So I’m a “day late and a dollar short” as the old expression goes.

I haven’t posted for the last few days and I don’t have it in me to try to catch up right now.

Internet has only been ‘hit n miss’ for the past week and today it’s completely ‘miss’. We’ve have zero internet all day (meaning I was unable to teach 3 classes by videoconference) and the service provider says that, in normal times, it can take 1-7 days to resolve the problem (and these are NOT normal times).

Umm… lockdown without internet could take things to a whole new level of crazy. Add to that that I’m composing this post on my phone, (hence why I’m not catching up… blogging by phone is not my cup of tea… my thumbs can’t take it!) 🙂

So… in the meantime, enjoy pictures of three good things… (1) a strawberry growing in the greenhouse (2) a pear tree in blossom in the yard and (3) home-made crocheted coasters to set coffee on… small comforts!

While your other activities are limited, read about the antics of teenagers on/around the Moncton-Buctouche Railway in the early 1920s.

Today we got dressed for church, had music practice and worshipped… in our living room.

That’s been the pattern for the last several weeks. Strange but yet very new testament. On one hand it’s a privilege to go through this with the kids…. it gives them an example of what it’s like to live out faith when gathering AT church is not possible… and we can only gather AS the church. Oh the difference a preposition makes.

If there was ever a time when moms & dads needed to be mature enough to lead their kids… it’s now. No more relegating the task to Sunday School.

Before I start a sermon… I’d better get on to…

Covid-19 had nothin’ on this day.

I could easily share more but to keep with the pattern, here are…

While Coronavirus headlines have been grim in various parts of the world for weeks, there’s still been a feeling that it’s “elsewhere”. We’re not particularly hard hit in our part of France, for example (although we remain on strict lockdown like the rest of the country).

As news headlines back home in North America begin to offer up daily tallies of infections and deaths, where there may have been a sense of it being an “elsewhere” issue… it feels like that sense is fading.

All that makes it important for me to remember…

French news is reporting that a shipment of facial masks, ordered by and destined for France, was redirected to the USA after US representatives on the ground paid 3-4x the previously agreed upon price, in cash, for the shipment.

As this crisis goes forward, what we’ve seen already in the form of panic buying (“Whatever I can get, great… for the next guy, too bad”) we’ll likely see more and more: “Every man for himself” … or in this case… every country.

There will be exceptions, for sure (I hope and I’m confident), but it’s all one more reason to focus on…

OK, Corona got cancelled, you can return to your previously scheduled programming!

“April Fools”

Is it considered poor taste to joke about that? I hope not. It is, after all, what everyone is waiting for and it IS better than putting an OXO cube or cool-aid in the shower-head nozzle after all (Now THERE’s an April fool’s prank, with credit going to Newfie friend Crystal (Huxter) Knowles – a very joke-y family).

Go ahead… try it… it could be one of someone else’s…

It’s day 16 of #LifeUnderLockdown and the headlines here are likely similar to those anywhere else:

– Hospitals are full to capacity
– TV channels are offering lots more movies.
– Home internet / Wifi routers are maxed out.

Right now, we’re in the middle of a storm and my thought is: Do what you can do, don’t be overly worried about what you can’t, and ride out the storm.

Yes, the level is unprecedented in modern history, but we’ve all had to ride out storms before. Part of me riding out the storm involves remembering…

Wow! Has it been windy here today! It’s felt like a good ol’ Atlantic Canadian Nor’Easter.

Kind of comical actually, the chickens wouldn’t eat their feed in a part of the yard where we normally feed them, because no sooner did they turn the corner, but that the wind was pushing them back down the driveway… Full-sized adult birds weren’t heavy enough to stay put!

Enough about the birds though, here are…

It’s Sunday, meaning that for the third week in a row, we were unable to hold services together, at church.

I recorded another video message that folks can view at home, but it’s not the same as meeting together, singing together… praying together. Still though… thankful for technology that makes it possible.

Besides being thankful for technology, here are…

How can I be tired? I haven’t gone anywhere and there’s an awful lot of limitations on what can be done, but still… last night & this morning… I was ZONKED!

That’s the lead-in to the first of…