What bothers me these days? Interests, bothers, intrigues, exasperates, concerns me?  Truly, bothers me, not much. Glancing through the obits in any morning's online New York Times (for NYT, I only get headlines, I don't have a paid subscription except for the past several decades annually automatically renewing paid access to daily online NYT Crossword Puzzles for Linda, who has the intellectual ability to do what goes completely over my head; if I click on any story the paywall blocks me or tells me I've used up my free articles or reminds me that I've only got one more free article this month, or some such), most of them are younger than I am, dying in their seventies or sixties or low eighties, which keeps me on notice about not being so careless with life - - don't salt food, limit fried food, do more walking, weigh more often and so have more FuroForty days because my ankles have disappeared, skip the ice cream, take more naps, limit to one martini or one glas

Two-thirds of a Century - - though not quite two thirds (66.666666666666667), which actually will not be until February 29, 2024, but close enough to call it - - ago, Linda and I were married at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church on June 29, 1957 (disregard the note under the framed photograph in Battin Hall at HNEC, that says it was June 29, 1857). With our families (except Gina, who rebelled and kept her membership at St Andrew's Episcopal Church), we were two of the ten founding Cove resident families who, at the bishop's request, founded Holy Nativity, and Linda and I were the first couple to have our wedding there, Father David Damon officiating.   Our short honeymoon (that's us leaving our wedding reception at Linda's parent's house, 518 Bunkers Cove Road) was at the Beach, and then I was off in a flying machine to Newport, Rhode Island to begin what I had no idea at the Time would be twenty years in the U S Navy. The honeymoon continued a few months later, early

Sky in the darkness this early predawn morning, clouds thick, heavy, deep black, low and ominous, seem to be settling on the tops of the high-rise condos across the Bay to my right and the west on Thomas Drive. Not hot, 83°F, but stiflingly muggy, I don't remember this for June; but then, summer is almost to July, isn't it. We had three months, in modernity they have two, teachers report back to school in a month. I'm glad to have had my life in The Old Time. At the station, standing outside on the platform waiting for their trains to take them separate ways, the Pevensie children are suddenly transported: they land in overgrown ruins. Exploring, they realize it's the long-abandoned ruins of an ancient castle and they're in the throne room. It's Cair Paravel, where in an almost forgotten Time they were kings and queens. They find Peter's sword and other treasures, and the adventure begins. Aslan has called.  Faces, I see faces and hear voices. Has life been

  Tuesday: what, then? It's forecast to be 111° F in Mobile today, and 111° F in Jacksonville. What's happening? Our high here in St Andrews is forecast to be 90° F at 12 noon - - there's a sense of a battleship getting its range and bearings on us. How long, O Lord? And that leviathan that you created for the sport of it - - orcas, the dorsal fins of the adult males are six feet high, turning against us, killer whales. They already have an ugly reputation for chasing down the calves of other whales, and tearing their liver from them. Terrifying people by ganging up to ram boats at sea, sinking some boats and in at least one case following into port a boat they've damaged. From the web: "Killer whales (also called orcas) are apex predators, meaning they are at the top of their food chain. They feed on fish and squid like other odontocetes (toothed whales) do, but will also target seals, sea birds and even whale species far bigger than themselves."  Why do they

  Something online this morning, seems like maybe it was a vacation commercial about St. Lucia, ignited (no, that's truly the best word for how it felt) my memories of the song "Santa Lucia" and hearing it sung off and on through my growing up years.  Enrico Caruso. Maybe played over the radio. WDLP or whatever. WWL in New Orleans, your fifty-thousand watt clear channel station, with studios in the Roosevelt Hotel. Those were the two radio stations that came through loud and clear when I was a boy, WDLP and WWL. Anyway, I googled Santa Lucia, read about it on Wikipedia, charming, romantic story. Neapolitan to Italian to English. Enchanting lyrics, a boatman inviting folks to ride his boat in the harbor in the cool of the evening. Yes, there was a Time during summers when we wanted a place to enjoy a cool breeze. Windows open wide. Fans, table top fans, floor fans. In Time, huge attic fans that, with windows open maybe six inches instead of open wide, pulling a draft in. M

Imagine. The imagination of Pantokrator, the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen, whose, theologically speaking, Will is the same as Word. eh-YEH, BE, thought or spoken, imagined. Innumerable photographs are snapped and published, and it is such a pleasure to experience in person, God's magnificence when we look up at stars and the moon in a velvet night; look out and marvel at the beauty of the setting sun and its reflection on the water as slowly it sinks into the sea. For me, from 7H, though rarely, to look out and watch a waterspout moving in the Gulf of Mexico the other side of Shell Island. Or enormous, rumbling, rolling black storm clouds moving in to cover St Andrews Bay in front of me and darken my world as I stand on my porch. Always stirs again a verse of that Trinity hymn that I print here too often, I bind unto myself today The virtues of the starlit heaven, The glorious sun's life-giving ray; The whiteness of the moon at even, The flashing of the lightning fre

  The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 10:24-39. People  Glory to you, Lord Christ. J esus said to the twelve disciples, “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave  above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovere d, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the  light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Everyone th

  And a happy morning, Fri Jun 23 6:09 AM at the moment. Except for a high and wide dark cloud to the southwest of 7H, a clear sky when I went out to survey my domain at five o'clock, then a burst of heavy rain, then clearing, now 77°F 100% humidity, wind SW 4 mph. In the 10 day forecast, today is 90% rain, but maybe that was it?  It did serve to wash our living room windows clean and clear.  Early with hot & black, a cracker with liver pate. Breakfast later maybe shrimp. No, I think oysters - - if you think inflation is history think again: the 16 ounce pints of oysters are now 12 ounce New Pints, I suppose the New Pint like the 12 ounce New Pounds of coffee and bacon we've been dealing with for years. If you want a full pound bag of coffee, go to Aldi and buy a 500 gram package of coffee from Germany, it's real, just over an Old Pound, not make believe, not a magic vanishing act of New Marketing. Speaking of which, paper for my copier now comes in the new and improved

  In a quite violent electrical display, the rain has passed on to the east, but severe lightning still flashing south of 7H above and out over the Gulf of Mexico. Someone at Mexico Beach, Port St Joe and beyond is in for it while here quiet comes. An adventure of life here is experiencing these summer thunderstorms, even sometimes inside them but feeling reasonably safe.  Knock wood and wishing you long years, eh? 4:52 AM Wednesday June 21. What IS safe? IDK why, but I read a lot and on line watch a lot inside World War Two, where life is anything but Safe. Even here, at Cove School, we had air raid drills, long tables lining the center of the hall, and when the air raid bell rang, we trekked out of classroom into the hall and crawled under the tables. Some still living will remember that. Robert and Carl. Some I miss still sharing life and memories with. With lots of luck, you'll get here too. Luck including, certainly in my case, friends and colleagues who cared even enough to -

Sorry, not really, but whatever, but living here literally Right On the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast (I mean Right On: if I raise my eyes and, instead of looking down and out into St Andrews Bay, I look up, over and beyond, across Shell Island into the Gulf of Mexico where the next land direct South of me is maybe Honduras on the Caribbean Sea - check it out yourself if you want to, I'm not interested in arguing about it) where fresh seafood is readily available, I'm not much into chain restaurants.  For example, I really don't see how Red Lobster makes it in a place like this; Bonefish Grill, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and all the likes of them. Yes, I've eaten at all of them, and I pretty much like Carrabbas, where Linda, Kristen and I had late lunch/early dinner one day last week as we arrived back from Bonifay; but living here in fresh caught seafood paradise, I just don't get it. I mean, why go for make believe? Oh, if it weren't for close family liv

  'Twas the Night before Christmas, and now 'Tis the Day after Fathers Day and back to what for years was an enjoyable and arguably heart-healthy routine: a few squares of dark chocolate with my first cuppa, mugga hot & black.  Of late, rising Time seems to have been a bit later, three o'clock inching toward four, or even later - - five o'clock a couple of mornings last week; and once as late as six o'clock. Why? as I recall, because I was up late night playing something, one or all of the several solitaire games that I credit with exercising my brain in the same way that I think Linda's crossword puzzles do for her (we pinch and print them from NYT, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, WaPo and other sources) - - or watching online films and documentaries - - last week I watched several of a serial of about 45 minutes each of fascinating reports by a former German SS Waffen non-com, narrating (English translation) his day by day experience living into and through

Hey, I showed up again, thank you, God! Sunday 18 June 2023. 202306180410 CDT, Panama City, Florida. ++++++++++++ Five-twenty-two, five-twenty-three o'clock, grim and dark Saturday afternoon out here on 7H porch, frequent thunder drawing closer, raining across the Bay and heading this way. Cannot see Shell Island or the Tyndall Bridge behind the white wall. Wind in the palm trees makes it sound like the rain is already here, but it's not. Soon though, frogs croaking, anticipating. Between me and Red Fish Point sits a tug with two barges, waiting to ease into the oil terminal. Flash of lightning followed by a sharp boom that shakes the atmosphere. A hymn verse surfaces, floating through my awareness, I bind unto myself today The virtues of the starlit heaven, The glorious sun's life-giving ray; The whiteness of the moon at even, The flashing of the lightning free, The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks, The stable earth, the deep salt sea around the old eternal rocks.