10/13/2025

 Monday, October 13, 2025

D+

1917 70,000 people gathered to see the 'Miracle of the Sun', solar visions reportedly by the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, after prophecies by local children

1988 Shroud of Turin, revered by many Christians as Christ's burial cloth, was shown by carbon-dating tests to be a fake from the Middle Ages

2024 SpaceX completed the first recovery of a rocket as its Starship rocket booster was caught by a giant pair of mechanical arms in a test flight near Brownsville, Texas

In bed around 9, up around 7, from a dream in which I was second-chairing a trial in a Southern state with a lead counsel like Sen. Kennedy of Louisiana, a Foghorn Leghorn character, a strange Cousin Vinny dream. 56°, high of 65°, cloudy, maybe some rain in late morning.  At 7:30 a.m., it's still semi-dark, so much so that I can't identify the small birds arriving at the feeders.

Meds, etc.  My left leg is considerably less swollen this morning, at least as I woke up and got out of bed.  There is still some warmth,  redness, and tingling pain.  Morning meds at 10 a.m.

Is mid-October not a writing season?  I looked at my entries on this date over the last three years and found scant writing, like my situation yesterday.  Perhaps my mind will be more alert today, after such a long night's rest.

Ron Guard, the VA handrail contractor, arrived and installed a permanent handrail in my shower.

I'm thinking about Joe Biden as an avatar or symbol of liberal democracy and of the Democratic Party.  He was old, very old.  Powerless against other leaders like Putin and Netanyahu.  No new ideas, just tax and spend.  Living in the past, coming to Washington when Nixon was president and serving during the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush pere, Clinton, Bush fils, and Obama.  An antiquarian with no spring in his step, pretending to be younger by feigning a jauntiness when entering a stage, but unmistakably old, out of energy and out of ideas.  

1-800-GOT-JUNK.  Can you develop a sentimental attachment to a bookshelf?  I suppose not, but watching the movers take out the solid oak bookshelf that I bought and painted more than 40 years ago, I felt at least a tinge of regret.  Ditto the less expensive shelves I bought from an Office Depot and put together myself, and which I used in my basement office for books, stationery, etc.  But we didn't get rid of my mother's leather-top tables that we were all so proud of when we got the end tables in 7303 and the drum table in 7307.  Realistically, the big question is whether I'll ever use the basement again for anything, office, studio, treadmill area, quiet set-apart retreat, or whatever.  I think not because of the challenge of the stairway.  Total charge was $339 but the movers schnorred for a tip, which seemed unseemly to both Geri and me.