I have been away from here for so long. Life got really busy a year ago when my honey broke her wrist out on the south porch. While she was getting fixed with metal plates and screws I got to know the surgeon. We had good talks and he ended up replacing the hip that had been giving me fits for a year or so. One thing led to another and we both continue to heal from the calamities of life. Today I discovered I've gotten myself in trouble on FB big time. I don't know what I did, yet, I'm sure someone will tell me. I'm not in the FB jail so they must be reviewing some of my patriotic posts from yesterday. There are many things that are not allowed and I could very easily have touched a nerve. Whatever......I've just come here to clear my mind and put some stuff down that I may or may not remember later. I pray Y'all are having a good day - In Christ's Love, Preacher.

this is the beginning of a new year and I am not ready for it - How does one get ready for a new year? Well every day is a new start in life if we so choose. Put one foot in front of the other and keep on keeping on. I'm sitting at my desk being totally upset with me for not reading all of my current E-mails. Silly for sure! but this was important stuff and I've been wallowing in grief of many kinds. That is so not like me! I don't wallow. I do the services, comfort the hurting, move on with my life and keep on playing. I play music, I play at motorcycles, I play at ministry.....but it isn't all fun and games. The freedom that cycles provides me during good weather is like therapy for the head that makes as much sense as playing the music that moves my soul. Likewise is the ministry of one on one shared experience of my Creator in the midst of life. (laughing now) I missed a sale on bike parts......one thing you can be certain of in this world is that there will always be another sale! - This year is like the last, there are things that I want that I don't have and may never get, but that's alright because I have more than I will ever need. My life has been truly blessed and I have no clue why other than I have continued to do the best I can every day to be a better person than I was yesterday. Maybe that's a key to living. Anyway this was a night of confrontation with my demons and my angels. I have a studio to set back in order so that music can take the place of two wheels. I know that makes no sense to some, but for me it is one of the ways I deal with the restrictions of winter on the "Great American Desert" where it's too cold to ride. My spirit longs to be on stage with some of the folks that I played with years ago, but they are all dead now, as are the ones I rode with. Maybe getting older sux, but I don't think so. It is a blessing denied many and shared by few. Lost in it now I go where I've been and pray that I go again. Getting through loss is not easy and this one has been tougher than most. In fact it has been the worst. I write this for me because I don't keep journals anymore. Like many things it passed away. Only the ride, music, love for my Creator continues on the journey we call life. That's it for now, 3M's, Music, Ministry, and Motorcycles - not always in that order - God Bless, In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Well, this is us for Christmas 2017. This has been a tough month. maybe some losses in life are more difficult than others simply because of the impact they have on our lives. Duh, could it be that I have an innate talent for stating the obvious? I'm getting through this period of time by practicing with my newly refurbished favorite guitar. It has been part of my life since 1980. I bought the guitar and had the owner of the music store put the matching numbered case on a shelf in the back until I could afford to buy it. His name was Alvin and he was the very first person to hire me to play music. That was 1965 and he was a forever friend. It seems like the world of music has provided me with a plethora of 'forever' friends. I guess you could say that Rodney is a new 'forever' friend. He's the guitar guru that brought new life to my old favorite. We have a lot of folks in common from our lives. Interesting how life works in circles or perhaps it's a part of my Creator's plan to put me back in touch for awhile with my roots. Merry Christmas to all of the folks alive and not. I do love y'all and you're in my prayers. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Preparing to do another funeral. This time we'll be in Wisconsin. I don't know how others deal with the loss of their best friend but I'm struggling. Had I known when I agreed to do the funeral that I would feel like this I probably would have declined. I got to thinking about it as I lay in bed awhile ago. How long have I known Richard? I really can't remember when we met or how long ago it was. I remember that when we met I was happy when it happened. He was doing night security for the Crusaders encampment in Sturgis during the rally. I was camped there and working with the worship music team under the direction of Pastor Jerry Snowden. Mike Arnold was the Senior Pastor and I was in charge of my own congregation on the other side of South Dakota. I made the journey to Sturgis to do outreach to lost folks. I sort of fell into the piano player thing by God incident. I'd been doing the gig with the Crusaders since the 50th Anniversary of the Black Hills Motorcycle Rally. That was 1990, 27 years ago this last summer. Richard was taking a break during his walk about duties. Sitting by himself in the dark on top of a rock. There was another rock near by so I sat down and talked with him. Then I talked with him some more and we walked the camp together. That's how it began but I don't remember what year. I lived about half way between his home in Wisconsin and Sturgis. I told him to break his journey in half by staying with us the following year and he did. What followed was years of riding together, laughing about all sorts of stuff. Sharing meals was always a joy. Sardines from a can, T-Bones rare, venison, all enjoyed through the years with prayers of thanks for whatever we had to share. Holidays came and went, Birthdays too, always in touch every so often by phone or mail and then by E-Mail followed by Facebook as our lives unfolded before us. We grew older. We wrenched cycles together, built campfires, swapped stories and shared our lives. He was my 'go to' prayer partner and I was his. We were able to depend on each other for anything and I suppose that's why I'm doing his funeral. I am deeply honored by this one. I've done hundreds of funerals. This one is different. Perhaps it will be the last one I will ever do. I don't know. Only time will tell, but I know this for sure......I have never known the sadness of spirit that I feel tonight. It may dim with time but I doubt if it will ever go away. Maybe.....strike that......it was part of my Creator's plan for us to be bonded as we were for this time on earth we shared. I had lessons to learn and a faith to grow into. We both learned and we kept on growing. I still am and I know that my BFF now has all the answers we talked about all those years. "Remember, and in remembering leave no regrets that what has past, though gone was good." that and "It's Never Too Late To Live Happily Ever After" - So I'm sitting here thinking about life and how it seems to make sense some times and other times not so much. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

It's a laughing, smiling, happy sort of morning on my little patch of perfection - the "Great American Desert" is receiving enough rain to sustain life for at least another week - 60+ years ago I remember my paternal grandmother working in the kitchen baking bread for the weekend and preparing breakfast - she sang hymns as she worked - a scent of frying bacon would waft through the air long before the sun appeared over the horizon - her single slice toaster could be heard ticking away on the table(the toaster still works) - and the eggshell coffee would be boiling on the stove -this time of year was almost as magical as Christmas - her garden was in full production and on Saturday afternoons she would can vegetables - pantry in the root cellar was always stocked with enough provisions to last two winters - her peach pie and the baskets of peaches being prepared were a wonder - yup, I always ate too many - and the garden also produced raspberries and strawberries enough to fill the small wooden baskets that were always kept clean and ready - wooden bushel baskets and wooden peach crates were reused all the years that I could remember and I guess they had to be in really sad shape to ever do anything other than get stacked for the next season - life was so simple - it was good. Grandmother was born in 1889 in a sod home built on the prairie of South Dakota. That was the same year that this portion of the Great American Desert became a state. this morning's rain would have delighted her. I can almost hear the rain barrel overflowing at the back of the wash shed. That was where she would wash her hair. When questioned on the history she had witnessed her response to, "What is the greatest advancement mankind has made in your lifetime?" Some of us thought she might mention television or radio. The telephone had to rank up there at the top(she loved to talk on the phone)and the advent of automobiles and airplanes, not to mention man walking on the moon. Nope, none of those made it to the top of her personal list. Without skipping a beat she replied, "Indoor plumbing!" Her laughter was a wonder and her eyes would sparkle with it. She was in love so deeply with her husband Bill(they wed when she was 15)that she ever looked for another after his passing. She was quite happy as a widow. I think that we were all much happier people in those days. Nothing can ever compare to the life we thought normal. I give thanks this day for that home - and the love that filled my tummy, nose, ears, mouth, and heart - Thank You Lord for my ancestors - In Christ's Love, Preacher.

>my mind began to turn over pages of the past for me this evening. Some of them flew by so quickly that there was barely time to see what year they may have covered. It seems that I've been drawn backwards to a time I once lived and now I'm living again. I enjoy the reminders of how things once were and how they seem to be again. In my heart of hearts I know it can't last much longer because some sort of spiritual rhythm is at work within me and I'm not supposed to be in the same place for too long. Growing up I was not ever in what some would refer to as a home. There were places that felt like home for a little while but they did not last. Oddly enough I didn't even come 'home' from the hospital with my mother. I was kept there for ten-twelve days after being born because of difficulties in survival. Obviously I did survive but there are so many questions concerning what it was I survived that is wrapped in the cloak of untruths shared with family members(most of them dead now)and the outright lies that were perpetrated by those closest to me. When I finally came 'home' from the hospital I was placed with an aunt. My mother's sister who was a school teacher with a 10 year old daughter. I know now from memories that I was with them for at least two years. I was walking about and trying to run when I was moved from the aunt's home to the home of my father and mother. Following that I was placed in the care of one grandmother or the other until I began school. Weird stuff went on during those years. The stuff that nightmares are made from including a one legged life size doll nearly three feet in height that lived in the closet of the room in which I was placed in my parent's house.

Life just gets better with each passing day. I'm happy with most of it. There are things I'd like to do more of than I have been. That's okay. The pix are from a recent journey to Las Vegas. So thankful for this life! In Christ's Love, Preacher.