5/12/23

 Friday, May 12, 2023

In bed sometime after 10, awake and up at 5:55, from a dream barely remembered somewhere in Ireland about something or other.  50℉, high of 60℉, cloudy, thunderstorms expected between noon and 3, light rain thereafter, .3",  wind ENE at 3 mph, 0 to 8 mph today, with gusts up to 19 mph. The sun rose at 5:;31, sunset at 8:05, 14+33.

LTMW at two handsome orioles working on the oranges and now a song sparrow or pine siskin (?) chasing one oriole away.  I'll replace the oranges this morning.  The orioles also like the suet cake.  I thought I had raised the baffle high enough to keep the squirrels from the feeders but I'm looking at one hanging upside down working on the sunflower seeds. another on the ground maybe awaiting his or her turn.  A red finch and a chickadee are perched on the empty squirrel-proof feeder, wanting the squirrel to move off the shepherd's crook.  They wait for only a few moments before flying off.  Two squirrels feeding on the ground while the third continues to work on the sunflower feeder. . .  At 8:20 and again at 10:30 a wild turkey hen shows up.

Internet out; Personal Hotspot.  We lost internet/wifi service sometime yesterday afternoon and after messing around trying to reboot the modem, and messing around with Spectrum's customer service, I tried clicking on the 'personal hotspot' line under the internet icon on my laptop and voila!, my laptop was connected and I could finish yesterday's journal entry, and connect to Netflix, MSNBC, etc.  Google informs me that the iPhone's personal hotspot converts the phone into a modem and router, who knew?!? 

Vatican Museums.  There is a long piece in the June edition of The Atlantic titled "My Night in the Sistine Chapel" by Cullen Murphy.  It is interesting, especially perhaps for Catholics and more especially for those who have visited the museums and the Sistine Chapel.  Murphy refers to just a small sampling of the artistic and other treasures in the museums and I couldn't help but think of how very secular the place is, notwithstanding thousands of depictions of gods, angels, saints, Jesus,, etc.  It's hard not to think of the British Museum and its collection that was plundered, one way or the other, from lands and people conquered and colonized by the Brits.  To those who consider the Gospel to be an exhortation to humility and spirituality reflected in the Beatitudes, all of the Vatican seems a huge affront, a celebration of riches, the fine things of this world, rather than the next.  On the other hand, it's a great place to visit and the article reminded me of my trip to Rome with Mike Hogan in 1995 when we received great advice about seeing the Sistine Chapel, i.e., arrive very early at the entry to the museums so as to be at the front of the line of tourists, then walk briskly past all the marvelous art and artifacts on exhibit along the corridors of the museum to head directly to the Chapel in front of everybody else.  We followed the recommendation and had the Sistine Chapel largely to ourselves for about half an hour before the crowd started arriving.  I recall laying down on my back on a bench along one of the walls and studying Michaelangelo's ceiling art.  Mike's relationship with the Jesuits also got us passes to spend liesurely time in the Vatican Gardens behind St. Peter's Besilica and in the scavi or excavated burial spaces beneath St. Peter's where the Apostle Peter was supposedly buried after his upside-down crucifixion.  A memorable trip (with a couple of sightings of JPII.)

Internet outage.  I'm feeling very stupid.  The Spectrum technician just left.  The problem was simply that the circuit breaker for the modem circuit had flipped.  😨😩😥  Depressing.

Dinner  Hamburgers on the grill tonight, potato salad.