This Way, Lady Mondegreen - 29 January 2022 - Plague Journal Day 688

Micah 6:8
Isaiah 40:8
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

It's a floral celebration day today. Yes, it's National Carnation Day! Feel free to drink milk in celebration if you're not a big fan of flowers. Interestingly, today is also listed as Curmudgeons Day. One has to wonder if someone didn't simply mishear the one and we got the other as well.
Regardless, you might want to celebrate grudgingly either or both of those events.

The other celebration of note is that today is Freethinkers Day. It makes me want to pull out my copy of Rustlers' Rhapsody, if only to hear the youngster insult our hero as a "freethinker" as he rides away from a gunfight. Poor Rex.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane 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.

In Living Color - 28 January 2022 - Plague Journal Day 687

Micah 6:8
Joel 2:28-32
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

A newsletter I receive had this "Friday Fact" as a closing fun item. (note the quotation marks)

"About 12 percent of people dream entirely in black and white."

I haven't verified this "fact" yet (I haven't even tried, to be honest), but I wonder what that would be like. Apparently I'm in the majority here, as I generally dream in color. In fact, I Dream In Technicolor. If you're a black and white dreamer, please leave a comment below and tell me about it.

• Is it disconcerting to dream in monochrome?
• Does it seem distracting at the time?
• Does it make you aware that you're dreaming, or do you see the world in black and white all the time anyway?
• Those are the kinds of things I'd like to find out.

This just reminded me of when I was a kid, watching Gilligan's Island on our family set with my Dad. The screen said "In Color" as the theme song finished. I turned to Dad and said, "No it's not."
He might have explained to me that we had a black and white set and the neighbors with a color set were seeing it in color. More probably he lied to me about it with something radically more interesting and fun. Maybe something like, "The network people are trying to see how many of us will either complain or pretend that we see it in color. It's kind of the Emperor's New Clothes as a test."
Those network people!

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane 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.

Mush, You Huskies! - 27 January 2022 - Plague Journal Day 686

Micah 6:8
Ephesians 6:13-17
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

I like today's title. My late father-in-law would have preferred Hush, You Muskies! (and I hear it that way a lot of the time), but that might have led my gentle readers astray. Although, I'm not writing about Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. I am writing about dogs and snow. (Did you know that Richard Simmons starred as Sergeant Preston, who patrolled the Yukon Territory in search of renegades and outlaws? I had no idea he was that old. I guess sweating to the oldies really does prolong life.)
At any rate, I've never done it, but have always heard of waxing skis for snow skiing. Well, now I wax my dog for walks in the snow. She used to get those nasty iceballs between her pads - but no more! Heidi remembered hearing of some kind of musher's thing that would protect dogs from the ill effects of walking in the snow. Well, after a little searching I found Musher's Secret wax, and it is pretty spectacular. As stated, it has prevented the caking of snow and ice in her feet, and it doesn't end up putting grease marks on the floor before or after the walks. Highly recommended. It's also useful for equines according to the label information. We may have to get a horse to check that out.

That's a link to a small tub on Amazon in case you want to try it.

Here's something I missed from the history listing yesterday. On 26 January 1913, Jim Thorpe relinquished his 1912 Olympic medals for playing semi-pro baseball before competing in the Games. What a change we've had! He played semi-pro baseball and gave back his track and field medals. Now we have NHL and NBA players playing in their same sports on purpose. Wow. So much for amateur athletics.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane 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.

1-2-3 - 26 January 2022 - Plague Journal Day 685

Micah 6:8
Job 40:15-24
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Ah, the wonders of electronic spreadsheets. I'm fairly certain there are plenty of folks out there who would think that phrase a bit redundant. Having never encountered a non-electronic spreadsheet, they have no idea of the volume of columnar pads of paper we used to consume back before the advent of Visicalc and then the mighty Lotus 1-2-3. In fact, today is actually Lotus 1-2-3 Day, so please celebrate responsibly.
I never did use Visicalc on any computer (unless Dad's Apple IIe had it and I looked at it sometime - if so I do not remember it at all), so Lotus 1-2-3 was my introduction to the wonders of electronic calculation.

Oddly, I actually had experience with dBase II before I used Lotus 1-2-3, based on having used a proprietary dBase application our agency had commissioned. Pretty much as soon as I was proficient with it, I ended up moving to another company and didn't see dBase-type stuff for a couple years. However, I was deeply immersed in the world of Lotus and its very straightforward and powerful way of doing macros. We macroed the crap out of a lot of stuff back then.

Later we moved to a spectacular integrated piece of software called Enable which had a DBMS, Spreadsheet, Word Processor, Graphics, and Communications all in one nicely designed package. I wish they had managed to survive MicroSoft's "help" in moving into the world of Windows. That reminded me of the nurse who "helped" her patients to shuffle off their mortal coil with off-the-records injections of meds. Thanks, Bill Gates.

Today is also Library Shelfie Day. We're supposed to post pictures of ourselves in front of our bookshelves or in the local library. Instead of that, I'm posting a picture of a couple of my books sitting on an actual public library shelf. I'm not exactly following directions, but I think this qualifies.
Now go read a good book!


Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane 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.

Let's Go! - 25 January 2022 - Plague Journal Day 684

Micah 6:8
Deuteronomy 16:13-15
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is National Plan For Vacation Day. That's probably a really good thing to do ... up to a point. What I mean by that is that setting aside time on your calendar for a vacation is important. Having an idea that in just so many weeks you'll be heading off for a change of routine adds a certain pre-Joy to life.

Not planning on time away from work and responsibilities means you'll end up not taking any time away - and that's simply not healthy. I say this as one who has almost never managed to take all the vacation time I was allocated. I have, though, always take some time off, and wouldn't be willing not to do so.

The other part of that is that if you plan things in too much detail you'll lose the serendipity that awaits you on your vacation. We tend to have a destination in mind for a vacation (typically a tent-camping trip) with only the most general notion of what we'll do while we're there (wherever that might be). It's a good thing to have a family negotiation as to what to do "today" each day on the trip. Each member will have a different notion of what would be fun, and each will also have noticed something different from the others to offer as a possibility.

For example, the boys in the rear seat of the van which is facing backward might notice a sign by the road and suggest that we stop and go trout fishing while camping out West near Mount Rushmore. That turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip.

So plan to go on vacation, but don't plan all the details of that vacation. I'm pretty sure you'll like it better than the trip with a detailed itinerary.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane 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.

Marriage Is What Brings Us Together Today - 24 January 2022 - Plague Journal Day 683

Micah 6:8
John 2:1-11
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?


On 24 January 1776 the German author E.T. A. Hoffmann was born. His writings were the source of the only opera I have seen more than once (in person) - Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" (the Tales of Hoffmann) - which I've seen twice.

The second time I was surprised/delighted at how much Heidi remembered of the first production we had seen. Her reminding me of that time made the second performance even more enjoyable.
Ah, but that first time.
This was our first date, and we had only fairly recently become engaged. Good times.
Oh, that sounds odd to you? Well perhaps it was.
As the Metropolitan Opera's tours tend to sell out quickly, I had to ask Heidi if she would go with me well in advance of the performance. She agreed - our first actual date.
Ah, but in the intervening weeks we spent lots of time together and I (in my own particular way) asked her to marry me and she said yes. Please note that I didn't even know Jarrod, let alone go there, this was an old-fashioned engagement in some ways.
At any rate, there we were already engaged to be married, but going on our first date. These are the kinds of stories I need to actually write down so Christian knows about us when we don't remember or when we're not there to tell him.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane 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 - 23 January 2022 - Plague Journal Day 682

Micah 6:8
1 Corinthians 12:12-31
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

For our 9:30 AM worship service we will have a vocal solo at offertory time and our standard three hymns for congregational singing. Why not join us to find out who the soloist is? You'll probably be amazed.

Remember, we'll be streaming for all those who can't join us in person, and intend to continue that practice indefinitely. Still, know that we miss seeing you in person - please come join in corporate prayer, praise, and worship as soon as you feel ready.

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 Don't 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