The Lessons Appointed for Use on the  Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany  Year A: Feb 1, 2026 The Collect Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. But (scroll way down) see my postscript below.** Old Testament Micah 6:1-8 Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King...

Two, two-something o'clock dark when I gave up and opened my eyes, looked at the clock, and closed them again, too comfortable to rouse. Two-thirty-something when I surrendered altogether, got up, ... , and turned on coffee to brew. DeCaf this early, hoping sleepiness will return. First Time in a while that this up too early business has happened. Maybe because, exhausted last evening from doing nothing all day, I was in bed asleep at seven-thirty, "early to bed and early to rise."  It just means that I won't be able to to avoid the morning nap later. I've been trying to cut down on the naps, coffee with noon dinner, e.g., to ward off the two-hour afternoon nap that leaves me uncomfortably groggy for too long. It's an extreme old age thing.  +++++++ Unusual, not especially alarming, but certainly not normal, all the Alen air cleaners have their red light glowing, why? No outside doors are open, I don't smell smoke (the smoke alarms aren't buzzing anywa...

Wednesday the text came, so Thursday morning we drove out to Tyndall to get my new eyeglasses. Same prescription for several years, and a thin black frame that I like and have long settled on.  The optical shop is in the building with the BX, the barbershop, the Commissary, and several other shops, so when we drive that far we like to wander the Exchange and the Commissary. I buy chocolate for Malinda at the BX, always check for bargains on the Apple computer shelf (a few years ago Apple switched to their own chip and the BX had MacBooks with the old chip at half price, but I let it go, a half-price MacBook is still several Times the price of other brands the BX offers). In the Commissary I usually buy a package of the 96% lean ground beef, which I like to make wide, very thin patties and cook them in a searing hot pan count one two three four five, flip over, count one two three four five and onto my prewarmed plate. Good anyTime, especially for breakfast with two or three eggs ov...

What am I glad of, thankful for? Well, for Creation, the Universe. For life itself. Life and companionship, for the folks I love, and especially the folks who love me and loved me at Times during these ninety years. What occupies my Time, what do I think of and about. Well again (it’s disingenuous to begin a sentence with Well, but there you go, most of us do it) - - well, the Universe mostly; if you’re theology-minded, Creation - - whether Whoever or Whatever said “yeh-hi” and loosed nature to become all-that-is really had in mind for this Earth & People experiment to go as we gave gone, and especially whether over the past 13.7 billion years (tonight I read that it could be twice that), there have been other Earths & Peoples, and perhaps are now, and further perhaps will yet be - - other Earths & Peoples in our Milky Way galaxy and in others of the currently estimated two trillion galaxies in Creation. The numbers are just too great for us to be the only one, here alone....

  As promised: cars at Cove Shopping Center in the picture with Jitney Jungle. Left to right, starting with the white station wagon at the left corner of the picture: 1. white station wagon, too fuzzy for me to make out any characteristics 2. white car with a woman standing at the open door appears to be a 1955 Chevrolet. 3. white car under the J of Jungle appears to be a mid-1950s GM car, either a Buick or an Oldsmobile. 4. station wagon behind the palm tree. appears to be a GM station wagon, 1955, 56, 57 Chevrolet or Pontiac; seems too narrow to be a GM car, but the  wraparound side window is distinctive. For size, I looked up a Studebaker station wagon of the era, but no wraparound curved side window. 5. moving eastward or parked facing eastward, the two-toned sedan in front of the walking man is a Ford or Mercury, 52, 53, or 54. 6. white car behind the Ford's hood , I'm saying a 1956 Chevrolet, is that your car, Martha? 7. to the right of the palm tree, two-toned car ...

  It's frustrating is what it is, quite frustrating, not that I'm trying to keep advised, or let some imaginary readership know, how it is being ninety years old; at least how it is and is becoming for me.  For long adult years my favorite read to pick up as I boarded an airplane, or at the airport newsstand before boarding, was The New Yorker - - not only good writing and basic good entertainment, but enough to hold my attention throughout any flight from anyplace to anywhere. Every page, every article, every essay; and the weekly features - - Tables for Two, Fiction, the cartoons. I never worked the crossword puzzles, Linda's the crossword person, I'm not. And also The Atlantic Monthly, now just The Atlantic.  All of both of them, and nowadays with the email and the internet much more than's in either's print version arriving daily and weekly online.  But I'm wandering, which is one of my invisible habits that I might like to shake and be shed of. Where I...