Wednesday, the 29th. I’m sitting in Gateway Hospital with Kate. We spent all day yesterday going from her doctor’s office to here for another CT scan and then to the emergency room for a doctor to further evaluate her and admit her. The lesions on her colon have grown and are causing her all manner of trouble. The plan is to put in a temporary drain and give antibiotics until the infection clears up and then do surgery. We expect to be here “a few days”. THe final stage will be to remove her colon. 

So, that’s alll I have for today. Would appreciate prayers. 

Peace

 There is a bright sun shining in the sky but it is doing nothing to melt the frost off of the roofs across the street that I can see. It is a chilly 31 degrees again this morning and only going to go up about seven degrees today. But, we don’t have any snow like much of the country does this morning. So I have zero to complain about. Besides, I have no out door plans anyway unless Kate’s doctor’s office calls and wants to see her sometime today. 

Yes, she’s sick again, or maybe she’s still sick. I don’t know anymore. She’s past the COVID but it appears that the Diverticulitis is raising its ugly head once again. It can’t possibly be from anything she has eaten because she continues to be the “two-bite-wonder”. Just yesterday, Karen brought us some wonderful Thanksgiving food. Kate ate a couple of bites of mashed potatoes and gravy and that was it. Said she was full and didn’t want anything more. I’ve been able to get her to eat a half of a bagel in the morning and then she eats a couple of bites of something later in the day; and that’s it. Not even any snacking. It is all very concerning and I really hope we can get to the bottom of it. She still has the lesions or abscesses on her colon so maybe it is time for surgery; I just don’t know. Keep her in your prayers please. 

We are down to five Sundays left in my pastoral career. Yesterday we had really good day at the churches. Had a good crowd at St. Pau’s and then at St. Lucas I had a large crowd. Much of the St. Lucas attendance tough was all family of one set of parishioners. I had ask a member to play the piano as special music yesterday and he brought his whole family. They were using yesterday to celebrate the Thanksgiving get together and they were also celebrate the couples 55th wedding anniversary. And as an added bonus, his granddaughters also sang for us. It was really great. 

This coming Sunday will be the first Sunday of Advent and our St. Paul’s congregation is having a luncheon in honor of our departure. I expect a large crowd for that. With choir performances and children’s programs trough December I guess one could ay that we are closing my ministry with a bang. It has been a fantastic career. 

That’s it for today. Have a wonderful week. It will warm up some tis week. I hope you aren’t in th path of the snow storms. Peace. 

 Good morning on this 31 degree sunny morning. The “feels-lie” is a brisk 28 degrees but the wind is light so that would help, —- if I actually even thought about going outside this morning, which I have not. 

 I saw a picture last night of the going home traffic on Wednesday evening on the Los Angeles “I-405 & I-10”. It was at a creeping pace, bumper to bumper, ten lanes wide with loud lane on ramps and exits. I’m so glad I don’t live out there. I wish my daughter and her family didn’t. But, at least Heather and John are moving out of CA next year when she retires. They have already built their retirement home in Star, Idaho.  The grandkids will probably never move out of California because it is all they know. They are in their mid 20’s, they are successful in their jobs and life is grand. Kate and I lived in that rat-race area for a couple of years when I was stationed at March Air Force Base. That is in Riverside, CA and is on the outskirts of all the horrible traffic but anywhere you go in southern CA it is the same way. I’m glad to be here in the country roads of southern Indiana where our definition of a traffic jam is getting behind a combine going from field to field down the road. 

The neighbor across the street took down his “blow-up” Thanksgiving decorations yesterday. They had replaced his yard full of Halloween blow-ups. Now we all get to listen to his “pigs” oinking Jingle Bells 24 hours a day through Christmas. (Just shoot me now!!!) I guess he thinks it is all attractive, and at night when it is lit up it does attract some attention; but it isn’t for me. I personally think it all look trashy. But, no one asked me if I like it or not. 

Today is Ms. Kate’s last day of taking her COVID medications. She still isn’t doing all that well. She has zero energy, and sleeps all the time. She doesn’t have any of the Covid symptoms except for a cough, and that isn’t the “bad cough” that she was having.  Think she has been sick for so long, and has been through so much that her over-all system is just depleted. It worries me a lot. I already know she won’t be going to church tomorrow. 

That’s it for this Saturday morning. I pray you will have a great weekend. Peace. 

 Happy Thanksgiving 2023! It is a beautiful but chilly day; not a cloud to be seen. Forecaster said: “Enjoy it, it will be the last for awhile..”. I’m going to plug in the birdbath today. We’re looking at 20+ degree nights now. Might as well get the birds “heated pool” going at the Backyard Buffet. I think I need to fill some feeders today too. And — if it gets comfortable enough, I need to run the mower over the front yard today and mulch up the last of the leaves that are in the front yard. Well —- “last” is a relative term because they are coming off of the neighbor’s Bradford Pear tree and there are a lot more to come down. 

With Kate and I still “doing COVID” our Thanksgiving isn’t going to be very traditional. We are pretty well over it but Kate has no appetite and that means that if I fixed a bunch of stuff, she would eat one bite and “be full”.  That has been her pattern every since she started with the diverticulitis problem. 

Thanksgiving being early is a mental schedule teaser. We are still seven days away from December and the start of Advent season. But, I’m not rushing the year to end, that will come soon enough and the changes in our lives with it. 

So, have a great day, eat a lot, take your nap, and be grateful to the Lord God. Peace 

 Wednesday afternoon, “Thanksgiving Eve” if there is such a thing. It’s not a big deal around our household though. As I told you, we officially cancelled Thanksgiving here. Kate is still in quarantine and I guess technically, so am I. We told Julie and Jim not to come. I had a parishioner offer to bring a meal but I declined. Don’t want to take chances.

So today started off interesting. Kate was coming out of th bedroom tis morning and while she was reaching for the door, somehow she lost her balance and down we went to the floor.  She is not an easy person to get back up and it took us the best part of an hour. But, we finally did get her up and in her chair.  She’s going to be sore for sure from our efforts. I have no idea how she went down. Fortunately, she was not hurt bad in the process. She’s going to be more sore from us getting her up than she will be from the fall. What am I going to do do with that woman????? It’s probably a good thing I’m retiring; —- we both need keepers. 

I’m very excited. My daughter Julie, the queen of research on a computer, has been doing some digging into my origins. As you know, I’m an adopted kid and so is my sister. We have been told all our lives that the records are sealed and there was no way I could find out anything about my birth parent; —— that was before computers and my very determined Julie. She has tracked down an original of my birth certificate and she has found out info on both my birth father and my birth mother. She even found a copy of my birth mother’s obituary. There is a lot of info there and although we don’t know the exact reason we were placed in an orphanage, there are enough pieces of the story to come up with a great conclusion. . None of it makes any real difference to my life but sometimes. Person just needs answers. My Jules gave me a real Christmas present with this stuff. 

That’s it. Have a great day. Peace. 

 Happy new week. And it is Thanksgiving week. I assume everyone has their turkey and it it was frozen, you put it in the refrigerator yesterday to thaw. That was the plan in our house; —- however —— we cancelled Thanksgiving here. We will still be in quarantine. 

I’m on my last day of pills and quarantine but unfortunately, Kate has it full blown. We tested her again yesterday and she got a positive for COVID report. So, she sent a message through My Chart to her doctor right away and we are waiting on a response this morning from them. I suspect they will prescribe Paxlovid for her just like they did for me. Although she has so many reactions to different medicines, they may do something else for her. Anyway — we are quarantined through Friday around here. I texted Julie and told her to not come over. We don’t need her or Jim getting COVID. I think they neither one have had it yet. As I told her, the turkey won’t get any bigger or any more dead by the time we have it. We can have turkey for Christmas or New Year’s Day to celebrate my first day of retirement. 

I hope I never do anything that will land me in jail!  That’s a really random statement but let me explain myself. Because of COVID, I’m quarantined in a wonderful home, very comfortable furniture, all of the creature comforts. I can go to the refrigerator and get want I want, I can have my coffee or whatever when I want. I have th love of my life sharing this home with me.  I have all of the world to communicate with through television, multiple computers and phones. I can go outside or in my garage, or in my fully finished/furnished basement, and yet —— because I’m in quarantine and can’t go anywhere; I feel like a prisoner in my own home and don’t know what to do with myself. Imagine being in a 8X10 jail cell with bunk beds and a steel sink and toilet and a cellmate and that is all. Amazing what our minds do to us. 

Today is our middle daughter’s 53rd birthday. All I will say about her is that she is a wonderful human being and the world is so much better with her being in it. Happy birthday Heather. 

That’s it for today. This is ‘Thanksgiving week”. Make the most of that thought and be thankful for your life full of blessings. Peace. 

 With all honesty, I tell you that COVID doesn’t suck any less today than it did yesterday. Somethings  don’t necessarily get better with age. Well, that’s probably not true. I am on my second day of Paxlovid. I think it is maybe working but haven’t had it in my system long enough to really know. For those of you have not “had the pleasure”, a Paxlovid “dose” is three sizable pills that you take at the same time, twice a day. It leaves a metallic taste in your mouth for a while after you take it. But — as I told my daughters this morning, at least I still have the ability to taste which sometimes you lose with COVID. I guess my most common symptoms right now would be that I have a “dripping nose and a cough”. My ribs are sore from coughing and blowing my nose, and either the COVID or the meds are keeping me sleepy and tired. I’m sleeping in my recliner away from Kate because the last time she had it she was hospitalized. Now you are court up on my woes and complaints. 

But else where in the world; we had some rain last night with “some” be a relative word. I think we only had about .02 inches. It hardly got the new mulch wet down. The streets are still showing wet but that is because the sun has yet to come out from the clouds. It’s a good day to be inside. It was 60 degrees this morning at 0615 when I woke up and here at 1100 it is only 62. And the temps are supposed to drop for most of the weekend and next week. 

This “time off” is giving me the opportunity to finish up everything I have to do “work-wise” for the last six weeks of my job. I have one more sermon to write. I had two left but since I can’t preach this Sunday, I’ll use the one I wrote for this Sunday still and then write the last one. Hard to believe that time has actually come. But, I feel this is the plan God has laid out for me and for the parish. Hopefully they will get some one in that loves them as much as Kate and I do.  

That’s it from this Kleenex holder. Have a wonderful weekend. Peace.