All Souls Day

Today is All Souls Day. On this day we recall and pray for loved ones who have left this life. 

We pray that they have gone home to the Lord. 

 In my life I have lost some loved ones - members of my family and of my wife's family. 

 Nana Baxter, Grandma Strong, Mom, Dad, and my Brother in my family. 

In my wife's family I have lost Marge (mother), Frank (father), Aunt Toni, Nick (brother), and Cousin Joe.

One of my routines is to pray for individuals and groups at every Mass I attend. On Sundays I always pray for these deceased relatives. Today being All Souls Day adds to the routine. 

On this day, I ask them all to pray for me as well. 

 Pax et bonum

Some Scifaiku, Horrorku, And Related Poetry

Creative Solution

A doctor from South Aldersgate,
when asked why he never does date,
said, "Dating’s a pain,
and so I’ll refrain.
Besides, I can make my own mate."

despite some warnings
he started the new device
and

dental mishap
vampire faces centuries
of just blood pudding

at his sentencing
vampire grows even paler -
life without parole

mining rights sold
the full moon becomes
only a crescent

Halloween costume -
werewolf considers options
but full moon decides

time travel mishap -
alternative history
no longer fiction

Clouds

shrouding

the full moon

will not stop the

wolf.

The

thirsting

grew until

sated by one

bite.

Last words

a

vulture

hungrily

circles above

me

New Colonist

she

quickly

learned that here

the spiders have

wings

in her last moment
she suddenly recognized
the werewolf's cologne.

Prolific Stephen King
can make horror out of anything.
His wife fears what he'd do
if he tried to barbecue.

apocalypse comes -
our final embrace will last
an eternity

through the rubble
a three-legged dog carries
a tibia

robot's Valentine
card bears the image of a
mechanical heart

supernova -
on some planet are wise ones
following its light?

Life form,
so alien
people run from it in
terror, is itself so aghast
it flees.

on the asteroid
slow dancing
in fading Earthlight

trying to recall
the species at the cantina -
pregnancy test

alien banquet -
host's toothy smile reveals bits
of missing crewman

two moons
rise above the
lunatic asylum
inspiring the Martian inmates
to howl

snow on snow on snow –
spring on the new colony
still two years away

the calculations
off by a decimal point -
debris field explained

researcher turns on
interdimensional door -
Who’s that knocking?

blind date takes
unexpected turn
her tattoos move

watching as the clone
learns to ride a bicycle -
sense of déjà vu

A doctor from South Aldersgate (limerick) Weird Tales August/September 2006

alien banquet - Random Planets 2019

apocalypse comes – Scifaikuest  AUG 2021 PRINT

at his sentencing - Scifaikuest November 2023

blind date takes - Scifaikuest November 2023 

Clouds shrouding (saturne) - Scifaikuest February 2023

Halloween costume (werewolf) – Scifaikuest online, February 2023

Last words (saturne) - Scifaikuest February 2023

“life form” (cinquain) in Scifaikuest May 2018

mining rights sold” Random Planets 2019

mining rights sold  Rochester Area Haiku Group 2020 Members’ Anthology

mirror with a painting (vampire teen) – Failed Haiku Volume 7 Issue 74 (February 2022)

New colonist (saturne) - Scifaikuest February 2023 

on the asteroid - Scifaikuest February 2019

researcher turns on - Scifaikuest November 2023

Robot’s valentine - Scifaikuest, February 2017

snow on snow on snow – Scifaikuest AUG 2021 ONLINE

Supernova - Scifaikuest – online – February 2017

the calculations Scifaikuest AUG 2021 ONLINE

The thirsting (saturne) - Scifaikuest February 2023 

through the rubble - Scifaikuest  AUG 2021 PRINT

time travel mishap – Scifaikuest online, February 2023

trying to recall - Skifaikuest February 2019 

     trying to recall – Failed Haiku Volume 7 Issue 74 (February 2022) 

two moons (cinquain) – Random Planets 2019

watching as the clone – Failed Haiku Volume 7 Issue 74 (February 2022) 

Pax et bonum

Weighing In

I weighed myself today and sighed.

I've had a life-long struggle with being overweight. When I was a child my mother used to have to shop in the department euphemistically called "husky." 

By the end of seventh grade, I was seriously overweight.

I decided I had to diet. I was helped by the fact that I also hit a growth spurt - six inched over the next two years. 

Suddenly I was skinny. I grew two more inches by the end of high school, hitting six foot. I also played basketball, ran track, and rode a bicycle everywhere. 

Between 14 and 24, I remained slender.

But then the weight came back. I dieted, and went off diets, repeatedly. My weight went up and down, but mostly up.

For years I've lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle as a writer and teacher, and then a retiree. l also have  a poor diet, full of carbohydrates and large portions, and I have a chronic sweet tooth.

Five years ago, to my shame, I found myself 50 pound overweight. I also found myself prediabetic.

Knowing my father was also very overweight and suffered a series of strokes, that many of my other relatives on my father's side suffered strokes and from heart issues, and that diabetes ran in my family, I decided I HAD to lose weight and cut back on unhealthy foods.

I did. I still fluctuated up and down, but never hitting that 50-pound level again. And I'm no longer prediabetic. 

This morning I weighed myself. I weigh about the same I did at this time last year - that's good - but I'm still about 15 pounds overweight.

Diet and exercise time. 

I hope to lose that weight over the next three months. It would be great if I could begin the new year at a healthy weight. 

Maybe I need to ask for help from St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of dieters!

O St. Charles, you are invoked as
the patron of all those who suffer
with stomach ailments and obesity.
You are also called upon as a helper
for all those attempting to diet and lose weight.
Please intercede for me today
and help me to control
my desires and compulsions,
so that I may fix my appetite
on the glory of heaven.

Amen.

Pax et bonum

It'll Come To Me ...

I've noted of late an increasing tendency to forget.

I struggle to recall the names of actors, authors, artists, characters, the titles of books and movies, and so on.

Mind you, I've always had a poor memory for names of people. When I was a teacher I had to have a seating chart in front of me so I could remember my students' names. If I saw them out of their seats or in the hall, forget it. Sort of like Kingsfield in the The Paper Chase.

As a reporter, and as a teacher of literature and history, I used to have a great memory for historical and literary names. As an actor, I used to remember so many lines, and as a musician so many lyrics and tunes (though sometimes I'd have to be prompted with the tunes during practices).

But the forgetting has become more pronounced. 

Getting older. Hopefully not developing any sort of dementia or Alzheimer's.

I know with the body you need to keep exercising to keep up strength. The brain is a muscle, too, and can be strengthened by use.

So I'm thinking a good exercise would be memorizing texts.

I already have some prayers committed to memory. And I have "A Visit from St. Nicholas" memorized for use in some of my Santa gigs. But there are other prayers and literary pieces that would be good to memorize. Some I have even already partly memorized.

A few potential works to memorize come to mind.

The St. Joseph Prayer

The Beatitudes

The Gettysburg Address

Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

That's a good start.

Now if I could only remember to carry copies of them with me!

 

Pax et bonum

Once More, Ancestry Updates

Once again, Ancestry has updated my results based on a growing data base. They've also added new regions, and broken down some of the previous regions.

Here's the new results:

• • Celtic & Gaelic

    • Donegal, IrelandNew29%
    • Central Scotland & Northern Ireland23%
    • Northern Wales & North West EnglandNew3%
    • Munster, IrelandNew2%

  • England

    • Southeastern England & Northwestern EuropeNew28%
    • West MidlandsNew9%

  • Nordic

    • Iceland3%

  • Western Europe

    • The Netherlands3%
    • 
      

The results last October were:

Ireland (Northern Ireland and - new - Ulster): 41%
England and Northwestern Europe: 38%
Denmark (new) 10%
Scotland: 6%
Iceland (a new region!): 3%
Germanic Europe: 2%

I lose Denmark! But I'm even more Celtic and Gaelic - 47% last year, now 54%/57% - the second figure including Northern Wales and Northwestern England. 

Here are other previous results:

August 2022.


Ireland 42%
England & Northwestern Europe 35%
Scotland 16%
Sweden & Denmark 7%

May 2022

Ireland 39%
England & Northwestern Europe 29%
Scotland 28%
Sweden & Denmark 4%

So now more Irish, English/Western Europe, and Sweden/Denmark, less Scottish. And overall less Celtic.

They have updated multiple times as they have gotten more people in their data base -

September 2021

Scotland - 57%
Ireland - 33% (with ties to Donegal)
England and Northwestern Europe - 10%.

2020

Scotland - 54%
Ireland (with strong links to Donegal) - 29%
England and Northwestern Europe - 13%
Wales - 3%
Norway - 1%

2018

Ireland/Scotland/Wales - 58 %.
Great Britain - 36 %.
Scandinavia is now Sweden, and dropped to just 4 %.
Germanic Europe - 2 %.

2014

Ireland - 56 %
Scandinavia - 16 %
Great Britain - 10 %
Iberian Peninsula - 8 %
Western Europe - 5 %
A few odd traces - 3 %

Pax et bonum

"Surviving" The Government Shutdown: Day Four

Got up

Took the dog for his morning walk.

Showered.

Made a cup of coffee.

Went to men’s group for breakfast, prayers, and discussion.

Completed a shift for 40 Days for Life outside Planned Parenthood, joinng others in praying.

Went home.

Washed, cut up, and removed the seeds from hot peppers from our garden to ready them for freezing.

Made lunch (leftovers). Included some slices of hot peppers to add some spice.

Checked emails, responded to some.

Took dog for his afternoon walk, a mile around the neighborhood.

Downloaded from my camera the pictures I took at last night’s Transitus Mass (for St. Francis of Assisi), selecting and editing some for inclusion in the newsletter I’ll be editing tomorrow.

Practiced the Mass readings for tomorrow in preparation for lectoring at the 9 a.m. Mass.

Read a chapter of an Agatha Christie mystery (Sleeping Murder).

Beat the computer at Scrabble.

Later I will practice guitar, play with the dog in the yard, watch some television with my wife, work on the newsletter, read some more Christie and some of a biography of St. Catherine of Siena, and say my evening/night prayers before going to bed.

Right now it’s 3:15. The sun is shining. The dog is sleeping at my feet. The birds are at the bird feeder. I’m listening to The Hillbilly Thomists.

What was that about some sort of a shutdown somewhere?

Pax et bonum

Not In The Bible, But ...

Jesus and John are sitting in the shade of a tree.

The other Apostles have gone into town to get some food.

“Can I ask you something, John,” Jesus said.

“Anything, Master,” John replied brightly.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about what might happen after I go.”

“GO?! WHERE ARE YOU GOING? WHAT DO YOU MEAN? CAN I COME WITH YOU?”

“Be at peace. I’m not leaving now. But what if I, oh, got arrested or something like that.”

Tears streamed down John’s face.

“They…they couldn’t. They wouldn’t.”

“Of course. But just hypothetically, if I had to go for a while, what do you think of Andrew to run things for a while?”

“He’s just a follower, not a leader.”

“I suppose. Maybe I should put an X through his name. But Thomas, now he’s no follower.”

“Thomas? He’s so negative and cynical. He keeps saying things like “Prove it.”

“Hmm. You have a point. Of course, he is intelligent.”

“So is Matthew, but who’d listen to him.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He was a tax collector. I know he reformed and we’re supposed to forgive and all, but still, some don’t trust him.”

“Who doesn’t trust him?”

“Judas, for one.”

“Ah, yes, Judas. Sharp fellow.”

“Judas? Yes. Everyone respects him. You can count on him to get things done.”

“True, Judas has everyone’s trust.”

“I guess if you have to pick anyone, Judas would be a good one. He’s smart. He’s good with money. You get a sense he knows what he’s doing.”

Jesus chuckled.

“Not like Simon,” he said. “He means well, but …”

John laughed.

“Poor Simon. He keeps messing up. And there’s that mother-in-law of his. Oy! Oh, he tries hard, and everybody likes him, but he’s not the brightest fellow.”

“I like the fact that he acts with his heart and not just his head,” Jesus said.

“Head? Sometimes I think he has rocks in his head.”

Jesus nodded and smiled.

“Rocks? Interesting description.”

“If you want my advice, Judas is your man,” John said.

Jesus sighed. “Yes, I think Judas is capable of playing a bigger role.”

“As for Simon,” John added, “well, heaven only knows what he’ll end up doing.”

Pax et bonum