Omni Sancti

 

1 Who are these like stars appearing,
These before God's throne who stand?
Each a golden crown is wearing;
Who are all this glorious band?
Alleluia! hark, they sing,
Praising loud their heavenly King.

2 Who are these of dazzling brightness,
These in God's own truth arrayed,
Clad in robes of purest whiteness,
Robes whose lustre ne'er shall fade,
Ne'er be touched by time's rude hand?
Whence come all this glorious band?

3 These are they who have contended
For their Saviour's honor long,
Wrestling on till life was ended,
Following not the sinful throng;
These, who well the fight sustained,
Triumph through the Lamb have gained.

Flight

Anacortes, Wash.

Happenstances

The weather has been holding up astonishingly.  Today it was bright, brisk and breezy.  Since the dread gloom of daylight "saving" time is still a week away, it was also sunny into the late afternoon. (As it should be.)  So, i decided to pick up a roll of developed film and then take Nicki for a chuck n' swim.

He had already chewed his floating rubber balls, so on the way down i stopped off to buy another pair for 6.99.  Chuck-It balls don't come cheap. 

Oh goody! New Bals!!  <cab scamper><cap scamper>

As i got into the Jeep, Nicki immediately went for the balls.  You could see in his eyes the delight for new fun things. 

Nah... Nicki. Wait. 

If i gave him the balls now, they'd be punctured by the time we got to the bay.  At waters edge he's pretty decent about it.  He chomps hard on the ball when he retrieves it in the water, but drops it pretty readily when he comes to shore.  The ball survives.  On the back seat of the car, however, he will simply gnaw it to shreds. 

I gave him one his hard rubber non-destructible lacrosse land-bals.  He wasn't interested.  He wanted to gnaw the new ones. 

This was interesting.  As a spherical bouncy thing, one ball is as good as the next.  Nicki loves spherical bouncy things, but he draws a distinction between new ones and old ones.  New bals are more exciting. 

What is it about newness that increases interest and excitement -- that makes for "better"?

I think it is the concept of happenstance.  A ball is a good fun thing and, with the appearance of a new one, a good fun thing has reoccurred.  The happenstance makes for happiness.  This i think is the rudiment of what we humans call good fortune or blessing.

After picking up my film we headed toward the bay.  Nicki knows his locations and as i drove straight, instead of turning left, he started to paw my shoulder and whine and squeal.  As we got nearer he got closer to just plain bonkers and when we got there he bounded out the door and rushed toward the water.

I got the stuff together as quickly as i could and followed him over the dead tree trunks that mark out the beach.  He was already prance-hopping by waters edge and so as not to tease him any longer i hurried up and chucked the ball without hesitation or paying attention to what my eye actually told me about the "lay of the water."  

Dumb move. 

Breezy meant that the water was being wind-blown into little choppy waves moving away from shore.  I saw the where the ball landed and Nicki also got the general direction.  But the sun was in our eyes and as he got closer, the reflections and shadows off the waves hid the ball from his view. 

For a while i could still see where the ball was -- off to the right just a few yards further from where Nicki was.  But Nicki couldn't see it and paddled left... and further left.

On shore i walked to the right and called to him.  He saw me and turned around but then started paddling back to shore.  No! No!  "Gw'on, Nick." "Gw'on" and i made a direction motion with my arm.

Nicki knows that Gw'on means go ahead, and i think he's beginning to get what pointing is about.  So he started swimming out again but couldn't find the ball.  By this time neither could i and finding the ball became less a concern than Nicki's safety.

He of course was determined but i kept on eye on him and on how far out he was going as he swam around in circles in the Spirit of Labrador looking to retrieve the ball. 

It was a earlier and brighter when we were chucking

Eventually i called him back and he returned to shore, obviously disappointed.  I was curious as to where the ball might have been blown to and estimating from the direction of the waves, i thought it might have got diagonally to the rocks to the left of the U-shaped beach.   Nicki and i bounded the boulders along one side of the U until I got to a place to where the ball might have floated. 

Indian style i shaded my eyes and scanned for the ball to no avail.  As I looked down, i noticed Nicki staring expectantly up at me, waiting for me to give the whoop of joy.  He knows that i am looking and that having failed himself it is up to me to retrieve the day.

Not.

Sorry, Nicki.  No bal. 

An old geezer with a handsome cat, whom he called his baby, was watching us from his truck.  He smiled and said he couldn't see the ball either even with his binoculars.

There was no point loosing another new ball in these waters.  So i went back to Jeep where i found an old but intact tennis ball.  We went back to the beach, and this time i was careful to chuck the ball into a place to the right short of where the wind was kicking up the waves.

Needless to say, the tennis ball did not last long, but Nicki got maybe 10 swim n' fetches out of it.

Getting back to "truck," i fetched one of the hard rubber land-balls, which i chucked down the empty street, giving Nicki a several good hard sprints, before jumping into the Jeep and heading home.

Geronto Guilt

In the first two weeks of this month, i began to cut out from gym class -- in part on account of deadlines and in part on account of a low grade cold that was going around.  I made up the missed sessions but doubling up on the next work out.  Back at the gym, ran into one of the regulars.  "Where ya' bin..." yadda, yadda.  "Well i was missing the past two weeks but did make-ups."  "Ah...," he smiled, "working off guilt, huh?"

And that's about the sum of it too.  The body doesn't work that way; it is not a double entry ledger.  Really.  What the body wants is consistency.  Low grade consistency is actually happier for the body than a double dose make up that supposedly puts you over the top.   I mean duh.... 

Anyways... back to consistency (i hope).  

Dog in Mist

Squalicum Hill, Wash. (10/13)

I'm not practiced in black/white.   There's too much of a blow-out on the top centre.   But anyways...

Jazzing It Up North

Went to a Boogie Woogie performance at First United Church by my former neighbour, Dominik, who is an amazing pianist and has put together a bass, drums and vocalist ensemble.

As i walked into the narthex of the non-descript, ultra-functionalist 1950's building, my eye caught an elaborate parchment on the wall off to my left

FOR  KING  &  COUNTRY

listing the names of the fallen between illuminations of roses, thistles, and shamrocks entwined with the crosses of George, Andrew and Patrick.  It was not a one of those cheapy pre-printed jobs but a real, genuine illumination done by hand ... and rather well done at that. It was a bright contrast with the beyond banal boredom of the rest of the building...

...and with the pathetic excuse of a baptismal fount which was pushed into a shallow recess in the wall of the south (right) transept on which was painted the most god awful image of Jesus, who rather looked like Prime Minister Harper in a bathrobe holding an infant rag doll. 

I thought it was an incongruous venue for a performance which began with Aint Misbehavin' ... but the music (sample) was good.

The crossing north took forever because of all the Walmartians and Costcoans returning home from shopping expeditions. I guess the allure of cheap trinkets in a third world country is irresistible.  The idiots that really get to me (mostly Chinese) are the ones that "tank up" on cheap gas ... and by tank i mean three or four five gallon drums under the hatch and bundles of Pampers. 

Contrary to myth, the U.S. border guards are no less friendly than the Canadians.  The difference is more in body language than anything else, the Canadians being more relaxed.  I think the relaxation has something to do with the country not being protected by layers of scanning barriers.  Entering the USA has all the friendly allure of passing security perimeters to Deep Space Nine.  But the personnel are usually friendly.  One customs agent used to hand out treats for doggies.  :)

There is of course always the occasional grouch, like the one Canadian who got mad at me for not declaring "dog food" separately from "groceries."  But otherwise what set either group off are loose ends.  They are much happier when everything is simple and to the point.  As in,

"Anything to declare"

"No"

"Where are you coming from?"

[do not say: "that's my business, Jack."]

"From a concert at White Rock"

"Oh? Ukulele Concert?"

"No, Boogie Woogie."

"Ah..."

Who was giving a ukulele concert i wonder.

Yet Another Victim (Mexico) of Obambi's Promised "Transparency"

Der Spiegel :  Obama's "New Transparency" revealed to include spying on Peña Nieto's private email and all high-level intra government twitting..... 


Ja, ja, ja....   pero esto no es nada desconocido,

"Las colonias americanas han quedado independientes... este es mi dolor y recelo.  Esta República Federativa ha nacido, digámoslo asi, pigmea...  Mañana será gigante... y después un coloso iresistible ... y no pensará más que en su engrandecimiento."  Dictamen al Rey...etc. (1783).

Antes de poseer, la penetración; y después, igual.  Lo que me sorprende es que los caciques nacionales se engañaron en el pensamiento de que esto no pasaba.  Han de tener culos de fiero.