Above perhaps anything else in my life, I am the father of children. Whom I cherish deeply, of whom I am fiercely protective, about whom I never stop worrying. I have felt so ashamed of our military forces for the bombing of the school in Iran in which over a hundred school children, little girls, were murdered.  I have felt almost as much shame that instead of apologies for the atrocity, which was unintentional, a mistake, but avoidable and not an accident, our government has resorted to lies denying the act, which cannot be regarded as other than a war crime.  I have been appalled with early reports, which I do not know are true or not, that the Secretary of Defense and/or Elon Musk and his task force decimated a verification group whose function was to check proposed targets and surroundings carefully to make sure this sort of tragedy does not happen.  I am ashamed, I am ashamed, I abstain, I do not pledge allegiance, I do not salute authority that is so flippantl...

OMG, the coffee is good. A Navy lifeTime of enjoying it hot & black is tempered this morning by my stirring a tablespoon of Manuka honey into it. Supposedly there are medicinal qualities to the Manuka honey, and the AI character on Google okays it for a person of my description, provided I mind my sugar intake.  One eight ounce mug of coffee a day is my portion, in my Ember mug kept perfect sipping temperature hot for about an hour. Makes early predawn dark mornings fun and good.  +++++++ A priest friend invited me to contribute a short essay to his Advent project, pick a date, topic, bible verse combination. I waffled between "Journey" and "Wilderness" for an hour or so, then settled on "Journey" and let him know. Now I've been struggling to keep the length of it down before I email him the final write, which maybe I'll do the first week of November. It's for December 5, and I always worry that these things tell more about me than I want p...

  Several, I've started several +Time blogposts this week then tired of their subject and left them sitting without further work.  Earlier in the week - - the days slip by, I have no idea which - - we went to Walmart so Linda could get something from the pharmacy area, and I wandered around in the food section. The first thing I picked up was two of their pints of west coast oysters. When doing that, it's appropriate to check the sell-by dates, because likely there're at least two expiry dates in the bin, and you want to get the freshest one.  The oysters are lousy, but they're oysters, nomesane?, they are swelled up summer fat and disgusting, but they are oysters. I pour the whole pint into a sauce pan, oysters and liquid, and turn the heat on low. They simmer, and I let them cook in the liquid, then put them in the toaster oven to roast on high heat for a bit, while I sip the liquid. Delicious unless I put too much lemon pepper in it, it's not enough liquid fo...

With memories still salivating about a recent meatloaf and its gift of meatloaf sandwiches, Saturday we prepared, and yesterday after church we baked and enjoyed for Sunday Dinner, a meatloaf, a perennial favorite in these parts. So, my anticipation for breakfast this morning was a meatloaf sandwich, whole wheat bread, mayonnaise.  Thinking, though, about my life's mission these days, to stay out of the hospital, as I opened the fridge for my sandwich ingredients, I spied a carton of yogurt, which triggered the thought that I googled: which is a better breakfast for a 91 year old white male with CHF, yogurt or a meatloaf sandwich? The answer is quite disappointing, but I heeded it. The meatloaf sandwich will have to wait for noon dinner.  The yogurt is tasty, though, with a heaping spoonful of Manuka honey from New Zealand added and stirred into it.  Try it, Sam I Am, you may like it, Sam I Am. ++++++++ This coming Sunday, November 1st, is All Saints Day, one of the seven...

Saturday morning breakfast, the last sips of my morning mug of hot & black, and a flounder sandwich. Linda's leftover that she saved for me. Yesterday after Pruitt we went to Tarpon Dock and had the whole (less head) fried flounder, very good, and they do an artist's work in presentation, I should've taken a picture but didn't.  We sat outside in an idyllic Friday afternoon, watching bridge traffic and people walking past.  The cost of eating there is about half the cost of eating at Hunt's, which belongs to the same folks.  Anyway, a nice breakfast. White flounder meat, picked through to get all the bones out, mayo on Pepperidge Farm very thin whole wheat bread, the flounder meat laid on, and a shake shake shake of NoSalt (my potassium grains). Quite good, an unusual treat, IDK, might be my first flounder sandwich ever.  +++++++++ Entertainment this morning, watched a video interview, a retired woman of many talents who was the Chief of Disguise for the CIA. La...

This from Fr Richard's site seems more important than anything I might think, write, or say this morning. T91     Empire and Christianity New Cornerstones  Friday, October 23, 2026 READ ON CAC.ORG     Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez, cofounder of the Coalition for Spiritual & Public Leadership, reflects on the influence of empire thinking:   John Dominic Crossan, in  God and Empire , names the four cornerstones of empire as political, economic, military, and ideological power. While the first three subject marginalized people to crushing realities, ideological power is the most nefarious. It shapes, controls, and distorts the minds and spirits of both oppressor and oppressed….   We have been indoctrinated by the forces the American Empire rests upon—taught to value profit over people and individualism over interdependence. Embodying these values leads to greater disembodiment of God’s love. Our Inner Empire must be dismantled and rebuilt so we can respond...