Alas, the bard George Michael had one of his famous refrains running through my head today during our Liturgy of the Word: "... I gotta have faith, faith, faith. I gotta have faith, faith, faith." Particularly in today's Gospel, in what our priest referred to as a "Markian sandwich," we heard two stories about people of faith seeking healing from Jesus. 

In one, an unnamed woman reaches out to touch His cloak and is healed of the hemorrhages that afflicted her for twelve years. After she admits to touching His clothes, Jesus says, "Daughter, your faith has saved you." In the story that "sandwiched" the woman's story, a synagogue official named Jairus asks Jesus to come to his house to heal his twelve year old daughter. Jesus awakes the girl from death after telling Jairus "Do not be afraid; just have faith."

Jesus heals without hesitation. He did not ask either of them to perform a specific ritual first, nor to send a sacrifice to the Temple. He did not tell them that they were unworthy of such healing or that they had to perform some sort of service for Him in repayment. In fact, for Jairus, He specifically tells him (and everyone else) not to talk about what had happened. For Jesus, the healing was enough; their faith was enough.

I struggle with myself, unworthily comparing my faith to the perceived faith of others. It's a dangerous mindset to have; in fact, it's one that Jesus specifically warns against in His teachings. This Gospel of Mark does not compare the faiths displayed by the woman and Jairus. It doesn't even mention the faith of Jairus' daughter. There's not a particular level of faith that is needed to deserve Jesus' attention. 

​You just ... gotta have faith, faith, faith.

We spent a good portion of our day talking with Dale from Renewal by Anderson about replacing the windows in our house. In particular, there were four windows in particular that I want replaced--each in one of the bedrooms where people either are or will be staying. There were four more that Janelle was also interested in getting replaced--also in bedrooms (well, one is technically in the master bathroom).

It turns out that we have a LOT of windows (which I already knew) and that replacing them is tremendously expensive (buying a nice, large RV -- a towable one, not a motorhome). In our lower level, we have six windows (not counting windows in doors or in our arctic entryway. In our upper level, we have sixteen windows (well, the bay window counts as four)! That's a lot of light, but also a lot of heat loss--especially since many of the seals no longer hold. We knew, when we bought the house, that many of the windows (nearly all) were in need of replacement--it's been over eight years, and the situation has deteriorated a bit from then.

Unfortunately, mini-house payments are not really in our budget at the moment. The eight windows (and an exterior door) that we are more eager to replace come to about the price of an SUV--which we can handle. Our plan is to do what we can now and work on the rest at some point in the future--which I will hopefully be able to see more clearly.

I have plenty of wood that I'm willing to give for free to a good home. The spruce beetle blight is still going strong in our yard. Nearly all of our older spruce trees are dead from it. Despite cutting down over two hundred trees these past couple of years, I still have dozens upon dozens that still need to come down. Meanwhile, just cleaning up one of these felled trees is exhausting work.

Today, Rowen and I finished taking care of two trees that I felled a year and a half ago. Their log sections (as well as some others that I've taken apart recently) are ready for anyone who wants to pick them up. Meanwhile there are still many, many downed trees on my property that still need to be trimmed and cut up--more than I will be able to get to this year too.

I recently made the acquaintance of our backyard neighbor while he was using his new excavator to push down the beetle kill in his yard. He offered to let me borrow it, and I plan on doing so once I have a son-in-law up here (again) who knows how to operate it. This would make it so we could at least knock down the rest of the beetle kill without putting anyone at nearly as much of a risk (as well as keeping the neighborhood's power intact). Of course, it also means that there will be that much more that needs to be cleaned up too.

We used to have such a nice tree line around our house which gave us a great deal more seclusion. Now we can see all of our surrounding neighbors. The only encouragement is that we have plenty of younger trees that look to be ready to take their place--in a decade or two.

These are our choices? One of these two will be President ... again?

President Biden shambled onto stage and wheezed most of his answers. Trump was pumped full of energy, but couldn't find a coherent sentence, while nearly every word out of his mouth was a falsehood. I knew that I couldn't stomach all of it, so I only tuned in a few times to get a sense of the "action" beyond the words. Each time was painful, especially when Trump spoke.

For example, when asked if he would take any action as President to slow the climate crisis, Trump first talked about inflation and immigration. When redirected to the question, Trump talked about how Biden has lost the Black vote and then talked about immigration. When asked a third time if he would take any action as President to slow the climate crisis, Trump said (and this is my personal transcription): "So I want absolutely immaculate, clean water. And I want absolutely clean air. And we had it. We had H2O. We had the best numbers ever. And we did ... we were using all forms of energy--all forms--everything. And yet during my four years I had the best environmental numbers ever. And my top environmental people gave me that statistic just before I walked on the stage actually."

In his one minute rebuttal, Biden called Trump out on the obvious falsehoods as well as refuted Trump's claim that Black Americans were now worse off than they were under Trump. However, he should have pointed out just how inane all of the answers that Trump gave were. Trump wasn't able to provide a single coherent line of thought, let alone a single true statistic at any point during the question. Meanwhile, Biden's raspy response was not filling me with any kind of confidence.

Apparently, the entire debate went that way. According to multiple sources that I have consulted, President Biden seemed tired, hoarse, and out of breath, but he provided specific information to back up his claims with few stumblings or exaggerations. Trump was certainly more energetic, but like a kid on a sugar rush, he had almost no intelligibility to his answers. It seemed that nearly every question was answered by Trump making absurd, let alone false, claims about a completely separate topic, usually returning to talk about inflation or immigration when they held no relevance to the question he was asked or to the response given by President Biden.

This debate will likely change few people's minds. Those who have seen Trump as a heroic figure fighting against the system have managed to blank out his rambling rants, policies based on corruption, and love for totalitarian rulers for the past decade. Meanwhile, the rest of us are bound to a doddering Biden for the sake of saving our democracy from a raving egomaniac.

Perhaps these are the candidates that our nation deserves, but they're certainly not the ones that we need. 

There's only one movie coming out this year that I'm tremendously excited to see, and no, it's not Red One--although that might be interesting. ... What? It's NOT about the leader of Luke Skywalker's group that attacked the Death Star? Never mind, not interested. ... Wait, what?! Who's playing Santa Claus?! Okay, I'm back in, but it's still nothing compared to my excitement regarding the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine movie!

Now, it seems like there is a massive back-catalogue of movies to watch to catch all of the references in this upcoming movie. Basically, every Marvel title (going all the way back to Blade) is up for grabs. However, I'm most interested in rewatching the films that include (albeit briefly in one case) our titular characters played by the amazing Ryan Reynolds and even more stupendous Hugh Jackman. Thus, my current plan is to watch 10 of the 13 Fox X-Men films during the week that leads up to the Deadpool & Wolverine release on July 26 (one month from today). 

My tentative plan is as follows:
July 22:     
10:00 AM - 11:42 AM    X-Men (1h 42m)
11:45 AM - 1:59 PM         X2: X-Men United (2h 14m)
2:05 PM - 3:49 PM          X-Men: The Last Stand (1h 44m) 
July 23:     
10:00 AM - 11:47AM     X-Men Origins: Wolverine (1h 47m)
11:50 AM - 2:01 PM         X-Men: First Class (2h 11m)
2:05 PM - 4:17 PM         The Wolverine (2h 12m)

July 24:     
12:00 PM - 2:12 PM         X-Men: Days of Future Past (2h 12m)
2:15 PM - 4:03 PM         Deadpool (1h 48m)

July 25:     
12:00 PM - 2:17 PM         Logan (2h 17m)
2:20 PM - 4:34 PM         Deadpool 2: Super Duper Cut (2h 14m)

My son-in-law, Peter, is visiting us as part of a whirlwind trip as part of his bid to get employed up here. As he had today free (intentionally), we toured the house, discussing what sort of changes would need to be made before they move up (and in), soon afterwards, in the near future after, and possibilities beyond that. Without a doubt, there is a lot that we need to get done in the next five weeks before they come up, as well as a great deal that we need to accomplish after they arrive. 

One issue is storage. Our house does not have a great deal of storage space without infringing on living spaces. A good deal of our stuff will need to be moved into some sort of storage until they buy or build their own place, or we make some sort of additions. Likely, our vehicle space in our garage will end up being used (if only temporarily), but we decided to tap some of the potential of the attic space above our garage. 

With that in mind, we picked up the lumber necessary for Peter to put in a solid floor over a good sized area. He spent most of the day working on that with Rowen providing backup. I put together another shelving unit for the garage itself with Connor's help. We also figured out how to better use some of the shelving that we already have.

There is still a great deal that needs to be done. In the end, it would be nice to find solutions that allow us to still park our vehicles in the garage without having to rent storage space from someone else. I think that it will work out, but it is going to take a bit of adjustment.

In today's Gospel, the Jesus commands the wind and sea while He and His disciples cross turbulent waters. Our priest suggested in his homily that there were three things that we should follow this passage in our daily lives. The first is that we should leave the crowd. The truth is that what is popular is not always what is right. The second is that we should take Jesus with us "just as He [is]." This means not trying to make Jesus into someone that He is not, but to follow His teachings no matter how difficult they might seem to be.

I don't know the third. I was entirely zoned out by that point. My mind was too amused with some of the ironies I was considering at the moment. There's a chance that I might have melded two together: taking Jesus with us and taking Jesus as He is. That would leave all three ideas just from the single verse of Mark 4:36. Thinking back, that seems the most likely. Having come to this conclusion, I should probably delete the error and this mental debate and start again, but I find this thought process interest on its own.

People witnessed the teachings and actions of Jesus and passed them on, eventually writing them down decades after the fact. I am writing this account the same day as I personally witnessed the homily, but have already caused myself some confusion over the details. Certainly, I'm not trying to compare my blog with text from the Bible, but does not the same Holy Spirit breathe into me as the men who originally scribed events to which they had not witnessed? Hmm, I suppose I am making a comparison. Perhaps this is why this account from Mark seems so similar to Matthew's account of Jesus walking on water to His disciples on stormy seas. It's not that either account is false, but that they included different details. 

This seems to have gone off track--away from the crowds, as it were. I believe that I've taken Jesus with me on this word journey. Hopefully, He accepts me as I am, too.

I have a fan blowing directly on me as I write this. We've had temperatures in the <gasp> seventies these past couple of days. Our upstairs rooms, in particular, like to trap in the heat, especially when the sun is out as it has been. The lows still drop into the high forties, so we shouldn't just keep the windows open through the night--although, we sometimes do that too.

With the warm temperatures, we even opened up the window in our master bedroom. To fully air it out, we left the door open. Our cats enjoyed the new areas suddenly open for their exploration. Normally, they have to find a way to sneak in like they're in a Mission Impossible movie, so I think that they reveled in today's unexpected freedom.

For me, I found myself moving significantly slower than normal.  Granted a good deal of that is probably because I'm quite sore from restarting my exercises yesterday and today. To be clear, I'm not saying that I want it to be cooler--I have nothing against people who like the warmer weather getting their chance to <ahem> play in the sun. I'm just saying that I need to make adjustments so that I can stay comfortable.

Certainly, I'm happier with this weather than the 90s that I left behind in Misery ... er ... Missouri. 

I started up my exercise routine this morning after a week and a half of being away from it. It seemed to go better than I expected as I was not terribly drained by the time I was done. We will see how sore I am the next couple of days.

Most of my day was spent continuing to read responses for the AP World exam. I am definitely not as focused or productive while working from home. I also tend to snack entirely too much--more so than at the Reading even. I certainly consumed significantly more calories during the day than I burned with my level of activity (including the morning exercise).

It is likely that there will still be responses to read for the next couple of days, but this was the end for me. With Peter coming up for a couple of days starting this Sunday, we have a number of things that need to be done before he comes up, not to mention when he gets here. For that matter, we're only a little over six weeks away before Katrina and her children will have completed their portion of the move up here. It is a significant understatement to say that we have plenty to do before then.

I still have some end of Reading surveys and minor tasks to complete too, but for the most part, the 2024 Reading is over for me.

As a friend of mine posted earlier, today was certainly a long day. ... You know ... because it was the solstice ... the longest ... 

I spent a good portion of it scoring essays from home. In fact, I'm only writing this post at this moment because ONE (our online scoring system) kicked me off at 7:59 (11:59 Eastern) while I was in the middle of scoring an essay. I needed to take a minute (literally) before I could log back on. The rumor is that the powers above believe that we will need to score through Sunday to finish the remaining exams. For me, I only have the time today and tomorrow, and even then, I'm borrowing time from other projects that I should work on this summer. However, earning extra funds at this time is also a good use of my days.

I had one other noteworthy incident today: I may have mooned a group of strangers. I had a dentist appointment this morning and had to borrow Mera (Trevor's Toyota Prius) to get there. I heard an odd sound as I got into the car, but could not figure out what it was or where it came from. I went through my appointment without incident and made my next appointment at the reception desk with my back to the waiting room.

When I got back into Mera, I heard the sound again. This time, it seemed to come from the driver's seat. I pressed around, but could not recreate the sound. I got out of the car to look, but didn't see anything. When I sat down again, I heard the sound again, and this time, I could feel the open air hit the back of my leg. My shorts had torn from my waist to their bottom seam, exposing my underwear on my left cheek.

Clearly, there had been at least a bit of a tear the entire time I was in the dentist's office. I have no idea how noticeable that tear might have been or if anyone happened to see it. Suffice it to say, I will not be wearing those shorts again.

Who would have thought that a full moon would fall on the solstice? It wasn't supposed to be until tomorrow.

In the past, I've already written about the establishment of Juneteenth as a national holiday and about the (more controversial) Second Civil War and how the racists won it, so I will not belabor those ideas now (no matter how relevant they might be). However, I've still linked them if you are interested in reading (or rereading) them.

Instead, I found myself deeply grateful to be home today. Even more, I found myself filled with an overwhelming feeling of being in the right place. I truly love my home and where it is situated. I tried expressing that to multiple people while I was in Kansas City, but I never seemed to be able to fully express it.

I spent much of the day mowing and using my new weed-whip. The lawn is shaping up quite nicely. I'm particularly impressed with how well it has grown back over the area where our septic system and leach field were replaced several years ago. As I was admiring my lawncare [i.e. catching my breath], I realized that one of the problems I had in expressing my enthusiasm for my home and yard was that I couldn't find recent pictures of it. Thus, once most of my lawn maintenance was done, I decided to take some pictures to share with all of you. They don't fully capture the beauty, nor my feelings, but they might help get my idea across.

I awoke at about 2:20 AM in the hopes of catching the 3 AM bus to the airport. I didn't have to worry about waking my roommate as he had flown home yesterday (and had to be up today to run summer school). I was determined to close the 9 hours of layover in Seattle that were scheduled for my flights today, but I was not certain how long the process would take. It was also a particularly long line through security.

I was placed on standby for a flight that shortened my layover to only two hours and happened to be the same flight as one of my new friends from this Reading. I presented myself at the gate and told the attendant my name and that I was on standby. She said that she had quite a "Tetris problem" to solve and asked for my name again which I provided. She was clearly getting quite frustrated with what she was was seeing on her screen, and she told me that it was quite likely that there was not a spot available on the flight. She said that there was a chance, but it depended on whether the passenger she was about to page was there or not, so I was a bit surprised when she then paged "Would Paul Marks please report to Gate 15."

She still has the microphone in her hand when I waved and said, "I'm already here. I'm Paul Marks." I watched as the dots connected and she laughed and admitted that it had been a rough morning. Thus, I managed to get on one of the last seats on the plane--in a window seat--in the same row as my friend. I would see later that one other seat would be filled by another standby flier and that at least one seat was empty when we took off, but I still felt amazingly blessed.

I watched Wonka for my in-flight movie and enjoyed it more than I thought that I would. It's not a great movie, but it's quite entertaining with excellent performances by an astounding list of famous actors. The story does make me wonder why Wonka seems to be all alone (aside from Oompa Loompas) by the time of the events from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Because of my new flight arrangement, Connor was the only one available to pick me up from the airport. Unfortunately, as we were trying to leave, a truck backed into Tifa (my Kia Sportage). The other driver was clearly at fault and quite apologetic. Oddly the damage was much more noticeable to his truck than it was to Tifa--who sustained some scratches and slight gouges on one panel and her bumper as well as a dent to the rear hatch. None of it impedes any of her operations, so I count ourselves quite fortunate.

I still haven't decided if I'm going to do any of the online grading (starting on Thursday). There's a number of projects that still need work around here. At least one of them will have to be the lawn which has been growing like ... well, like weeds. 

I was given a post-it note with my totals (minus validation essays) from the past week at the beginning of the day today. I had thought that I had been holding steady since our third day (Day 4), but it turns out that I increased my pace significantly each day. I think that I was on target to do so today as well, but we ran out of responses for from our question to grade and spent a significant portion of the time after the final break training on a new question which we will be able to grade in a couple of days from now after we get home. I’m not sure if I’m going to take them up on the offer or not. 

The time here seems to be over so fast this year. It was nice to spend time with old friends, and I also made some new ones. I’ve debated about continuing my attendance at these Readings, but I currently plan on doing so for at least a couple more years. I’ve been told that there’s a good chance that they will ask me to be a table leader next year, but it might be for online Readers (although, I would still attend the Reading physically). We will have to see. 

There was something else that I was going to write about, but it’s slipped my mind. I’d stay up to try and remember it, but I have to get up in a few hours, so I’m headed to bed. My next post will hopefully be written from my home computer rather than my phone.