Journal Entries
Reading the bible online
Posted Oct 7, 2020
I'm putting Crepuscular Meadows aside until November. I've run out of new ideas anyway. My November project will be a murder mystery set there.
For now, I'm reading the King James version of the Bible online. it's free. I like the elegance of the words. I've read two books of the Bible as "literature," but not the whole thing.
It's the most significant book that I haven't read cover to cover. If David had lived in our times, his psalms would surely have won him the Nobel Prize.
Some of the reasoning is fascinating, almost funny, though I fear laughing. Would a bolt of lightning hit me?
Today I read books 1-31 of Genesis.
Noah is a strange case. Wouldn't the waters have killed all the vegetation? If so, why did Noah take no plants?
Or did plants survive on the tops of the mountains?
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Latest reply: Oct 7, 2020
The case for planting trees as the ultimate plan for beautifying a community
Posted Oct 1, 2020
In Spotlight 113 (A88000913 ) I put a plan for tree-planting in the mouth of Gaia Philpin, who is what some would call a "tree-hugger."
You may wish to read her plan, as it touches on community pride and appreciation for nature in any place on the planet -- except, as Willem has noted, in places like South Africa where the trees that get planted are just not appropriate for the places they are planted.
I confess to being besotted with trees, except for the ones that have huge branches which might fall on me or on my house 
.
I have planted dozens of trees, including a few in my own yard. I would love it if most of them were around long after I am gone, but I have no control over that. All I can do is make the effort and hope for the best.
In any event, squirrels have planted acorns in places where I wish they hadn't. One oak grows under my porch, and I can't get rid of it 
I have seen just how touch oaks can be. I pity the person who lets them grow without considering the consequences. Yes, the trailer park I live in has a professional tree guy, who will make sure things go well.
I'm proud to have planted dwarf Albert spruces (or, a fellow volunteer did the actual planting, but I made the decision as to whether they were bought, and where they should go). I also planted a couple of eastern redcedars in my back yard. One survived, the other did not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_virginiana
I may not be alive to see how the surviving one turns out. oh, well.
I've planted red maples, silver maples, and pin oaks along the banks of the Charles River, which forms the boundary of the park. We were required to plant trees to replace some that were taken down. Isn't bureaucracy wonderful?
Anyway, if I have an alter ego in the Crepuscular Meadows saga, it is Gaia Philpin, the tree-hugger and tree-whisperer. Bless her!
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Latest reply: Oct 1, 2020
present/past tenses for verbs ending in "-ead'
Posted Oct 1, 2020
My great uncle used to say "English is a funny language." No one disagreed with him.
Here are some verbs that, in their present tense, end in '-ead":
bead
head
knead
plead
lead
read
For the fist four, you form the pats tense by adding "-ed."
(beaded, headed, kneaded, and pleaded, though for pleaded "pled" is also allowed)
For "lead," you get "led" in the past tense.
For "read, you get "read" in the past tense.
I believe that etymology is the term for the study of the way these forms have come to us.
Would anyone like to comment?
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Latest reply: Oct 1, 2020
Stories using palindromes
Posted Sep 3, 2020
A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same backwards or forwards.
here's a story using them:
Ava was a ewe. Her boyfriend, Otto, was a ram. Sometimes she was chased by Ubu, the farm's dog. Ada, the hen, would sing a clucking song to her.
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Latest reply: Sep 3, 2020
That ad for Amazon prime made me chuckle
Posted Aug 7, 2020
My trailer is set back from the road, and partly hidden by a large Arborvitae tree, and yet the Amazon prime delivery people have decided that when they can't figure out which trailer to deliver a package to, I'm the most logical person to ask.
A resident whose front door is on the next street down shares her back yard with me. Sometimes she orders breakfast, lunch, and dinner from Whole Foods three miles away (Amazon owns Whole Foods). So Amazon Prime puts the packages on my porch. They haven't done this recently, though, so maybe they finally figured out where the rightful recipient lives.
As the Secretary for the Tenants' Association that owns the park, I have lists of residents and addresses.
Before the stores were broadly allowed to be open for purchases, you pretty much had to have their goods delivered if you wanted stuff.
And since Amazon ships vast quantities of goods, that means a lot of Amazon prime trucks visit the Park every day. They'll eventually figure out what to do.
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Latest reply: Aug 7, 2020
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