News online this morning that temperatures in some neighborhoods of India are nearing 122°F where continued human life is not feasible. I wonder if it's the latest sign of the already in-progress next mass extinction event, Earth becoming too hot for most life to survive?  Or will the religious and political certainties that divide human beings get us first and cause us to wipe out other life along with ourselves? In our extreme naiveté,  entrenched as we are in our hatreds of each other here on Earth, we do consider ourselves most important in this Universe of, a current estimate is 200,000,000,000 to 2,000,000,000,000 galaxies.  Thomas Hardy's poetry keeps sneaking back into my consciousness: God-Forgotten by Thomas Hardy I towered far, and lo! I stood within    The presence of the Lord Most High, Sent thither by the sons of earth, to win    Some answer to their cry.    --"The Earth, say'st thou? The Human race?  ...

Day Ten and I'm behind in my commitments to myself as if they were New Years Resolutions falling by the wayside; yet Time moves on with or without me.  In the kitchen, Linda is cooking and assembling a lamb eggplant casserole dish we found online, at the moment cooking the lamb and the air purifiers are very angry with red lights and auto fan running on high. We have Alen air purifiers here in 7H, large ones in the bedroom, living room, and kitchen area; a medium size one in my study office den. Here to keep down dust and allergens, they also get rid of kitchen smoke and odors, and they seem to do well. I bought them from Alen, a Texas company, at the top of Consumer Reports recommended list. Normally I might not buy things from Texas (let the reader understand), but these are quality products. Normally green and low fan, when the fan goes high and the light red or purple, you know you've offended the wrong machinery.  Our apartment also has an extra dehumidifier next to the H...

Robert and I had breakfast this morning, which we did weekly for several years as we concluded our walks around The Cove where we grew up, Massalina Bayou, 4th Street Bridge and Tarpon Dock Bridge into town and back, now and then stopping on the courthouse steps to rest and visit with the judges as they arrived for work, sometimes stopping at Bayou Joe's for breakfast before heading on back to our cars, which we'd parked by HNES' new Pavilion at Linda Avenue and 2nd Street. From Time to Time a walk through the Cove School building that was home to us through the 1940s, maybe go in Mrs Moody'a classroom and leave a Kilroy was here message for her on the board. Still in memory, those days are not gone, but they are fading along with our ability to walk any distance. Aging is evident and my awareness of it has accelerated noticeably in recent months.  And yet I remember Senator Green playing tennis into his nineties. A parishioner friend's mother still playing golf as ...

  Not my best healthy choice selection, but Memorial Day breakfast: a foldover PBJ (peanut butter & strawberry jam) sandwich on sourdough bread, and a 12 ounce mug of cranberry/pom juice.  Ready for midafternoon dinner, a large, thick ribeye steak for me and a sizable tenderloin filet mignon for Linda. And it was her idea, I was sure my ears were deceiving me when she said either Stake as in burned at the, or Steak as in grilled. We were in the seafood business growing up, but we ate a lot more beef than seafood because beef was Mama's preference. Beef does not seem to have been commonly on the dinner menu at Linda's house; so in our aging here, maybe a couple times a year.  Granted, growing up, our steak was always sirloin, I wasn't even aware that there were other cuts, but Mama liked beef and so did we. Rare. +++++++++ Granted again, seldom or never is life black & white; and the pictures coming out of Gaza are gut-wrenching; but in all the international w...

  See, life IS unfolding for us - - yesterday we walked around to the Farmers Market, which is set up every Saturday morning in Oaks by the Bay Park next door to Harbour Village. It was our first Time in IDK how long, maybe a couple of years, and the market has about doubled in size since our last visit, with twice as many peddlers' booths.  We went looking for crookneck squash, which seem no longer available in grocery stories. Maybe Bill's Grocery Outlet once in a while. They are substantially different and better than what has come to be your grocer's usual, crooknecks are flavorful and not half water. Anyway, expecting not to find them but going anyway for the lovely morning, the walk and the exercise, a quarter mile there and a quarter mile back, there they were at a stand run by a couple from Marianna.  The man said he grows them himself. Linda bought two of his large cartons and one small carton of crookneck squash, and spent the rest of the day preparing...

1 I bind unto myself today the strong Name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three. 2 I bind this day to me for ever, by power of faith, Christ's Incarnation; his baptism in the Jordan river; his death on cross for my salvation; his bursting from the spiced tomb; his riding up the heavenly way; his coming at the day of doom: I bind unto myself today. 3 I bind unto myself the power of the great love of cherubim; the sweet "Well done" in judgment hour; the service of the seraphim; confessors' faith, apostles' word, the patriarchs' prayers, the prophets' scrolls; all good deeds done unto the Lord, and purity of virgin souls. 4 I bind unto myself today the virtues of the starlit heaven the glorious sun's life-giving ray, the whiteness of the moon at even, the flashing of the lightning free, the whirling wind's tempestuous shocks, the stable earth, the deep salt sea, around the old eternal rocks. 5 I bind unto mysel...

Above snapped at 8:16 last evening, looking east during moonrise. Now at half past three, outside my bayside window at 100% illumination the full moon stands high over St Andrews Bay. I could be sitting outside on 7H porch - - I could if I would, but I won't so I can't. Maybe after sunrise after my walk on this, Day Five. Early, with first mug of hot & black, a Victoria's Last Bite foldover chicken sandwich glopped on thin-sliced whole wheat bread. On extended desert retreat, as of noon last Sunday I have no official parish affiliation. May return to Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City in due course, although my practice over my life has been to make clean and permanent breaks as I complete a phase, chapter, adventure, and move on to whatever has come next - - child to Navy to Church to ... . For this break the thought has occurred of saying "Welcome to Walmart" or "Thank you for shopping at Publix" but IDK, who knows? Into total privacy, I l...

  Seated at the conference table, the pointy-haired boss says, "The best advice I ever received was "Be true to yourself." Gilbert says, "That actually doesn't mean anything." Irrelevantly as always, but with a connection that would've occurred only to him, Wally asks, "What was the worst advice you ever received?" "Be true to myself" these days is not meaningless at all. Having too long ago settled into one of my three chairs here in 7H as the limit of my physical activity, months ago, with a retirement date established, Sunday 19 May 2024, I vowed to correct my sloth by taking a daily walk starting on Day One, Monday, 20 May. Prepping, at Linda's suggestion because of CHF limitations, I ordered the new red convertible, which for some last holdout reason I refuse to call my rollator, delivered coincidentally but most timely just as my sciatica returned for its occasional visitation; but it actually was for walking into retiremen...

pot-likker, Linda cooked collards, and poured off, filling a 12 ounce mug, the pot-likker, which I've been sipping since yesterday. It's real tasty, and, IDK, maybe good for you.  In 2004 when we went to Atlanta for my prostate cancer treatment, a friend told me about fun and interesting restaurants in Atlanta - - one was Eatzi's and another one that I forget the name was choice for Southern dishes. One item on the menu was a bowl of pot-likker from their collards or turnips: it was extraordinary, and the dietician nutritionist at my radiation clinic said it was the only healthy thing on the menu.  Add the tiniest drop of hot sauce and this pot-likker that I've been sipping here is just as good.  Another thing I like to drink is the liquid from a jar of sauerkraut. Also delicious, but it cannot be good for you, because it's like drinking ice cold salty vinegar. But OMG! Another is the liquid from a tin of canned spinach, and another is the pot-likker from a pot of l...