Perseverance

Perseverance

February's last week
Bright sunshine
Gentle breeze
Warmth flows across the frozen earth
Out of Season.

Teasin'.

The heart leaps! Spring is near!
Be not deceived
These latitudes are not relieved
Of winter's ice and cold
This soon.

A respite brief
Yet some relief
From long chill
Set in the bones.

We'll take it.

Then hunker down
'Twill soon be past
Prepare for next cold
Snowy blast.

We'll survive.

Young King Does Right #T

The Scripture lesson is in 2 Kings 22.  Josiah began his reign in Jerusalem at the age of eight.  We are told that he followed in the steps of David and did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, turning neither to the left nor to the right.

Presently we see the king when he was about 26 years of age order the repair of the temple.  A historical preview is here in order.  Solomon dedicated the Temple in 950 BCE.  We are studying Josiah in about 622 BCE.  A lot of time has passed between these two monarchs.  Everything built with human hands falls into disrepair and decay.  And so the temple through neglect and abuse from time to time had been repaired twice prior to Josiah's day.  About 800 BCE it was repaired by Joash (2 Chronicles 24:12) and also about 100 years prior to Josiah by Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29:12).  And Josiah now finds the building falling to staves, so to speak.

I found it interesting that when King Josiah ordered the money for the repairs conveyed to the workmen who would be responsible that he stated that an accounting was not necessary, "because they are honest in their dealings." (2 Kings 22:7)  The question lurking in my mind is this:  Are there today reliable people, honest in their dealings, in whom such complete trust might be placed?  As difficult as we may find it to believe, given human nature and the proclivity to avarice, apparently Josiah's trust was not misplaced.

The real thrust of the chapter is the finding of "the book" and the King's sorrow and agony over the wickedness of the people.  God told him that He would rain punishment and destruction on Jerusalem, but that mercifully He would let Josiah die before he saw this terrible thing because "Your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord." (v. 19)

Josiah died in battle around 601 BCE and fifteen years later the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.

Notes on the narrative.
1.  The chronology is from the website of The Temple Institute, Jerusalem, Israel.
2.  Herod's Second Temple, completed in 64 CE, was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world.  It was destroyed by Titus's Roman forces in 70 CE.
3.  It is a goal of devout Jews to rebuild the Temple yet again.

God who made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Acts 17:24

February 14 Again

Dear JoAnn,

I 💗 U 😎 & 🌜,  U R my 😎, 🌜, & ✨,   🌭! I 💗 U > 🍦 & 🥓.  Ur my 💟!!!!!

David

It's Off to Church We Go!

Vanilla and Beloved Beautiful Better Half are on their way to morning worship service.

You didn't think we were Lois and Clark, did you?

Happy Anniversary, Darlin'

She gave this all up for me and nineteen years ago today we met at the altar and each of us said "I do."

To those who hoped she would be back at work by June that year, "Hah!"  We are starting our twentieth year today and we are looking back with thanksgiving, and otherwise we are looking forward to our next adventure.

Have we had some stuff?  Who hasn't had?

JoAnn recently commented on a facebook meme that no one had ever written to her a list of reasons why he loves her.  Really?  I told her I could not do that because it would require writing a definition of her.  That's it!  I love you, JoAnn, because you are you.

Major League Ball in the Springs #T

 I finally went to sleep sometime after four o'clock this morning.  Meanwhile my poor brain somewhat addled by the collywobbles that have jumped on me, reflected on earlier life experiences and this tidbit passed through my consciousness.

Awake enough now to think about the memory, I thought to share an item from my teen years.  In 1947 Colorado Springs got its second radio station when KRDO went on air in competition with KVOR.  As a Western Union messenger I had access to both of these facilities as required by my employer and on behalf of the business operations of the radio stations.  KVOR studios were on the top floor of the Exchange National Bank Building on the southwest corner of Tejon and Pikes Peak, one-half block east of the WU office.  KRDO established its studios in the Alta Vista Hotel on Cascade Avenue, a bit more than a block and one-half from the office and to the west and north.

(BBBH tells me I always go on and on with too much information before I get to my story.  She may be right.)

The powers that be at the new radio station thought it an interesting idea to offer live broadcasts of certain major league baseball games.  No, they did not hire reporters to go to remote locations, hooking up by telephone or whatever magical method that would be required to transmit the voice cross-country.  Here's how it worked.  Some city slicker in the venue where the game was being played would transmit a telegram to KRDO.  Jerry, the teletype operator, would tape the message to a telegram blank as it came in, hand it to Dave, the dispatcher, who in turn handed it to me.  I mounted the bicycle, pedaled to the Alta Vista, ran up the stairs and breathlessly handed the game report to the clerk on duty.

A typical message might read

INN 5, 0-0 SMITH PITCH; BARNES KO, NEEDLER 1, WOLF 9-4-3.

Upon finishing his account of the fourth inning, and of course the commercial break, the reporter would take this message, we would hear crowd noises in the background, and "It's the fifth inning, still tied at naught.  Smith takes the mound and Barnes comes up to bat for the Dodgers.  Smith is in the windup; ball one! (Of course we hear appropriate game noises.)  Here's the pitch - -  called strike on the inside corner!  Barnes spits on his hands, takes a new grip on the bat.  He takes a ball, low and inside."  (A certain amount of chatter about Barnes batting record)  "And Smith delivers! Strike two called.  Now Smith shakes off the catcher's sign.  --  Shakes it off again.  There it is now, Smith is ready to deliver.  Barnes swings and misses!  One out, and Needler is coming to bat"

We hear the crack of the bat as the man goes on with his detailed account of Wolf hitting the second pitch between the second baseman and the right fielder (all have names, of course) fields the ball, throws to second, out, relayed to first, doubled them!  Commercial break and the sixth inning message is already in the hands of the reader.

And each inning is so relayed from the WU office on Pikes Peak Avenue to the studio on Cascade Avenue and the reporter makes up his detailed account of a game he never sees and, I suppose, the listeners imagined that they had been taken to the ballgame!  They were taken, no doubt.

More for Kenneth

During our conversation Saturday I told Kenny I had found two or three Kodachrome slides crumpled in the bottom of a box.  One was of Ann, which I posted yesterday.  He said, "Do you still have all those slides?'  I told him I did. He said, "We used to have so much fun setting the projector on your bed and showing the pictures on the wall."

I told him that if I could locate the pictures I might share some of them here.  Then this happened.

 One of my favorite snapshots of Frieda, my children's mother.
On Queen Anne Hill, Seattle, Washington, 1956.

 The kid's grandfather, D.W. Lacy.  Backyard picnic,
Wilkinson, Indiana 1960

 Their grandmother, Vera Morrell Lacy

 Our first-born, Ann Marie

Seattle

 Ivanelle Beth

Wilkinson

 Delbert Wendell

Lebanon

 Lebanon, Indiana c. 1963

 Grandmother Mary Matilda Palmer Morrell.
She was 83 when she visited us in Lebanon.

Ann and Ivy with cousins Coleen and Joanne 

and their Aunt Mildred Morrell Stone.  Lebanon, 1963.

 Little backyard mechanic, Converse, Indiana, ca. 1965

 Mom with her three chicks. The fourth still a couple of years in the future.

 Dad and Mom in Converse.

 Grandpa and Grandma Lacy at their home on Maish Road,
Frankfort, Indiana  ca. 1972.

With Grandpa in Frankfort

 There's Kenny!  His brother is at the wheel.

 No comment.  From me, anyway.

 The "lineup" is against the wall of the Gateway Arch ca.1972.

Names, Kenny.  People and pets.

In front of the chicken house in which we lived in Portland, Oregon, 1968.

Kenneth is nine months and walking.

Ann Marie

I found a crumpled Kodachrome slide in the bottom of an old box.  Flattened it best I could, laid it on the light screen and took a snapshot.  Here is the result.  My eldest child beside her grandfather's nearly new 1956 Ford.  Muncie, Indiana, clearly a very long time ago.