Karmic-Dragonfly

A friend took me out to dinner the other night. It was nice time. I feel like I look like the Sphinx in Egypt in this photo 😆. I do like how the rafters take the eye back to the bar in the background --


Quiet night tonight. I'll be "trapped" at home by the Marathon and Half Marathon that encircles the city for most of tomorrow. The temp is supposed to be great -- high of 69F (20.5C) -- so I'm hoping to get out to the river trail as soon as the Marathon is over.

Of course, I was pleased with the election results yesterday. In a few weeks, Virginia will have a new Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General. And about 17 House of Delegates seats were won by Dems which will mean the largest proportion of Dems in the HOD since the late 80s.

Also, Dems broke the 'super majority' in the Mississippi house. And Mamdani will be mayor of NYC!

I remember that I should celebrate the win, but also remember how much is broken, and how the noose is tightening.

The federal government is still shut down; longest in history. (The next longest was during the first term of the Orange Menace.) The US Dept of Transportation is curtailing airline flights because there are not enough traffic controllers (who wants to work when not being paid?).

Local restaurants are offering free meals to those who are furloughed / not being paid. Food Banks have geared up to help. Discounts being offered by some businesses. Virginia is using emergency funds to fund SNAP benefits (low income folks; used to be called 'Food Stamps'), but I believe that money will only go through November. Federal judge ordered Orange to distribute SNAP money, as the law for it provides. That order was refused.

ICE is still arresting citizen and non-citizen alike with no due process, and at least one person died recently after being injured by ICE.

The price of my personal health insurance has doubled for next year -- directly due to the Republican's "Big Beautiful Bill".

The House of Representatives has been closed since the beginning of October because: 1) The Speaker refuses to seat a duly elected representative (I think from Arizona?) who would be the 218th vote to get the Epstein files bill out of committee onto the floor for full vote. 2) The Speaker is most likely following Orange's instruction not to negotiate on the continuing financial resolution that would re-open the budget.

Yea, all in all, broken.

---

Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre,
mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað.

---

My translation of the beginning of the speech by Byrhtnoð as he lay dying:

The harder should intention be, the more valiant the heart,
the greater the spirit, as our power diminishes.

BSSWebsite Translation / Line 312:

Resolution must be the stronger, heart the keener,
mind must be the greater, while our strength lessens.
https://www.bsswebsite.me.uk/History/Maldon/Maldon2.htm

Historical Event:

The Battle of Maldon took place on 10 or 11 August 991 AD near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battle ended in an Anglo-Saxon defeat. After the battle Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury and the aldermen of the south-western provinces advised King Æthelred to buy off the Vikings rather than continue the armed struggle. The result was a payment of Danegeld of 10,000 Roman pounds (3,300 kg) of silver (approx £1.8M at 2022 prices).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maldon

Text:

The original (partial) text was lost in a fire. A copy had already been made of what was available. This image of the copy is from
https://www.bsswebsite.me.uk/History/Maldon/Maldon-intro.html, and I added some underlines. It's difficult to see -- the online image was very small.

Wore a bit of Halloween (Eallra Halgena Æfen - "Eve of All Hallowed") gear for class today --


And today was the move back inside for the lemon tree -- It was heavier than I hoped because it had not dried out enough, and I forgot to put on my lifting belt. And then, I felt the soreness in my lower back 😬😐 Hopefully, "soreness" is the extent of it!


The tree was was outside 226 days (7.5ish months) — slightly above average, but pretty close to average.

Old friends; some last seen 40 years ago;
talking, laughing, drinking, rejoicing in each others' company;
wet eyes of past memories.


This last weekend was our 40th reunion year since our graduation from university. A small group of us for the last 8 or 9 months have held repeated Zoom meetings to organize.

First we found condos for rent (upstairs and downstairs, connecting doors) for our small group. Someone (me) to make the VRBO reservation and pay the fee.

Then ideas started coming. We organized a brunch. Someone was assigned to a restaurant to work out the details. How much is it? How much to charge attendees? Menu? Drinks? Inside/outside?

Wait! Last minute, photos! Someone (me) to create a Google Drive for folks to upload their 40 year old photos. Dig out the ole' iMac from the basement to use as a photo carousel.

Someone else brings decorations in the university colors.

Visiting campus; new buildings; old buildings; current students graciously providing entrance and tours. Awkward photos.

Some of us to the football game. Some not. One broken ankle after fall. Hours at the urgent care. University responded admirably. Friend with broken ankle driven via golf car to and from activities. Impressed with response.

Conversations as if 40 years had not intervened. Wet eyes.

Book club met at my place last night. Everyone liked the book (A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr). It's always good when folks like the book that that you chose! Having said that though, some of our best discussions are when some like and some dislike the book.

I cooked a few things to provide for dinner. It was a good meeting, and I was glad to be back in the book club swing after taking the summer off.

Made it to the river today. It was nice to sit on the rocks in the sun and listen to the water! Click to view --

So a neighbor had their catalytic converter stolen off the car in the middle of the night (early morning) -- unfortunately it's a pretty common thing, given the value of the precious metals in the device. And it's a quick and easy theft.

So I thought I would trade out the bulbs in my carport light for motion-activated ones. Except, um, after I bought the new bulbs, I looked up, and see this lol!


I think I'll wait! 😅

The wasps are peaceful, but I KNOW they would not like me changing light bulbs right next to their nest! I am counting 32+! And I never knew they were there at all -- I've been charging in and out of door underneath all summer. I only saw them when I wanted to change the bulbs!

One thing about reading Old English is that it has definitely opened interesting pathways for me. Old English was originally written in runes; only later was the Roman alphabet adopted. The ones used in Old English are called the "Younger Futhark" as I understand it, to distinguish from the Northern Norse "Elder Futhark" -- Futharc being the order of the first 6 runes.

Today, I've been playing around with them. Thinking of --
"The hail came; the stone remained."
"Se hægl come; se stan ætstod."

-- written one over the top of the other as a wish, or a thought, or a meditation that as the political situation becomes harder, that I will be like a stone and withstand the hailstorm. I believe this would be called a bind rune nowadays.

There are a lot of knowledgable folks online who will argue there is no evidence of runes being used for magical purposes. And that several runes together could be used as a ligature to save space, or when you ran out of space, but not used for magic. And I think those folks are mostly accurate, although there are some historical inscriptions where there are stacked runes, and some used on gravestones, which have the appearance or "feel" of being used as protective wards or prayers. Otherwise, I don't think there is any evidence that we know of for use of runes other than communication.

My thought on this is that I cannot believe the runes would not be used for incantations, prayers, and the like. Since ALL writing is used for communication and for other more, let's call it, "mystical" uses, then why would runes be any different?

As an example of a Christian use of letters as a ligature is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho" ( ☧ ) symbol. It's the first 2 letters of Christos in Greek Χριστοσ. So ostensibly this is a ligature -- an abbreviation -- to save space, but you won't convince me that people didn't use these as magical protection charms. I mean, I think they still do.

So basically, Old English words, sentence structure, letter, runes -- all of it -- has set my mind going down various paths. And I like doing that!

I had taken the summer off from book club. Our numbers had dwindled, and I was either hosting the club myself, or providing a place for another member who is out of town, just a little too often. And I just wanted to have some time alone I think lol.

In any event, I came back for the September meeting and volunteered to host in October. The host responsibilities are to select the book, provide dinner, and give a brief intro to the book as we discuss after our meal together.

For October, I have chosen A Month in the Country by J.L Carr. The reason I chose it is that the idea of spending a month in the bell tower of a medieval church in the north of England, uncovering a mural of the Last Judgement, and shitting in a pit toilet seems like a perfect vacation to me!

A quarter way through the book, I was starting to doubt my choice. But I ended up liking it it a lot. It was a quick read -- short book -- with some twists near the end. And I came to like the protagonist. I have to say, I'm not up on my Yorkshire accent, so some of the dialog slowed me down as I deciphered.

Also slowing me down a bit was a bit of Middle English that popped up variously throughout the book. This was a verse from 2 Timothy. Now, I have never read anything in Middle English, but I dutifully gave a try at putting the text into Old English.

I actually tried to find a translation online, but either 2 Timothy (a relatively minor book) never got translated into Old English, or the manuscript didn't survive, or it's just not available anywhere online.

Middle English:
And he shal com with woundes rede

To deme the cwice and the dede.

Old English:
And he sceal cuman mid wundum reodum
Deman þa cwicu and þa deaþas.

New English:
And he shall come with red wounds
To judge the living ("quick") and the dead.

There's a slight gay sub-story, which fits well with this being a gay book club.

And it has a the feeling of "Fall". “The first breath of autumn was in the air, a prodigal feeling, a feeling of wanting, taking, and keeping before it’s too late.”

It's worth a read.

I used to listen to Better Than Ezra 25+ years ago! "Don't you look special; don't you look sweet"?

Somehow knowing they are still making music makes the timeline a little more endurable!