Driving

As someone said they're recovered from the hurricane and reopened, one of these days I may go in Penney's again to see what they have. Although, except for Sam's, the BX and Grocery Outlet, I despise going in stores, both because I have to shower and shave and dress and take the elevator down to my car and drive to the store and park and go in and find my way around and search for what I want, and because I can't stand having a sales person follow me around hoping to make the sale instead of one of the other sales persons getting it.

It's so much simpler to buy online: for years now I've only bought clothes online, and only from L L Bean. Those socks, for example, were on sale cheap and along with the shirts or pants, shipped free, and the delivery person left them outside my 7H door a couple of days later. I like the socks okay, but I do not wear them out of the house because, seriously, they make me feel like a zoo animal.

Not big by warship standards, but one large merchant ship in port. At least, she's large when sailing by 7H, and she's leaving today:

Enviva's Aegean Spire 590x92 loading wood pellets for Studstrup, Denmark.

At the moment 7H porch is inaccessible while post-hurricane work continues and could not snap the photo, so picked it up online.

Recently we had the two nights each that meant three days each in Tallahassee and Apalachicola. We no longer drive farther than Pensacola west, Tallahassee east by slightly north, and Apalachicola east by slightly south and never at night anymore except home from church on Wednesday evenings. For old age exhaustion recuperation, we octogenarians have to stay two nights once we get wherever we're driving to. Wasn't always so: sixty years, and half a century ago, and the forty years that biblically means a long time after which something good happens, we loved the peacefulness of night driving. Especially, when we were headed home to Panama City on Navy leave, rising predawn at whatever halfway motel we were stopped at late evening before, up, out, and resuming our drive long before dawn and arriving home by mid-afternoon.

As said here and elsewhere, all my Navy years, and the years we lived in Harrisburg, I felt myself a yo-yo on a string, being hurled out here and there, out and back, out and back, this direction and that, round and round, always returning home to PC and with the full intention, and, I always thought, marital agreement, of permanently returning home to Panama City as soon as feasible. There was a tense time after Trinity Church, Apalachicola was offered to me that I realized Linda had set down roots in Pennsylvania and was strongly resisting leaving. But, thirty-five years on and, quoting Prince Caspian upon realizing he's safe and the talking animals are real, "Here we are".

Yesterday afternoon reading the gospel for the upcoming Sunday, I'm just as glad it's not my turn in the pulpit. Up on the mountainside Jesus is still preaching his three chapter Sermon on the Mount, on and on to whoever is still there:

Matthew 5:21-37 (NRSV)

Concerning Anger
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Concerning Adultery
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

Concerning Divorce
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Concerning Oaths
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one."

For me the other presentation of the sermon, Luke 6:17-49 on the plain, is more palatable; more likely what Jesus really said whereas Matthew is writing for Jewish-Christians and making sure they know the Law of Moses not only is not cancelled, it is even tougher than they thought; plus Luke's version is way shorter. Also, I prefer Luke's version of the Beatitudes because following the Blesseds he also remembers Jesus laying on the Woes. I like the Woes, foreboding, as my father used to tell me ominously when I was on thin ice, "... and that's not a threat, it's a promise".

T

Pic. Energy plant at Studstrup, Denmark has converted from fossil fuel to wood chips. Don't know how much fossil fuel the bulk carrier ships use going back and forth to deliver wood chips.