The Ramblings of Weesatch Joe

I have noticed, lately, that Reese is getting a little grey and white color around her snout. She's getting older and, much like me, age is making it's appearance known, one hair at a time. We got Reese about this time in 2019. The shelter thought she was "about 6 months old" at the time. Of course they also thought she was mostly Dachshund and wouldn't get very big. Now, 6 years later, she's a solid 75 pounds of fur mortar - not fast enough to be a fur missle, like a German Shepherd, but when she lands on you, it's got a pretty good impact, ergo, a mortar.  Photos by Megan When she gets the zoomies, and her stocky legs whip through the grass, it gives me the giggles. She loves a good stick and, regardless whether it's the size of a #2 pencil or a 3 foot long branch that fell out of the tree she'll pick it up in her jaws and carry it around the yard. When the stick is as long as her, she cocks her head to the side so she won't trip over it and,...

There are places that I love. My mom's kitchen, my back porch, my shop, sitting next to my wife, and the church sanctuary are easily in my top ten. Those places fill me with joy, peace, happiness and a sense of, well, being . Maybe a better word is abiding . Abiding comes out of Old English and means waiting, remaining, resting. When I am in those places and with those people, I am content to abide and simply be there.  There are also places I don't like. I don't like banks. I don't like chicken coops. I despise with all my being serpentariums - snake houses. I don't much care for oncology units; multiply that times 10 to the 23rd for children's hospitals. Dentist's chairs? No thanks. Oddly enough I don't mind funeral homes or emergency rooms: I have enough pastoral experience that those don't instill the same level of personal dislike they used to. I dislike those for different reasons - they are places where the brokenness of God's creation is ...

I have a few things on my mind these days. Among other things, I am deliberating a call, which some churches might call a position offer, to serve a new church in South Texas. There are some positives to taking the position and some positives to staying. Each has negatives as well. Like the song says, "Should I stay or should I go?" The answer is: it depends on who you ask. The weather is also rapidly changing, with temperatures falling like spilled coffee off a table. Over the next three nights, temps will tumble into the mid twenties for four-to-six hours at a time. That's not good for South Texas. I always get anxious about a waterline freezing and bursting, but I've covered and wrapped and prepped the pipes and faucets. I think it'll work. There is a big problem, though, and it's outside my control. My peach tree is in full bloom, loaded with beautiful blossoms and buds, leaves poking their green wings out like a butterfly bursting from the chrysalis.  My ...

Well, guess what? I'm going to be a grandfather! Call me what you want - Gramps (not Grampy, please...that sounds like a stomach issue, as in, "too many tacos...my stomach is grampy"), Grandpa, Grampaw, the Meyer Patriarch, or even Pops - I'm going to have one of the greatest blessings God can give to a father: a grandchild. To say I'm excited is an understatement. My daughter had her first sonogram this morning. What can I say - the baby looks just like her mom did at that age. I'm managing to keep it to a low simmer, but I already want to buy a box of cigars and start practicing for the day I get the call this fall, "Well, Dad, you have a grandson/granddaughter named Sue." Hey - it worked for Johnny Cash.  While the excitement continues to grow with a rising a crescendo of joy, I also have a niggling fear in the back of my mind. Fear may be too strong of a word. Concern, worry, angst, unease - those might be closer to what I feel.  I w...