25

 Its 6.30. No I didn't feel an earthquake. I read about tariffs. Cadbury chocolate imports cocoa that may use, to harvest, child labour. Is that slave labour? Was that good sentence syntax?

"The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many". Mat 20:28. Nothing wrong with that; some might wonder who the Son of Man is. "I thought Jesus is the Son of God". I guess He is both. Did you know that Sirach is written by someone called Jesus? Son of Eleazar, son of Sirach. What's going on there? Maybe Jesus wrote what his granddad used to say. 

The last thing Sirach said is "Work at your tasks in due season, and in his own time God will give you your reward". Sirach 51:30. Hence the saying "He has gone to his reward" (when someone dies). 

it's 6:50

time for some breakfast

not that I feel hungry

..."and now bless the God of all who's has done wondrous things on earth"..Jesus son of Eleazar, son of Sirach.

24

 "Come back disloyal children-it is the Lord that speaks-for I alone am your Master".Jer 3-14

It was hard to rouse myself out of bed. Most of you are still asleep. 

Just put some lanolin cream on my face. My darling L started me on moisturizers. Sometimes I just pick a leave/stork/branch off my aloe vera and use the juices on my skin. More men must moisturize mainly Mondays. That's a catchy sentence so you remember. 

Did I mention that I'm feeling wary this morning. No, that's good, 'cause I'm weary. I'm not glancing about anxiously. But my eyes feel heavy. 

Enough about me. How are you?

This polite query has always stumped me. I've realized that the proper response is to say "when?". Between the question and the response time elapses so they should really ask "How will you be?". 

Better run, still picking up my work mate from misty valley. I'll make a coffee to sip on the way.

Success is not about reaching a destination but enjoying the journey.  

23

 We should look after and enjoy our world. 'Cause  this is it. Even if there was by some fluke another, we would never reach it. 

The nearest star is distant at over four light years. Alpha Centauri. It's actually three. But we only see one. They think there's a couple of planets but these are inhospitable. A big gas giant and one that doesn't rotate so one side burns and the other freezes.  There are many hazards out in space. One obstacle you don't hear often is how would a space vessel slow down upon getting there. Slowing down takes as much energy as accelerating. Then there is our need for gravity. Our bodies just stop working after about six months and there is no way to reverse it.

Some people think there is alien life and they visit us in space crafts now. There is a lot of photographic evidence for inexplicable vehicles in the sky. Maybe they are drones that began there voyage here thousands or millions of years ago. Though they probably couldn't send a message back quickly. Nothing is supposed to go faster than light. That's about 300,000 km a second. 

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'

[Verse 2]
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go 'round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions

etc..

Success is not a destination but a journey; enjoy every step.

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour;
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.

The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars;
It's a hundred thousand light years side-to-side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand lightyears thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand lightyears wide.

We're thirty thousand lightyears from galactic central point;
We go round every two hundred million years.
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go--the speed of light, you know--
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
'Cause there's bugger-all down here on Earth.

22

 O death! how welcome your sentence to the weak man of failing strength,

Tottering and always rebuffed. with no more sight, with vanished hope...Sirach.

Stripes?

In

Out

20

 Had a good weekend? I cut the lawns and took a car load of stuff to the tip. Because I 'recycled' some old electric things I got charged half the normal fee. Off to Wainui soon to pick up the work mate. Thanks for the certificate TC. The Pater Nostre is quite easy. It's that one at the end of the rosary I never mastered...

"O God, whose only begotten son....." then the bit that goes "imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise"... never get that right!

Time to go...

Stars don't compete with each other, they shine together.

Dies Saturni

 Today is Saturn day. Not the planet but the god. A Roman god. The Romans got most of their gods off the Greeks. So far I have corrected Google spell check four times. 

Time for another coffee, or is that a latte. Yes I will have a latte instead. But without the frothy layer. Which I guess is really just a coffee with milk. A bit like asking for a cocoa and getting hot chocolate in TC's comic video wot he posted in his latest blog. Most chocolate bars aren't chocolate anymore. They are confectionary. That happens when the cocoa content falls below a critical level. Whittaker bars are considered chocolate. Cadbury bars are not. Chocolate breaks but confectionary immitations bend. Chocolate also melts in your mouth, people say that of foods that are cooked or made well. Though strictly speaking meat doesn't melt in your mouth despite claims it can.

I'm back with the coffee. I've added some Waireka honey. I hadn't planned to. It's nice. L and I buy our honey from the Waireka shop. It's yellow. About twenty minutes from Feilding. I also ate two slices of pepperoni salami. They were nice. Spicy. Soothing on my throat. 

Last night I packed my car ready for today. No I'm not going to Feilding. I'm driving to the Silver stream rubbish collection centre. Google just split Silverstream in half. AI has the potential to be irritating and also long winded. Think of the most boring person you know. That's AI. Just watch some of the many AI generated videos on Youtube. Frustratingly annoying to watch. Always the same narrative style. Never get to the point. Speaking of which...

In two hours I will go to the one and only true Church. I will join a small group of people and say the Holy Rosary. Then we will participate in the amazing Catholic Mass. I won't go to the sacrament of Penance. I did that during the week at St Mary of the Angels. The priest listening suddenly exclaimed in an incredulous voice "That's not a mortal sin...did you intend to offend God?". I still chuckle when I think back to that. I like him. Can't remember his name. About my own age. Evidently some of the ten commandments don't apply to pensioners I thought at the time. I can live with that I thought. Like how oldies aren't required to kneel or fast. It's a health thing I guess. Though it is likely my poor knowledge of and/or Catechesis (instruction). Bit like that famous last dilemma in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn where Huckleberry must toss up between handing in his friend, the escaped slave, or what he erroneously believes in his own mind, going to hell. Often we need someone elses take on a situation.

Stars can't shine without darkness; accept your shadows.

Frigga's day

 Or day of Venus. Goddess of love. Which ever way Friday is named after a woman. Coincidentally I am working my way through Sriracha in the OT. 

What has Sriracha to say about women in today's reading?

"...love your wife or partner. Buy them good Whittaker's chocolate. Not Cadbury rubbish."

Have a good Friggaday. I'm off to clean the Frigga(ing)  Creche! I was asked to be there at 4 am. I said no. Reading the Bible and blogging is matters more. 

"Stars are born in the darkest of nights, so are you"