Good morning on this balmy November 13th. This sure beats walking up to 23 or some of those other ugly numbers. It’s 56 at the moment and would feel even warmer if the sun would come out from behind the clouds. 

As you know, I had my dermatologist appointment yesterday. Of course I have a story to go with it. I had never been to this office before so I was a little confused as to where it was. But the instructions gave me directions that seemed familiar to me. We left in plenty of time to get to Deaconess Mid-Town, park in the parking garage, find the elevator and make it to the third floor. However, none of the room numbers were even close to what I was looking for. I went into one of the offices close to me and asked for directions. As it turned out, I was in the wrong location. I was at Deaconess Mid-Town Hospital, and I needed to be at Deaconess “Downtown”. I didn’t even know there was a Deaconess Downtown Hospital, but I was a good ten minutes from where I needed to be. But, the young lady that was helping us told me how to get there. 

We found our way to the right place and there was no place to park. There is construction going on in a building next door and the construction trucks etc had blocked off a third of the parking spots. Another part of the lot was reserved for a business across the street. So, Ms. Kate went inside to insure that we were in the right place and called to assure me we were. She called up to the office we were supposed to be going to and told them we were there but I was trying to find a parking spot. Anyway, I got to my appointment and they didn’t give me any problem about being a few minutes late. However, we found out that there was an entire parking garage that we could have used and just on the back side of the building was an entire empty parking lot. When I go back for my next visit, I’ll know where to go, and I won’t be in a fuss about being at the wrong place etc. Yeh, it did stress me out some. 

The results of my visit were not bad. The doctor “froze” seven “pre-cancerous” spots on my face and ear, and hands. Those “frozen spots will fall off without any scaring in about a week. He also biopsied one large mole on my back. We should hear the results of that in a week but he was certain it was a Basal Cell Carcinoma skin cancer, which he described as the “wimp of skin cancers”. If it turns out that he is correct, I’ll go back and they will do a bit more invasive something to make sure they get it all. But —- it isn’t a big deal, just needs to be taken care of. 

The leaves on one of my Tulip Poplar have completely fallen off and the other one of about 60% done. I think I will run the mower over them today and then I can put “Bambi”, my back yard JD in the garage for the winter. Whatever leaves fall from the other tree can either lay there and compost themselves or I will drive “Big John” around and mulch them up. But, I want to get Bambi in the garage for the winter before we actually get really crappy winter weather. 

That’s all I have for you today my friends. I hope your Thursday is full of blessings. Take time to have a chat with God today. It will do you good. Peace. 

 On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, all WW1 hostilities were ceased when an armistice was signed with Germany. Initially remembered as Armistice Day, it was renamed Veteran’s day in 1954. It is different from Memorial Day because it recognizes all who have served rather than just those who were killed while serving. I thought I would toss in a little history lesson for you this morning. I know a lot of people, perhaps most of the current generation of people, who have no idea what we celebrate today. I find tat rather sad because it is indicative of the generation today that cares nothing abut learning or even knowing about our history as a people or as a nation. They have been taught that our history is all lies dreamed up and propagandized to us to make “white people” feel good about themselves. 

The weather is “a little better” today than yesterday. We ended up with  a third of an inch of snow yesterday but as I told you, it melted as soon as the clouds cleared and the sun hit it. However, the temperatures certainly did not rebound. It was 33 when I crawled out from my covers this morning. I just checked at we are at 45 now and that is supposed to be the high for today. But the wind is fairly calm so that will make a big difference in the “feels-like” when you go outside. 

I talked to my buddy Brenda a while ago and she and her hubby have a miserable cold outside job today. They are loading hog to take to the market. They have 20 to load. Andy was busy trying to coax them all into a pen with corn. She asked me if I wanted to help and I got all excited telling myself that “Yes, I could do that”. I have done that job in the past. Admittedly it was 70 years ago, but the job and method is the same. But then she told me she was just messing with me. So, I was disappointed —— and frankly relieved. LOL It would have been fun but I would have been more in the way than anything else. Or I would have slipped in the mud and gotten run over my a scared or angry hog. It’s amazing how quickly one’s mind tries to convince us that we can do what we used to do. 

Tomorrow I have to go to a dermatologist and have these places on my head and ear evaluated and possibly even removed. They will be checking to see if I have skin cancer. I think I told you that I had this appointment coming up. It took four months to get in to see this doctor so I hope he does something to help. 

I think I will put on something warm and go to Rule King and maybe buy myself a Carhart Jacket for the winter. I don’t have a suitable outdoor jacket for when I need to fill the feeders or remove snow from the driveway etc. So that sounds like a good plan. Of course maybe a better plan is to stay in the house and wait until tomorrow since it will be much warmer and I have to go out anyway for y appointment. 

Decisions, decisions. Y’all have a blessed day. 

 Good morning on this 28 degree, snowy morning. It’s coming down quite heavily at the moment. There are already reports of accidents around the area. The snow is barely sticking to the grass but I guess the roads are really slick in some areas. Ah well, it’s supposed to be 60 by Wednesday and 72 by the weekend. Nothing to get out of sorts about. 

Would you allow me to reminisce for a few moments this morning? On November 10th, 1965, I entered Lackland Air Force Base and began what would eventually become a 32 year career. At the time, the Air Force was only 18 years old which means I’m older than the Air Force. Along the way I progressed from Airman Basic (E1) to Colonel (O6). I will be the first to tell you that I did that with the help of an extremely supporting and tolerant Ms. Kate, some very wonderful understanding daughters, hundreds and hundreds of excellent fellow service men and women, and a God with a sense of humor. 

During the career I have lived in California (x2), The Philippines (x2), Florida, Turkey, Missouri, Illinois (x2), North Carolina, Texas, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Virginia. I have done extended temporary duty in  Alabama, Italy, Sicily, the Netherlands, Germany, England and Croatia. Needless to say, I have had a wonderful chance to see the world. 

A Military career is certainly not for everyone or for every family. It takes a certain personality for a spouse to follow a husband or wife around for move after move after move. We changed locations every two to two and a half years which meant setting up a household from zero again and again. We lived in base housing most of my career so there wasn’t a lot of choice in what your house was going to look like. Because I served as a unit commander and Chief of Police at my locations, I was required to live on base. Most of the houses were okay. Our place on Nellis AFB in Las Vegas was wonderful and was our first and only “Colonel’s housing”. The down side to all of that is that we had to buy our “forever home” when I retired at almost sixty years old. Taking a thirty year home loan knowing it would be paid off when you are 90 is a daunting thought. (Ms. Kate of course wasn’t going to let that happen and we paid it off two years ago..)

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Tomorrow is officially Veteran’s Day and so I’m taking time today to say thank you to my family and to all of my fellow veterans. If you know a veteran, take time to say thanks to them today. Peace

 Can you believe that the first week of November is already gone??? Suddenly it seems like the year is flying by. It seems like since the days got shorter and we dropped Daylight Saving time, we have less time in the day to get stuff done. I know that is ridiculous because we have the same 24 hours a day that we always had but there was a mental shift in there at some point. 

Yesterday I got another flower bed cleaned up. I filled my freshly emptied trash can to about three quarters full again with peonies and other plants. I would like to do another one today but I don’t want to completely fill the trash can. I need to call Republic and see if they will pick up bags of clippings etc that are not in the trash can. Before the days of trucks that had swing out arms to grab the cans, the guys would pick them up. But I don’t know about now. We are supposed to have some showers today but so far nothing, which is fine with me. 

Yesterday we also had to do a Walmart drive through grocery run. I really like that. Kate just orders on line and sets a pick up time and they notify us when the order is ready. Today we did the same thing with Sam’s Club. I haven’t actually been in Sam’s in at least six months. And I haven’t been in Walmart in at least two months. And the only Walmart we use is the Neighborhood Market Walmart. 

We went out for brunch while we were waiting  for Sam’s to notify us that our order was ready for pickup. The first thing we did today was to take Kate for her hair appointment. We skipped the gym today because I have a sore back from yesterday’s yard work and am walking around like a dang old man. Some may say that I should go “work it out”. My father would certainly have said that. But no thanks, I’m going to take it easy today. If it doesn’t rain very hard, I’ll work outside again tomorrow. By Sunday evening it is supposed to get really cold and the weather dude even used that really nasty four letter word for a Monday morning possibility; (snow flurries). 

That’s it for today my friends. Have a blessed weekend. I may jump on tomorrow depending on the weather and the length of my “honey-do list”. 

Peace. 

 What a beautiful day!! It is supposed to go up to 70 degrees today and that would be super. We have a lot going on today. Our house learning lady is here currently. While she is here I think maybe we’ll go do our gym thing and then get some brunch. This afternoon we have a contractor coming to finally “raise our back sidewalk” and seal up the “caulk” where the concrete meets the house. This is the supposed fix to the water coming into our basement. (Ya’ gotta see it to understand it, but it makes perfect sense.)

I didn’t get nearly as much done as I wanted to yesterday but I did get the tomatoes bed cleaned out and the tomato cages put up until next spring. That bed was really a mess. My tomato plants grew really big this year and produced well. But by end of summer the weeds had grown up in there too. The tomato plants were so thick that I couldn’t get in there around the cages to clean out the weeds. But I got it all cleaned out and have put a good layer of Preen on it to prevent the weeds in the spring. This afternoon I hope to get some of the peonies finally cut off although my trash can is almost overflowing with tomato plants. So, I may wait until tomorrow after the trash man has come and emptied the can. 

The wind is fairly brisk today and there are a lot of leaves leaving their trees and heading off to the unknown. Well, I know because they are in my yard. I will run the John Deere over the yard today for sure. 

Kari, our cleaning lady, brought us pumpkin muffins today. She is a really good baker and has brought us goodies in the past. They didn’t last long. She has promised us pumpkin bread on her next visit. 

That’s all I got today without just rambling. I hope you get a chance to get outside and enjoy a day like we’re having. It’s just one of God’s blessings that He is sharing. Peace. 

 It’s bright and beautiful this morning but I need the temperature to come up just a few more degrees so I can work comfortably outside. 

Yesterday we went to the gym, as you know, and I can tell you that it flat wore me out. We had not been in a week and when I got home I was physically exhausted like I had tried to run a marathon or something. I don’t know why. Our routine isn’t that hard and is more for getting the heart pumping than anything else. But I actually went to bed at 2200 hours last night. We generally don’t go to bed until around midnight or even 1:00 am. We watch television or something like that until we are ready. But I spent yesterday evening reading my new book for two hours and then went to bed. 

Speaking of my new book, it is very interesting. It’s called “The Unseen Realm” by Michael Heiser. It talks about the supernatural aspects to our faith which is an area or at least “word” that most pastors won’t touch. I think that is because it is a “labeling” issues. I have always realized that when we start talking about things that happen and we assign the reasoning to our belief that God, whom we don’t see, caused it, then we are talking about supernatural events. But society seems to want supernatural to only belong to the realm of “magic” and witchcraft, and ghosts and stuff. That is so far from the truth. So, it becomes messy when we assign a miraculous event to angels or a dead relative watching over us and interceding for us. When we talk about Jesus being dead in a grave for three days and then getting up and walking out —- that is a supernatural event, and we (I) believe it actually happened. So, my book is a really great read and one that I can identify with. 

The trees are really starting to turn colors and the leaves are falling in earnest. Dan, my neighbor across the street, has a maple tree in his front and back yard and I like to watch them turn their beautiful red before the leaves fall off.  If I get around to it, I will probably run the lawnmowers over the yard so I can keep up with the leaves. My tulip poplars are losing their leaves a lot now. I know some people recommend that we not rake up our leaves etc but leave them as a winter cover for certain bugs etc in the spring. I can’t imagine not mulching up my leaves. I don’t rake and bag them but I do run the mower over them and mulch them. It is good for the soil. One of my jobs today is to get the tomato plants cut off and pulled up. Then I need to work on getting the peonies and four clocks cut back to ground level. 

Time to put on my work clothes and get busy. I pray you will have a day full of blessings. Peace. 

 Happy November! We woke up to a 35 degree morning but now the sun is bright and we are up to 53. There is more breeze out there than I would like but a good sweatshirt will handle all of that. I’ writing a mote here while I wait for Ms. Kate to get her gym clothes on and we can head down to Planet Fitness for our workout. Then I got stop by and pick up some bread from Ruler’s since to is in the same shopping area. From there we’ll probably grab some brunch before we come home. I have some outside work I want to do today while the weather is nice. I heard the forecaster say last night that a we might actually reach 70 degrees one day the week. That would be awesome. 

Did you have a lot of Trick or Treaters?? As promised, we didn’t do anything at all for Halloween this year. Just left the lights off and went about our business. We had a few doorbell ringers but actually not that many. 

Halloween is over and I saw last night that one of the families in our neighborhood had already put up their Christmas Tree this weekend. I know some people really get in to the Christmas decorating spirit and want their stuff up as soon as possible. I wish I could believe it had any thing at all to with the birth of Jesus Christ and the celebration of that, but I just don’t think it does. I suspect it is all for all of the worldly  celebration. Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at the decorations etc but I’m just cynical about their motives. But, I’m the Christmas Grinch. Were it not for Ms. Kate, there would be no Christmas decorations around our house. I just don’t see the need. If you want to celebrate the Spirit of Christmas; —- go out and do something for someone; share your blessings like God shared His Son. 

We had a family happy brag moment this weekend. My granddaughter Lauren, who lives is SOCAL has been riding Motocross since she was five years old, (she turns 28 this week). Eleven years ago she went professional and competing with some very talented lady riders. Sunday she won the National Women’s Pro Motocross Championship. She is such a good kid and she enjoys riding so much. I’m so proud of her because she embodies all of the good traits of a National Champion. She works hard to encourage all of the young female riders and little girls that look at her like she is a hero. She always has time for them when they are out on the track. She is what I call “Good People”. Her life away from the track also reflects  that. She works as a substance abuse counselor for “First Responders” with addiction problems. 

Enough bragging. Kate should be ready to head out by now. Have a blessed week. Peace.