The funeral for J.H. went well...more than well.
Her son did the speaking.
I told him that I hoped someone would say something that nice at my funeral. And I meant it.
Not a large crowd--30 or so--but a very attentive one.
Eucharist went flawlessly with the burial office.
Lots of food afterwards.
Funerals aren't my favorite thing, but this one went more than well....
I have a funeral tomorrow of someone I never met.
Those are the worst.
But her son is giving the sermon.
She was a great member of Trinity before I got there.
I'll do communion.
There is no interment.
It will be fine.
I hate when people die....
Just before I went online for my Tuesday group, I read an article in Trinity Church's newsletter.
B.S. who creates the newsletter posted about a mall being built on the Green in front of Trinity. It was fascinating.
I couldn't image how it would happen, but looked forward to watching it go up.
Then, an hour afterwards, one of the people on my facebook group who lives in Florida said: "We had two inches of snow last night."
I was amazed--then he said, "April fool."
Then I realized the newsletter was an April Fool's joke.
I am really an April Fool....
Tomorrow is Bern's birthday.
For 15 days, until my birthday, she is only 2 years younger than me!
We were high school sweethearts. I met her because I thought I might need a foreign language for some of the colleges I was applying to.
But it was Latin 1. I was a senior and she was a freshman but both in the same class.
Latin was the only foreign language offered at our little high school
I went to college and three years later she joined me at WVU.
I then went to Harvard Divinity School and after a year came home and we were married. She went to college in Boston the next year.
Then we moved back to Morgantown and I was a social worker while she finished college.
That was a long time ago.
54 years, believe it or not!
Two kids and four grandkids later, here we are.
I love her so, so much.
She is my wife and she is my life.
Happy birthday, Bern....
I was out on the back porch this afternoon and heard a bird call.
It was something like "tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet-tweet, tweet."
So I whistled it as close as I could.
The bird answered back with an extra 'tweet'.
I responded.
We did it 10 times and I was amazed.
I was talking with a bird!
Though I have no idea what either of us were saying....
I worked for five hours today and am ready to go to H&R Block tomorrow!
Yea!!!
It gets harder to get done every year.
We save all the right stuff--but a year's worth of stuff is STUFF!
But it's done and I'm so relieved.
Probably owe taxes, but we'll see.
I've known him since 1972.
He's a West Virginian, like me.
We've been through a lot together.
Several months ago he fell down the stairs from his apartment and has been recovering ever since.
We're going to his birthday party tonight. There will be lots of mutual friends there.
We gave him a wide wheel chair as his gift. I don't know how long he will continue to need it. Not long, I pray.
I haven't visited him as much as Bern has since the accident.
I just can't stand to see him like that.
I love him too much.
Alas.
Usually, on Wednesdays I go up to Milton for Bible Study.
But it's cancelled until after Easter.
So, I'm off on Wednesdays.
I'm also off this coming Sunday.
This is what being truly retired is like.
I'm not sure I enjoy it.
But Palm Sunday and Easter are coming.
I look forward to it, so very, very much.
Alas....
I'm terrible at doing taxes. I have our dining room table covered with paper and I'm not done.
I have an appointment at H@R Block on Monday, so I better hurry up.
I never believed my retired priest friends who told me I'd be better off financially when I retired.
But I am--retired and still working part time.
The church pension fund is great--so is social security and Trinity Church, Milton.
We're doing well.
Had to open an account at a new bank months ago when we reached the limit on what our bank would guarantee.
Money isn't a problem.
Doing taxes is!!!
It's been raining all day.
In fact, it seems like it's been raining since Trump took office.
The things he and Musk are doing break my heart and pour rain on my head.
Courts are standing up on some of it--but the President seems to ignore the courts in some ways.
Hopefully he is making judges and even the Supreme Court a bit argumentative.
Maybe they can stop the rain or slow it down.
I don't feel safe any more--and I was born in the USA!
People who weren't really don't feel safe.
And for good reason.
God help us....
I didn't have church today and won't next Sunday either. I celebrate three Sundays a month and March has five.
It doesn't seem like Sunday if I don't have church.
Just another day. A day without a dollar.
People ask me why I'm still working at 77. I tell them "it's the only way I know I'll go to church."
They usually laugh, but it's true.
On days like today and next Sunday I don't go to church.
I love celebrating at church but not just attending.
If that's bad of me, I'm ok with that....
I know I said I was doctored out, but getting allergy shots involves only registered nurses.
One of the regular, nice nurses was checking my Epi-pen and getting the shots ready when I heard someone around the corner say, "I know that voice!"
And there she was--Angela--who had been a member of St. John's in Waterbury all of the 21 years I was there.
She had two kids--boy and girl--and I probably baptized one or both of them.
Their all grown up--both married--and the daughter has two children.
She showed me photos on her smart phone--something I can't do since I have a flip phone and don't know how.
We hugged a couple of times and entertained the other nurse with our memories.
All in all, a good trip to the Hospital--and only nurses....
That's the way I like it.
Nothing much happened today.
I got up at 8:45, had breakfast, read a David Rosenfelt book, had worked a bit on taxes, had lunch. Started another Rosenfelt book and sit here typing.
Oh, I did feed Brigit, our dog and let her in the back yard for a while a few times.
And, oh, I got 15 phone calls which were from no one I know--mostly trying to get money from me.
And, oh, I went out and got Pinot Grllogio, the only wine I drink.
Not that much happened today.
I actually like days like this....
Days when nothing much happens....
I have had a doctor's appointment, blood draw, a doctor's appointment, a dentist visit and will have two shots on Friday.
Enough medical stuff already!
As you get older, you get to know medical providers better.
I also have an x-ray next Thursday.
Enough....
But they keep me walking around and breathing.
That's good.
Better than the option.
So bring on the medical people....
Going up to Milton today for church, I drove through the most fog I've ever driven through.
Litchfield/Milton is up-hill from here, so it got worse the further I drove.
A bit better coming back, but still lots of fog.
From time to time I couldn't see twenty feet in front of me.
But I made it there and back safely.
God blesses us in fog.
I guess.
I wrote my sermon for tomorrow in record speed--maybe 20 minutes.
I did something I never do, I talked about all the lessons and the collect of the day. I seldom like them all--but these I loved.
The sermon came out so seamlessly that I didn't re-read it in case it was awful.
The folks at Trinity, Milton will see and hear if that's true or not tomorrow!
I was told quite a few years ago that I had a quite narrow esophagus. That is sometimes a problem--like yesterday.
For lunch I had leftover chicken with rice and peas. On my last bite I obviously didn't chew enough and a piece of chicken got stuck.
I couldn't get anything to go down--not even water.
Every 15 minutes I had to go to the toilet and cough up my saliva.
I couldn't eat dinner or drink anything.
Bern did the heimlich manuever (however you spell it!) and massaged me in the stomach. I even jumped up and down some though my knees don't let me jump high at all.
So, I went to bed with a small trash can by the bed in case I needed it.
I threw up twice more then went to sleep.
This morning it had passed and I was fine.
I've just got to always chew very well.
Alas for aging....
Our washing machine broke down what seems like a year ago--though it's probably just a month.
Bern has been going to the place with machines to wash clothes.
But I have always washed my own clothes.
I miss it.
We bought a new washer but the delivery was a week later and we didn't have the right valves. So a plumber had to come.
Waited to have it hooked up but the hose wasn't long enough.
Went to buy a hose extender, but had to order it and it hasn't come yet.
Then the washer guy has to come and install it.
All this delay and trouble over dirty clothes.
Amazing!
Maybe we should go down to the river and wash them.
Probably not since most rivers are polluted and the current administration isn't caring about things like that.
I just want our washer to be here!
This week has been the warmest in several months.
But not warm enough for me.
I love warmth--the older I get, the more I love it.
Says something about me, I guess.
But come on Spring and Summer.
I miss you.
Just me talking--or, more correctly--typing.
See you soon, I hope.
...usually because I have to go to church, preach and stay awake during the Eucharist.
I told Bern that Daylight savings time should be taking off ten minutes a day for six days.
She said, "that's a great idea!"
But I know she didn't mean it.
I've felt beat up for the whole day.
Driving to Milton made me crazy.
I think 10 minutes a day for six days IS a great idea.
On the first Sunday in Lent this year, Luke takes us into the wilderness to watch Jesus be tempted by Satan.
It is hard to read and react to.
All of us have experienced 'temptation'--and sometimes given in to it.
But not Jesus.
He rejects the devil at every point.
Good for him!
And better for us, because Jesus is on our side and will comfort us and protect us when we are tempted.
Let us pray we do not give in to temptation....
I've been looking at the hundreds of pictures I have in the drawers of my desk and seeing my Dad a lot.
He was a cold miner until WW2 and when he came back he couldn't go back in the mines. He worked at my Uncle Russel's grocery store (as I did) and then became an insurance sales man.
He was kind and gracious to me.
I miss him to this day.
A good man.
A miner, a soldier, a grocery store worker, an insurance salesman.
I miss him greatly.
We did Ash Wednesday at noon.
There were more people than I imagined their would be--nearly 20--6 of whom I did not know until I introduced myself.
I gave a short homily on "Ashes, Ashes, all fall down."
The music was wondrous. Passing the peace joyful.
One of the people there emailed me to say how moved they were by the service. It was their first Ash Wednesday service and they wanted to let me know how deeply it affected them.
Emails like that are a gift from God....
Ash Wednesday is upon us.
Remember the childhood saying: "Ring around the roses, Pocket full of posies, Ashes, Ashes, All fall down"?
We are dust and ashes and we will return there.
Not a hopeful day, except for Jesus' promise in Luke that if we 'do good' in secret, God will reward us.
We shall know when we know.
...is the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
My sermon is called "In the Presence of God".
All the readings and the collect refer, in one way or another, to being in the presence of God.
I want the Parishioners and me to long for the presence of God.
I tell a them about my last conversation with my father--who had been senile for 3 years. He was in the hospital and we had the best conversation we'd had in all those years. It was as if we were in the presence of God and God gave me my father back for 45 minutes.
By the time I got home, the hospital called and he had died.
I went back to sit with his body. A Catholic priest came by to ask if I wanted him to give Dad 'last rites'.
My father was a Baptist and then a Methodist, but my experience of that last conversation let me be open to anything.
So, he had Catholic 'last rites'!
I'll tell people tomorrow that we are 'in the presence of God' when the bread and wine are blessed and become the Body and Blood of Christ.
I pray they'll believe me, because I believe it so profoundly.
The way our President treated the President of Ukrain today was deplorable. Zelenskyy is an ally, not the enemy.
Russia is the enemy of both countries.
Has he lost his mind?
Been to the grocery store lately?
He was going to bring down food costs, but they have gone up.
And firing the U.S.'s workforce--what evil can that do?
Even MAGA folks are turning on him and Republicans in the Congress,
About time, I would say, but it's too late for that....
God help us.
Across the street--on the north side of Cornwall Avenue--all the snow has melted in the front yards.
On our side--the south side--front yards are still covered by snow.
I've never figured out why that is--but it always is.
Living on the cold side of the street means it's difficult to put out the trash and recycle bins.
Tuesday I was having trouble getting the recycling up on 5 inches or more of snow. A guy walking down the street came over. He pulled and I pushed and we did it.
What a nice guy. He was walking on the warm side--the only side that has a sidewalk.
I should have given him a hug--cold as my hug might be.
I went to a new dentist yesterday.
My dentist for years retired about a year ago. So I needed a new one.'
The woman who cleaned my teeth was wonderful and funny.
But the dentist wanted me to have a 'deep cleaning'. That would require two visits and being numbed each time.
I turned it down.
I'm 77--how many decades do I have left.
My teeth will be fine until I'm not....
Alas....
Someone who reads this blog sent a letter to Bern with a copy of my Valentine's Day post.
She hadn't read it on-line and was very pleased to read it.
Whoever did that, if you will, send me an email at Padrejgb@aol.com to let me know.
I'd like to thank you personally.
It was a kind and loving thing to do.
People like whoever did that make the world more gracious and loving.
Thank you again.
I went to see my Orthopedic doctor today.
I fell down several months ago and broke my shoulder bone and my thumb.
The thumb is perfectly healed--that I'm typing with all ten fingers shows that.
My shoulder is almost healed. I don't need pain meds in the day and don't wear an Icy-Hot patch any more. I do take 2 pain pills at night.
It sometimes hurts--but not nearly as much as it did before.
He didn't give me another appointment, so he thinks I'll be fine.
He told me that his 4 year old daughter is already reading!
She'll be bored in Kindergarten and First Grade....
It got almost to 40 degrees today, so some of the ice melted.
Not nearly enough.
But this week is going to be in the 40's almost to 50, so that will help.
I hope so.
I'm tired of snow and ice.
Really tired.
Come on Spring!
But I wore a sport's coat to church and a hoodie the rest of the day.
That's better....
My sermon tomorrow is about 'love'.
The collect says that anything we do without love means nothing.
The Old Testament lesson is Joseph welcoming the brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt to join him--now an important man--and escape the famine in Israel.
Joseph loves those who made him a slave.
Amazing.
But Jesus goes further--"Love those who hate you", he says.
Along with many other difficult commandments.
Love is difficult.
But love is what matters.
Really....
Trump and Musk are leadig us down an unknown path.
Blaming the wrong side for the war between Russia and Ukrain is bad enough, but firing federal employees for no real reason is worse.
I feel like I'm living in an alternate universe.
Nothing makes sense with what Trump and his loyalists are doing.
I may implode.
I don't know.
What the hell can we do.
Lots of folks--including some Republicans are objecting.
But what's the chance they'll be heard?
God help us!
Really, we need God's help with these idiots....
Really....
I was looking at You Tube--as I do almost every day and saw a link to me talking about "Under the Castor Oil Tree", my blog!
I have no idea who put it on You Tube--none at all--or Why they did.
But, I showed it to Bern and she was impressed--and she's not easily impressed....
So, I'm a You Tube guy.
Only 11 views in 4 years.
Not so hot a You Tube guy....
Alas....
Today I drove up to Milton for our Wednesday Bible study.
When I got there, R. was in her car and yelled to me: (Jim, stay in your car.)
I take orders well and did.
A few minutes later, G. the Junior Warden arrived. I got out to say "hello" and realized that the parking lot was covered with a glaze of ice.
G. decided nobody should walk on it and sent me home.
He'll have it sanded by Sunday.
Ice--how great thou art!
It looks like we can have church on Sunday--YES!
We've missed the last two and I've not been happy.
I only go to church when I'm celebrating--I've told you that--but missing two Sundays makes me reconsider.
I miss church.
I really do.
So, I hope the weather holds and we can be together in Milton.
I've missed those folks.
Really missed.
I need to get back in the game....
Today I would normally put out the trash and recycling for pickup tomorrow.
Bern has pretty much cleared our walk to the driveway but the walkway to the back porch is iced over. Pulling the trash and recycling out to the front yard would be dangerous.
Besides with a foot or so iced-over snow in the yard, how would I get them away from the walkway and out from under the tree there?
Wait a week for trash and two weeks for recycling.
We have two recycling bins, so that will work.
The ICE RULES!!!
We lost our cable connection sometime on Sunday--no internet, no TV and no phone land-lines.
It finally came back mid-morning on Monday.
It's embarrassing to notice how much we depend on cable....
It's 4 p.m. in Cheshire and is already snowing.
Could be a big storm.
We shall see.
I'll try to remember to pray tomorrow to make up for not having church.
I'm sorry to say, my personal prayer life is not that intense.
Hard to say as an Episcopal priest.
But there it is.
Someday I'll maybe learn if I should have prayed more.
Maybe.
Even that is an odd 'priest confession'.
But confession is, I DO believe, good for the soul.
Trinity, Milton is cancelled again tomorrow--two in a row.
Snow turning to a freezing mix is the reason.
So, no sermon again.
And sleeping in is good!
I gave Bern yellow roses today since I didn't think I could get them early enough tomorrow.
I've got a few other things and a card I'll leave in the kitchen tonight since I go to bed later than her.
In September we'll have been married 55 years.
She is not the love of my life--she is my life!
I love her so, so much.
I trust she knows that....
On April 5th I'm doing a funeral for a woman I never met but who was a long-time member before she moved away.
I met with her son, Mike, today and was glad to know he has mapped out the service wonderfully!
He'll even do the homily, which frees me from talking about someone I never met.
"She would have wanted Que Sara Sara at some point," he told Gene and me. That's perfect for Trinity since the prelude and postlude are more likely to be popular and familiar music.
As he and Gene talked about her, I wish I had met her and that she would have been part of my life.
It snowed a ton last night. Trinity was right to cancel church. I couldn't have gotten out of our driveway at 8:15 am, when I leave for Milton.
But the day was strange.
Our neighbor Mark cleared the driveway and our walkways. Bless him.
Bern couldn't take Brigit on her morning walk. Much too slick.
I didn't wake up until 9:30--when church would have started except for the snow.
I took a shower, something I never do on Sunday since I have to go to church.
I had breakfast, which I never do on Sunday, looking forward to the great coffee hours at Trinity.
Everything about today felt strange.
Well, there will be the Super Bowl!
Odd not to write a sermon.
Odd to be home on a Sunday I was supposed to work.
But church has been cancelled because of the expected snow.
I will enjoy tomorrow because of the Super Bowl!
Go Chiefs!!!
I'll wear my Chiefs' hoodie as I watch.
Something to look forward to....
Very slick this morning. Bern and our dog, Brigit both almost fell down on the ice.
Bern did a good job of breaking up ice.
I went to Waterbury Hospital to get the allergy shots I get every two weeks.
When I got back, most ice was gone and it's been sunny all afternoon.
Not a bad day altogether.
Now we brace for Saturday nights storm....
It's going to snow tonight.
Things are closing down.
The snow and ice Saturday night might cancel church, I learned today at Bible study.
I hate winter....
Trump has been President for 2 weeks and almost nothing has gone right.
And his co-president, Elon Musk has caused a myriad of problems.
Laws have been broken.
Tradition has been ignored.
Wrong has been done.
And what can we do?
I'm not sure.
Pray, at least.
Get involved in issues.
Add ourselves to the opponents of the administration.
Speak up and speak out.
Resist, resist, resist.
Do all we can.
It's going to be a long and troubling four years....
Alas....
The snow in our yard had almost melted away.
But I woke up this morning to another 3 inches or so.
It's been warm today, but not enough to melt the snow.
Snow on snow is not the problem. The problem is the cold weather.
I'm always cold.
Eating dinner tonight with a sweater and a jacket on, I told Bern I was so cold.
She had on a long sleeve shirt and a tee shirt and said she was warm and thinking about taking off the long sleeve shirt.
Maybe something's wrong with me.
I'll ask my doctor about it when I see her.
I realized I left out all the pictures of my children and grand-children.
Two kids and four grand-kids take up a lot of pictures.
Two of the grand-kids will be going to college next year.
Another is 15 and another is 8.
Unbelievable, all of them.
I love them so.
Bern does facebook with the youngest 3 times a week.
I often peak in and am always greeted warmly.
Life has been long for me (thank God!) and I have been so very, very blessed for such a life and for my children and grandchildren.
Praise be....
The two drawers on my desk are full of pictures from the past.
Many are of me as I grew up.
Some are from family gatherings--both Bradley family and Jones family.
Many are from churches I have served.
I'm baptizing babies, serving communion, preaching, standing in coffee hour with people I knew from those churches.
In some of them, my hair is still brown!
I look at some of them every day.
They keep me grounded.
Looking at old pictures can cause a smile or a tear.
It's worth doing--believe me,,,,
Sunday is the Feast of Jesus being presented in the Temple as a child.
But the readings we had at Bible Study were different.
We're going to go with the readings for the presentation in the Temple. People won't have them to read, but will need to listen.
Listening is a valuable thing.
Listening is good.
Listening will make us whole.
We'll see....
As I grow older, I am more unsteady.
I fall down--usually coming inside from outside.
Today I fell and broke my glasses.
I don't need them to read or do what I do on-line, but I do need them to drive.
Bern, somehow, found my old glasses and they will let me drive until I see the Eye Doc next week and get new glasses.
We shall see!
(Sorry, I didn't mean to make that allusion.)
...about Trump's becoming President that I thought last Tuesday was Monday and missed my regular zoom call.
I'll do it tomorrow.
Everything that has happened has added to my upset.
I need to figure out how to get over it.
If I can....
You may have heard already, but I love it so much I have to tell it!
Trump's 'gender motion' was screwed up.
It said, "if you are a male or female at 'conception'" that's your gender.
Whoever wrote it didn't realize that the X chromazone--which makes a male doesn't occur until several weeks after conception.
So, at conception, all fetuses are female.
So, according to this definition, we are all girls!!!
I went today, as I do every two weeks, to Waterbury Hospital to get my allergy/asthma shots.
I checked in as always, near the front door and then left with wrist band and papers to Outpatient Medical Services.
But when I go there OMS was nowhere to be found!
The office and treatment area were cleaned out. Nothing was left.
I went to the office nearest the old OMS and asked what was up.
A woman told me it had been moved and there should have been a sign, but there wasn't.
She took me back to the main hallway and said, go down to the very end.
I did and Lo and Behold there is was--much smaller and more crowded with medical stuff.
None of the staff knew why they had been moved.
God and Waterbury Hospital work in mysterious ways....
We're just a few days into what will be a long four years.
Removing the immigrants is horrid enough, but not nearly as bad as giving the January 6 rioters pardons.
Kick out the immigrants, take away the Constitutional guaranteed 'birthright citizenship' and free the criminals, some of whom caused death in their attack on the Capital.
Only 2 of 10 Americans approve of the Capital rioters pardons.
Many more than that voted for the current President.
Are they regretting that now?
I pray so....
The President doesn't seem to realize that everyone it this country came from somewhere else.
Bern is Italian/Hungarian and her parents came here a dozen years before she was born.
My Americanism is longer, but my family came from England and Wales and Sweden.
We exist as a nation because we came from somewhere else.
His plan to remove migrants is against who we are.
Just that.
No more.
Just that....
It snowed last night as predicted, but not as much as the weather people expected.
Three, maybe four inches. But it was so cold that once it fell, it froze, so it was hard to move.
Today was sunny but about 15 degrees.
It was a white, white, white day.
Today is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day. We owe him so much. He tried to bring justice and equality to the world. God bless him.
It was also Inauguration Day for the wrong person.
I fear him.
Justice and equality aren't on his agenda.
God help us....
Today was the Annual Meeting at Trinity, where I serve part-time.
I've always hated Annual Meetings--too much talk, takes too long, not much happens.
Today wasn't as bad at most.
Reports in writing. Moved along well. Took under and hour.
Not so bad as most.
I wish Annual Meetings were on line....
To be honest, I don't think 'wine' and 'wisdom' are related.
But I drink Pinot Grigio every night. It's the only thing I drink.
I'm not so wise, but I am smart.
My IQ was always about 155.
I do well on on-line tests.
But I am afraid of the next 4 years under Trump.
So afraid.
And not to wise.
More wine than usual, I suspect, to get to 2029--if I live that long.
Shalom. Have a glass of wine....
At Bible Study today, it bothered some that when Mary told Jesus the wedding in Cana was out of wine, that he called her "woman".
My Bible foot note said it was, in the first century, a term of 'affection and respect".
That gave me the idea for my sermon Sunday.
We will see.
We will see....
There has been a full moon the last few nights.
I can see it out the window where I'm sitting.
And it will begin to wane now.
Waxing and waning are interesting words.
But it is 10 degrees outside.
Very cold.
I love a full moon and hate the cold.
That's just me.
I had to go to Big-Y at 10 because the afternoon was busy.
I'm making coconut cod and lobster rolls with salad and potato tots for dinner.
At 2:30 we took Brigit to the Vet.
She's very well. Plus the Vet is a pretty woman.
Then at 3:30 we took Bern's truck to English Auto for a check-up in the morning.
Whew! That's a lot for me on a Monday....
Bern's talking to our youngest grand-daughter on zoom right now and I'm writing this.
Soon, I'll go make dinner.
Then, at 7, my favorite TV show.
Long day for me....
Things went well at church today.
We did Eucharistic Prayer C--which is my favorite.
Four ladies who used to go to another church did a great coffee hour.
As always, the music from Michael Ford was great.
My sermon was well received and quoted in today's newsletter.
All was well.
All was well.
All was well....
I couldn't get my printer to work to print out my sermon.
We had a new router installed and I didn't know what to do.
I wrote out my sermon by hand--which I could barely read!
But Bern figured it out and printed out my sermon.
Now I can read it....
Thank God for Bern.
For many reasons...so many...so many....
Sunday is the Baptism of Christ.
I'll be talking about baptism.
I have a lot to say.
I will let you know what I say.
Ponder your baptism.
OK?
We didn't have Wed. Bible Study at Trinity during December.
But we were back today.
I actually missed everything about it but the 32 mile drive to get there.
Those who come are insightful and willing to share their thoughts.
I like the interaction.
We're reading the lessons for the next Sunday these days.
It sometimes helps me with my sermon.
We'll see on Sunday....
I spent much of my life there. Both our children were born there. Bern and I are both from McDowell County (which if you are from there is pronounced "MackDowell".)
But I spoke on the phone today with a woman from the Church Insurance Company who was, inexplicably in Charleston, WV.
She said Charleston was shut down by snow.
Since West Virginia is used to snow, there must be a lot.
Today in CT was sunny and cold--but no more snow.
When we lived there, West Virginia was one of the Bluest states in the nation.
Today, it is deep Red.
Another reason I'm glad I'm not there.
Give me Democratic solid CT any day--for all the cold up here.
It snowed today.
Not a lot, just ground cover.
But it's 'cold'.
And you know how I feel about that.
I went out this morning before the snow. I had on a Tee-shirt, a thick sweater, a Kansas City Chiefs jacket and a winter coat.
And I was cold.
But the good news/bad news of the day is that there was no demonstration at the snowy Capital--and Trump was declared the President-elect.
Lordy, Lordy, what will the next 4 years hold?
Mostly stuff I'll feel about the way I feel about the cold!
God help us....
The service at Trinity, Milton today was good.
They have a great musician.
And, of course, a great priest!
Smaller crowd than usual--probably because of the cold.
But Good Music and a wondrous coffee hour.
I'm on the next two Sundays--which meets my limit of 3 a month.
We're also starting Bible Study up on Wednesday. We were off for December and New Year's Day.
I've missed it.
Very insightful people come, more than willing to share their opinions.
A good hour each week.
A New Year today.
I've seen 77 of them and will age a year come April.
Lots of college football, but none I was interested in watching.
I'm waiting for 7 p.m. and Jeopardy. for some reason my favorite show.
Bern always knows more answers than I do--but I'm not jealous.
I love the competition and watching one of the three try to distance themselves from the other two.
And the questions are entertaining in and of themselves.
So, after dinner, that's where I'll be--in the TV room.
