“Love with a kind heart is what we can give to each other.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita

I'm still not happy about it. Nope. Not at all. My doctor. You recall he stood me up last time I had gone to all the trouble to schedule an appointment with him. They called the evening before and said he would be out of the office. Well, whoopty do dah! I haven't called to get another appointment yet. I'm still pretty steamed about it. I may have some diabetic induced neuropathy beginning to show up with some tingling and numbness in my fingers, but, I'll show him. Yea. I'll teach him to cancel my appointment. After all, it's only my health and well being at stake. You do know there's a fair amount of exaggeration in all of that. It is intended to be a parody of sorts on this Thursday, December 14, 2017. Of sorts. The bottom line is that I do need to reschedule my appointment. I really do. I am thinking about when it might be a good time to do that. Oh, I know when it was a good time. It was three weeks ago when I originally set it up. That was the time slot open on my schedule. Just think if they had not called me and I had fasted and not had my Community coffee the next morning. Me too. I don't even want to think about it. Horror show. Trainwreck. Disaster. Okay. I do have a slow news day now and then and my ad-libbing has to take over. It's how it works. Sorry. (Maybe I thought I was entitled to a reimbursement but that all fell apart when I figured out I hadn't paid anything.)

Last Saturday, I did a Santa Claus program for the employees' children of a medium-sized oil and exploration company. They were taking professional photos as keepsakes. Those booking the event had a fairly large sleigh for me to sit in. One of the things I said up front when I arrived was that I would not be able to lift children from the ground up into the sleigh. They told me not to worry because I would have my own elf to help do that. Good. Turns out, the elf was a youngish grandma herself. She was dressed out and she did an excellent job helping the children into the sleigh. I still had to lift many of them into my lap, but, I do that. I am, after all, Santa. We did this pretty much non-stop for four hours. It was easy to see that many of the children were well fed. I told them I was okay without a break but they called one anyway. I later thought about it and wondered if Granny Elf may have needed it more than me. I will tell you this. I don't know how well she sleeps at night, but, it is my guess that she didn't have any problems sleeping when nighttime came on that day. The sleigh was pretty tall. They had to have a stool for kids to stand on and then she helped get them into it. Try that one for maybe 350-400 kids and get back to me on how well that muscle pain cream actually works.

Last Sunday morning at Mims Baptist, December 10, 2017

We've undergone some significant stress involving changes and challenges this year. Back in July, we left our local Church home after doing our best to contribute our time, talent, and treasure there for nearly 35 years. We had intended on visiting a whole list of other places, but, we ended up at Mims Baptist in Conroe, Texas, for our first service the very next Sunday. Just a name on the list. We never visited anywhere else and joined the Mims fellowship of believers on September 10. We didn't know what this meant but God did. Marilyn found her place in the choir and is becoming involved in other ministries as well. I was asked to help in a teaching capacity, something near and dear to my heart. We now know that God had something better for us and we are so thankful to Him for His provision. In making the change we were very uncertain about our prospects. Let's face it, change is not easy and especially for folks who have crossed that threshold labeled three score and ten years. However, we feel humbled that God was not finished with us yet. He still had service for us to pursue for His honor and glory. We thank Him and give Him all the glory for His working in our lives. He is still challenging us to keep on keeping on in our service to Him. Amen and Amen. .....More later.