Advent-Countdown to Christmas

Today's Link
Alex Rants

Saying for the Day
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love! ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

Picture of the Day
A long Ago Christmas Tree

Today the Liturgical Church begins its countdown to Christmas.
This is the beginning of Advent. That’s the season where we prepare our hearts and minds for the Christ whose coming into the world is celebrated at Christmas.
In today’s reading, (Mark 13:24-37) Jesus encourages his followers to look forward to the day when he returns in power and glory to end all suffering.
The good news of Advent for the Christian is that no matter how rough things are, no matter how evil the world seems, no matter what shape the economy is in God has not forgotten us. Christ is coming again.
While we wait we need to trust the promise and live as a child of God.
I attended a great Christian gathering once where the preacher said “ I took a look at the end of the book and Jesus wins”.
Advent is a reminder to the Christian of that truth.
It both comforts and calls .
It reminds us of God’s promises all fulfilled in the Christ Child and God’s expectation of us.
As a Pastor I always looked forward to this season.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Something must have happened yesterday because Tammy and Tommy Uk were sitting together in the congregation at Last Lutheran this morning. They really looked happy. Even Pastor Joan noticed it but she was wise enough not to mention it to them.
After the service they sat together over coffee and discussed the gospel lesson. They wondered if the part of the text that said ”the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, “ might refer to the shadow in the driblet. Pastor Joan didn’t think so but they were not so sure. This might be the end of the world and not just Pigeon Falls.
Tommy UK thought that if this is the end of the world at least he had his friend back and more. He had so missed those times talking to Tammy and just being near her. He really didn’t understand why he had acted as he did. He just knew that yesterday when they started working together on the driblet it seemed so right. It was as if they had never been separated. He doesn’t understand. He just doesn’t understand.

Wrap Up

My oxygen was still down four points and Pennie was too sick to go to Church but Betty and I went. It was a good start of the Advent season. The choir number was strong. The children's sermon by the Pastor's wife held the kids attention and Pastor Steve preached a good Advent sermon. The fellowship afterward was great. Coming home I felt sick. So I spent part of the afternoon in bed on oxygen. I feel a little better now. So I visited fifteen links. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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Raven's Challenge 41

Today's Link
A Sower's Heart

Saying for the Day
Playing with words is lots more fun than playing with blocks unless they have letters on them. Dr. John

Picture of the Day
From the Archives

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle
This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: posthumous, flagrant, seven days a week, cheese and crackers, pyramid, civil war, clarinet, microwave, absent without leave, blue jeans
Mini Challenge: sugar-coated, thermometer, tractor pull, evangelical, masquerade

The Fifteen Words in the Ongoing Adventures of Agent 012

Facing the possibility that he would be forced into bed with Cinnamon , seven days a week , for the rest of his life Agent 012 did what the Agent’s Manuel told him never to do . He panicked
Now Agent 012 did not panic easily.
He had been on a pyramid in Egypt with a civil war raging around him and a man shooting at him with a gun shaped like a clarinet and he didn‘t panic..
He had been chained behind a tractor at the Great Midwest Tractor Pull by evil men masquerading as Evangelical pastors and he didn’t panic.
He had been held prisoner in that log cabin with only cheese and crackers to eat for so long the Agency declared him absent without leave and he didn’t panic.
He had been thrown into the world’s largest microwave with ten bags of sugar and the door closed. He thought he was about to become a sugar-coated Agent and he didn’t panic.
He had faced Thomas Thermometer, the killer in blue jeans who came after him with a chain saw and he didn’t panic.
But this was different. This was a fate worse than death. This was worse than getting static from the Chief. It was even worse than a visit from his mother-in-law. So in flagrant disregard of basic Agency rules he panicked.
In his mind he could see the posthumous report issued as internal memorandum at the Agency. It would read “ Agent 012 died yesterday because he panicked. Let this be a warning to other Agents. The rules are written for your protection.”
Despite all of that when he looked at Cinnamon and saw the gun and that look on her face he still panicked.
He could face being shot, or pulled apart, or living forever on cheese and crackers, or being cooked, or even being sliced and diced but he could not face one night in bed with that woman.
“ Come on lover” she said. “ Get out of those blue jeans and back to my bedroom . Let the ecstasy begin”
This really was not going to be his night.

All fifteen words in one sentence

The posthumous report had not sugar-coated the fact that Sergeant Timothy Masquerade while absent without leave for one month had , seven days a week, in blue jeans and carrying his clarinet and thermometer climbed the civil war pyramid to see first the great Evangelical Tractor Pull and then the Evangelical Microwave Cheese and Crackers Cooking Contest without paying, a flagrant misuse of power .

The Ten Word Challenge

Everyone has a pyramid of values. On the top is the one thing most important to us and then below that layer by layer the other things in our lives. The most important ones near the top and the one’s we can do without on the bottom. On the top of Jonathan’s pyramid was civil war history. If he didn’t have to work playing the clarinet he would spend seven days a week reading civil war history.
At the next level was his microwave and cheese and crackers. One gets hungry reading all that history.
In any case his clarinet was on the bottom of the pyramid just below being sat on by an elephant wearing blue jeans.
Now he was absent without leave from his position as head clarinet player for the Army Medical Band, a flagrant breaking of army rules.
Jonathan did not care he had found this huge book entitled “ Posthumous Citation of Civil War Veterans” and he just couldn’t put it down. If they came and threw him in the brig or whatever an army jail is called he didn’t care as long as he could take the book.
It was after all far more important than playing clarinet for a bunch of screaming school kids at the Abraham Lincoln School for the Upward Mobile Student which was the bands next concert.
The Army of course has a quiet different pyramid of values with obedience to orders at the top. When the two pyramids meet the Army pyramid will always win.
The really sad thing is they took away his book when they locked him up.
But they did give him his clarinet.

This week's vanity wordzzle uses the words: tiger, false, camera, obsolete, velvet, novelty, timeless, contract, mellifluous, sandalwood, perfection, xylophone, topography

He entered the make believe world of Doctor H. P. Sandalwood through a velvet curtain. In the background mellifluous xylophone music was playing. Keeping with the elaborate contract he had brought his camera and movie camera. He was assured that the novelty of this place was that it made obsolete animals appear to be alive. The topography was sheer perfection .The animals moved and certainly looked real. This was an unbelievable place and he felt so lucky to have been chosen to photograph it. Over there was a flock of White-eyed River Martins next to a Western Black Rhinoceros . Now that's not something you see every day. As he walked along there was one extinct animal after another. What a wonderful idea to show the world the timeless creatures that we had lost.
Now coming toward him was a tiger. He supposed it to be one of the many extinct tiger groups , like the Javan Tiger . He was sure that it was as false as all the others and he had nothing to fear. But he was wrong.

The Mini Challenge in News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
It is Saturday and timer to look back over the week in Pigeon Falls.
Tuesday– The Petrovich twins were running a fever. Mrs. Petrovich used one of those new fangled ear thermometers to take their temperature and it was 102 . So she took them over to the clinic where the Nurse Practitioner gave them some sugar-coated pills that she said would make them well. Trying to get them to take regular pills would be like trying to win in a tractor pull with a little lawn tractor. For those of you who with evangelical fervor oppose candy like pills for children what was important was getting the fever down and they did.
Wednesday– Alex Maki was given a $ 200 fine and time served for trying to dump a crocodile. Poor Alex what do you do with a crocodile? You can’t have it masquerade as a deer and get shot by a hunter, although hunters from below the bridge might shoot it and think they got a deer. Last year those apple knockers shot his father’s cow. To make matters worse the thermometer in Pigeon Falls now reads twenty degrees and so they have to keep the thing in the house where it is warm.. It has already eaten a box of sugar-coated raisins and the frozen turkey Alex won at the Evangelical Tractor Pull. Mrs. Maki said she didn’t even know it could eat frozen turkeys.
Friday– The Tommy Club met. Somebody suggested they look for a message inside the driblet. Like every third word or fourth line. So they assigned everybody a task in pairs. One pair got to try every third word and every sixth word, One pair got the fourth and seventh. Tommy UK and Tammy got the fourth sentence and seventh sentence. The Club didn’t know they weren’t talking and they didn’t make an issue of it.

Wrap Up

Today I payed for the wonderful day I had at Pat's yesterday. Four hours in the car took its toll. My oxygen was down four points and I feel rotten. Pennie is sick. But yesterday was worth it. So today I didn't do much. I worked on some Christmas gifts. I scanned some more slides. I visited a few blogs. No0w I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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Not Humble. I repeat not humble.

Today's Link
A Magnolia's Heart Beat

Saying for the Day
If the Aborigine drafted an I.Q. test, all of Western civilization would presumably flunk it. ~Stanley Garn

Picture of the Day
Son Pat -We celebrate at his house today

On Monday I did a MEME.
It was done so you could know me a little better.
If you read through the comments you might have noticed that somebody said I was humble.
That’s right they said I was humble.
How could they make such a statement.
I categorically deny it.
I am not now nor have I ever been humble and I am proud of that fact.
So how could anyone think that I am.
Well they said it because in the MEME I said I was not smart.
Now smart is a relative term.
Einstein was smart.
Debbie Graff was smart. ( Valvectorian of my graduating class)
Bill Gates is smart. How else could you make a fortune on an operating system as weird as Microsoft's?
Mark S. Hanson is smart. ( Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
Cornelius Drebbel was smart. ( Inventor of the thermometer)
Keith Theobald is smart. ( Current President of the NTPA, National Tractor Pull Association)
Plato was smart.
Thomas Aquinas was smart.
Leonardo da Vinci was smart.
No matter how it’s sugar-coated compared to them I can’t even masquerade as smart.
And that’s a fact.
And I can prove I’m not humble.
Look at the title of this blog.
DR.John’s Fortress.
If I was humble it would be something like:
Just John’s John.
And I assure you the picture would not be of a mighty castle but a lowly outhouse.
“Just John” is what Margaret ( the puppet at church not the blogger) insists on calling me.
She wants me to be humble.
But I am the great Dr. John, keeper of dragons. I live in a mighty fortress.
I may not be smart but I sure am not humble.
I hope this clears away any confusion.
If I was a little smarter I would have explained it better.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
There is no school in Pigeon Falls today because of Thanksgiving so the Tommy club plans on meeting this afternoon. Tommy FK ( the farmer’s kid) shoveled a path to the old chicken coop and is getting everything ready. The club house has an old wood stove and that will be fired up this morning so it will be relatively warm inside.
Tommy UK has decided to go to the meeting. He really wants Tammy back as his best friend. He misses their times together. He just doesn’t know what to say to her after the kiss. He feels so awkward . He never felt like that around her before. He is beginning to think he might be in love. But he isn’t at all sure he wants to be. He liked things the way they were before.
Tammy knows she is in love with Tommy UK but she feels bad that she kissed him. She should have waited for him to kiss her but then given Tommy UK that might never have happened. But she also misses having Tommy UK as her best friend. It is upsetting having him avoid her. On the one hand she wants to take and shake him and tell him to get over it. But on the other hand she wants to kiss him again. She has decided at the meeting today she will do something.
Herman posted a copy of his latest vision at Nancy’s Coffee Shop. Perhaps, somebody smarter than him can explain it to him.

Wrap Up

This is it for the wrap up. We will be getting back late from Pat's. I will then need a breathing treatment and there will be not time to wrap up.
GBYA

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Happy Thanksgiving

Today's Link

Diane's Place

Saying for the Day
Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
Psalm 118:18-20

Picture of the Day

What better time for A Thanksgiving meme than Thanksgiving and what better meme than this one borrowed with thanks from Melli.

Thanksgiving Meme... And Stuff~n~Such...

1. Which do you like better: cooking at your house, or going elsewhere?
Going elsewhere

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird?
Bought a fresh bird once but he was so hard to catch and kill that now we settle for frozen.

3. What kind of stuffing?
You mean there are kinds. Wow! Nobody told us that.

4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie?
No

5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing?
What leftovers

6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu?
We aren’t much into side dishes

7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock?
No

8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier?
Two stoves

9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour?
We are getting up at the crack of dawn to get everything ready to go to Pat’s

10. If you go to somebody else’s house, what’s your favorite dish to bring?
A lemon pie but the real kind not the Wal Mart kind

11. What do you wish one of your guests would not bring to your house? What would you like them to bring?
Themselves. Anything they want we won’t be home

12. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you’re happy to see?
When this family gets together extreme boredom is the general rule.

13. Is your cranberry sauce fresh or canned? Whole or jellied?
Canned. Jellied

14. What’s your absolute favorite thing on the menu?
Ham

15. Share one family tradition.
We play cards. Used to be black jack but now it’s canasta.
We take a moment to thank God for the wonder of the past year.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
It is Thanksgiving in Pigeon Falls and people there have lots to be thankful for. Despite the bad economy in the nation as a whole Pigeon Falls has had a great influx of tourists and the local economy is strong. The dark shadow of the driblet has not fallen. The only thing that has fallen is a little snow and that was good for the hunters. They have a whale , a dragon, a poltergeist, and a ghost piano player. No other towns have all of those or any of them for that matter.
In the last year the main street got repaved, the pigeons got saved, great festivals were held, and the Iron Mine added two new employees. The town has lots to be thankful for.
But last night and there is no way this can be sugar-coated the turnout for the community Thanksgiving Service was abysmal. The previous Friday over a thousand people attended the Community Tractor Pull but only fourty two showed up for the service. There a very evangelical Pastor Joan reminded them of all that God had given them in the past year. If there was a thermometer that could measure religious fervor the town would be near freezing. One has to wonder if a lot of people simply masquerade as Christians.
Pastor Joan, of course , would deny that. She is so into that Lutheran grace stuff.
In any case all the people of Pigeon Falls wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and don’t eat too much.

Wrap Up

I am t6hankful for the day. In the morning my oxygen was up slightly. I scanned another set of slides and cleaned up some things on the computer. Pennie, Betty, and I had our Thanksgiving feast at Old Country Buffet. I had great roast beef and ham and skipped the turkey. A nice lady gave us a devotional guide with no pitch. So I spent a little time talking to her. She and her husband buy these guides to give away as a personal ministry. I am thankful for brave perople like her. When we came home I scanned some more slides and visited some of my links. I got about half of them visited. Then Betty, Pennie, and I played the traditional Thanksgiving game of canasta which I won. Tomorrow we go to Pat's and celebrate again. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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A Drug User

Today's Link
OMYWORD

Saying for the Day
It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions but hard to get one single remedy. ~Chinese Proverb

Picture of the Day
Winter is Here

Everything you are about to read is true only the names of the drugs have been withheld primarily because I can’t spell them.
Every day I take a multitude of pills and none of them are sugar coated.
If I was the manufacturer I would sugar coat all the pills. If they would masquerade as something good they would be much easier to swallow.
As it is I swear that several of the pills I take every day are big enough to be used as weights in a tractor pull. Well that might be a slight exaggeration but only slight.
Every morning with almost evangelical fervor I stick a thermometer in my ear and take my temperature and then put this thing on my finger and get my oxygen level.
After that the morning pill routine begins.
The first is not really a bill it’s a plastic container and I break the top off and pour the contents in this breathing thing. Then for fifteen minutes I breath that stuff.
Then I take what looks like a pill and stick it into this thing which has a lever to punch a hole in and I breath in the contents.
These two things have some side effects. They cause constipation..
I take a brown pill every evening and some powder mixed with water to correct that side effect.
The other side effect is a build up of water in my legs.
Every morning I take four and 1/2 pills to get rid of the water in my legs another set of side effect correction pills.
These pills, however, drain off Potassium so I have to take the huge almost impossible to swallow pill to put it back. That’s a pill to correct the side effect from the pills I take to correct the side effect.
In the morning and at noon I take an arthritis pill . Another pill that is huge and hard to swallow. No side effects yet.
In the evening I take a vitamin pill.
All of these pills together upset my stomach so every evening I take a purple pill too keep from waking up with severe heartburn. Another side effect pill.
Then I end the day with the same plastic container that I began it with.
Isn’t medicine wonderful?

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Well Herman went to the Happy Pigeon last night and ended up drinking six Haltvers before he stumbled out into the street. There was a fresh four inch snowfall in Pigeon Falls. If you had gotten up early enough you could have seen Herman’s tracks going home. It was obvious he was sliding a lot and that he fell down several times. Once he seemed to have made a snow angel and once he crawled from where he fell to the lamppost. One can guess he needed it to get up with. But somehow he managed to get home only to find the door locked as his wife had promised. Soon after he passed out his wife came out and put a thick wool blanket over him and closed the porch door. She still loves the guy.
He says that he awoke to darkness slowly becoming light . A voice said: the puzzle is in your past. You have the pieces. " Then it began to get dark again. When he woke this morning his wife relented and let him in. But he has no idea what his latest vision means. But he says he is a seer so it must mean something.

Wrap Up

I really enjoyed doing two things at once this morning. I scanned in one hundred slides while I upgraded my link list.In the afternoon it was back to the layout and we worked on the lake and a railroad bridge over it. It is coming along slowly. Then I scanned some more slides and visited seventten of my links. I also ordered the Bible Study Book for Betty from Amazon.com. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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A Safe Bible Study

Today's Link
Insanity Prevails

Saying for the Day
A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron. ~
Horace Mann

Picture of the Day
Winter has Come

I Try not to repeat a link of the day but since I post links seven days a week and with my bad memory some repeats are bound to occur,
But today I am repeating a link not by mistake but on purpose. Before you rise up and censor me for this flagrant breaking of my own rules and send me to my room on cheese and crackers let me explain.
As a Pastor I would be absent without leave if I didn’t take every opportunity to encourage Bible Study. Getting people to study the Bible is not easy. In some homes there is almost a civil war between husband and wife over this issue. The husband wants to stay home and watch television or play on the computer and his wife wants to drag him down to the church. In most husbands pyramid of values Bible Study at the church ranks just below clarinet playing and going to the Doctor. They would be content with a posthumous entry into the Church with a few Bible verses read over them.
That’s why I am repeating a link from long ago. Melli is going to do an online Bible study. That’s right an online Bible study.
It will be on the book of Daniel .
Now an online Bible study means you don’t have to dress up . You can wear your old faded blue jeans, the one’s you love but never wear in public. In the middle of the study you can stop and pop something in the microwave. It is the friendliest Bible study you can imagine. You don’t even have to say anything but if you want to you can.
What could be better than that.
Nobody will even know your peaking.
So if you want to be part of this great experiment then click here or click the link up above. Scroll down until you find the information.
If you want you can tell Melli I sent you but you don’t have too.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Herman has decided that tonight he will have his next vision no matter what his wife says. The last thing she told him on the subject was “if you come home with liquor on your breath, claiming to have seen a canary yellow grizzly bear frying plums on a griddle in the middle of the lake, it's OVER! Your out. Your history.” Herman interpreted that to mean that as long as he didn’t have that particular vision it would be alright. He isn’t the sharpest drunk in town. So tonight he plans on going to the Happy Pigeon and having five Haltvers , the drink of seers.
Tommy Uk is still avoiding Tammy as much as possible. Some of the other kids in the Tommy club are beginning to wonder why. They know something is going on but they have no idea as to what it is. Neither Tommy UK nor Tammy have told anybody about the kiss that has caused all the problems. Tommy UK is still trying to understand it all. Every time he thinks of the kiss he gets this funny feeling at the bottom of his stomach, like good indigestion. He thinks he would like to do it again but he can’t bring himself to go near her. He feels like he is being pulled apart and he’s doing the pulling. If this is what love is like maybe he’ll become a monk, if there are Lutheran monks.

Word Wrap

I made a marvelous discovery this morning, my computer is good at multi-tasking. I have been scanning in slides and sitting and twiddling my thumbs waiting for the four slides to finish scanning. That was boring. But today I visited links while the slides scanned. They scanned at about the same speed but I got to visit all but a few of my links before the last slide was scanned in the evening. What a great computer. In the afternoon we worked on the layout. Now the lake is starting to shape up. It isn't there yet but it's coming. I finished the day with the last scans and blog visits. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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More About ME

Today's Link
Brian in Oxford

Saying for the Day
There's one good thing about snow, it makes your lawn look as nice as your neighbor's. ~Clyde Moore

Picture of the Day
1972

I can’t remember where I borrowed this meme from. But it requires one word answers.

1. Where is your cell phone? Drawer
2. Where is your significant other? Kitchen
3. Your hair colour? Brown
4. Your mother? Dead
5. Your father? Dead
6. Your favourite thing? Lionel
7. Your dream last night? Repeat
8. Your dream/goal? Helping
9. The room you're in? Study
10. Your hobby? Trains
11. Your fear? Falling
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Alive
13. Where were you last night? Bed
14. What you're not? Smart
15. One of your wish list items? Dragons
16. Where you grew up? Farm
17. The last thing you did? Sleep
18. What are you wearing? Nightshirt
19. Your TV? Off
20. Your pet? Maggie
21. Your computer? Working
22. Your mood? Upbeat
23. Missing someone? No
24. Your car? Montana
25. Something you're not wearing? Hat
26. Favourite store? Hobby
27. Your summer? Over
28. Love someone? Betty
29. Your favourite colour? Green
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Yesterday

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Life may be back to normal but Tommy UK and Tammy aren’t. They may never be the same again. Yesterday they had to acolyte. That means they had to sit on a special little pew just behind the altar rail in full view of the congregation. Tommy UK sat as far away from Tammy as he could on such a small pew. Tammy didn’t know what to do. She thought he might be angry with her. That is definitely not what she wanted. She tried to smile but it was a masquerade of her true feelings. Then in the middle of Pastor Joan’s very evangelical sermon she asked him if he was going to the tractor pull on Friday evening. He put his finger to his lips to indicate she should shut up and pointed at Pastor Joan. If, at that point, you had a thermometer to measure the air between them it would have been as near freezing as you can get.
At the coffee after the service she asked him to tell her how he really felt but instead he went and got a sugar-coated doughnut and sat at the table with the men.
“How I can I tell her about feelings I don’t understand “ he thought. “ Girls are so unfair .” At the men’s table he just listened. They were talking about how Touno Koski got blown up in the mine and survived.” I will survive this” he thought “ I will”.

Wrap Up

Woke up to snow this morning will post a picture tomorrow. In the morning I did some catching up on the computer. In the afternoon we worked on the layout. The lake is not coming as fast as we thought but it is progressing. Coming up I visited sixty blogs , my entire link list. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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End of Church Year

Today's Link
The Jesus Filter

Saying for the Day
When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind. ~Seneca

Picture of the Day
Peter's Confirmation-From the old Archives

Today is the last Sunday of the Church year. If you don’t want to be upset this is not a good Sunday to listen to the lessons that are read in liturgical churches like Lutheran.
This used to be called judgment Sunday.
You know when we hear the good news that the bad people are going to get it in the neck and us good people are going to heaven
The problem is that God’s definition of a good person and ours are not the same.
In the parable which Jesus tells about the judgment day which is the Gospel for today God asks all the wrong questions.
He doesn’t ask did you go to Church?
I like that question because I went a lot.
He doesn’t ask did you pray a lot.
I like that question because I did.
He doesn’t ask did you hold onto the truth against all those other religions and those atheists.
I like that question because I did.
No, He asks what I did for other people.
Did I feed the hungry?
Did I visit the sick?
Did I visit the jail?
Did I provide help to the poor?
Did I care for strangers (aliens)?
“Lord “, I want to answer “ those are unfair questions. I have been really busy praying and doing religious stuff. Besides all of that is the governments job.”
But today is judgment Sunday and that’s the parable.
We can either struggle with it or at our own peril ignore it.
Read the text . It’s in Matthew 25:31-46
Then decide are you among the sheep or the goats?
This is a disturbing Sunday.
Of course I could always go back to bed.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
It is Sunday Morning in Pigeon Falls and Pastor Joan is putting the finishing touches on her sermon for the last Sunday in the church Year. Here is part of that sermon:
In a movie I saw some time ago a poor befuddled fellow asks of his sweetheart “ Why would I want to do the dishes?” The answer she wants, of course , is because he loves her.
Why would I want to give to World Hunger, visit the people at the nursing home, be nice to illegal Mexicans, be concerned about conditions at the jail, or give my better clothes to St. Vincent De Paul?
The answer , of course, is because you love God.
Indeed if we love God these things will begin to happen in our life without our thinking about them.
In today’s Gospel the sheep have to ask “ When did we do these things”. They didn’t do them for rewards. They didn’t do them to get patted on the back by God. They did them because God’s love flowed through them into the world. You might say they were grace driven.”

Wrap Up

It was a very interesting morning. We got to Church early so we could practice for the puppet sermon. It seemed that when Pastor Steve went deer hunting nobody told the substitute she needed to take care of the Confirmation Class so I ended up teaching Confirmation. It was rather fun. The students were very well behaved and some even listened and asked good questions. The choir did a good job at the service. Then Pennie, a boy whose name I never get right, and myself did a puppet sermon. It was not all bad. The kids stayed with us and I think learned something. The substitute gave a good sermon. Not as good as Pastor Steve but good. The fellowship after was great. Then we went to Wal Mart and got groceries. In the afternoon I brought the Church web page up to date. This took a long time because I am still trying to get the choir movie on the main page but I failed again. Betty took a long nap in the afternoon. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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Raven's Wordzzle 40B

Today's Link
Down River Drivel

Saying for the Day
The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.
~Hannah Whitall Smith


Picture of the Day
(1972 From the Archives)

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle
Who this week supplied two lists so this is list B if you want to see stories from the A list scroll down. I did those yesterday..
Ten words: pipe organ, ravages of time, lottery tickets, angelic music, five x five, boxes of books, flattery will get you nowhere, yodelling, pig tails, knitting needles
Mini challenge: canary yellow, grizzly bear, out of the frying pan into the fire, simpleton, Ministry of Crazy Walks

All fifteen words and the on going adventures of
Agent 012

AS he saw old five by five flying through the air toward the bed Agent 012 did the only sensible thing he could. He rolled off and under. Fortunately he did not roll far under because when Cinnamon hit the bed all the springs on that side snapped and went straight down into the floor. Poor Agent 012 would have looked like somebody pushed knitting needles through him, making him a holey man .
Rolling back out he jumped to his feet and raced to the door but without his shoes he kept sliding looking like somebody from the Ministry of Crazy Walks rather than a trained agent.
Panicking he opened the first door he saw and there was and old pipe organ clearly showing the ravages of time. Piled on top of it were boxes of books, old lottery tickets, and a folder marked “Angelic Music”. He triad to imagine Cinnamon singing angelic music but it was much easier to picture her with canary yellow pig tales yodelling some song about a grizzly bear. He also noticed there was no other door out of this room.
Suddenly she was pounding on the door promising to be good if he came out.
“I’m no simpleton” he thought. “There is no way that she will be good. She’s crazy.”
“Your so wonderful “ she said “ I just want to look at you I promise I won’t touch”
“Flattery will get you nowhere” he muttered under his breath. At that point the door began to give way from her constant pounding.
With no way out he may have gone out of the frying pan into the fire.

Ten Words and the ongoing Adventure of Agent 012

Sliding behind the pipe organ he waited for her entry. The door flew open and she charged in still wearing only the necklace. He pushed the boxes of books so that they fell knocking her to the floor. Holding the angelic music folder in front of him so he wouldn’t have to look at her he bolted for the door. He was slower now than ten years ago the ravages of time had their effect on his body.
But he reached the next doorway in the hall. Entering he found himself in a long storage closet. Looking around he saw a five by five crate of artificial pig tails in every color you could imagine. “Who needs that many pig tails ?” he thought “ The rich certainly are crazy”. A picture of Cinnamon wearing the almost purple pig tail and sitting in the rocking chair with knitting needles popped into his mind. It was so funny a picture he almost started to laugh.
Alongside the pig tail box was another box of old lottery tickets. He wondered if that was how she got her millions.
Now he could hear her outside this door yodeling some song about his being the greatest hero ever.
“Flattery will get you nowhere”, he muttered again.

Five Word Mini and the On Going Adventures of
Agent 012

Looking through the peephole in the door he saw that she was now wearing a canary yellow dress as she danced up and down the hall yodeling his praises. She looked for all the world like something out of Monty Python’s Ministry of Crazy Walks.
Aside from his mother-in-law and the Chief there wasn’t much that Agent 012 was afraid of. He once wrestled a grizzly bear and won. But he was afraid of her. She terrified him. It wasn’t because he was a simpleton . After all he was one of the smartest agents in the Agency. Everybody knew that. But this lovey dovey stuff petrified him.
Then it got strangely quiet He looked into the hall and couldn’t see her. This was his chance to run for the car. He stepped out into the hall only to be met with Cinnamon holding the gun from his fanny pack. He forgot it was even there.
Again he had stepped out of the frying pan into the fire.

Agent 012 and the Vanity Wordzzle

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: bookends, water, cardboard box, candles, carpet, mauve, silky, extrapolate, nonchalant, boisterous, absolve, cousin.

Now she had him. There were no cardboard boxes to push and no carpet to pull out from under her. He belonged to her. Now he would have to look at her in her canary yellow silky dress and he would love her. She would go with him to the master bedroom and light some romantic candles. There with the picture window allowing them to see the now placid water of the lake she would have him as she had her cousin Frank years ago. What a boisterous time that was . Frank gave her the almost pornographic bookends that he made for her in prison and now they held all of her sex books. That stupid jury would not absolve him of that tiny little bank robbery . It had been hard for her to act nonchalant around Frank after that knowing she had turned him in. But now she had a good guy to love her, a hero. Perhaps she should put on her mauve nightgown it was really sexy.
While all of this went on in Cinnamon's brain Agent 012 was trying to extrapolate the facts of his condition and find a way out. But there was no way out as long as she had the gun. Indeed horrible, disgusting images flashed through his mind of the two of them in the Master bedroom. It might be better, he thought, to let her shoot him.
This was not going to be his night.

All Fifteen Words in one Sentence

The five by five , boxes of boxes of books , knitting needles, and old lottery tickets, showing the ravages of time were piled on the old pipe organ where Doris Simpleton from the Ministry of Crazy walks with her canary yellow pig tails flying was yodeling what she thought was angelic music but though flattery will get you nowhere really sounded like a grizzly bear that had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
It is Saturday and it’s time to look back at the week in Pigeon Falls and see what else was happening besides young love.
Tuesday– Fred Pemberthy’s stepped out of the frying pan into the fire so to speak. His wife Malinda was already angry at him for losing her tennis bracelet. You know what a mercurial temper she has. When you get her mad she is like a grizzly bear but with canary yellow hair. The simpleton that Fred is it never occurred to him that buying the complete works of Monty Python including the Ministry of Silly Walks would set her off. He should have known. She hates Monty Python.
She accused him of DVD gluttony . She also told him at a time when she was trying to anchor their finances and save money he poured it out like molten lava. Fred took the DVD set back to Wink’s Woods and got his money back. Wink had no desire to face Malinda again.
Thursday – In an unbelievable turn of events a grizzly bear tore Mrs. Maki’s favorite canary yellow sheet off the line where it was drying. This made Mrs. Maki very angry and being something of a simpleton she went after that bear with her biggest frying pan. The bear knocked it out of her hand and stood in it. It was so unreal it looked like something out of a Ministry of Crazy Walks episode. But Mrs. Maki was not through she got the propane torch and lit it and went after that bear. The bear was too wise to step out of the frying pan into the fire so it ran away.

Wrap Up

I finished my blog this morning then went visiting all those listed at Raven's. Such a great group of stories. I am always awed by all that writing ability. Then we did our Saturday thing and went shopping. We started at Menards. I got three two by fours, a sheet of plastic two feet by four feet, a blue Lemax bottom for the lake, and some Styrofoam. Then we went to Linen and Things which is going out of business. Pennie bought lots of stuff but Betty and I didn't buy anything except a container of fancy candy. From there we went to I-Hop for lunch. When we came home Betty and Pennie went to Pennie's office and I stayed home with the dog. I visited thirty blogs. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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Raven's Wordzzle 40A

Today's Link
The Snarky Squab

Saying for the Day
My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. ~Adlai Stevenson, speech, Detroit, 1952

Picture of the Day
From the Achieves

It is Friday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle
Who this week supplied to lists so this is list A and List B will be tomorrow.
This Week's Ten Word Challenge( List A) will be: moisturizing, pickles,seat belt, flip-flop, Chicago, allergies, doctor, ready or not here I come, computer programmer, dog biscuits
Mini Challenge( List A): gluttony, mercurial, tennis bracelet, anchor, molten

The Fifteen words in The Ongoing Adventures of Agent 012

When the lightning hit ten feet from them it so scared Cinnamon that she fired Agent 012’s gun and then dropped it. He grabbed her arms and before she could flip-flop away had her handcuffed. He then marched her into the house and used his belt like a seat belt to fasten her to, of all things, a rocking chair. Then he looked around. In the bathroom he found a jar of Anchor Moisturizing Cream and since he was still itchy from his allergies considered using it. However , when he read the fine print, he knew it was not what the doctor ordered as it contained a mercurial, preparation and he was allergic to Mercury. Thank the FDA for labels.
Checking the kitchen he failed to find the food that Cinnamon said was there. All he found was half a bottle of pickles and some dog biscuits, not exactly a recipe for gluttony. Aside from the amount the pickles had been there so long they were on the edge of becoming molten or was it molden . It was something about mold anyway .and there was no way he could eat them. As soon as the storm stopped they would have to drive back to Chicago and get something to eat.
Continuing his walk through the house he entered the study. There was a computer. “If only my young genius computer programmer were here he could help me contact the Agency on that internet thingy” , he thought.
But it was becoming obvious they would have to spend the night. He couldn’t leave her handcuffed to the rocking chair. He should but he just couldn’t. So he got her to promise to be good and lay off the lovey dovey stuff and let her loose. He decided she should sleep in the Master Bedroom and he would sleep in the servant’s quarters.. He picked the servant quarters because he could bolt the door from the inside and he did. Then he took off his fanny pack, his tennis bracelet, his shoes, and his watch and went to bed.
Around midnight he awoke with a start. The big mirror was rolling to the side and through the space was coming a naked overweight cellulite filled blimp in a necklace , his worst possible nightmare. She screamed “ ready or not here I come lover”.
This was not going to be his night.

The fifteen words in a story sentence

Doctor Mortimer R. Pickles of Chicago saying ready or not here I come announced that he would support the ban on flip-flops, moisturizing dog biscuits, tennis bracelets and Mercurial anchors because of the allergies they gave his computer programmer , I.B Molten, causing him to swell up like a victim of advanced gluttony and no longer fit in a seat belt.

The ten words in a short story

How do you transport a penguin from a Chicago Zoo to the Doctor in Elgin? How do you do it during the hottest , driest summer on record when you have to keep moisturizing the poor thing so it won’t dry out. All of this because some idiot visitor ignored the don’t feed the Penguins sign and fed it some left over pickles and two dog biscuits. This caused the penguin’s allergies to kick in and sent him in a flip-flop across the ice. It looked like a drunken computer programmer after a formal banquet with too much alcohol. All that was missing was the penguin shouting “ Ready or not here I come”
But back to the problem. Could you put a seat belt on the Penguin for that short a distance and pour water over it?
Bob was stumped. This was the last question set on the exam that would qualify him to be a Zoo veterinarian and he didn’t have a clue. “Who dreams up these idiot questions?” he thought.

The five word a and b list in a short story

Sarah Simpson wondered if she was guilty of the sin of tennis gluttony for so hungering after the championship tennis bracelet. Her mercurial rise to the top of her profession had left her with no anchor to protect her from the molten lava of desire that raged inside of her. Today she would step out of the frying pan into the fire and meet the old Grizzly Bear of Tennis, Amanda Simpleton herself. It was only because she wanted to play "The Legend " that she entered this backwoods tournament run by some organization called “ The Ministry of Silly Walks”. She was ready. She was even wearing her lucky canary yellow tennis top. This was her moment of glory. She could not lose.
But she did.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Last night , after school, Tammy stopped at Nancy’s for a saffron bun and a glass of lemonade ( Nancy makes the best lemonade). Looking up she saw the Precious Moment's figurine of the children kissing and she let out a scream.
“ Why is that there?” she shouted.
“I don’t know. The poltergeist just added it.” Nancy said “ Why is it important.
Tammy covered immediately and said she thought it might be a new clue to the driblet. Nancy believed her because she knew that the Tommy Club had been spending hours trying to figure out the driblet’s meaning. It never occurred to her that it might have something to do with Tammy’s personal life.
But then the poltergeist put the figurine on the table in front of Tammy and she got up and left without finishing her lemonade. Nancy thought that was strange as the figurine returned to the ceiling.

Wrap Up

Just a reminder I will play with the B word list tomorrow. In the morning I scanned in the black and white pictures from our wedding a zillion years ago. I learned some more things about the scanner. If you put two pictures on at the same time it will separate them and give each one a separate number. With my old scanner I had to crop after the scan to do that and that took up a lot of time. I am really loving this scanner. In the afternoon we went to the Post Office and mailed the nine things I sold on e-Bay.Poor Betty was hauling all those packages in by herself ( I'm no help) when this very nice lady stopped and helped her carry them in. There are nice people in the world. When we came back I visited two of my link tiers. That's thirty blogs. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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Blogging is Heaven

Today's Link
Here Comes Johny Yen Again

Saying for the Day
The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins. ~Bob Moawad

Picture of the Day
From the Archives

In the last few days I have been very very busy.
I went to Poland and visited two concentration camps where I prayed that God would never let us do this to other humans again. '
Then I visited a farm and saw the newest equipment harvesting corn and pouring it into a semi. Oh! and an old tractor on a twenty foot pole with a fake owl on the smokestack.
Then I took a walk in a beautiful fall woods where the leaves were at their best.
Then a little side trip to Hawaii where I saw an Island shaped like a rabbit that was for the birds.
Then off to Canada to ride a bus and see things through the drivers eyes.
Then it was thinking time and I considered whether back packs were getting too big and too heavy and if PBS could be pressured into pulling a program. Difficult questions you will agree.
Then I took a stroll down memory lane and remembered when Betty and I took care of first one mother and then the other. Those were precious and funny memories.
I also got to spend a little time with two people who were seeking to get closer to God through Bible Study. I so enjoyed that.

All of this I did despite the fact that with my lungs I hardly go more than a couple miles from the house.

God bless blogging and the internet. God bless the bloggers that share their life with me and others.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
The Tommy Club met last night but they met without Tommy UK. He said he had promised his dad he would do something so he couldn’t come. Like that had ever stopped him before. Tammy was there but she thought she knew why Tommy UK wasn’t there but she couldn’t tell anybody. He was avoiding her. He was staying away from her. She should never have kissed him. But it was so wonderful. In any case she wasn’t of much use to the Club. She was lost in her own thoughts.
They did look at the three symbols again. They did read the driblet out loud again. They did do brainstorming again. During the brainstorming session Tammy said that maybe the bird was in love with the cow who was hiding behind the rocker. Of course in a brainstorming session nobody was allowed to tell her that that was the stupidest idea they had heard yet.
Tommy UK went right home after school and helped his father chop wood for the old sauna in back of the house. His father was impressed. Tommy UK was always promising to help but at the last minute found some reason not to. But here he was cutting wood. Could it be his son was growing up and learning about responsibility?
Over at Nancy’s Coffee Shop the poltergeist has added a Precious Moments figurine of two kids kissing to its group of things being juggled or whatever you call what Nancy’s poltergeist does. Now they circle the room with the two birds, two rocking chairs, two cows, and many cornucopias. Nancy doesn’t know why it was added or where it came from. You can’t ask a poltergeist . Well you could but you’d get no answer.

Wrap UP

Just a note-because Raven gave us two sets of words this week I will be playing with the first set tomorrow and the second set on Saturday.
It was a nice day today . My oxygen was up in the normal range I didn't need the tank all day. In the morning I made labels for everything I sold on E-Bay. The sale ended last night. I sold ten of eleven items. Some didn't bring in much but they won't be in my basement any more. Betty wrapped sealed and posted labels. I got my September blogs ready to print out for my sister Dawn. That takes time. I visited two tiers of links and left comments. Unless the entry is old I always try to leave a comment. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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Love Lost

Today's Link
There's a Penguin on the Telly

Saying of the Day

The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want. ~Ben Stein

Picture of the Day
From the Achieves

Love Lost

Please! Please! Sit down and listen to my story. I have to tell somebody or I’ll go mad. There is just too much guilt for one man to handle.
It was just last weekend or perhaps the one before that . I have lost track of time since the event. In any case it was the weekend after my Packers went from third place to first. I watched that game with Janelle on a seventy two inch, high density television. Being engaged to a movie star had its perks. Other than those blasted photographers it was just about perfect. At the end of that game we pulled the curtains and kissed. That’s all we did was kiss. Janelle loved me and since I believed sex belonged to marriage she was willing to wait. My parents did , you know. And their parents before them. But we did kiss a lot. I think that was okay.
Then came last Saturday. The most wonderful horrible day of my life. All day long that big storm they had been predicting threatened but held off. The wedding took place in perfect fall weather and it was perfect too. We had so many people in the wedding party it looked like a choir at the front of the Church. And when she came down the aisle I almost started to cry. She was so beautiful and she was marrying me. Me, a nobody marrying a beautiful movie star I was so happy. And when we kissed after the ceremony it was like the world had ended and I had gone to heaven.
My friends pushed the photographers aside so we could get to the car that took us to the reception. And what a reception. There was food and drinks and a huge wedding cake with a bride and groom on top held on by a long metal spike .We laughed when we cut that cake and fed each other a piece. We must have kissed a hundred times at the reception. Our friends kept banging on their glasses, an old custom, and we obliged them .
But the time came to leave. We changed into some traveling clothes and some friends put on the wedding dress and my fancy suit. To the photographers it looked like we were still there. But they snuck us out the side entrance to a waiting convertible and the last thing they did was to put what was left of the wedding cake in the back seat.
We were on our way. We took the old dirt road to I-51 or I -52 or I something. You know the road that has the river running along the right hand side of it until the Okeponolke Bridge then it runs along the left side to Lake Okeponolke. Lake Okeponolke was where our honeymoon cottage was . We had checked it out during the week. It is just the greatest most peaceful lake in the world. We sat on the front porch of what would be our cabin and watched the sunset and we kissed. I could hardly wait until we got there. We were married now.
Of course with her money we could have gone anywhere in the world. The photographers were told we were going to Hawaii but Hawaii pales next to Lake Okeponolke. I think so anyway.
So there we were on highway I-52 . She was snuggled up next to me when the storm broke. I cranked the top up on the convertible and we stayed fairly dry. But the rain came down heavier and heavier. Soon I couldn’t really see the road. I should have stopped but Lake Okeponolke was calling us. So instead of stopping I went a little faster. I didn’t see that the rain had washed out the bridge. I should have but I didn’t. Suddenly we were falling but I knew it was only twenty feet. The airbags would deploy and save us when we hit and they did. Once they deflated I turned to my bride only to discover she was not responding. She was dead. The bride and groom from the wedding cake had flown forward and the steel thing had pierced her heart. Well that’s what the coroner said. It went right through her heart. It pierced mine too.

It was my fault. It was my fault! My Fault. It was my fault. My fault. It was my fault.

Nurse , close the door and leave him alone. He can be heard all over the institution. If you leave him alone he’ll quiet down. I know it’s our job to listen to him. I know the story is horrible but you need to know the truth. There was no wedding, no reception, no convertible, no movie star, no cabin on the lake, no wedding cake. None of it ever happened. He read it in a book. “ Love Lost” by Dr. John Fortress. He became one of the characters. I guess good writing can do that.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Poor Tommy UK didn’t sleep much last night. He kept thinking about that kiss. It had ruined everything. He and Tammy were friends. They were acolytes together. Together they were trying to save the town from the dark shadow. But now that was all confused. Now when he thought of Tammy he had other thoughts. He kept reliving the kiss and how it felt. He had kissed a girl before but never like that. He was in love. He was in love and he didn’t want to be. Love was a pain. Love was a bother. Love was a distraction. He didn’t need it. He didn’t want it. But he was in it head over heals. He was afraid of it. Wonder if she decided to kiss him when they were sitting in their acolyte robes in front of the entire church. Then what would he do? He could handle mystery and trouble of all kinds but he didn’t think he could handle this . He was in love.
Tammy had trouble sleeping as well. She was afraid that Tommy UK didn’t feel like she felt. Maybe the kiss meant nothing to him. Maybe he was at home laughing at her. Why had she done it. What was wrong with her. But she had to. She was in love and he was so close . She had to let him know. She had pretended that things were the same as always but she knew they weren’t . She was in love.

Wrap Up

It was a good day. My oxygen was just at the normal level. I did some blogging then I scanned slides. Betty left to go to a funeral but came back because there just was no parking place at the church. Then we worked downstairs on the next module for the layout. Coming up I visited two tiers of links. Then scanned a few more slides. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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