So, what am I doing, loafing, having breakfast of whole wheat saltines and cheese and second mug of hot, black coffee, struggling to finish my dissertation on Time, watching a red ship glide past 7H as tugs stand by waiting to help her into the West Terminal, then a still, silver Bay under a gray and white sky as yellow boats testing Mercury outboards race by then slow, circle in front of me, and speed back toward the facility in Millville. It's my imagination, but do they mainly do this on Saturdays and Sundays? And why? Because their test drivers have other jobs during the workweek? IDK. In fact, IDK nothing, and one of the best mileposts in life is giving in to realizing that.    StAndrewsBay: a good place to be retired. If not here, where? IDK, Apalachicola, Seattle, San Francisco, Sydney, but all based on the experiences of being there at younger, exciting Times of my life, wouldn't be at all the same, would it. So 7H for these years. What have I done? For myself? TO...

  Some will remember Hoagy Carmichael songs, including "Ole Buttermilk Sky" that was popular in 1946 while we were at Cove. School, someone humming it out on the playground during recess. Years later in the 1950s, as teenagers dancing close and cheek to cheek with a sweetheart as Jo Stafford sang Hoagy's "The Nearness of You". Who sang with the George Gore Trio for proms and balls?   It's gone now, the early Saturday morning sky over StAndrewsBay, Hoagy, Jo, Gore, Time and its years; even the bowl of lady cream peas I had today for summer breakfast, warm comfort food from Grocery Outlet, touch of bacon grease for seasoning.    The raw oyster thing is back in the news, some particular Louisiana oysters this time round, two or three in a thousand million passing vibrio* bacteria along to people with vulnerable systems. I've eaten lots of oysters lately, including from Louisiana and some that the waitress said were from Jacksonville.  But on a quick shoppin...

How about a Bible lesson for a change? Luke 13:10-17 N ow Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day."  But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the s...

  What do I like here. History, timelessness, place of the heart. The quiet. Anonymity. That it's peaceful. The Time of life. That it's a beautiful day. No responsibilities. People who work in nature. Shrimp boats gliding by. Checking crab traps as the sun comes up. Mullet jumping. Cars, traffic moving silently along the causeway in the distance, and across the bridge. Far off to the east and northeast, enormous, high white clouds flashing and rumbling as they move, too far away to either threaten or promise. Distance, the distance itself, the isolation, always the isolation. An unreal sense of security, of being in another world, as if I'm a shadow hovering and nobody can see me. Oh yes, eternity, something about that versus Time.  And blessed be his kingdom, now and forever.  

Salman Rushdie was the keynote speaker at Emory University the year my Kristen graduated. Already admiring him as a person, his world view, what he thinks and says as well as his masterful writing as an author, I was more than delighted at the opportunity to see Rushdie up close and hear him speak. I was not disappointed. His message was singularly bold and fearless; in my view, especially at a university whose founding had been affiliated with the Methodist Church and among the audience were seminary graduates receiving MDivs and other theology degrees.  Almost a confrontation: Rushdie was as challenging as I had anticipated, and as he finished speaking and returned to his seat I was not surprised that in the restrained applause I could feel, sense, hear stirring, murmurs of discontent, anger, offense, among the large out of doors gathering.  Truth is irrelevant to people. That is to say, Truth that we don't like. We do not appreciate hearing things t...

  "Here we sit like flies on the sugar bowl" was our camp song that flitted across my mind this morning as I watched the osprey nest cam at Grand Lake, Colorado. There are three fledglings, the other two have just flown off, maybe this little guy hasn't flown yet, IDK. When I tuned in it was still dark, and all three of them on the nest watching and waiting for breakfast.  Judging by their evident health and strength, the parents are keeping them well supplied with fish from the lake, large and beautiful, which is across the way, and which the camera trains on from Time to Time during off season. I watched them a while last evening too, and they were waiting for supper. Matured osprey chicks are about full-size as adult ospreys, but their feathers have a white tip, which makes them look speckled. Emigrate: they'll fly off one at a Time over a few days as autumn gathers in. With some nests, the mother bird leaves first. The dad osprey doesn't migrate until everyone...

  Monday four-something pitch black dark-thirty, why up so early? You ask me that and I answer, but patience is my virtue, so here goes, simple, short, maybe sweet. When you get to this age you realize that life IS short, and you HAVEN'T much Time, and you won't always BE. What? Conscious. Alert. To what is, to enjoy. To participate in creation. A splash in the water below. Darkness that promises light. Car lights moving across a bridge.   What? darkness, light, sound, silence, sleep, wake, see, hear, feel the stillness, smell the salt air, know, wonder. Know you know. Know you don't know more than you know. Hold the warm cup, taste the hot, black coffee. Move, read, write, nibble a bit of sweet, dried mango. Oblivion. Oblivion, but no worries, it's all good, you'll never know. Revelation 21:4 no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ... If you didn't know, know it now: Time. It's all we have. RSF&PTL T