I got a lovely letter from Robert Brault in which he said, “I commend, Vicki, your Dumbing Down of America piece, which I endorse to the last word.  You are preaching, no doubt, to your own small choir, but it requires courage these days to do even that.  It was a cathartic read for me.”

Both Robert and I are wordsmiths and sadly, he is closing his website down. As for me, that thought crosses my mind frequently, but I have renewed my site for another four years.

My niece writes to my sister this morning that paramedics were called to take Jimmy, our brother, to the ER earlier in the morning. He was not breathing and they were quite concerned. We are praying for hospice to happen at this point; it is the humane thing to do.

On a lighter note, the two men replacing cedar boards, pressure washing and repainting the deck, arrived at nine. I was sound asleep and they had to pound on the door (We haven’t had a doorbell in ages.) I was up about 3 last night with awful neuropathy pain, so was sleeping hard!

They, thank God, are hard workers and seem to think they can finish by tonight. If I am satisfied with their work, I will use them again to do some inside work.

We must keep the faith, no matter how evil is doing a number worldwide. It is quite all right to see clearly while maintaining faith in what we know to be true. “Slava Ukraine.” And may God have mercy on our souls.

Vicki Woodyard