Nice day for a change

October 30, 2006 (12:22pm)
45º F, Nice day, SE wind 9 mph.

Good afternoon,

Sunday was a very slow and lazy day for these old folks. The under-the-weather Woman, stayed under-the-weather all day Saturday and Sunday. Instead of only me going to church, I just took the goodies up there and had one of the guys either usher for us or find someone else to stand in for us. Hope everything worked out well. It usually does. I don’t like to leave Margriet alone for very long when she is feeling sick. Not that I think she can’t take care of herself with a small malady, but I just like to be sure.

Boy did I make the beef soup too hot to eat at the moment. Can’t even hold onto the bowl after filling it. Might still be sucking on it at supper time! After dropping off the stuff at church yesterday, I went into Algoma to pick up a paper for Margriet. The store also had chicken breast on sale for 99¢/#, so picked up a package of that too. I boned them out and put the meat into the freezer - except one package. That probably will be chicken and biscuits for supper tonight. The bones I combined with some others already in the freezer, ready to cook down for soup some day in the future. Wonder what I will invent this time.

Today is the first day in a long time the temperature has been above normal - by a lot. The wind is not too bad, as the trees break it from the direction it is coming today. Feels good on the hide. Hope we have an Indian summer for a bit. But the weatherman has other ideas. After today and tomorrow, the temperature will drop again. Sure hope this gets this out of it’s system. We are suppose to have a warmer than normal winter, that part would be nice, but it sure ain’t starting that way.

Did watch a couple of pretty good NASCAR races the past couple of day though. The Packers were on opposite the race yesterday, so at least I could switch to that rather than watching the ads during the race. Guess the Pikers finally one a game from the sound of it. The Vikings play tonight, but on ESPN. It is on cable, but we don’t have it, so will have to wait until it is on the news tomorrow morning. World won’t end and it is just a game.

We have been getting the itch to go somewhere again. Been settin’ too much here I guess. Most of the leaves are off the trees, or at least brown, so will have to figure out another excuse or two. Maybe we will have to go and count the waves in Lake Superior, or a dinner at Smith Brother’s Fish Shanty in Port Washington, or ....... Never know what idea we get on short notice. Kind of nice to be able to do that and still not spend a whole lot of money.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Full soup

October 28, 2006 (12:40pm)
41º F, Very windy sunshine, NW wind 13 mph, 30 mph gusts.

Good afternoon,

When I build a soup - there is a lot of stuff in it. This time it is beef soup that I added a lot too. It is nice to have the dried vegetables Margriet dried some time ago. A handful of dried tomatoes, mushrooms along with a bunch of dried green peppers. Also put some carrots and celery in too. I put in about one handful of noodles too much though. Well not really as we like them, but it looks more like noodle soup that beef/vegetable soup. I do taste good though.

Margriet is not up to par today. Not sure what happened, but half way through breakfast, she started to have a hard time swallowing her food and her stomach felt weird to her. After devotions this morning, she laid down for a nap and just woke up a bit ago. She feels much better now and is getting wet in the shower at the moment. Hope what ever she had is gone for the duration.

The wind is really roaring out today. Sounds really worse than it actually is for some reason. Will take walk around the place later to see if there are any trees down. Would not surprise me at all. There are some wind advisories up for the lake shore, but south of here. Seems those folks who live south of here have been getting a lot more weather than we have for some reason. They have had rain and wind several days, where we have not. The temperature yesterday, and it looks like it today too, actually rose to the "normal" temperature - at least in Green Bay. Along the lake shore here, it was some cooler. That’s OK with me. Yesterday was a beautiful day. Hope we get more of them.

A couple of days ago, I opened up the webcam for the new construction in Enschede ( http://cms3.enschede.nl/toerisme/De_stad/muziekkwartier/ ) and was some surprised. There actually was some work going on! The past time I spent looking at basically a concrete floor slab and one, what I thought was poured concrete, outer wall up. Turns out to be concrete panels put into place on edge. The past couple of days, more panels were put up and now there are also rooms and such on the slab, plus a couple more outer walls in place. There still are not a lot of folks working on the site. The most I have seen is four. But there are some who drive the trucks delivering the panels and at least one off camera is sitting high in a boom crane, lifting and placing the panels. All you can see of him is a really big snatch block and a couple of cables. It is interesting to watch though.

The other webcam ( http://cms3.enschede.nl/toerisme/De_stad/eivanko/ ) of the square, has also had some construction going on, but appears to be finished now. The pavement, made from paving blocks, needed some adjustment for some reason. All they seemed to do was lift some of the pavers, re-pack the footings, then put the pavers back in place again. I continue to be amazed at the few folks needed there to do the various construction projects. Also how few barricades, signs, large equipment, or disruption of normal activities there is in the areas of construction. Maybe we could learn something from the Dutch!

Tomorrow "I" am supposed to bring snacks for church. With Margriet down today, "we" decided not to bake something, but rather raid our stock of "store bought" snacks we have in the cupboard. Hope they like grits and oatmeal! Fortunately it is a small number of folks at the service usually, so we probably will have enough. Not what we really like to do however. We both are also ushers tomorrow too. At least we get most of it out of the way in one day.

Don’t think we will go trick or treating this year, but only watch for some spooks flying through the trees here.
Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Really - the sun is visible.

October 26, 2006 (12:22pm)
42º F, Real sun, SSE wind 10 mph.

Good afternoon,

There really is real sun out today. And the temperature, while still below normal by 10-15º F, is really nice out too! Unbelievable! Have no fear, they are predicting snow and/or rain, rain for sure, tonight and tomorrow morning. Knew it was too good to last.

We made our supply run to Green Bay on Tuesday and found that we "only" had to pay $2.109/gallon for gas. That is with out discount, but the station we stopped at was already a 5¢/gallon lower than the rest of the area. Gas here is higher by a penny/gallon than the normal price in Green Bay. When the process was all finished, discovered there still was a squirt over a gallon left in the tank. Knew we needed gas, but not that close. Think there might have actually been more in the tank, as the low fuel light didn’t come on. Oh well, hope this will last a couple more weeks for us.

People must not bake rye bread anymore. We are having a hard time to find it on store shelves. Actually, we haven’t looked for it here. Might have a better chance to find it in a country folks area than city dude area. Of course when we are out, Margriet gets all these ideas for baking with it. I like those ideas too.

One of the major reasons for going, besides eating, was to pick up a new chair for me at this machine. The present one has a lot of broken plastic parts on it - arm rests and the back. This isn’t that old, but must have been made on a Friday or Monday in China. I am looking for one with more metal in the construction and thought we found one at a somewhat reasonable price. When it came time to get it at the store, they were out! Won’t have one in for a couple of weeks either! Some grumpy about that. Maybe by the time we are ready to go on another supply run, the store will have one or more in. Hope so. I didn’t think I was that hard on chairs, but I do use it a lot. Bought it right after my Woman moved here. I have my Grandfather’s big wooden desk chair in storage, but that is too big for in here. Tried it once, but had to keep fighting with it to walk from one end of the room to the other.

I really had a tussle to get the last blog published. For some reason, the website didn’t want to post it. It showed that it had, but when I checked it wasn’t there. After about four tries, I finally got a window which told me the site was having problems and an engineer was working on it. About 3-4 hours later, the blog was finally posted - twice. I removed one and that only took about 4 tries too! Ain’t technology wonderful? Hope not to repeat the problem today when I post this.

I did finish putting together all of my notes for Bible study, but just a couple of hours before it was time to go. This was a very long unit, with a lot of material to cover. As it turned out, we only finished about half of the unit and are continuing next week with the other half. We did get sidetracked big-time when the material brought back a flood of dark memories for one of the gals. Her 16 year old son committed suicide (before my coming here) in his bedroom a few years ago. She had been in depression since and getting worse as time has gone by. She still is living in the same house and has not been able to clean out her son’s room. Finally her case worker came over to help her do that. She finally will be moving out of the house. Hopefully that will be one key to some relief and recovery for here. Over the past 5 years or so, I have spent many, many hours on instant messaging and email with her. One time talking her out of committing suicide herself - that was a 10 hour stretch if I remember right.

It is really good that she can feel comfortable enough with us to bring it to the group. We spent about half of our time just on her. Finally, as a group, we prayed with and for her. Sure hope the Good Lord heals her soon. She has been hurting for a very long time. She has a lot of talents, but is really crippled and not able to use them at the moment. Or for a long time and it has been getting worse.

Yesterday the printer ran out of colored ink, so I replaced it - almost. I discovered that I had also bought the wrong tank for the colors too! Boy that was an expensive mistake I made when I bought them. Both the part numbers are off my one digit - just enough to get the wrong tanks. Hope I don’t "need" to print any color until our next supply run.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

She's back!

October 23, 2006 (12:43pm)
39º F, Cloudy, W wind 7 mph.

Good afternoon,

My Woman came home again. I picked her up at about 10:15 P.M. in Luxemburg. From the sound of it she and the rest had a good time, even though they took some scenic routes on occasion. I don[‘t think Margriet has come down from her cloud yet. Every once in a while I get another story of something that happened. Kinda’ fun!

The gal who drove on the way back was jabber-jawing too much and missed a turn off to head here. Needless to say, that will be an excuse for some teasing. Probably will tell her husband to get a big ball of string, tie one end on the door knob of their home and the ball in the car to be played out as they travel. Then all she has to do is follow the string back home again. There also was another car that went over the day before. The gals used that one to drive to and from the motel. She too took several scenic tours around and through the city - all the while in sight of their destination. Guess things like that happen when a bunch of old ladies are turned loose in the big city - they don’t know how to pace themselves.
Margriet decided that we shouldn’t go to church yesterday since we (mostly she) got up rather late. Like I said, don’t know how to pace themselves! About 11:00 A.M. I said it was time to go to Sloven and have lunch. We have not gone there for sometime. They had beef tips instead of ribs this time. They were excellent and with their excellent baked chicken, we both ate too much. They do put on a good feed, but the price has gone up in the last year, so don’t go there as often anymore.

When I got to the pickup place, the man of the house, Ron, was in bed watching the World Series on TV, not expecting anyone to come. Guess Val forgot to tell him or he didn’t remember. He is an Industrial Arts teacher in Luxemburg, so we can always find things to talk about. We had a bit over an hour to do that so had a good time. He also is the Cross Country coach, with their State Sectional meet on the same day. He was pooped as he also went to two events two of his sons were in. Don’t think I would have answered the doorbell!

On Friday the natural gas supply for the city of Luxemburg and part of Casco stopped - literally. It happened about 8:00 A.M. and really caused some problem for the supplier - WPS. They are adding more branch gas lines in the rural areas and apparently when someone opened a valve to charge the new line, he also shut off the one to the city. WPS went to every user and shut off the line at the house, before recharging the line again. Somewhere between 8,00 and 10,000 users! Once that was accomplished, they recharged the line, then had to go to each user and relight their appliances after turning on the supply again. Not all of the service was returned by the afternoon on Sunday - the last I heard. Biggest problem was to get people home to let the WPS rep into the houses. A very good thing it was not 120 F and a snowstorm at the time. Can’t imagine what it would have been for a large metropolitan area.

While my Woman was gone, I chewed on half of a link of smoked sausage (made a pretty good meal with a can of apricots to go with!) . With the other half I decided to make a pot of potato soup, since we have an abundance of potatoes at the moment. Turned out pretty good, but needs a bit more salt and pepper, as we tried it for lunch today. We really didn’t plan on having any for lunch today, but rather for supper with some hot our or the oven homemade oil biscuits. But .... when I took out the chicken soup stock for the base, I found two containers labeled beef soup, so put them into the refrigerator to thaw and eat for lunch. Turned out they both were beef soup stock, even though I had labeled them soup. Oh well, we will have that another day. It makes a good lunch at this time of year.

It rained again on Saturday and yesterday. We really got a dump Saturday night and bit more yesterday. The official rain fall for the area was about ¼" yesterday, but I know we got about four times that here. The soil is very wet and even on the lawn, it feels like you are walking on the clay a potter uses on his wheel. It moves under your feet. That is supposed to only happen in the spring, not now. At the moment we are having more rain, but this time it is mixed with some very wet snowflakes too! It really feels cold outside too with the wind. This is supposed to be fall not April! Sure would be a bunch better to work in the snow rather than mud. Actually could get something done then.

I have been working on learning things for Bible study tomorrow. This week covers three chapters, 12-14, and they really have a lot in them. It is a difficult part for me to understand, consequently I am having a hard time with it. I am sharing my "research" with one of the gals in the study as she has a hard time (harder than me) to understand it. As I get a chapter finished, I email the file to her and her husband prints it out. Every time I see her, she is thanking me a lot.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

My Woman is Gone!

October 21, 2006 (12:24pm)
43º F, Un-sunny, NW wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

So my Woman is gone. I put her on her way to Minneapolis/Saint Paul yesterday morning a little after 8:00 A.M. Don’t expect to see her again until about 10:00 P.M. tonight. I hope that she has a good and profitable time with "the girls." I told the "trail boss" that the only restriction Margriet had was she was not allowed in the Mall of America. Right! The reaction was that Margriet doesn’t spend much money! Oh well, she is very happy to buy what she wants, but at the same time is very satisfied with what she has.

She threw be a curve ball on Thursday though. Shortly after breakfast, she told me that she needed to renew her Green Card a couple three weeks ago. I don’t remember it at all, but she probably did. Looking at the card, the renewal date is about a month away, so had to get on the stick right away. She had been trying to do it on the web, or at least find out how, with out any success. Guess she was doing it after I went to bed and I don’t ever remember seeing her do that. Needless to say she was VERY frustrated.

The end result was the for most of the day, I was playing with the web, finding correct forms to complete and where to send. While doing that, she mentioned that maybe it would be good to just apply for citizenship and forget about the Green Card. Good idea, but we were starting that process a bit late and her Green Card would expire before the citizenship process was complete. We really don’t what to have any trouble with the immigration folks, especially with the problems in the world today.

We did find the correct form and get it filled out. What is nice this time around, the form can be filled out online, printed out then sign it and put it into an envelop. Of course there was an expensive check that accompanied the form too. The ability to fill the form out on this machine makes life a lot easier and I am sure that it can be read without too many errors on the other end. Only real down side to the process is that you cannont save it to a file on the computer. When you do, all you get is a blank form. Oh well, maybe next time. Just top be sure, I took it to the postoffice right away and it is on it’s way.

I expect we will be going to Milwaukee again to get a new "picture" on her new card sometime in the future. Oh goody! The last time was when we were on our way to Mobile, Alabama in a snowstorm a couple of years ago. It appears the citizenship process is a long and complicated one. We will probably start that process in the near future. First we have to allow the checking account recover though. Can’t take too many hits like that in a bunch.

The house sure seems quiet without my Woman around. We are not what you would call noisy, but is sure is a lot quieter now. I have been done some mischief too though. As always when she leaves on a deal like this, I put a potato in her suitcase (actually a backpack). Started that "tradition" when the kids would spend some time with us and then return to their mother. Kind of fun. The first time I did it to Margriet, she didn’t know what was going on at all, so never mentioned it when she got home. Eventually she did, but it was a long while afterwards. This time also managed to slip a can of sardines into her purse (also a backpack, but much smaller that she uses for a purse when traveling). Wonder when I will hear about this deal.

I did get a chance to mess around outside yesterday. The real accomplishment was to get the trash burned. We have been having a period of wind and rain for several weeks, so things have piled up some. A lot, but no more. The rain has wet everything in the woods, unusual at this time of year, so was not worried about starting a fire in the neighborhood. Also burned up some of the outside stuff that seems to accumulate when you have a lot of trees and such around.

Late in the afternoon, about sundown if it could be seen, the light sprinkles started again. Guess it was time to stop outside, so picked everything up and came in. About the time I came in, the sprinkles stopped. The clouds really looked like it would be a downpour in a little bit. We are expecting possible snow flurries tonight and tomorrow morning. Rain for sure. It does look like either is possible.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Belly's over-filled

October 18, 2006 (5:09pm)
41º F, Rain, NW wind 4 mph.

Good evening,

I got chased off of the roof thanx to the rain. Really don’t want to do much on a roof that is wet and slippery. I did manage to get things closed up that were open. Ain’t pretty, but should last until tomorrow when the rain should be over. We sure are getting more than our share of rain and cool weather. The temperatures have been much below normal for some time now and it appears it will be for a time to come. The predictions are for a warmer than normal winter, but really am wondering if that will be the case. Supposed to be sunny for the next few days, but cold just the same.

Got our electric bill yesterday and found that we have used a lot less than a year ago, the weather has been cooler, but the total cost was higher! Our power company is in the process of asking for a price increase, about 13% for electricity and around 6% for natural gas. I see that my rocking chair money will go up about 3+% this coming year. Nearly 25% less of an increase then last year! Not sure what the cost of living increase is, but bet it is closer to what the power company is asking than what the increase will be.

Margriet is building liver and onions with bacon for supper tonight. Sure am looking forward to it. We have not had that for a very long time. The last time we were at Otto’s Meats, he had it for sale at $1.00/pound. I couldn’t pass it up. If they have that again, we certainly will get some. Both of us like it muchly. While going through some of her cookbooks from the Netherlands, she ran across some recipes for tongue! I haven’t had that for probably a decade. We will look/ask for it the next time we stop at Otto’s. The "normal" stores don’t carry it any longer. Remember my Mom making it quite often and all of us liked it very much. Especially as sandwich meat.

6:18 pm

So I am totally filled with some excellent liver. Margriet out did herself making it. Huge pile of liver, onions, and bacon. Turned out the package was about twice of what we really needed to have for supper - but there ain’t any left! I enjoyed the liver more than finishing the fried potatoes. It was soooooooooooooooooooooo good. Hope to do that again and often. The liver was sliced thinner than we normally do for some reason and really thinner than Margriet is used to. But she sure done good with it. Next time we will cut the package in half before putting in the freezer.

Margriet and some of the gals from church are going to Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota for a "Women of Faith Conference" on Friday and Saturday. She has gone every year for the past three years and really enjoys the trip. Of course being all gals, the car should be nice and quiet on the way there and back. Sure glad I am not the driver! From the sound of it, the first stop will be the Mall of America to do some "window shopping" - they say. It is a good time for the gals and they do get a lot out of the experience. If nothing else - the fellowship. Or is that girl-ship?

The website for the webcam from Enschede has for some reason gone bad. We have not been able to access it for a few weeks now. Complaining about it, Margriet decided to see if she could find another. She did http://cms3.enschede.nl/toerisme/De_stad/muziekkwartier/ This one is of a construction site for a music/theater type building in the city. It is rather interesting to look at, especially if you want to see how buildings are constructed. They do things differently there than here.

It turned out there also was a "button" to click to view the same webcam from the other location. Clicking it, the webcam cam up! It really surprised me. Thought there was some construction going on in that square too, so the webcam had been disconnected. Guess not. Not too sure what happened, but now we have to points to look at in Enschede. Cool! The new webcam has a much better quality picture than the "old" one too.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

Huffin' & Puffin'

October 13, 2006 (12:47pm)
38º F, Blustery, W wind 17 mph, 40 mph gusts.

Good afternoon,

I tell you what - it are drafty out! Not too sure if I have all of my teeth. They might have blown away by now. There are warnings up on the lake for gale force winds and 7'-0" seas. Not a time to go out in a row boat. I went to bed last night and the thermometer read 28º F. When I woke up at 4:00 A.M., it was 34º F! Kind of surprised me. It has since gone down, at about dawn, and now up again. Think we are at our high for the day now. About 8:00 A.M., we had very fine snow coming down. It kept snowing for about an hour, while the flakes got bigger before stopping. The western part of the Michigan U.P. got nailed (I think a couple of feet of snow) as did the eastern shore of the lower peninsula, but not as much.

Our Bible study leader and her husband are heading to New York via the northern route. I think they are going close to Buffalo which got about a foot of snow. Not too sure of their route, but I bet they have some stories to tell when they get back. They were scheduled to arrive late last night in New York state. Maybe not.
Think I forgot to mention that we are going to have a big pot of possum stew one of these days. Caught a possum in a trap last week. Haven’t had possum stew for a long time. This was a rather small one, so will have to add more vegetables than usual to fill the pot, rather than just have broth. Yum!

Yesterday we had a phone call a little after noon. It really surprised me, since the person was asking for Margriet ter Mors. At first I thought it was just another telemarketer, but then it dawned on me there was an echo and the voice had an accent. Turned out it was Margriet’s brother Bert. Margriet was very happy to talk to him and they sure were going at it - but I had no idea of what they were saying. I think that is the first call we have gotten from him. We have been having problems trying to contact the folks in the Netherlands via email. Seems the ISP for most of the folks will not accept or send any emails to us for some reason. It affects to many folk, just to be a blocked receiver from one person. Margriet had emailed Bert at his office to tell him of the problem, hoping he would try to find out what was wrong. The email was the excuse for the phone call.

While they were talking, Bert did mention something very sad. Another of Margriet’s brothers, Wolter, has been receiving chemotherapy for a bit. Needless to say it was very unsettling. She really didn’t know what the problem is, which increases the worry. Today she happened to see Wolter on the instant message site, so started to chat with him to find out what was going on. We have not seen him online for some time and didn't know about it, so this explains that. Apparently Wolter has a form of bone cancer. That is really unsettling. As I write this, Margriet is on Mayo Clinic’s website looking it up. It is not a nice cancer. Wolter said that the doctors are able to control the disease, but not cure it. The process is extremely costly, but I think better than the alternative. Fortunately the government picks up the medical costs as we understand it. Regardless, keep him in your prayers. Hope you haven’t stopped praying for Arnoud who also has had cancer for a number of years and continues to battle it.

Have to go up town (hope I don’t get blown into the lake!) to get my medications now.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Almost blowed away!

October 12, 2006 (12:47pm)
31º F wind chill 19º F, Partly cloudy, W wind 14 mph gusts 40 mph.

Good afternoon,

The wind blew the mercury down a long way in the thermometer! The temperature finally staggered to 30º F a few minutes before noon today. We are heading for a high of about 36º F this afternoon. Not too sure it will make it that high. This is way below normal for this time of year in this place. Wonder what happened to global warming. Must not be this part of the globe. There has been snow all around us, but have not seen any here. That too is supposed to change before too long. Looking at the radar, I believe it.

I am trying to get a head start on the Bible study for next week. Actually have part of the study finished, albeit a small part. Figure I will get back into the habit of doing some everyday. For some reason I have put it off until the last - then not getting finished. Helen, the gal who is now leading the study, headed for New York state yesterday morning to visit her sister. They are taking the northern route this time and it looks like they well be riding through the snow. Probably better to drive through it than have it when they are there and visiting. They might get it then too though.

Last week we swung though Luxemburg to see if Otto’s meat was still in business. We stocked up on several things and eating like kings now. Had part of the Leberkase the other evening and some of the potato sausage too. Both are excellent. I picked up a couple of packages of beef soup bone again too. Put some of it into a pot yesterday and cooked the meat down to make a broth. Today I added carrots, onions, corn, tomatoes, and celery, simmering it for a couple of hours. About an hour before lunch, I put a handful of German noodles into it and it was excellent for lunch. We found the noodles at Aldi’s a couple of months ago, so stock up on them. They are heavier than "normal" noodles, like German dumplings, and are really tasty. I like them. Only buy regular noodles now when we can’t get these.

The price of produce has skyrocketed. We did find a 50# bag of potatoes on sale for 20¢/pound, so picked a bag up. That should last us for some time. Remember the time when the 3 kids were home and I would buy two 100# bags @ $2.00/100#. That pretty well lasted us through the winter then. Also bought onions in 50# bag for about $5.00-6.00/bag. Sure would like to do that now. Also remember one year the bag of onions froze during a cold snap. Didn’t think they would. Threw a lot of onions away that year.

The growing season is over here now. This really is the first really hard frost we have had this fall. Usually for this part of the world, it happens later in the season. I see on the news that many pumpkin growers are scrambling to get their displays inside. Some have a thousand or more on their lawns for folks to buy.

One of the members of our church has a huge maple tree, about 3 feet at the stump, he wants me to help him take down as a church project. I am not real anxious to do it as it is between two houses in town. The power company has volunteered to put down the power lines so they are not taken out. I suggested that he get the power company to come out and top the tree instead, then it would be much easier to take down and they could leave the wires up. So far they are not buying it. The owner did find out that the power lines run across his property without an easement, so he may have some leverage on the deal. I think he could require the power company to move the lines, which would be much more expensive for them than toping the tree. The wood would be taken to one of our other members who is in tough straights to burn to heat the house. We have cut wood for her in the past, but she mostly has willow to cut and burn. Not real good for really cold weather. I am really hoping someone else will take the tree down, but I am about the only one with a big enough chainsaw in the congregation.

Me thinks it is time to get out the winter clothes. I walked out to get the paper before and was very happy to have my heavy chore coat on. First time to wear it. Also had my winter cap on too. I kind of expected to see a tree or two down, but no such luck. There is a clump of diamond willow down, but that happened earlier. Will have to clean it up too. There are some trees I need to pay attention to, one is a big willow with a double trunk, but not in this wind. Probably will wait until the soil stiffens up some by freezing first too.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><

Hooray! Winter's coming

October 11, 2006 (10:15am)
44º F and falling, Rain, SW wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

Looks like we may have a preview of winter this afternoon and evening. The high for today was about 4:00 A.M. and the temperature will be falling to about 28º F before morning. The rain will change to snow. We had a hard rain last night and was supposed to end before dawn. It did, but then started as light rain again a couple of hours ago. There is snow, according to the radar, in the northwestern part of the state at the moment. Will be cold for the next few days, with the high temperatures below our normal lows! Put some beef soup bones in a pot this morning. Seems like it was induced by the weather.

I really have been procrastinating on getting to this blog. No real reason, other than doing other things. We really haven’t been that busy either. Mostly it seems I have been chasing the rain showers. About the time I get things out to work with, it starts to sprinkle, causing me to put things away again. Of course then the sprinkles will end and I get things out, with the process starting over again. Finally I give up and just don’t go outside anymore for the day. It is very frustrating though. Seems the nice days, we have things to go and places to do. Never fails!

Our gas prices dropped to $2.109/gallon last week, only to go back up to $2.259/gallon again a couple of days ago.. We went to Green Bay yesterday and it was $2.299/gallon there. From what I hear, it should go down again. Hope so. Checking the web, I found the price in Iron Mountain, Michigan at $2.04/gallon! Seems a little far to drive for a fill up though. Maybe when it gets below $2.00/gallon we can go traveling again.

The back door has been separating from itself for awhile, so finally got at to repairing it last week. I thought it was a very well constructed door when we moved here, but it ain’t as good as it looks. Turns out it is two pieces of aluminum glued to a piece of 1½" Styrofoam in-between, with a piece of pin surrounding the Styrofoam and an aluminum flange outside of that. The glue failed causing the aluminum sheet to move and expose the pine to moisture. Pine is not that permanent when it is not allowed to dry after getting wet. The piece at the bottom was completely shot, so replaced it with a piece of treated 2"x cut to the proper size. I reinforced the outside of it, on the outside of the door, with a strip of heavier gage aluminum (leftovers from my Dad) and it should last for a while longer. Some day I would like to replace it with a real door, but since it is an odd size, not to anxious at the moment thanx to the cost.

In the last blog (boy that’s a long time ago), I mentioned the high school principal being shot. Since then there have been other school problems of an extremely sad nature. Not the least of which of happened to the Amish in Pennsylvania. One result of that incident is an increase of my respect for those folks. I am amazed at their reaction and their beliefs. I have had a very different opinion of the Amish in the past. I don’t necessarily agree with some of their theology, but I sure do respect them for their fulfilling their beliefs. I don’t think our church would react in a similar manner, even though we would like to think so. Maybe the rest of the world should become a bit more Amish-ized in their actions and attitudes. Would be nice.

I really am getting tired of listening/watching all of the attack ads preceding the election in November. Sure would like to hear more of the issues which needed to be faced! The only ads that don’t contain attacks on opponents, are the local ads. Can’t believe the moneys being spent either. Wonder how much good those attack ads could do if the money were actually used for something useful? Guess I never will be a politician.

We continue to attend the Bible study on Revelations, but am some disillusioned. The study is very surface and not a lot of "meat:" to it. In doing the research before Tuesdays, I find there is so much that we are not getting into. No wonder folks generally say they don’t understand the book. I find it interesting, now that I really have looked into it. I don’t seem get though all of the material I have before each Tuesday though. That is some frustrating for me and makes me feel very unprepared each week. We will be at the halfway point next week. Wonder what will be next.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><