GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

A REMEMBERAMBLE 1/28/26

"Cold enough fer ye?" Yes, it is plenty cold I reckon, and is apt to stay that way for at least a week or more. The weather folks say we will have another major winter storm this weekend. We shall see, will we not? I must say that not having indoor plumbing and using an outhouse in frigid and windy weather, would strike fear in our hearts, today. Matching central heating, with indoor plumbing, was a paradigm shift, and my goodness those two things are a blessing, indeed. The last few days, when babee Conway and lil Merle need to go out, they do not tarry, they do what they gotta do, and will beat me back to the door, ready to go inside.

"HOLD THE DOOR, DEDDEE, WE COMING IN!"

I have black eyed peas soaking overnight, and I will start them cooking in a few minutes. I have some red onions to chop to go with them, and some peach salsa also. "Try it, you'll like it!" When I was a young boy, we would go outside some, but not very much when it was so cold, when we did, go out, we would just about meet ourselves coming back. We would always find something to do indoors. We played parchesi, checkers, Chinese checkers, Monopoly, Life, and card games like Old Maids, rummy, go fish, as well as others. We would shoot craps for quarters, and drink beer. "JUST KIDDING!" As kids we never did such a thing. We would have loved playing cowboys and Indians inside but mama said the smoke from our cap pistols gave her a headache. But she was the sheriff, so we had to abide by her rules.

Moving right along, let me introduce a new topic. After I had to stop working, I missed going each day to the hill country and mountains near Toccoa and Lavonia. But I must admit that many folks in that region have such steep and hilly yards and other land holdings, that would make it impossible for me to walk over any of it.

The steepest hills I ever saw people living on were those in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. San Francisco is touted as the hilliest town in the country, but I nominate Eureka Springs for that dubious honor. It is so steep, that many of its houses' front door open to one street and their back door opens on a different street!

Eureka Springs is a beautiful place. As I said, many houses have entrances on two streets,

The magnificent old 1886 Crescent Hotel, in Eureka Sprigs, Ark. We stayed there before it was restored, it was rundown but a spooky place, and we loved it.

I will close with this update about my health and the upcoming cardiac catheter procedure, my third one in a so many weeks. It is scheduled for February 3rd in Augusta's Wellstar Hospital, and Dr. Deepak Kapoor will be doing this one. He will try to place my third stent. I need your prayers. This morning I was afraid I would have to postpone the procedure because I was so sick. I was racked with chills, shaking, feeling so cold, my body temp dropped to 96.6. I was aching all over and had to go back to bed. Although my temp was low, soon it came up to 99.1 and I began sweating and rolling in misery. I eventually went to sleep, and when I awoke later, my pillow was soaked with sweat but I felt much better. I am fine ow, but I have never had such an ailment that was so bad but lasted only a few hours and then was gone.

Almost every night lately, I wake up with my hair and pillow soaked in sweat. The rest of my body is fine, but my my head and neck are soaked. Enough of my ailment-news for now, so let me let you go, and I pray you have a good day. I thank God for each of you.

NUMBERS 6: 24-26, KJV

we boys three, babee conway, lil merle, & me