Rainy Day-Off in the Hinterlands!

Yes, I have another day off!

And this one is even better than the other 2 I had this week, because I have no chores to do at all. I’m gonna sit at my desk and work on the novel-in-progress. Yay.

Until my neck starts hurting, from being hunched over for hours. Then I’ll take a break and do yoga.

And it’s a moody sort of day — grey, light rain, a little cool. I’m okay with it, for now. My main focus is having a whole day ahead wherein I have nothing whatsoever to do but write.

The weather doesn’t matter.

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Yesterday started out a little strange.

My favorite 95-year-old Japanese man woke up in an odd mood. He was being very hard on himself, from the moment he got out of bed. It was hard to get him to snap out of it, but he eventually did.

ME (emphatic): “What are you talking about, you’re a really, really nice guy!”

HE: “No, you’re infinitely nicer than me. You’re a million, trillion times nicer than me.”

ME: “No way. There’s something faulty in your math — let me see how you came to this conclusion; show me the mathematical equation you used to come up with this.”

HE: (smiling, finally.)

And so we sallied forth to Peony Bistro to get sashimi, sushi and sake. And by the time our fortune cookies arrived, he was in good spirits. (Sake, I’m guessing, had something to do with it.)

However– our fortunes were both sort of appropriate! At least his was, for sure. Mine, I can only hope!! But now he is 3 for 3 — meaning, he has liked his fortune 3 times in a row — he related to it, since it kind of summed up his whole life.

His is the top one:

To say he was successful in life is putting it almost ridiculously mildly. Let’s look at it this way: His monthly Social Security check is 70 times what mine is. (I’m not joking, either. It would take me almost 6 years of Social Security checks to equal what he gets in one month.)

And he has had a wooden leg since he was 12 years old. (He lost his leg in a train accident on his way to school one day, back in Tokyo during WWII.) And it never ever stopped him. He considers the loss of his leg one of the greatest blessings of his life, because it set him on a whole new path.

Anyway.

As far as my own fortune, that word “unpredictable” has sort of been my life story thus far, so we’ll see how it goes!

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I don’t really have anything else to post about today, although I have to say, that course I’m currently taking about the Reformation in the mid-15th to early 16th Centuries, is really intense. So much information. I have to keep rewinding it to make sure I’m catching everything the Professor is saying.

We are up to Zwingli. and the Protestant Reformation in Zurich. It led to things that I found sort of shocking, but it gave me a lot to think about when the lecture was over — most specifically, why did I find it so shocking? Was it because of my 21st Century perspective? I’m still trying to figure that out. But it definitely affected my dreams last night, for sure.

And, also, yesterday, I ordered the classic, The Praise of Folly, written in 1509 (in Latin). I think it will be very illuminating. Erasmus (of Rotterdam) was just fascinating and I don’t know very much about his work:

“Praise of Folly is considered one of the most notable works of the Renaissance and played an important role in the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.”

So — so far, we have Erasmus in Rotterdam, Martin Luther in Germany, and Zwingli in Zurich…

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But for now, back to Germany!

Nick Cave’s Solo Tour of Europe, with Colin Greenwood on bass, resumes tonight, for the first of 2 sold out shows in Baden-Baden, Germany.

Here’s hoping that the kind folks of Baden-Baden just LOVE to take their cellphones to concerts and take photos all night long, posting them immediately to Instagram!!

We shall see.

Meanwhile, I leave you with this! A favorite, for obvious reasons —

From Nick Cave’s Solo Tour with Colin Greenwood on bass, September 2023: Cleveland!! (What an amazing show.)

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From James Tabor– more about the speakers at the upcoming 3-day Conference about Jesus, that you can take ONLINE!

You can find out more and register HERE ($79 until Sept. 13th).

Prof. Goodacre: Why the Missing Pieces in our Gospel Stories are so Important (52 mins):

And that is it for today.

Oh. Phil is supposed to be live tonight, but he has had to cancel the past 2 nights, so check here later to confirm.

Enjoy your Thursday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!

Back in the mid-1990s, I was a backup singer for the gay Country duo, Y’All. There were quite a few of us girl backup singers — we were officially called the Cowgirl Chorus.

Y’All put out 2 CDs in NYC, including a wonderful Christmas album “Christmastime in the Trailer Park”, before moving to Nashville. But, wow were those shows FUN to perform in, and those 2 guys wrote some really great songs.

Here is a 2015 re-issue of one of my favorites: “God Bless NYC (My Big Apple Pie)”. The backup singers are not on this version, this is from a documentary film, but it’s still a really fun song. Enjoy, gang.!