Welcome to Friday. It is noon and I’ve just come in from the garden and yard. We have had a couple of sprinkles this morning and I expect we might get more before the day is over, so I decided to get out there and do my trimming and mowing before it gets any wetter. I mowed my front and back yards and Dan’s front and back. I had a lot of trimming to do as I told you the other day. My garden was full of weeds of all kinds and rather that take the “hula-hoe” to it, I decided to take the trimmer to it and cut them to bare ground. It worked well and looks good again. I also have a flowerbed back here in the backyard that I really needed to trim around before I mowed. So, — I’m caught up for this week. Ta-daaa! I hear a lot of other people out there mowing too trying to beat the rain. But at the moment, they are getting wet because it is coming down a little harder now.

I also need to go back out and fill the bird feeders. They are all mostly empty. I’ve had a lot of visitors to the Buffet but there isn’t much for them too chose from. But again, it is raining pretty good so — oh well. They will have to be wild birds aand forage for themselves.

I’m sitting here waiting on FEDEX to deliver my new gas griddle. I love cooking on a griddle. Maybe it takes me back to my teenager days and first job ay Franklin Drug Store. I was pretty much a “jack of all trades” in that job. I did deliveries to customers, I mopped floors, I stocked shelves in the store and unloaded delivery trucks. But every once in a while, when someone was absent fro thee “soda shop, I filled in there too and flipped burgers and cooked eggs and bacon on the griddle. Those are happy days to look back on; I was sixteen and it was my first job, and I bought my first car; a 1954 Studebaker “hard-top”. Unlike today when half of the high-school student body drives to school, I was one of the few who owned a car. I paid $125.00 for that car.

The rain has stopped for the moment so I’m going to feed birds. Have a beautiful weekend. Peace.

Thursday morning already again. I knew that Monday holiday would mess me up and throw my days off. The sidewalks are wet and the water is now glistening on the grass as the sun shines on it. I don’t know when it rained last but my Accuweather app says it is going to be showering again before much longer. I need to mow my yard but I suspect that may not happen today. Although, I could go out with my weed trimmer and do some of that. I was trimming last week and I ran out of string on the reel and had to restring it. Then my battery got too low for the trimmer to be effective. So, I put the battery on the charger and haven’t touched it since. Needless to say, it should be fully charged by now, if in fact the battery still takes a charge. I have a blower that uses these Black and Decker batteries and it seems that they just don’t last very long and they are expensive. The batteries just get to a point where they will no longer charge. The same thing happened to my Dewalt drill. The batteries just wouldn’t take a charge anymore and new batteries for that drill are hard to find. I have a source for them but they are more expensive to buy that a new drill combo kit. That’s the way it is these days. Father’s Day is coming up in about three weeks and I’m waiting on the Father’s Day sales and will buy a new set. I have enough Lowes gift cards to but a nice set, and my girls will probably give me a couple more. They know I love my Lowe’s gift cards.

Ms. Kate finished making her “Thinking of You” cards yesterday afternoon and I got them all signed , addressed, stamped, and put in the mailbox at the post office. She made 34 this time. That accounts for almost every family in the parish. I included a notice in each one that we are starting in-person worship services on the 7th of June in each card.

This afternoon we are going up to the church and tape this weeks service. I still need to read through my stuff a couple of more times before we go. I just like to “rehearse it” in my mind several times Before I give it. A lot of pastors do so well at kind of talking through their services but I write my stuff out and stick pretty close to the script. Ms. Kate says if I don’t do tat, I get to rambling and get off subject sometimes. And, nobody ants a rambling preacher who can’t keep track of the time.

Got to restock the Backyard Buffet today. There are a lot of empty feeders out there. I wouldn’t want the guests to think I’ve gone out of business.

That’s it for today. Have a blessed day. Take time to stop and give thanks to God for your blessings. Peace.

Wednesday morning, 66 degrees, and raining. That is a recipe for a lot of things isn’t it? Book reading, writing a sermon, calling parishioners, playing my keyboard, bingeing on Star Trek Discovery or Picard, or just lazing around are all possibilities. Ms. Kate is busy making cards again for another round of “Thinking of You” to our parishioners. They are really appreciated and she has gotten so many comments about them. They are great.

I’m glad it is raining today. The new plants that I have put in the ground this past week need it. I planted four okra plants to replace the other two that had just died. Hopefully these will do well. The cucumber plant is looking good. I do need to hoe around it though. The weeds are getting too high. I also think that I am going to remove the buckets from around the tomato plants. I always start them by putting a five-gallon bucket around them to keep the rabbits from eating them. I cut the bottom of the bucket out so they get plenty of rain and sunshine. Normally I just leave the bucket on them but I think that maybe the bucket conducts a bit more heat than they really need. The stalks are always more spindly than I want them to be. So, I’ll try a different tactic this year. They are doing well at the moment. We have a couple of pots of cherry tomatoes on the patio and they have blooms on them already.

I finished up this weeks sermon and service last night and now I’m ready to start on next weeks sermon. I’m hoping that the weather is great on June 7th so we can have our “tent meeting” service out side. If not, oh well, we’ll just do what we did before all of the shuttering of the church, I’ll do two services and we’ll press on. I read an article this morning on Facebook that was depicting what church services may be like when we return and it was the most depressing thing I have ever read, and I said so too. If that article becomes reality, there is no way people are going to want to ever enter a church door. Believe me, I fully understand the precautions and “guidance” by all of the “Learned Clergy Leadership” of the denominations. But all I hear is “It’s not time yet. You’re putting people in danger. You’re not showing love for your fellowman. You’re just killing people.” So my question is; “When is it time?” This virus is never going to be eradicated totally so do we just bulldoze the buildings and never go back? Or do we dictate that our parishioners become robots that come to the church building in single file, take our assigned seat and sit silently six or more feet apart while the pastor speaks in a muted voice behind his mask giving his sermon, and then we march back out of the church in single file, go directly to our car and leave. All of this might sound like a rant, but it was the prediction stated in this Facebook article by a California pastor.

Enough for today. Have a wonderful week. Peace.

This is Tuesday. I really need to remind myself that this is Tuesday, not Monday. Ya’ see, that’s what a holiday on a Monday, quasi-retirement, and a COVID-19 two and a half month stay home order does to you. Time just seems to cease to exist. It’s either daylight or it’s dark. Not much else matters because you ain’t going anywhere anyway.

But, all of that being said, we had a nice, no, actually wonderful Memorial Day weekend because Julie and the pups came over on Friday and stayed until yesterday afternoon. It was the first time we have seen her since all of this stuff started. Jim stayed home. I think he was mowing yard and stuff. He still is allowed to go to work every day and in fact they are putting in a lot of extra time to keep up with production. He’s one of the “essentials” of the American workforce. In, fact every one of my kids and their family are working through all of this. And, so am I but I normally work from home most of the time anyway. The biggest difference is that I still can’t do any visitation to my parishioners that are in nursing homes or hospitals. Nor, am I conducting two worship services on a Sunday morning. But, Ms. Kate and I do go to the church one afternoon a week and do the taping of the virtual service for a Sunday release on Facebook.

This past week we taped the service at my home church in their outdoor sanctuary and it went wonderfully. The drone footage that they shot was stunning. The weather was perfect for the shooting and the drone operator did a marvelous job as did Jacob when he put it all together. I’m not sure which day we are going to tape this week. But —- the good news is that we are going back to “in-person” services on the first Sunday of June. I think we have the church “safety ready” with all of the proper precautions of self-distancing and masks, and sanitizers. The big question now is how we ill open on June 7th. If the weather is predicted to be great, I plan to do an out-door service under a tent with a combined church service. I had hoped to do this once earlier and it got shot down, and that probably was the right decision. But that was weeks ago and the guidelines have loosened way up by now. If the weather forecast is for rain, I’ll simply do a standard church service at each church. Well, I don’t know how “standard”  it will be. I’ve never done a church service where we couldn’t sing and make a joyful noise to the Lord. So that is going to take a lot of thought. In the meantime, the churches are both being sanitized and prepped.

Ms. Kate’s gout episode seems to have subsided although the side effects are evident. Prednisone messes with her blood thinners so now she looks like she went three rounds with somebody. All it takes is a bump and she gets an ugly bruise. Even resting her arm on the table while making her cards gave her a bruise. But — she is feeling so much better and for that I give God praise.

Time to go down to my office and get some work done. Have a blessed day. Stay always in prayer. Peace.

A Good Saturday Morning to you. It is once again a sunny morning at least temporarily. Rumors and propaganda and weather forecasts say maybe rain this afternoon. That wouldn’t be a bad thing today if it were only some light showers. I planted okra yesterday and some iris and it would be good to water everything in.

Yesterday I got the yard mowed and trimmed and it really looks good. I still can’t get my “little” John Deere to run right. I get it started and it runs really rough for about three minutes and then it quits like it is out of gas. I have a a young man that is one of our parishioners And he works for the local John Deere dealer as a mechanic. I have sent a text to see if he would be interested or is allowed to do any “side-work”. I hope he will get back to me and can make my little JD well again. I do love my two lawnmowers.

Julie and the two pups came over last evening and will be with us through Sunday afternoon. It is so great to be able to hug our sweet girl. I wish we could do that with all of our daughters. But that isn’t realistic at the moment. Today we are just sitting around enjoying each other, I made another “dump-cake” last night. This time it was peach and was excellent. We put a little ice-cream on it and it just made our tongues slap the roof of our mouths.

I think now, Ms. Kate and I are going to get dressed and goto one of the cemeteries and change out the flowers that are on my folks graves. I noticed yesterday that we still have Christmas trees on them. So, I’m dropping off for today. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Walk with God. Peace.

Well, praise the Lord, we got sunshine!!! What a nice surprise this morning. I’m not sure but I think it has been almost a week since we had a bright day. But —- forecast is that it will be short lived. We should be having showers on and off today.

I don’t have much today on my mind. I’m just celebrating not seeing rain. Ms. Kate is still having problems with her gout but is starting to get around a little better. The Predisone and Tylenol seem to be helping. The doctor had said it would be a couple of days before she was feeling much better and suspect he was right. I’ll sure be glad when she is up on her feet. I hate seeing her feel bad.

I have a couple of things on my list today to do. At 11:00 I’m going to my sister-in-law’s house and dig up some iris that Ms. Kate wants. Kaaren has so many iris and they are so beautiful. Then I have to dig some of our iris up because Kate is sharing some of ours with a lady at church. That’s the great thing about flowers and other joys, they are so much better when you can share them. I have a lilac bush that was from a start from an aunt that has long since passed. We have peonies and iris all around our house that are from starts from my mother-in-law and they are some of our favorites. I have a some peonies from my mother too. It’s nice to be able to look at those flowers and bring back memories of enjoying those flowers with them.

Today is going to be taping day for Sunday’s service. I’m really hoping the rain holds off because we are supposed to tape it out doors. It can be cloudy, but we don’t need it to rain. (Nothing like me telling God how to run the weather department.) But let’s hope the sun stays out until say, —- maybe 1700 hours and we get it all done.

Speaking of church; at St. Lucas we had put in for a grant through the Center for Congregation for some technology equipment and Praise the Lord, the grant went through and was awarded. This is very exciting. We had put in for equipment amounting to around $3,900.. The church has to match up to $500.00 of it. So, now Jacob has to get busy purchasing a lot of stuff. And —- we are going to have to figure out where we are going to put it all and train a couple of people on how to use it. As the character, Mr. Spock, from Star Trek once said; “There is a huge difference between “wanting” and “having”. The biggest thing is that this has all happened since the COVID-19 virus has kept us out of church, so the congregation knows nothing about it. There will be a lot of decisions to be made yet.

Time to get cleaned up and get started on my day. Have a wonderful day. Take time out of your life today to give God praise. Peace.

Wednesday Morning and of course it is once again raining. I feel sorry for the technician from Schneider Heat and Air that has to come out for our annual A/C check up. He has a window of 1100-1300 hours so maybe by the time he gets to our place it will have quit. This low pressure system is kind of stalled out over the Ohio River Valley so we are going to see a couple more days of this; just showers, on and off. We are supposed to tape this weeks worship service at Zoar UCC’s out door chapel. So, hopefully it will not be raining by tomorrow afternoon. It will be, what it will be.

Yesterday I went out to Zoar and shot some video footage to add to our service video. I sent it to Jacob and told him he could use some, none, or all of it if he wanted to. He told me that he has a friend that has a drone and he is going to try to have him do a video of the location.That would be really super. It is such a beautiful location. I think drone footage could be dynamic.

Ms. Kate finally got hold of her doctor’s off and had a virtual office call. They said the problem she is having with her ankle and foot is probably another gout flare up. She is already taking medication for gout but that doesn’t mean it won’t flare up. She was/is having to use our walker to get around and barely making it with that because of pain. I’ve never had gout (knock on wood) but everything I see and hear tells me it is terribly painful. Tylenol helped her some but the doctor has prescribed Prednisone. I got her prescription picked up and we got her going. She feels better this morning but the pain will still be with her another day or two most likely. The worst thing was that this gout flare came on the heels of a bit of a stomach bug and she went from one thing directly into another.

With Ms. Kate down and out for the past week, I’ve been doing the chores. I’ve been keeping us fed but only as much as out of a can or run and pick up allows. Yesterday I tackled vegetable soup. No one makes better soup than Ms. Kate, no matter what kind of soup it is. But, with a lot of questions and proper guidance, I got it made and I must say —- it doesn’t suck at all.  And — while I’m getting my mind set to tackle that she tells me that I’m also going to make a “Dump-Cake”. What boy, how do I do that? But again, careful instructions led to a pretty good dessert. See, I’m still trainable.

Today, I need to go over my sermon one more time and print out a couple of copies. Unless Ms. Kate gets to feeling a whole lot better she won’t be doing liturgist duties this week so I’ll be doing “double duty” . There are a lot of steps to go down to where the altar is and I’m well versed in doing those steps with a bum leg. It’s no fun.

The A/C folks just called and my technician is on the way so I’m gone. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and the best way to do that is to stay in touch with God. Peace.