I Was Tagged

I've never been tagged in one these games before. Thanks, Leah.

Here are the rules…
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My Eight Things:
I know which gin to use in a negroni (Beefeater), which gin to use in a Martini (Tanquerey) and which gin to use in a gin and tonic (Gordon's).
I have both of my US senators on speed dial.
With a scope-less rifle I hit everything I aim at within 300 meters.
My first pet was a Manx cat named Bossman. He was a dog-killer.
I used to read encyclopedias for fun as a child, and can still get lost in my sons' encyclopedias for hours at a time.
I often worry that I dissapointed my Dad.
I am afraid of dying from colon or liver cancer.
It bothers me that I do not know 8 people to tag.

My tagee's: Jeff, Doug, Matt

176?

Ha! In my last post I said I was down to 176. I meant 276. I haven't been 176 since the week I was graduated from Army basic training. I don't think I'll eer be that light again.

I took the boys to the beach today. Good time had by all, though it was cold and foggy. Watched some seagulls hunting sandcrabs. Basil found a cave to explore while Anselm dug holes in the sand.

Coming home I was run off the raod by a 10 wheeled dump truck while on HWY 1. That was a new and startling experience! I got back on the road and tried to chase him down so I could give his plate # to the highway patrol but he outran me. The last place saw the truck was on Hwy 84 heading inland. It was going about 70 in a 35 zone up into the hills toward La Honda. He was far ahead of me by the time I got to La Honda, but an arborist said he had seen the truck. I drove on as speedily as I thought safe but I never found it. I was appalled that anyone would drive like that on such narrow and winding roads, let alone a behemoth of steel like the truck that sent me off the road and into rough gravel while I was going at 50 mph.

Sometimes, I feel like my life is amazingly boring. Then something like my encounter with the truck happens. I hope nothing like that happens again for a long while.

I put Basil to bed about 7:30. Read "The Wind in the Willows" (beautiful prose. Makes me long for an England that probably never existed.) to Anselm until his mother got home at 10. Doing laundry now.

Prayers at church for Athanasia's mother tomorrow evening.

Good days

Saturday and Sunday were the first two good days in a while. Church both days. Confession and communion. Bishop Benjamin was with us. We finally found a route to church that we can use during gay parades, marathons, and Bay-to-Breakers. And it is a pretty drive, too.

Joined the YMCA Saturday. Family membership. the four of us went swmming this afternoon. Had to buy a new bathing suit. I am no longer a 3X pushing 4X. I am a 2X. And my weight is now 176 lbs. (I was 300 lbs. during bright week.) I am only 6 lbs away from the weight I was when I got married.

Read a new novel: Yiddish Policemen's Union. Except for the last few chapters it was pretty good. It isn't often that my training as an old-earth creationist comes in handy. I totally wasn't expecting to come across the hebrew prhase tohu-bohu in the novel. But I was ready. I bet my Dad was proud of me.

We went to our fave sushi place for supper tonight. We haven't been there in 18 months or more. It was Sooooooo good!

Fr. John will do a service for my mother-in-law on Wednesday. Thank you all for your prayers.

Death

Sunday morning my mother-in-law died a hideous, ignoble, sudden, tragic, and unexpected death. I hope she finds peace in death that she did not have in life. My wife has been in Portland dealing with the situation since then. She just got home a few minutes ago.

Yesterday, the boys and I went to Rancho San Antonio. We saw two does and a 5-point buck. We stood about 50 feet away from them and watched them grazing for about 10 minutes. Anselm found a hive of honey bees in a hollow tree. I watched a robin skittering around in a woodpile then it hopped up on a hollow log and posed as if to say, “I can make hollow logs. What can you do?” I was hoping to see a bobcat hunting for ground squirrels, which we have seen in the past, but not today. Neither did we observe any wild turkey. But we did watch a hawk hunting. That was neat. It kind of hovered in one place for a long time then SWOOOP! Down it bolted like lightning to snatch away a ground squirrel.

Mom update

First, thank you all for your prayers. My mother is home from the hospital. She is not well and is not expected to be alive long. But she is happy to be home.

Mom

My mom is not doing well. she has been going down hill since my last post. Her doctors have told her she needs heart surgery but that she probably will not survive surgery, and if she does survive the procedure she will spend months in the hospital recovering. She has decided not to have surgery.

This and That

My mom, Helen, was admitted to the hospital monday evening. Congestive heart failure. I took the boys to see her on Tuesday morning and again on Tuesday evening. She has so many friends, children, and grandchildren that someone is always in her room. I wouldn't like that but I thnk she does.

In between visits to my mom I took the boys to the beach. Very strange experience. The sea was black deep green. Every wave seemed to be carrying a mountain of sand. Kelp, jellies, crabs, mussels, rocks, and driftwood were all over the place. Every wave brought more. And very oddly there were no birds other than a few crows nesting on the cliffs. I would have thought that given the vast amounts of living creatures washing up on the sand that there would have been hundreds if not thousands of gulls feasting on Neptunes bounty.

My Son and the War

We heard from my oldest son. He is doing well, considering he has been in combat for a few weeks. His unit, the 173rd Airborne Brigade is continuing to live up to its deadly tradition. He said they are moving to [censored] today (He called it "down range". That's cute.) and he doesn't know when we will hear from him again. I am very happy. Surviving on the battlefield is the first requirement of victory and he has shown that he is capable. I am very proud of him.

"Bend your bow, prosper and reign, Son of the Mother of God, subduing the people of Ishmael who war against us, granting to our devout King the Cross as an invincible weapon." - A Theotokion of Sunday Matins

Serbia

Handmaiden of God Leah says: "In this post on the History of Serbia it says:When the Serbian people, having perceived a chance for their liberation from Ottoman rule sided with Austria in the Turkish-Austrian wars at the end of the 17th century…One thing it doesn’t mention is that when the Turkish advance into Europe was stopped by the blood of these Christian people, an important aspect to this story should be remembered. As the soldiers lay dying on the battle field, at the end of the day; the Christian women would go out and take water and give comfort to every man on the field, not just their own, but the Muslims too. Because we are taught to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is our history, the teachings that are handed down to us that make us who we are, that create in us the impulse to do what we do." (You can read her whole post here.)

At this moment my oldest son is engaged in killing Muslims in Afghanistan. I have been thinking that the best way to solve the problem of Iraq is for the U.S. to leave and let the suni and shia slaughter each other. I drafted a letter to my congresswoman urging the decapitation of the Persian state before they build nuclear weapons. But then my sister Leah tells me about serbian women giving water to the wounded Muslim soldiers who just a little while earlier were trying to kill their husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers. Sometimes, it seems to me that I know nothing about the kingdom of God.

UpdatesinceVacation

Did I mention that I've been on a diet? I have been. Lost 18 lbs between the end of Bright Week and the start of my vacation last thursday. Afraid to look at a scale now. Back on the diet now.

The itenerary got messed up the first night. Some stuff we didn'tget to. Added some other stuff at the last minute (such as a trip to Ukiah and a drive down the Russian River Wine Road.

We broke camp about 2 hours late to make it to church on Sunday. I am bumed over that. I was really looking forward to being there and seeing some old friends. Oh, well. Will have to try again.

Mendocino is in pretty bad shape. When I was there 26 years ago it was still a real town. It is all tourism-oriented now. very very sad. Its like a rustic version of Pier 39.

We discovered the Anderson Valley and the Anderson valley Brewry. Much fun.

We are home now. Much recovering to do. (In case you are wondering, the tent worked well.)

Serbian New-Martyrs

Commemoration on June 28th for the The Serbian New-martyrsTroparion Tone 8

For your faith in God and His Righteousness, you suffered in the flesh.

The earth sorrows, but you have saved your souls and heaven rejoices!

And your ancestors sang aloud with the heaven greeting you at the gate

Of paradise with this song: Your names are in the Book of Eternity.

Enter into Paradise O children of immortality! We your posterity

On earth, cry out in unison: O New-martyrs, pray for us!

I find my mind has been often returning to the hideous idea that Kosovo is to be severed from Serbia. You can read the stories of some of the Martyrs (the most glorious rank of saints) of Serbia here. You can read about what is going on in Kosovo here. You can pray for Serbia anyhere.

Vacation

We bought a tent (Not just any tent, the Trailhead 6) at REI a couple of days ago. We are going to try it out this weekend. We are going north. Thursday evening we are going to leave Menlo Park and drive up the peninsula, through San Francisco, accross the Golden Gate Bridge and into the wine country town of Cloverdale. On Friday we will go to Mendocino and that fabulous beach at the bottom the cliffs (there are stairs made of driftwood, at least there were in 1981 when I was last in Mendocino). We will spend Friday night and Saturday night at Russian Gulch. On Sunday we are going to visit Saint Seraphim Parish. I think it will be a fun trip. It will be the first time either Anslem or Basil has been camping.

Sunnyvale Chrysler Dealer Service

I have had nothing but bad experiences with Chrysler dealers. They have installed wrong parts (to be fair they made it good after I pointed out the problem.) and they are always late. For example, I made an appointment to take my PT Cruiser in for an oil change. I was told it would take 2.5 to 3 hours. That was a little annoying since an oil change should only take 30 minutes. But I was already there and the oil change was already paid for (I bought the pre-paid package when I bought the car) so I left the car there and the boys and I went for a walk up and down El Camino Real in Sunnyvale. (not a walker friendly neighborhood. Totally auto-centric.) When we came back three hours later the car was not in the "We're all done woking on this car" parking area. And my "Service Advisor" was nowhere around. We stood around about 15 minutes when we saw someone drive our car INTO the sevice bay!!! I could not believe it. I just took the car and left without getting the oil changed. I will never go to Sunnyvale Chrysler again. And I must admit losing my temper at the Service Advisor and her boss. I do regret that.

Thursday I am going to go to Boardwalk Chrysler in Redwood City. I've already talked to the Service Manager, and have explained my past experience and what my expectations are. He said their goal for an oil change on a PT Cruiser is 45 minutes and that they are almost always finished within an hour of drop-off. I'll be wearing a watch.

Albanian Muslim Plot Against U.S.A.

I've mentioned on this blog before that the geniuses in the State Department want Kosovo, the spiritual heartland of Orthodox Christianity in Serbia, to be an independent country for Albanian Muslims. This, even though they already have one. Its called Albania. I suppose the fact that it was Albanian Muslims who were plotting an attack on Fort Dix won't change their minds.

Birds

Anslem and I go bird watching once in a while. We have a guide book and even though it doesn't show all the seasonal changes in plumage it is serviceable, as long as we keep looking in the same place over the course of a year. For instance, the avocet's black, white, and grey plumage is handsome. But for a short time each year the head is reddish. The guide book only shows the red head. It took a very long time before we found out that we were looking at avocets.

This morning we went to the Palo Alto Baylands , a wet land preserve. At one time all the land between Hwy 101 and the Bay, from San Francisco's Candlestick Point in the north to south of the Guadalupe River wetland. In fact, the wet lands extended far south along the banks of Coyote Creek. And the sky, according to early explorers was black with waterfowl, as the wetlands around San Francisco Bay and in the Santa Clara Valley were a major resting area for the avian set traveling along the Pacific Flyway.

So, back to my story. This morning, after dropping Cyndi (who I sometimes call Athanasia) at school (last day of the semester. She is geting straight A's.) we went to the Palo Alto Baylands. While we were there we saw several score Night Herons. WOW! what intense birds. They are all about finding little fish and frogs and skewering them on the dagger-like beaks. But this is hatching season. We saw dozens of hatchlings and anslem went around picking up egg shells. It was such a pleasant experience. We saw gosslings and ducklings, too. We also saw gulls fighting over a gosling's corpse. (Question: As Orthodox Christians, do we believe that birds are ever anything but a corpse?) Anselm said he no longer likes gulls.

Tonight after dinner we took Cyndi to the Baylands to see the Night Heron chicks. We got there just at sunset and had the pleasure of watching the adults leave their nests and roosts to hunt. We walked a little way beyond the trees where their colony was nesting to a dense stand of palms (They are not trees. They are very large grass.) where we saw Snowy Egret chicks.

We came home and ate watermellon. I read Chapter two of Prince Caspian to the boys while they took a bath and Cyndi cleaned the kitchen floor. They and Cyndi are in bed right now. I'm going to join them. Goodnight.

The gnat

I haven't mentioned the financial scandal in my Church (not my parish or diocese, which are above reproach in every way) on my blog until now. Even though it was in the Washingotn Post and currently in Commonweal and people around the world have known about it for years, I didn't want to draw the attention of its existence to someone who might be considering a conversion to Orthodoxy, or to an Orthodox of weak faith. But today, it occured to me that I, by not mentioning it, was doing the same thing the bihops of my church are doing, trying to hide the facts. I do not anticipate writing a lot about this scandal or the people involved. I am only mentioning because I do not want to be like those who want to sweep it under the rug.

Now that I've mentioned it, I want to tell you what I am doing about it.
1. I pray to the Mother of God and to St. Tikhon theEnlighter of America to remove from the ranks of the clergy all those who have lied or stollen money in the course of this scandle. That includes Metropolitan Herman (I am aware of no evidence that Metropolitan stole money. But he has been caught in lies. And he was treasuerer when a lot of money dissapeared.)
2. I call the Metropolitan's office every day and ask him to resign.
3. I've written a letter to my bishop (now retired) asking him to take our diocese out of the OCA and into one of the other jurisdictions of the Orthodox Church.
4. I have ensured that none of the money I give to my parish filters up to the Metropolitan's office or any of his programs.
5. I have written to the Holy Synod and asked them to deal with the situation and not just sweep it under the rug.
6. I ask God to not let my annoyance at the bishops and priests eclipse my view of my own sins. (It is easy to get so worked up over the weeds in your neighbor's yard that you forget to weed the garden of your own heart.)
7. I have written many emails to the Metropolitan Council, urging them to do their job and not just be a rubber stamp for Metropolitan Herman.

I probably won't mention this situation on this blog again. Hopefully, through God's mercy those who have done wrong will repent, come clean, and we can all get on with our mission.

Bubbies Pickles

Last night I went grocery shopping. It was late. It was so late that my regular stores, the stores where I usually shop, Trader Joe’s, Piazza’s (but not for frutas y verduras, usually), and Whole Foods were closed. I had to go to Safeway, which is the largest grocery store chain in California. If a product is made by Kraft, ConAgra, Nestle, or Unilever it is sold by Safeway. They tend to not carry products unless they are made by huge producers. It doesn’t make financial sense for them.

One of the things I bought last night was Claussen Dill Pickles, a Kraft Foods product. I bought two jars for less than I usually spend on one jar of of my usual brand of pickles. I was very excited. But not just by the price. Why? Because since the second Monday of Pascha I’ve been on a diet (I want to live to 50) and dill pickles are something I can eat as many of as I like.

When I got home I opened my jar of pickles, admired their color, took one out of the brine, tasted it and almost spat it out. It tasted sweet and chemically. I thought to myself, “What? Why would a pickle taste this way? All you put in dill pickles is water, salt, vinegar (sometimes), herbs, and spices.”

So I looked at the list of ingredients. But the first thing I noticed when I looked at the label is that each serving of theese pickles has five calories (that’s kcals for my british reader). That shocked me. A serving of pickles usually have less than 1 calorie each. What was going on here?

I continued to read: “ Fresh cucumbers, water, distilled vinegar, salt, contains less than 2 percent high fructose corn syrup, dried garlic, spices, calcium chloride, sodium benzoate, dried red peppers, natural flavors, polysorbate 80.”

Why is there corn syrup in pickles? Disgusting! This is a jar of kosher dills not sweet gerkins. And why the preservatives sodium benzoate and polysorbate 80? By definition, pickles are preserved. Once cucumbers are pickles and and put in a barrel or jar they last for years and years. This makes no sense to me.

Beginning with this post I am going to begin compile a list of good, pure, wholesome, good-tasting foods that are available to SF Bay area residents. The first item on that list is Bubbies Dill Pickles. (I've mentioned them on this blog before). They contain no corn syrup, no polys, no benzoates. They are good pickles that taste the way God intends pickles to taste. The list will be in the right margin of this blog.

My article

My guest editorial was printed on Friday. I'm on Page 23 of the paper version. Here is the link to the online version. It was very difficult getting it down to 600 words from its original 1300 words. Essentially, I left the conclusions in but cut out most of the supporting arguments for those conclusions.

Duh!!!

It has been reported that scientists have discovered the sun singing.

Amazingly, God already revealed this to us.

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)
Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. (Psalm 149/148: 3)



This amazing discovery of the scientists reminds me of that guy from USC who thinks people might live to 120 years of age. What is wrong with our society that an educated person can know so little about the Bible? Of course, we can live to 120.

And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Gen. 6:3)



Next thing you know, scietist will discover that there is stuff that exists.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1)

WOW!!!

You know all that stuff I said about TV in my last post? Well, I might have to take it all back. In the world to come I want to be Emmitt Smith. (And check out his shoes!!!)