All sorts of things getting managed

 Yesterday we resolved the fence at least the style and that will go ahead in the early fall. The birds have returned to feed along with the chipmunks and the squirrels. They finish off the food by nightfall and then we fill it again the next day after sunrise. The doors will go on early next week. I must set up 1-800-got-junk and the seven items will be gone by the end of the week if they still have spots. The house will be lighter once again. Just one item coming in but we can organize the front room now to be the review area and go through the rest of Edward's boxes. I need to do scanning for some things and get them up online on the website. I also need to collect up the original images and forward them on to his various cousins so that they are not lost. There are 55 years worth of pictures that he collected and a number of them belonged to his maternal uncle and he had them for a while perhaps since the grandfather passed away not sure on that. 

So a day of getting all sorts of things managed. There are still more items that we hope to have completed by the end of the summer but we are making a good start for sure. Downsizing in earnest and soon back to writing the books. 

I mostly have put together the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter. Just a little more writing to do in the discussion and it will be ready and published today. Then I can work on the Blake Newsletter which was due on the 1st of July. 

This is generally the hottest month of the year and we will need to keep a check on the watering. I am definitely not a gardener but we do enjoy the produce from the garden so will likely keep doing that. Lawns needs cutting so perhaps today for that. 

Breakfast and then Latin and on to the day. Slowly getting back to my normal exercise routine and will keep adding the exercises back in. I do not see any effect on my eyes from doing so; sounds like it is time to move forward with more exercises. I do miss the exercise although did do a lot of walking every day in excess of what I used to do. Nice to be back running and moving back towards my thirty minute run each day. 

I must admit I fail to understand why the individuals involved in the U of T encampment feel that they had a right to inconvenience everyone from the time that they set it all up. Now that it is down they do not appear to have learned anything from the experience. Their attitude towards the Jewish people does not have a leg to stand on. The Palestinians received the absolute same treatment as the Jewish people in 1948 and one notes that the Jewish people have thousands of years of history on all of this land and are indigenous to the land (one can not live in Canada and not realize that the indigenous to the land have first rights). If one looks one can see that the Jewish people accepted the UN decision and created a strong viable country; the Palestinians whined and complained through three or more generations, accomplished nothing with the land that they received and elected a terrorist group to be the leader of their "country" continuing throughout these generations to blame Israel and attack them regularly; Jewish school children were being murdered in their school yards by Palestinians when I was a child. The people of Gaza also continue to live off of the hardworking people of the world with 500 United Nations trucks a day going into Gaza to support them. The decision on where each was to live was made by the United Nations in 1948 and it was created to give us peace. I think that it is time for the Palestinians in Canada (and why are they not just Canadians like the rest of us?) to grow up personally. If they see us as being so complicit why do they live here? The world is moving forward and there are other people who actually have suffered and are ignored and would like the opportunities that the Palestinians received in 1948. Make a life for the children of Gaza and stop wasting their lives by attacking Israel. The October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and their adherents was barbaric and totally unacceptable; celebrating it as the Palestinians who live here did illegal and they should be in jail for their hate crime not setting up encampments at our universities and spoiling convocations for many across Canada.

Cloudy today

This cloudy day is a boon for me as I have been suffering from migraines the last little while although it is now turning sunny for the moment. I am avoiding bright light for more than a few minutes at a time. I experienced that for a few days after the first eye was operated on and it did extend into the week or two that followed but this time it is a much stronger sensitivity but it is my stronger eye and has been doing the lions share of the work through my life. The swelling is still there although decreasing over time but I am careful to keep up with my eye drops and on a regular basis as given to me. I think when the fourth week comes I will continue as I did before but for a week instead of three days to wean myself off of them. By the time that I have finished doing that it will be time for my optometrist appointment and I can get his opinion on the light sensitivity and the migraines. Since the conduit to an ophthalmologist is by referral from an optometrist that approach seems reasonable. I have had migraines for a very long time though although I first really remember them when we got a colour television. I could not bear to look at the screen with all the flashing lights. That is still the case somewhat as I avoid looking at it directly for long periods of time. But I may have solved my present migraines as I have been wearing my wrap around sunglasses to keep the dust out of my eyes while I was cleaning and apparently that is not a good idea to wear sunglasses in the house. I had tried the wielders glasses but found them strange. So I will cease doing that.

Yesterday an answer to my query about putting on storm doors (the old ones are just that really old; one is about fifteen years old and the other is 45 years old). I decided to try Home Depot service of finding a contractor and after two sets of three suggestions one responded  and came by to measure the doors and will send me a quote. The quote has arrived in my inbox and I will handle that very soon this morning. Since I have a few tasks I discussed those with him as well as the fence extension on the front lawn. I need to do something about the front porch as well which is pulling away from the wall and I wasn't clever using the hardening sand and it has obliterated the colour from my current tiles. He did have a solution and I will pursue that in the fall. I am looking forward to the lovely new doors for sure. The hardworking aluminium doors will be recycled which is good news. 

The reading for today is from Habakkuk 2. This utterance as defined by the Concordance of the Bible is an answer to the questions posed in the first chapter of Habakkuk. One ponders what is meant by these words. Is God talking about the terrorists that Iran funds - Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis? Will the Palestinians cast off the vipers (Hamas) in their midst who have destroyed their lives with their wanton desire for genocide against the Jewish people? Hamas did steal from the Palestinians and lied to them and taught their children to hate a people who have not wronged them. The entire chapter reads as a condemnation of Hamas as I see it. Hamas is evil (granted some of them are Palestinians but they do not represent the best interests of their people).

But they will be mocked
with these words:
    You're doomed!
You stored up stolen goods
and cheated others
    of what belonged to them.
But without warning,
those you owe
    will demand payment.
Then you will become
    a frightened victim.
You robbed cities and nations
everywhere on earth
    and murdered their people.
Now those who survived
    will be as cruel to you.

Peace is all that our fallen soldiers wanted by fighting in two World Wars in the past century and we need to find that peace so that their souls can rest in peace through eternity knowing that their sacrifice led the way to peace in our time. 

More funding for the military should be our primary concern. It is always nice to provide extras in life like dental care for those who can not afford it but we all have a responsibility to be prudent in our spending so that our needs as a country can be satisfied first before pleasure.

Cleaning day one accomplished on to day two

 The basement is always the easier cleaning day and by the end of the week there will be three more large items gone - an overstuffed rocking chair, a wooden fireplace heater, and a large blue cedar lined trunk. The basement is finally starting to look empty and it does need to be. Moving time does not look so long off now. In total seven large items leaving all of them useful and I hope that the company is able to make some use out of them rather than a landfill but this is really the best way to manage my getting rid of them.

The promise of the morning looks like another beautiful day. It is 13 degrees celsius and sunny at 6:00 a.m. This has been a lovely summer actually - no smoke from the forest fires that are not burning in Ontario and Quebec like last year. The trees are certainly filling the sky with 5 to 10% blue sky out my workroom window. 

Today someone comes to see about the new doors and to look at my fence that I want extended; somewhat reworked. It will be nice to have that done.  

It does now seem that it will be sooner rather than later when I begin my research once again although not likely until mid August at the earliest. In the meantime I must do my two newsletters that I am now behind in. That will perhaps be my focus for the rest of the week.

Prayers for peace in the world as always. Breakfast and then Latin (while the robot vacuums the rug).

Canada Day

157 years since Confederation.  Canada with its huge land mass and small population is in a unique position in the world. We fought two World Wars in the last century which put us on the world stage as a country. One of the founding nations of the United Nations we wanted peace for the world and have never been an aggressor nation. We have waited a long time for peace but we need to be always ready for war because of countries like Russia, Iran and North Korea who attack other countries. As we enter into year 158 since confederation one could wish for an end to all wars and a better life for all. A world where hatred would disappear and the children in a country like Israel or Ukraine or Sudan or Gaza could sleep at night without fear. God bless the world and remove those who would shatter its peace from our midst (perhaps if they all lived together on a desert island in the middle of the ocean they could learn to be good citizens of the world). They would tire of their ignorant attacks on other people; one could dream. 

Yesterday I spent a little time reviewing some of the old Latin material that I want to start working on towards the end of the summer. Very legible with my new eyes so to speak. Mine you I could read them before as well but I think they are somewhat brighter as it was the dullness that I now realize was there and would eventually lead to blindness if one doesn't remove the cataracts. Still some swelling in the last operated eye and I am still getting used to the bright lights in both eyes but more so in the newly operated eye. My appointment with the optometrist is at the end of July though as I managed to find someone who could take me earlier and was closer to where I live. Certainly my distance glasses now prove to be my reading glasses which is somewhat fascinating. The reading glasses are now much too strong to be useful to me. I wander about without glasses looking out the windows and clearly seeing the fine leaves on the trees and the birds flying in the sky. The squirrels are clearly visible and distinguishable and even the chipmunks as they returned yesterday to feed at the swinging feeder. Even the black squirrel finally managed to get into the feeder but his gymnastics that finally enabled it to move from the solid fence to the swinging feeder were something to behold. This morning all is quiet out there; no sign of mice/rats but we just put out a small amount of feed. Perhaps the birds will now return - time will tell.

Today is cleaning day and I will watch the Canada Day celebrations on the television. We always used to go downtown to the events but I am a watcher rather than a "being" there person. YouTube, television were meant for me for sure. But sometimes I do go. 

Breakfast and on to the day. I do think my astigmatism correction is not quite right in these glasses but I am still not using them very much and it is not very long until my appointment. This is another downsizing time as we will have 1-800-got-junk to remove seven large items which will hopefully not just end up in the landfill.