I can stop complaining about hot weather. Tonight we expect temps to drop to high 20's or low 30's. The LH phoned just as I was exiting Sam's to tell me I should go buy tarps for the plants. I kept going to my car. We have tarps for hurricane prep. and there's nothing like tossing a chenille bedspread with bright pink peacocks over the bushes. If you aren't a Southerner, you won't get the joke.
Cold weather is difficult for our homeless people who live outdoors. The Salvation Army offers cots for $5 a night but if you don't want to give your name and other ID info because you are convinced that the Visitors from a Planet Far Far Away are after you, you sleep outside. And, you may not have five dollars. The UMC's have a shelter east of here but are considering closing down the ministry. Great...
According to our governing authorities we have have no homeless people. That's why there are tent/box cities near the interstate. That's why the local soup kitchen is growing by leaps and bounds. No homeless here means that the people who spend the day from open to close at the libaries are just avid readers.
Having a roof over my family's head with clean warm blankets and the promise of the electric furnace staying on through the night is a great gift.
Tomorrow or the next day the newspaper will report the following: people using non-code space heaters will lose their home from fire, someone will use a charcoal grill inside a home and get smoked out, an elderly person will be in the hospital from pneumonia and teachers will report that kids show up without coats.
We don't much know what do with cold weather down here. The TV has to tell us to protect the pets by bringing the pets inside as it doesn't occur to us that yard dogs get cold in close to freezing weather.
Make us mindful, O Lord, of the needs of others.
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