Vespers

02 Thursday May 2019

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I am listening to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (All-Night Vigil) on YouTube. It is, of course, serene, uplifting, beautiful.

All I can think is that the world has had all the secular materialism, moral relativism, and professions of nonbelief that it can take.

Chastity, for unmarried men and women, is a virtue to be practiced, not a sexual fetish, i.e, a perversion, to play at. There I’ve said it.

Had I children of school age, I would not send them to public schools. I fear that public education no longer schools children in leading virtuous lives. I think it has taken me fifty years, my entire adult life, to unlearn the misguided moral teachings of public education, or to grasp moral teaching, on my own, within the context of the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

I guess that is why I find Russian Orthodox Liturgy so compelling. The Communists sought to destroy religion. They failed, because the Voice of God cannot be silenced, The secularists are seeking the same objective in America today, under the fig leaves of tolerance and religious freedom. There are a surfeit of “useful idiots” in politics, law, and education who assist in this cultural holocaust. And I mean precisely that. Books are banned in school, e.g. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That is close to burning a book. I think of the Heinrich Heine quote, “Where they burn books, they eventually burn people.”

We have become afraid to be intolerant of evil.

Brushes With Greatness

01 Wednesday May 2019

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My mother shook hands with Milton Berle once, outside the Hot Shoppes Cafeteria on Grace Street which was across the street from Thalhimer’s. This was 1967. The building is a parking lot now.

I saw John Warner crossing Franklin Street in 1978 after he was first elected to the Senate. He was married to Liz Taylor then. I said ” Congratulations, Senator.”

I once asked a bunch of questions to J Kenneth Galbraith, one of which was, “Did you ever have to meet a payroll?” I don’t remember his answer. I was drunk. This was 1987, I think.

When I worked at a kitchen store, The Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium, in Regency Square Mall, Jerry Lewis came into the store. It was 1995. He was touring with a production of Damn Yankees. He needed a knife to slice his bagels. He wore a red polo shirt with JL monogrammed on the left breast (where you normally see the crocodile in a LaCoste shirt). This was 1995. The shopping mall owners just announced that part of the mall would be converted to a multi-pool natatorium. Nobody shops much there anymore. Jerry Lewis died a couple of years ago.

I once saw Justice Antonin Scalia at the Red Mass offered for canon and civil lawyers by the Thomas More Society.

I once saw Mitt Romney’s motorcade and security detail go by on Interstate-64 during the 2012 Presidential Campaign. These guys would never in a million years think of going back to being “nobodies” after getting the attention they get. Maybe that’s while they all seem to hang on to fame like grim death.

On Balance. OK

01 Wednesday May 2019

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I consider this a good day. Did some cooking, using up some stuff that needed preparing. Fixed some black beans which I ate over brown rice. I ate a lot of fruit as my dessert.

I try to stay away from stuff that upsets. My worries about Russo-American relations I must give over to God. We’ve come too far since 1945 to think He will not abandon us or them. Both our nations will find a way to Peace.

I will start the KonMari book tomorrow. The challenge is to engage my wife in the project. We shall see.

With the passing of my brother-in-law, and the pinched nerve, I have put Weight Watchers on hold. But I miss the structure, the food awareness, and the support system.

Here comes Summer. It is roughly seven weeks to the Summer Solstice. We will have the usual routine of Spring & Summer games, golf, tennis, horse racing, baseball, softball. I will go to a Richmond Flying Squirrels game with my son(s). Hopefully both. Life is good.

Just Woke Up

30 Tuesday Apr 2019

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Seems like years ago somebody told me getting body work can bring about recall of experience and feeling long suppressed. I don’t know if neck traction to relieve pressure on a pinched nerve qualifies as body work, but all of a sudden, stuff is coming up. I don’t know how to describe it. I had a dream of long time old friends I had not thought about in this detail in ages. I dunno. Maybe it’s just coincidence

Our posture is about holding our selves together. Something’s afoot here.

Brassieres. H-Bombs

30 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Civilization, Existential Despair, Fashion & Grooming

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I am watching Oksana and Julia consult with Russian women on brassieres. Brassieres. It is hard to believe that the United States, over nearly seventy-plus years, has been ready to wipe these people, or their parents or their grandparents, off the face of the Earth. It is also hard to believe that Russian government and its predecessors, was and is equally ready to destroy American brassiere shopping women, their children, their husbands and/or lovers, .

Don’t be so naïve to think that the politicians you support, would not authorize the launches that would destroy the world. Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump. They’re all killers, given the chance.

I’m wondering how a President will do in the opinion polling after a thermonuclear conflagration? Will the guy from Gallup or the NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll knock on the door of your fallout shelter, seeking your opinion?

Would this thermonuclear exchange make you more likely, less likely, to vote for the President in the next election? Or will it have no effect, assuming you haven’t died before Election Day?

PhysicalTherapy: Progress Russian Language: Progress

29 Monday Apr 2019

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I had a session today. Afterwards I noticed different muscles were hurting. Then I realized that was a function of the body being adjusted to take the pressure off where the nerve is being pressed. In other words, I’m getting better.

I slept some this afternoon. I’m watching and listening to the Russian ladies talk. I figured out how to type in words using the Cyrillic alphabet. I’ve been watching enough shows with ordinary Russians going about their business that I think of them as my neighbors now. They are truly beautiful souls.

Up. And Going.

29 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by in Cartoons, Uncategorized

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(Back To Bed)

Maybe there is hope. The pain woke me up. But it isn’t as bad as even yesterday.. Applying a little Tiger Balm seems to help with it.

I’m a watching some old Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoons on YouTube, stuff that I think ended up in the public domain through some failure of WB (or successor entities) to maintain the copyright. It happens.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. J likes James Avery charms. So I bought her two new ones, a rose to remember her late brother, a Master Gardener, and a cross because she’s Catholic. She got another neck chain to display them as part of the special at Dillard’s. Baby got new bling. She’s happy.

I have almost finished the cup of decaf I fixed in Keurig© machine and the cartoon playing features two cats who are Abbott and Costello knock offs (look them up on IMdB or Wikipedia). It also features what may be the first appearance of Tweety. The cartoon is called A Tale of Two Kitties (get it?).

Now Porky and Daffy are on. Daffy is having a manic episode, no surprise there, and the background is very evocative of Art Deco. Nice. Daffy is now doing a Carmen Miranda schtick. Many of you will need to look her up too. Title of this one Yankee Doodle Daffy.

OK . Bedtime. 2:00 AM.

The Cold Shoulder

28 Sunday Apr 2019

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I have an ice pack on my shoulder. I took a hot shower, shaved, put on clean clothes. Pizza and lasagna leftovers are heating in the oven. I should have a better attitude than I do.

I stayed home from Mass because sitting without being able to move around gets really painful. I also watched the Russian Orthodox Easter Vigil last night, from Moscow, which should be the equivalent of four Catholic Masses, if measured on a basis of reverence and intensity.

When J gets home we shall have the leftovers. Then I shall go to bed

Why I Am Frustrated

28 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by in Relationships

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J: “Do you want me to get up?”

Odd. It is nearly noon on a Sunday. I have been up myself for maybe two hours after a restless, pain-filled night.

We are going to brunch at a pleasant restaurant.

I don’t expect my wife to be a mindreader,but there are certain “givens” in a marriage that she hasn’t quite picked up on. Like a man wants his wife to want to be with him. After she sleeps til noon she bloody well should know her presence is expected. And she should look nice, too, especially since she wants to go jewellery shopping after brunch.

So stuff needs to be said. But she has a way of acting when I express my needs, wants, and desires that has me wishing inwardly that I should have kept quiet.

So here goes. Time to get ready.