It Becomes Dark So Early!

Early last Sunday morning daylight savings time ended (should that be capitalized? Language Arts teachers obsess about such things!). Almost all of us got an extra hour of sleep so we awakened so refreshed and revitalized. At least that’s the way it is supposed to work. I suspect many people handle the situation the same way as I. Simply staying up an hour later negates the “too much sleep” syndrome. I know not what my body would do with too much sleep. Six hours is about my max. Then there is the tossing and turning and gazing at the clock with anger and the thoughts rampant in the brain that there is no way I am going to get up and do anything at the hour of 4 AM! Perhaps I should try it. I might be very productive at that hour, who knows? I’ll let you know if I ever attempt that experiment. Things went peachy keen at church on Sunday. Aside from one registration change which I did not make until halfway through the designated measure there were no gross faux pas. It was good to be back at the console. I do love playing the organ. I especially love playing and interpreting hymns. Of course, right now there are no hymns because singing will help to spread the virus. Speaking of spreading, the 3M plant in Aberdeen SD just enlarged their production line so more masks could be produced.

All of the expected politicians were present for the opening/ground breaking, I was a little confused. They were all masked with eyes on the speaker except for our governor who was obvious for being unmasked. Is is any wonder why COVID cases keep rising in South Dakota. The local paper also had an article on the number of people far and wide which may have been exposed to the virus because of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which the aforementioned governor was happy to sanction and promote. I guess she hasn’t yet figured out that killing off the voters will not help her reëlection in two years. Thankfully the election is over. I’ve been around a long time and seen a lot of politics but these past years have certainly won some kind of prize for divisiveness, lack of respect for the viewpoints of others, downright hatred of those with which you do not agree, etcetera ad infinitum. The only way forward is to relearn how to work with each other for the common good. No country can survive for long unless we have common goals that benefit the community, neighborhood, city, state and nation. In case you were wondering about the shortage of photos in last week blog, something has happened with Blogger. It used to be very easy to insert pictures and captions. Then it was revised and it was a little more difficult to deal with photos. Now, all of a sudden, it’s a near impossibility to insert a photo. Along with that, all formatting is destroyed when one’s text is uploaded. The whole thing is one “run on” paragraph and the font is changed at the whim of the program. Anyone reading last week’s blog do not fault me for the lack of paragraphs. I tried. We’ll see how it behaves this week. This past week was chemotherapy week. All went well. The staff at the Prairie Center is marvelous and very concerned about one’s health and well-being. They could not be more accommodating. My blood work was good. The usual counts were down because of chemo, but the important things, like the sodium level, were good. As the oncologist says, I’m tolerating it well. Now I have three weeks off because of Thanksgiving!

This is the time of year when we are especially thankful for all we have. Sophpia is thankful for the grass she received today. It is the time of year when we are thankful for those who surround us with love. An example of that was presented today when my Benedictine brothers and sister came over and dealt with all my leaves. It is a task which would take me a long time to accomplish. With the group gathered the leaves were bagged and ready to go to the leaf drop-off site. That will be accomplished Monday when another kindly person will come with his truck and haul off the detritus. God has been very good to me. I have been given many gifts. You are one of those gifts. I am grateful for you.