Where We've Been

In my devotional reading this morning the scripture was from Deuteronomy 8, a call for God's people to not forget where they came from. That can refer to family heritage, traditions, and places, among other things.

In this post I share some of the places where we have lived. Not all of them are available, but these few help me remember where all God has led us, and also to remember how blessed we are to be where we are now.










68th and Green St., Chicago, IL
1957 - 1958

303 S. Gardena, East Peoria, IL
1958 - 1962

Germantown Hills, East Peoria, IL
1962 - 1970

110 Florence, East Peoria, IL
1970 - 1974










Church Road, Orrville, OH
1974 - 1977

Dalton Fox Lake Road, Dalton, OH
1977 - 1982










Farm Apartment, Marshallville, OH
1982 - 1983


NYSUM building
Long Island City, NYC
1983-1984

Flushing New York - 1984 - 1988

41-18 149th Place 42-53 149th Place 42-54 149th Place

722 E. Park St., Arthur, IL
1988 - 1995




221 Taylor Lane, Arthur, IL
1995 - 1999









418 N. Elm St., Arthur, IL
1999 - 2004

456 S. Hess, Hesston, KS
2004 - Present



That's where we've been. We believe that God has led us each step of the way, and we continue to believe He will lead us until He calls us home.

Pilgrim on the way

Spring Training

I started being a fan of the Chicago Cubs when I was a freshman in high school. That was way back in 1945. That year the Cubs were in the world series playing against the Detroit Tigers. They lost that series and haven't been in the world series since. They last won the world series in 1808. So Cub fans have needed to be very patient, waiting for that time to come again.

Until the last couple of years I would have had plans in place by now to travel to Phoenix in March. Of course since we have a daughter and her family living there it was to be with them and have fun doing things with them. But for me it was also the time to go to the Cubs' spring training games played in nearby Mesa. I enjoyed going to 5 to 8 games in a two week period, sometimes by myself, sometimes some of the family would go along. The Ho Ho Kam Park facility was a very nice place to see games, get closer looks at the players, and catch a preview of what was hoped would be a winning team. I did that for several years in a row, but now those times are only memories.

The months of February, March and April are about the best times to be in Phoenix. Actually, I wouldn't mind being there from about November through April, but that would present some difficulties. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to go to the Cubbies spring training games again or not, but I can still be a Cubs fan. During the regular season I purchase a special sports package for TV so that I can get most of their games. I question whether or not I should do that every year but at this point in my life it would be hard to do without.

If you don't care a bit about baseball you probably haven't gotten this far in this post. If you made it here you made it to the end. Have a good day all!

Pilgrim on the way

Old Is Bad??

Who said it was bad to grow old? I don't know who said that, if someone did, but there seems to be the general idea in society that getting old is a bad thing. Otherwise why do people spend so much money on stuff to keep them from looking old? It seems to me there's only one other alternative, and most people don't want that either.

Maybe it takes a dog to get us to see that old isn't so bad after all. Stump, a ten year old Sussex spaniel, just won the top dog honors at the Westminster Dog Show in NYC. How's that for old? My, there were some pretty foxy looking dogs in that show. Some were sort of strange looking, some you could hardly see their face, and others looked like a nicely groomed mop running around the room. But Stump beat them all.

They say that ten years on a dog equals about 70 years on a human. Can you imagine a 70 year old woman winning the Miss America contest? That's about equal to what happened last night on the dog show. Oh I know that there are some people who try to dress and act like they are 40, 50 years younger than they really are. But they can't fool me! Most of the time that is. Especially if their knees are showing - or their belly button for Pete's sake! Ol' Stump he was just himself last night and showed up everybody.

Getting old isn't so bad if one learns that you can be yourself and present yourself clean, dressed properly (whatever that is), well groomed, and behave like your age. Learning to grow older gracefully makes a person someone whom others like to be around, to associate with.

Here at the Villa it always inspires me when I see older residents dressed neat and nice. I often compliment them when I see them looking nice, "nice dress, nice shirt," etc. Almost without exception they will smile and say "thank you." These folks have found a way to grow older and still be "good looking" in their own way.

Perhaps we can all learn from Stump and his owner, that we don't need to fret when we realize that "old" is creeping up on us. Who said "old" was bad? I only do when my aches and pains seem to be getting the best of me. And even then I can take courage when I see people much older than I managing to deal with their aging in a respectable way. It makes me want to say, I hope I can be like they are when I'm that old. And with that I must say that I just remain --

Pilgrim on the way

The Weather

Well I guess when one doesn't have much to talk about the weather is always a possibility. Now I could have chosen to not do a post this evening, but it being a quiet Friday evening and with me not having anything in particular to do, I decided to do a post. And also since I didn't have anything in particular to write about, the weather became the topic.

The weather is one of the topics that gets discussed by almost everyone almost everywhere one goes. And since the weather these days seems to be something quite out of the ordinary, it is surely the number one topic for people around here to discuss. Not that anyone can do anything at all about the weather, but we certainly have the option to discuss it whether we like it or not. Its just like soup - some like it hot, some like it cold, and some don't like it either way, which is my response to the weather. I say when its hot, I'll never complain about the cold, and when its cold, I'll never complain about the hot weather. Of course neither one turns out to be true.

According to the date of this post, it is February 6. The weather this time of the year should normally be sort of wintry - daytime temperature in the 40's quite cold at night, maybe even in the teens some. Last night I think we recorded about 41 and today it was around 70, depending on where one was. And of course it was windy - not breezy as they said it would be, but windy. By the way, I've often wondered where the line is between breezy and windy. I suppose the weather bureau has a statistic for that somewhere. Anyway, the temperature has been up and down like a yo yo for most of the winter it seems, and for a few days in a row here it has been up. I'm expecting it to go down soon, but maybe it won't go down too far again this winter. Hope, hope.

We have two sons, both of which live in Ohio. In talking to one last evening who lives near Cleveland, he said that they had gotten about another 12" of snow again, and it was still snowing. I don't remember how many times he has told me this winter that they had a foot of snow, but certainly more that once or twice. Our other son lives about 50 miles south of that and while they don't get as much snow there, they get enough snow and cold weather that he is quite tired of it all, to put it mildly. Some would say, if you don't like the weather where you live move to somewhere else, but most of the time that's easier said than done.

How would you order the weather if you had a say to it? If you think about that, you will probably conclude that ordering up the weather wouldn't be such an easy task. How would you like to have half of the people complaining about your weather one day, and the other half the next? We humans living here on earth probably have had more to do with the weather changes we often see than we might think. But ultimately our Creator, being in control of all things in this universe, and having set things in motion by His mighty power, will be the Decider when it comes to what the weather may or may not do. After all, God sees us only "as grasshoppers," as it said in my devotions this morning. And so who are we that He would pay any attention to our petty likes and dislikes?

So much for the weather. I know I can't do anything about the weather except decide to do the best I can with whatever comes, and try not to complain about it. After all, we have it quite good here in Kansas.

Pilgrim on the way