4:30 p.m. on a hot Florida day


The outdoors temperature has not been below 71f (22c) since midnight, and it topped out at 95f (35c) in mid afternoon.

There has been a bit of a breeze which mitigated the heat, so I’ve been able to be taken for walks by Penne.  We covered a total of six miles in the five walks we took between 6:15 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.  I also took care to do a bit of early morning gardening (before 7:30 a.m.) to “beat the heat”.

Indoors it has been quite tolerable even without air conditioning.  Yes, I have “central air” but I also try to minimize my use of what is very expensive electricity.  I am “dressed down” to shorts and tee shirt, and have spent most of the day reading.

Soon I’ll have to go out to attend a retirement party for the Revd. Wesley Wasdyke, and his wife Cindy.  Wes has had a long and distinguished career as both a medical doctor and a priest.  He has been a part time paid assistant priest at St. Boniface Church for four years, now he is ready to enter the ranks of the fully retired.  Cindy and Wes are great folks.  They spend their summers in New Hampshire and their winters here.  So we’ll say au revoir tonight and look forward to their return this Fall.

All this is of course small beer.  We humans are but insignificant specks in an infinite universe.   

But we are thinking and feeling specks.  We try to reflect on our own lives and the lives around us.

Much of my reflection today has focused on the ghastly oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. 

I have thought about the 15 men who are missing and presumed dead.  I have thought about their families.  

I am grateful that we have public and government agencies which are being mobilized rapidly to face “Lord knows what”.  

 I am grateful for all those volunteers who are even now “at the ready” in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the pan-handle coast of Florida.

In my gloomiest moments I envision the Gulf of Mexico as a dying sea, and the tourism based economies of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida going belly up.



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