Coming off a cold that started manifesting maybe last Friday when I wondered if a sneeze indicated an allergy to honey. Nope, by Saturday afternoon late it was clearly a cold, and I didn't know what to expect. I've not had a cold for about ten years, for which I've credited my regular annual flu shot every fall, and to my scrupulously wiping the handles of a shopping cart (which to me is actually a walker) before I use it in any store, and to pretty faithfully washing my hands when I come in the door from any  excursion. By Saturday evening it was a wipeout, which continued through Sunday. I never had any fever with it. My remedies, self-medicated, amoxycillin that are always on hand for me to take four capsules an hour before going to the dentist, to protect my heart valve from infection, as a precaution because my father's death was brought on by his catching a cold during the summer 1993 annual family visit, being taken to hospital early the next week, and dying a ...

Earlier this week local media ran an article (below, scroll down) about the burned out shrimp boat that's sitting just offshore from 7H here. We watched it as it burned that night, starting early evening and it burned all night long and was still burning when I got up the next morning. Rumor was there was 800 gallons of fuel aboard, but the U S Coast Guard immediately took steps to contain any seepage, and I watched while all that was going on, and I believe there was no significant leak, it was all consumed by the flames. Having the wreck here adds to the interest of our coastline, and it's not a hazard to boating, as the U S Coast Guard marked it, the first morning with a floating buoy and some days later returned and marked it permanently by driving into the Bay bottom a heavy pole with a red reflector and a flashing red light.  Anyway, below, an interesting article by Carlie Horn. ++++++++++++ Busy. Yesterday connecting an air purifier Consumer Reports recommended, th...

Wednesday, an adventure: trip for two to Tyndall to get Linda's new eyeglasses at the vision center there, and stop in the Commissary and possibly the Base Exchange as well. Yeah, laugh, but when you get to this age you also will enjoy a drive across to the other side of Bay County as an exciting and exhausting day! And pray there will still be the two of you, because it isn't all that common. Genesis 2:7, breath is a divine blessing and Life is Good. Woke at five o'clock dark to lightning across the Bay way off southeast beyond Tyndall toward PSJ and Apalachicola, and 7H porch rail is wet, showing we did have rain during the night. When I snapped that shot at 6:46 a.m. there was still lightning in the high-peaked cloud to the far right.  Otherwise today, my seventeen year old car flashes "service air bag" so drop it by the shop while we go to Tyndall in Linda's car. Had my ancient Cadillac thoroughly serviced,  it must have been earlier this year, new plugs a...

  Autumn for our son Joe: a tree outside his house in Louisville, Kentucky. I fondly recall but do not miss the four seasons, specifically shoveling snow, had plenty of that our Navy years in Rhode Island, Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Oh - - that's not Joe's BMW, it belongs to his next door neighbor, and Joe tells me the BMW isn't driven, doesn't run and has a tire that's always leaking down. IDK, maybe it's there for prestige or to increase property values. Under the car cover, next to the BMW, is a 1966 Imperial, which Chrysler had as a separate make for some years. My grandfather Walter Gentry owned Chryslers all his life, including Imperials, which I loved driving. Deer sausage out of the refrigerator and warming up to room temp prep to cooking for breakfast.  May delay until after we return from early voting so I can have a bun with it, mustard and mayo on a hot dog bun. Later rather than sooner because eating bread or any significant carb early ...

  Today is our final of four Sundays reading through Second Timothy, which, for many specific reasons, most critical scholars today seem to regard as a second century writing not from Paul at all. But a Roman Catholic document that I read this morning defends Second Timothy as genuinely Paul's against all arguments to the contrary; though admittedly the Catholic article seems less scholarly critical than it is vigorously defending doctrine. Anyway, take your choice, or, good, better, best, do your own research and make up your own mind.  From the American Standard Version, the entire letter is below in easily readable start to finish format that treats it as the unity it is rather than jumpily, distractingly, artificially broken up into chapters. Within the text be low, today's reading (Proper 25C, 2nd Timothy 4:6-8,16-18) is marked out in [ ] brackets and a different typeface from the rest. As always, my usual grousing, to me the lectionary practice of selecting bit...

One of the happinesses of shopping at Fresh Market around holiday season is finding interesting cheese selections. Last Christmas, for example, they offered Limburger cheese from Bavaria, and I bought three little bricks.  The first brick I opened, obviously new, was not nearly as fragrant and tasty as the Limburger that I'd ordered online from the Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Wisconsin, the only place in America that still makes Limburger. I put the other two bricks aside in the little refrigerator, and left to ripen. It's been maturing since then, I reckon ten or eleven months, now to soft, creamy perfection. As proved Saturday morning when I opened a little square of saltine crackers, spread with salted butter from TJ's, opened a brick of the Bavarian source Limburger, and cut a nice thick slice of cheese. Spread it on the cracker, and tasted sheer excellence.  Normally I might have a glass of frosty white or rose wine with it, but decided to have cooled down blac...

  Nothing under heaven is as important as understanding and acting on America's crisis: T ++++++++++ IDEAS More Proof That This Really Is the End of History Over the past year, it has become evident that there are key weaknesses at the core of seemingly strong authoritarian states. By Francis Fukuyama The Atlantic OCTOBER 17, 2022 Over the past decade, global politics has been heavily shaped by apparently strong states whose leaders are not constrained by law or constitutional checks and balances. Russia and China both have argued that liberal democracy is in long-term decline, and that their brand of muscular authoritarian government is able to act decisively and get things done while their democratic rivals debate, dither, and fail to deliver on their promises. These two countries were the vanguard of a broader authoritarian wave that turned back democratic gains across the globe, from Myanmar to Tunisia to Hungary to El Salvador. Over the past year, though, it has become ev...