fog
Fog. White out. For a while early, it cleared back a bit such that from 7H I could see the close-by harbor navigation lights, but not those across the Bay, nor the light atop the tower over toward the Pass, nor the airfield beacon at Tyndall AFB. But, back and forth, it's back, Fog, 64° humidity 97%, with dew point of 63° that, I've learned from Ross Whitley on Channel 13, makes fog virtually certain when temperature and dew point are the same.
Dense Fog Advisory
It's Tuesday morning again, and, what? Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty one, except February (or as the old poke says, Thirty days hath Septober, April, June, and No-wonder; all the rest have peanut butter, except chifforobe: it's a tall thing, with big drawers).
31 January 2023 of the year in which my 88th birthday will come and go. Do you realize how old 88 is? Well I don't.
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As Tuesday lightens, fog is receding and Creation is as lovely as ever.
Up early laying all else aside to draft a homiletic endeavor for Sunday morning. See, sermon preparation is an art that, done consistently, every week, week after week, over years, develops a skill that, shirked in retirement or semi-retirement, slowly fades, both with lack of practice and with diminishing mental acuity. What to say? IDK. Best years, maybe 1984 through 1998 or even 2009, when I did it Sunday afternoons instead of collapsing in a High Priestly Nap. Nowadays I dedicate a very early morning's fair alertness and set to it. Just so this morning and done, but with ongoing sharpening until I'm walking back down the aisle toward the pulpit after reading the Gospel on Sunday morning.
Words commonly used escape me, frustrating. Etiology. Oracle. Others.
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Solzhenitsyn and totalitarianism, USSRedivivus in Eastern Europe as we promise heavy tank armor but refuse competent aircraft that would be both an escalation in itself and also, out of our control, could take air war into Russia proper, igniting WW3. But which is already ignited. Someone high and knowing just declared that NATO is ready to take Russia on.
At some point, must fear of the bully be faced and overcome with resolve? I have known and detested bullies. Are bullies stopped and sent home nursing their wounds per WW1, or is it necessary to obliterate them into total submission per WW2? IDK, circumstances and rules have changed and the planet itself is at stake, and humans Being.
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Hoping No News is Good News, nothing from Pensacola so far today. But facts of medical experience and prognoses for and following cardiac arrest are troubling and the numbers grim. Someone wrote that a miracle is needed. Is 2023 up for divine or medical miracles?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002870307001445?via%3Dihub
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/jaha.117.007469
Someone once said that the greatest sin is despair, the total negation of faith. All in all, nevertheless and notwithstanding, still and always, when it comes to facing life as it is, hope trumps despair.