Tab clearing

 

A "cup of brewed coffee" is typically listed as having 140mg of caffeine although it varies a great deal by strength and size of cup.

One of the things I brought along on the endless expedition to pick up furniture was a pack of caffeinated gum. While it didn't taste that great (caffeine is bitter), it has its place in the scheme of things.

I picked some up because one of the vloggers who posts videos about the Camino de Santiago frequently moans about the lack of availability of coffee in small villages before 8:00AM.

Ten kinds of women to avoid

Commenter Steve Sky posted a link to the Ten Kinds of Women to Avoid.

I wrote a post in response but then deleted the post when I realized the post I wrote was BS. I don't have the background to make any authoritative statements about the issue.

While I HAVE run into some of those kinds of women, I also ran into many women who I would consider exceptions to those characterizations. They might not be the majority, but easily a third of the women out there would buck the characterization that they accumulate body-count like stray tom-cats.

Back in the day, I divided women into two camps. One camp was looking for a fantasy who did not exist outside of television shows or the pages of romance novels. The other camp realized that nobody is perfect and the key to happiness is to find somebody whose flaws do not insult your values.

The "older" women were far more likely to have their heads screwed on straight regarding realistic expectations. Many of them had followed some passion through their early twenties (hiking, teaching, art, classifying species of lichens...whatever) and made a calm, rational choice that they needed one good man to spend the rest of their life with.

Made me feel good

I really wasn't trying to eves-drop, but I happened to overhear Handsome Hombre tell Mrs ERJ that I had been a great help in picking up the furniture and  "He is very strong!" 

You wanna make a guy feel great? Tell his wife he is a splendid specimen of MANhood. It is the equivalent of thanking the boss for something an underling did. It counts for extra, double-bonus points...'cause how else with the boss hear good stuff about you?

Christian Nationalism

One of the local churches is on a busy street and invests far more effort displaying the vapid slogan du jour than in evangelizing Christianity.

One of the recent banners read "Christian Nationalism is NOT Christian".

My response:

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!   -Fourth verse of The Star Spangled Banner (link to a performance on Youtube)

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
[originally …let us die to make men free]
While God is marching on.  -2nd, 3rd and 5th verses Battle Hymn of the Republic

I know when to steal from the best.