Long time, no, si?

I know it has been forever and a day since my last post, but things have just been...busy.
Things at the hospital are going great. My wife has been promoted to supervisor after only 4 months. Spring is nearly here. (Maybe we will have some warm weather soon.)
I have been singing at any number of places. Just this past month I sang at two banquets. I have also spoken at several churches and one graduation ceremony. That was a first for me...I have never been a commencement speaker!
I have two weddings this month, another in June, and have been asked to fill the pulpit at area churches for three out of four weeks in June.
I will try to get back and add more later.

Time Keeps on Slipping

I cannot believe that it has been so long since I have posted, but in all truth, we have been extremely busy. With my wife working at the same hospital, when it rains it pours! We have marked the highest census here ever. (For those who wonder what that means, it means simply that we have had more patients in house than previously ever recorded.)
So, this means that everybody has been putting in a lot of hours. There were several days last month that we simply went home, ate dinner and went to bed. We are still trying to recover and not so successfully, I feel. I was in bed by 10:00 last night, (as soon as I could be after returning home from church), and decided to stay in bed until 8:00 this morning. I didn't leave home until about 9:15. My usual start time is 7:00 am, which means I am up before 6 most mornings. I honestly could have slept until 9 or so, but despite what some may believe, I do have a busy schedule!
This week has been one for funerals and funeral homes. This is often the hardest thing I deal with as a chaplain. I don't know about the other chaplains in the hospitals around the country, but I attempt to attend every funeral which touches our people. Because we are the largest employer in the county, that can be quite a few at one time. I don't really hold to the idea that death comes in "threes", but in my experience, when there is one there will be several more.
OK....ENOUGH with the morbidity.
I have been busy on the weekends as well, with filling the pulpits of several churches in the area. I have actually been unable to fulfill all the requests because of my busy schedule. On top of that, it's time to start singing again! Woohoo! I appreciated the break I had from Christmas until now, but now I am ready to sing again. I have several events scheduled in the next three months and I am sure more will follow.
The exciting thing, for me, is that I have expanded my sound system. I received the universally accepted and appreciated Christmas gift from several people, (cash), and utilized that to purchase a small mixing board, a microphone, some extra speakers and the wires to attach them all. This will be helpful for all of the events to which I am invited that have no sound systems and no piano. (I am just amazed at the number of places that do not have pianos or sound systems but bill themselves as a place to hold meetings and events.)
What else is new? Oh, I am taking on some of the musical responsibilities at the church. We are also getting a new(er) organ. I had been discussing with the pastor the idea of allowing the church to use my Gulbransen organ at the church. (With the thought that perhaps I would just finally donate it outright.) However, I was contacted by the manager of the local music store, with whom I have struck up an acquaintance. At one point I was admiring a Roland organ at the store which is an amaze piece of computerized musical instrument. I was truly amazed at the capabilities of this instrument and explained that I would love to see our church able to purchase one. The price of the organ was $3,500.00, which was, unfortunately, out of the church's price range. Still, I told the pastor and one of the deacons about the instrument and that I thought it would be a good thing to plan on long term.
About 3 weeks ago the manager of the store called me and asked if my church was still looking for an organ. It turns out that her church now has 2 organs. Both organs are similar to the one I looked at in her store. Because they do not need both organs, she mentioned to the pastor that she knew of a church who might be interested. Because the organ was being sold privately and not through the store, the church was asking on $800.00 and would take payments. So, we are soon to come into possession of one of the finest electronic organs I have ever seen! It is amazing. In fact, it is so amazing that if the pianist should ever not show up for church, the organ can handle playing both the piano and organ parts of the music!

Now, onto personal business....Who eles wants an Ode? LOL.

Ode to Otis

My hours at the hospital are normally from 7 am to 4 pm. I am usually in my vehicle and on my way home by 4:45pm. I will await your call.

A SOLDIERS FAREWELL

This really caught my attention and I had to pass it along. I am surrounded by the loss of life in my ministry, and while it is not as often as it would be in a soldier's life, it still impacts me greatly. The only two thoughts I have is this:
1.) Life is a temporary state of being. 2.) Life can be meaningful or meaningless: it's our decision.
Andrew Olmsted was a soldier who kept a blog for a newspaper. Please read.
http://andrewolmsted.com/

It's Just Another New Year's Eve....

Christmas was wonderful at our house, even though I was a bit of the villian for a minute or two. We made the hard decision to not go to Michigan for Christmas. Logistically speaking, it would have been a hard trip to make. The children all want presents to open on Christmas morning. (Which, they did...and more than just a few.) There was no way to get all the gifts from here to Michigan, at least not without a moving truck. That being the problem, it made much more sense to have Christmas here and then celebrate New year's in Michigan.
Throughout the day on Christmas, my children came to me and each stated that this was the best Christmas ever. Why? Well, I believe it is because we did not have to rush to be anywhere, we didn't try to see 5 or six different groups of family members. We had all day to do what we wished to do and just relax. Not once did I have to face off with a child who said to me...."But, I don't want to go" or "I want to go home." It was blissful! I did not raise my voice to any of the children because they did not misbehave, not even once! There was only cooperation, thankfulness, joy, love, peace, (did I mention PEACE?) (Every year we sing about Peace on earth...I was happy to settle for Peace in the HOUSE!) Oh, and, there was a puppy. He was fun to watch and play with all day. All told, while it may not have been courier and ives, (which, in my opinion, is often depressing with their general lack of vibrant colors), it was a very good day! When every awoke there was some grumblings about no snow, but as the day wore on, it proved to be most advantageous to not have snow...the kids could go outside and play with their heelys...something that would have been impossible if the snow had been there. See, EVERYTHING was great.
Now, just to get through New Year's eve at my Bro-in-laws....

Puppy Love

I received my Christmas present early this year, and I didn't even have to snoop. Years ago, while I was growing up, I had a dog named Stormy. Stormy was a full-blooded Cardigan Welsh Corgi. He lived to be 21 and was just about the best dog a boy could have. He didn't do many tricks, but that was because we didn't care to teach him many. He was just smart...and fun. (He looked very much like the picture above.) He was loyal and a great watch dog. My children have grown up hearing stories from my family about Stormy. So much so that my daughter has been bugging me non-stop to get a Welsh Corgi. Since the beginning of this year.
A couple of weeks ago, Hannah, my daughter, brought the want ads to me and showed me a couple of ads for Welsh Corgis and insisted that I call on them. I put her off because I was unsure of my wife's desire for yet another animal in the house. (We have a cat, 6 Gerbils, and a fish named Sheila.) Besides that, my wife is a cat person. She has never been comfortable around dogs, so I made the assumption that we should wait yet awhile longer to look into getting a dog.
Well, to my surprise, she brought the want ads to work with her and asked me to make a couple of calls. I did exactly that and discovered that the puppies in question were all Pembroke Welsh Corgis. There are several minor differences between a Cardigan and Pembroke and one major difference. The Cardigan has a tail and the Pembroke is sans-a-tail!
After making my calls, I had lunch with my wife and she told me she has been wanting to get ME a Welsh Corgi puppy, but was not able to make the calls because she doesn't have phone access in the laboratory. So, I made arrangements, kept it a secret, and last Friday we drove to Wellington, Ohio, (round trip of about 5 hours), and picked up this little guy, (pictured below.)

There was some discussion, but before we were even back on the main road, we had him named. His name is Dakota Storm. I am not sure how appropriate the Dakota part is, but Storm is very fitting. He can blow into a room like a whirlwind, shake things up, and leave a little flood in minutes! He is lovable, and loving, however. The nice part is, he is already crate trained, so putting him to bed is not a problem. He sleeps throughout the night, and is already learning our morning wake up time so he is usually quiet until he hears our alarm.

The funniest thing is that his legs are so short that he doesn't quite walk. He bounces. It is great fun to watch him bounce because once he starts, his tail end, (or, sans-a-tail-end) sometimes winds up taking the lead and he spins around. My son thinks it is great fun to stand over Dakota and get him to spin around, all the while calling out...."Chase your butt, chase your butt." because Dakota has no tail!

Well, that is news from here for now. I hope all is well in your part of the world. Hope to hear from you all soon. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Just in Time...

I am almost done. Tomorrow evening will be the last of my Christmas dates. I know I am not cut out to tour and do this on a regular basis, although I am sure that if I did nothing but this I wouldn't have to worry about all the other stuff in my life! I could also do the same "program" at each stop. As it is, I have had to change everything around because each time I do it, I have people who were at the previous show.
So, tomorrow I am singing for the Lodge Christmas party. It's not a big deal, actually. In fact, the only big deal was the first one. It had the largest attendance and was the event that is open to the public. These last few were just smaller parties, (with one of them a church service and another a church function.) After we got home from church tonight, I grabbed my laptop and started putting together songs for tomorrow night. I debated doing Kermit again, but feel somehow once was enough for this year. Tomorrow's program requires that I bring my own CD player and cables, so it's not all that professional! The great thing about doing it this way is once I am done, I simply pull the plug and walk out to go home. I am soooooo looking forward to a night at home. It has been nearly two weeks since I have been able to leave work and go home. Not complaining, just making a statement of fact.
Well, more tomorrow, or the next day. Hope everyone is well.