If You Can't Stand the Heat - Carnage du Jour - 22 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 436

Micah 6:8
Daniel 1:11-16
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

If you can't stand the heat, that's just too bad.

Oh, that's not really the saying, is it? It's something about getting out of the kitchen, but that's precisely where I was on Thursday nonetheless. We were having a friend over for dinner and my original plan had been to do my ratatouille on the grill and a piece of fish to go along with it. However, time got away and I ended up doing an inside ratatouille with honey mustard roasted Arctic Char. I don't know that I've ever cooked this inside before, but it turned out quite nicely.

Two baby eggplants, two yellow summer squash, two zucchini, a tub of multi-colored grape tomatoes, and some diced onions were all we needed. I sliced and marinated the vegetables with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and herbes de Provence.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

You (Almost) Can't Have It - 21 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 435

Micah 6:8
Psalm 37:1-4
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

My computer is getting old. It started with Windows XP, upgraded to Windows 7, then over to Windows 10. It's starting to show its age with its fairly ancient Athlon 4-core processor and massive(!) 4GB of RAM. So, I'm looking at what's out there for my next build (yes, I build my own machines - always have since my first 80486 tower), and it's a bit frustrating.

I don't want all that much, but what I want is what I want, and it looks like the industry thinks I'm wrong. (By the way, shout out to Mr. Twiddy for singing that song to his High School Biology class.)

I want a 6 or 8 core Ryzen with 16GB of RAM - that's no problem. I want Gb Ethernet - again no problem. I just want a decent video card - that's a bit problematic, as everything is more powerful than I need, more expensive than I'd like, and nearly unavailable anyway (curses on you, crypto-miners!).

But the hardest part - and this is crazy to me - is finding a reasonable case (mid-tower) that allows for an optical drive. I know things are available for download - I do that too - but I have lots of things on DVDs, and I actually burn discs fairly regularly, both audio and video. I guess I'm a dinosaur, but I think having a physical copy of things that I've purchased seems a reasonable hedge against internet outages and suppliers' going out of business.

It's not impossible to find, but good grief it's been difficult. Sheer lunacy if you ask me.

By the way, today is Gotye's birthday (you used to know him). Enjoy! (this one is even cooler)

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Just You Wait - 20 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 434

Micah 6:8
Ruth 3:1-11
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

For some reason, today is Eliza Doolittle Day. You know, the flower seller from Pygmalion and My Fair Lady who learns to speak proper English and gains fame and love.
I'm not sure why 20 May is Eliza Doolittle Day, but it is, and so it should be celebrated, as should she. What could be better than hearing the Mumbai version of Wouldn't It Be Loverly?

This recording takes me back to my youth. My Dad had (still has?) a very eclectic record collection, which included a Peter Sellers disk which included this track. Please stick with it until the music starts (or scan ahead if you don't care to listen to the interview that Peter Sellers conducts with himself) - you'll be happy that you did, or your money back.

By the way, today is also National Rescue Dog Day. I realized that all our dogs have been rescue dogs. Stray dogs, puppies born to strays, they're all the way to go when you're after a dog.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

A New Song - 19 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 433

Micah 6:8
Psalm 96
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today, poetry is on my mind for some reason. I'm not sure what prompted it, but that's been bouncing around between my ears since I awoke. So, here's one of my projected series of poems for each book of the Bible. This one is for the book of Psalms. (a poem about a book of poems - it's sort of meta-poetry, I guess)

Psalms

A book of hymns.
A book of prayers.
Why do we sing?
Why do we pray?

We sing for Joy – we sing from Joy.
We pray for Joy – we pray from despair.

We sing and pray to You, Lord, because
    You are Great, You are Good.
    You are Goodness and Power, You are God.
We sing and pray to You, Lord, because
    We are small, afraid, sinful, and oppressed.
    We are in need – we need You.

We pour out our Love and Need and Anguish
    and we seek to be filled with Your
    Love and Power and Joy.
We pray – not to change You, to use a magic spell to get our way.
No.
We pray that You would change us,
    that You would work Your Will in us,
    that You would dwell in us,
to make us more like Jesus.

copyright 2019

Speaking of new songs and songwriters and such, today is Pete Townshend's 76th birthday.
"Who?" you ask. Exactly. Happy Birthday, Pete.


Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Coincidence? - 18 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 432

Micah 6:8
1 Samuel 6:6-9
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

On 18 May 1911 Gustav Mahler died. Exactly one year later, 18 May 1912, Perry Como was born. And some people don't believe in coincidences.

The sad part of this (or perhaps not, we shall see) is that Perry Como was supposed to sing at my funeral. It appears, based on his having died some years ago, that he won't be able to perform "Temptation" after I've shuffled off this mortal coil. Either we'll have a disappointing memorial service or I just won't be able to go. Maybe I'm here for the duration, so please, be wise: be kind to me.

Consider yourself cautioned. ("Warned" seems too strong - I'm just not that vindictive, but as we age, our filters tend to slip, so at least be cautioned. You're welcome.)

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

17 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 431

Micah 6:8
2 Corinthians 9:6-9
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today we celebrate April 15th! Or rather, today is the deadline for filing and paying Income Tax in these United States. One supposes that calling it Tax Day makes more sense, just as we should call it Independence Day rather than the Fourth of July. "Do they have April 15th in England?" It seems very likely, just as they also have the Fourth of July. After all, it's not reasonable to go straight from the 14th to the 16th, and why double one when there's a perfectly appropriate date right there between, waiting to be used?

This reminds me of one of the trips we took to England - it was a Methodist Heritage Tour for a group of our High School students. We took them to a carvery in London for dinner - to experience fine English cuisine, as it were - and as we went through the line where one of the options was turkey, one of our girls asked the cute carver at the turkey station whether they "have turkey for Thanksgiving?" He kindly explained to her that Thanksgiving is an American (including Canada!) holiday, and that turkey was more likely a Christmas dish there when it wasn't found at the carvery. (By the way, this was at the Albert in Victoria Street. We've been several times and would happily return should the opportunity arise.)

At any rate (pun intended!), here's hoping all our tax returns are happy ones (and filed on time)! Too bad the government isn't anything like the Lord as described in the second reference at the top of this post!

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Worship - 16 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 430

Micah 6:8
Acts 1:1-11
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

 

 

This is the seventh Sunday in Easter - Ascension Sunday

When the COVID case levels settled down in Grosse Pointe, we resumed our in-person worship.
Yes, we still have in-person worship in the Sanctuary today. You need to have registered ahead of time to attend, and an email went out from the church with all the details!

For our 9:30 worship service have a piano solo for our offertory time, and a hymn for us to read along while Doug plays. (We'll eventually get back to real Methodist worship - we'll be singing together again one day!) Remember, we'll be streaming for all those who can't join us in person.

As usual, today's stream should just appear as the latest entry on our YouTube channel, here.
You'll find all our previous worship videos right there at that same place, and today's stream will stay there as a recording as well.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264