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.
