Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 77

Finding Mary

     Welcome to this year’s Christmas edition of my Sunday inspirational blogs. For six weeks, starting the first Sunday in December, I have been posting an updated version of the blogs I posted in 2011 and again in 2016. I thought they were kind of cute, so decided they were worth revisiting. All the pictures were taken on one of our trips to Kenya. I hope you enjoy the pictures and the story.

 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born; and she gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn. Luke 2:6-7 (Living Bible)
 Visitor (whispering): Excuse me, can you tell me if that is Mary?
 Cow: Yes, it is. With her husband Joseph and their brand-new baby.
 Goat: You should have been here earlier. It was like a miracle when the baby was born.
 Visitor: Really? Why is that?
 Goat: I really can’t put my hoof on it.
 Cow: Me either. But it was beautiful. It was like total peace and serenity suddenly came over this stable.
 Goat: And this light seemed to be coming straight out of the baby. Only it wasn’t a light. I can’t explain it.
 Visitor: Then I am pretty disappointed that I missed it. I have been all over the countryside the last few months, looking for Mary. I can’t believe that I finally found her.
 Cow: Why have you been looking for her so long and so hard?
 Visitor: That’s what I don’t know. I thought I was drawn to her but now that she has the baby, I think that all along it was the baby that I was looking for.
 Goat: But here you are and you still don’t know?  
 Visitor: No, I don’t. But I am going to figure it out before I’m through.  

2019 Christmas Letter, Part 6

    I wish I was to the part of this Christmas letter where things got better for us. Not quite, but hang in there, like I did all year.  Five days after that spring storm in May that took out our power and a tree, I fell off our bottom basement step and broke my foot. I know, right?   What else could happen this year? At least I didn’t need surgery, was only laid up for a few weeks, and gimpy for a few more. Apparently, it didn't slow me down much.   By mid-June, things were already looking better and I was up for a trip. From all the pictures I took, I had to have walked a few miles, but I don’t remember how I did that on a broken foot. Was I still wearing my boot for all that? No clue. I think I’m losing my mind  Anyway, we had a good trip, even though it was only for overnight. It was good to get away.  On the way home, we stopped at the camera shop in Madison to buy me a new camera. If you look back at some of the pictures earlier in this Christmas letter, you may have noticed a string through the middle of the lighter ones. It was driving me nuts and I couldn’t take it anymore. I just had to invest in a new camera! Thank you, Hubby, for supporting me!   Fourth of July weekend, we had a picnic at our house. It was nice to have everyone over and the weather was beautiful.  
 The only blight in our lives during those early summer months was that another one of cats left the family fold. The last time we saw Betty was around the first of July. The hardest part is not knowing what happened to her.
  You’re forever in our hearts, sweet Uni-Kitty.

2019 Christmas Letter, Part 5

 As we were driving home from our vacation to Virginia in April, we received a call from our house-sitters when we were about four hours out. Our basement was flooded. The snow melt was soaking into the ground all around our house and water was coming up through the basement floor at an alarming rate.  We beat feet to get home, not that there was any more we could do when we got there. The sump pump which had faithfully eradicated incoming water over the past twenty years just couldn’t keep up.
 It was a constant battle for several weeks. And just about the time it seemed as if the war was won, a storm in mid-May took out power, as well as a tree. 
 From three am one morning, Hubby and I bailed water out of the basement, before finally giving in sometime after six when we needed to start getting ready for work.  At least with all that water and a gas stove to heat it, I took a refreshing bath before heading to work.    Other events in the spring brought these inconveniences into perspective. My sister’s husband, Claude, was diagnosed with brain cancer. He had surgery to debulk the tumor, but there wasn’t much more they could do to slow the growth. (Claude's birthday in 2014.)  Around that same time, Hubby’s mother finally went to the doctor because she could no longer walk on one of her legs. Not to say “told you so”, but I called it, knowing that she had to have broken her hip. Surgery went surprisingly well, but it put a lot of stress on the family, stress which hasn’t abated. (Dino, of course, helps everyone deal better with stress.)

Christmas Letter, Part 5

 As we were driving home from our vacation to Virginia in April, we received a call from our house-sitters when we were about four hours out. Our basement was flooded. The snow melt was soaking into the ground all around our house and water was coming up through the basement floor at an alarming rate.  We beat feet to get home, not that there was any more we could do when we got there. The sump pump which had faithfully eradicated incoming water over the past twenty years just couldn’t keep up.
 It was a constant battle for several weeks. And just about the time it seemed as if the war was won, a storm in mid-May took out power, as well as a tree. 
 From three am one morning, Hubby and I bailed water out of the basement, before finally giving in sometime after six when we needed to start getting ready for work.  At least with all that water and a gas stove to heat it, I took a refreshing bath before heading to work.    Other events in the spring brought these inconveniences into perspective. My sister’s husband, Claude, was diagnosed with brain cancer. He had surgery to debulk the tumor, but there wasn’t much more they could do to slow the growth. (Claude's birthday in 2014.)  Around that same time, Hubby’s mother finally went to the doctor because she could no longer walk on one of her legs. Not to say “told you so”, but I called it, knowing that she had to have broken her hip. Surgery went surprisingly well, but it put a lot of stress on the family, stress which hasn’t abated. (Dino, of course, helps everyone deal better with stress.)

Sheep without a Shepherd

     Welcome to this year’s Christmas edition of my Sunday inspirational blogs. For six weeks, starting the first Sunday in December, I will post an updated version of the blogs I posted in 2011 and again in 2016. I thought they were kind of cute, so decided they were worth revisiting. All the pictures were taken on one of our trips to Kenya. I hope you enjoy the pictures and the story.
 There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified.  Luke 2:8-9 The Message Bible
Visitor: Good evening. It’s quiet out here.
Sheep 1: Seriously? You should have been ten minutes ago.
Sheep 2: No kidding. It was ridiculous.
Visitor: What happened? And where is your shepherd?
Sheep 1: We were just all having a quiet evening, doing some grazing and thinking about laying down to sleep, when all of a sudden, there was this light in the sky.
Sheep 2: And these people were in the sky and they were singing.
Sheep 3: They were angels.
Sheep 2: How do you know what an angel is?
Visitor: It doesn’t matter. Just tell me, what happened? This sounds amazing.
Sheep 1: These angels – if that’s what they were – told our shepherds that their Savior was born in Bethlehem and that they should go meet him.
Visitor: Really?
Sheep 2: And so our shepherds left us out here by ourselves.
Sheep 3: I think when angels tell you to do something, you better do it. I think that one of the angels is still up there, watching over us until our shepherds come back.
Sheep 2: Are you nuts? What are you talking about?
Sheep 3: I think there is something magical about tonight.
Visitor:  I do too. Did they say anything else?
Sheep 1: I think one of them said that there is a baby in a manger and his mother is Mary and –
Visitor: What? Did you say Mary? I’ve been looking for a woman named Mary who is going to have a baby.
Sheep 1: Well, you best get going then, I think this is your gal.
Visitor: I just came from Bethlehem, but I guess I will head back there. Thanks for all your help. I hope the remainder of your night is peaceful.
Sheep 2: I do too.

2019 Christmas Letter, Part 4

     Looking at the calendar, I see I’m gonna have to get a move on it if I’m gonna finish blogging about 2019 by the end of the year.  March continued to be a blur of snow and cold and more snow.  So much snow, that roofs around the area were threatened with collapse. It doesn’t look like much, but this water sprinkler hanging out of the ceiling like that meant that the weight of the snow on the roof of the clinic where I work had just about reached its max and required an emergency team to get the snow off the roof as quickly as possible. As already mentioned, this wasn’t the only roof in town that this happened to.  April arrived, though the weather didn’t hint at spring. We left for vacation during a blizzard on the eleventh.  We kept thinking we should pull over and find a hotel until it blew over, but we just wanted to get somewhere where there wasn’t snow.    This random yard in Kentucky was the first picture I took where the grass was this green. I would have been willing to stay there, to soak it all in, but our destination was Virginia.  I blogged about that vacation at length back in May, so I’m not going to tell you all about it all over again. But it was a great trip, once we got out of Wisconsin. There were flowers in bloom everywhere.
 When we got home, quite a bit of snow had melted. Unfortunately, it had to go somewhere. More about that next time, as well as the other bad news I received that month.

2019 Christmas Letter, Part 3

     As January of 2019 turned into February, winter descended on us here in the upper Midwest and didn’t quit until April. My kids came and shoveled off the roof of our house twice and we paid somebody else to shovel off the garage.
 I guess pictures tell the best story.


 At least, before all this winter wretchedness, the kids had traveled back to Kenya the end of January. Nick and Val had been there multiple times, but this was the first time my son-in-law had made any trip like that.  
 They took along a girl they knew from high school and her mother. Everyone had a good time, even though there was a bit of a snag with the mom. Life goes on, though, right?
 The worst thing that happened that time of year was that one of cats, Alice, the one we called the Kitten, just because she was so small, crossed the rainbow bridge, suddenly and unexpectedly.   She had been with us for only eight years.
 I can’t believe I don’t have many good pictures of her.   
 Unfortunately, her passing wasn’t the only loss we suffered this year.   

The Continuing Search for Mary

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. Luke 2:4-5 New International Version
Visitor: Excuse me. It is awful busy in this town.
Donkey: The king wanted to count all of the people in this land, so he told everyone to go back to the town of their ancestors. I guess a lot of people are from Bethlehem.
Visitor: Looks like. I am trying to find a young woman named Mary. I went to Nazareth looking for her, and they told me that she would be here.
Donkey: That’s her and her fiancé Joseph over there. I brought them here. It was a lot easier than the work that I usually do. Even though she’s going to have a baby, she doesn’t weigh as much as the carts I usually pull.
Visitor: I see. Why are she and Joseph talking to that man?
Donkey: They are looking for a place to spend the night. They have relatives in town, but all their houses are filled. I don’t know where they are going to stay.
Visitor: It looks like she could have the baby anytime.
Donkey: If you say so. Who are you anyway?
Visitor: Just someone who is trying to find out who Mary is and why she is so special.
Donkey: I wish I could help you. I could tell right away when I met her that she was special. She told Joseph that she could walk all the way here from Nazareth, but he insisted she ride and that’s why he borrowed me from my owner. I don’t think they have much money. I hope they find a place to stay.
Visitor: What about you? Where will you stay?
Donkey: I’m used to sleeping outside. What about you? You can't sleep outside. 
Visitor: I don’t know. Even though I have traveled a lot the last few days, I’m not tired. Maybe I will go out into the countryside. Enjoy the peace and quiet away from the city.


Donkey: Well, have a good night and maybe we will meet again.
Visitor: Maybe. In the meantime, I’m going to figure out why I am drawn to this woman Mary. But I guess it will have to wait until morning now.

2019 Christmas Letter, part 2

     Welcome to the Christmas Letter 2019. On Wednesday’s blog I mentioned that I was going here, but today will be the official opening of the “Letter”.
 The night of the first day of the new year should have told me something about how our year would be. Around 10:00, shortly after going to bed on January 1, Hubby and I each ended up in the bathroom (good thing we have two of them). We spent the next six hours on our respective thrones, holding buckets in our laps.
 Every year for the last six years or so, I’ve chosen a “word of the year”, a word to keep in mind, to help me focus on something, to turn to when things are unraveling. I’d chosen the word “gift”for 2019. Hmm? That first day of the year my gift was those two toilets in the house.
 Speaking of toilets, in January, I submitted my first Cologuard specimen, sending my stool sample to the lab to have it checked for cancer cells. I was pretty stressed about it, as my mammogram the month before had initially come back questionable and I had to go in for a repeat just to be sure. The second one was totally fine. Then my bone density scan came back border-line as well. I was thinking that I really didn’t want a third screening test to come back abnormal, but I guess the third times a charm as my colon is fine. (Oh, boy!)   Other than that, January brought us colder weather than usual, and I think the average amount of snow. Then February hit, bringing with it snowmageddon. I don’t think it stopped snowing until April. No, I know it didn’t stop until then. More about that next time. 

The Christmas Letter, part 1

     I hate to say that I have run out of ideas for my yearly Christmas blog series, but I have spent the last week or so trying to come up with a new theme for this year.
 I asked my family, and over the weekend, while I was going through last year’s Christmas cards (yes, last year’s. I thought I’d already gone through them and only saved certain ones, but apparently, they were all there), I mentioned the number of letters people had written. You know, the “Christmas Letter”, which I am guilty of writing as well, where the writer tells you all about the year they had. My daughter thought I should blog about the “Christmas Letter”. But if I continue posting three times a week, that is seven posts between now and Christmas (not counting the Sunday posts). And there is clearly not enough that could be said about the “Christmas Letter” to take up that much time and space.
 Sometimes I am pretty dense though.
 I mean, as I was paging through other people’s letters, I even asked myself if I was going to send out the “Christmas Letter” with my Christmas cards again this year. (Every single year I fall into a quandary about whether or not to bore family and friends with it, as well as spend the time composing it.)
 And then, duh, it hit me. This will be my Christmas letter to you, over the next three weeks. Accept my apologies ahead of time if I bore you. And also, if you don’t read my blog, I guess you won’t know how my year went.
 Here’s a spoiler alert: it was a pretty rough year. But we got through it and I can look back now and remember the bright spots. So hold onto your hats and come back on Friday to hear how our year began. Above is our grill on the deck from February 23 and below is the same grill this past weekend. I'm going to have to spend some time focusing on the nice three weeks of weather we had this past year.