dual personalities

July 27, 2023

Throwback Thursday

by chuckofish

Here is a vintage photo of my DP (on top) and me (middle, right) with our cousins at their house on Lake Damariscotta in Maine, circa 1964. I don’t know where my brother is–off fishing with Bunker? Our Uncle George is in the back, holding up the pyramid. We had super fun that summer as you can imagine.

Indeed, I am thinking of those cool Maine breezes as we bear up through a mid-summer heat wave in flyover country. Heat waves are nothing out of the ordinary here–despite what HC may say–but they are no fun. In the summer of 1936, for instance, St. Louis endured an unbroken 37-day stretch of 100-degree–plus temperatures. I remember one old lady from my flyover institute telling me how in the 1930s they would escape the heat of their un-airconditioned city apartment by sleeping in Forest Park! The whole family. It was a thing people did (and were allowed to do). As a child, she had great fun. Maybe not as much fun as a lake house in Maine, but fun.

Fun is what you make it after all. So keep a merry heart and be thankful for air-conditioning. Pray for the electric grid.

A merry heart does good, like medicine,
But a broken spirit dries the bones.

(Proverbs 17:22)

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July 25, 2023

“Unless the Lord builds the house,They labor in vain who build it”

by chuckofish

In July we celebrate love 😍 with several anniversaries. Besides my dear DP’s, we remember daughter #2 and DN…

and daughter #3 and the boy.

Daughter #3 and the boy are celebrating their 11th anniversary tomorrow night by going to the St. Louis City soccer game at the new Centene Stadium downtown. The twins are coming over to our house for a first-time-ever sleepover, so keep the OM and me in your prayers. Thankfully, daughter #1 and Mr. Smith will be supporting us in this endeavor. Lottie has already warned me that “You know, I get up very early.” I told her, “Well, you know, I get up pretty early too.” I think we’ll be okay.

Yesterday the boy brought the wee laddie to hang out at my house while Lottie had a play date with her friend Sadie. He put a new battery in the Power Wheels Raptor and gave it some added umph, but not as much as he had hoped.

The bud is not doing wheelies, although he did attempt a Toyko drift…

Enjoy your Wednesday. Rejoice that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

*Psalm 127:1

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July 25, 2023

How does it feel?

by chuckofish

Well, it’s the last week of July and the summer continues to rush by in a blur.

If you want to feel really old, I’ll remind you that today is the 58th anniversary of the day Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. He was 24 years old. Dylan was said to have “electrified one half of his audience, and electrocuted the other”. He didn’t return to the festival for 37 years.

Dylan took exception with the people who called him a traitor. He later said: “These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you’ve been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that. Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equatable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified. All those evil m-f-ckers can rot in hell.”

Today is also the birthday of the artist Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) who lived a long, productive and successful life. He was married once and had four children. He was a Quaker. During his career, he produced almost 900 pieces of art. 

He lived in New Hampshire where he belonged to the Cornish Art Colony…

His painting Daybreak became the most popular art print of the 20th century. Supposedly one in four U.S. households owned a print of the neoclassical landscape with two nymphs in the foreground.

We also toast Walter Brennan (1894-1974) on his birthday. Brennan played more than 230 film and television roles during a career that spanned nearly five decades. He won three Academy Awards for best supporting actor and deserved several more for movies like To Have and Have Not (1944), Red River 1948)…

and My Darling Clementine (1946) which I recently watched again. He is the definitive Old Man Clanton, playing against type, menacing and scary.

So join me in toasting these three great American artists. Put down your phone. Listen to some Bob. Look at some art. Watch an old movie. You’ll be glad you did.

5 Comments
July 24, 2023

“When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee”*

by chuckofish

I thought we were going to have a quiet weekend because the boy and his family were in Kansas City, but we had visitors Sunday night–my brother and his son, who passed through our flyover town on their way to Arizona where Foster is moving. Lots of excitement as you can imagine. Cousins…

…and oldsters…

Further excitement when our resident OT professor from Covenant Seminary gave the sermon on Sunday–all about the Assyrians coming down like a wolf on the fold, i.e. 2 Kings 19:35-37. My DP would have really enjoyed it. We sang “It Is Well With My Soul” and I missed the twins, because they would have loved the fact that they know it and would have sung with gusto.

And back in Maryland daughter #2 beat the heat with her little ones.

(And the OM enjoyed lots of quality time with Mr. Smith.)

A good weekend all around–and no storms!

*Lord Byron

4 Comments
July 21, 2023

Let me wander over yonder/Till I see the mountains rise*

by chuckofish

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the National Day of the Cowboy. Unfortunately we will not be in the Fort Worth Stockyards or Oklahoma City where all sorts of family fun is planned. But that won’t stop us from celebrating! We’ll watch cowboy movies all weekend!

I recently read that the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum acquired the Sam Peckinpah archive, so we will watch Junior Bonner (1972) in his honor. I like this movie and, unlike most of the Peckinpah oeuvre, it is not a showcase of unnecessary violence. Also it stars Steve McQueen.

So here’s to cowboys past and present! Toast freely.

I want to ride to the ridge where the West commences
And gaze at the moon till I lose my senses
And I can’t look at hobbles and I can’t stand fences
Don’t fence me in

(*Cole Porter)

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July 20, 2023

Living our best lives

by chuckofish

Have you heard the news? I (daughter #2) am now, in internet parlance, in my stay-at-home mom era. By the time I had returned to work in the spring, DN and I had decided that everyone would be happier if I stayed home with our girls. Neither Katie nor I were particularly fond of our previous daytime scenarios at work and school, and we thought Ida deserved the full year at home (at least) that her sister, a “pandemic baby,” got to experience. Add some loose financial number crunching and it’s clear where everyone belongs:

…the back room!

Sure, the logistics have been a bit of an adjustment, and we joke about the cost of “F & A” as our home becomes the full-time location of child-rearing. (I feel like I need a special seat for Ida in every single room.) Ida has also basically boycotted her nap schedule now that her sister is home to entertain her. But for the most part, these girls play so nicely and are mutually so enamored with each other.

Benny and Clown Bear are also obviously thrilled to have Katie at home. Here, she insists that “they are hungry” and need “real food” to eat with her.

I am grateful for DN’s modern workplace arrangement that allows him to work from home some days. Even a few minutes of help here and there make the world of difference. When he first returned to the office and we stayed home, I had not anticipated that Katie would be heartbroken, but of course she was — our typical home life had heretofore always seen everyone at home together.

Saturdays with Dad

Well, I told Katie that someone has to go to work to provide for our family. Her response was, “Ida should go to work.” (Ida never saw that betrayal coming.) Indeed, Katie says the darndest things at this age, and I feel very grateful that now I get to hear every last utterance!

6 Comments
July 19, 2023

Every moment of happiness

by chuckofish

It’s Wednesday, so let’s all just take a moment to be thankful:

O MY GOD,

Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects,
my heart admires, adores, loves thee,
for my little vessel is as full as it can be,
and I would pour out all that fullness before thee
in ceaseless flow.
When I think upon and converse with thee
ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up,
ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed,
ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart,
crowding into every moment of happiness.
I bless thee for the soul thou hast created,
for adorning it, sanctifying it,
though it is fixed in barren soil;
for the body thou hast given me,
for preserving its strength and vigour,
for providing senses to enjoy delights,
for the ease and freedom of my limbs,
for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding;
for thy royal bounty providing my daily support,
for a full table and overflowing cup,
for appetite, taste, sweetness,
for social joys of relatives and friends,
for ability to serve others,
for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities,
for a mind to care for my fellow-men,
for opportunities of spreading happiness around,
for loved ones in the joys of heaven,
for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly.
I love thee above the powers of language
to express,
for what thou art to thy creatures.

Increase my love, O my God, through time
and eternity.

(“Praise and Thanksgiving” from The Valley of Vision, the Puritan prayer book)

And that said, it seems appropriate to read this from Willa Cather’s My Antonia.

3 Comments
July 18, 2023

Meanwhile back at the ranch

by chuckofish

We have had more storms and more storms. What started out as a very dry spring, has turned into a very wet summer. Our Florida Room has flooded several times now, but hopefully we have that figured out. Fingers crossed. It has also been a particularly windy year all around. This is beginning to be a familiar sight:

(KMOV photo of damage in Ferguson, MO)

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah (Psalm 46: 1-3)

Meanwhile I am working on getting everything ready to send off to the printer for the next KHS Review. Life goes on between outbursts of bad weather.

This seems really obvious to me, but clearly it is not. “Reading doesn’t begin as an activity your child does by himself. It begins with fathers and mothers. It begins with us reading aloud. We increase our kid’s appetite by narrating books that they enjoy and understand. These books are not the books you would choose to read in your alone time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them together.”

I like stories like this about real people.

And seriously this video made me cry! I agree with the Bee: Thank you for being a man, sir!

So hang in there with me. Glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

4 Comments
July 17, 2023

Come weary saints

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? I redeemed a gift card from Mother’s Day and had an hour-long spa pedicure, which had me walking on air for quite some time. Wow.

We had a guest preacher in church and he preached on Daniel 6–the lion’s den! I love Daniel so I was pleased. We need reminders of heroes like Daniel to keep us on track. We also had interesting musical accompaniment to all our hymns–a harmonica. Not the usual for A Mighty Fortress is Our God, but not bad. The OM and I stayed for a luncheon with our “fold” after the service. They acknowledged his birthday (today) but refrained from singing Happy Birthday.

We celebrated the OM’s birthday later on Sunday when everyone came over for a barbecue and party. (Even Mr. Smith)

Good times…and presents!

We watched McClintock! (1963), one of my favorite movies extolling the Patriarchy. It is loosely based on The Taming of the Shrew. (And Maureen O’Hara is one helluva shrew.) It has a smart script which moves along at a brisk clip. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It has nothing good to say about bureaucrats, the government or college boys, but is very sympathetic to Native Americans and free enterprise.

Anyway, when you have had enough of our modern day BS, I recommend a good dose of John Wayne at his most John Wayne-ish. “I know, I know. I’m gonna use good judgement. I haven’t lost my temper in forty years, but pilgrim you caused a lot of trouble this morning might have got somebody killed. Somebody oughta belt you in the mouth but I won’t, I wont…the hell I won’t.“

In other news baby Ida got her first taste of solid food…

It was a big hit.

And ol’ Ricky Skaggs is nominated for several Dove Awards this year, including this song which is a favorite of mine…

…as well as this banger version of Go Tell It on the Mountain with Crowder (for a little Christmas in July):

Have a good week!

7 Comments
July 14, 2023

Happy Friday, once again.

by chuckofish

Hello, dear readers, and happy Friday, once again. I hope you all survived Prime Day and the subsequent onslaught of competitive sales.

It was a quiet week for me. Mr. Smith was released from his cone prison today. And has quite the mane of hair going on.

First order of business is a long bath. He really did all right and didn’t complain about the cone too much. He did get overly excited every time I’d reach for the painkillers though.

This is hilarious to me: Hollywood Actors Join Writers on Strike The Wall Street Journal says, “A prolonged strike involving writers and actors could mean that broadcast and cable networks won’t have fresh scripted TV episodes ready for the early fall, and that Hollywood’s pipeline of fresh shows and movies will thin.” OH DARN. The WGA has been on strike since May 2 and as someone who cut the cord years ago, I have not noticed. And lol that the last time both the WGA and SAG went on strike at the same time, Ronald Reagan was the president of the SAG!

I tell Mr. Smith all the time not to bite the hand that feeds him. He never learns. And apparently Hollywood doesn’t either.

3 Comments