Words.... in These titles mean nothing.

from Lamentations....

I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath.
He has driven me away and made me walk
in the darkness rather than in the light;
indeed he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.
He has made my skin and my flesh grow old.

from Corinthians 2....

.... the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort that we ourselves have received from God.

NIV

That’s not a new picture. It’s from the last batch I took in the middle of April.

I haven’t tried shopping for a new camera. Part of me is thinking of going the cell phone cum camera maybe cum internet route. I am you must remember the last person in the word without a cell phone. I doubt I’ll do it though. I would have to give up my land line which I do not like much but am dependent on. I refuse to pay for two phones. The land line works in bad weather - except of course when it doesn’t. Cell phone reception in my valley is iffy. I would lose a phone. I would break a phone. I would have to learn how to use it. I suppose the reason I don’t have a cell phone is that I don’t want one.

There that was a painful and unnecessary paragraph. We can be grateful it’s over.

I will get a camera eventually. Most likely from Walmart. A simple one if a simple one exists. I could use a zoom lens.

Funny semi-related thing. I made taco dip for a pot luck not too long ago. We lost one of our workers at work and they were sending her off with roast meats and fluffy desserts. Afterwards when I was washing my mother’s ancestral plate - the glass one with the foot that some of my old time readers may recall - I saw it had an address sticker on the bottom. I had gone to the trouble to identify my taco dip plate so that people would know it belonged to me. I had not gone to that much trouble with my camera. Putting your name and address on a thing does not guarantee you will get it back but it sure increases the chances.

I found an interesting book at the library yesterday. The Conquest of Everest - Original Photographs from the Legendary First Ascent. It’s a beautiful, high quality book, heavy paper and binding, and the photographs are stunning. The young men from New Zealand are vital and real. It was in 1953. Photos are miraculous thing. There are the three pics Hillary took from the top of the mountain to prove that he had gotten there, the views of other mountains in different directions. There’s a wedding picture of Hillary later that year, he and his bride leaving the church under an arch of ice axes. If I had a camera I would have taken a picture of those pictures and shown them to you here.

At work, I’ve been reading Philip Caputo’s Rumor of War. It’s a little beat up paperback I’ve had for a long time and I thought it wouldn’t be damaged more in my lunch sack. It’s billed as a memoir of the author’s time in Vietnam as a Marine Corps First Lieutenant in 1965 and 1966. It is a beautiful and rough and yet very sensitive book. We forget. We remember. War happens on the other side of the world. But it happens to people we know.

In the middle of the night, I’ve been watching youtube clips from Letterman’s last shows. I saw him kiss Julia Roberts over a long time period. He used to look younger but she looks the same. I watched him being handcuffed to George Clooney. I watched him dancing with Howard Stern. Howard is a very tall man. I heard band director Paul Shaffer talking about James Brown - talking like him too. Letterman was the last real tv we watched. After the satellite subscriptions ran out, we could still get a local CBS station - either Cedar Rapids or LaCrosse. It would not come in very good - our old antenna system had disintegrated during the satellite years. But sometimes we would crank it up and through the snow see a Letterman show. Letterman had the gift of surprise and the gift of comfort.

It’s Sunday. Half an hour past noon. I’m still in my Bean robe. I need a bath. Jim is mowing lawn. He will mow Joana’s when he is though here. It is warm and humid. We have been having rain and more is coming. The corn is not all planted but it will get there. There will be beans in the big field across the creek. Magic HMO beans that crow perfectly in weedless rows.

Joana and I had ice cream cones the last two Saturdays. From here:
http://www.wwhomesteaddairy.com/
Last week I had berrylicious with blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. This week I had rhubarb. The rhubarb wasn’t very rhubarb. I wonder if I got something else by mistake? The berrylicious was extremely berrylicious. I had them in waffle cones and they were generous one scoops filling the cones to the bottom. I find myself thinking a lot about them… wondering when my next one is coming.

My friend and I were discussing self-denial at bit ago. It feels good to give up things, to feel in control. And it is a good thing. It also feels good to indulge, to see the whole world out there in front of you, filled with choices and gratifications.

So? So.

Have a good rest of the weekend, everybody. Have a good next week too.
Happy Victoria Day to those across the border to the north.

Last updated May 17, 2015