What a week!

A really busy week draws to a close. Thank goodness, but, boy, did I enjoy myself!






Today (Saturday) we held out annual Blessing of the Animals. Here is a picture from a couple of years back, but the same folks tend to show up each year.

We do a short service in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, then I bless each of the animals. The big difference between the picture you see above and today was about 35 degrees Fahrenheit! Then it was in the high 80s. Today it was about 57 when we began. My photographer, Bill Smith will send me the photos when he has them finished, and I'll post more here.

Salem has what is called "The Little Egypt Festival" the first weekend of October each year. The story is told that years ago a drought wipped out the corn crop in northern Illinois, but the south got plenty of rain and had a plentiful crop. So the farmers up north hitched up their wagons and came south to get corn. The symbolism matching that event with the Jewish Scripture story of Jacob's sons going to Egypt in a time of famine was evident to all, so this region of Southern Illinois is still known as "Little Egypt."

One event is a large parade. During the parade the folks at St. Thomas give away free glasses of Lemonade - this year we added Hot Chocolate! Here is a shot from three years ago. I'll post this year's pictures (some anyway) when Bill gets them to me.

The fellow in the back row with the sun glasses, Dick Jackson, has since passed away from cancer, but the lady on his left, Dottie Jackson, was with us with her dog, Tess, who got a blessing and has become my new good buddy!

I like dogs and regret they Sue and I have never had one, but our two ancient cats would die of heart attacks if we tried to introduce one now. When the two cats (19 and 18 years old) pass on, we'll wait a decent period of time, get the living room refinished and refurnished, then buy a kitten and a puppy at the same time. That way they'll grow up together, not knowing that the other one is a alien being! We'll get the new pets either from our local vet or shelter or from the Pets-Mart in Fairview heights, since they handle many rescued animals.

Tomorrow I get to talk about divorce - that will be fun. But, hey, it's what Mark gave to us for this week.

In the meantime, sweet dreams and God Bless all. TAD+