NYT front page on my birthday in 1943, BRITISH BATTLE RAGES AT SALERNO, lower on the page, Chiang Made President of China But Will Remain Head of Army. That would be Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who later fled the Red Chinese to take control of Formosa, Taiwan, call Taiwan "China" and be leader in Taipei, where, standing on the curb as close to him as I am to you right now, I watched him ride by in a black 1949 Cadillac limousine as part of the parade welcoming South Korean President Park Chung-hee. That would have been 1965 or 1966; I was in Taiwan on a two-month TDY assignment and everyone in both governments, U S Forces and Kuomintang (pronounced "gwa-min-dang) was summoned out to the sidewalks to wave little Republic of China and South Korea flags.  It was a warm day, and the limousine's windows were down. As I say, I was as close to them as I am to you sitting there. That isn't my only claim to fame. Years later, after my Navy retirement, on a flight fro

  A TYPICAL SOUTHERN TOWN I found this interesting segment written by visitors to the Downtown (then all there was to PC) in 1911. The guests have just had their dinner at the Gulf View Hotel (where the Towers in the 1st block of Harrison is now located) and decide to take a stroll around town, "which has a population of about 600. We saw some very nice residences and some that were not so nice. The streets are deep sand and the pigs are running at large - a typical southern town ..." ++++++++++++ Leon Walters posted this wonderful picture yesterday, and it stirred some childhood memories from the late 1930s and early 1940s. I lightened it up a bit for more detail, especially so I could see the cars better, including confirming that the first car is backed up to the curb, but the people at the corner cafe came out a little clearer too.  The corner cafe building appears to be at Harrison Avenue and E. Beach Drive, where Les Gilbert's Bar & Grill was all my growing up y

  Eleven o'clock appointment for our covid booster vaccine, Linda keeps up with it, I can't remember whether this is shot number four or number five, I think five?  And I'm due for my fall 2022 flu shot. If Jim Cantore is in your neighborhood you've got problems. Thank God, he's not broadcasting from StAndrews Marina this morning, but Hurricane Season is not over, it's just revving up. Thanks apparently to a cold front coming down from northwest that nudged H.Ian south and east (but is not strong enough to keep it out in the Atlantic once it crosses the Florida peninsula) , we have fine weather for Wednesday; but, mind, there's another red X out in the Atlantic, we don't have a cancellati on, we have a raincheck, so keep throwing salt over your shoulder and praying to that rabbit's foot.  +++++++++ Vaccine at Winn-Dixie pharmacy, fried catfish from their deli, a catfish sandwich for noon dinner today, nice.  Watching H.Ian push ashore at Sanibel, the

  Nobody wants to, but we can do this if compelled. The thing will keep shifting westward over the next hours and days. Never to wish (pray?) ill on loved ones, friends and neighbors down the coast - - FWB, Pensacola, Mobile, no matter anyway, Nature and Old Father Time will have their way.  Old Father Time asleep in a niche in a cave in the Underland as Poe and Eustace and the Narnian Marsh-wiggle pass by, not to awaken until the end of the world.  What? We'll gas up Linda's car, which will go three or four hundred miles on a tank, whereas my V8 is iffy driving back from Tallahassee without stopping to refuel. We have bottles of water, cans of salmon, chili (which is just as good spooned from the can as heated), Spam, baked beans, tissue. A new 12 volt plug-in cooler chest that we bought for next month's adventure to Waukulla, so we can take things from the freezer. The ad from Fresh Market says include cheddar cheese because it doesn't require refrigeration. Crackers.

 

  Sung beautifully at the funeral of both QE2 and her husband Prince Philip, the Kontakion of the Departed can be heard during funeral services in Catholic churches and closing the burial liturgy of The Episcopal Church. It is final acknowledgement that in Time we die, each of us, and, life over, we are done. Anything beyond that is faith, which is not knowledge or certainty, but hope, an idea that is peculiar to some religions but not all. With that hope, The Kontakion praises God for the life that we have had..  Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints: where sorrow and pain are no more; neither sighing but life everlasting. Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of man: and we are mortal formed from the dust of the earth, and unto earth shall we return: for so thou didst ordain, when thou created me saying: Dust thou art und unto dust shalt thou return. All we go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. All of this, an

  Morning in 7H started just after four with coffee and watching the Queen's funeral in London and on to Windsor, lasting past eleven o'clock, at which point we had a bowl of hot soup because our plan is to be at Hunt & Gather when they open at four-thirty. It's been a bucket list item for me for quite some Time, but we have to do it quickly now, because we no longer drive after dark, and the hours of daylight are diminishing as Fall comes on, what, tomorrow?  Reportedly, H&G's offer a changing, remarkable selection of oysters, which is why I want to go. There are other exotic dishes on the menu, including lamb ribs, foie gras; and even sous vide* octopus and bone marrow something which I may order for Linda; but I'm going to sample the oysters. If it's crowded and a wait, we'll come home and try again another day, because after one distressing experience some months ago, driving home after dark has become a real issue for us!  The funeral service in

  Truth, I'm down to the end of this nonsense, but it's something to do mornings from Time to Time to jot down feelings, or happenings at 7H, or something political or religious that's eating at me. Breakfast this morning, pan-cooked tomato slices, scrambled cheese eggs on top of wolf chili with grated sharp, interesting cheddar from TJ's. Pork, wolf, chicken, or beef, I'm easy about the brand of chili, but I buy mine with "no beans" and I think the other brand has larger chunks of meat. Enjoying breakfast, I couldn't remember whether the first two pigs escaped to brother Practical Pig's brick house, or were eaten by the Big Bad Wolf who huffed and puffed and blew their house down. House of straw, house of sticks.  On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. Finishing up my birthday week after church today with a Botanical Gin martini and a super lump crab cake. Something green: tiny green li

Staying outside alone, at 7H with Father Nature, away from the news. The shame of how we shamelessly treat each other. Life goes on as long as Earth endures us, appalled but patient, Time and Eternity aware, assured and confident that humans are our own mass extinction event, Genesis 6:5-7. +++++++++++++ As no sermon for three weeks, Saturday with no preps to do for tomorrow, 74F and sunny out here on 7H porch, 85%, a late summer morning on the NW Florida Gulf Coast. A plate with a couple types of wild game sausage, German mustard & Hellmann's mayo, whole wheat saltine cracker to nibble with each bite*. To wash it down, a cup of hot and black from my gift coffee club's latest offering, which arrived this week.  * foregoing my preference for a hot dog bun in favor of a cracker so as to reduce prospects/severity of postprandial hypotension brought on by carbs with breakfast; a common visitation of age and other factors - - ++++++++ Yellow boats zipping back and forth, test fa

With the exception of a mentally ill One, I am confident that my political foes as well as my political allies are smarter than I am, or at least equal to my self-assessment? And of that One, I am bothered less by the figure her/himself than by those who vote for him/her. In fact, I once worked with an Episcopal priest who had that One's same disturbed personality, so I do have first hand experience of the instability of the situation. But this is not about mental/emotional instability, this is about intellect; and, overwhelmed by shame at this week's unkindness to would-be immigrants to our country, unkindness perpetrated by the same class of people who devised and implemented the unspeakably evil policy of taking children away from immigrant parents, I appreciated this blog by one of The Atlantic writers to whom I subscribe.  T Your Political Enemies Are Smarter Than You Think Whether it’s Ron D eSantis or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, partisans like to call their opponents stupi