Ending 2023 - thank God! Dear and gentle reader, a very Happy Christmas and coming New Year to you and yours!  We've made it - almost - through yet another year together.  No, I've not posted as often as I should, but then, I was lazy and just didn't feel like it, so deal with it. What a year it has been, and personally, I'm glad to see the back of it.  On a personal note, I'm about the same as I was last year, only older, grumpier, and fatter, and I don't give a fig if I am.  My diocese is still in limbo concerning the bishop's restructuring plan.  I have no idea if I will be transferred this coming June.  My two parishes have been proposed to be split, one being merged with a parish to its northwest to form a new parish, and the one where I currently reside, to be merged with a parish to its northeast.  So, if the proposals go through, which most likely they will, I will be without a parish, thus, no longer a pastor.  God forbid that I be ...