So well, okay then, very good. Never use “very” and never respond or open a conversation with “so” or “well” or “okay” lest one reveal that one has vanished into the ethers of mediocrity: as it is, they will realize it soon enough in due course. What am I especially happy about this Fourth Sunday in Lent - - which parishioners who are at church later this morning will find out is Laetare Sunday or Rose Sunday, Rejoice Sunday, Mid-Lent Sunday. As preacher this morning, “homilist” (a word I despise), I have Children’s Time, and I am going to give each child a noisemaker.  Hallelujah.  And if, because it’s Spring Break and families are away and there are only a dozen or fewer children, each child may get two. Two noisemakers. Don’t mess with me. We don’t want to upset Bubba. Our old time Sunday School Bible story that I first learned to love as a child visiting East Hill Baptist Church in Pensacola with my grandfather and cousins, is a David story. Really, the first one in ...

A-gruntin and a-rootin and a-groanin It'll quit terreckly a razor-backed hog with warts on its face and horns coming out behind its ears snorted http://producer.csi.edu/cdraney/archive-courses/summer06/engl278/e-texts/oconner_revelation.pdf no hog to scoot down Poor nasty little thing alternately to smolder and to blaze not white trash, just common And wona these days I know I'll we-eara crown thin leathery old woman in a cotton print dress. She and Claud had three sacks of chicken feed in their pump house that was in the same print +++.  +++.  +++  Touring a defense aircraft plant years ago, I commented aloud that the A-10 was the ugliest airplane that had ever cursed the skies. An ill-timed if true remark, as a man in the group showing me around had served in its design, and took great offense. I'll never do that again.  Temptation is to misspeak (for a priest who should sit mildly by lest he offend) myself politically, and call...

Often said over its soon seven years, +Time is neither journal nor diary. Starting October 2010 with CaringBridge to keep folks posted after being told I had two to five months to live, it emigrated to a WebLog heißt +Time the day I left Cleveland Clinic in February 2011 with refurbished heart and new lease on life, as mental aid to physical renewal: exercise the brain. Little personal history, lot about cars, some about Panama City and StAndrews, bit of Bible study from my position down the dusty trail, now and then a thinly disguised political rant, occasional disdain of standard Xn theology far off the beaten path in the briar patch but never so frank and bold as to have my diocesan come for my collar.  During sabbatical however, the constant urge to give it up in favor of reading books where I felt impoverished, take up a new hobby, improve my German or NTGreek, try Hebrew again, learn the Russian alphabet anyone who knows a little Greek can master wacky, watch a few...

The week before Christmas, son Joe’s company sent him from their headquarters office in Winston-Salem out to Everett, Washington on a project for the aircraft interior his company had designed, manufactured, and was installing in new Boeing jetliners. I went to the Seattle and Puget Sound area many times during my last Navy tour in WashDC and later when I worked my own consulting firm, always loved being there. Beautiful geography, romantic ferry rides, and incomparable seafood even for me, coming from the Gulf coast of Florida.  Joe’s back in Washington State again this week, at Renton this time, on another project with Boeing for interiors on another client’s order for new jetliners. I encouraged him to try the oysters this time, and last evening he sent me the menu for an oyster bar and cafe he was eating in with friends. Frank had told me how they do it out there, and I am intrigued, an oyster bar will offer oysters from several bays or inlets, priced by market and demand, I ...

Later than usual this Wednesday morning out here on 7H porch, and there goes the Navy heading out for another day’s victory at sea. Do I wish I were aboard? But yes, yes, of course.  Breakfast, oatmeal with walnuts and major splash of my maple syrup. I like food I can taste. Heavy dark dry red wine such as cabernet, malbec, shiraz/syrah, durif/petite sirah. Dark bread made with sticks and bakery floor sweepings. Strong cheese. Dark maple syrup I have to special order because stores only sell Grade A; my maple syrup would be Grade C but that they’re not allowed to retail it. I’ve ordered maple syrup from Vermont, Michigan, and this jug is from Wisconsin.  Projects, I like a project. Yesterday a friend’s email sent me back to Russian literature, poetry this time. On sabbatical I read some Russian novels old and new, watched a few Russian flicks, read a bunch of Russian short stories. Read, through and after sabbatical, A Gentleman in Moscow, an American book I loved b...

Sleepin’ in th’ shade … 1242 hours. Navy heading in so as not to be late to happy hour. BTDT. On 7H porch, open MacBook. Screen’s too dark. In upper left corner, tap little black apple. Tap System Preferences. Tap Displays. On Built-in Display window, slide Brightness bar all the way out to the right.   Except for evidently having slept in a wrong position all the previous night and waking in immovably excruciating hip pain Monday mornin— first happened 1993 after my father died and I started coming over from Apalachicola to PC on Sunday evenings to look after my mother and take care of Kristen until Wednesday mornings every week, and the old bed must’ve been really bad for sleeping — and unable to walk, Monday turned out excellent for me. Late, light breakfast then off to visit with a friend from ten to four including drive over to Stinky’s way out on 30A for oysters. Perfect, and I had my “usual,” about a dozen fried oysters on a bowl of leaves, with their house d...

Seaboard Valparaiso passing 7H porch at 6:37 Sunday evening, Courtney Point in the background with its own lonesome pine. ValP stacked topside with cargo containers. Monday morning clear 51° and promise of springtime all week long, maybe rainstorms by weekend but I’m not taking the blame for that.  My project for Sunday afternoon was to download Casablanca online and watch it again but, having gulped my cardioPills early, arrived home from church too exhausted for anything but glass of French red and crash. Should have drunk a pint of ice water instead, it would quickly have resolved the exhaustion. What’s doing this to me? Numerous, not only including the handwriting in the air: eight and a one writ large. Again, whoever said eighty is the new forty hasn’t been here. Later read the Casablanca movie script entire, free instead of paying to watch the flick. Time to stop and get ready for the walk, not long by real walker measure, but still over a mile and counting. DThos+...