dreams and promises

Someone said that a retirement week is six Saturdays and a Sunday. Basically, that's the case, not going to work, I do what I want to; what I don't want to do I leave to my heirs. Except for the doctors' visits.

For her birthday celebration gatherings, Linda made three lemon icebox pies, a favorite around here for the past, well, it's 74 years now, since September 1952 when we started dating as we finished up high school.

Each pie has four egg yolks, and either pour the egg whites down the sink or set them aside for me to try scrambled egg whites. The first half yesterday, scrambled egg whites with lots of cheese, and it was yellow and had no taste but cheese. The rest of it this morning with just a sprinkle of cheese, so white and taste of nothing: adding a liberal pour of Tabasco tasted of nothing with a bit of zing to it.

To enliven my breakfast though, six sardines and one shrimp.

The weight loss program is going fine: protein, canned greens, and no starch. There's a cabbage in the fridge that's ready when I am. I'll have cabbage steamed for one meal, and for another meal I'll have it shaved very thin and mix in a diet-threatening bit of mayonnaise. Time: two weeks and three days and four pounds to go. Could do it again, have done it many Times, but there's no point in losing back down to my Navy retirement weight, because within a couple of months it's inevitably all back on.

My pickled herring from the NYC deli Russ & Ds should be here Tuesday, exquisite taste, unsurpassed nutrition, and great for enjoyment with no diet conscience problem, it's that perfect, nomesane?

So, I didn't blog yesterday, why not? Too dizzy all day. Thursday's blogpost is retired to archives, as are all after a day or so online. I'm thinking about tomorrow's Bible story with a couple of songs, one we still sing now and then

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place

I can feel his mighty power and his grace

I can feel the brush of angel's wings, I see glory on each face

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.

And, stirring memories of a campfire song from a lifeTime ago

We are climbing Jacob's ladder

soldiers of the Cross.

Old Testament: Genesis 28:10-19a

10Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 15Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” 18So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19He called that place Bethel.

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This is the same covenant that Adonai first made with Abraham when he was seventy-five years old, and over the next quarter century repeated several Times, eventually trying Abraham's patience and stirring his total frustration; then came the Trinity visit with Abraham and Sarah under the Oaks of Mamre, that resulted in the birth of Jacob's father Isaac. The covenant is a promise of land, children, being blessed, and being a blessing to others. Here, as he flees in fear of his life from his brother Esau, whom Jacob has tricked shamefully, Jacob hears the covenant again as his story evolves into the reality that seems to be the land of Israel today.

Baruch ata, Adonai Elohim, Melek ha-olam; shehekeyanu ...

Saturday with a full retirement calendar ahead, of happy things I'm looking forward to, and medical things I don't want to do. No matter, I'm still here this morning, eh?

RSF&PTL

T90

illustration pinched online. Source: the Right Rev. Richard Gilmour, D.D. Bible History: Containing the Most Remarkable Events of the Old and New Testaments, with a Compendium of Church History (New York, New York: Benziger Brothers, 1904)