Forecasts?

 Forecasts?

 

Somehow it seemed to me that the weather forecast had mentioned the possibility of rain for today. Well, so far today it has been moist! Not much to say about that except that the ground is not sloppy, muddy—just messy on the bottom of shoes and dog feet. Sterling reminded me that the rest of the week was going to get a bit colder. They tend to get much colder in NW Arkansas than we do here. The thing that hurts us here is the wind—hot or cold, that wind can tear a person up!

 

Was working out in the back yard trying to cut some branches up into smaller pieces that would go in the trash bin. Still have more to do, but when Sterling called, it seemed like a good time to be still for a few minutes. Have a tree that needs to come down entirely—well, almost entirely. Hanan cut it down to the forks at one time, but it has grown up from there to almost hit the power lines above it now. Time to take down those branches. Hoping that Stephen and the boys can take it down, but he has not looked at it yet to see whether or not he can mess with it. The stupid Bradford pear needs to be chopped about half way across the height and those branches thrown in the trash. But that may take somebody with a big truck to haul off the branches.

 

You know how you learn things just talking to folks? Learned about a disease that sheep can get last night called “Orf.” It acts like chicken pox and can give the virus to people. The sheep normally recover, but then they carry that virus or it gets in the ground to infect the lambs. Sounds plum hopeless to get rid of such a thing. Guess it is about like some of the stuff that came up during the pandemic when we suddenly saw scarlet fever, RSV, measles, strep throat, and even polio running rampant along with the normal caseloads of flu. By this winter, we may all be wearing masks again. Never a dull moment!

 

The news out of China is scary. Those folks have no way to get real treatment for anything since the hospitals are overwhelmed with those who have covid or any other respiratory illnesses. Overwhelmed seems to be the theme lately in other parts of the world as well. California is flooded or shaken or both. El Paso and other border towns in Texas have as many as 15 thousand immigrants coming into the towns in one week. No amount of money will take care of 53 thousand immigrants in one month, much less the 2.4 million we saw last year. And on top of all that, Juarez has had a prison break where the men assaulting the prison had more fire power than the guards or police. The two dozen escapees will be in El Paso by now or heading farther north into Texas. Can we say drug lords’ invasion? Sounds pretty scary to me. We are caught between trying to be compassionate and protecting our citizens and their rights. Sometimes perceptions are more important than trying to enforce laws. Right now, to those from other countries, our borders do not even exist.

 

Obviously, the old woman noticed the news today. Probably should be reading on her Kindle instead of watching news casts about California, Texas, and other places that might shake, rattle, and roll. At least the books being read are interesting. Mysteries always give a person something to consider. The mysteries associated with God’s kingdom are more than interesting, but we are given the outcome at the very first reading. Don’t you know that Daniel would have been interested in seeing how his visions worked out! Discussing the “Left Behind” series with a friend reminded me that we all have a tendency to resolve mysteries in our heads before we will believe the facts. The future is going to be more than simply interesting!

 

We still need rain. Not the California kind of rain in buckets and rivers, but rain to fill the lakes and stock tanks. May God bless us and the land we live on.

 

Rest well, my friends. You are loved.