Category Archives: Day to Day

I was up early as is my usual habit. What is early you ask? Around 4:30am although of late 2:30am has been calling my name more often than not. When that happens, I come downstairs, fire up Grace Stream and let Johnny Mac lull me back to sleep with one of his 50 years of sermons. My wife thinks I am crazy because MacArthur gets a bit shouty at times, but I drift off anyway. 

Getting back to my story, I checked the weather forecast while sipping coffee and it looked good, real good. Along about 6:30am, after a rousing bowl of oatmeal, I glanced out the still dark window and went back to my computer, checking again at what time the sun rises. I started to get antsy and pace around; my pacing game has suffered a bit with the onset of ALS. I tend to shamble about instead of prancing smartly, from window to window, but it’s all good.

At 7am, I took the drone out of its travel pouch and got it set up. I am banned from the porch roof so the back step is now my launch pad. I sent the drone up and gave it orders to snap a photo every 15 seconds. Once it was at altitude, I went back in the house and sipped some more coffee. The drone can stay up there for about 30 minutes and that was good for one coffee and a chocolate bar my Mother in Law made. I stepped back outside and the sky was lit up and red.   

My Pi Camera was also doing its job. It gets everything from 0’dark thirty to sun up. Also got a shot of my drone coming back to earth. Looks like I missed a nice flush of color early, but that’s Ok, my ground team took care of that.

And since we are at peak color, I put a new battery in the drone and sent it up for a look at the town. Lots of nice color, but with all the wind we have been having, I don’t think it will last long. We’ve been blessed with a nice fall and remember to give thanks to the Father for all that you have.

The wind finally died down and I had seen the Harvest Moon rise last night through the trees to the East. My plan was to send the drone up 10 minutes or so before sunup and get images of them both by swinging the drone from East to West. Ah, the best laid plans of men quite often run awry of our Creator’s Will. Namely clouds in the West.But all was not lost. This is my favorite time of the year, the colors, the soft light, the absolute lack of mosquitoes buzzing in your face. A glorious time of year. I did get a few curious looks from High Schoolers who walk past our place on the way to school. They saw some old dude staring up into the sky and then periodically looking down at something he was holding, all the while waving around like some dandelion being buffeted by the wind, which there was none. Probably thought, “just another day in the neighborhood, this being 2020 and all.” From some of the teenagers I have encountered, I’m pretty sure I did not register on their internal radar at all. I pointed my drone to the East and waited for the sun to rise. And it did so with a beep, from my drone controller saying it was going to land the drone right now, cause the battery was doing it’s storage discharging thing, which it is not supposed to do when 200 feet in the sky. Smart machines being not so smart. I got some nice photos anyway. Enjoy

It’s been windy of late, noticeably windy according to the weather forecasters. Too windy to fly the drone for the most part. This morning was a beautiful sunrise, as captured by my Pi camera and that got me thinking about flying. I had to reposition the Pi camera several times last week due to it being moved around by the wind. And that got me thinking about not flying.

This afternoon, the sun peaked out for a bit and my caution over flying in the wind abated to the point that I dragged my drone from its resting place, blew the dust off it as it had been sitting around for several weeks and sent it up.

I went up to 141 feet in altitude and called it good enough. Did my traditional picture taking, and got caught in a shower that I knew was coming but had not paid any attention to while flying. Found out that my drone will come down like a somewhat buoyant rock when asked. These things are not waterproof but won’t melt when wet either. The leaves are coloring up nicely. That is something I like about living in Minnesota. Kansas leaves sort of yellow up and then turn brown. But then Kansas generally doesn’t get below zero and 100 inches of snow that lasts until late April.

Many things have changed in my life since being converted to a believer. My life as a dry branch was what I think most people experience. Frustrations of daily life, petty hate of people you disagree with. You do things, and wonder what compelled you to do such a thing. Short answer, satan.

John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

The bible is pretty clear on what happens with dry branches. Cast into the fire. This includes people that think they are “good.”

The bible is also crystal clear on who is good.

Luke 18:19 And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

But God wants none to be lost, and dry branches can be brought back to life. 

John 15:1 I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father.

Really, you should read all of John. You’ll be better for it.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

And remember, if you are interested in God, God is interested in you.

My love of history and my new found willingness to obey God has led me to study early Christianity. 1st century Christians, those from 100AD to 200AD chose to follow and express their faith in something I see similar to our small Baptist church. Those early Christians would sing hymns and praises to start out their service and move on to fellowship and the breaking of bread. This is pretty much what we do, with the exception of not breaking bread every service. Yes, I have made mention of that, but tradition is strong, even outside the Catholic church, and they’re not willing to entertain communion every Sunday, yet.

And because of the mandate from our local Cesar, we cannot shake hands or greet each other, at all. And this is a very big change for us. It used to be all of 10 minutes of fellowship, hugs and smiles. New people coming to the church always were amazed at this. Sadly, we can’t now, but I am sure if we called it a protest of some current idiocy, we would be granted full access to each other. Crazy times.

Here is one of our favorite hymns that was used to close the service. Even if we are restricted in our lives, God is still good and it truly is well with our souls. Remember to read John, all of it.

Today’s sunrise.

And a lilac blossom from our huge lilac bush. I walked past and did a double take. Lilacs bloom in May not September. Another one of those small, almost unnoticed blessings from our Lord.

And since winter is edging toward us, I thought it would be a good time to fix our side door and primary entrance to our house. When we bought this place, the door had seen better days. The house was a rental for the last several years and lived in by, I can only assume, feral people. They had several cats and not much interest in changing the litter box. My dog wrinkled his nose when entering the house for the first time. 

I bought the same style door at our local big box outlet, but it was already November and too cold to replace the door frame with the new door. I slapped the new door into the old frame, with some difficulty but no blood and it has been that way until today. The Brother in Law came over and started on the project yesterday afternoon. We came to the conclusion at sundown that we needed to sleep on it and try again in the morning. Door frames can be that way most times, I have found.

Before heading off to Bible Study yesterday morning, I ran across a video that takes a hard look at data from Europe and a little bit from the US in regards to viruses and how they work in populations. When you mention this, people quite often grit their teeth and rush to fall back on their tribe’s position on the subject. And of course the subject is COVID-19. It is an automatic assumption by now. But COVID-19 is a virus, since we live in a world created by our God, and a sensible world at that, things in this world work in accordance with their kind. 

Scientists, before they turned to a Man centered world, vs God created, used to believe that this was a sensible world and the answers they were searching for would come from a world made by God, who was Loving, Merciful and Unchanging. Darwin and others changed that and now most people see Man as having the answers.

This video answered several questions of mine and opened my eyes again to how God works in the world. I urge you to watch the video and decide for yourself what to make of it. And then thank God for creating a sensible world for His creatures to live in.

Genesis 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

And while you’re at it, I encourage you keep going through the rest of His book. It will open your eyes.

For us, Labor day had always meant BBQ chicken. That started in 1959 when I was a wee lad and got brought to Red Rooster Day in Dassel MN. We continued the tradition when my son was born and brought him as a wee lad.

Even while living in other states, we grilled chicken on that day. Since moving back home to Minnesota, we still grilled chicken, as my standing in line for anything days has seen better days. We grabbed my wife’s Mother and headed over to my wife’s sister’s place. The town we live in is about 6 blocks square so getting from A to B to C is like a minute at most.

And instead of BBQ’d chicken, I BBQ’d ribs. Something I picked up a couple of years ago and since we lived in New Mexico for awhile, theses ribs make your eyebrows sweat real good.

My wife’s sister’s Son showed up with his wife and 6 kids and my Pastor and neighbor came over with his wife and 3 kids and then a friend of the Nephew showed up with his wife and 6 kids. It was a small house full of kids and they were angels, all of them. Much good fellowship and laughter.

The transition of seasons is always interesting to witness. Sunrises and sunsets are a bit more vivid. Last evening was a classic. A storm front was on its way and we had a perfect blend of clouds and open sky as the sun went down. My drone has a battery that will keep it in the air for 30 minutes or several smaller flights within that time frame. The flight controller, which is a hand held device that flies the drone, has a battery that will last for a couple of hours. I had made a flight about a week and a half ago and hadn’t used the drone again until last evening.

When I booted everything up, as the sun was setting, so in a bit of a rush, I noticed that the flight controller was at 20% battery life and the drone at 63%. I sent it aloft and reached picture altitude which for me is around 300 feet. About the 6th picture into my session, the flight controller went into “Warning, Warning Will Robinson” mode and commenced squealing at me to land right NOW. I pressed the “Come Home” button and the drone started descending in rather a hurry. I thought it a bit much as I still had 13% left in the tank. Got the drone back on the roof and fetched the pictures. It was worth all the calamity.

Click the picture to enlarge to full size.

I mentioned yesterday my interest in the sky and weather; I guess I would have to say bird watching has become a favorite of mine also. I have been truly blessed with the ability to notice details and patterns. My brain was not wired for math, and a possible consolation prize for not understanding zeros was that I am able to notice a track on the ground or a flash of color in the trees with no problem at all. It certainly helped to put meat on the table back when I hunted and now to identify birds at our feeding station.

Once again my Raspberry Pi helps out with this. I have a Pi and camera that live outdoors, under our bay window, that point at the bird feeder and we can watch that video feed on our laptops while sitting on the couch. My rule with technology is that it works for you, not you for it. And while that was good and all, I wanted a much more closeup look at things. These Pi cameras can record at up to 90 frames per second, so I put a motion sensor on my Pi and told it to turn on the camera at its fastest rate whenever a Hummingbird showed up. I moved my Pi to about one foot from the hummingbird feeder and turned it on. And this is what it recorded.

At the end of this video you’ll notice the hummer in the forefront perks up and notices another hummer coming in fast and hot from the top right of the screen. These guys are amazing in their mobility and ability to notice things, and I have to say I am a bit jealous at that. 

Give glory to the Lord for He has created all things, said better here: Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

All things, even those rioters that have caused such misery and destruction. God created those guys like he created you and me and those hummingbirds I love to watch. I think we should consider those guys, who clearly have not been doing the Lord’s work, are probably prisoners of war.

What war you ask? The war between the Light of the world and darkness. They have been captured by satan and doing his work. I just want you to try that concept on for size and search the bible and see what it says to you if you are in disagreement with them as prisoners of war. Since you are reading this online, there are many places to search the scripture. BibleGateway and Blueletter Bible are a couple. As I said before, make technology work for you. Search and see if these unpleasant people have been created as creatures of God and deserve to be prayed for at the very least. This is what Jesus said about people of Jerusalem: Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!

 Hopefully this will make you look at people you don’t like with different eyes, and that is something Jesus would want.

I have always been interested in the sky and weather. Growing up in Minnesota during the 60’s and 70’s I was able to witness awesome blizzards and snowfall and during the warmer months, observe tornados from my backyard. A real treat was a couple of comets that we could see with our own eyeballs.

Moving forward into my adult life and still keeping my eye on the sky, I acquired a couple of drones. We were living in Southern Kansas at the time and the sunrises were spectacular when seeing it from 500 feet up. Plus with 2 drones, I could see it in stereo. The glory of the Lord was evident in each one prairie sunrises that I had witnessed.

These days, I have pared my drones down to just one, but added a little device that is called a Raspberry Pi. It is a micro computer about the size of a man’s wallet. You can do many things with these Pi’s and my favorite thing is to add a camera to them and tell them to take time lapses of sunrises. And they do, I just have to remember to get the pictures before they get overwritten by the next morning’s batch.

Previous to this, I had been placing all these images on FaceBook, but since I own this domain and pay for it, I figured I would start putting them here. So, here we go…

This morning’s very windy sunrise.

And here is an hour and fifteen minute time lapse taken from about 5:30am to just before sunrise.

That little blinky dot in the middle right and rising is Venus.