Fall Back

I have not yet turned the clocks back one hour. I will do that after this blog post. We left Henderson this morning after getting some work done for Janie's mother. We went to see the parade in which our daughter was taking part. It was a rather disorganized parade but we did get to see the part we went there to see. We had lunch with Justin and Sarah afterward and after stopping by their new house to pick up a few things we headed home. Janie decided to massively re-arrange the living room furniture. Only one piece of furniture, a corner cabinet, stayed in its original spot. Everything else got moved. The TV cabinet which my dad and I made was the most difficult to move. I had to take the doors off of it and, of course, empty everything out of it. It moved very easily to the southeast corner of the room. We found a whole host of toys under the two couches and returned them to their rightful place. I like the new arrangement very much. I think it will serve us well. I will take some pictures and place them on a future blog post.

The picture is one I took Friday of my lunch at Canton's first Monday trades day. It was a really good baked potato. I ate way more of it than I should have. We had a good time and bought a couple of small items. We must have walked five miles at least.

Well its off to set the clocks and then to bed. God bless you.

World Series

We left Hillsboro about noon today and headed for Henderson. Our first stop was at Bro. Davis' house and we had a good visit with him. It seems that the bone cancer is stable and his PSA is low but the bad news was that the two spots on his liver have grown in size. He is feeling fairly well but lacks strength. He would love to work in his office but feels best when he just sits in his easy chair. We talked about the Song of Solomon and he gave me some good insights on the subject of whether the book should be taken strictly as an allegory. It was an excellent discussion and his mind seemed as clear as it has ever been.

Our next stop was at my mother's house. The wild hogs have torn her yard up really bad. She put moth balls and hair from the barber shop around her yard hoping that would scare them off. It rained heavily while we were there. She had not received the form for me to sign to allow the county to put traps out. Perhaps it will arrive tomorrow. The picture is one taken about three years ago of my mother's house.

We made it to Janie's parents house and found them doing well. Janie has spent the evening paying bills for her parents and taking care of other odds and ends. My father-in-law is watching the World Series and is routing for the Phillies. God bless you.

Under the Weather

I was feeling "under the weather" today. Just relaxed and worked on the Song of Songs. I feel better now. We had good services tonight and had good services Tuesday night with the church in Hewitt. Going to head over to Henderson tomorrow. My mother has wild hogs destroying her yard. She talked to someone from the county and they said if I would sign a form they would put out a trap to catch the hogs. So tomorrow I will sign and hopefully some wild hogs will be relocated.

I am contemplating writing "Tribman" the book. There are many details of the story that I am not able to put in the blog format of the story. My objective in writing "Tribman" was to explore what life would be like during the tribulation times. As a pastor I have been asked about the details of the future. People are curious about the details of the tribulation all the way through the Millennium. Because of the lack of details found in the scriptures one must use a lot of imagination to fill in the blanks. I want to put forth in story form how things will work. I was going to end Tribman at the rapture and Resurrection but I now have plans to take it all the way through, well into the Millennium. The picture is one I took a few days ago of an overpass that is one mile from our house in Hillsboro. We have had a lot of rain lately, and more forecast for tomorrow. God bless you.

Rain

It rained all night and all morning. The funeral service was held at the graveside and was very well attended considering the weather. The whole service lasted 20 minutes. Many had to wade through ankle deep water to reach the tent. It was 55 degrees and windy on top of the rain. It was a good time to be brief.

When we got back home we had soup and a sandwich for lunch and I went to the church to get the clothes I had left there after the baptism. While there I picked up three books I need for working on my thesis. I dropped by Sullivan Supply to drop off some keys and then went to the Post Office. Janie went with a friend to Curves and while she was gone I walked about two miles.

The first dish that Janie ever cooked for me was Frito Pie. I had never eaten it before and I remember how much I loved it. Well now that it seems I am no longer allergic to corn she made me a Frito Pie (pictured). She made it just like she did back in 1973. It was really really GOOD! God bless you.

Orville, I'm Back!

I had a small bowl of the best popcorn I have eaten in 20 years (picture taken by Janie today). It was the best because I have not eaten any in 20 years. Lately Frito corn chips have been on my diet. A couple of months ago I ate a corn chip and it did not cause me to break out in hives and send me to the emergency room as corn has done on many occasions. I upped the amount to 2 chips then three a day. Now I eat as many as a I want to. So today we made some popcorn and it gave me no problems at all. I use to be allergic to chocolate, corn, beans, coffee and peanuts. I have all but beans and coffee now and will try beans next. It is so good to be over these allergies. I personally think that it was Lebus Mfg. where I worked for 27 years that had something to do with these allergies. I was not allergic before Lebus and now I am not after Lebus so who knows.

We had a great time at the district Ladies Auxiliary meeting today. The sermon was outstanding and the food was excellent. Our youngest daughter and her husband are on there way to our house for a visit. They went to a drag race today and she got sunburned. It will be good to see them.

Tomorrow I will baptize a young girl before our worship service begins. The sermon will be on Revelation 17:2-6 and we are expecting an extra large number of visitors in our services. Sunday night I will be going over the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians and Monday morning I will preach my friend's funeral. What a way to start the week. God bless you.

Sudoku

Janie and I are working on a very tough Sudoku puzzle. We spent at least an hour on it today and made significant progress but there are still a lot of blank squares. We played a board game this evening called "Getting to Know You Better." Some of the questions that were asked were strange and I think all in all nothing new was learned by either of us about the other. I suppose after almost 36 years of marriage it would be difficult to know each other "better." During the game Janie got a phone call from a pollster. They wanted her opinion on political issues and politicians. At one point she whispered to me "Perry or Hutchison." I whispered back my response. She said, after hanging up the phone, that they were really wanting to know if she was going to vote for Perry and I suspect she is right.

I plan to hike with my brothers on Friday next week. We are going to camp out Thursday night and then Hike all day Friday. We will camp out Friday night and head home Saturday morning. No telling what Bible subjects will come up. Pictured left to right, Trenton, Janie, Charlcye, Jim. God bless you.

Death

Parking outside the emergency room is the fastest way to get to the ICU at Hill Regional Hospital. I went there three times today and on my last trip I stood by the bedside until death came to claim my friend. His funeral will be on Monday and I have been given the honor of officiating it. It was hard to watch his wife of almost 63 years say her final goodbye. Dee was a world war II veteran who had fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He spent three years in Europe during the war. His daughter told me that when he was in high school he and his brother went to a dance and they had to share a pair of shoes. One would go in and dance a while then come back out to let his brother have the shoes so he could go in and dance. He told her that at one point he had to wear his mother's shoes to school because he had none of his own. It is no wonder to me that this generation has been called the greatest.

It's off to Dallas in the morning, Purdon the next day, Corsicana on Monday, Henderson Wednesday night, and then to Tyler on Thursday. Right now its off to bed. The picture is of my wife, granddaughter, and daughter at the doctor's office. On this visit she found out that she will be having a boy. Though I have been telling everyone already that we have nine grandchildren the newest one will not arrive until March. God bless you.

Ride

We made a quick trip to Moss Hill Tuesday. We went by way of Henderson, taking care of few things for Janie's parents and uncle. We arrived at our daughter's house about 7:30 and the grand kids seemed glad to see us. We went to bed rather late but the kids were up early the next morning. This picture is one I took right after waking up this morning. The older grandchildren were reading their Bibles waiting for us to arise and get on with the day. We went down to help our daughter by watching the kids while she had a sonogram. As soon as the appointment was over we headed back to Hillsboro. We got home at 5:00 and after a short visit with some of our church members we went by Wal-Mart for some teaching supplies and then to Church. Going to do some visiting tomorrow and then Friday we will be in Dallas for a surgery there. God bless you.

IRS

I had received another letter from the IRS which said they would be responding to my last interaction with them by today's date. I did not hear from them so I called. The person in charge of my case was very nice and professional. They have closed my case by accepting my original return as it was filed. I will wait a few weeks to see if I get this in writing and if not will fax them a letter documenting my conversation of today. I expect the letter will arrive and this issue will become a part of the story of my life. I would give this advice to anyone being audited by the IRS. Always be courteous in your correspondence and conversations with them. It was frustrating at times and Janie had to calm me down and she was sweet and right to do so. On the phone and in all of my letters I behaved as a child of God ought to. Thank you, Lord for helping me through this!

We took a nap at noon today since we had gotten up at 4:00 this morning. All went well today and I chose to not work on my thesis this afternoon. I went to visit at the hospital this afternoon and have made several phone calls including the one to the IRS. Tomorrow afternoon will find me in the office working on the Thesis.

Janie has gone to the Ladies Auxiliary meeting and I am going to relax and watch the news. I may do a little cooking tonight that's always fun. The picture is of Janie making out a check to the church in her Sunday School class room on Sunday morning. God bless you.