It's Friday again, how did that happen? The same way as it's happened that I'm six weeks from 85: the earth keeps turning and going 'round the sun. Not 85, I'm 17 and I'm 40, though unfortunately, I know too much now that I didn't know back then.  Would I go back? Maybe for an hour or two, like Emily going to the morning of her twelfth birthday. Which, come to think of it, didn't work out well at all. So IDK, maybe not.  Instead of 7H Bay porch I'm sitting outside on 7H Beck porch. It's an inlet actually, a jut-in off the sidewalk, our entryway, about 5x10 or so, and we have two chairs and a table out here. Quite nice because it's shielded from all but hurricane weather, and we're right by the stairs in case of that sort of emergency. There's no view from here, but it's at the very end of the sidewalk, and the total privacy of it is worth everything. And I mean Everything: privacy is at the top of my needs list. My chair is facing...

Wearing a Facemask doesn't bother me except that it hangs on my ears. Already hanging on my ears are my hearing aids, my eyeglasses, and now the Facemask against covid19. So, one, two, and now three. A result is that Facemask is jealous of my hearing aids and keeps jerking them loose.  What might be convenient, I've not tried it yet, is a facemask that goes all the way around the head instead of clinging to the ears. Maybe a large bandana like my Boy Scout bandana was, or that old red cowboy bandana. Why do you suppose cowboys wore the bandana? Hint: it wasn't for High Fashion, and it was not to hold up banks in the Old West. The cb bandana was to cover the nose and mouth against clouds of dust when driving cattle to market. Same as Facemasks against covid19 Facemasks have fast become a fashion item, all sorts of designs available. I'm thinking about one of these But it may not arrive before Sunday. IDK, what do you think? Will it be distracting? It's Thursday, ...

Shrimper out there in the far channel this early morning, still got her nets spread. Our world is hazy. Hazy and gray, light gray, medium gray and dark only the tangerine tree has color, a dark green.  I think it was 1992, from my friend Richard at Gulf Ford Mercury, that I ordered a new Ford Taurus for Tass, about that dark green,  Ford's best green ever and they only offered it that one year. Later Tass got a new Ford Explorer, which we sat down and ordered it together, just the way she wanted it, also green, an Explorer Sport, the sharpest two door car ever. It was a 4x4. Tass and Jeremy promptly took it out to SGI to get it stuck in beach sand so the four-wheel-drive could prove itself. It did.  I lost my respect for FoMoCo when later it was discovered and widely publicized that Ford was knowingly putting defective Firestone tires on their cars and the tires were going bad, causing wrecks, and drivers being killed.  Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone ...

81° mostly cloudy Wind sw 7 mph 83% feels like 90°. The photo is out front looking east toward where MLP once was. Likely, the Sun does not realize that the sunrises and sunsets of which He is so proud depend as much on clouds as on Him for their magnificence.  The Sun is bright and hot, He needs clouds to show off His best. Of course, the clouds don't do so well on their own either: ten minutes ago all that was gray and dreary.  Meanwhile, here's the set of readings for the upcoming Sunday, Proper 13A Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.   Genesis 32:22-31 The same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across th...

Yesterday from a friend's FB post, I shared a short opinion from Forbes.com, "The Pandemic Really Has Changed The World Forever". The author says there is no going back to the old Normal of how life was for us before covid19. For me at eighty-four, Normal was good, and I'm all in favor of history proving him wrong, and me wrong for agreeing and sharing. So I'd love it if someone a generation from now looks back at my old rubbish and laughs at doomsday fears of foolish pessimists that include me.  But it's realism not pessimism, just as my not climbing on the forced smiley-face 850Strong bandwagon after Cat5HMichael near two years ago was and still is realistic. Things are different, better in some ways, others not so. Normal is a moving target and we delude ourselves if we think to get back to How It Was before 2020.  Rushing back to reclaim our healthy economy is fools gold, too much has collapsed, businesses, industries, crowded ways of life, crushing int...

Just the other night at a hometown football game My wife and I ran into my old high school flame And as I introduced them, the past came back to me And I couldn't help but think      of the way things used to be She was the one that I'd wanted for all times And each night I'd spend prayin'      that God would make her mine And if he'd only grant me      this wish I wished back then I'd never ask for anything again Sometimes I thank God  For unanswered prayers Remember when you're talkin'  To the man upstairs That just because he doesn't answer      doesn't mean he don't care 'Cause some of God's greatest gifts  Are unanswered prayers She wasn't quite the angel  That I remembered in my dreams And I could tell that time had changed me In her eyes too it seemed We tried to talk about the old days There wasn't much we could recall I guess the Lord knows      what he's doin'...

Unanswered Prayers Garth Brooks Just the other night at a hometown football game My wife and I ran into my old high school flame And as I introduced them, the past came back to me And I couldn't help but think of the way things used to be She was the one that I'd wanted for all times And each night I'd spend prayin' that God would make her mine And if he'd only grant me this wish I wished back then I'd never ask for anything again Sometimes I thank God  For unanswered prayers Remember when you're talkin'  To the man upstairs That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care 'Cause some of God's greatest gifts  Are unanswered prayers She wasn't quite the angel  That I remembered in my dreams And I could tell that time had changed me In her eyes too it seemed We tried to talk about the old days There wasn't much we could recall I guess the Lord knows what he's doin' after all And as she walked away  Well I l...

Our clouds are better than your clouds.

Strange things I do, strange books I read, strange movies I watch, strange television shows. Movies seldom more than once except Ferris Beuller's Day Off, The Blues Brothers, National Lampoon's Animal House. The Carol Burnett Show. The Honeymooners. The Andy Griffith Show. If that tells you nothing about my personality you should be ashamed of yourself! Books that I loved so much I could hardly bear to put them down much less come to the last sentence, no, I don't go back and read them again other than sometimes look up quotes and such. Especially in Narnia and Tolkien. Short stories, yes, may go back to read again. Poems. Professional, bible commentary, theology, stuff like that, yes all of that again during this covid19 shelter in place. No rereading long novels though.  But films. "Der Untergang", German film titled "Downfall", that has had so many hilarious parodies on Youtube. Watched it again last evening with English subtitles turned on. It's ...

Saturday: had a nice walk this morning, fraction under a mile, but pleasant. Beginning with the sunrise from the front door of 7H. By the Time I'd walked down the stairs, out the door and into the park, it was gone, that's the way it is with the sky, clouds and the sun, not to mention the way it is with Time. As in Isaac Watts' hymn Oh God, our help in ages past our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all its sons away. They fly forgotten as a dream flies at the opening day. Eat, drink and be merry says קֹהֶלֶת  Qohelet the Preacher, Ecclesiastes 8:15, for tomorrow you die. So WTH, breakfast a tomato sandwich and an anchovy sandwich. I'd not want Time to fly me away while I still have all these jars and tins of beloved anchovies waiting. But the walk - - on the fence the block of Beck Avenue where Kelley's Super Market first appeared along in the mid to late 1940s. Who besides me reca...

John 14:1-6. Jesus said, Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I AM the way, the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. Forty-seven or so years, nearly half a century ago, Father Bob and Charlotte Battin were called to Panama City to lead Holy Nativity, and to become the spiritual backbone of our community.  It was the early 1970s, Linda and I were away in our Navy career; my brother and sister were grown and gone, living far away; and my parents were rattling around alone in our huge old family homestead on West Beach Dr...

Friday, July 24, happy birthday to my beloved brother Walt. The evening of this day in 1942, our parents drove us to the Standard Oil station that was where Tarpon Dock Seafood Market is now. We parked in front, and a friend of my father's brought us Walt's birthday present: a tiny puppy, mixed collie and German shepherd. Walt was three years old that day and he was Walt's and Walt named him Happy Birthday. That was the day Happy came into our lives. He grew large, larger, largest, and we had pictures of our cat sleeping on Happy's back. For years to come, Happy blessed our family with all the love a dog can bring, and led us into everything we know about love and loving. Happy was ours, but he was Walt's, but he was ours. In a few years he started making his way up to Cove School to meet Walt and take Walt safely home after school.  When the dogcatcher showed up to drive 'round the school grounds looking for loose dogs, my third- and fifth-grade teacher, Miss R...

Maybe it's natural, part of our makeup, that we humans have a way of always needing to place blame. To find out who's responsible so they can be disciplined. Both as punishment, penance, I suppose, And as an example to others not to commit the same sin, crime, wrong, error, or see what will happen to you as well. This morning I'm grieving the inevitable, necessary and essential closure of Apalachicola Bay to oyster harvesting for the next five years. https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/local-news/apalachicola-bay-suspends-oyster-harvesting-until-2025/?fbclid=IwAR05C2e_vQ7-GDOc9e4PgqRg0_S51pUbUaJPeh3AiStUlwlCAWogtBMieCU When I was a boy and we were in the seafood business (and of course at the Time I thought it had always been the rule), oysters were only available during "months with an R", only during cool months. The Bay was closed to oyster harvesting all summer, closed during hot weather. It always seemed wise. When we lived there decades later, oysters were harv...