Good Morning All & Happy Monday!
Well, we had a terrific dinner at the house yesterday…my favorite food which included a “koo-lat” steak from Egger’s Meats, expertly prepared on the BBQ by my son, Jake; canned green beans (the best); sweet potatoes; a mouth-watering blackberry-goat cheese salad prepared by Judy; and fantastic strawberry shortcake with lots of whipped cream (the shortcake was the biscuit variety baked superbly by my daughter Amy and the whipped cream was prepared by my son-in-law, Joel). It was one of the best meals ever! What a great way to spend a “coronavirus Sunday!”
My grandson, Izaak (Ike) paid a call yesterday and you can tell how much he’s grown every time he visits by how far up the front door windows his fingerprints extend. It’s fun to see how far they’ve gone up the door each time! Ike is getting to be quite the dancer and singer, as well as becoming quite familiar with his mini-pots and pans set in cooking up various dishes for his family & friends. He sure brings alot of joy into our world!
Speaking of people bringing joy into our world, here’s to my high school classmate (member of the “Amazing Class of ’73”) and bike shop entrepreneur and bicycling promoter extraordinaire, Dale, who celebrates his 65th birthday today….welcome to Medicare! Have fun on your special day of celebration! Happy Birthday wishes also go to actor George Takei of “Star Trek” fame, who is 83 today; to actor Ryan O’Neal of “Love Story” movie fame (who can ever forget him and Ali McGraw together in that film?), who turns 79 today; and to actress Jessica Lange of “King Kong” movie fame, who is 71 today. Here’s to all of you!
My long-time, beloved friend, Tim, had a birthday yesterday in the United Kingdom and was presented with a gorgeous cake by his son, who made the cake, and his wife, who made the frosting. It looked terrific on his Facebook page. I asked for a him to save me a piece, to which he responded:
“After nearly burning down the house with the heat from all those candles, and the frosting melting, we had to eat it all up!
Your piece is in the fridge, but with the lock down, there are no guarantees it will still be there next week.
After all, when I need to take a break from my work to think about the best way forward with an issue, I usually check the fridge to see if the answer is there. Usually it is not, so I just eat something!”…
Here’s the word definition for the day:
Sublime (suh-blime): “Of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty to inspire great admiration or awe.” It can truly be said that yesterday’s dinner at the Newbold house was “sublime.”
I just started reading “The Good Lord Bird” by James McBride. It’s a historical novel set around the time of abolitionist John Brown and the raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859. The author has a gift for describing people, like the father of the novel’s main character:
“My Pa was a full-blooded Negro out of Osawatomie, in Kansas Territory, north of Fort Scott, near Lawrence. Pa was a barber by trade, though that never gived him full satisfaction. Preaching the Gospel was his main line…
…Pa ministered mostly to lowlifes, four-flushers, slaveholders, and drunks who came along the Kansas Trail. He weren’t a big man in size, but he dressed big. He favored a top hat, pants that drawed up around his ankles, high-collar shirt, and heeled boots. Most of his clothing was junk he found, or items he stole off dead white folks on the prairie killed off from dropsy or aired out on account of some dispute or other. His shirt had bullet holes in it the size of quarters. His hat was two sizes too small. His trousers come from two different-colored pairs sewn together in the middle where the arse met. His hair was nappy enough to strike a match on. Most women wouldn’t go near him, including my Ma, who closed her eyes in death bringing me to this life. She was said to be a gentle, high-yaller woman. “You Ma was the only woman in the world man enough to hear my holy thoughts,” Pa boasted, “for I’m a man of many parts.”
Whatever them parts was, they didn’t add up to much, for all full up and dressed to the nines, complete with boots and three-inch top hat, Pa only come out to ’bout four feet eight inchess tall, and quite a bit of that was air.”
Of John Brown, the author wrote”
“Whatever he believed, he believed. It didn’t matter to him whether it was really true or not. He just changed the truth till it fit him. He was a real white man.”
Here is the thought for the day:
“Oh! Gaze at Nature in all it’s beauty, and calmly accept the inevitable—love demands everything and rightly so. Thus it is for me with thee, as for thee with me.”
—Ludwig von Beethoven (from a note that my wife, Judy, sent to me while we were courting…she wrote: Beethoven has some beautiful thoughts that I wanted to share with you.”
Here’s to a great Monday and lots of love & good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, Mark, etc.)