It’s New Year’s Eve. It’s the last day of 2020. To say that this year has been a year of challenges is perhaps the understatement of the year. Who would have dreamed a year ago today that we would be in the throes of a pandemic. I doubt many even thought that was possible; but here we are. Still hiding in our homes, afraid to go out and enjoy ourselves; afraid to shake the hand of another human being. We walk around hiding our faces behind masks “ protect others” and if we don’t we are treated like criminals. The social norms of an entire nation has been changed without a shot being fired. It’s all been done through propaganda and fear, and money. Allegedly 230,000 people have died of this virus this year which is terrible and my heart goes out to the families. I had my own scare with it because of Ms. Kate and her bout. But, while COVID may have affected her health, she also has a lot of other contributing factors. She is a heart patient and has been for many years now and her heart problem were the biggest scare we were dealing with. Did COVID cause the set off of her health issues, —- possibly. But, had she passed away, she would have been listed as a COVID loss regardless. And that is what has happened across the nation. Nobody seems to have died from the flu, or cancer, or heart attacks or anything else since COVID came on the scene. If you have a fever and a cough and you die, COVID caused it. It is the biggest money driven, politically driven, media driven campaign in the history of this country. 

But —- tomorrow starts the year 2021. I pray it will be a better year and I pray for this nation because we have a new political party taking control of this country in 22 days. In my personal opinion, this is not going to be a good thing for the country. The President -elect is an ultra-liberal and so far the cabinet nominees he has posted are the most random choices in people I can imagine. It appears that he has a list of categories of “minorities” that he is finding candidates to match. His running mate was chosen because she fills two categories, she’s a person of color and a female. He has selected more women than men so far including one whole department that will be filled by women. He’s selected gays and made sure there were a mixture of skin colors that are gay. Maybe all of these people he is appointing are perfectly capable, but he’s certainly not picking people that anyone outside of the Washington Beltway ever heard of. It is going to be an interesting four years. He has already announced that on day one he intends to rip out anything that the current president has done. 

I didn’t intend today’s blog to be a “gripe session”. Actually I want to say Happy New Year and wish you a year full of good health, happy times filled with love, and prosperity for your soul in your relationship with our Lord God. Walk with your head held high because regardless of what happens in 2021, God will walk with you. Peace. 

 Hello Monday morning. What’s going on in the world on this Monday morning? I’ve been sitting here reading Facebook posts. There are lots of pictures of Christmas trees and people in their family matching pajamas. There are way too many political comment posts and conspiracy theory posts. There are a lot of religious posts by people who insists that Jesus is coming back today and most of us will end up in hell. But what I don’t see is a lot of “happy- posts”. I don’t know what that actually means but I don’t see a lot of posts saying or showing pictures of people who just seem to be happy with life. Does that make sense? The political and religious posts all ring of “worry and fear”. Perhaps they were written by people who are sincere in their concerns but who knows. Mostly they are passed on by people who just hit “Like” because something might resonate with them. I’m certainly guilty of that. I have actually considered taking a week or two and staying off of Facebook altogether —- but, nah, ain’t gonna happen. I’m as addicted to it as anyone else. Grabbing my IPad is the first thing I do in the morning as I walk to turn on the coffee pot. “In the old days”, people would have grabbed their newspaper. 

I didn’t get to see my parishioner yesterday either like I had planned. He had had a bad night and Hospice had to come and give him some medication, that made him sleepy and he really wasn’t in a condition to visit. I’ll call this afternoon and try again. If I don’t get to see him, at least he knows that I am thinking about him and am praying for him. 

It is 35 degrees and cloudy this morning. I still have not filled the feeders and the starlings are not happy with me. I’ve had a lot of cardinals here this morning because my safflower feeder is still plenty full and that is what they like. But I guess I need to put a coat on and go out and fill the others today too. The squirrels have been to the sunflower seed feeders an found them empty and then they turn and look at the house to make me feel guilty. It only works a little bit. I see a lot of junkos out there this morning. They are ground feeders and do a good job of cleaning up after the starlings. My only concern with Junkos is hat they usually show up right before snow. Hmmmmm. 

That’s it for today. I hope you have a great week and can end up 2020 with good health and happy thoughts. Then step on across the line and walk into a whole new year of opportunities to do something good for your fellow man. Peace. 

 Good morning and a happy Sunday. I know right, —- I generally don’t write on a Sunday. It, I missed yesterday so I thought I’d just drop a note today. 

It’s nice to not look outside and see frost covered everything this morning. It is 36 degrees with a “real-feel” of 43. We must have a southern wind flow this morning and the bright sunshine certainly helps. It is supposed to go up to 55 degrees today. That will be great for me to go out and fill all of the bird feeders again today. They have been mostly empty for the past two days. I did get my new “shipment” of bird feeding stuff from Wild Birds Unlimited a couple of days ago. I’m really glad they have started shipping orders. It makes it great that I can just go on-line, order what I want, and if I order over $75.00 worth, (which I always do) they even ship it to me free. Very convenient. 

Julies and Jim left yesterday around noonish. We had a wonderful visit with them for our Christmas celebration. It is so great to have them living this close. They come over several times a year. We haven’t been to their house in probably a year partly because of COVID restrictions but mostly because they are always working. Julies is either at work, or home doing homework for school, or attending school, or having some kind of doctor’s appointment. Jim works a lot of over time and when he isn’t, he’s bowling or something. So it is hard to find a time to visit them and we rely on their free time. Prior to COVID, we would drive over during the day and Ms. Kate and I would go to the east side of Louisville and go to P.F. Chang’s for lunch and then pick up something for Julie and take it to her at work. But, we haven’t done that in none or ten months because of the COVID restrictions there in Kentucky. 

I was supposed to go see a terminal parishioner yesterday afternoon but never did. His wife had taken him to their daughter’s house for a Christmas visit. By the time they got home he was worn out. Hospice now has him set up at home for his last days. I’m going to see him today after lunch time. I will take communion to him and share the table of Christ with him if he wants to participate. We had prayed together that he would make it through Christmas and he did. Now, we will pray he will see 2021, although what difference does that really make? Frankly, I think that maybe we are just praying that we are holding off the glory of heaven from him and that seems ridiculous doesn’t it. He’s ready to go, he feels he has settled his account with God, and now he waits. So in reality, maybe our prayers are selfish. I just pray for a peaceful and painless transition through  “the veil” for him. 

This allegedly is our last Sunday of “Jammie Church” at least for me. Next Sunday we go back to doing two services of “in-person” worship. We’ll still live-stream it for those that are not ready to come back to church because of COVID. What won’t be the same is addition of the videos that Jacob puts in during the music or before and after the service. I hate to admit that I have really enjoyed just doing the virtual service and that is mainly because of the production work that Jacob does  for our services. I do miss being there with the congregation though. Although, that will still not be the same because we are still in aa social distance / no-touch mode and no singing. It has been a strange year and hopefully 2021 will be aa lot better when they get the vaccine distributed and we can get the pandemic under control. Let’s all pray for that. 

That is it for today. It is the first day of the last week of 2020. Make the best of it. Take time today to worship our God. Be grateful that you have made it through. So very many have not. Peace. 

 Good afternoon/ evening my friends. Merry Christmas. I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas Day. I also hope you have also taken plenty of time out to stop and think about the reason we celebrate this day. I hate to call it a holiday because that implies nothing more than a day off of work and maybe getting some rest. But, we of the Christian faith know that it is a day that is about a lot more than that, don’t we? Our Christmas Eve service went well and was well received. We had music from each of our organists from the two churches and a young lady from one of the local communities. Her name is Kait Madison and she is a junior in high school but is already recording music videos. She did a great job. 

So Christmas is now over and now we head on to the last week of 2020 and the approach of the year 2021.  I really hope that 2021 will be. Better year for th world. With vaccines coming on line to combat the pandemic, perhaps the medical world will get it under control. But from what I hear, it will be another six months before we can expect to return to any sense of normality. It has been almost a year now so I guess we can handle a slow return to normal. Although, I doubt we will return to things like they were before. I think we as. Society may decide that maybe some of the tings were not all that great prior to the pandemic and hopefully we have found better ways to do things that will be kinder and mor caring for our neighbors and friends. 

Having said that, I pray you will have a very happy and safe New Years holiday. Take care of yourself and others. Peace. 

 Good morning and Happy Tuesday. I hope your morning is as bright and shiny as mine is. It’s 38 degrees, going up to about 50 today. Not bad for a December 22nd. The forecast calls for it to get a lot colder in the next couple of days and really cold on Christmas, but no snow is in the forecast for us. 

So, did you see the great star conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter? Did it look like the Christmas Star to you? We drove up to the St. Lucas parking lot to observe it because that was the most unobstructed and darkest sky view I knew of. I have a couple of sets of binoculars that we used but still, —- what we saw wasn’t the spectacular view that we all were hoping for. It certainly did not look like “The Star of Bethlehem” nor would it have guided anybody to anywhere. But, there are a lot of pictures posted this morning on facebook and some folks get some really good shots and you could see Saturn’s ring really clear. I was just thrilled that I got to see such a rare event. Yes, these two planets pass one another on a regular basis but it has been 800 years since they were this close to one another and you could see them at night. That makes it a once in a lifetime event and we witnessed an historical event. As I have said before, celestial events make me happy. I’ve like to go out and sit in some place away from city lights when we have meteor showers, especially on a warm summer night. My only problem is that almost always, the “best viewing time” is after midnight. My eyes give up before my desire does. LOL

We have a couple of things on the to-do list today. I have to get the 80# of sunflower seed carried from thee car to the shed and put away. Then I have to fill the dang bird feeders again. These guys are wearing me out. It’s the dang starlings that empty them so fast. They literally will set there and eat until they empty the feeders. Yes, I know, God made them too and they are His creatures too; but that don’t mean I have to be happy about them. They come in packs or flocks of a dozen or more at a time and they bully everything else and each other. Oh well, that’s the way it is. 

I need to go to the grocery store and pick up some spring rolls wrappers this morning. What we used the other day just didn’t work and Kate has the stuff mixed up to make more. So, I need to find wrappers so we don’t waste the moisture. 

I finished making my slides for my January 3rd sermon last night. Now I can start on January 10th. And get my service and sermon written for that. It does seem strange to be doing services for 2021. It “seems” so far off and yet, it is less than two weeks until the new year. Amazing. I pray 2021 will be a much better year for the world than 2020 was. 

That’s it for today. Have a great Tuesday. Take a moment ot two to give thanks for your blessings. Peace. 

 Well my friends, as nice s the day was yesterday, it is just he opposite looking today. It is 44 degrees, which is okay, but overcast and rain clouds are moving in for today. With that temperature, it is gong to be a cold rain too. On the other hand, it isn’t snowing which is a good thing. I feel for the folks up north who have gotten as much as three feet of snow in some locations. There have been several deaths related to the storm too. I know there was one sixty car pileup that caused a lot of injuries and several deaths. I’m not sure where that occurred. We generally have about a 10% chance of having a “White Christmas” here but this year the weather dude say our chances are a bit higher because of the cold front that is moving in. I actually don’t think it is supposed to start until Christmas Day which may give Julie and Jim a challenge going home. I think they are coming over on Christmas Eve and then going home the day after Christmas. 

Can you believe it? The birds have already emptied a couple of the feeders. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, I was sitting in the Sun Porch yesterday morning watching my birds and there were six starlings fighting over the one feeders and it was already half empty. I had just filled them the afternoon before. When I fill those two “Bark-Butter-Bits” feeders, the starling swoop in en masse and they eat until it is depleted. Then they will come in and eat from the other feeders but not nearly like they do on the Bits. It’s like they must keep an sentry up in the trees somewhere to see when I’m going to fill those two particular feeders. I’d quit filling them except the Bits are the favorite food for so many of my Backyard Buffet guests. The Cardinals, the Bluebirds, the Mockingbirds, the Woodpeckers and finches all love those things. The squirrels and birds have also emptied all of the sunflower seed feeders too by now. I should have picked up a couple of bags yesterday and didn’t. I’ll fill what I can and then maybe go get some more  from Pet Supply. I need to go to the grocery store anyway and get some “rice noodles” for Ms. Kate. I think she is going to make “Asian Spring rolls” today. We went out yesterday and got the rest of the ingredients and thought we had rice noodles here at home, only find out that we didn’t. 

This is the last weekend before Christmas. I hope you are not spending it running around like crazy. Relax. Put some Holiness in your weekend and remove the stress. We’re celebrating the birthday of the Son of God; —- not the birthday of Santa Claus. Take time to pray for peace. Take time to share your love and joy with others and please do so safely. 

Have a blessed weekend. Peace. 

 It’s bright and sunny and colder than a well-digger’s butt!. —— I wonder where that silly phrase came from? I’ve heard it all my life and wondered how cold a well digger’s butt got. Why would a well digger have an especially cold butt? Are we talking about digging the well with a shovel or with machinery? It doesn’t make sense to me. I can understand some sayings such as “Useless as the teats on a boar hog”. That makes perfect sense, but that poor well-digger is just out in the cold for no reason. Hmmmm.

Now you know what kind of mood I’m in today. It’s Friday; it’s the end of the work week, I’ve nothing on my “to-do” list and I’m sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee and watching my Backyard Buffet guests. There is a beautiful cardinal sitting on the bird bath staring in the window at me and life is just a pleasure to be a participant in this morning. There is a squirrel at the sunflower seed feeder and the feeder  is almost empty. I probably have enough sunflower seed to fill the feeders one more round, so — I reckon I should go get a couple of 40# bags and fill up the can. It’s best to do it today while it is sunny rather than wait until it is raining or snowing. I also need to pick up some more suet cakes. I had bought a “sleeve” of them several months ago when they were on sale and had not opened it yet. But yesterday, I opened the box and six of the ten packages were moldy. I don’t put out moldy food for my birds. I don’t know that it would hurt them but why chance it. I’m not sure when I bought them but I’m guessing probably at least six months ago. Anyway, I threw them away. This particular band is relatively cheap so it is not a big deal. 

I think it is supposed to go up to the mid-forties today. While I’m out I might as well stop at the grocery store too. Ms. Kate needs a couple of things. I know she still needs me o get the “miracle Whip” that I forgot the other day, and she wants a can of those “potato-sticks” because she wants to make some more “Chex-mix”. Lately that has become her favorite snack and Julies is coming over for Christmas and she loves it too. And, no doubt if I say I’m going to the store, there will be a list that will suddenly appear. 

We have one  more week until Christmas Day. Do you have your Christmas list ready. No, I’m not talking about a list of things you’d like to receive. I’m talking about a list of things you want to give thanks for this year. We all know that the year 2020 has been a challenge simply because of the pandemic. But it has been extra challenging for some of my friends and parishioners. It has been a bit challenging even for Ms. Kate and me. I was very close to losing her due to this virus and its affects and now she is sitting thre in the family room doing extremely well. God be praised. I’m happy to say that many of our friends have now gotten on the road to recovery and finally been able to be home with loved ones. I have others that have received news about having cancer but are able to hold their own and live semi normal lives when I wasn’t sure they would see Christmas. I have one that I pray for daily that he gets to see Christmas but his attitude is good and his spiritual life is prepared for whatever God has in mind. There is just so much to be thankful for in this life and our list of gratitude should be long. God is so good. If you have not stopped and taken time for gratitude to your creator and Savior —- please do so today. 

Until next post, I bid you peace.