Can I say it????? HUMP DAAAAAAY! It’s been around I think for seven or eight years and I still get a kick out of that. Silly camel. 

It’s 48 degrees this morning and we have a frost advisory for tonight. Fall has certainly arrived in style. Yesterday it was really windy all day. We had gusts up to 40mph. I don’t see much of a breeze out there at the moment and we are supposed to have a fairly calm day. Actually the wind is what kept the frost away this morning. 

Our cleaning lady, Kari, is coming this morning. She does such a good job and is so very personable. We know two other families that she works for. Kate had  put off hiring someone for a long time but when she started to have all of her health issues she finally gave in. She comes every two weeks and mainly does stuff that I did as a kid when I lived at “home” for my “chores. She does dusting, cleans the bathrooms, vacuums, and anything else that I might want her to do. She spends three hours or so and the place feels fresh when she is done. We had her come when we were on this last vacation so that we come home to a freshly cleaned house. It is a great way to “finish up a vacation.”

Today is gym day so we will be heading down to Planet Fitness in maybe another hour. We only use one of the machines and do 30-40 minute workout but it keeps us fit. It obviously helps because it was reflected in my physical last week with all of my good stats. 

Tomorrow I have to go for an echocardiogram and I don’t really know why or who scheduled it for me. I had one last year too but I don’t recall my doctor saying anything about me needing it They called yesterday as my reminder and I had an option to cancel it and really considered that. But, I’ll go ahead and let them poke and prod on my body and then they can tell me I’m good to go. 

The neighbors across the street finally have contractors working on their house that caught on fire early this year. They have gutted to house and will be replacing the roof as well as building a new attached garage. It  has been a long process for them but they think they will be in by the end of February. It  gives the rest of the neighborhood something to be nosey about. My next door neighbor on my south side is having a roof put on this morning so I have entertainment all day. 

We need to make apple pie again today because our apples are starting to get a little soft. Darn the luck. 

With that silliness I think I will sign off for today. I pray God brings peace to your life today. 

 Good morning on this sunny Tuesday. It was a bit warmer this morning when I got up; 55 instead of 40 like yesterday. I think we’re supposed to be going to may 70 or so today. Last night the weather reporter said that the outlying areas could maybe get a light frost. I don’t know if it happened or not. However, he also laid out the dates of our “normal” first frost and first freeze. Unfortunately, those days are not that far away. But then Christmas is only about 63 days away. That doesn’t seem possible  to me. I still have a long way to go to get my fall outside stuff done. The leaves haven’t really started to fall yet and the grass is still green. I guess a lot of changes are going to happen in the next thirty days or so. 

I fixed Pillsbury Orange rolls this morning. I really like them, but today I don’t know what happened to them. I’ve fixed these things hundreds of times but today they got too done on top and not quite done on the bottom. It won’t keep me from eating them but it was disappointing. Maybe I should have turned to oven to 350 degrees instead of 400 like the instructions said. I guess I will have to “practice” some more. 

With the days heading towards frost time I would normally be bringing in my flower pots for the winter but I don’t think we are going to this year. We have had those three pots of geraniums for years by now and they seem to bloom constantly. But this year they have had nothing but blooms that are fairly scraggly looking. I think it is time to give them up and plant new ones next year. Next spring I will put all new potting soil in the pots and fresh new plants. Of course our weather has been unpredictable this year and that might have affected the way the bloomed. We had entirely too much rain in the spring and then we had five different heat waves with no rain. It’s a wonder they bloomed at all. 

I’m very happy for my former parish. They are building an addition on to the parsonage at St. Lucas to house the pastor and his family. It has not housed a pastor since 2004 because I didn’t need it when I started up there. The two pastors previous to me were single and didn’t need a lot of room. However, the current pastor has several children and there wasn’t enough room. The parish decided to have a “whole hog” raffle in order to help raise the money to build on. They had hoped to raise at least $5,000.00. They actually raised $11,000.00. So good on them. I’m very happy for them. 

I think the outside has reached a comfortable temperature so I’m jumping off and going to do some outside work. I hope you have a most blessed week. Peace. 

 Welcome to Monday and the beginning of another week. Actually, that isn’t totally correct. According to our calendars, Sunday is the beginning of the week.It seems though that at some point in my lifetime the calendars changed and Sunday used to be at the end of the week. Does anyone remember that? After all, we call it a weekend and have Saturday and Sunday off work. We also say that “on the seventh day, God rested and declared the day to be holy.” To be fair, many churches and faiths use Saturday as their 7th day and worship day so I don’t really know but would love to hear your thought over on my Facebook page. 

It was forty degrees when I got up this morning but by now it is a pleasant 68 degrees and the sun is shine bright. There is a bit of a breeze though so unless one is busy outside it could feel a little cool. 

Ms. Kate had an appointment with one of her heart doctors this morning. They ran an EKG and checked her medical records etc and said, “See you in six months”. That’s pretty much what I hear these days too. Thursday I have to go in for an echocardiogram. I hate those. 

We stopped for lunch after Kate’s appointment. I had an order of gizzards, German fries, and creamy slaw. Kate got a trip to the salad bar and ate part of my gizzards. I love gizzards but they will wear your jaws out. 

Talk to you tomorrow. Peace. 

 Happy Saturday morning to you. It is a bit warmer this morning as we await a coming storm pattern for this afternoon and maybe even a bit over night. Maybe we need rain by now, I don’t really know. Most of the growing season is over so I don’t really have a dog in the fight. What we don’t need is a severe storm and I think we are maybe under a watch for that. 

So, a Saturday blog as opposed to a Friday blog. Yesterday was filed with stuff to do and by the time I got around to it, it was late and I was tired. Or, maybe I was just lazy, I don’t know that it makes any difference. This morning I had to make a run to the bank. We had three CD’s mature today and I wanted to “roll them over”. Interest rates have dropped some since I purchased them. I bought the old ones at 4.5% and today I was only able to get 3.95%. I doesn’t a huge difference because we will roll them over again next April. I have two more coming due in December and I do hope the rates nudge back up. There may be places that pay a little more but I’m a loyalist and will stick with my bank. I know people that jump around each time they think they can get a little better deal whether it with their interest and cable company. We’ve been with the same cable company since we moved here in 2001. They have changed names etc three times I think but we just stay the course and press on. 

I finally the flower beds by the street yesterday. And I mowed my backyard and mulched up those leaves. There was a lot of leaves. We have only had the one weekend where a bunch of leaves fell. But the grass was getting long and the backyard looked bad. I had to take the big John Deere to the backyard to do the work because “Bambi”, (the smaller John Deere) had a dead battery. I just put a new battery in “Big John” (the larger of the two John Deere’s) two weeks ago, I think, or maybe it was last week. Time to get out another $100.00 bill I reckon and make Bambi healthy again.  I wonder why batteries are so expensive???

My oldest garndchild, Joshua, and his family are moving to North Carolina today. They left New Hampshire yesterday. I think it is going to be interesting to watch them acclimate themselves to “the South”. They have lived in New England their entire lives, living in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Josh has at least traveled and is used to other parts of the country but his family are definitely New Englanders.  I love North Carolina and they are moving to Raleigh but life is going to slow down for them. Their daughter is still in high school. I offer prayers for their success. 

Okay, I need to go fire up the grill and cook some pork chops before the storms come in. This is the weekend; —- God’s time. Take the opportunity to go to your house of worship and give thanks for another  week here on the planet. Peace. 

 Thursday evening. It has been another busy day and a good day too. As I told you, I was to have my physical exam this morning. I did and everything went very well. I had read my lab reports yesterday evening on “Deaconess View My Chart” so I already knew what he would be saying. And sure enough, he did: —- “ somebody has been eating too many donuts.”  All of my tests were good with the exception of my blood sugars and they were pretty high. Not diabetes high but higher than they should be. So, I know he’s right and I need to slack off on my sweets. The problem is that all of the things I really like to eat convert to sugar, stuff like pasta, potatoes and of course the desserts. I have another physical next May and I will try to bring my numbers down a little. 

We had a little incident last evening concerning Kate’s last piece of Apple pie. I had put the pie pan back in the oven because I knew I would be having it for a mid-night snack. I told Kate where it was. We, about supper time Kate was going to fix some biscuits. To go with supper. She turned the oven on to heat it up and searched in the refrigerator for a can of biscuits and didn’t find any, and thought no more about the oven. As we sat watching television I kept thinking I smelled something burning. Finally I got up and checked the stove and oven. There, baking at 450 degrees was that poor piece of pie as well as the pie scoop. I have never seen anything come out of an oven that black and burnt. Frankly, it is a wonder that we didn’t have a fire. Needless to say, the pie was completely inedible. And the pie plate, (her favorite) is ruined. I was able to save the pie scoop after a lot of cleaning. However —- Amazon delivers and she found a couple of pie plates that she thinks are going to be good replacements, and she bought two new pie scoops too. What would we do without Amazon???

While we were at the doctor’s office, we got our flu shots. We asked Dr. Jackson about getting our Covid shots and he said the latest version hasn’t come out yet and probably won’t until sometime in November. So he said we should wait because the strain of the vaccine that people are currently using does no good against the strain of the virus that currently going around. 

We went out for dinner at “Ma T China Bistro” because I was hungry for some ramen noodles. Ms T’s is a favorite place. For you locals, it is on Vogel Avenue and I highly recommend it. 

My television show is coming on so I’m out of here. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Hello Wednesday. I made it through my confusing Tuesday without any mishaps. LOL, Well, except for wondering where my Friday television shows were. I don’t know if I told you that my doctor’s office called me about an hour after I got home and I finally had something to eat and told me they had put in the order for my blood-work. So, I went this morning and got that done. Now I can eat the donut holes I bought yesterday for my breakfast. They are so darn good. They are still fresh this morning. I’m telling you, that Windmill Bakery has it going on!!

Yesterday was a great day in Kate’s kitchen. She made the tuna salad that I have been wanting and she made an apple crumble pie. (Maybe I told you that.) Any way, both were delicious. I had two pieces of pies last evening and I’m trying to mind my manners until at least after lunch time to dive in today. But that pie will not see tomorrow.  Kate is a great cook and through almost 60 years of her cooking I can’t remember more than one or two things she fixed that didn’t turn out right and were not tasty. However, the two very best things she fixes are her pies and her soups. I love her soups, especially her crème soups like mushroom. And of course I love her pies. I think though I like her apple pies the most. At one time my mother used to make a great apple pie but as she got older they changed and she put less and less apples in them We swore sometimes she would only use one apple for the thing. But then, she was 97 when she passed so I reckon that might account for some of it. 

I don’t have a lot on my schedule today. We were supposed to go to the gym but Kate has some kind of infection/bite or something on her foot and can’t wear shoes without irritating it and making it both hurt and itch. I reckon I will get my exercise by doing some more flowerbed work. And, —— I think I will fill my bird feeders today. I have not filled them in maybe six weeks and there is still feed in some of them. They have been feeding on nature’s bounty I reckon. But, I’ll clean out the ones that have food in them and put fresh food all around. It is past time for the hummingbirds and I have three of their feeders to wash up and store until maybe next July. I also need to really look at my feeders because they are all several years old and many are showing the wear and abuse that some of my guests hand out, especially that four-legged bushy-tailed uninvited guests. But the good news is that even the squirrels have been absent. They certainly aren’t gone, they are just over eating someone else’s bird feeders and waiting for the buffet to open. I’ll bet you they will be back on my feeders before the day is over. 

Our neighbor, two houses over had their house burn early this spring and the builders are just now starting on it. The fire only burned the garage and part of the roof but the water from the fire department of course ruined everything else. So, they have gutted the house down to the studs and are building on a new garage and putting on a new roof for the house. It makes for nosy neighbor watching as we all trade opinions about what should be done with something that is none of our business. 

Speaking of neighbors, I met a “neighbor” this week. She and her husband live immediately behind the houses across the road. I met him a long time ago and we exchange pleasantries when we see each other. I have seen her outside hanging three times a week but have never met her or spoken to her. Well, she was over watching the builders last week and I introduced myself to her. Why do I share this??? I have lived here for 25 years and have never spoken to this neighbor who lives in a house 500 yards from me and I can see their house from my kitchen window. I think that maybe I’m not the good neighbor I think I am. I also think that I’m not alone in that fault. I need to do better. 

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

 I can hardly believe that tomorrow October will be half over. Suddenly time seems to be flying again. Before long we’ll be watching for snow, and I still have a bunch of flowerbed work to do. I guess I should do more than think about it, right??

Today though is a loss. I had a haircut appointment right around noon. That appointment is going to mess up my mental health for the rest of the week. LOLOL I always have my hair cuts done on a Friday, and an occasional Thursday. But a Tuesday haircut is going to messing up my days of the week and there is no telling how many Fridays I’m going to have this week. 

After my haircut I was to go to my doctor’s clinic and get my blood work done for my physical this Thursday. Well, the doctor’s office had not sent in the order yet, which I guess is okay except that I had fasted for the blood draw and it was well after 1300 hours. So I came home and Ms. Kate was just finishing up the Tuna Salad that I had asked her to make. And of course, about 30 minutes after I ate, the doctor’s off ice call and told me they had just sent in the order for my bloodwork. I guess I will wait until tomorrow morning now. 

The great news is that while I was out, Ms. Kate made an Apple crisp pie. It came out of the oven just as I was walking in the door. You know what is on my menu later don’t you. 

I am so glad to hear that the hostages in Gaza have been released after two years and the war there is hopefully over. Millions of prayers have been lifted up in the past two years and I suspect many people came to believe that God was not listening. But I assure you that God heard each one and I also know God acts in his own time and situations. I just send thanks to God that this has happened and pray that the conflict and war really can be over. Those areas will need a lot of help to rebuild what they have spent two years blowing up, but the people killed during all of this will never return and my heart breaks for the senseless loss of life.  Through it all, as far as I can tell, —- neither side gained a single thing. Pray with me for peace. 

I think that’s it for today. Have a blessed day. Peace.