With Halloween coming up tomorrow, I am reminded of this old Scottish prayer:


From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

Whatever your experience or thoughts about Halloween are, here's hoping you all have a safe holiday time!

Bro. Hardy

Mass Acension

Although I no longer live near the area of the Balloon Fiesta, once in a while I get to see one when it comes over my home. Yesterday, about mid-morning, I heard a familiar "whoosh" and knew that one was overhead. I ran outside to get a better view and there it was, so low over my driveway, I could have carried on a conversation with the occupants without yelling! According to the newscasts, this has been one of the most successful fiestas ever - in the 30 years of the event.

I went the first year I lived here and it was a marvelous experience. To see hundreds of hot air balloons rising at once and taking to the air is a wonderful sight. Just thought I'd pass on a picture for all to enjoy!

Bro. Hardy

Bah, humbug!

Earlier in the year, my sister Modine invited me to come spend Christmas this year in her home. She has 4 children and 5 grandchildren. Having gotten closer to them over the last several years, I was delighted and began to look forward to it.

Mind you, I have not "celebrated" Christmas in over 20 years now. Not that I disapprove, it's just that I don't believe in the commercialization of Christmas and all the folderol that goes along with it. I've moved so far away from the (incorrect) theology about Christmas of my childhood that I would probably have to be classified as "post-Christian."

But it would have been fun to be around all the kiddies at Christmas and let the fun of the past be present once again. Anyway, this weekend, Modine's family celebrated a relative's birthday and the whole family was there.

Merry Christmas!!

Bro. Hardy

Ah, Fall season!

When I awoke this morning, there was a chill in the air that reminded me that I need to get some heat going in my house. The experience reminded me of when I was a child and what we had to heat with. We lived in a three room house that originally had been two rooms with a kitchen added onto the back of the two original rooms. At one time, all five of us and two grandparents lived in those three rooms. But, the only heat in the house was wood cook stove in the kitchen. Every Saturday night, we kids had to take our weekly "all over" baths in a number 3 washtub in front of the cook stove just to keep from getting too cold. Of course, heating up the stove helped warm the house enough to get into bed without our mother having to run a hot iron over the sheets so we could get into the bed.

After my grandparents moved, they had running cold water and electric lights. But their only heat was a kitchen stove and a little "laundry heater in their bedroom. The kitchen stove used wood and the bedroom heater used coal.

Bro. Hardy