"I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds." ~ Psalm 9:1

I will tell you this. What a joy it is to be able to climb those stairs this morning. That's the first time I've been up here in the ole blogger ranch office since January 16. But, hello, welcome, I bring you a prayer for God's provision as we continue to deal with these colder temps in and around our great nation. Today is Monday, January 26, 2026, and I think we are all the way up to 25 F, therefore, we are calling it pretty doggone cold here. I am, thank God, getting better each day after having the 'whatever it was' combo that put me in the hospital last week. Best I can calculate, I was actually admitted for observation back in around the year 2000. It was a freak deal. I gave blood that morning. It was very warm. I came home and I decided to carry my grandson down to the volunteer fire department where they had a US Army Black Hawk on display. I carried him in my arms, about a block away. It got hotter. I had him on the same arm where I had given blood. I was in the sun. I came into the shade. I fainted. I did. Being a special day, the EMT crews surrounded me like vultures on top of fresh roadkill. Next thing I knew, I was in an ambulance on my way to the hospital because my blood pressure was out of whack. Oh my! All I could say was how ridiculous it was but I did spend the rest of the day and night in the ER observation area. Fast forward to last week. I woke up Tuesday morning wheezing and all the rest. To the urgent care, then by ambulance, again?, to the hospital. Suddenly, I am surrounded by little children wearing medical outfits. They began poking IV's in and moving in what seemed to be a frenzied response. Within a short while they are retesting everything. By late evening their preliminary diagnosis was flu, pneumonia, and afib likely triggered by the infection. There I was. In a electronic prison bed that set off alarms if I even thought about getting up. Privacy. Forget about it. It would have been funny if hadn't not been. I could laugh about it now but I'll save that for another day. Let me be clear: These kids were highly competent and they knew what they were doing. The doctors, the nurses, the technicians, all involved were great. Me? Not so much. Because they wanted to do some cardiac testing on Wednesday they put me on a fast, nothing after midnight, so as not to distort any comparative analyses. Well, they were pumping me full of steroids to keep my lungs open and that shot up my blood sugar, hovering around 300 on a finger prick. That causes your mouth to dry out. I told them surely I could have water. They said they would bring me some ice chips. Ice chips? I've been up close and personal in a couple of hospice situations where ice chips are the final input that was given before death. Are you kidding me? 

 

Okay. I never went berserk. It took what seemed to be a long time to get my medications approved and I pretty much depend on them at this time in my life. Oh well, God was with me. I could feel myself getting weaker in that prison bed and finally by Thursday they allowed me to sit in a chair as long as it had an alarm in it too to keep me from running laps. I now know they shot me full of stuff that I may not have needed but it was all based on the early tests. Since there ended up not being a bacterial element, the pneumonia did not require the antibiotic treatment. The para virus was not the deadly flu variant that is currently taking its toll and that too was a good thing. The combination of breathing issues, the para virus and viral pneumonia made for the perfect storm for them and for me. I did get a lot of attention there but I mostly got a lot of attention from God along with people who interceded on my behalf both near and far. All I can do is be thankful. Thankful for those children who were there with their medical outfits like maybe they gave up trick or treat to do so. Thankful for the entire staff. Thankful for my family. And, that includes so many brothers and sisters in Christ. And, because, I did not know the outcome, I want everyone to know how crucial it is to know The One who does. Have a great one. Amen.