customers. I wimped out and came in. It was fully dark by then and I only had two small groups come by after that. So this year we only had about half of the number that we generally have. I have a lot of small candy bars waiting to tempt me now. 

Yesterday was a busy day, as I said. We did laundry, I did some writing, and then we had company all afternoon. And I had my weekly go to the church stuff to do; running bulletins, prepping the sanctuary, and then staying for choir practice. We are singing two different numbers between now and Christmas, plus we have a quartet that is going to do a number. We also have a Children’s Christmas program at each church. On Christmas Eve morning I have a soloist from each church singing “O Holy Night” for their Christmas Eve service. So there is a lot going on during our worship services in the next eight weeks. 

Today I absolutely have to fill my bird feeders. Everything is empty. And I will probably run my mower over my leaves one more time just clean up the yard a bit. Although, I saw a video the other day on Facebook that told us not to rake our leaves. Allegedly it promotes firefly growth and protection, and of course it is good much. But I use a mulching blade on my mower so I’d think that would be the same thing. I showed the article to someone and their comment was: —- “that woman obviously live in an HOA!” True, true, true. 

I’ve rambled on enough today. Have yourself a great Thursday and set yourself up for a Fantastic Friday! Peace, my friends.