I can't remember the last time Bern and I went out on New Year's Eve.
I just asked her as she walked by my writing this.
She doesn't know either.
Not my favorite day--not by a long shot.
We go to bed before the ball drops in Times Square.
I'm sure some people enjoy celebrating--just not us.
We don't make New Year's resolutions either.
But we do have Poppin John for dinner on New Year's day.
That's a good thing about today and tomorrow.
But one of few.
Jimmy Carter died today at 100.
He was a President--but more important he was a humanitarian who worked his whole life to help people less fortunate than he was.
A good man--through and through.
Bless him.
We will miss him greatly.
I was off this Sunday but forgot to tell Bern, so she woke me at 7:30 as she does when I have church.
Undaunted I fell back asleep until 9:22--8 minutes before Trinity's service commences.
It hasn't been a great off-day.
As I sometimes do, I lost the ability to swallow for several hours.
On the plus side, I made Brigit--our dog's food.
I looked at my emails--only two of interest.
Then I finished a book by my favorite author, David Rosenfelt. It was his first novel that is out of print but Bern found it for me for Christmas.
Just a so-so day off....
We had our son, daughter-in-law and their 3 children--2 seniors in high school and one in 10th grade.
That should tell you how old I am--2 grandkids going off to college!
Lots of great times and food and presents.
I did the 4 p.m. Christmas Eve Service at Trinity, Milton, and preached about 'angel songs'.
One of the members pays a driver to take me up on Christmas Eve--very generous.
The church gave me $250 for Christmas--again, generous.
Seven people make a lot more noise than Bern and I.
The house is quiet again....
I'm sure you've noticed that before you can sign in to this blog, you have to say you with to continue.
Apparently, the Blog Folks find some of my content to be unacceptable.
So they scold me like this....
I'm not even sure what they object to.
I've gone back and read past blogs and besides the word 'fart', I'm not sure what I'm being scolded for.
Ah, well, not the first time I've been scolded!
And, hopefully, won't be the last!
This Sunday is the last one before Christmas.
I wrote my sermon on Mary, the mother of Jesus.
She was a simple woman chosen by God for reasons unknown, to give birth to his Eternal Son.
The Gospel was from Luke--when Mary visits Elizabeth and Elizabeth's baby leaps for join in her womb.
That baby was John the Baptist and though they were both fetuses John knew Jesus was there.
So did Elizabeth. She says, "Why is the mother of my Lord visiting me?"
Quite a story.
An amazing one, at that.
Truly amazing....
Sometime during the night on Sunday, our furnace went off.
It was finally fixed by 4 p.m. on Monday--by that time the temperature in our living room was 52 degrees.
As you know from earlier posts, I hate the cold.
Monday was miserable to me.
I stayed in stores some of the day and drove around with my car heater on high.
Finally, by bedtime, it was 68 in the house and all was well.
Cold is COLD!!!
The readings today in the bulletin were for Advent 2, not Advent 3.
It messed up things a lot.
But we got through it.
The person who did it apologized and my sermon went well enough.
Things like that happen.
Welcome to my world....
Have a good time here.
All three lessons before the Gospel use the word 'rejoice'.
So that's what I'm preaching about tomorrow--"rejoice".
I like my sermon but can't share it with you since, being and idiot about technology, I accidentally erased it from my computer....
Truly and idiot.
But not when preaching about 'rejoice'....
I got the readings for Sunday and realized I've already talked about the Gospel with John the Baptist.
I didn't realize that where it ended last Sunday would continue on, so I talked about what came next--this week's Gospel!
So I have to write a sermon without the Gospel.
I always preach on the Gospel.
What a mess.
I'll figure it out.
I hope....
Today the views of this blog passed 500,000!
Thanks to you for reading it.
You made half-a-million happen!
I appreciate it so much....
I watched 3 videos on Youtube about conjoined twins that were separated at the Mayo Clinic.
It was amazing!
These 6 girls (they were all female twins) have great lives and are very close to their sisters--though not as close as they were at birth....
Very moving.
My eyes were wet watching.
Pray for them and all conjoined twins.
And give thanks for hospitals and surgeons.
We all should do that.
The older I get, the more times I see doctors.
I went to my Cancer doctor A. this week.
My Cancer is gone but she keeps seeing me to make sure. I trust her totally. She's also an Episcopalian and goes to a church I know well.
I always let all the people in doctor offices know that I am an Episcopal priest. I don't know for sure that makes them treat me better--but I suspect it does.
Here's how terrific Dr. A. is--because I broke my thumb and cracked my shoulder, she is sending me to have my bone density checked next Wednesday at a practice just down the street from our house.
I never even thought about how dense my bones are and have no idea how they find out.
But if Dr. A. tells me to jump, I jump.
I trust her that much.
Probably more than I trust myself....
Seems it snowed last night.
Lot enough to cause any pain--besides shoveling walks and driveways--which Bern did before I woke up.
But it's cold...so cold...so very cold....
I put on socks--something I haven't done since last March.
That's how cold it is.
The only thing I would hate worse than being cold would be to live in Florida!
Just me talkin'...or, more accurately, writin'....
G. at Trinity told me to write out my sermons...which I often do not.
But my printer is out of ink and I don't know how to get more or how to install it.
I'm in a pickle--whatever that means--and hope to figure it out this week.
The sermon will be about John the Baptist and I don't need a text to do that.
Alas and alack--what to do....?
Thanksgiving is over--but giving thanks is not.
We need to be thankful every day...all the time.
Bern is doing Face Time with our granddaughter. I can hear them down the hall. They do it M-W-F and I'm always thankful.
I'm thankful, after the election, to live in the Very Blue state of CT.
I'm so thankful that Bern and I are married. We met when I was 17 and she was 14. 60 years later we are still together.
I am thankful that I'm an Episcopal priest--I have served amazing congregations and thank all of them for molding me into who I am today.
There is so much more for me to be thankful for--but I'll stop there for today.
My advice to you--be thankful every hour....
