Sunday snicker

A priest, a minister and a rabbi are discussing when life begins.

The priests says, “It begins at conception”.

The minister says, “Life begins at 24 weeks gestation”.

The rabbi says, “You are both wrong, Life begins when the kids move out of the house and the dog dies.”

New day

Watched the sun set last night and just got back inside from greeting the new day. I always look to the Heavens and thank God for giving me another day alive and said hello to the wife. With the moon nowhere to be seen it looked like a million stars were putting on a show for those who cared to look.

Have been watching a televised collector car auction from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania the last few days and looks like the cars are bringing less money. The talking heads claim not, but it sure looks like the hammer comes down before I’d expect it to.

Will withhold final judgement until the show ends tonight but it sure is looking like the state of our economy is affecting the prices of collector cars. I do know new cars are getting pricey, even more so if you add any extras. Don’t know where all this is headed but it won’t get me in the drivers seat of an electric vehicle.

Now I’m headed back out for a smoke and to give the feral cats some water. Enjoy our Saturday as it looks to be a good one.

Late again

Got up earlier but have been on the run ever since. I’m only now on my second cup of coffee and now have food in the cupboard with enough coffee to last me. And I haven’t been doing much except grieving which is getting tiresome.

So, after this is done, I’ll get busy doing something just to say I did. Keep going at the rate I am and I’ll get old fast. With all the plans the wife and I had for the rest of the year I now have the time to get some things done. Funny how that works, but the plans we had just don’t seem so important now that she’s gone.

I want to gather all the donations left during the funeral and get them off to the Iowa Donor Network, get the thank you cards ready to mail, and keep busy to see if it helps. If it doesn’t perhaps eating wouldn’t be a bad hobby either. We’ll see how things go.

Also want to go out and get some more pictures as my daily habit went by the wayside lately. If one looks, there are a lot of things to take pictures of. But I’m rambling like an oldfart. Enjoy our Friday and remember, it’s the Bix 7 weekend.

Counting cats

With the wife gone I find myself counting cats in the morning light. This morning there were 4 cats inside and 5 feral cats outside. Didn’t see any kittens this morning but did see one younger one. Today I have places to go and people to see with the hope of opening the fancy box from the mortuary later.

I tried yesterday and it didn’t work out. Not sure what’s in it, but it is heavy. And her portrait still sits in the box it came in as I can’t make a decision on where to hang it. The portrait is bigger than anything currently hanging on the walls and might even require some remodeling to make it fit somewhere.

When I went out early to feed the herd of feral cats it was raining. One of those summer drizzles that calms the soul and put a grin on your face. At least it does on mine. The noise of the drops hitting the metal awning is relaxing to me. We’ll end this with that thought. Enjoy our Thursday as the weekend is almost here.

Worry

Today is the day I was dreading not long ago. It is the last day the wife could have been on the ECMO machine which kept her alive. Since we buried her Monday I now realize why I usually try to not to worry. But instead of negative thoughts, I thought we’d share some pictures.

Since we had a praying mantis hitchhiker during the funeral procession, and back, I noticed this one in the bushes by a window in the back of the house. Believe it’s the one I found on the porch as an infant and moved to these bushes. At least this one has the same eyes.

Not sure what kind of bird this is, but I noticed it on the fence and decided to get a picture. Not a great picture yet for a small bird it looked almost regal perched on the rail.

There were a few cardinals out and about and although I share a lot of pictures of the bird, this one reminds of the old ‘Mr. Peanut’ commercial for some reason. Luckily, I had a jar of their peanuts, and enjoyed some while uploading the pictures.

The female of the pair also struck a pose for my camera as she was munching on some lunch. Not sure what she was chewing on, but it wasn’t safflower seeds.

Finally, a picture of the steeple surrounded by the cloudy day. We didn’t use this church for the services as they’re still a little touchy about an encounter with myself a while back. I was not neighborly. I think the priest should practice forgiveness also. Plus I’m thinking if I set foot in said church it may collapse on me.

Enjoy our Wednesday as it’s like a non-returnable bottle. We can’t take it back.

Good send off

We know this is late and I’m getting older. Just a matter of I overslept and didn’t realize how late it was until some chores were done. The wife is in her final resting place, so I guess I got too relaxed and slept like normal people. We thought the service, and everything went well.

My brother rode with me to the cemetery, and we had something happen we hadn’t seen before. A big brown praying mantis was on the side of the car and as we started moving and climbed up the drivers side window. Thought no more about until services there were finished and we left to go to a lunch we had catered.

When we got back to the car, the praying mantis was on top and giving us a look that said, ‘let’s cruise’. And when we got back to the mortuary for the lunch the critter was still on top of the car! One of the mortuary employees, who was in the vehicle in front of us, asked if we knew we had a praying mantis on the car the entire time.

Another interesting thing came at the end of services in the chapel. After the preacher had finished and sat down the song ‘Elvira’ came through the speakers and there was a mixture of giggles and gasps as the wife’s favorite song played to end the service.

We’d like to thank all the friends and family who showed up as it meant a lot to us. Enjoy our Tuesday as a well-rested me is going to

We’re ready

Today we bury my wife and we believe we’re ready. I’ve already thanked God for giving me another day of life and for the break in the heat wave today. Not much else to say on the subject so will share a few pictures of the cardinals that have been keeping me company.

This guy looked like he was going to fly off at any moment yesterday only to calm down and carry on. He must have kept these antics up for an hour but never left the safflower seeds. Like to think it was Dad letting me know everything will be alright.

This female cardinal would make loops between the bird food and what’s left of the old pine tree. She too stayed for longer than usual. She kept within eyesight as long as the male did and I was so busy snapping pictures I didn’t realize I was smiling.

Seems I was popular with the ladies as this female stopped by to eat and also stayed. I like it when the light is just right and the picture turns out great.

She landed on the railroad ties, walked over to the seeds, and had a buffet. The amazing part, to me, was that I was only about 10 feet away! It was something to see.

After dining on our best safflower seeds the female flew to a nearby branch to enjoy her feast. I hope they enjoyed their little show as much as I enjoyed watching it. Now I just need another cup of coffee, a shave and shower, and I’ll be as ready as I can be for the services.

Enjoy our Monday as it looks to be a comfortable one here.

Sunday snicker

A group of Christians are tasked with changing a lightbulb.

The Charismatic changes it easily; his hands are already up.

The Roman Catholic refuses; he prefers candles.

The Pentecostal changes it while his friends pray against the Lord of Darkness.

The Christian Scientist can’t, but he prays for the light to turn back on.

The Calvinist refuses; God has predestined when the light will be on.

The Episcopalian changes the lightbulb while his friends say how much they liked the old one.

The Mormon tries to change it as five wives tell him how to do it right.

The Baptist changes the lightbulb, gets it approved by three committees, and then they all eat some casserole.

The Lutheran refuses: he doesn’t believe in change.

The Unitarian chooses not to make a statement either in favor of, or against, the need for a lightbulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that lightbulbs work for you, you are encouraged to create a poem or modern dance about your personal relationship with the lightbulb and present it next Sunday when we will explore a number of lightbulb traditions including incandescent, fluorescent, halogen, compact fluorescent, low-pressure sodium, and LED, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.

Memes

Saw a meme the other day that said “Gut feelings are Guardian Angels”. I liked it until I thought back to Charlotte and a gut feeling I had since July 8th. I couldn’t shake it and at first I was hoping to be proven wrong. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to make it in spite of the doctors telling me everything was looking good.

Turned out that gut feeling was also right. But, it did prepare me better for the outcome. I had over a week to get ready to hear the words the transplant board did not accept her as a recipient. Some memes just really hit you between the eyes. Yet we glance at them all, laugh at some, and some get us thinking.

Yesterday I got a hand-written note from someone at the hospital who expressed their sadness and shared a poem. Doing some research I found the poem credited to a 19th century woman, a Native American poet, and anonymous. Whoever wrote it, we’ll share it.

I give you this one thought to keep –

I am with you still – I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush,

I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not think of me as gone –

I am with you still – in each new dawn.

We know

This is late, but life got in the way of getting it out. While unloading the groceries bought this morning I noticed a female cardinal, not the one pictured, was sitting there looking right at me. I continued to get the groceries in the house and put away, yet every time I looked over this cardinal was looking my way.

Since it was time for a smoke, I decided to see how long the cardinal would hang around. Turns out the answer is about an hour. I first noticed this bird as it was darker in color compared to other female cardinals I had seen and wasn’t as skittish as most. This made me wonder.

So I stood out there on this fine sunny day looking at the bird looking at me. Fold lore dictates that seeing a cardinal means a loved one in Heaven is thinking about us and/or looking out for us. Since the bird brought some comfort to me, I continued to watch. When the bird did fly off, she stayed within eyesight.

I light to think Charlotte was letting me know she made it to Heaven, she was happy, and for me not to worry. Or it could have been a random bird was just curious. Enjoy our Friday and dress for the weather.