Dr. John's Fortress

Tuesday

2010-02-09T06:07:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Chief Ican went out to visit Mrs. Westup. He wanted to see the miracle appliances for himself. Amila was happy to see him and to be given the chance to show off the wonderful things that had come into her life. He had her retell him how she got up and found everything there . She hadn’t been awaken by any noise during the night. Chief Ican thought that was really weird since when they put the new hot water heater in the jail half the town could hear the racket the plumber made.
Chief Ican also noticed the size of the refrigerator and felt that there was no way one could get that through the door without removing the door frame but the frame showed no signs of having been removed and put back. In addition since it was a larger refrigerator the space it was placed in would have to be resized. The cabinets would have to be cut. There was no sign of any of this having happened.
On his way back to the jail he thought that there might really be a fairy godmother. But in the back of his mind something else was churning. He was not sure yet what it was but it was churning.

Sometimes I think I live in a Soap Opera. While I was going through all of my lung things this last week my younger sister had her own story line. She was all set for gal bladder surgery but on the day before the scheduled surgery her Surgeon's airplane crashed and he was killed.
So she had to find a new surgeon. But the new surgeon in making some routine tests caught a problem with her heart. So he referred her to a cardiologist. Today she is in the hospital having tests made.
So much like a soap opera.
We could call it " Life Goes On Anyway!"

2010-02-08T05:06:00.001-08:00

Looking back on Pigeon Falls since our last visit it seems that Samantha and her Snow Court were seen as the best in the history of the festival. Instead of standing around ,looking beautiful , and waiting for people to tell her how wonderful she was and that she should be the next UP Snow Queen which many of the girls had done in the past Samantha brought people coffee, struck up conversations with visitors and told them how thankful the town was that people like them came to the Festival. She did such a good job that the Merchant's Association is thinking of creating a position for her as a welcoming person in future events.
Norman Larson one the two races he was in. He said “ I must have a fairy godmother since my machine had all kinds of problems on Thursday but Friday it was like a new more powerful machine. ”Two of the big companies offered to buy his machine but Norman wouldn’t sell it..
Good thinks kept happening in Pigeon Falls as Last Wednesday Mrs. Amila Westup , who lives in the old house behind Samantha woke up to find that someone had taken her Refrigerator, Stove, Washer and dryer and her hot water heater and replaced them with new high energy efficient models. Mrs. Westup is a widow with three children , her husband was killed in Iraq. Her old refrigerator no longer had a working freezer, the oven on the stove didn’t work at all, the washer did a poor job, and you had to run a load through the dryer twice to get it dry. In addition the hot water heater was on its last legs. It was as if all her prayers were answered at one time. There was a note on the dryer that said “ Will check back later, your fairy godmother.”

She couldn’t understand how all this got done without waking her.

Now I need a breathing treatment so I will finish this later.
AS you can see I am back to blogging. Well sort of back. When I left the message above I intended to be right back after a half hour breathing treatment but I ended up falling asleep and here it is four hours later.
A quick telling of what has happened.
On Thursday night January 28 I couldn't breath very well even in the breathing mask so I got almost no sleep.
Friday I auto posted Saturday ad Sunday's blog and did some visiting but my oxygen levels were horrible.
Friday night we went from two liters to three liters of oxygen. This got the levels back to a normal range and I slept better but not good.
Over the weekend I was stuck in the bedroom because I really didn't have the equipment to move three liters through the house, plus I slept most of those days missing my family 's visit.
Monday we figured out how to use the large Oxygen tank to get me to Oshkosh and back and we called my lung Doctor.
This is where it comes to if it rains it pours part. My lung Doctor's office had some kind of flood and he was forced to move thirty miles further south. That meant sixty miles round trip for me and was simply not possible. We got the Doctor on the phone and he thought the problem this time might be congestive heart failure and increased my lasix prescription.
I tried getting to the blog on that Monday but my internet was down.
Pennie brought it back on Line that evening.
I stayed in the room except for meals and little by little things have been getting better. I am now down to two liters which is higher than before but I can get around with that.
Now I am going to visit the blogs of all you nice people who left comments. ( If I don't fall asleep on the keyboard).

5th Sunday After Epiphany

2010-02-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

Pastor Joan has finished her sermon for the morning. Here is a piece of that sermon.
“If you hear the words personal conversion or personal Epiphany what image comes to mind?
The usual image is that of a Billy Graham type crusade. The invitation is give. People come down the aisle and kneel while somebody leads them in a prayer faith. At that moment many of them look up into the face of Jesus and move from unfaith to faith. They see the light of God breaking in through Him.
It is a great image of conversion.
It is not your typical conversion , of course but it is so right. It is clean, tidy, inb order and by the book.
My favorite picture of conversion is not like that at all.
It is not clean and neat. In fact it is smelly.
It follows a miracle that might not even be a miracle.
It takes place in a small fishing boat.
It ends up with the new believer up to his neck in fish.
He does not notice the fish. He does not smell the fish. He ses only Jesus.
In a moment everything has changed.
Coming back to shore he leaves his boat and catch behind and follow Jesus.
Conversion at its best.
I have to tell you I love this picture. It shows the power of God over everyday things.
This morning I invite you to make that leap of faith.
Let the power of God direct your life.
Leave the fish behind.

Today Liturgical Churches using the Common Lectionary will be celebrating the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany. The Gospel is Luke 5:1:11
Luke 5
1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,[a]with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down[b] the nets for a catch."
5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
If you claim this morning to follow Jesus like Peter then your task is the last verse of the text.
You are to share the good news of Jesus with others.
Read the text
Think about it.

Perhaps Monday

2010-02-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

I am recovering slowly from my latest attack. I may be back doing some kind of blogging on Monday.

News

2010-02-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

Pastor Linna is ill, and will be back when able.
Betty

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

2010-01-31T01:00:00.000-08:00

Pastor Joan has finished her sermon for today. Here is part of it:
“One of the sad things in life is there are people who almost make the leap from unfaith to faith but something causes them to pull back.. They almost laid their sins on Jesus. They were almost set free.
It was so with the congregation at Nazareth they had heard Kjesus say he was the Messiah. They could almost see the Kingdom of God breaking in through Him. They were ready to make the leap. But ! Somebody said “ Isn’t this Joseph’s Son?” Now if He is Joseph’s son then he can’t be the Messiah. They watched Him grow up. Thus they lost this chance to step into faith. They lost the opportunity to make the journey to the cross with Jesus. They could have learned so much. They could have seen so many miracles.
The He is Joseph’s Son moments come in many forms in this age.
One hears something about the evangelist that shared Jesus with you. Perhaps, he cheats on his wife. But then you can’t trust his message. You back off.
Perhaps you went to a new church and the Pastor touched you in the sermon your ready to make the leap of faith but then you see sitting one row over a person you know to be corrupt . If he belongs then you can’t trust the message of this church. You back off.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Once you have seen Jesus set your eyes on Him and make the jump from unfaith to faith. Then forget how you got there. Forget the fallible clay vessels the message came in. Forget that He is Joseph’s son. Go with Him and experience the Kingdom of God breaking in.
This is the time to make the leap. Feel the joy. Know the freedom.

In the liturgical churches using the Common Lectionary today is celebrated as the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany. The Gospel is Lube 4:21-30.
21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
23Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "
24"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27And there were many in Israel with leprosy[a] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian."
28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way
It is the last half of the story of Jesus at the Synagogue at Nazareth which we read last week. But last week things were going well. It even looked like they might believe Him. But then somebody points out that He is Joseph’s son.. He can’t be the Messiah but he owes them as his people some kind of miracle. Jesus explains using two Old Testament stories but this just enraged them. They wanted to throw Him off a cliff.
That still happens in the group that follow Jesus today. We often end up thinking God owes us because we believe and others don’t.
When I was a kid I prayed really hard that God wouldn’t let my brother Robert die but He did. I was so angry I threw God , not over a cliff but out of my life. I became an atheist for a time.
I heard somebody on TV the other day say that if God had a house here on earth she would go there are throw rocks through the windows.
But in truth God owes us nothing. In fact we owe God because day after day he4 fills our life with joy, grace, and peace.
W#e have to accept the fact that He will not always give us what we want.

Raven's Challenge 97

2010-01-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

My Grandsons are Visiting! I'm happy!

The fairy Godmother of Pigeon Falls continued to wave her magic wand over the weekend . The Queen and her court each received a brand new snowmobile and a marvelous snow mobile suit. They were the best dressed Snow Court ever.
In addition Norman Larson who thought he was out of the races because of some problem with his engine came in on Friday to find the problem gone and the snowmobile better than ever. So far today he has the best time out to the Lake of the Loons and back. He has a substantial lead but the big name company teams have yet to run. In any case he thinks he stands a good chance in tomorrows races.
There is a runor that a romance may be developing between Norman and Samantha.

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle
This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: teflon, idealistic, marshmallow, opportunistic, kittens, beef, sawing logs, slapped, tickled, scissors
For the mini: ripen, shelve, laminate, goofy, Siamese

The Mega Challenge as
The Ongoing Adventures of Agent 012

Agent 012 grabbed the microphone at the party and announced that there was a bomb and that they should leave the building immediately. The people reacted differently. One grabbed a bag of marshmallows and ran out, another took a beef sandwich but a third just stayed in place and started screaming “ We are all going to die”. Agent 012 slapped him and pushed him toward the door. In the process Agent 012 thought “ If I had the time tickled would have worked as well”.
With the party leaving Agent 012 contacted Building Security and had them quickly go floor to floor and get everyone out and as far away from the building as possible. Then he asked to be directed to the office of the most important executive in the building. He was told it was on the top floor , the far right corner.. Agent 012 hastened to the office. There beside the door was the usual mandala showing that the bomber had been here . The question is when is the bomb set to go off? Quickly he entered and scanned the room. There was a scissors shelved above two green tomatoes , probably left to ripen and on that set of shelves a half wrapped , very expensive, Teflon frying pan , probably a gift for some lucky person. Then he saw the kid’s backpack. It had a goofy laminated picture of two Siamese kittens sawing logs. He picked up a chair and threw it through the window. He followed it with the backpack which exploded halfway to the ground. The building was unhurt except for a few broken windows.
Coming out of the office Agent 012 saw a man coming out of the room at the other end of the hall.
“Who are you and why are you still in the building”, Agent 012 asked.
“I’m the janitor and being somewhat opportunistic I had taken the party downstairs as a time to take a nap in the supply room. I just came out to see what the explosion was all about.”, he said.
Agent 012 pulled his gun an an placed him under arrest. “ I can tell from the paint on your hands that you’re the idealistic mandala bomber.” he said. Agent 012 called in support from the Agency. When they checked out the room there was the case with all of the paints needed for the mandala.
Some days things go well for Agent 012

Flash 55 Friday-The Carp

2010-01-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

Because it is Flash 55 Friday Pigeon Falls for the Day is written in 55 words.

Sally broke the silence after the judges left and said “ Of all the girls in town we are cursed with scaevity. That tramp Samantha did it to us and she will pay."
Nancy said " I think we did it to ourselves and I think we need to change."
The other girls thought she was insane.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55. Here is my first story:
The fisherman's wallet slipped out of his back pocket into the lake. When he tried to grab it a carp leaped up and flipped the wallet to another carp .
The wallet was tossed from one carp to another carp for several minutes.
This was of course,

the first known example of

Carp to Carp Walleting.

Since I discovered it was okay I am writing a second flash 55 which will be a continuous story but a complete story every week. Here then is the Fourty First chapter in the exciting ongoing adventures of Sir Laughsalot and Robberhood.

The entire story to date is HERE
The most recent chapters are HERE

King underwear stood in his underwear.
He wasn't going anywhere.
Less people stop and stare.
He had no clothes or crown
All he could do was frown
They even took his nightgown
Heads will roll he roared
As dragons overhead soared
At least he wasn't bored.
Then Sir Laughsalot returned
the king his ears burned.

Thursday-Quilly Day

2010-01-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

After much deliberation the judges asked to see all seven girls in private. This was definitely not the way things were usually done. Usually they announced the second runner up, the first runner up, and then the Snow Queen.They never met in private with the candidates. The girls knew something was wrong.
The head judge read from a prepared statement:
“ WE paid close attention all day and it was clear to us that Sally Johnson should have been second runner up, Nancy Pemberthy would have been first runner up, and
Samantha Westcott would have been Queen. That would have made for a nice court for the festivities. But then we read your ballots and discovered something we did not want to know. Every single one of you accept , of course, Samantha, put Samantha in last place, every single one of you. Now we can understand putting your vest friend as Queen. That makes a certain kind of sense but to put Samantha on the bottom is something else. It says to all of the judges that the six of you are social bigots and not worthy of this competition. So we are disqualifying all six of you and naming Samantha Queen. Further she will pick two girls to serve as her court and they will receive the prizes that would have gone to the first and second runner up. One last thing. We want you to know who Samantha named as Queen. It was Nancy Pemberthy , the girl that threw ashes on her. Now that is class.”
The judges then took Samantha out to announce her as Snow Queen.
The girls sat in stunned silence.

It is a Quilly day. Time to take Quilly’s three words for the day and write a story

scaevity n = unluckiness; left-handedness
gnathonize v =to flatter
roblet to lead astray

Jonathan R. Causistry made millions with his seminars on ending scaevity. Thousands of unlucky people attended his seminars believing the scaevity they thought they were stuck with for the rest of their lives could be cured. He always started the seminar with words meant to gnathonize the audience. He would tell them they were the smartest audience he had ever had and that if anyone could lick scaevity they were the group. Then he would little by little roblet then from real science to his made up supposedly scientific methodology. At the end he sold his five DVD course for $150 with a thirty day guarantee. Over half of the group always bought .
At age fourty he decided to take his millions and retire. That was the day he was hit by the buss and killed . One could say he really suffered from scaevity.

Of course the dragons were busy today you can see them HERE.
If you want far better stories written with these words go HERE

Wednesday

2010-01-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

Samantha Westcott rather enjoyed having the in group look at her with awe instead of disdain. She enjoyed even more their reaction when they realized who she was. She had come from being the poor girl on the other side of the tracks whose prime feature was scaevity to the most beautiful girl in the Pageant and it felt good.
The rest of the day went just as well. In the talent competition she stood head and shoulders above the others. She sang an old English Ballad entitled “The Fisherman's Girl”. It was the story of a sad poor girl and she did such a good job singing it it would have brought tears to Simon Cowell's eyes.
The answer she gave to her question in that part of the Pageant was insightful and clear.
In the beauty walk it was obvious she stood head and shoulder above the others.
So it all came down to the last event which was unique to this Pageant. They were each given a ballot containing the names of the six other contestants and asked to rank them from Queen to least likely to be Queen. They were told that in the past this voting had a great impact upon the judges letting them see things they had missed. Each girl filled hers out and turned it in. It took Samantha the longest.
Then the judges deliberated.

I wanted a meme that was a little different so I cobled one together from questions on “ That’s My Answer”

John's own little ten question meme.

1. When was the last time you tried something new? What was it?
Just last night. I tried some toenail softener.

2. What is the last thing you bought online? Did it work?
Toenail softener. Don’t know as I haven’t tried cutting them yet.

3. Are you a hoarder? If you aren’t, how close to being a hoarder are you?
Betty and I are both hoarders that’s why the basement and the garage are full.

4. Would you ever allow This Old House to film your home remodel?
No! Our house isn’t old enough to begin with and I don’t want to be on TV with my hair looking like this.

5. How good are you at keeping secrets?
No good at all. I’m a regular sieve. I was much better at it when I was an active Pastor.

6. Are you a grown-up? How do you know?
No! When I was young I got sprinkled with Pixie dust so I will never grow up.

7. It’s fantasy tea-party time … you can invite any three people for cakes and sandwiches and scones and tea! Of course this is different from fantasy dinner party because it’s tea and is such it’ll need to be more refined and you’ll probably need to wear a frock So, tell us, who are you inviting to our very British fantasy tea party?
I have two lists.
On my internet list are Melli, Quilly, and Aims ( Very hard to narrow that list to three)
On my everyday list are Lori, Bree and Dawn ( Betty is going to help me serve)

8. Do you freak out at the sight of a blemish?
I have so many old age bruises that if I did I would be freaking out all the time.

9. If you could go to the land of make-believe for one day, what would you most want to experience?
The yellow brick road and the Emerald City but in second place is Pigeon Falls.

10. What is your soda of choice these days? Could you give it up?
What ever is on sale. Obviously.

Tuesday

2010-01-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

Samantha Westcott opened the door to find a uniformed man holding a fancy hat standing in the doorway.
“ Your Limo has arrived , Mam:, the driver said.” Your fairy Godmother said to tell you that she couldn’t find a pumpkin and besides it’s too cold for pumpkin coaches. So she has sent you the very best Limo you can make out of two tin cans”
There in front of the house was the most beautiful Limo Samantha had ever seen and she was going to ride in it to the Pageant.
“ One last word from your fairy Godmother”, said the chauffeur.” Unlike pumpkin coaches there is no time limit on the Limo.
As the chauffeur helped her into the Limo Samantha thought” Last week when Nancy Pemberthy dumped ashes on me I thought I was cursed with scaevity but this week I’m the luckiest girl on the planet.” Then she sat back and enjoyed the ride.
The Chauffeur drove past the theater to the end of main street, turned around and drove back to the Westcott house and then back to the theater. This gave Samantha a chance to enjoy the ride and it gave some of the girls a chance to see the Limousine.
Everybody who saw it was impressed . It was far fancier than any Limo in Pigeon Falls ( there are only two).
When the chauffeur helped her out of the Limo and stood at attention people were impressed. Nobody recognized Samantha in her beautiful dress and with her new hairdo and make up. In fact they wondered who the rich girl was and decided she must be a relative of a contestant.

As if there was not enough depression in the world a new form is emerging. Let us call it righteous depression.
It strikes people who know they are right but who can’t convince others to join them. It is operative across the board coming from religious righteousness, political righteousness, environmental righteousness, or any activity where people feel they are right and others wrong.
What you need to trigger righteous depression is:
1. To be sure you are right
2. To try to convince others
3. To see the wrong come out ahead because people are too stupid or stubborn to listen.
4. You give up trying and just feel bad.
Let’s say for example that you are a true believer in the Democratic health bill. You know the system needs fixing. You push the bill on your blog.
Then those idiots in Massachusetts vote in a Republican Senator and it looks like the bill is dead. You know that’s all wrong and there is nothing you can do about it. But one recourse seems to be to feel bad.
Or lets say that you’re sure the Democratic health bill will destroy the greatest health system in the world and break the federal budget. And lets say it passed. You have pointed out the dangers on your blog but the Democrats wouldn’t listen. They ignored what is right and the will of the people and now there is nothing you can do. But one recourse is to feel bad.
Lets move to religion. You know that Jesus saves. You really want your relatives to know but they won’t listen. In your rightness you know they are going to hell but you can’t get through to them. One recourse is to feel bad.
But suppose you’re an atheist. You know the world would be a far better place if people just stopped believing the God nonsense. You write. You give lectures but the fools keep believing. One recourse is to give up on them and just feel bad.
Or lets say you believe in Global Warming. You know it is going to cause massive destruction. You know what needs to be done to stop it but people won’t listen. They are stupid and stubborn. One recourse is to give up on them and just feel bad.
Or perhaps you know there is no such thing as Global Warming. You blog about it. The stubborn believers insult you. Nobody changes. The same silly programs stay in place. One recourse is to give up and just feel bad.
Now, before I am attacked by all the true believers of every kind out there I’m not saying it’s wrong to be right.
What I am saying is that rightness carries some dangers and depression is one of them.
It is a choice that doesn’t help your cause.
Your need to pick a different option. Perhaps, you need to keep trying to change others. Nothing is gained by quitting.
If your going to see yourself as right then fight for the right.
Of course another choice would be to consider the possibility that your not right. Then you could enter into dialogue with the those who disagree with you. You would no longer have to see them as evil or stupid or stubborn.
In the dialogue truth might even emerge.

Monday

2010-01-25T01:00:00.000-08:00

Samantha Westcott called her mother and asked where the beautiful new dress had come from but her mother didn’t seem to know. She pointed out that the door was unlocked and anybody could have come in and left it.
“ I thought Bowser was supposed to wake us up if their was an intruder” Samantha said being by that point very confused.
At that point the doorbell rang and there stood two ladies.
“ A lady who said she was your fairy Godmother paid us to come and do your hair and make up for the Pageant because she had to be somewhere else.. She also said that she hoped you would like the dress she left earlier. You were sleeping and she didn’t want to wake you because you have a big day in front of you.” the older of the two ladies told Samantha.
Then they went to work and when they finished and she was in her new dress there was no question she was the prettiest girl in Pigeon Falls.
“There is snow and dirt out there on the way to the theater. If I walk I will get my beautiful dress all wet and dirty. Do you think you could give me a ride?” Samantha asked the ladies.
“Sorry”, the head lady said,” The car is full of beauty supplies and there is no room for you.”
Samantha thought “ Where is the pumpkin coach when you need one. What kind of fairy Godmother fails to provide a pumpkin coach.?”
Just then the doorbell rang.

We are about to start on a new adventure and if I didn’t suffer from advanced scaevity I would feel much better about it.
I am asking a lot you. I want you to help bring a word back from near death.
Here are the rules for the new game.
1. On Monday I will pick one of Quilly’s three words for the week.
2. I will give you the definition for the word.
3. During the week you will use the word in at least three different blog entries.
4. In today’s comment tell me your playing.
5. The dragons will read your blogs ( that’s a good thing).
6. The following Monday they will award to those who did well the following ugly internet award.

That’s all there is to it.
Now here is this week’s word.

scaevity
(noun ) used from 1623 -1658

It means unluckiness;

I know that unless you are one of those suffering from scaevity you will do well.
Good luck.

If you forget the word or the meaning. It will be featured in the upper corner of this blog all week.

Third Sunday After Epiphany

2010-01-24T01:00:00.000-08:00

Here is part of Pastor Joan’s sermon for today”
“ Back when I went to Bible Camp we used to gather round the campfire in the evening and sing what we called Bible Camp songs. As I read these words in today’s gospel I thought of one of those choruses.:
“And the eyes of all those who were in the synagogue were fastened on Him.”
We used to sing “ Turn your eyes upon Jesus”
I found the chorus on U-tube and I will share it with you this morning through the magic of power point.

That morning in the Synagogue people turned their eyes to Jesus . They looked intently at Him. He had just read a Scripture about the Messiah and then all but said that he was the fulfillment of that text. One has to wonder what those people saw when they turned their eyes upon Jesus. Some , I’m sure, saw the Messiah , some saw a hint of God breaking into this world and some saw a man who they did not understand and had just said something weird. That look would bring some into the early Church as it came into existence after the Resurrection. But some walked away and forgot they ever saw Him.
Every Sunday I call on you to look into the face of Jesus. Some of you looked and you saw God. You were set free from the oppression of guilt and sin. You were able to see God’s love for you and the old blindness dropped away. Your life was changed forever.
Some of you will yet have that experience because God doesn’t give up on us.
But a few will walk away and forget you ever saw Him. Others will be bothered enough to deny that He is God. You will convince yourself and as many others as you can that it is all nonsense and there is no God. The Good News is God will keep loving you and reaching out to you.
Today is a great day for you to:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

In the liturgical churches following the Common Lectionsary today is celebrated as the Thrird Sunday after the Epiphany. The Gospel for the day is Luke 4:14-21
Luke 4:14-24 (New International Version)
14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[a]
20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
There were no poor that had good news preached to them that Sabbath, no prisoners set free, no blind people given sight, and nobody was released from oppression but Jesus says to the congregation “ Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ How could that be.
The scripture is not about the events described but about the one who would be sent to do them, the Messiah. In effect Jesus is saying I am the Messiah. He is the anointed one promised by Isaiah.
The congregation had to decide if he was or wasn’t.
We have to decide in our own life if he is our Messiah.
He would set us free from the oppression of guilt and shame.
He would lift the blindness tat keeps us from seeing God.
He will if we let Him be our Messiah.
Give it some thought.

Raven's Challenge 96

2010-01-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes my sister can be nice.

Samantha Westcott sat in her room crying. Tomorrow she would have to face the judges in the beauty pageant and she was not really ready. Her dress was not as nice as the in girls. She didn‘t know how to walk like them. She should have quit. Everybody will laugh at her. She is not sure she wants to be laughed at but they had dumped ashes on her and called her names so she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of quitting. She was just too stubborn.
If only she had some mice to talk to like Disney’s Cinderella it would be easier. If only she had a fairy Godmother that could give her the most beautiful gown in the world and turn something into a beautiful black limousine to take her to the judging. But that was the stuff of fairy tales.
Finally she went to sleep. When she got up in the morning this beautiful lady with wings and a wand was standing there . She waved the wand and Samantha was dressed in the most beautiful gown in the world, Then she took an apple and created a big black limousine. Samantha was driven in style to the theater where she made a grand entrance. As she walked out on stage the dress suddenly changed to rags and everybody pointed and laughed. She ran to the limousne but it turned into a roten apple.
At that point she woke up crying.
She looked around and decided she was still dreaming because on the chair next to her bed was the most beautiful gown she had ever seen.

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle
This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: Badger, roll out the barrel, amazing, a lovely cup of tea, pressure, frozen, gandalf, pixies, top gear
And for the mini: smelly, politician, favourite, token gesture, garden

The Mega Challenge as
The Ongoing Adventures of Agent 012

Sometimes the work of an Agency Agent was not very exciting. Despite all the amazing things you see in the movies a lot of time was spent doing very boring things. At this moment Agent 012 was in the Agency Garden having a lovely cup of tea and reading the threatening letters sent to the executives of AIG.. People promised to pour smelly stuff on them, shoot them, stab them, run them over with a car, and beat them to a pulp. But nobody threatened to blow them up. He was fairly certain that none of these letter writers were the Mandala Bomber. Agent 012’s favourite letter was the one where the man promised if he caught the executive alone to sic his pet badger on him. Agent 012 tried to picture that in his mind and the harder he tried the funnier it got.
Finally he put the letters down and decided to drive to what he thought would be the bomber’s next target, the central AIG office. He drove up the fancy driveway lined with cute little frozen porcelain pixies that looked like they were guarding the place.He hoped they could do a better job here then they had in the other offices.
Ashe entered the building he could hear them singing roll out the barrel and the singing was coming from the Gandalf Room. Here the wizards of Wall Street were celebrating there very large end of the year bonuses. One of the men was very loudly toasting the Board of Directors for ignoring the pressure from the politicians to give no bonuses this year. Instead the Board in some token gesture had given some money to charity.
Agent 012 ignored the party and went up to the next floor of the building. There in the hallway a glint of metal caught his eye. He picked up the top gear of a clock. “How”, he wondered, “ would that end up here and why would you take the top gear from a clock. The only reason he could think of he didn’t like. What was left could be used as a timing device for a bomb. That , probably, meant there was a bomb in this building set to go off but he didn’t know where it was or when it would go off.
This was not going to be his day.

The Maxi Challenge
Untouchable

The Badgers of Horatio Clam University had finally won a football game and were celebrating with an amazing victory party. They had girls dressed like pixies serving them and what they were being served was not a lovely cup of tea. Horatio Clam , the founder of the University may have been anti alcohol but this team certainly wasn’t. Somebody from the Science Department had created a top gear fountain of Gandalf Whiskey running over a frozen bust of old Horatio himself. As they sang Roll Out the Barrel and filled their cups in the fountain they felt no pressure from the no drinking on campus rule.
They were after all the football team. They had won a game. They were and always would be above the rules.

The Mini Challenge Touchable

The local newspaper ran front page pictures of the team’s drinking party which made it almost impossible for the Board to ignore it. Even worse the pictures clearly showed the party was in the Garden Room of the P.E. Building. University rules required that a student , caught drinking on campus be expelled.. This was such a flagrant breaking of the rules that the usual token gesture or minor penalty would not suffice. The Board could not be seen as having one group as a favourite that was above the rules. The local newspaper would pounce on such an action as quickly as it had on the smelly politician caught sleeping with somebody else's wife.
So it called the Football Team in. The Captain pointed out they had a game coming up this Saturday so the meeting should be short.
It was short. In ten minutes the entire team was expelled
“You can’t do that” the Captain said ,” We are the football team. We can’t be expelled. We won a game.”
“ You aren’t the football tean anymore. You are expelled. You lose. “the Chairman of the Board said.” The students from the P.E. Program that have been acting as your practice squad will finish the season.”
At the rally for the team protest meeting four people showed up. Two of them had “ Save our Football Team “ signs , one had a “Save our Fotbal Tem”sign, and one had a sign that said “ Keep Conan O’Brian”
They were all ignored.

Skunked

2010-01-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

On Saturday at the theater Pigeon Falls will hold the Snow Queen Beauty Pageant. The winner will be Queen of the Snowmobile Days celebrations. All the important girls are entered. You know the ones. They are the center of everything. They are the Cheer Leaders, Class officers, Prom Queens, etc. Every beauty contest has them as the only entrants. Everybody knows how important they are. Their parents are on the Town Council, business owners, relatively rich people. They have the money to buy beautiful dresses , a new one for each contest. So nobody else even bothers to try.
But this time somebody, for a joke, entered Samantha Westcott. She lives literally on the other side of the tracks. She and her mother live in an old three room house just before the railroad crossing. Her father died in a Iraq and her mother does the best she can to keep things together for the two of them. She hasn’t had a new dress in years. In fact all the clothes she owns have come from St. Vincent De Paul.
Since her name was entered the in girls have been making fun of her. Nancy Pemberthy dumped ashes on her in the lunch room and said “ Look! It’s Cinderella”.
When she first discovered that somebody had put her name in she was going to withdraw but when the insults started she decided that staying in, even though she couldn’t win, would drive the in group nuts. She was a Wescott and she was both proud and stubborn.
She and her mother went to St. Vincent De Paul and got the fanciest dress they had. Her mother made some adjustments to it. It wasn’t half as nice as the others but she was going ahead anyway.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55. Here is my first story:

A mother skunk gave birth to twins, whom she named In and Out.

One day she asked Out to find In who was out.

"What?" said Out.

" Go find In", the mother said

Very soon Out was back with In.

"How did you find In so quickly? asked his mother.

(here it comes....)

"In stinkt."

Since I discovered it was okay I am writing a second flash 55 which will be a continuous story but a complete story every week. Here then is the fortieth chapter in the exciting ongoing adventures of Sir Laughsalot and Robberhood.

The entire story to date is HERE
The most recent chapters are HERE

Sir Laughsalot was coming back with a dragon head.

Shining Knight was out on a quest.
It was night so Day Knight was not a Knight
Nite Kinght was sleeping soundly.
Robberhood's men broke into the Castle and took the King's crown, jewels, and clothes .
Left the King in his underwear.
He was so embarrassed.

Word Saving

2010-01-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Town Council met last night to begin finalizing the annual snowmobile races which are set to begin Saturday February 13. As usual the first race will begin at the town hall and then take the Bullfrog Juppola trail out to the Lake of the Loon’s and back. Snowmobiles will be sent out at ten minute intervals. Winning will depend on total elapsed time out and back. Then on Sunday the excitement will move to the Lake of the Loons and a fifty lap traditional head to head race. Mrs. Trumble has arranged for two great trophies to be presented to the winner and there is a cash prize of $500 also donated by Mrs. Trumble.
Eino was asked if he thought a local person had a chance of winning this year and he answered “ A local person will win when the devil rides to work on a snowmobile”. Then he reminded people that the snowmobile makers send in teams of highly trained people with souped up power machines and one of those always wins.
Neil Larson’s boy Norman thinks Eino is wrong. This year he will win one or the other of the races and possibly both. He has been busy all year upgrading his machine and is convinced it can go head to head with anything out there. He even has a lace in his room for the trophy. His dad believes in him and is putting up the $50 entry fee.

This is the day I usually do a story with Quilly’s words. But Quilly is busy with her move from Hawaii to Washington State and hasn’t said when or if Quilly’s words will return.
( This post was entered by auto post. I had such trouble with my computer yesterday that I didn't get to do much blog visiting. It seems Quilly is back and next Thursday her word game starts again. Sorry I missed that information)
The whole idea of bringing back old words seems to me like a good one. I’m not sure we accomplished that with Quilly’s words. We did our day of stories and then they went back on the historical trash pile.
But at least we gave them a moment in the sun.
So no matter what Quilly does. I intend to try another approach.
Every Monday I will reach into the past and pull forward one word. I will then use that word somewhere in my blog every day until the following Monday.
I will invite you to use it as well. If your willing just leave a comment on that Monday saying “ I’m in” The dragons will then monitor your blog all week long and they have a special award for the person they think did the best.

So if your interested check in on Monday and as Jackie Gleason used to say “ Away we go”

Pigeon Falls and My Life

2010-01-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Poor Chief Ican sits in his office and goes over and over in his mind how he lost Vanbderbolt. The more he goes over it the more impossible it seems. The prisoner was in the little bathroom on the train. The door was locked from the inside. Chief Ican watched the door and finally kicked it in only to find nobody in the room. He has gone over the walls with great care. There were no windows. The roof seemed solid. There was no way out but he was gone. Did this crazy man somehow hypnotize him? That made even less sense. He had no chance to drug the Chief. The only conclusion Chief Ican could come up with is that what happened couldn’t have happened. But it did.
“ Perhaps”, he thought” it is time for me to retire. What good is a police chief that can be outfoxed by a crazy person?
What made it even worse is they were trying to help the guy. Instead of just dumping him back on the road which was standard procedure in UP towns, they had fed him, gotten new clothes for him, and made arrangements to get him Psychiatric help. So Ican felt like he had failed Vanderbolt as well.

( This is a reprint from my March 26, 2006 blog.)

I read where somebody in Las Vegas found a body under the bed in his hotel room. It reminded me of the time in my ministry I thought I found a body in the closet of the church.
When the Intern, the Secretary, and I came in that morning we found that someone had gone through the nursing home Christmas gifts. We felt that it was probably one of the Confirmands. We blamed them for everything.
That’s when I decided I needed a book from the corner closet.
Now our church didn’t have a lot of storage so the closet was used for books, quilts, junk, and an old carpet. When I went to get the book I first tried to kick the carpet out of my way ( I was in a hurry).
Suddenly a leg popped out of the carpet.
Now seminary had not prepared me for this. (Not that it prepared me for much of anything in the parish)
So I did what any reasonable brave pastor would do.
I went and got the intern from the office. I told him I thought there was a body in the closet and would he check it out. What are interns for if not to check on bodies?
He came running back saying that the body was sitting up and it had a knife. The secretary called the police.
The intern and I watched the closet door (The closet was on the other end of the fellowship hall). Suddenly the door opened and out came this wild apparition. He had on several suit coats, an overcoat, a wing tipped shoe, and a swamper.(a boot) He was holding a very large knife.
That’s when the policeman arrived. Then I really got scared. He had trouble getting his gun out of his holster. I thought he was going to shoot himself in the foot. But eventually he got it out and ordered our guest to put down his knife. Which he promptly did.
It seems he had spent the night in the church using the carpet for a bed. He had opened an eaten all the candy in the Christmas packages. He had also lifted a few pair of socks and some powder.
If he had checked in the office we would have put him up at a motel and paid for a good meal at the local restaurant. We would have arranged for St. Vincent De Paul to provide some new boots that matched. So we didn’t press charges. The policeman took him to the edge of town and turned him loose.
We kept the knife.
I always was a little nervous about that closet after that.

Portrait of Words

2010-01-19T01:00:00.000-08:00

Poor Nancy has now heard at least ten different versions of the incident at Last Lutheran and what happened afterward. In one Pastor Joan is stabed and taken to the Clinic. In another she karate chops the knife out of the hand of the intruder and holds him while Chief Ican is called.
Her favorite is where the secretary shoots the man in the face with the fire extinguisher causing him to drop the knife.
Small town have a way of enlarging events in their retelling. They add just a little to make it more exciting in the telling.
The story of Chief Ican losing the guy on the train hasn’t had much time to circulate and already the facts have changed a bit. In the latest version Chief Ican was looking right at the criminal when there was a puff of smoke and he was gone. All that was left was a little pile of ash. Chief Ican, according to this version, thinks it was spontaneous combustion.
Nancy likes all the stories and is a good listener. She knows stories sell a lot of coffee and saffron buns. People would feel guilty coming to tell her the story without buying something.

A Picture Story from Portrait of Words

Clown University

This is Horatio Clam University
It has a huge football field and a mediocre team.
It would like to have a nationally ranked team but that will never happen because it is located way back in the woods of Upper Michigan.
Despite plenty of recruiting money they just can't attract quality players. One of the coaches commented the other day that "the day one our quarterbacks makes it to the NFL the Devil will ride to work on a snow mobile. We haven't even had a victory parade in years"

So good old Horatio Clam will never be known as a producer of great football players. It does have one distinction though. The top clowns in the country have come from Horatio.
They don't put that in their brochures but its true. THe top clowns in the three top circuses in the country graduated from Horatio. That funny clown that is the center of the "Little Red Car TV show graduated from there.
They don't have a school for clowns and their drama department is at best mediocre so the only reason anyone can give for this phenomenon is that there is so little to do in the town where the University is located that the students spend a lot of time clowning around.

The Devil Rides

2010-01-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

This morning everything was ready to send Gerald Vanderbolt III to the Psychiatric Facility in Texas.
Chief Ican had all the documents he needed for the committal.
Mrs. Trumble had arranged with a friend to have a private plane ready at the Iron Mountain airport to fly them to the private airport of the center.
Chief Ican took Gerald on the morning milk train and they left for Iron Mountain.
That’s when it happened. Gerald said he had to go to the bathroom. Chief Ican stationed himself outside the door and waited for him to come out but he didn’t. After fifteen minutes Ican knocked on the door and there was no response. . Now he was afraid Gerald might be trying to kill himself .
There being no conductor and Ican having no key he kicked the door open. There was nobody in the little room. Gerald had vanished.
A careful examination of the rest room clearly showed there was no other way out and no window. There was no way he could have gotten out of that rest room except through the door and he didn’t come through there. He had simply vanished.
Chief Ican was bewildered but he thought “ At least we don’t have to worry about Vanderbolt again. He won’t be back.”
Every once in a while I get a real crazy idea.
Something just seems to lodge in my head.
This time it’s a new phrase that Argent's last wordzzle created in my head.

When the Devil rides to work on a snow mobile.

It would replace the old “ When hell freezes over”.

It’s new. Its lighter. It has a better feel but it means the same thing.

Suppose, for example, you were a liberal Democrat and somebody asked are you going to vote for Sarah Palin in the next Presidential election?
You could respond “ Ya sure when the devil rides to work on a snow mobile.”

Or if you were a conservative Republican and somebody asked if you intended to vote for Obama the next time around.
You could respond “ Ya sure when the devil rides to work on a snow mobile.”

What I want to do is get the phrase out into general usage.
I need you to put it on your blog with a call to replace “ When Hell freezes over with it”
This is our chance to create an idiom.

Come join me.

Don't wait until " The Devil rides to work on a snow mobile."

2nd after Epiphany

2010-01-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

Pastor Joan has finished her sermon for the day. Here is part of that sermon.
“ When I was a little girl we would have big family gatherings at the holidays. There was lots of eating and drinking and all the cousins got to play with each other. It was great.
At every gathering just before we ate my Aunt Doris would remind us we needed to say table grace. Then she would pray that God would bless our food and bless our gathering by his presence. Several times I heard my uncle Fred say that the celebrations were more fun before his sister Doris got religion and put a damper on everything with this God talk.
Some time ago I was at a wedding reception in which I was asked to open the celebration with prayer. It felt right. Most of the time, however, I am invited to the reception but expected to stay out of the way. The God stuff was for the wedding but the reception didn’t need God nor I suspect want Him.
This is sad because as seen in today’s gospel God wants to add to te joy of our good times. He wants to fill them with extra joy. More joy than we have a right to expect.
But we invite God only into our troubled times , sickness, death, family problems. We want God when something needs fixing but otherwise He should leave us alone.
So we lose out.
We miss the really great abundant joy that could be ours.
Think of that at your next celebration.
Invite God in.

Today liturgical churches that use the common lectionary are celebrating the Second Sunday after the Epiphany. The gospel for the Sunday is John is John 2:1-11.
In that time in Church History when theologians and preachers looked at every text in terms of the symbols, open and hidden, it contained this text was a gold mine .It had
The number 6 which was a number for incompleteness.
The phrase “ On the third day” mirroring the Resurrection
The phrase “ my hour” pointing to Jesus death on the cross.
The wedding feast itself , a symbol for the relationship between God and man.
And the list could go on.
I have read some pretty fantastic sermons from that period. Like sermons today they pointed to Jesus as the one who save us but today’s congregation might not understand them because they are not steeped in historic symbolism as were the congregations at the time they were preached.
Today we aren’t so much interested in the symbols as we are in the story.
This little bit of Jesus history is so real and gives us a chance to see the love of God in action.
Jesus was baptized just a short time before this event. With the coming of the Holy Spirit he has a clear vision of the mission the Father has given Him. He has been busy gathering disciples. He had to be eager to get going.
I know that when I was in seminary I could hardly wait to get out and begin real ministry.
So what is he doing at the wedding? Why isn’t he out training disciples or preaching?
The text said he was called. But first it says his mother was there.
Can’t you just hear Mary. “ These are our oldest friends. The least you can do is come to their daughter’s wedding.”
So he came. It was not where he wanted to be.
Then she tells him they have run out of wine. He responds “ Mom, it isn’t time for me to do miracles”
She, of course ignores what he says and tells the servants to do what he says.
I really understand this. When I did my summer internship in a parish near home I was having coffee one morning with my mother when my grandmother called. Mom said Gram wanted me to visit Mr Pemberthy who was dying in the hospital. I told her I wasn’t a real pastor yet. I told her I hadn’t taken the course on counseling dieing people yet. She told Gram I would visit. I did.
Such is the power of mothers.
Jesus then works a miracle and creates six big jugs of wine enough to carry to the end of the wedding and beyond. But it is not just wine it is the best wine.
I love this text because here God tells us he cares about the good times in life as well as the bad. He wants to be part of our joy as well as our sorrow. But in the good times we tend to forget God or put Him on the back burner.
This is too bad because when we invited God to share our good times they become even better. It is not just a good time it is the best good time.
Think of that at your next celebration.

Raven's Challenge 95

2010-01-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Winter just seems to drag on!

Chief Ican called County Social services to see if they could help with the vagrant but they said since he didn’t live in the county he was outside of any program they had.
Then he called County Psychological Services but they said they had only one therapist and he was booked solid besides the man needed a local residence.
So Chief Ican went and sat down with Mrs. Trumble and they came up with what they hoped would be a workable solution.
They faxed statements from Pastor Joan and the secretary to the judge in Crystal Falls. And then E-mailed pictures taken before they got him the new clothes.
He asked the judge to commit Gerald G. Vanderbolt III to a psychiatric facility for thirty days of observation.
The judge then faxed back a copy of the order promising to send the original immediately.
Mr. Trumble contacted the “New Beginning Psychiatric Facility” in Smallwood, Texas. She agreed to pay all the expenses and asked for a full evaluation and a treatment program.
All that was left was to send Gerald to Texas.

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle
This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: alternate reality, shadows, frantic, tomatoes, field, lilies, DVD, snow mobile, aggravation, music
And for the mini: grounds for divorce, pink panther, salutations, wavering, lasagne

The Mega Challenge as
The Ongoing Adventures of Agent 012

Agent 012 was back to work and sat through two hours of viewing five mandalas left by the mandala bomber. He felt like the confused inspector in the Pink Panther movies. He could find no common theme from mandala to mandala. In one plates of what could be lasagne are interspersed with white field lillies while in another tomatoes circle what looks like a snow mobile and in a third common salutations are mixed with frowning faces.. Every one of them looks like something out of an alternate reality DVD.
Agent 012 was told there is a lot of pressure from frantic AIG executives whose offices were being blown up to get the bomber caught. As it was they were seeing bombers hiding in the shadows all over the buildings.. They had stopped playing music in the halls because it only seemed to add to the aggravation.
Two hours later Agent 012 found himself in a tiny office in the nearest AIG building talking to the highly over paid executive. When he entered the room the man was on the phone saying something about grounds for divorce and not wavering in his determination to go through with it.
When he hung up Agent 012 ignored the call and asked about the explosions. The executive felt it was the fault of the media which had everybody all stirred up just because they got government help and paid their executives well. Fox News even made them look evil. He had a file cabinet full of threatening letters Agent 012 requested that letters be given to the Agency.
It looked like this was going to be a difficult case.

Mega Challenge Alternate Reality At Last

After years of aggravation and frantic searching he had found the doorway to an alternate reality. Following a local legend he had ridden a snow mobile to this cave high in the mountains. As the shadows lengthened outside the cave he found this huge room with a doorway in the middle. You could walk around the doorway and it made no sense for it to be there. He played his electric torch over all of its parts. It just made no sense.
So he opened the door. He expected to see the other side of the room but instead he saw a countryside with no snow and it was daytime not night. He could hear music but it was different somehow than music he was used to. He looked for a bit and then he stepped through the door. Near him was a tomato plant with tomatoes the size of basketballs and the music was coming from the plant. Looking down the hill he saw what looked like a field of fifty foot high lilies with such thick stems you would need a chainsaw to cut them down. As he watched a bird that looked like a flying dinosaur flew over and one of the lilies opened , reached up, and ate it. This was clearly a different reality. He put a mini DVD in his camera and began to film everything. He needed evidence that the world existed and the DVD was it.
When he decided he had enough evidence he turned to return to his world only to realize there was no door. It had to be there somewhere but he couldn’t tell where. He would be there forever.

Mini Challenge Home Again?

He had no idea how long he had been there. He knew that the tomatoes gave out an odor that kept predators away and he knew some of the edible things around him. He was surviving and still looking for the door.
Suddenly he saw an arm waving in the air. He rushed and grabbed the hand which then pulled him back through the doorway.
“Well fancy meeting you here Pink Panther”, she said.
Pink Panther was Angela’s pet name for him. Of all the salutations he might have heard this was the best.
“How did you find me”, he asked.
“ There was a GPS tracking device on the snowmobile and it got me to the cave. I figured if you could return you would have so I didn’t go through the door. When you didn’t return as scheduled I had to throw our a perfectly good pan of lasagne” she said. “ In some states that’s grounds for divorce” “What do you mean grounds for divorce “ he asked his voice wavering.
“Just because we’ve been married five years is no reason to think it can’t happen” she replied.
“Whose President of the United States , he asked.
“ Why Lincoln 16, the first clone to get elected in any country..
“This isn’t my reality “ he said “ I’m not even married”

Another Flash 55

2010-01-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

This morning Chief Ican was called to Last Lutheran by the secretary. It seems Pastor Joan found a vagrant sleeping in the quilt closet and her opening the closet door woke him up. He has a great big knife and is really scary looking. He took a swing at Pastor Joan with the knife but it failed to hit her. It was at this point that the secretary ran back to the office and called Chief Ican.
When he got there he found the man looking confused. He was wearing an ill-fitting sports coat over a Packer sweater , an old pair of jeans , and one swamper and one Wing tipped shoe. Aside from the swamper he was definitely not dressed for winter in the Upper Peninsula. He was still holding the knife.
Chief Ican took the knife away from him and then had a problem. What should he do with him. He could arrest him for breaking and entering, possession of a dangerous weapon, and attempted bodily harm. But then he would have to drive him to Crystal Falls and jail him there. Then when the trial came up he and Pastor Joan would have to travel on Winter roads to testify against him. When all was said and done he would probably be found not guilty by reason of insanity. There really was no system in place to care for him after that. All of that would cost time and taxpayer money and gain nothing.
So he put him in the local jail cell while he decided what to do.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55. Here is my first story:

Poor King

The King ran low on cash.
Desperate, he went to Croesus, to ask for a loan on the Diamond Star of the Euphrates.

Croesus offered him 100,000 dinars ."

the King protested. "Don't you know who I am? I am the king!"

Croesus replied,

"When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are."

Since I discovered it was okay I am writing a second flash 55 which will be a continuous story but a complete story every week. Here then is the thirty ninth chapter in the exciting ongoing adventures of Sir Laughsalot and Robberhood.

The entire story to date is HERE
The most recent chapters are HERE

Meanwhile back in Surewood Forest Robberhood's Merry band has come on hard times.
Since Robberhood's death at the hands of the Shining Knight they have not robbed.
They are broke and hungry.
Time to rob the rich and give to the poor.
Friar Tuckeredout will lead them.
They are not afraid of the Castle Knights.

Stray Thoughts

2010-01-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

With the magic child found and controlled Dr. Jim made arrangements to leave on the evening train. He had a call from a farmer in Iowa named Russel whose dog was possessed. He was going to see if he could free the dog with magic.
Mrs. Trumble thanked him on behalf of the town and presented him a rather sizable check which he tried to turn down. But she pointed out he needed money to go around helping people and some of those needing help couldn’t pay his expenses so this was for them. You just don’t argue with Mrs. Trumble.
Chief Ican thought that he was going to miss his live cartoon shows. It had in reality been an interesting time.
But now it was back to every day boring life in a small town. His big excitement will be breaking up fights at the Fly Inn Bar.
Unless Petrovich who has been silent for a long time drops another driblet on them.

I had no clear vision ( as if I ever did) of what to blog about today but I did have some scattered thoughts. I tried to group them together.

Scattered Thoughts– Group One

Health Issues

Betty and I got our H1N1 vaccinations. Thank God for Walgreens.
I saw my lung Doctor and have made a tiny bit of improvement ( You take what you can get).
Betty saw her eye Doctor and our Primary care Physician ( Used to be Family Doctor) and she is doing fine.
She has to lose a little weight. I have to gain a little weight.
She has problems with high blood pressure. I have problems with low. ( Love doesn’t much care about blood pressure compatibility).

Scattered Thoughts– Group Two

Things Happening Here

Got Christmas all down and stored away.
Have nine 0 scale engines on table getting ready to sell on E-bay.
Still walking fifteen minutes a day ( Thus everything hurts)
Am trying to contact an old friend in Canada who is having a rough time but I don’t know her e-mail and her blog no longer accepts comments.

Scattered Thoughts –Group Three
Almost Rants

Is there a blog or websight that explains clearly what is in the health care legislation. One not written by left or right. Announcers on TV talk as if we should know.
I thought that our President promised a clear open legislative process. When do we get that?

I Rant a Bit

2010-01-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

Яйця зеленого кольору і свиня

While Chief Ican and Dr. Jim were talking suddenly there was a plate of green eggs and ham in the center of the street.
Dr. Jim stepped outside and studied the apparition for a moment or two. Then he said “ I can see the magic trail where the spell came from. Come with me and we will check it out.”
Chief Ican joined Dr. Jim and they started down the street toward Petrovich’s office and Chief Ican felt sure it was one of the Petrovich children.
But he kept on walking until they reached the Lutheran parsonage. There they found Elijah standing up in his crib looking out the window that faced main street and watching the “Green Eggs & Ham” book play out there.
“This is your magic baby “, Dr. Jim said. “No doubt about it”
Chief Ican and Dr. Jim sat down with Pastor Joan and explained that her child had fantastic magic ability. Dr. Jim couldn’t really tell how powerful the child was because the protective spell over the child prevented him from getting a solid reading. But from what the child had produced he knew the child had great power.
Dr. Jim offered with the consent of Pastor Joan to put a protective spell over Elijah that would prevent him from doing magic. In effect the spell would keep the magic words from going anywhere. They would never be heard and hence no magic would happen.
Pastor Joan agreed and Dr. Jim cast the spell. He then wrote out a full copy of the spell and gave it to Pastor Joan. “ If the spell has to be removed any person with magic ability should be able to do so with this information. There, is a strong likelihood that there will come a time when the child’s power will be great enough for him to remove the spell himself”, Dr. Jim said.

Global Warming scares me. It really dies.
If the scientists are right and CO2 is the cause then we are in serious trouble.
What we’ve done and what we plan on doing won’t even make a dent in the amount of CO2 being generated in the world. AS fast as we cut back others are adding to the amount.
Thus the worst of the predictions are going to come true. There will be a massive rising of the oceans. There will be draught. There will be floods. Life as we know it will be over. Mankind will be hard pressed to survive.
If all of this is true then we are doing everything wrong.
We are like the poor old guy who lives in a drafty old cabin told that a hurricane is coming puts boards over his windows and patchs some holes but he knows the hurricane will blow the cabin away. But he has to do something.
We see the coming disaster and we patch the holes on the old cabin. Well we patch some of the holes.
It’s time to stop and ask where would be the best place to put our money.
Stop fooling around with CO2.
Start looking for solutions that will lead to our survival.
If CO2 is the problem we need to be looking at ways to get it out of the atmosphere not preventing it from getting there.
WE need to be looking at ways to influence the Jet Stream.
We need to find ways to protect the coastal areas , at least for a time.
We need to look at getting water to draught areas.
Perhaps we need to find ways to reflect some of that heat back out into space.
We need to put our efforts into surviving.
It will be too late when all these things are happening to try to find answers.
WE have a three or four year grace period to get ready in.
Let’s get going.
Let’s survive.

I Rant

2010-01-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

Here it is Tuesday and there has been no magic activity in Pigeon Falls.
Chief Ican and Dr. Jim visited the McGregor twins and ruled them out. There simply is no magic there. Now they are just waiting.
Dr. Jim has been given a tour of the town and couldn’t believe it has a poltergeist, a ghost piano player, dragons, people with super power, and a fresh water whale in the winter time. He concluded that this must be the center of some magic zone. He had read about that in theory but this seems like the real thing.
He would love to stay and study the town but as a Protector he might be called away at any time. Pigeon Falls is a low priority project.
Somewhere in Pigeon falls a child says

Яйця зеленого кольору і свиня

holder

I goytta tell ya them Science people got it all over us dumb flat earth lay people type guys.
Take this Global Warming stuff.
Dere was no question da earth was getting warmer.
I mean even us dummies could see that polar ice melting and feel with da poor polar bears.
But to make C02 da cause that was brilliant.
They had dis graph made by a computer and ya know it showed that correlation between the C02 and the warming. Ya it did.
Well it did for a while. But den da warming didn’t keep up with da graph.
Minor glitch they said.
Well even us dumb flat earth people know computer projections aren’t hundirt per cent.
But then C02 kept going up ( ve tried our best to stop it it) but da warming didn’t.
In fact for three years the United States got colder.
Now Europe got dat colder too.
At dis point us dumb flat earth lay people would give up . Possibly C02 isn’t the culprit.
Dumb us.
The Science is settled but the vocabulary needs dat adjustment.
So the scientists gave us Global Climate Change.
Now whatever comes ve can blame dat on C02.
If we freeze den its C02
If we cook then its c02
If there is a draught then C02
If we have a flood C02.
If we have a huricane C02.
If we don’t have many hurricanes C02.
Boy I’m sure glad that science is settled.
Otherwise us dumb flat earth lay people would be looking for other causes . Dumb us
We might think sun spots or magnetic shifts, or big cities.
But we can’t do much bout those.
We can fight dat C02.
I love dat Science.

A Tag by any other name stinks

2010-01-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

Chief Ican asked if Pastor Joan’s protective spell could have been placed on her by her child. Dr.Jim said it was far too elaborate a spell to have been done by a child. In fact he doubted that he could do it and was sure he couldn’t cut through it. But he did wqant to see the child because there was magic associated with the family.
So Dr. Jim and Chief Ican went to visit Pastor Joan. She was watching Elijah Hoop Castle stand up for the first time. She was so proud. They told her about the protective spell around her and asked how she got it. She said that she didn’t even know it was there. He explained that the spell was so good that he doubted she could be hurt by anything. He discovered a similar spell over the child.
After they left he explained to the Chief that the protective spell would keep him from discovering any natural magic ability of either Pastor Joan or the child.
Next they went to visit the Petrovich’s and found that all four of them were covered with protective spells. They were not as good as the spell on Pastor Joan and her child but they were still well done. Again they kept him from discovering if there was any latent magic ability.
So far things were not going well.

Before I start the meme just a few wordws about my health. I got to the lung doctor this last week and there was a slight gain in my lung capacity which is a good thing. I was hoping for a larger gain but you take what you can get.
The meme today is the result of a tag by Thom.I have forgiven him. I know he is a sweet biumbleheaded guy who doesn't know any better and that you just can't teach. So for him I'll do it this once.Here then is the 8 things meme

8 TV shows I like to watch:

NCIS
Daly Show
Late Show with David Letterman ( on playback in the morning)
Closer
Bones
The Young and the Restless
One Life to Live
Mentalist

8 Favorite Places to Eat & drink:

I-Hop
Perkins
Applebee's
Old Country Buffet
Sonic
McDonalds
My kitchen– the waitress is really cute
The TV room– Same waitress

8 Things I Look Forward To:

Warm Days
The End of snow
Church
Visits from the Grand Kids
Getting up in the Morning
Running the train layout
Betty’s morning smile
Jesus Returns

8 Things that Happened Yesterday:

The Sun Rose (thank you Lord!)
I woke up (thank you Lord!)
I went to Church
I got St. Mark’s Website up and running with yesterday’s pictures
I walked my fifteen minutes
I started a new design for St. Mark’s
Rejoiced over the fact that all the Christmas decorations were stored.
Kissed Betty

8 Things I Love About Winter:

It's only 3 more months til SPRING!
Christmas which really should be in April
New Years
Fires in the fireplace
Looking out at snow from a warm house.
The majority of programs aren’t reruns.
Sales
Hibernation

8 Things I Am Passionate About:

Jesus, my Savior
Love of my family
Love of my friends
My church
Helping people less fortunate than me.
Truth
Forgiveness
God’s Grace

8 Words/Phrases I Often Use:

What?
This stupid hearing aid isn’t working.
Huh?
You said what?
But I heard…
My sister called.
I hate tags.
Grasshoppers

8 Things I Learnt from the Past:

Love God.
Thank Him for all good things.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Smiles are free, and easy to give.
Look for the good in everybody..
Share.
It takes less energy to be nice than to be mean.
SING! (whether ya can or not)

8 Reasons I don’t do tags

People don’t need the aggravation
It is not an honor
If they want to do the meme let them
It is too hard to decide who to inconvenience
I like people
People feel guilted when tagged so they mutter through them.
I‘m lazy.
It‘s a Linna rule..

2010-01-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

Pastor Joan sits in her office at Last Lutheran and puts the finishing touch on her sermon . Here is an excerpt from that sermon.
“ On election night we wait for the announcement of who has one, in Soap Operas we wait for the announcement of who is the person separated from birth, and in Murder Mysteries we wait for the announcement of who the killer is. Announcements play an important part of life.
There are two important announcements in today’s gospel.
First John the Baptist announces that he is not the Messiah but the Messiah is coming.
That’s a very important announcement since people were beginning to think that John was the Messiah. John, however, knows what his task is. He’s a pointer. He gets things ready. But he is not the one.
Then there is the second announcement. This one comes from God. God announces after Jesus Baptism “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased”
The Father announces that the Son, the Word become flesh is his.
It is not some stranger that moves now toward the cross and the salvation of mankind it is the One that was there at Creation. What a fantastic announcement. What really good news.
There is one other announcement I want you to think of this morning.
When you were Baptized the Pastor made the sign of the cross on your head and announced “ Your name, Child of God, you have been sealed by the cross of Christ.
It was announced that you by adoption through the cross are also a child of God. You are not an orphan in the universe wondering who the Father is. You are a child of God. You belong.
The announcement has been made. What a fantastic announcement. What really good news.

In liturgical churches today is celebrated as the Baptism of Jesus. It is the Sunday after the Epiphany. In Western Churches Epiphany itself is centered in the coming of the Wise Men as opposed to Eastern tradition where Epiphany celebrates the Baptism of Jesus.
The gospel for the day is Luke 3:15-17,21-22.
As the church began to develop a theological framework to pull together all of the traditions, stories , etc.there were many in those formative years that believed that Jesus did not know He was God’s Son until God told Him at his Baptism. At that time He also filled Him with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
Many theologians from the early years of the Church felt that it was essential to our salvation that Jesus face a period of temptations as a real human being. For God to resist temptation would prove nothing but for God to put aside His power and knowledge and demonstrate what a human could do opened the way to the cross and our salvation.
Other theologians felt that Jesus didn’t even know after his Baptism. This was an ongoing argument that continues until this day.
I have liked this text not because of that argument but because so much goes on in it.
There is John doing his best not to get in the way of the message he has. He is the Voice of One crying in the wilderness but he is not the Messiah. From time to time he had to make that clear because people would decide that he was the Messiah. It must have been an awful temptation for John to begin to think that maybe he was the Messiah after all. Some of us , given the large crowds, the power of the preaching, might very well have given in to the temptation.
Then there is the Baptism of Jesus and the announcement by God that Jesus is His Beloved Son.
There is the good news. In case I missed the announcement at Christmas. God is now with us. God has entered our world. God is acting to save us.
You don’t get much better news than that.

Raven's Challenge 94

2010-01-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

Lung capacity up slightly, Good News

Dr. Jim arrived on the milk train yesterday and Chief Ican and he spent most of the day together. First Chief Ican described all the magic events that have taken place over the last few weeks. Dr. Jim got to hear about the chocolate bar rain, The Cat in the Hat, the nursery rhymes, and Mighty Mouse.
For the entire time this was going on Chief Ican hoped that some act of magic would take place but it didn’t. So Dr. Jim used the time to explain the different kinds of magicians and wizards one might come in contact with.. These are:
1. A person with no real magic ability but accomplished at slight of hand and then use of gimmicks to appear magical. Likely to be found in Las Vegas and on the entertainment circuit.
2. The same type of person that learned a few real magic spells and somehow got them to work. He adds these to his regular act and looks very much like a real magician.
3. A person born with latent natural magic ability. Later in life finds and apprentices himself to Wizard and learns the spells and gestures of the craft. Then he studies the old spell books and expands his abilities. After that he either become a Wizard that does good and possibly a protector or he becomes an evil Wizard and uses his ability to further evil ends.
4. A person born a Wizard. It is as if they come with all the spells built in. When others are doing second hand spells in Latin they do them in the original language which is like but not exactly the same as Ukrainian. They are very rare. Dr. Jim suspects that’s what Pigeon Falls has.
At this point Pastor Joan stopped in to invite them to super at her house. The entire planning group will be there and they would like to meet Dr. Jim.
When she left Dr. Jim said “ That lady is covered with the best spell of protection I have ever seen.

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle
This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: space cadet, silver lining, wood, turtle soup, minaret, ice, grease, sales, mandala, mug
And for the mini: broken bones, slide rule, garbage, Chinese, sanguine

The Mega Challenge as
The Ongoing Adventures of Agent 012

The year started out well for Agent 012 as his mother-in-law left. There certainly had been no silver lining to her visit unless you count how good he felt when she left.
He was sitting in the kitchen with a hot mug of wood turtle soup feeling rather sanguine when his son dropped the bomb. He wanted to become an astronaut and would like to go to space cadet camp in July. The only problem was that the best camp was run by the Chinese in China and he wanted to go to the best.
Agent 012 reminded the son of the house slide rule which clearly stated that you didn’t try to slide a new idea past a parent without the other present. But he did promise his son he would research the camp and then discuss it with his mother. So he used his sources in the Agency to find out what he could. It seems that this was not the best space camp but that was just a Chinese sales pitch. It was even worse several of the youngsters that went to last years camp came back with broken bones and grease burns. It seems some equipment malfunctioned spraying them with hot grease and throwing them against the wall. All they had on the spot to treat the burns was ice. The Chinese Government blamed the incident on a piece of garbage in a gear and gave assurances that it couldn’t happen again.
Before he could explain all of this to his son the Agency called on a secure phone to tell him they needed him to track the mandala bomber. He was called that because near where the bomb was detonated they always found a colorful mandala. So far the bomber had blown up two mosques and three minarets.
They needed him right away.
This was going to be an interesting year.

Friday-Flash 55

2010-01-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

AS Robert and chief Ican hoped when the Cat in the Hat spell ended the cat put everything back as it was before he came. Then the cat and things one and two headed out of town and vanished.
Chief Ican put his deputy in charge and went to spend some some time with his sister and his nephews and niece and of course with Miss Apricot.
As he came into the house Miss Apricot leaped on his back and dug in her claws. His sister though it was cute that her cat would play with her brother. Chief Ican , in pain, pretended everything was fine but thought “ Where is Mighty Mouse when you need him?”
If they were ever alone he and that cat needed to have a little talk.
His nephews and niece wanted to know when the next performance of the Cat in the Hat would be. He didn’t want to explain about the magic so he said that it was the last performance and the group has gone on to another town.
This morning Dr. Jim arrived on the milk train. Now they need the child to do some magic.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55. I wrote two versions of today's and couldn't choose so here are both versions:

Version One

The ancient Japanese leader
was no longer needed so he took a job as a lumberjack.
He was one of the best, as one might expect.
Then came the day a tree fell the wrong way and they had to cut off both legs with a saw to save him.
He became a

sawed-off Shogun.

Version Two

As they had a number of times before they sawed
the legs off an ancient Japanese leader.
They then filled his body with explosives. They waited for the old sitting judge to come.
They detonated the body. The official police report said clearly that the judge was killed by a

blast from a sawed-off Shogun.

Since I discovered it was okay I am writing a second flash 55 which will be a continuous story but a complete story every week. Here then is the thirty eighth chapter in the exciting ongoing adventures of Sir Laughsalot and Robberhood.

The entire story to date is HERE
The most recent chapters are HERE

Robert returned with the body of a big green dragon.
Its stomach had been ripped open by a gargoyle.

"Stay away from gargoyles" Robert told Sir Laughsalot " they are vicious"

Laughsalot drew his sword and cut off the dragon's head.
He had Robert flame his shield and scratch his armor and then he headed home.

Thursday

2010-01-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

HolderКіт у капелюсі приходить зараз

The strangest sight confronted the people of Pigeon Falls this morning. There on main street , highlighted by the lightly falling snow, was a cat with a very large hat standing on a ball and balancing a cup, some milk, a cake, three books, a Fish, a rake, a toy boat, a toy man, a red fan, and his umbrella . On one side of him is something called thing one and on the other side thing two. The cat is rolling up and down the main street bowing to anybody who goes past.
Chief Ican, on seeing the Cat in the Hat felt rather relieved. This was magic he could live with. This is the kind that has a beginning an an end. It does no damage.
But that’s when the cat rolled into Eino’s Garage and came out balancing Eino’s one and only Cadillac . This was not good. He doubted that Eino’s insurance covered being dropped by a Cat in a Hat. But now the Cat adds a sauna stove from Jack’s Sauna and heads toward Nancy’s .
Nancy sees the Cat coming and hopes the poltergeist will run interference. But the Cat doesn’t even come in her best pot flies out onto the pile. It hadn’t occurred to her the poltergeist might be enjoying this but it seems to be.
With each pass the stuff being juggled increases. The Cat added a table from last Lutheran, a statue from the Catholic Church, a pew from the Methodist church, a dollhouse from Wink’s Woods , and a pile of plastic dragons from the Kivi & Maki.
The pile being juggled is now taller than the Masonic Building and it keeps looking like the Cat is going to lose control and spill it all. Twice the car almost hit the ground but somehow the Cat regained control.
Chief Ican asked Robert to protect the items but Robert said that might not be a wise move. At the end of the book the Cat puts everything back the way it was and Robert was afraid any kind of action would interfere with that.
So they waited.

############################################################

It is a Quilly day. Time to take Quilly’s three words for the day and write a story
Once the Great God Super Science spoke and said:

There is Global Warming caused by green house gasses the science is settled.

From then until now it has been the task of the Super Science Priest to protect and advance this truth.
No other statement of possibility could be allowed as any other statement was clearly incompossible.

The evil forces of the fossil fuel companies sought to harl the poor dumb lay people so they could continue selling their evil product.
But the Super Science priests knew the truth . The science is settled. You could not harl them.
The Science is settled.

A few former Super Science priests sold out to the fossil fuel companies.
They said they had been wrong. There was no global warming caused by green houses gases.
The real priests wanted to thropple them but , of course in this age that is not allowed.
So they did the next best thing . They declared them to be no longer scientists because if they were a true scientist they would believe in global warming caused by green houses gasses because the science is settled.

When the science is settled you may no longer ask questions , publish negative papers, or demand to know the basic data.
The science is settled.

If a few scientists fudged a little that makes no difference.
The science is settled.

The good news for the true believers is that the vast majority of real scientists believe in global warming caused by green house gasses and that the science is settled.

Only three kinds of people don’t hold this truth:
1. Unreal scientists paid off by the fossil fuel companies
2. Dumb flat earth lay people
3. Evil manipulators like that fat radio guy.

But despite them the science is settled.

When you gather for weekly worship in the Global Warming Science temples. Remember it is your task to spread the truth and stamp out heresy. Only Global Warming caused by green houses gases may stand.

For Super Science has spoken and the science is settled.

Of course the dragons were busy today you can see them HERE.
If you want far better stories written with these words go HERE

Wednesday

2010-01-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

As the large cloud of chocolate bars hung over Pigeon Falls the group met. The question was how do you get rid of them without harming the environment. Ideas ranged from hauling them to a volcano and throwing them in to putting them in boxes and storing them in empty barns. This cold weather would keep them from melting. They could give them free all winter long to the tourists.
Finally Mrs. Trumble suggested they give them away to people who might like a candy bar or two but the budget didn’t allow it. She would pay for trucks, and railroad cars and send them out across the Upper Peninsula. Food pantries would be offered as many boxes as they wanted until they were all gone.
So the next day Robert lowered the bars into the field outside of town and volunteers brought every empty box in town and loaded them in the boxes and the boxes into the trucks and then the railroad cars. When they used up the last box there was still a small pile of bars left so every volunteer got to take some home.
Chief Ican told his sister , who is visiting, that one never though that chocolate bars could be such a problem. He really hoped the kid would hold off until Friday when Dr. Jim was coming.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a child says:

Кіт у капелюсі приходить зараз

Well here it is Wednesday and I still haven’t made it to the basement to work on the train layout. Monday Betty had to go the Doctor and the general rule is that you don’t go to the basement which has lots of potential things to trip us unless somebody else is in the house.
Tuesday we started taking down Christmas. I hate that but it has to be done.
Today I won’t get there because this morning I have to go to the lung doctor. It is a forty minute ride and that and the stress means I won’t feel like doing much when we get back . Besides there are still Christmas things to remove.
But there is always next week. At least the blog is working about the way I saw it.
The comments have been interesting. One nice person said she didn’t see much difference ( i.e.. The Emperor has no clothes or Much ado about nothing.) The differences, however, are significant for me. There is less searching ( sayings) , less writing ( separate story blog) and it all adds up to less time blogging .
I have simplified which was my goal. I have done so , hopefully, keeping the character of the blog intact.
I know there is Global Warming since I have been properly chastised for doubting but it sure has been cold. A couple days it was below zero Fahrenheit and to me that’s cold. I know that the countries big cold snap and Europe’s snow has no meaning but couldn’t global warming at least warm us a little?
Saturday we went shopping. We went to the first store on the list ( Office Max) and I said this is just too cold let’s go home. You try riding a scooter into the wind at five below zero. It took me an hour to warm up when we got home.
But this is called a few words so this is enough.
A quick addition. The Doctor's Office just called and he has emergency surgery so they have rescheduled for tomorrow.
One more addition. Because we had the time we went to the walk in clinic at Walgreen's and got the H1N1 Flue Vacination.

Tuesday

2010-01-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

Дощ бари

Just after he got off the phone with Dr. Jim Chief Ican looked out the window as the rain started , only it wasn’t rain.
Instead of rain there were chocolate bars of all kinds falling from the sky. In actuality they weren’t falling they were floating down and landing softly on the road.
Children on their way to school were helping themselves and putting them in their back sacks. People came out from the Fly Inn and loaded up with bars and bot Winks Woods and Kivi & Maki each took a box full.
But still the bars came until you couldn’t drive on the main street without crushing bars. Soon they were piled three and four layers deep and they kept coming.
The question was what do you do with them. Mrs. Trumble thought of using snow removal equipment to move them but she didn’t know where to put them . They were poison to dogs and some animals so you couldn’t just pile them in a vacant lot. What do you do with them?
Around noon with the bars now piled eight foot high they stopped falling but didn’t go away. They were here to stay. Now they had the full main street covered with bars to a depth of eight feet.
Mrs. Trumble called Robert.
Robert created an invisible net , scooped them into it and hung them over Pigeon Falls. This gave them some time to come up with an answer.
That evening Mrs. Trumble, Chief Ican, Pastor Joan , Herman, Tommy UK, Robert , and Eugene met to try to find a solution.

I was going to do a Portrait of Words today but last night I had this wild dream that I just had to share with you.
I was sitting in my study at the computer when suddenly this big head with no body floated into the room.
It was muttering something in German which I didn't understand ( my German is very rusty) and the English said " Off you go!"
A whirlwind descended on me and I found myself transported to an old farm, possibly in Iowa.
I saw the farmer by the fence and tried to talk to him but he didn't seem to understand English. I tried French and Finnish but he didn't seem to understand those either.
Suddenly the head appeared again . " Time to move !" he said. Back came the whirlwind and I found myself flying away again.
This time I found myself at the entrance to a castle.
The drawbridge was down, the gate was up, and the clock was about to strike twelve ( somehow in the dream that was important) and so I rushed in. But instead of finding the big hall of a castle I fond myself on a large plain facing two horses.
They looked like my childhood pony Tessie with tattoos or a paint job. One was bathed in a pink light and the other in blue.
The head appeare4d again and said " Choose and ride!".
I haven't ridden since the horse threw me as a kid and tried to step on me. But I picked the blue horse and somehow got on it. Immediately it began to run and then to fly and I was sure I would fall off and be crushed . But then it landed safely in a very strange amusment park. The merry go round had upside down men going up and down instead of horses.
The Ferris Wheel went down into the earth instead of up into the sky. Everything was just all wrong.
But then the head appeared and said " Ride on! Ride on!"
So I got back on the horse and away we went but now it went higher and higher and it got colder and colder . It was also getting harder to breath. I could hear alarm buzzers and bells.
Then I woke up . My oxygen tube had come loose and my wool blanket had fallen off. But I was glad to get out of that dream.But now everywhere I look I see that stupid head.

Of course the dragons were busy today you can see them HERE.
If you want far better stories written with these pictures go HERE

monday

2010-01-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

Herman got up this morning , took a shower and had breakfast. Then he decided to find out if the spell was over and he said “Shazam”. There was a bolt of lightning and there stood Captain Herman in his red super hero costume. Immediately he said “ Shazam” again and after another bolt of lightning he was back to being Herman. He was so disappointed. He does not want to be a super hero. He wants to be just Herman.
Up until that point he had told nobody that this had happened to him but now he went to see Mrs. Trumble. She told him that the town had an expert on magic coming on Friday and he might be able to help. But if the spell can’t be removed the town can always use another super hero.
They decided to keep Herman’s ability to change a secret and Herman ordered the DC Comic Archive Edition of Shazam , the first comics with DC’s Captain Marvel. Herman wants to know what his super powers are and what he has to watch out for.
Dr. Jim called this morning and assured Chief Ican he would arrive on the milk train on Friday. Chief Ican now is really hoping that the child will hold off until then.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a child says:

Дощ бари

This is the new simplified blog.
It will now always start with Pigeon Falls.
Why?
Because I like Pigeon falls.
The second item will change from day to day and sometimes week to week.
For example tomorrow in this slot will be my Picture of Words.
There will be no saying for the day.
Believe it or not these changes will cut the time needed for my daily blog in half.
I keep the things I want to do.
I have Wednesday and sometimes Monday and Tuesday to pontificate.
So I will be able to stick foot in mouth on issues like Global Warming and health care.
I have cleaned up the side panel as well.
What is there is now clearer.
Now I'm going to the basement to work on the train layout.
I'll visit your blogs in the evening.

2nd Sunday Christmas

2010-01-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
John 1:14

This Sunday is celebrated as the second Sunday of Christmas in the liturgical churches. The gospel is John 1:10-18. This wonderful text is assigned for Christmas Day worship and the second Sunday following Christmas for all three years of the lectionary .It contains another version of the Christmas story.. Here the Christmas event is seen from the other side. We do not see the little baby, or the manger, shepherds, or kings. Instead we see the Word. The all powerful Word that was with God and was God. The Word of creative power through wom the universe is created. Not a single planet, not a blazing sun exists that the Word didn’t share in its creation.
But now this all powerful Word puts aside his power and chooses to become one of us.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
That’s the Christmas story. God choosing to be a human being in order to save us.
God entering time and our history in an unbelievable act of love.
John says “ From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”
But the text is not all joy. It tells us clearly some will see the Word in Jesus some won’t. Some will instead reject Him. He will make them angry. In their arrogance they will have Him put to death and they will persecute his followers.
It is still the same today.
Some see in this Jesus , God. But others still reject Him.
They claim superior knowledge. They claim science. They claim reality.
In their arrogance they make fun of Christians. They insult. They persecute.
But then and now those who believe become the children of God. We receive grace upon grace.
I have lived a life of grace upon grace.
God invites you, if you haven’t, to step over the line and believe as well.
Come join the children of grace.
The Word has become flesh and dwells among us.
Hallelujah!

Pastor Joan has finished her sermon for this Sunday. Here is an excerpt:
“ At this point in time we are very much caught up in the question of power. We need power to light our homes, keep them warm, run our cars, keep our factories going, clear the snow off our streets, punish our evil enemies, and in more ways than I can begin to list.
So we fight over the power.
We don’t want it to cost too much.
We don’t want to be dependant on foreign governments for our supply.
We don’t want the evil nations to have the kind that blows away cities.
Power is a problem.
The good news this morning is that the greatest power in the universe is available to you.
This is power so great it creates stars and universes.
This is the power of the Word which is God.
That power has entered into our history and become a man.
That power is available to you this morning.
It is life changing power.
It is life renewing power.
It is free.
It is power to start over, forgiven.
It frees us from the sin that enslaves us.
When we believe in Jesus, the Word become flesh, we tap into that power.
It flows through us.
It cleans but it doesn’t destroy.
It pours grace upon grace into our life.
This morning is a good time to renew that power.
Put your faith, your life into the hands of Christ.
Come walk with Him.
Let Him power you.
For us the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Please ! Don’t be counted among those who knew Him not.
Come be the Child of God you were meant to be.

First New Year's Blog

2010-01-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights. ~Pauline R. Kezer

New Year’s Eve was quiet enough. I was sleeping by 9:00 and then got up at ten minutes to twelve and celebrated with Pennie and Betty the coming of the New Year.
I thought I was going to spend a quiet New Year’s Day at home working on my blog. On Monday the changes take place and I don’t have everything ready yet. But my daughter and my wife decided we should go to Peter’s for the day. So we went.
We did have a great day at Peter’s.

Pictures from that visit:( Click on picture for larger version)

Tomorrow will be the last day for this format.

This blog has to take less time so I can work with the train layout and get some E-bay stuff done.
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. The number one rule.

Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a child says

Створити супер Герман

Herman got up early this morning and began to get ready to teach the first Saturday Bible Class of the New Year. He really wanted this class to be special and so he had put a lot of work into its preparation.
For some reason which he couldn’t understand he woke up with the word “ Shazam” running through his mind. The local kid’s show on TV ran one chapter of the old Marvel serial every week when Herman was young.. He hadn’t thought of that show or that word in years, not since as a boy. Then he had said it over and over hoping to become a super hero like Captain Marvel, It never worked.
But today the word had just suddenly popped up in his head. The more he tried to concentrate on other things the more he thought of that word. It made no sense. Finally he thought “ Perhaps, if I say it out loud it will clear my mind”. So he took a deep breath and said “ Shazam””
There was a burst of lightning and suddenly standing there in your standard super hero costume was Captain Herman. Herman thought “ This has got to be a dream and any moment I will wake up.” He waited but nothing changed. Then he said “ Shazam” again . There was a bolt of lightning and plain old Herman returned.
At that point his wife came into the kitchen. She said “ I swear Herman I thought I saw a flash of something in here.”
Herman said “ Shazam”. The bolt of lightning returned , followed by Captain Herman. At that point his wife fainted.
Herman Shazamed himself back to plain old Herman and got some water to put on her face.
“What was that” she said as she returned to consciousness .
“I think it was magic” Herman said.” Let’s hope it wears off like all the other spells have. Then he went back to preparing for the Bible Study.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

Day Before New Years

2009-12-31T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. ~Oscar Wilde

My family has all gone home. Now during the day there is only Betty, I, and the dog. It is so quiet. I miss kids screaming, little helicopters flying, the dog jumping around, and all the activity of their visit. But I do have my computer back so I can visit blogs again.
My grandsons are so special. On the last day they were here Alex made pancakes for me for breakfast. That kid is a great cook. He and his father made a full batch of saffron buns while they were here.
Elijah made breakfast for me one day as well.
They did anything we asked of them without complaining .
This is not to say they are perfect. They break things, they fight with each other, they holler a lot, and have some other faults as well but they are special.
Now I am looking ahead to the new year and this blog.
There will be changes that will start next Monday.
I need to cut back on the amount of time I give this blog.
I want to get back to the train layout.
I need to schedule in some exercise time.
So for one thing my “ Story blog” comes to an end.
Certainly there will be other changes as well.
But right now I have to get the last of my Christmas cards and my Christmas letter out so they wi9ll reach people during the twelve days of Christmas and thus count as Christmas cards.

Сильні гризунів врятувала день.

Chief Ican looked out the window of the jail and saw a cat go flying by. He rushed to the door in time to see two more cats become air born thrown thjere by a mouse in a super hero costume. The mouse was taking on a group of eight or nine cats and not having very much trouble from the looks of it. The only good thing as far as Chief Ican was concerned was that they were not local cats and each one simply vanished as it hit the ground. The Chief was also sure he could hear somebody singing “ Here I come to save the day, Mighty Mouse is on the way.”
When Mighty Mouse finished with the cats he broke the basement window of Wink’s Wood and flew in . He returned shortly with a mouse in a live trap which he let go. That’s when Chief Ican went back into the jail and called Mrs. Trumble as he had visions of all the property damage the mouse could do before the spell ended.
Mrs. Trumble called Robert and he came immediately. He used his power to cast an invisible cone over Mighty Mouse. The mouse could fly up to the cone and then it would hold him in place. Robert told the Chief that he had no idea how long the cone would hold since they were dealing with magic. They had to hope it would hold until the spell wore off.
But the on the main street a set of railroad tracks appeared . A villainous cat showed up and tied a beautiful mouse to the track. Inside the cone Might Mouse was going crazy trying to get out. He was shouting Oil Can if you harm one hair on Pearl’s beautiful head I’ll send you to the moon. Oil Can Harry just laughed and an engine appeared at the far end of the track. Oil Can climbed up in the cab and the engine moved slowly down the track toward Pearl.
Suddenly Mighty Mouse was there. He stopped the train with one hand and hit Oil Can so hard that he flew straight up and disappeared. Chief Ican and Robert stared and saw the hole in the road. Mighty Mouse had gone down through the road and up the other side.
Then it all vanished. The spell was over.
Chief Ican said “ I’m so glad that was settled before Miss Apricot got here.”

Last Year Pictures

2009-12-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions. ~Joey Adams

The last of our year end pictures.
Pennie chaperoned the youth to the ELCa gathering in New Orleans and there she fell in a hole and sprained her leg.
Betty and I really enjoyed our visit to the local county fair.
We had Sand Cranes in our back yar, well almost.
Betty made the dog costume for VBS and the slime they poured over the Pastor.

This year we all went to Peter's for Thanksgiving and everybody came here for CXhristmas.
I hope you enjoyed our year in pictures.

Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a mother plays a DVD of old cartoons that ran in the Movie theater.
Chief Ican is waiting for his sister to arrive on the noon train. He hasn’t seen her or her three children since he moved to Pigeon Falls and is looking forward to the visit. Of course, she will also bring Miss Apricot , the family cat , which has never liked the Chief, but for the sake of family you put up with the little things. His sister is a widow , lives in Flint Michigan, and runs a little dress shop there.
The Chief is planning on taking a few days off when she arrives and will turn the magic watching over to his deputy.
Mrs. Trumble and Robert have discussed things that can be done using Robert’s power if the magic becomes a real problem and not just a cute diversion. The problem is they are working with a child’s imagination and have no idea what will come next. Each event has to be reacted to on its own.
Nancy is wondering if her poltergeist will be of help if the magic turns ugly. It might constrain a mythical monster or two.
Most of Pigeon Falls, however, has paid very little attention to the magic. People are busy doing after Christmas things like returning gifts and visiting friends. Some have even taken down their Christmas tree, already.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a child says:

Сильні гризунів врятувала день.

Last Year in Pictures part Two

2009-12-29T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. ~Hal Borland

Our year in pictures continues. The youth group under the leadership of Pennie did the flamingo thing to raise money and , of course, we paid to have our lawn flamigoed.
After Easter our good blogging friend drove all the way here from Maryland with "mom"and we had the greatest visit.
The Youth group held a tea to raise money for the New Orleans trip and Betty's table won first place.
The last three pictures pretty well explain themselves.

We tried the hanging tomatoe thing and as you can see the results were a disaster.
Life Fest was the week of Bree's birthday. She, her dad, Betty, and Pennie went to the big concert made up of many Christian bands.

More pictures tomorrow.

втратила свою вівцю

Залиш їх, і вони приходять додому

Yesterday Chief Ican looked out and saw this strange figure coming down the main street. The Child was dressed in what looked like a blue summer robe with a hood and carrying a large shepherd's crook. It was stopping people on the sidewalk and asking a question. Chief Ican knew it was the latest .bit of magic so he went and stood on the sidewalk and waiyted for the child to reach him.
When the child got there it said” I have lost my sheep and can’t tell where to find them.”
Chief Ican replied “ Leave them alone and they’ll come home wagging their tales behind them.”
Then the kid disappeared.
A few minutes later it reappeared on the end of the sidewalk and started up again.
Chief Ican went back to his office figuring the worst that can happen is little Bo Peep will catch a cold. It just has to keep happening until the spell comes to an end.
He did notice one odd thing. In the nursery rhyme Little Bo Peep is a girl but out on the main street the character is a boy. The little magician, somehow, got the sex wrong. .
Now the Chief has to worry about what comes next as they wait for DR. Jim.

Last Year in Pictures

2009-12-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown

AS we get ready for the new year I thought I would share last year at the Linna's with you in pictures. Click on the picture to get a larger one and see more detail.The year began with a combined Christmas and New Year's Gathering. We couldn't get together on Christmas so we put off opening gifts at the Fortress until everyone was here on New Year's.

Of course there was snow well into March. Then in April we had a new roof put on . It's guaranteed for thirty years so I don't think I'll have to put another one on. Then came Easter and Ella , our visitor from out East.

There will be more tomorrow.

Chief Ican has a list on his working board of all the children between one year old and five. There are thirty five kids on the list. He figures any one of them could be the child doing magic. By his reasoning if the child was older than that and in school it would use its magic in the school and other children would know. It would be impossible to keep that a secret. He doesn’t think a child younger than one would have enough vocabulary to do the spells.
At this moment for no good reason he is leaning toward one of the Petrovich twins or one of the McGregor twins. They are the right age and there always seems to be something magic about twins.
Nancy has gone skiing in Marquette and her assistant is running the shop. The girl is used to the poltergeist so it works out well for her. The poltergeist looks after her like a mother hen. Once when one of the Ghost groupies was harassing her the guy suddenly flew into the air , out the door, and ended up head first in the snow bank. When you have a poltergeist for a bouncer you don’t have to worry about law suits.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a child says:

втратила свою вівцю
Залиш їх, і вони приходять додому,

First Sunday of Christmas

2009-12-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature , and in favor with God and men. Luke 2:52

Today Liturgical churches will celebrate the First Sunday of Christmas. Note this is not the first Sunday after Christmas but “ of Christmas” that is because Christmas is both a day, December 25, and a season which extends from December 25– January 6. The Gospel for today is Luke 2:41-52. This is one of the few places in the gospels where we see Jesus as a child.
The story is interesting. The family and friends make their annual journey to Jerusalem. It was a time of celebration. When it’s over they leave for home. This is a large group and in such groups children played with cousins or friends and the parents often didn’t see them all day long. But when night came Mary and Joseph realized Jesus wasn’t there. So they went back to Jerusalem and looked for him. They probably looked in all the places you expect to find kids so it took them three days to discover he was in the temple. There he was sitting among the teachers asking them questions. Further we are told that they were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
Mary and Joseph like good parents immediately try to lay some guilt on him and ask how he could treat them like that. Parents are like that , first they are scared but then they get angry.
Jesus gives them a very strange answer “ Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Then he went home to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.
Jesus comes into the world as a real human being. He is also the Son of God but he does not know that. Knowing it would prevent him from experiencing life the way a real human does. Instead he has to grow into this understanding. This is one of those growing experiences.
Jesus loved us enough to put aside his nature as God and really be one of us for a good part of his life.
You might think that wanting to be in the temple isn’t really human at thatt age. You would be wrong. There are kids who experience the Presence of God in their life and they want to be in Church. I have had them in Confirmation. They are the ones who were there because they wanted to be not because mom or dad made them come. They were the ones that asked the good questions and listened to the answers. Jesus was human like them. He showed us what was possible for human beings even at this age as they relate to God.
God did this for us.
Then the text says “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
God became a real person for us.

Pastor Joan was ready to preach. She had prepared a sermon on the text. Here is part of that sermon.
“Kids will be kids” they say.
“ Kids will drive their parents crazy”, they say.
“ Kids are so thoughtless”, they say.
In today’s text Mary and Joseph are probably thinking or saying all those things. Jesus has caused them to become really scared. He has just disappeared. He didn’t tell them where he was going. They had to come back to look for him. They find him in the temple. They never expected to find him there. What is a kid doing in the temple.
We jump to say. He is God. This is the Father’s house where else would he be?
But you would be wrong. He doesn’t know he is God.
So why is he there?
He feels the presence of God in the temple and in the teachers.
Kids don’t do that you say.
You would be wrong again. There are kids in Youth Group, Confirmation, and Sunday School who are there because they sense the Presence of God. Sometimes they even have a hard time getting their parents to bring them.
These kids just like the child Jesus want to be where the people of God gather .
And the miracle of faith goes on.
Praise God.

The Night of Christmas

2009-12-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan

What do you post on the day after Christmas when you are getting the post ready two days before Christmas?
I know my grandsons will be sleeping in the computer room. I know I won't have time to do much blogging while they are here. So what do I do.
I will rerun the stupid poem I wrote last year. It will become my classic day after Christmas post.

Twas the Night of Christmas ( by Dr. John -more or less)

Twas the night of Christmas and All through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

The stockings were flung by the wall without care
The loot that was in them , no longer there

The children were sleeping all snug on the floor
Having played with their legos, Barbies and more

And I in my ice pack and ma in her wrap
Had just settled down for a short little nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I crawled from the couch to see what was the matter.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

They hung in space not moving a lick
Held in the hand of our neighbor old Nick

He was screaming and hollering and calling by name
The reindeer of Santa thinking he was the same

Now Happy! now, Dopey! now Rudolph and Pixen,
On Cupid! on Sneezy! on Dunder and Bitsun!

So up to the house top the sleigh he threw
Then opened my door and came in too.

He was dressed all in red from his head to his foot
And his boots were covered with ashes and soot.

A bag of garbage he had flung on his back
He looked like a shopper opening his sack.

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
And the beard on his chin had pieces of berry

He was perfectly soused a right jolly old elf
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself

But the pain that was growing so large in my head
Demanded that I go quickly to bed

So laying a finger aside of my nose
And giving a push out the door he goes.

But I heard him exclaim as he staggered from sight
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

There you have it . A true Christmas classic. Now I need a good illustrator.

Christmas in Pigeon Falls was very quiet.
No new magic apparitions appeared which the Chief was really thankful for.
The gathering at Mrs. Trumble’s home went very well. Tommy UK could not have been happier. His adoptive parents brought pictures of Tommy’s Christmases to share with Mrs. Trumble and Robert. They even had some old videos. It really was a special time.
Tommy TW gave Nancy the usual Christmas gift, three days at Marquette Mountain and they left this morning for three days of skiing .
The ghost piano played selections from the Nutcracker as it did last year.
Petrovich and family went to Church in Iron Mountain since her parents were here and Iron Mountain had the closest Orthodox Church even if it was Greek instead of Russian.
After the very poorly attended Christmas day service Pastor Joan spent the day with her husband and son. It ws just a nice family day.
Herman surprised his wife with a beautiful new necklace. The old Herman never did things like that.
It the midst of all the quiet the usual families had their usual fights but none wild enough to call out Chief Ican or the deputy.
Chief Ican had Christmas dinner at Mrs. Trumble’s by invitation and spent the rest of the day watching television.
Nancy closed the coffee shop and the poltergeist seemed to have taken the day off.
Just a nice quiet Pigeon Falls Christmas.

Christmas Day

2009-12-25T01:00:00.000-08:00

Betty and I and all of the dragons at the Fortress wish you;

From everybody in Pigeon Falls :

Need Tos

2009-12-24T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

I sit here this morning with a whole pile of “ we still need to” in front of me.
We still need to finish wrapping gifts.
We still need to get the rest of the Christmas food.
We still need to get the guest rooms ready.

We still need to vacuum the living room and get the dog hair.
We still need to make saffron buns.
We still need to mail out some Christmas cards.

We still need to shovel out Mary and Joseph.
I am becoming Christmas stressed.
So what will we do?

We will finish wrapping gifts. Pennie is off and she will help.
We will make one more trip to the grocery store for food.
We will clean off the beds in the guest rooms as far as the rest of the room forget it.

We will vacuum the living room. The pet hair in the air bothers Bree’s asthma.
We will postpone the saffron buns and let Pat make them after Christmas.
We will get the Christmas cards out during the “ twelve days of Christmas”. Being liturgical has advantages.

Pat’s boys can shovel out Joseph and Mary when they get here.

There is nothing like a clear plan to handle stress.
So why do I still feel stressed?

For Chief Ican it has been like waiting for the other shoe to drop. He expects more magic but has no idea what to expect. There are so many nursery rhymes and each could be brought to life. In his office he has tried to visualize the problems a particular nursery rhyme could cause. He knows his task to be impossible. He may be getting some help as his friend from the FBI got back to him with a telephone number for Dr. Jim. He had worked with Dr. Jim on a case in the city and hopes he can help here. Dr. Jim is what one might call a sorcerer. He does real magic but has sworn to use it to help people. Having gotten the number Chief Ican called Dr. Jim this morning.
Dr. Jim understood the problem but he had commitments and couldn’t come until January fourth or fifth. Chief Ican saw that as light at the end of the tunnel and began making arrangements for Jim’s travel.
Dr. Jim did tell him something helpful. He thought the child would have to put the entire nursery rhyme in the spell so he was listening for young children saying long things. Dr. Jim says the child only needs some key words and the rest of the spell is filled from the child’s imagination. Thus the apparition will not always conform to the rhyme.
While all of this was taking place somewhere in Pigeon Falls a child said:

Сніговик на вулиці. Око вугілля, кнопка носа

Suddenly walking or dancing down main street was a snowman with a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal. You could hear a thumpetty thump thump, thumpety thump thump as he danced along. He waved an old silk hat and began pulling rabbits out of it .
Chief Ican went out to catch Frosty , thinking he would put him in the jail until he faded away. He hollered at Frosty “ Stop”.
But Frosty said “ Catch me if you can” and threw a rabbit at him while bouncing off, thumpetty thump thump.
“ Wonderful”, Chief Ican thought “ Now I’m part of the stupid song.”
Frosty stayed out of the grasp of the good Chief and kept dropping rabbits. Chief Ican wondered if a taser would have any effect on him but then decided it wouldn’t. So he went back to his office to wait the end of the spell. It had to come soon as there were now so many rabbits you couldn't drive on main street.

Things I Enjoy

2009-12-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.
~Charles Dickens

Lou at Subdural Flow tagged me with this meme and I agreed to do it, with the provision that I tag nobody.If you want to do the meme feel free. Just list five things you enjoy.

Five Things I enjoy.

1. I enjoy reading. At this moment I am reading two books. One is my in the car book for when I’m waiting for Betty or Pennie who are just running in for a minute and the other is my when I get a spare moment in the house book. The car book has three old time Ellery Queen Detective stories and the house book has three Diana Tregarde stories which are more fantasy oriented.

2. I enjoy visits from my grandchildren and sharing family stories with them.

3. I enjoy going to Church. I enjoy the fellowship, the music, the sermon, and just being there. Any week my health keeps me from going I feel cheated.

4. I really enjoy my electric scooter. It gives me freedom. I can zip around Wal Mart or any store with my oxygen tank in the basket and not have somebody push me in a wheelchair. In he wheel chair you go were they push you in my scooter I go where I want.

5. I enjoy blogging.. It and my electric train layout give me something to do in my retirement. Without blogging I would be bored out of my skull. Then there is the bonus of all the nice people I have me on line.. From the time I got out of the hospital until now blogging has opened new worlds to me.

Покладіть кота в воду отвір - Джон Грін

Yesterday at around noon Chief Ican saw a well suddenly appear on main street. “Here we go again”.He thought.
Then a boy dressed in green came up to the well with a cat and threw it in. Soon after a fat boy came and pulled the cat out shaking a finger at the boy in green. Then they vanished and it started over again.
The Chief remembered the nursery rhyme that started :
“Ding Dong Dell
Pussy’s in the well.”
He also knew that in due time the entire well would just fade away. His problem was that it was right in the middle of the town’s one street. With the boys coming and going it was blocking traffic. In the summer he could direct them to the unpaved side street along the railroad track behind the buildings but this was winter and that wasn’t plowed. So he got a couple of men and they pushed the well over to the side of the street. That allowed such traffic as Pigeon Falls has to move again. Of course that didn’t prevent Tom Sparnol from getting so caught up in the cat drowning that he ran into a light pole. Tom said it wasn’t that but his artificial leg got caught on the accelerator. Chief Ican accepted that explanation as he didn’t want to embarrass a decorated war veteran.
About four o’clock the well slowly faded away.
“What next?” the Chief wondered. He paged through a book of nursery rhymes. “So many possibilities” he thought. “ Any one of them could take on life on our main street. We can only hope the kid takes Christmas off to play with the gifts.”

Nostalgeia

2009-12-22T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat. ~Author Unknown

Christmas is a time for a bit of nostalgia so I have gone back into the archives for some nostalgic pictures.
This one is by request of Dr. Jim;

This is a Christmas tree from my childhood . The little girl is my sister Dawn.

This Christmas tree is from the parsonage in Trout Creek.

These are from the parsonage in Crystal Falls.

This from the house we owned in Crystal Falls.

But enough nostalgia.

Last night Robert spent some time with Tommy UK teaching him how his powers related to magic. He felt that given what was happening in Pigeon Falls he needed to do this.
First of all Tommy has the power to cover somebody with a cone of protection. It operates like a shield in Star Trek and wards off magic. The cone will keep somebody from using magic to hurt that individual. Once placed the cone will last for several months and then slowly fade away. So if he is going to protect somebody he has to remember to renew the cone every two months or so.
Secondly he can put a cone of power around the magician preventing the spells from being spoken. It’s like putting a gag on Billy Batson in the old Shazam comics to keep him from becoming Captain Marvel. The only difference is the person can speak non spells without any problem. This cone also needs to be renewed every two months or so.
The problem is that a really strong Magician will have protections in place to prevent a shielding. Then it becomes a test of power, yours against his or hers.
Now Robert and Tommy need to have Mrs. Trumble draw up a list of the leaders of Pigeon Falls that she thinks we should protect since we can’t protect everybody. Robert reminded Tommy that every time he shielded somebody it drew down his power. So he shouldn’t do too many in a day and he needed a couple of days afterward to bring his power up to full strength again.
Mrs. Trumble felt that shielding anybody at this time was not necessary. The child seemed to be accidentally doing magic and so it wouldn’t be directed at the leadership. It might be directed at a parent or a relative but since there is no knowledge of who they are they can’t be protected.
Very reluctantly Tommy and Robert agreed with her since they really wanted to do something.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a little child says:

Покладіть кота в воду отвір - Джон Грін

Christmas Meme

2009-12-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Spring, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition.
~Mignon McLaughlin

Saw this Christmas meme at Melli's and thought it would be good to do.

1. Gingerbread: For or against? Discuss.
How can you be against gingerbread? If you won’t eat it build a house with it.

2. Is it important to you to always stay (live) close to family?
Certainly. That’s why I moved to Neenah. ( You thought it was to get away from my UP relatives)

3. Which holiday pretend character do you wish really existed?
Scrooge, of course! He is the very embodiment of Christmas.

4. Which holiday movie best represents how you feel about Christmas or life?
Pick any Scrooge movie made before 2000.

5. Is there a particular Christmas song that you're enjoying now? Any that you're tired of?
I don’t get out and only play CD’s so I enjoy all I’m listening too.

6. What is your favorite way to remember those less fortunate at Christmastime?
By remembering them all year long.

7. Does it upset you to see "Xmas" instead of Christmas? How about "Happy Holidays" etc., instead of "Merry Christmas?"
No! I use my terms growing out of my faith and others can do what they want. Life is too short to let others upset me.

8. How many Christmas programs are you attending this month?
One

9. Are you dreaming of a white Christmas? Any chance of that dream becoming a reality?
You got to be kidding. If my Christmas gets any whiter the house will be covered.

10. Tell me about a Christmas present you received as a child. Pics are always nice.
I got a wonderful Marx 027 Train.

11. How many Christmas parties are you attending this month?
Not a single one. Who wants a pitiful old guy with a walker at a party?

12. How do you keep yourself centered on the significance of Christmas?
By remaining centered in the Christ of Christmas.

Mrs. Trumble is glad that Robert loved her and Tommy UK enough to quit being a Guardian of the Universe. But she feels bad that he had to give up so much. He gave up aging so slowly that he might have lived for a thousand years . He gave up the augmentation of his power losing his ability to detect and control magic. He also lost the ability to create a doorway to another dimension anywhere he wanted it.
It was good that he had powers that were his from birth like Tommy UK and didn’t have to give those up.
Now they are planning on getting married on or near Valentine’s Day 2010. The only question they have is should it be a small quiet wedding or a big community wide celebration. She is, after all the Mayor, and a big celebration might be in order. Plus the community has gone through so many bad things that a big joyful celebration might be just the thing it needs.
Petrovich finds himself coming back again and again to driblet 172. He knows he has translated this already. He thought it had already taken place but something keeps pushing it to the front of his mind. Whatever the force is he doesn't understand it. It's true they couldn't identify the woman or the twins but there were two sets born at that time. Either one might be the one from the driblet. Yet the force that usually drives him to the driblet that he translates keeps pulling him back to 172.

Fourth Sunday in Advent

2009-12-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Luke 1:44
Today the liturgical churches celebrate the Last Sunday in Advent. The gospel in the Common Lectionary is Luke 1:39-55.
This marks the end of the Advent season. We have almost reached Christmas. All through the season the texts have pointed us to the Christ who came at Christmas and the Christ who will come again.
I really love this gospel. It is full of wonderful images.
The problem is people end up arguing over the question of did this really happen or did the early church make this up. In so doing they miss the beauty of the text, the wonder of the moment captured her in fantastic images. I really wish that people who don’t want to believe would pick some other text to fight over.
Let us just take this text and savor the images.
First there are two pregnant ladies, cousins, who are carrying bhoth the Messiah and the one who will point to Him. Each of them knows that the baby she carries is special.
Mary has come to her cousins home to escape those people who will be upset by her pregnancy. She has come to hide for a bot.
But now a wild thin happens. Elizabeth recognizes Mary’s child as the Messiah and rejoices in the knowledge.
The moment is very special . Even the unborn children know it is special.
This is the first time Jesus and John are together in the same place. They will not meet again until John baptizes Jesus. But the meeting creates in my mind a beautiful image. The baby John recognizes the presence of the Word becoming flesh and leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb. What an image. John whose task is the point the way to Jesus. John whose task is the prepare the way for Jesus has already begun. This is a text to image. This is a text to feel.
But then Elizabeth responds to John’s joy with her own and she also recognizes Mary’s baby as the Messiah. Here is another image to be savored. It is another image to feel.
Feel the joy, wonder, awe of Elizabeth now standing in the presence of the Lord of the Universe. She understands the kind of faith that Mary had to accept this promised child. She knows Mary to be blessed and because Mary is there she sees herself as favored.
But then then the best image of all a Mary is so filled with joy she sings from her soul a testimony to God’s love. The song lets us see Mary as an instrument by which God’s love is breaking into the world. That love comes not through Kings but an ordinary person. The song reminds us that the God of Israel loves the poor and the needy and this Messiah comes for them as well.
I have always felt this text was best preached on by lifting the images and letting us feel with the people in them.
Take a Bible. Read the text. Try to feel and see what is happening.
It is almost Christmas and Mary and Elizabeth point us to the Christ.

Pastor Joan can’t help but wonder if some character from today’s lesson will show up during the service as John the Baptist did last week. But she has written a sermon and here is part if it.
“This morning I offer you the testimony of a happy baby. This morning a baby points us to Jesus .
I’m not talking about the kids in the Sunday School Pageant. They tried to point us to Christmas. The center of everything was Jesus but somehow we get so caught up in the funny things they do wrong and how cute they are that we miss the fact that they are pointing us to Christ.
No! The baby I’m talking about this morning wasn’t even born yet when he started his ministry of getting things ready for Jesus.
He was still in his mother’s womb.
But he was so happy when Jesus came into the room , inside of Mary, that he leaped for joy. The good news is his mother didn’t think it was just another one of those cute baby things but understood he was pointing. The one person who could know what he was pointing to, did.
That’s what should happen at our Sunday School play. We should see not the funny kids but the Jesus these funny kids point to. We need to become more like Elizabeth.
Now it’s not that Elizabeth didn’t feel her babies joy. She obviously did . It’s that Elizabeth allowed it to point her to the Christ. Every year when we put on a Sunday School Christmas program we hope it will bring you closer to Jesus. We pray over it. We put lots of effort into it.
In the end it’s not about little Suzzie who forgot her line and did that cute wave to her mother. Its not about Raymond who fell off the stage because he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to.
No! In the end we want you to see Jesus.
So we that introduction our Sunday School will now present their annual Christmas play. Remember what it is all about.”

Six more Words

2009-12-19T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase. ~Erma Bombeck

I don’t always check my facts.

Parents and children started lining up on main street at 9:30 this morning. They would have come earlier but it is a bit on the cold side. At 10:00 Toivo, looking just like Santa , showed up with his reindeer and his sleigh. He had his big bag of candy canes and was hollering out Ho Ho Ho. One little girl asked her mother if that was the real Santa Claus. A child somewhere in the crowd gurgles out:

Святий Миколай і сани піднімається вище будівлях зараз.

Suddenly Toivo, the reindeer and the sleigh begin to rise and he continues to rise until he is higher than the Masonic building. Then he rides to the end of the street turns around and flys back over the delighted children.
“ It is! It Is! The real Santa” , one kid cries out.
Toivo turns again and rides to just above the Santa house where he is supposed to give out the candy. The problem now is he has no idea on how to get down.
Suddenly he finds himself lifted from the sleigh with his bag and floated down to the house. It seems that Robert , Tommy UK’s father, was aware of the problem and used his power to get Toivo down.
Toivo handed out candy canes to awe struck kids . To them he was now the real Santa. He was there on the streets of Pigeon Falls and his reindeer were parked in the air above the building. Kids who had quit believing in Santa took up believing again. They saw him with their own eyes.
At noon Robert slowly put Toivo back in the sleigh and Toivo drove the reindeer in the direction of the Bergall farm. Just as they got there the sleigh began its descent and Toivo’s time as Santa was over.

Friday Fourteen

2009-12-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. ~Author Unknown

Click HERE to get to my 55s

What you are about to read leans on the truth and bends it ever so little . But in the process every Friday you will catch a glimpse of me.And I save the cost of a psychiatrist.

1. Didn’t get to see my lung Doctor so I don’t know just how well the new medication is working but I feel better.( Stems from the blizzard keeping us from driving to Oshkosh. )
2. Published a blog this past week with less than accurate facts and I feel bad. ( Stems from not checking my facts before publishing)
3. Please forgive me but I like Wal Mart. ( Stems from how nice they always are to me and all the clerks smile)
4. I am done Christmas shopping. ( Stems from the fact that I only shop for Betty and she does the rest.)
5. Couldn’t find the primary tree ornaments for this year. My Hallmark train ornaments, the train ornaments my sister gave me we couldn’t find. ( Stems from the sloppy way we store things)
6. Thinking of trees I remembered Grandma Mabel’s Aluminum tree. It had a revolving colored light off to the side that kept it changing colors. ( Stems from Christmas nostalgia)
7. I remember when Gram had a regular tree and during the family gathering her boarder Fred Wrigly knocked it over. ( Stems from his being really drunk.)
8. Looking through old pictures I came across one of my father and Uncle Donald in hunting clothes standing next to the old coupe with a deer tied on the side. ( Stems from the two of them often hunting together)
9. My dad was disappointed because I never became a hunter. ( Stems from my emotional inability to kill animals)
10. I am still walking fifteen minutes every day on the treadmill. ( Stems from the belief it helps my lungs)
11. I have an unhappy E-Bay customer. He thought the box I used as a backdrop was included even though I said the bidding was for two Lionel Cars. ( Stem from a need to state box in picture not included)
12. It looks like the family Christmas letter is going to become the family Epiphany letter. ( Stems from procrastination, plain and simple)
13. First we had a blizzard then the temperature dropped below zero so I haven’t been out much. ( Stems from Global Warming)
14. I have one gift left to wrap for Betty .It just came yesterday. (Stems from the need to have her out of the house while I wrap it.)

Chief Ican is almost relaxed. There have been no further living nursery rhymes and no historic people have shown up. He hopes the magic kid is busy building castles out of Lego's. He still doesn’t have a number for Dr. Jim . You would think his FBI friend could just crank the old number into the data base and the address and new number would come out. It could be that this is not a priority but a when I get a round to it sort of thing for his friend.
Toivo Jupola , that’s Eino’s brother is getting ready for his annual ride down main street as Santa Claus. He has polished the old horse sleigh. He has checked out the three deer he uses to pull it. They are real reindeer from Lapland. The rest of the year he keeps them out at Jon Bergall’s farm. Tomorrow at 10:00 he will ride to the town square and there he will give out candy canes. Almost every kid in Pigeon Falls will be there. Toivo looks forward to this all year long.
Robert Johnsen has explained to Mrs. Trumble that his power won’t find the magic child. He doesn’t have some kind of magic detector. He can deflect magic. He can neutralize a magician but he can’t pick one out in a crowd.
Somebody told Nancy they saw Mrs. Trumble kissing the stranger that’s staying at the Fly Inn. They further told her that the guy looks like one shifty fellow who couldn’t be trusted.
Nancy who know who Robert is and a bit of his history promised the lady she would ask Chief Ican to keep an eye on him.

Quilly 40

2009-12-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

I don't have to look up my family tree, because I know that I'm the sap. ~Fred Allen

It is time to share with you another of my favorite blogs.

Aims-Big Blue Barn West

The blog I want to share with you today is by a writer in Canada who loves New Orleans. She has great talent as a writer and at this time is sharing with us a fictionalized version of her life. It is so interesting that it would be well, if you have the time, for you to go back a week or so and read some of the other episodes. I don’t go a day without checking to see what she has written.

Well it has been quiet on the magic front today. Chief Ican still hasn’t been able to get a hold of Dr. Jim. But he hopes his friend from the FBI will get back to him fairly soon.
Last night Tommy UK’s birth father returned. He is no longer a Guardian of the Universe. The last thing the Guardians did for him was to give him a new identity. He is now Robert Thomas Johnsen’ They have fixed all the records so that if anyone checks on him everything will be in order.
He was born in California, he went to college at Harvard. He went on to Harvard Law School where he graduated with honors. He is licensed to practice law in Michigan. His Great Aunt left him money in Trust from which he gets $ 50,000 a year.
Now he is staying at the Fly Inn. Mrs. Trumble invited him to stay with her but he decided that it wouldn’t look good for an unmarried man to be staying with the Mayor.
Mrs. Trumble has invited him, Tommy UK, and Tommy’s adoptive parents to Christmas dinner at her house and they have all accepted. So Tommy will have all his parents together for one celebration. He expects it to be the greatest Christmas ever.
The rumor going around town is that the magic kid is one of the Petrovich twins. At least five people have told Nancy that it they are sure it was one of them. They remember driblet 172 and say that these are the twins from that driblet.
Nancy is not that sure . She knows they aren’t Lutheran and weren’t at Last Lutheran when John the Baptist showed up so in her mind that pretty well rules them out. She knows for sure that the McGregor twins were there and Pastor Joan’s child but there might have been more. At Last Lutheran kids are just accepted and nobody pays much attention to them.

Way to Go Nancy

2009-12-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

If you don't believe in ghosts, you've never been to a family reunion. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

I really admire Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
She knows how to play the game of Congress as well or better than anybody.
She has a ignore your principles for free card.
There aren’t many of those around.
But Nancy has one.
That means in this game she is free to impose a standard on others that she ignores in her personal life.
That is a very important game piece.
She received it because she is the Speaker and she is a loud spokesperson for liberal views.
So the press except for Fox News gives her a ignore your principles free card. ( Fox News of course does’t count because it’s a raving right wing piece of nonsense)
Mrs. Pelosi plays the card well.
She attacks industry for pollution. She attacks individuals for driving gas guzzling cars. She struggles to get laws past to make them clean up their act. She is heroic in her determination.
Well done Nancy.
But almost every week she flies to California and back in a fuel guzzling huge jet she had special ordered for her as Speaker of the House. Nobody questions this because she has a ignore my principles for free card. Good for you Nancy.
Of course she could cut down considerably on her carbon foot print if she flew on a Commercial Airline . But that is so inconvenient and she can’t lose that much time.
Then there is the matter of government waste of tax payer money. Our hero Nancy is quick to denounce it wherever she sees it. She was really upset that those bankers who took a government loan dared to give themselves a million dollar bonus.
Well done Nancy.
Of course the jet she uses almost every week costs the tax payer $120,000 in fuel. Multiply that by the number of visits she makes to California every year and the cost to the taxpayer is over 4 million dollars and that doesn’t count the crew salaries.
Good use of the card Nancy. You play well. I’m proud of you.
Then there is the question of minimum wage. It has no greater champion than Nancy. She clearly states that everybody is entitled to a decent wage. She lead the recent Congressional action that ended in the raising of the wage from $5.15 to $7.25. Way to go Nancy.
But, of course she used her ignore your principles free card here as well and got American Samoa exempted from the increase. Apparently those people don’t need a decent wage. By doing this she helped Del Monte Foods since they are the largest employer in the area and they just happen to be one of the largest contributors to her political campaign. This gives Del Monte a clear edge over its competition which are in areas that the new minimum does apply.
Way to go Nancy. Very well played.
There is no question in the game of Congress nobody plays better than Nancy.
Nancy I salute you.

Chief Ican is having trouble finding Dr. Jim the magic person that he thinks might be able to help find the child doing magic and somehow neutralize it. He is fairly sure Jim lives in the Houston area but the old phone number doesn’t work and he doesn’t have a last name. It’s not like you could look him up in the yellow pages under “ caster of spells” or “ magic people”. So he has contacted a friend of his in the FBI that has a data base with old phone numbers and asked him to run the old number against the base and see if it will give them a name. He is waiting for his friend to get back to him.
Tommy UK’s birth father is expected back today or tomorrow. Mrs. Trumble is hoping that he might have some ideas on how to find the child.
This morning a child said

Миша підбігає годинник
Миша тікає годинник

On the main street a tall clock appeared standing off to the side. Then a big mouse ran up to the clock and sat on the top until the clock struck one and then it ran down. This was repeated over and over.
Chief Ican decided that since it wasn’t blocking the street and it wasn’t hurting anybody he would ignore it. He assumed that like the other creations it would after awhile just fade away.
It did fade away but not before a number of women and one man were scared by the mouse. One lady was so scared she had trouble breathing. It’s not every day that you see mice that big on the street of Pigeon Falls. The fact that each time it started its run to the clock from across the street didn’t help either. It almost knocked one lady down.
A number of people , including the owner of Wink’s Woods demanded that Chief Ican do something about the clock. He was thinking of dragging it over to the jail when it faded away.

More Christmas Pictures

2009-12-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you. ~Kendall Hailey,

At the Fortress we are in a race to get our Christmas decorations up before Christmas. I thought I would share with you this morning how far we have come.
Let's start with our outdoor manger scene.
It had one good night and then the blizzard hit and now it needs to be shoveled out.

Coming inside:

Here is our Firplace all decorated.

That is done. I think.

This is our manger scene.
If you click on it you will see it is really three manger scenes.

These are our angels watching over the manger.

Finally our tree.
The star leans and looks as if it will fall off.
The ornaments are the leftovers as we can't find the regular one's that we have used for years.
Who knows where we stored them this time.
But the tree has ornaments, bead garland, and all the lights work.
You can cause the tree to light and rotate and the train to run from a wireless remote you can use anywhere in the room.
It is a fun tree.
Click on the picture to see better.

Eugene returned from the mountain yesterday afternoon. He went and talked with Mayor Trumble and Chief Ican. It seems when he got to the cottage Susan wasn't there but she left him a note.
First she had put a protective spell over Pigeon Falls to keep it from being sent back to the past again. That was the good news. The bad news was that she was gone to California to help a gypsy and wouldn't be back until early next year. It looks like they just have to hope the kid doesn't cast any really weird spells while they wait for her to come back.
Chief Ican said there may be another solution.He said " When I was Chief of a big city police department we had a man who was using magic to kill people as well as steal. Somebody put me in contact with this fellow , Dr. Jim. He was a retired college Professor who was very much into magic. He had even taken some kind of vow to help those that were being hurt by magic. Well, he came and we found out who the man was and he helped us capture him and control the villian's magic powers.
I'll try to contact him. He might think this is interesting enough to come and help us even though we don't have a villan since people could end up getting hurt."
Mrs. Trumble and Eugene both thought that Chief Ican should try to get Dr. Jim to come to Pigeon Falls.

Christmas Meme

2009-12-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

The thing about family disasters is that you never have to wait long before the next one puts the previous one into perspective. ~Robert Brault,

Today I thought I would share with you this meme I borrowed from Melli. Be thankful my answers are shorter than hers.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Last coupler of years Santa just flew over left no gifts wrapped or unwrapped.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White on tree, colored on house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Certainly not, never have. Next you’ll want us to hug.

5. When do you put your decorations up? After Thanksgiving when we finally discover where we put them last January.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Ham on a fresh baked bun.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Looking for Easter eggs. Wait! I think that’s the wrong holiday. I get confused. I’m old.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth? He hasn’t become a terrorist has he?

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? If the grandkids are here and they beg long enough.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? By hand.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Hate it.

12. Can you ice skate? On ice, with skates– No. Sitting down with the WII Yes.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Oh! Yes I remember it. I will never forget it.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Lemon Pie

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Eve Church service.

17. What tops your tree? A leaning star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Neither

20 Favorite Christmas Show? Old Scrooge Movie

21. Saddest Christmas Song? White Christmas – I hate snow.

22. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Away in a Manger

Mrs. Trumble and Chief Ican met this morning, early. They tried to come up with some way to find the child that is casting these odd little spells. So far we have seen Jack Be Nimble and Humpty Dumpty on the street , and John the Baptist showed up at Last Lutheran. This means nothing really bad has happened, yet. They are, however, afraid that something bad will happen and they suspect that their one day trip to the past and return was also done by the same kid.
Chief Ican says when Eugene returns they might be able to get Susan to come an help. She might know how to find somebody who can use magic like she does. Eugene should be back tomorrow or late today.

A child babbles in an ancient language
Поштові світло є цукровий очерет

When Chief Ican left Mayor Trumble’s office he noticed that the middle two light poles were now tall candy canes. They weren’t plastic painted candy canes they were real candy canes as tall as the light pole with a light on the end of the curve. It looks like a Christmas decoration.
As Chief Ican is walking back to the jail three deer come into town and start to lick one of the poles. The Chief wonders how many animals will be attracted until the spell wears off.

Third Sunday in Advent

2009-12-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

⁸Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. .-Luke 3:8

Today Liturgical churches will celebrate the third Sunday in Advent . The Gospel in the common lectionary is Luke 3:7-18.
In today’s gospel we run head first into John the Baptist and discover that he pulls no punches. What he wants from the crowds or to be more exact from each individual in the crowd is real repentance. He wants them to see their sin and be sorry and then change. He doesn’t want them to recite a liturgy, or belong to the right religious group> He couldn’t care less about their position in the community. He wants changed lives. He wants the lives changed on the side of doing good to others or at least doing no harm. He will settle for nothing less.
Just imagine you came to Church this morning expecting to hear that God loves you. The preacher moves into the pulpit and says “ I don’t care if your Lutheran ( substitute Catholic, Baptist, or what ever you are) , I don’t care if you can sing hymns at the top of your lungs, I don’t care if your grandmother helped to start this Church. I don’t care if you think you are saved by grace. I’m telling you this morning that God wants changed lives. He wants you to care about the people who have no homes, no food, no hope. If you really belong to Him lets see some fruits of your belief. Leave church today with some idea of who you can help.”
What a shocker that would be. Its almost Christmas and you came to church to hear a nice word, a comforting word. You certainly didn’t come to be hit by a two by four. You didn’t come to be reminded of all the people out there that you would rather pretend didn’t exist. You have done your best to ignore the requests for money from all the organizations trying to help the, Just last week you thew away a request from the battered woman’s shelter, the community food pantry, and the addiction center. Who wants to be bothered by stuff like that during the holiday season?
I doubt many preachers will be that brave.
But John was. He even called the crowd “ a brood of vipers”. He pulled no punches. He wanted changed lives.
Well the bad news is God still wants changed lives. The good news is that in Christ he will give you the power to change.
It is Advent and John the Baptist calls us to repent and change.
Will we?

It is Sunday morning in Pigeon Falls and Pastor Joan has begun preaching. As part of the sermon she points to an empty spot across from the pulpit and says “ John the Baptist confronts you here this Sunday” it was intend to be a rhetorical gimmick but there is a child n the church that sounds like it is babbling and it says:

Іоанна Хрестителя з'являються зараз.

There is a flash of light and standing where Pastor Joan points is a stange man . He has a locust hanging out of his mouth, and is dressed in Camel’s hair. He is one scary looking individual.. He speaks:
“ What we have here is a bunch of Lutherans. You think because you do your liturgy well and sing the old songs with such gusto God will love you. You feel comfortable here at Last Lutheran. It makes you feel good. Well I see you for what you really are, a bunch of sniveling cowards. You are afraid too do what God called you to do so you hide behind ritual and grace. You pretend you don’t know people are starving. Your National Church set up a fund drive for world hunger and what this congregation has given to it is a disgrace. Around the world people starve while you are planning your Christmas feast. Shame on each and every one of you. Shame!
It is time for you to repent and change. The special envelope is in your bulletin. It would be a good start. Then you need to look in Pigeon Falls for people who need help. The God who save, the God of grace demands this of you.”
At that he vanishes and the church is deathly quiet except for the sound of bulletins and pocketbooks being opened.

Six Words

2009-12-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Nothing's as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas. ~Kin Hubbard

Experiential learning can be very painful.

Standing in line a child tries to say something it heard in a book but what comes out is an old language that sounds like baby talk.

Велике Яйце на стіні
Ідіть вперед і падіння

Today Wink’s Woods had its Santa Claus day. Santa Claus had a special place in the store to visit with kids from ten o’clock in the morning until noon. Because there really isn’t a lot of space in the store a line of parents and children formed outside despite the cold. They were moving slowly in when the strangest thing happened.
In the middle of the street just down from Wink’s a wall suddenly appeared. It was four feet long and four feet tall. On it was sitting a great big egg with arms and legs and a really cute face. The egg waved at the children. One of the kids said look it’s Humpty Dumpty. The other kids looked and got very excited. For them this was better than Santa Claus. They waved back.
Suddenly the big egg leaned over and toppled off the wall. It broke into many pieces and seemed to be hollow inside. At that point two men on horseback showed up dressed like medieval knights . They tried to put the pieces back together using , of all things, Elmer’s Glue All. Even the horses tried to help by dipping their tongues in the glue and licking it onto the egg edges.But the egg kept falling apart. Then without any warning they all vanished.
The kids in line that were old enough recited the poem.
Mrs. Trumble called in Chief Ican and told him what they had to find whoever was doing this.It reminded her of some sequences from the TV show “ Bewitched”. “ If it is a child”, she said ,” We have to find it before its parent reads it a horror story or it sees one on TV. The town really does not need monsters on its main street.
Chief Ican agreed with her but told her he had no idea how to go about finding the child. Perhaps Eugene could get Susan to help.

Friday Fourteen

2009-12-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice. ~Author Unknown

Click HERE to get to my 55s

What you are about to read leans on the truth and bends it ever so little . But in the process every Friday you will catch a glimpse of me.And I save the cost of a psychiatrist.

1. Last week I learned and relearned some things. ( Stems from never being too old to learn)
2. I learned there is no use trying to argue with an angry person ( Stems from their having already decided the way things are and that your guilty.)
3. I learned that my intent in writing a comment has no impact on how it is perceived. ( Stems from people reading comments from their perspective and not yours.)
4. I learned that all that you have been and are has no meaning if somebody wants to see you as doing something mean. ( Stems again from anger and this moment blotting everything else out.)
5. I learned that they way I perceive somebody’s blog entry may not be how they intended it to be perceived. ( Stems from my perceptions and personal pain)
6. I learned that people will see things in my blog for the day which weren’t intended and aren’t there. ( Stems from their perceptions and personal pain)
7. I learned that we are far too quick to judge the intent of others. ( Stems from those dang perceptions and personal pain. )\
8. I learned again it is good to have an honest friend that will cut through the bull of a personal pity party and kick you back to God’s grace. ( Stems from there not being many friends like that. Usually they feed the pity)
9. I learned that minutes on a treadmill or waiting for the time to get out of bed are longer than minutes watching a soap opera.( Stems from the way in which we perceive time. I hate long minutes)
10. I learned that moving to Neenah did not set us free from blizzards . ( Stems from the stupid hope we would have much less snow here than in the UP.)
11. I learned they close the mall in a blizzard. ( Stems from no customers I suppose.)
12. I learned how hard it is for an old man who has trouble standing without something to hold onto to wrap Christmas gifts. ( Stems from wrapping Betty’s while she was at Bible study)
13. I learned , by reading blogs, of a lot of wonderful things people are doing for people they don’t know as part of their Christmas celebration. ( Stems from Christmas bringing out the best in us)
14. I learned again that life is the real university and the people around you are the professors. ( Stems from the way things are.)

Last night Pigeon Falls was hit by a UP blizzard. The snowfall could be measured not in inches but in feet. When people got up this morning they discovered that their power was down and the local phone service gone. There was so much snow blown against their doors they couldn’t open the door to shovel. The man who drives the town snowplow couldn’t get out of his house to get to the plow so that he could begin opening the roads. But if he had made it to the garage there was so much snow blown in against it that he wouldn’t have been able to open the big garage doors and get the plow out.
Mrs. Trumble awoke to find her town completely shut down. She couldn’t even get to her office . So she used her cell phone to call the man who drives the town plow. She told him that she was going to climb out the window and shovel out the back door of her garage so she could get her snowmobile out. Then she would come an get him to go to the town garage and together they would shovel enough to open the door and get the plow out. She then went looking for a window she could get out.
Befoore she could find one, however, the strangest thing happened. The snow began to swirl around and then it all moved like a cloud down the road through town and into the big vacant lot on the edge of town. When the swirrling was over, it took about an hour, the main roadways were clear, the tracks were clear, the main street was clear and people’s driveways were clear. Soon thereafter the power came back on. Sometimes it pays to live in Pigeon Falls.
Tommy UK was very tired from his morning exertions. He had moved with his special power tons of snow and the effort had exhausted him. He really wished his father was back and they could have done this together but he wan’t and so he did what he had to do alone. He went home and went to bed only to have his mother tell him it was time to go to school. That’s when he thought I should have left the school buried in snow. But he got up , had breakfast, and got dressed for school . That’s when the announcement came that the Consolidated High School which was not in Pigeon Falls was closed because of the blizzard. Tommy went back to bed.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a good mother is reading a book of nursery rhymes to her children.

Winter

2009-12-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts. ~Janice Maedite

I interrupt my usual Thursday blogging experience to bring you these pictures of our blizzard.
Click on any picture to make it large.

The back of the Manger scene.

Our Neighbor's house.

Ready to grill.

Our Roof

Our Back Yard

Since they didn’t really lose any time with their last visit to the past the town is adjusting quickly to being back. One could say that life is back to as normal as it gets here.
Yesterday this child shows up on main street and is definitely not dressed for the cold weather. He puts down a candle which begins burning and he jumps over it. He jumps over it again and again and again.
Finally Chief Ican goes out and asks him who his parents are but he doesn’t answer. So Chief Ican picks him up and carried him into the warm jail. The kid keeps trying to go back to the street so finally the Chief locks him in a cell. Then he goes and brings the candle in still burning. He discovers he can’t put it out.
The kid refused to talk to him so the chief called Mayor Trumble and asked her to stop at the jail and see if she can identify the boy.
Mrs. Trumble who knows most of the families in town looked at him and said she had never seen him before. She thought he might be part of some visiting family. But just in case he was local she suggested that Chief Ican get the school teacher of that grade to come and see if she recognized him. As Mayor Trumble was leaving The Chief stopped her and told her to look at the boy. As they watched the boy slowly faded away and there was nothing in the cell. The candle faded as well.

A Picture Page

2009-12-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home. ~Carol Nelson

Our house lights.
Click on picture to make larger.

Getting the train ready for the tree.

The tree not yet trimmed

Pastor Joan looked out the window and there was the good , solid, stone church she had come to love. They were back in 2009. As the day went on she would discover that though they had spent a day in the past they were only gone from the present for about ten minutes. They hadn’t even lost a day.

Mrs. Trumble had gone to the town hall as soon as she knew they were back. “ It was so nice”, she thought” “ to come into a building that was warm and ready for you and where you didn’t have to start a fire to get warm.
Shortly after she arrived at the Town Hall Eugene showed up. He told Mrs. Trumble he would go and see Susan an ask her to put some kind of spell over Pigeon Falls to prevent this from happening again.
Mrs. Trumble immediately asked who is this Susan and why not ask Annabelle.
Eugene , looking troubled explained.” Annabelle is dead. Susan is her daughter and mine. When she was dying she and Susan together cast the spell that restored me to the age I was when I stayed behind and put me back in Pigeon Falls. Believe me my daughter will do what she can for us.”
Mrs. Trumble responded “ If Annabelle is dead and Susan didn’t send us back then we have a problem. Somewhere in Pigeon Falls there is somebody else with that power. What will he or she do next?”
Eugene said he would talk to Susan about that today. Before he left he had one other thing he felt he needed to tell Mrs. Trumble about. It was Susan who sent Pigeon Falls to the past. She knew how it would all play out but she couldn’t change anything. The Monk saw it long ago and it was predestined to happen. She did what destiny’s script demanded of her. She was as trapped as the town was. Perhaps she was even more trapped because she knew that if she didn’t send them back she would not exist. She would never be born and the man who would have been her father would go on being just another drunk.
Then Eugene went up the mountain to talk to Susan.
Pigeon Falls went back to being just plain ordinary Pigeon Falls.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a child plays.

Liberal Fundamentalism

2009-12-08T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

[I]t is the one season of the year when we can lay aside all gnawing worry, indulge in sentiment without censure, assume the carefree faith of childhood, and just plain "have fun." Whether they call it Yuletide, Noel, Weinachten, or Christmas, people around the earth thirst for its refreshment as the desert traveller for the oasis. ~D.D. Monroe

Liberal Fundamentalism

When I was in Science class in High School I was told that the essence of science is to accept nothing as true .
Instead every theory needed to be challenged with more experiments and more information gathering. If this lead to long held “ truths” being proven wrong that was a good thing not a bad one. The true scientist did not have any truth that couldn’t be challenged.
Thus one did not lie to protect a “ truth” if you were a scientist.
You did not act to prevent further study and publication of scientific challenges to the “ truth” if you were a scientist.
You did not try to silence those who did not accept the “ truth” if you were a scientist.
Religious people might do all those things as they did to Galileo who dared challenge the “ truth” that the sun revolved around the earth.
But for real scientists no truth was absolute.
Well my High school teacher never met the scientists who believe in the “ truth” of Global Warming caused by CO2 emissions.
For this absolute given “ truth” scientists have:
Fudged data.
Prevented the publishing of critical papers.
Gotten a colleague fired.
They have defended the “ truth” as carefully as the Church defended it’s “ truth” against Galileo .
Now I don’t know if Global Warming is true or not. It may very well be but I do know this is not scientific.
Instead science has surrendered to political agendas.
Politicians don’t like things that might be true.
They want absolutes to build their legislation on.
Once they have hung their legislation on a “ truth” they sure don’t want it challenged.
So science sells out for grants, preferred treatment, good standing with the people in power.
Sell outs are always zealots for the cause.
It is time for the scientific community to return to science.
Dissenting views with their data and supporting evidence need to be published. They need to be answered not destroyed.
Data like the last twenty years the earth has seen cooling not heating need to be examined and explained.
Science needs to disregard the political and act like scientists.
Out of all this it is possible that the Global Warming theory proves to be the best available theory to explain all the relevant data but it is also possible that it isn’t.
Real science looks for but doesn’t start with truth.
Let’s get back to science.

Pastor Joan looked out the window this morning and couldn’t believe her eyes,. The old wood church was back . She shook her head. “This could not be” she thought. “ I must be having a nightmare”. But she soon discovered it was no nightmare but they were back in the past again.
All of Pigeon Falls was discovering the same thing. Mrs. Trumble went to the town hall where she had to start a fire in the wood heater to get warm. Soon she was joined by Eugene who had come because he knew she would want to ask him why.
“ Do we have to pay Annabelle again to go back to the present” she asked.
Eugene shook his head “ Susan had nothing to do with this but when she finds that we are gone she will do something to bring us back.”
“Susan! I thought her name was Annabelle” Mrs. Trumble remarked.
“ There are a number of things I didn’t tell you before”, Eugene said .” Right now we just have to trust Susan.”
Mrs. Trumble , looking confused said, “ Why don’t you just go up the mountain and tell Susan and get us out of here.?”
Eugene looking very sad said “ First there is no Susan yet. Second everything I read while I was gone says that if there was time travel and that is what we have here and a man meets himself the paradox will cause a massive rift in the universe. I am still up in the cabin with Annabelle and I’m here with you. So I don’t dare go up the mountain and we have to hope I don’t come down. Our best course of action is just to wait and hope Susan acts fast. ”
Mrs. Trumble waited for the other leaders and then they decided to spread the word that this was a temporary glitch and they should be back in the future in a day or two.
Pastor Joan went and told Nancy as the best method of spreading the news.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a little child having heard a number of adults say the same phrase tries to say it. It come out in an ancient language that sounds like babbling. Here is what the child said.

"Те, що ніколи не був
Те, що повинно бути ще раз. "
Which in English is:

“That which never was is gone

That which should be is again. “

Disjointed Thoughts

2009-12-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Really Rambling and Disjointed Thoughts

Disjointed thought one.

I need to apologize to the USA Network. On Friday I chided them for killing my favorite TV detective. All of their adds for the final show lead me to believe they were going to kill him. But instead, at the last minute, they found an antidote for the poison, the bad guy committed suicide , Monk found a daughter of Trudy that he didn’t know existed and the ending was such a happy one.
So to the USA network I am sorry ,I doubted you.
You are really good people after all.
Now the door is open for some feature Monk specials or even a Randy series where Monk could guest star from time to time.
I am happy. The world is back in order.

Disjointed thought two

Aquabibs of the world unite.
I am tired of being on the bottom of the social pecking order because my glass has no alcohol in it.
I am not a freak or a religious fanatic ( well I might be a religious fanatic but not about drinking).
I am tired of remarks like “ What’s the matter drinking against your religion?” or “ You think your too good to drink”.
I am tired of trying to make my drink look like theirs.
I have made a rational decision that alcoholic beverages are not good for ME. I have a long family history and some very personal experiences I base this on.
My not drinking in no way judges or implies that anything is wrong with those who choose to drink.
So please stop trying to guilt me or shame me into drinking.

Disjointed thought three

Shopping on line can be weird.
I ordered gifts for my nephews and their families from a good company. They were willing to wrap them ( for a fee) and ship them directly to my nephews complete with a gift card. All I had to do was fill out the addresses. But here they wanted two things I don’t have, their e-mail and their telephone numbers. I never e-mail them. I never call them. I send them a birthday card ,a Christmas gift, and our annual really dumb letter. All I need is their address. Well the e-mail was optional so that was no problem but the telephone number was required. So I called my sister but of course she wasn’t home. So I had to go out on the web and find the numbers , which I did. But that used up a lot more time than the simple task warranted. The company really didn’t need those numbers.
Well now I have their telephone numbers for next year.
Some good can come out of inconvenience.
Or did I forget to write them down ?

Last disjointed thought

Walking on a treadmill is not the same as walking in Wal-Mart. When I walk on the tread mill I have a continuous supply of two liter oxygen making breathing possible. In Wal-Mart I would have to carry the little oxygen tank on the walker. At two liters continuous it does not last very long. On the scooter I set the tank on draw. I take only the oxygen I need and it lasts a couple of hours. The draw setting doesn’t work well for walking. So , for the moment, my freedom from the house is still scooter dependent.

It is a beautiful Monday in Pigeon Falls. The sun is shining. There is a light covering of snow. All the decorations are up. The town is clearly ready for Christmas.
Well the light is out in the stomach of one of the Santa Clauses hanging on main street. Somebody will have to get the extra long ladder and climb up and replace it, not an easy job . Eugene who is now the handyman at the Fly Inn has offered to do it. The town really doesn’t have any full time workers except Mrs. Trumble and the guy that cleans the streets. He, by the way, hates ladders.
Eugene has been working at the Fly Inn for several days now. He doesn’t seem to be tempted to return to drinking though his former drinking buddies are pressuring him to do so. It seems a sober Eugene makes them nervous. They like being drunk and still feel guilty about it. Eugene just smiles and sometimes he buys them a drink as a way of saying I don’t care if you drink.
Mrs. Trumble, however, thinks Eugene would be happier in some other job. She is going to go to the town council and try to get Eugene hired as the town handyman. She thinks the town owes him for the sacrifice he made when they were in the past.
Mrs. Pemberthy is happy having Eugene as a boarder. He has done a lot of the work her son hadn’t gotten around to. Plus he is so polite and kind. She makes him tea every afternoon when he gets home from work.
Next Monday Santa Claus will ride down main street. They have two real deer to pull the sleigh but they aren’t reindeer. They just don’t have a Santa Claus yet.
Somewhere in Pigeon Falls a little child tries to say something an adult said. What comes out sounds like babbling but is really an ancient language long forgotten.
The child said:

Що котрим зараз не є.
Що який ніколи не було потрапив.

Which in English would be:

That which was now is not.
That which never was is now.

Second Sunday

2009-12-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

And all mankind will see God's salvation.-Luke 3:6

Today in Liturgical churches we celebrate the second Sunday in Advent. It is time to prepare our hearts both for Christmas and the Christ who is coming again in power.
The text in the common lectionary is Luke 3:1-6.
This is where John the Baptist is sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus.
There are four things about this text that Luke wants you to know.
First of all it is a historic even that took place in the real world. It is not some made up story thst illustrates a point. So Luke tells us who was the Governor at this time, who the Jewish King was and the identity of the High Priests.. This nails the event to a particular time in history.
Second John receives his message from God. God’s word we are told came to John. John sees his task as preparing the way for the coming Messiah.
Third John’s coming was promised by an Old Testament prophet called Isaiah and Luke quotes him at this point. The coming of John at this time and in this place is not accidental but part of God’s plan for humanity.
Fourth the good news that because of John and the coming Messiah “ all mankind will see God’ s salvation” .Salvation will not belong , any longer , to just a special people.
The good news this morning is that you and I are part of the “ all mankind”. We have been saved and are being saved by this Jesus that John proclaims.
It is Advent and time to prepare your heart for the coming Christ.
It is Advent and John is calling us to get ready to see Jesus.
It is Advent and Christmas is coming.
It is Advent and the loving God has opened the very doors of heaven to us all.
It is Advent and we wait for the coming christ.
He will come gain.
Alleluia!

Pastor Joan has just finished her sermon for this morning. Here is a part of it:
This morning Luke takes us to the calling of John the Baptist. There a number of people he wants you to see . Each one will have to face and decide who Jesus is for themselves.
There is Pilate. One day he will stand face to face with Jesus and have to decide if Jesus is a king or not. He will make the wrong decision.
There is Herod he too will have to face Jesus and he too will be wrong.
There are the High Priests they will look on Jesus and demand his death.
Each one had his chance to respond and choose badly.
Then there is John . He will obey and in his obedience he will die. But he knows who the Messiah is. He will have chosen to accept God’s gracious gift.
Finally there are those who hear John. Some will see the Messiah and some won’t. Some wlll decide like Pilate, Heropd, and the High Priests to turn their back on Him.
But some will hear John and look for Jesus. They will become part of the early Church.
This morning John speaks to you. He tells you Jesus is coming. He tells you to get ready. He tells you to wait his coming. He tells you that God has saved and is saving you through this Jesus.
Now get ready for His coming again.
Get ready.

Six Words

2009-12-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I walk fifteen minutes a day!

Pigeon Falls had six inches of snow fall last night. It looks like this time it will stay for awhile. But the plow is out and the street has been cleared. It has started on the country roads as well and they should be done by noon. Snow doesn’t really bother people in Pigeon Falls. Surprisingly even the dragons fly over despite the cold.
Eugene has been back for most of the week but some people are still discovering that he is back. He has had to tell his story at least fifty times. He almost seems to enjoy the telling but there is always a kind of sadness in his voice.
Petrovich will be back tomorrow on the late train. Grandma and Grampa wanted to keep the girls till Christmas but Petrovich said no. They wanted them at home.
Now that there is some snow tourists with snow mobiles will begin showing up. One can count on Dr. Fortress to run a special train just for snowmobilers and their vehicles. He does every year.
The poltergeist keeps the area in front of Nancy’s Coffee Shop free of both snow and ice. Nobody knows what it does with the snow but there are no piles.

Friday 14

2009-12-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. ~Phyllis Diller

Click HERE to get to my 55s

What you are about to read leans on the truth and bends it ever so little . But in the process every Friday you will catch a glimpse of me.And I save the cost of a psychiatrist.

1. I am eating more because the Doctor said I need to gain weight and I feel weird. ( Stems from all those years of trying to lose weight)
2. I remember when I was 350 pounds. Now I’m at 150 pounds. ( Stems from illness not diet)
3. Going to put a different train around the tree this year. We are changing from G scale to 0 . ( Stems from a desire for a change)
4. We have our tree up. Of course it is small and artificial but we love it. ( Stems from the need to fit on the table in the room)
5. Having reached fifteen minutes on the treadmill, next week I will increase the speed and try to walk further in the same time. ( Stems from trying to get maximum benefit.)
6. My stomach feels much better. ( Stems, I think from the walking)
7. Almost ran out of juice on the scooter in Wal-Mart the other day and poor Bree would have had to push me to the car. ( Stems from forgetting to charge the night before)
8. I am angry with the USA network for killing Monk. ( Stems from my really liking the character and wanting at least the possibility he could come back.)
9. The football team from the town where I was Pastor all those years made it to the state final for the sixth year in a row. They lost again. ( I haven’yt the slightest idea why they keep losing that last game.)
10. Bought a beautiful mixed berry pie from Perkins last Friday. I have had a piece with ice cream every day since. ( Stems from everyone else being on diets so it’s all mine.)
11. Have about half of our Christmas shopping done. Now we should start wrapping but haven’t. ( Stems from pure undiluted procrastination on the wrapping.)
12. This weekend we will get the manger scene up. ( stems from a need to get the display out before Christmas)
13. Sold five items on e-Bay this week. Cleared a little over $100. ( Stems from getting rid of stuff from the basement shelves)
14. Next week I see my lung specialist and will see if the new pill did any good. I am a bit afraid. ( Stems from a life long fear of Doctors)

The weather bureau is predicting a big winter storm for the upper part of Upper Michigan. Pigeon Falls got a dusting of snow last night but nothing of consequence. It melted this morning. But Winter is coming.
Kivi & Maki is having a winter coat sale. They have a sign in the window that reads “ Get your winter coat now on sale when you need it it won’t be on sale.” They seem to be doing good business.
A big black bear ambled into town this morning acting as if it owned it. It smashed in the door at Nancy’s place but the poltergeist picked it up and deposited it in the DNR barrel cage. That was one surprised bear. Now the DNR will take it forty miles away and release it in the woods. It’s doubtful it will return after that. It would have been a much happier bear if it had come on Wednesday which is garbage day. There would have been garbage bags all along main street waiting to be picked up. A veritable feast for a bear.
Eugene has a job at the Fly Inn. He is going to be the janitor/handyman. They offered him a free room as well but he declined because he likes his room at Mrs. Pemberthy’s. He feels fairly sure that he won’t go back to drinking.

Quilly's Word Day

2009-12-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer. ~Author Unknown

It is time to share with you another of my favorite blogs.

Sue-Outside my Window

This is my touch of the UP where I lived for most of my life. Here Sue tells us what's happening all around the central UP and I enjoy every minute of it. I share her with you today so you can get a little flavor of Upper Michigan.

Tommy UK met last night with Mrs. Trumble and talked about Christmas and the return of Tommy’s father. Tommy pointed out that has adoptive parents would love to have them come and share the Christmas meal with them. Tommy UK thought it would be wonderful because he would have all his parents together in one place.
Soon Tommy's birth dad would finish the process by which he ceased to be a Guardian of the Universe. He was giving up eternal life and non aging. When he came back he would be an ordinary person . Well he would be an ordinary person with extraordinary powers. The powers that he shares with Tommy he had before he became a Guardian so he still has them after he ceases to be one.
Mrs. Trumble felt that they needed to wait for him to return and shouldn’t be making plans for him. Tommy reluctantly agreed to wait but he really does want them all together for Christmas.
Petrovich and family will be returning late Sunday. He has a number of driblets that he is working at translating but the language is difficult and the vision of the monk not always clear . In addition the manuscript has some rips and creases that make it even harder. But when he gets back he will be refreshed and ready to go.
Eugene has taken the upstairs room at old Mrs. Pemberthy’s. Now he needs to find a job so he can pay her for the room. If he does it will be perfect because she can use both the money and a handyman to get some things done she can’t do.

Ungodly Child

2009-12-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring. ~Liz Armbruster

I just finished reading Rachel Green’s book “An Ungodly Child” and I want to say something about it.
First if you’re a Christian fundamentalist prone to read all books literally then you could easily see this as an attack on the Bible, Christianity, and morals. It could be interpreted that way. So if you see the book on your desk I advise you take a set of tongs and carry it at arms length to the nearest trash burner. I guarantee you will hate it.
But if you’re the type of person that allows creative authors to create a world of their own that may seem a bit like our world but is really one they create. If your willing to see that people often write with no axe to grind and without a desire to attack anything. If you can see they are just wanting to create a different and odd world then this is a great book.
The author creates a world using bible data, bible related myths, and fantasy creatures like vampires and fairies. In this world those we know to be bad are almost good and those we know to be good are not so good.
The main character is the most moral, kind, gentle character I have ever read about but given what he is he shouldn’t be.
The author weaves a humorous story with wonderful creative lines.
I would recommend the book to anyone whose mind is open enough to read it.
In addition it comes recommended by my friend Aims.
PS . I paid for my copy and was not paid for this review.

The word has spread through Pigeon Falls that Eugene is back. Not only is he back but he looks far better than when they left him with the old lady/witch in the past.
Mrs. Trumble told Tommy UK that she doesn’t think they have the full story of Eugene yet. He’s holding something back but she doesn’t know what or worry. But she is very sure he is.
Tommy UK told Mrs. Trumble that it would be hard to figure how a person should act after having gone through what Eugene went through . He may not be holding anything back at all just reacting to all that has happened.
Tonight the choirs of the Methodist, Catholic, and Lutheran churches will meet at Last Lutheran to begin working on the community Christmas Cantata. This year it will be at Last Lutheran sao it will be directed by the Catholic choir director. The accompanist will be from the Methodist Church as they have the best organist in Pigeon Falls. The location rotates between the Catholic and Lutheran Church. If a Church hosts the cantata itself then the choir director from the other church directs. The system has served them well.
Tomorrow the Holiday decorations will go up in town. They will also put up the manger scene in the town square. Remember the town square and the manager scene don’t belong to the town. This keeps the American Civil Liberties Union off the back of the town officials.

Ideaology versus Reality

2009-12-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones

Take the public option out of the big health bill and put it in a little bill all its own. Then it can be looked at and the costs can be figured and a debate carried on on the public option.
Having done that the Democrats and the Republicans should be able to get together and discuss the other things that can be done to help save the health system. There are apparently a large number of things that both parties agree on that could be passed that would have an impact on health care costs.
What prevents any compromise now is ideology. The Republicans ideologically can not vote for anything that extends the governments activity in health care and the democrats ideologically are committed to the government option.
Ideology is a bad legislator. It doesn’t allow for practical questions like:
Can we afford this now?
Will waiting hurt the long term progress?
Can just a public option really give the government control?
The task from moment the Democrats were elected was to get the public option. The task from the moment the Democrats were elected for the Republicans was to block it.
I really wish that our President had given us more real leadership. The great Presidents rose above ideology to meet the needs of the moment.
Obama doesn’t seem capable of doing that.
But the true believers on each ideological side cheer on their party.
Those of us in the middle have trouble watching the system lock up.

Mrs. Trumble rode her bicycle in to work today. It still hasn’t snowed and she figured she could use the exercise. As she passed the Fly Inn there sitting on the front step was Eugene. She fell off the bike.
She looked at him. He looked just like he did when they left 1890 and returned to 2009 and he was sober.
“I’m staying at the Fly Inn”, he said. “ Until I find someplace better.”
She went with him to the restaurant and treated him to breakfast. “ How did you get back?” she asked.
Eugene said he spent many good years with Anabelle but the time came when she felt he belonged back in 2009. So she and one other cast a spell that brought him back to 2009 and restored him to the age he was when he stayed in 1890. She wanted what was best for him.
Eugene said, with a tear in his eye, “ she really loved me. You know!. She really did.”
Mrs. Trumble refrained from asking why he just didn’t go now up to her cabin. He could have the best of both worlds. But she felt there was something he wasn’t telling her but she had no idea what that could be.
She told him to put a note on Nancy’s bulletin board that he was looking for some place to stay. “Somebody probably has a room to rent” she advised him.” It will cost less than the Fly Inn.”

Matter of Perspective

2009-11-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.
~Stacia Tauscher

How we view the world and what we do depends on our perspective, our life at that moment.
I was reminded of that on Friday when I got this comment:
“Glad you are doing better and I hope you continue to exercise, if only a little. “
This was in response to my statement that I was walking seven minutes a day on the treadmill.
The commentator saw this as a “ little exercise”.
I saw it as a mountain to be climbed and I had climbed it.
Now from the perspective of somebody who can run, jump, and climb mountains seven minutes on a treadmill at the slowest speed is very little exercise.
But from my perspective since I hadn’t walked except from one room to another in over a year it was a mountain to be climbed. It was hard work. It hurt.
As of today I have reached my first goal of ten minutes.
From your perspective just a little bit more exercise but for me higher up the mountain.
To climb that mountain has taken lots of preparation.
I needed an oxygen hose from the concentrator to the computer room so I could take in two liters of oxygen all the while I’m walking.
I needed a chair nearby to drop into when I finished so I could let the pain pass.
For me a mountain top. For somebody else an ant hill.
The real problem is I don’t know if it is strengthening the stomach and chest muscles I need for breathing.
I certainly hope it is.
My next goal is fifteen minutes but that mountain is really high.
It does have some side effects though.
I’m having less stomach trouble and I’m sleeping better.
Sometimes a little bit is a long way up the mountain.
It’s all in the perspective.
When I came out of my coma my legs had forgotten how to walk.
My therapist worked with me every day. It was painful. It was impossible.
When I finally walked two feet he was so happy.
It’s all in the perspective.
I guess that’s true of most of life.
I hope you climb your mountains as you see them.

Petrovich , his wife and daughters are in Green Bay at her mother’s house where they went for Thanksgiving. They are planning on staying the week so that the grandparents can have some time with the girls and they can do some Christmas shopping. This makes people in Pigeon Falls rest easier because as long as Petrovich is gone there will be none of those horrible driblets.
Bonnie McGregor is getting ready for the first Christmas where her twins can open gifts. She knows their brother and sisters will give them far too much but she has to shop anyway. These were the twins that were once thought to be part of driblet 172 but it doesn’t seem now like they were. In any case Bonnie loves them and so does their daddy.
For the most part life is back to normal in Pigeon Falls. The dragons fly over once a day, the ghost piano plays, Nancy’s poltergeist continues to surprise, the train come through mostly on time, and the town seems to have recovered from its trip to 1890.
The residents are making Christmas lists and planning shopping trips. Dr. Fortress has set up a special train to Marquette and a bus or buses to take people shopping when they get there. They will have access to Target, Wal-Mart, Menards and a number of other big stores. He already has had to add an extra car the demand is so great.
Of course those with relatives in Iron Mountain can take the milk train in the morning ( it’s cheaper) to Iron Mountain and find some of the same stores. The relatives provide the transportation in the city.
All of Pigeon Falls is looking forward to Christmas.

Advent Sunday One

2009-11-29T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Today we start a new Church year. We move in the Common Lectionary from the B year to the C year. In the B year most of the Gospel readings were from Mark now they will be from Luke. If you attend a liturgical Church this morning you will notice that the Altar hangings have changed from green to either violet or blue. Violet is the color of Kings and marks the coming King Jesus. Blue is the color of the sky and marks our anticipation of the return of Jesus.
This is the first of the four Sundays of the Advent season. The season has two purposes:
1. To get us ready for the coming Christ of Christmas and the major Church holiday Christmas itself.
2. To remind us that Jesus is going to return.
The text for today is Luke 21-25-36.
Here Jesus gives the Church some signs of when he will return. People are and have always been fascinated by the end times. They love stories of dark angels, death horses, plagues, battles. These sell books . The writers always write as if they really understood it all.
In today’s text Jesus says “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. “
Then Jesus tells them that these signs should remind them that their redemption is near.
The signs which we will always have with us serve the pirose of reminding us of the One who saved us and who saves us.
It’s all about redemption. It’s not about fear or battles , it’s about being saved.
Jesus doesn't want us “ weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life”. He wants us to live free. To live as one of His. So He reminds us He is coming again. The when is not important. The promise is important.
Advent reminds us that Jesus did not save us and forget us. He is coming again.
Look up. Be ready. Be free.

Pastor Joan will be back in her good old pulpit again today. She will be preaching in the wonderful stone church. She will have a wireless mike. Here is part of her sermon:
“Once , a long time ago I went to visit a friend who lives near Detroit. I sent him a letter and told him when I was coming but somehow it all got confused. He got the dates wrong or maybe I did and he was in Upper Michigan visiting hisparents. I knocked on his door and his neighbor said he’d be back next week so I left the note on the door saying I was sorry I missed him and drove all the way back to Chicago where I was in Seminary. The note blew off the door. He waited the following week for me. We got everything wrong. We misread the signs. It is a miracle we ever married.
Advent which begins today is about signs. It is about signs that point to Christmas and to the Christ of Christmas who is coming again. If we are not careful we will make the signs more important than the Christ they point to. We will misread the signs and miss the Christ.
The purpose of the signs in today’s text is to point us to Jesus and remind us he save us. We need to know that in a world of stress , where you can’t turn on your TV without hearing some bad news that we have been set free.
We belong to Jesus and He is coming again for us.
He wants us to be free. He wants us to be ready. He doesn’t want us being crushed or destroyed by the prssires of the world. He know that this world’s answer to stress will destroy us.
It is Advent . Look up! He wo saves us is coming again.
Be free. Be ready.”

Six Words

2009-11-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

The great advantage of living in a large family is that early lesson of life's essential unfairness. ~Nancy Mitford

Somehow I survived a Thanksgiving gathering.

Some of the people of Pigeon Falls are having a little trouble adjusting to being back. They had learned to like the slower quieter pace of life in 1890. There was no music blaring, no TV on all the time, no cell phone that could find you no matter where you were. Now they are back to all those things and they feel stressed. They never thought they would look at the time in 1890 as special but they have begun to think it might have been.
Some of those people are using the best of that experience to change their life now. They are leaving the TV off. They are not taking their cell phone with them when they go out. They feel good about the little changes.
Of course, some just jumped back into 2009 with both feet. This is their world and they missed it. Some of those were in Iron Mountain on black Friday. They pushed into Wal-Mart looking for great bargains.
Giles Insolaw was one of those. He was just about to get the greatest computer buy ever when the fat lady pushed by and stamped on his foot. It swelled up like a balloon and they had to take him to the Emergency Room at the Hospital where he sat for an hour in pain before they got to him. After tests and X-rays he discovered a bone was broken and they called in an Orthopedic specialist. The Doctor said that he thought it would heal nicely on its own but as soon as the swelling goes down they should put a cast on it to protect the foot. They put him in the hospital over night. Nothing like that happened in 1890. But then if had stayed in Pigeon Falls it wouldn’t have happened in 2009 .

Friday

2009-11-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Saying

Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go by any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.
~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Click HERE to get to my 55s

What you are about to read leans on the truth and bends it ever so little . But in the process every Friday you will catch a glimpse of me.And I save the cost of a psychiatrist.

1. The new medication is still working wonders but it will soon come to the end of the dosage. ( Stems from that’s all the Doctor prescribed)
2. Has a great Thanksgiving at Peter’s house. ( Stems from loving my family)
3. Got too play some canasta . ( Stems from our strange Thanksgiving custom)
4. Am now walking seven minutes every day on the treadmill and it hurts. ( Stems from the arthritis in the knees)
5. Finally got five things posted to e-Bay that should have been posted a month ago. ( Stems from extreme procrastination)
6. Will not take my precious scooter out on this black Friday. ( Stems from fear that in my greed for a bargain I might run over somebody and get it all messed up)
7. Discovered that Lionel track left sitting in a box rusts . ( Stems from some stupid scientific principle but I hate rust.)
8. I think Monday or Tuesday we will put up our Christmas tree . ( Stems from a need to have it up as long as possible)
9. We have a new train to go around it. ( Stems from getting tired of the one we used every year for the last four)
10.It is hard to find fourteen facts for this segment. ( Stems from leading such a boring life)
11. They took off my NCIS on Tuesday for a local Christmas parade, I’m upset. ( Stems from my preference for mystery over marching bands and stuff)
12. The little Wal-Mart hand held pies have almost no filling and lots and lots of crust. ( Stems from crust being cheaper than good filling.)
13. Have now printed out all of October’s blog entries to send to my sister. ( Stems from her being too stubborn to go on the internet.)
14. Went to wrap Betty’s Christmas gifts but discovered I only had Star Wars wrapping paper . So I didn’t. ( Stems from my thought that Luke with a light saber was not a good wrapping for a Christmas gift.)

Yesterday was a great Thanksgiving Day in Pigeon Falls. The town. Of course, was happy to be back in 2009 and very thankful for that.
There were the usual family gatherings. The usual unreasonable amount of food was consumed. The usual families had the usual family fights. The usual people aren’t talking to each other. It will pass and they will be ready for another round by Christmas. Kids got to see cousins they only see once or twice a year and they played and screamed and like the big people they sometimes fought.
But it was a good Thanksgiving. Nobody got too sick. Nobody had an accident coming or going. There were new memories made and in years to come they will be shared at similar family gatherings.
One could say that life in Pigeon Falls was back to normal.

Today Wink’s Wood’s had its big Black Friday sale. There were some real bargains and the doors opened at 4:00 in the morning. The first person to show up came in at 8:00 and didn’t buy anything. Given when they got back they tried to get by with word of mouth advertising but it apparently didn’t work.

Some people did get up early this morning and took the milk train to Iron Mountain to try the black Friday sales there. They saw on TV that Wal-Mart had some really great morning sales. They hope to come back with a good part of their Christmas shopping done.
In the midst of all of this nobody missed Eugene. But then he had never been part of anybody’s celebration. Thanksgiving dinner had come from the leftovers brought in from the restaurant at the end of the day. Somebody else ate those today.
Eugene was appreciated but forgotten.