It's cold tonight

 Not unbearable yet--but it will be.

I hate the cold.

And I hate the former President, who has decided to run in 2024.

I would almost root for him because he would be the most easy to beat by Biden or another Democrat.

Biden turns 80 this weekend. I'm not sure I think he should run again. I'm 5 years younger than him and I wouldn't be able to be the President.

Also, the most women governors ever were elected last week.

That's good news.

Warmth against the cold.

Anything to warm me up is welcome.

I hate the cold.

But you couldn't pay me to move south.

I love CT.

Except for the cold.

visit to the cancer doctor

 I went to my cancer doctor today.

I don't have cancer but several years ago my blood work showed I was producing what the prostate gland secretes and I had my prostate removed years ago!

So, I was referred to her.

She has a great presence in the exam room and she's an Episcopalian.

One doesn't come from the other....

For the first two years she gave me shots that brought the level down considerably.

But it's been two years since I got a shot and the level has stayed down.

She also apologized for the problems I had in the hospital and told me to let the hospital head know.

I have to think about that, but I'm leaning toward doing it.

She also told me that 2 years ago I weighed 207 pounds and today I weighted 170.

So my weight loss is real.

 

I'm not posting as much

And I don't know why.

I know I back off when not many are reading--but I shouldn't do that.

Only 350 views this month compared to 4500 last month.

But that shouldn't stop me.

Maybe it's the chill.

I hate the cold and wear too many clothes.

Maybe I'm lazy.

Good chance of that!

But I have a 'stay-cation' from now until November 27--10 whole days without driving to Milton.

And Mimi, Tim and Eleanor are coming for Thanksgiving.

Something to treasure and look forward to.

So, I'll try hard to write here more often.

I'm put off today since the former President (whose name, like Stephen Colbert, I won't write here) announced he's running again.

Alas and alack. 

I was hoping that all his endorsed candidates--or almost all--losing in the mid-term election would discourage him.

Looking at 2 years of campaigning by him depresses me.

But I'll try to overcome and write more here.

Be well and stay well, beloved.

 

I haven't posted since Wednesday

 Mostly because I've been following voting results and playing Hearts on-line and reading and sleeping.

Things got even better in the mid-terms.

Mark Kelly, the former astronaut was re-elected to the Senate from Arizona and that crazy woman, Keri Lake lost the governor's race. Two for two. Plus a Democrat won Attorney General (the one who oversees elections) against an election denier.

(Steven Colbert, who I watch on You tube since I don't stay up that late said that Kelly's opponent was an astronaut too--except for the tro and naut. You can figure that joke out.)

And gun-toting Boebert might lose in a deeply red House district in Colorado. Amazing.

Georgia will decide if the Democrats hold the Senate. So hold your breath.

And best  of all, perhaps, Fox news is going crazy and turning against the former President and blaming him for destroying a Red Wave.

All is well, my friends, all is well. And all manner of things will be well.

Thanks to women and young people for making it possible.

We owe you.

It wasn't as bad as it could have been

Republicans will take the House by a small margin but the Dems may hold onto the Senate.

No Red Wave, by any means.

The Biden mid-terms were better for the party in power than either Obama or Trump did.

Could have been worse.

A lot worse!

The race for my district's House seat is still up in the air.

Lord help us!

 

When I voted

 I went to vote just after 11. There was nowhere to park at the High School so I had to park at the Rec Center and walk up the hill.

There was 25 people ahead of me in my line and as many in the other line--determined by alphabetical order of the street where you live.

When I got my ballot, I had to wait a minute or so for an empty voting booth.

When I turned the ballot in (straight Democrat, as you might have guessed!) I asked if the crowd had been this big all day.

The woman at the machine gave me a I loved sticker and said, "Yes, since 6 a.m.!'

Bern voted earlier and told me it had been like that for her.

There was already a line when the poll opened.

People in my district really voted.

Hope you did too.

This week's sermon

 

There is good news and bad news in today’s lessons.

And the good news is ‘very good’ and the bad news is ‘very bad’.

        Let’s start with the good news.

        The reading from Isaiah, God promises to create “new heavens and a new earth”.

        We are told to “be glad and rejoice forever” about the new creation.

        And it does sound fabulous.

        No infant will die too soon and everyone will live to a ripe old age.

        Everyone will have a house to live in and fields to plant.

        There off-springs will be blessed.

        God will answer prayers before they are prayed.

        Even the wolf and the lamb will feed together and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

        Sounds pretty wonderful, don’t you think?

        And Canticle 9 continues the good news.

        God will save us and make us safe so we can trust in God and not be afraid.

        God is our ‘sure defense’.

        We will draw water from the springs of salvation and rejoice.

        We will sing praises to the Lord for his good things and ring out our joy.

        Thessalonians is not very joyous—not full of ‘good news’.

        We are commanded to “keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the traditions they received”.

        “Anyone who is unwilling to work should not eat,” Paul warns them.

        But the news gets really dire when Jesus addresses those who are talking about the Temple.

        He predicts the destruction of the Temple and the coming of the End Days. “As for these things you see,” he tells them, “the days will come when not one stone is left upon another and all will be thrown down.”

        Then it gets worse.

        “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately. Nations will rise against nations, and kingdom against kingdom, there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.”

        But it gets even worse and more personal.

        “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you…because of my name.”

        In fact, he says, “you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.”

        Jesus is accurately describing what went on against the early church. His predictions were accurate.

        However, he ends with a promise: “But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

        Pretty brutal stuff!

        And what are we, sitting here in Milton today, to make of all this?

        Well, we already know and know fair well that there is always good news and bad news.

        It’s the way life is.

        Many of the people in this nation were sorely disappointed by how the elections went last Tuesday.

But many were also pleased.

        Good news and bad news come together and, in fact, cohabitate in our world.

        What we must do is cling to the promise of God to bring a new heaven and a new earth. We must cling to the promise of Jesus that by endurance we will gain our souls.

        In a time of silence let us cling to God’s promise and Jesus’ promise in this time of good news and bad news.

(Amen and amen.)