Stillness, late arrivals, closing

After the flurry of activities and the busyness of entertaining over the last couple weeks, it was nice to be still Sunday and Monday. Saturday, I did only minimal work around the farm. I was feeling a little dizzy through the entire day and that carried over into Sunday. It was bad enough that I probably should have stayed home Sunday, but I pushed through and led the singing and even sang a special Sunday morning. Once we were home from church I went straight to bed and slept until it was time to get ready to go back to church. I asked Bro. Zach to lead the singing that night. I just hated to miss. Right now, it seems imperative put forth the effort to do my part in church. It is such a small part of the ministry, but it is my part to do and I feel privileged to participate. Today I am not a lot better as far as the dizziness is concerned, but I am not required to do much as I work at my computer through the days. Probably a good thing.

Yesterday was a very slow day and a very slow evening. I needed that. I had a chiropractor appointment at 4 pm so that took us well into the evening. We did not make it home before dark. It will be the last time I visit the chiropractor for a while. He basically told me there was little he could do for me because I was too tight for him to help me very much. He could not pop my back. He could not pop my neck. I got the impression that it actually hurt him physically to try to do so. I am still dealing with the numbness in my arm and hand from a pinched nerve in my neck, but it is not as bad as it was a couple weeks ago, so I will manage to deal with it as I go. I see little reason to pay someone to not help me. And I certainly do not know any way to make my back relax.

Over the past weekend and even into today we are getting packages that did not make the Christmas deadline. It is a lot like our recent election which was not an event carried out on one day, but rather stretched into an election season. Christmas is still coming to us – one late package at a time. In backtracking my Amazon orders, I can find three that are yet to arrive, and one package Mama has been tracking for Grandma and Grandpa for several weeks came by FedEx this morning. Three weeks in being delivered but we finally got it. That package will be delivered to Grandma and Grandpa this afternoon or this evening. Mama felt that it would be better for it to arrive here versus being delivered to them at their house. I am not sure why, but it probably had to do with avoiding the delivery address change in Amazon. That has not worked out well for us on previous occasions.

I had Mama help me into the bee suit yesterday at lunchtime so I could double check that I had installed the slides that block the bottom of the hive boards. I made screened bottoms for the hives and in the winter, I have to install a slide in those bases to block the air that flows through the screen into the hive. I was pretty sure I had done so sometime earlier this winter, but I did not remember for sure. As an extra precaution, I screwed a block onto the front of the hive base to completely block any airflow up into the hive. Having installed the candy boards on Saturday, I can now leave the bees alone for a few weeks. Depending on the weather, I will look into the hives before we leave for Honduras at the end of January, but I will have no need to open the hives before that. I am anxious to see how long the candy boards last on each of the hives. To check that will not require any more than lifting the top off the hive. It will have minimal effect on the interior of the hive. The candy boards actually help insulate the hive through the winter. Turn out that twenty pounds of solidified sugar is a great heat absorber on our warmer days.

This year is quickly coming to a close. Two more days left of 2020. When we began this calendar year, no one could have foreseen the horrible way this year was mismanaged by out elected officials. That does not seem to be the case for 2021. It looks bleak regardless of the final election settlement. Whether we crown a cheater or reinstall the actual victor, it will be a rough and tumble time. How we deal with this next year will determine just what kind of nation we are.

I pray we are still, “one nation under God”. This year will tell.