Risk, Contemplating, & Rain

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This is the "Second Day" for the Central Virginia’s 519th Women’s Cursillo weekend.

 Please continue to pray for the team and the candidates.

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Our son Eric and his family are here for the week. On Tuesday afternoon the "guys" played Risk, the "Halo Wars Edition." I was the first one out, followed by Justin. Eric and Conner battled with victory going to Eric. It was a great way to spend the afternoon, and we had a good time being together and laughing.

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We celebrated Dee's birthday with all the family at the Mellow Mushroom. The food, drink and service were excellent.
A young man sitting with his family was kind enough to take a photo of our clan.

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Old Man Rain

by Madison Cawein

"Old Man Rain at the windowpane

Knocks and fumbles and knocks again:

His long-nailed fingers slip and strain:

Old Man Rain at the windowpane

Knocks all night but knocks in vain.

Old Man Rain.

Old Man Rain at the windowpane

Reels and shambles along the lane:

His old gray whiskers drip and drain:

Old Man Rain with fuddled brain

Reels and staggers like one insane.

Old Man Rain.

Old Man Rain is back again,

With old Mis' Wind at the windowpane,

Dancing there with her tattered train:

Her old shawl flaps as she whirls again

In the wildman dance and is torn in twain.

Old Mis' Wind and Old Man Rain."

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The rain continues, which is good because it is not snow. However, our lawn is beginning to look like a bog ....

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Glen Campbell - “Turn Around, Look At Me.”

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Go over to "This Ain't the Lyceum," where Kelly is hosting more takes.

Thrones, Cursillo & Skeeter

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I told myself that I wouldn’t go back and watch the early seasons of “Game of Thrones.”

Then, HBO offers Season 1 for free. So okay, maybe I’ll take a look at the first episode, “Winter Is Coming.” It was like holding a Hershey bar in my hand and telling myself not to eat it.

I’m hooked once again, even though I know what will happen to Sean Bean.

Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe. A great series.

The Greenjackets

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“Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.”

   Thomas Merton

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Central Virginia’s 519th Women’s Cursillo weekend begins next Thursday evening.

My wife Dee is on team. Please pray for her, the team and the candidates.

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Circle by Harry Chapin

All my life's a circle;

Sunrise and sundown;

Moon rolls through the nighttime;

'Til the daybreak comes around.

All my life's a circle;

But I can't tell you why;

Season's spinning round again;

The years keep rollin' by.

It seems like I've been here before;

I can't remember when;

But I have this funny feeling;

That we'll all be together again.

No straight lines make up my life;

And all my roads have bends;

There's no clear-cut beginnings;

And so far no dead-ends.

Thank you Anthony DeCristofaro

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On February 13, 2019:

"U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger today led and introduced legislation that would help prevent future government shutdowns and protect federal workers from being used as negotiating tools in funding talks."

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Skeeter Davis ~ The End of The World 

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Go over to "This Ain't the Lyceum," where Kelly is hosting more takes.

February, James & Katie

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“February is for curmudgeons, whinge-bags, and misanthropes. You can't begrudge us one month of the year or blame us for being even crabbier, it's so short. There is nothing good about it, which is why it's so great.”

 Lionel Shriver

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Just a reminder that James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans,” was published on February 4, 1826.

I wrote about this back in February 2014, but thought I would write about again. 

This is my favorite historical novel and one of the many reasons I enjoy working on my "French and Indian War" era miniature collection and Briartun articles. 

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This article was written by our dear friend Katie. Please take a moment to read it.

“One in a million: reflections on NY's Reproductive Health Act”

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“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does, in fact, please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that, if I do this,

You will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you always

though I may seem to be lost

and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Thomas Merton

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Johnny Horton - “Whispering Pines.”

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Go over to "This Ain't the Lyceum," where Kelly is hosting more takes.

Calligraphy, 1933 & Kinzua

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I was cleaning out some files this week and found the following letter. 



My brother, Tee, sent this to me a number of years ago. At the time he was learning calligraphy and would send me letters. There was never any explanation, nothing to explain what he wrote or the reason for the particular composition. 

I read it two or three times and tried to figure out what the basis was for the writing. A random thought? An attempt at a story? Something he read about?

I found the answer here. This was supposedly a speech made by Chief Seattle on March 11,1854 in Seattle. He spoke in the Lushootseed language which was latter translated into the Chinook Indian trade language and then translated into English by a third person. So, the version below, written by yet another person, Dr. Henry A. Smith, may not be exactly what Chief Seattle said.

“And when the last red man shall have perished from the earth and his memory among white men shall have become a myth, these shores shall swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children shall think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway or in the silence of the woods they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night, when the streets of your cities and villages shall be silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land. The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not altogether powerless.”

Chief Seattle

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On January 30, 1933, George Trendle and Fran Striker aired their program, “The Lone Ranger.”  It was on Detroit’s WXYZ radio station.

Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels

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I finished “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy. It was definitely worth reading it again as there was a lot of detail I forgot about. The books bring into light the detail that J.R.R. Tolkien put into the creation of Middle Earth. The characters, races and their languages. The conflict between good and evil, compassion and heartlessness. The man was an excellent story teller.

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It’s Thursday morning and the temperature outside is 22 degrees. Last night it dropped to  7. Fortunately there is no snow. My prayers go out to all of you who are feeling the brunt of the 2019 Polar Vortex. 

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“Kinzua Dam was formally dedicated on September 16, 1966. Two hundred and eighty-three years after William Penn had signed his famous treaty, Pennsylvania lost the last of its Indians.”

Lake of Betrayal.

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Peter La Farge - “As Long As The Grass Shall Grow”

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Go over to "This Ain't the Lyceum," where Kelly is hosting more takes.