The last day of August 2023. Eight months gone to the wind or wherever time goes. Actually, I wonder where time does go? 

Did you see that super blue moon last night with the planet Saturn off to its right? I love to watch the heavenly occurrences such as that. I love to watch meteor showers. The vastness of the universe simply fascinates me. There is so much beauty out there beyond our little planet here in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy.  I love to watch programs that show the pictures of space taken from the Hubble or the new Webb Space Telescope. They are so fantastic. I look at those images and my only thought is “God made that; the same God that watches over me.” How fantastic is that to realize. It’s hard to wrap ones mind around the concept. 

I know my mind goes off on tangents sometimes but I sometimes think about what we will be doing in our eternal existence. Every person who has any concept of life after the discontinuation of physical life on this planet has some idea of what they think it will be like. As a Christian, I firmly believe in life after death. However, I don’t think it will be a just sitting around in the “Glorious Cafe” having an endless cup of coffee chatting with the loved ones. I think perhaps God will have an eternal task for us; a task so profound that it will take us an eternity to begin to accomplish it. I hope my spirit will be assigned to supervise or help in the development of life on one of those billions of planets that are just hanging out there in the realms of the heavens. My concept of heaven is that our spirits will be united with our full potential and we shall join our minds together and we shall know one another by our spirits of love. Our scripture says that God created mankind in His own image; if God is spirit and love; —- then so shall we be.  Scripture says that on the seventh day, God rested. I take that to mean that on the eighth day; God went back to work. Okay —- enough of my mental rabbit trail for today.   

The “ding-alarm” on my smart watch has been going off all morning like crazy. It is the activation of the motion sensor on my bird feeder. It has been a busy place all morning. Mostly it is the cardinals and finches. Once in a while a goldfinch stops by or a bluebird. 

I have convinced Ms. Kate that we need to go out for breakfast, so it is time to head out. Have a most blessed day. Peace. 

 What another beautiful day we have today. It was 66 degrees with a stiff breeze when I came out to turn on the coffee pot this morning. The sun is shiny brightly and there is very little humidity this week. This is a far cry from what is gong on in north Florida with the hurricane. We’re saying many prayers for all of them, and for people in the outlying bands of this thing and are still in the path as it rapidly moves north and east. My granddaughter  and family are in Wilmington North Carolina and this thing will brush by them, probably at tropical storm strength by then. We had wonderful news from them this weekend as our darling Amanda announced that she is pregnant. We get to be great grandparents again. I just married those two last March. The family is all thrilled on both sides of the aisle. 

Ms. Kari is where the morning to clean so I need to stay out of her way. Kate has gone to the sunporch until Kari get there. By then I will be in the basement busy writing I think. I didn’t get too far last night. I had a hard time pulling the right thoughts together for this sermon. It is from Matthew 21, the parable of the tenants. Sometimes the lessons from the parables are obvious and sometime I need to write, throw away, and rewrite. But —- you know, even the disciples had to sometimes ask Jesus what he was taking about; so I’m in good company. 

I’m having fresh peaches for my breakfast. A friend gave me a couple of bags of them and they have just not hit perfect ripeness, and they are so very good. But, Ms. kate can’t eat them and I have too many so I just offered a bag of them to Kari and she is a happy lady. 

That’s it for today. I’m going to the churches later and run some bulletins. It’s a good day to be out and about. I may have to go by the Ritter’s farm stand and pick up some corn on the cob. Season will be over shortly and I’ll ick up a cantelope and watermelon too. 

Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 I haven’t talked much about my Backyard Buffet in quite awhile. But rest assured I am still enjoying it. The problem is that I have been negligent about keeping it filled. It was either to wet to be out there walking around in the backyard, or we were under an air zone alert, or it was to hot. One can come up with all kinds of excuses if we want to  when the bottom line more often than not is I was being lazy. And I was doing my morning computer / IPad stuff at the kitchen table instead of from the sunporch. 

But I filled all of the feeders again yesterday and the weather is so pleasant that I am out in the sunporch this morning enjoying my kingdom. Besides, —- there is something special about the day when the first thing I see is a pair of Bluebirds having breakfast at the Buffet. This morning’s guests include my regular half dozen or so Cardinals, a couple of hummingbirds, titmouse, sparrows, goldfinches, downy woodpeckers, and of course a couple of squirrels. The squirrels are still unhappy with me because I cut their favorite perching limb off that was next to their favorite feeder. They are going to be even more upset because I have two more limbs that have to be cut out of that Pussy willow tree because they are pressing into my gutter. 

I mowed my front yard yesterday and of course since the JD was running, I went over an mowed Dan’s yard too. They have been on vacation and just got home late Sunday night. But today I have to head to my downstairs office and get my fingers going on the computer keyboard. Tomorrow I’ll be going to the church to run bulletins and also up to a couple of nursing homes for visitation. I will miss that when I retire. 

Okay, the Cardinal gang is back so I’m going to finish my coffee and enjoy watching them. You have yourself a blessed day. Peace.  

 It is morning like this that hint that autumn is on the way. What a beautiful morning. I’ve only been out long enough to put some stuff in my composted but it was so pleasant. So, I must begin my week with giving thanks to the Creator for this day and the projected weather for the week. 

How was your weekend? We had a pretty good weekend. Ms. Kate is improving everyday. She has finished all of her antibiotics and is eating Faith well — small portions but is having something most every meal. That is a huge improvement. This morning I fixed scrambled eggs with ham and mushrooms in them and a pan of biscuits. She ate a heathy portion of the eggs and a couple of biscuits with a little home made strawberry jam on them. I proud of her. 

We had a great service at church yesterday. My friend Ron Henze was in town and sang a couple of songs for us. He did a solo and then a duet with one of our soprano singers for church. He did a really god job, especially considering he’s 80 years old. My voice went to trash several years ago although I still try. But we had a fairly full church yesterday and Ron and Samantha’s music was a blessing and was well received. I was very happy to see that because Samantha is timid about singing, and she did such a good job. 

I have writing to do and I have ideas in my brain to put down on paper but —- I’m going to enjoy riding my John Deere today and mow my yard and probably Dan’s. I need to get my yard mowed and being out there will be relaxing and enjoyable. 

That’s about it for this last Monday in September. Have a blessed week. Peace. 

 Friday afternoon, 1:15 pm. I just went out to the mailbox to drop in a couple of items and the heat is horrible. The “real-feel” is 109 and it is hard to breathe. I feel sorry for anyone that has to be outside working in this kind of heat. I pray God keeps them safe. I also think about people that do not or cannot afford air conditioning. I don’t know how they survive this. 

But, —- I remember days like this when I was a kid and was spending the week with my Grandma and Grandpa Heumann. Grandma would have had all of the windows open and a box fan going. Grandpa and I would have been sitting out in the shade in the yard in the old blue steel chairs. He would have been sitting there smoking his pipe. Those are precious memories. I would love to be able to sit with him once again under that tree. Grandma and grandpa Heumann were “quiet people”. They moved slow; They didn’t talk a lot but they were great listeners. They were humble and they were kind. All of us grandkids have such fond memories of the two of them. 

They were the opposite of my Grandma Rath. She was high energy and always doing something, always in motion. When we went on family vacations, she almost always went with us, five of us in crowded in a 1950’s Studebaker of some model, with our luggage and food. There weren’t a lot of restaurants back then; Drive through were something new. I remember going to my first McDonalds in Rapid City South Dakota. 

We have another appointment at the doctor’s office today for Kate to get another antibiotic shot. Then she will come home and sleep the afternoon away. It does seem to be our routine. Hopefully today will be the last one. She is doing better. Last evening she ate a whole meal, the first in weeks. So, we are hopeful that she will be past this in a few days. 

That’s my Friday story. I hope you have a great weekend. May God grant you peace. 

 Good Thursday morning. It’s hot already and only 0915. It is supposed to go to 100 ambient today and maybe again tomorrow and that will put the heat index up to 110-115. That’s not fit for man nor beast. However, I heard of a place, and I think it was in Kansas, or maybe it was Death Valley, that had a feels like temperature of 138 a couple of days ago. Do we still think that global warming is a myth??? I certainly believe that it is real; —- however the cause is not only debatable but also extremely political. This planet has gone through global warming and global freezing, global flooding and every other extreme. And as long as God lets the earth to continue, —- it will all happens repeatedly. The biggest difference this time is there is money and power to be gained this time. 

Ms. Kate had a good night last night and this morning “doesn’t feel awful” which isn’t quite the same as feeler better. LOL. Her doctor called and wants her to come in for another antibiotic shot today. Heck, we might get this lady well yet. If we have to go daily for an antibiotic shot —- that’s what we do. 

So, beyond not going out in the heat except to g to the doctor, there isn’t much else going on in my world. I guess I will do some writing today. Trying to stay ahead of the game. Things like Ms. Kate getting sick and requiring care are why I try to stay ahead on stuff. One never knows what will happen. People get sick, parishioner end up having surgeries and need visitation unexpectedly. It is just better to have ones ducks in a row; —— or at least know where the duck are. 

So, I think I’ll make some jello with pears in it. That’s a good snack. You have yourself a great day. Peace. 

 I was hoping today would be a better day for Ms. Kate —- ‘twas not to be. I told y’all that we spent part of Monday at the ER getting her checked out. They gave her antibiotic injections as well as a prescription and sent her home. Yesterday morning she was better, we even had company come by and drop off a nice meal for us. But mid afternoon she was feeling rough again and by this morning she was having a total relapse. We had an appointment with our doctor this morning. He confirmed they hospitalist’s diagnosis of UTI and Diverticulitis. He has given her another shot of antibiotics. They will be calling us tomorrow to check on her. If she is better, they will continue with her prescribed medicines. If not, they are going to hospitalize her and continue treatment through IV’s etc. I hope it doesn’t come to that; but if that’s what we need to do, that’s what we do. We have to get that lady well. 

Bambi and I grazed on the backyard yesterday a evening after the sun went down. It’s so good to have it running again. I also cleaned the birdbaths and filled them with fresh water. They are getting a lot of use with this heat wave going on. I also watered my tomatoes. I have lost so many of the tomatoes because they are small and green and falling off of the vines. Maybe it is the heat, I don’t know. I only have a couple of ripe ones at the moment. 

I had brought all of my material up to the kitchen table to work so I wouldn’t have to keep going up and down stairs to check on Kate. Last night I took it all back down. But —- I reckon I better bring it back up. I have work to do and she’s still sick. But —- this is exactly why I work ahead. One never knows what is down the road and being prepared helps you get through it all. 

That’s it for today. Peace.