Today was another workday around the house. I spent much of the morning crawling in the attic putting in insulation that I discovered “missing (it was never installed) after the hurricane.

I also visited with my bro-in-law Brian who stopped by for a while. He really helped me out with my plans to run gas to the kitchen. I was planning one thing but he pointed out a much better way.

After Brian left, and I finished the attic work I then installed ceiling fans, one in Christian’s room and one on the porch. I also visited with Morgan’s boyfriend (Danny) who came over with his new pet ferret. Morgan recently started working at Starbucks and tonight she brought a pound of freshly ground coffee home.

After I said prayers with the little boys and put them to bed, I went to Books-A-Million to spend a gft card that I received from there as an early birthday present. I purchased five books that I am excited about. Here are their titles:
Enemy at the Gate: The Battle For Stalingrad by William Craig
The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis
The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
And last and certainly not least—
Beyond Good and Evil: A Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future by Friedrich Nietzsche

Oh, I also received Joseph Smith: A Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman from the History Book Club. It is a biography of the founder of Mormanism.

After returning home with my new treasure of books, I visited with Lisa for a while, kissed her goodnight, made a pot of coffee (the freshly ground starbucks coffee) and settled in on the couch, coffee in hand, and read the introductions to my newest books.

Now I will pour me a small bit of bourbon, go back to my reading and then sleep.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Friday after work, my youngest son and I went to the Duncan’s for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Lisa stayed home with our other minor son who was running a fever. There were a number of people from both Bethel and Covenant Churches. There was also good food and drink, Irish beer, Irish whiskey, grog and other refreshments.

Pastor Mark gave a talk on the life of Patrick, that was very good. I read Patrick’s Confessions a number of years ago and have loved this wonderful godly man ever since then.

Yesterday Lisa gave me a surprise for my birthday. We got up about eight and got ready and drove to south Lake Charles. I was trying to figure out what she had planned, but was not able to do so until we had past everything in town that I could think of. I said “the only thing left is the airport; are we going flying?”

That is what we did. Lisa had booked us a flight on a small Cessna plane. We went for a nice flight over Lake Charles and Sulphur. We flew over and around the house and could see some of the residual hurricane damage from the air. In some of the woods, it looked like more than half the trees were down. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yesterday evening Lisa and I meet Duke and Donna at the L'Auberge du Lac Casino. We had a dinner date at the Jack Daniel’s Grill. I was very disappointed in the food and the atmosphere. My steak was overdone and the waitresses’ outfits were trashy (I had heard this already) and a number of them were a bit hefty for the outfits to be attractive. We had wanted to check out the food, we have. It was way too pricey for the quality (or lack there of), so we will be going back to Mazen’s when we want an extra-special meal.

This morning I had planned to attend mass with my grandfather and St. Margaret’s Catholic Church (this is the church that I was baptised in) before going to Covenant with the family, but I did not get up in time. We did make it to Covenant in Sulphur and then came home for the continued ox in the ditch scenario. I did a little sheetrock work in the kitchen. I shut this down to visit with MK we he and his son came to visit. After that Elisabeth and Woody came over and we visited for a while.

Aas I write this blog Lisa is asleep in bed, one of the little boys is asleep as well and the other has not yet fallen asleep, Morgan and Christian are at work. I have been sitting here typing and sipping on some Irish whiskey. I will finish my drink and go to bed also.

It was a good day.
Coram Deo,
Kenith

Saturday night Lisa and I joined our niece Elisabeth, her fiancée Woody and their friends at Mazen’s Restaurant to celebrate Woody’s birthday. We had a great time and the food, as always, was great. I had two small filet mignons in a triple wine reduction sauce, topped with crabmeat and another awesome sauce on top of that.

Sunday we worshiped at Bethel PCA and then I took the little boys to hear BeauSoleil. They were great. Sunday evening MK came over and we sat on the porch and both waxed eloquently about theology and every other subject. We were far more brilliant after we had consumed a couple of glasses of wine each.

Monday evening my mom called me and informed me that my nonc (uncle) Allen LaFleur had died that morning. Nonc Allen was 81 and had lived a long life. I was able to get funeral leave and so Tuesday I chauffeured my Pawpaw and Mrs. Esther (my step grandmother) to Basile to pay their respects. I saw many family members that I had not seen for years, and I heard lots of Cajun French. It is the first language of Pawpaw, Nonc Allen and all my older Cajun kinfolk.

I always turn introspective when I am around the old Cajuns. I think of the language and culture that will soon disappear when they pass from the scene for good. I would do anything to save the language that is the Cajun culture.

Today, I once again made a pilgrimage to Basile to attend Nonc Allen’s funeral. Before the funeral, my cousin (Cuzan) Chris and I went to the cemetery and visited the graves of our grandmother, his dad, our great grand parents and other kinsmen.

I saw more cousins at the funeral home and visited with them, and then we attended the funeral mass at the Catholic Church. After mass we went to the gravesite and said our goodbyes and shed our tears. Our hope is in Christ.

After the funeral I drove to Eunice and bought a couple of small accordions for the little boys. Pawpaw plays the accordion and the fiddle. He is the last musician in the family. I would like to give the little boys the chance to learn music. We will see what happens.

Coram Deo,Kenith

I finally got a chance to shoot my new pistol a CZ-52. CC and I went out to his deer least to do some shooting. I took the CZ-52 an old 22 revolver and my SKS. CC took four pistols, his SKS and his Benelli 12 gauge.

We had a good time, shot several hundred rounds of ammunition and at the end of the trip I purchased the Benelli from. My son Christian really like the shotgun, so now it’s his and I will have to get me another one sometime in the future.

I worked off of daylight shift on Monday evening. I came home and got the porch ready. Tk, Pastor Mark and MK all came over and we spent a few hours on the porch talking next by the fire. We again discussed all the world’s problems, and especially those in the PCA. My little boys joined us the porch for a little while, but soon became bored and left us for more exciting adventures elsewhere.

Our youngest son woke me at about 3:30 in the morning complaining of and earache. I gave him medicine and got him back to bed. We got up a little after 7 on Mardi Gras morning and he still complained his ear hurting.

He did feel well enough by late morning to go to the first parade in Lake Charles. So the two little boys and I headed to town for the parade. We met up with CC and his two little ones and also with Lisa S. and her youngest son and a friend.

The children had a good time at the parade, but they weren’t overwhelmed with beads and trinkets. Some of the floats threw a fair amount of stuff and others seemed to just be there for the ride. Still, the kids had fun and that is what counts.

After the parade, the boys and I joined Lisa (my wife) and went to eat. I’ve ripped out the stove, oven and one wall (so far) in our kitchen, so we are not cooking a lot right now.

We came home, worked on the house for a while and then I got the BBQ grill ready to grill our supper. This is when our youngest son relapsed a bit and we found him to have a low fever.

The Seeps were going to come over for supper, but they cancelled because of illness there also.

That was our Mardi Gras.
Kenith