More of the Powerhouse, Vestal Goodman

Had to post one more video of a more recent Vestal Goodman. RIP, Vestal!

floridapanhandlegal.blogspot.com is now nwflgal.blogspot.com

Quick note and a funky video for y'all. I decided to change the name of my blog after it came to my attention that it looked like florida panhand legal.blogspot.com. So the new name hopefully will do me for the duration.

I fnally got the lawn mowed today. The back yard had not been done yet this year. See earlier blog from 3 weeks ago! Dad happened to be by one day and by some sort of magic touch was able to start it and he mowed the front yard.

Satisfied indeed was I when after disasembling the dadblame carburetor, cleaning it (flushing my eye for 10 minutes after getting dangerous carb cleaning chemical spewed into eye), putting it all back together and it STARTED! Finally, after trying everything under the sun, it starts every time now. Cool!

Here's a funky video of Vestal Goodman (great old gospel singer now passed) as requested by cousin Joan:

Sick Days

I went to bed at 10pm last night, after a day at my backbreaking cleaning job (it was better - I totally have a system now). This pic is what I woke to at 11:30 am. A picture speaks 1000 words. I'll leave it at that. Dogs are great aren't they? Ever present comfort. Other comforts: Jesus, advil, pseudofed, Mama Gladys, Cousin Joan, iced green tea with honey/lemon...


What's on my mind today:

All of these shootings are sad and scary. Here's a prayer for all involved, the souls of the murdered, the shooters, the folks that are contemplating such acts, etc. Please include all those dealing with the Swine Flu outbreak here and our neighbors in Mexico, their families, Mexican brothers and sisters here in the US.
Prayer is from this link -> http://www.scborromeo.org/prayers/guadalup.htm:

Our Lady of Guadalupe, mystical rose, intercede for the Church, protect the Holy Father, help all who invoke You in their necessities. Since You are the ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the True God, obtain for us from Your Most Holy Son the grace of a firm and sure hope amid bitterness of life, as well as an ardent love and the precious gift of final perseverance.

Dearest Lady, fruitful Mother of Holiness, teach me Your ways of gentleness and strength. Hear my prayer, offered with deep felt confidence to beg this favor.

O Mary, conceived without sin, I come to your throne of grace to share the fervent devotion of your faithful Mexican children who call to Thee under the glorious title "Guadalupe" - the Virgin who crushed the serpent.

Queen of Martyrs, whose Immaculate Heart was pierced by seven swords of grief, help me to walk valiantly amid the sharp thorns strewn across my path. Invoke the Holy Spirit of Wisdom to fortify my will to frequent the Sacraments so that, thus enlightened and strengthened, I may prefer God to all creatures and shun every occasion of sin.

Help me, as a living branch of the Vine that is Jesus Christ, to exemplify His divine charity always seeking the good of others. Queen of Apostles, aid me to win souls for the Sacred Heart of my Savior. Keep my apostolate fearless, dynamic, and articulate, to proclaim the loving solitude of Our Father in Heaven so that the wayward may heed His pleading and obtain pardon, through the merits of Your Merciful Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron Saint of North America.

Puppy Linux 4.1.2 Barebones Retro

Pic is from photobucket and, of course, is of some super old computer gizmo, not the one I'm speaking about below.

Hello All. It's been a couple of days since I posted I think. On top of all my unemployment disappointments, I have a sore throat and feel blicky! Waaahhhh!

I've spent this sick day working on (read killing time, playing, etc) getting this old Toshiba 1625cdt/4.3 laptop going with linux. I am a total linux newbie and came across it when I was trying to reload windows 98se with a boot disk. Now I know that can't be done. I messed up the hard drive partitions, basically. Other facts about this laptop: around 400 mhz, 192 ram, 20 gig hard drive. I'm posting from it right now!

Puppy Linux os has been interesting to take a look at today. It comes bundled sort of like windows and it's free. You make bootable disks from the internet and it runs from your cdrom. After messing with it a bit I got it to save settings, boot faster, and cdrom is usable. I still have to boot with cdrom. It's been fun fiddling with it. Seamonkey browser seems to work ok. It's a bit slow, though. I can't get video to work and not sure about sound. I finally got a word processor to work and I think it's called Text master or something to that effect. It is free also. Linux Puppy was the only Linux thang that wasn't over my head and people use it on old machines. It will be great for camping (lots of koa's have wifi), using in my car, etc.

Being Earth Day and all, I decided to get this old thing going because I know what great machines they are. It's about 8-10 years old, clunky, and has been used very little. I hate to throw it out. Happy Earth day to all!

Oh, thanks to Amy for the comments. I also wanted to mention how great it is to be around my neices - watching Natalie get ready for the prom, and Casey navigating young adulthood/college. They're great girlies! I miss that Matty (nephew) in WY immensely!

Bobbie! Play Penduli Pendulum!

I've had another full day on the computer putting into effect all the things the feller at Computer Masters in Navarre told me. Well, I did spend a little too long this a.m. on an old beater computer I was using to practice on. Thankfully I had an old wireless notebook card lying around. Otherwise I would've been in a pickle, as I wouldn't have had Internet access for drivers. Blah, Blah, Blah.

Thanks, Mardi, for all the thoughtful comments!

Still haven't heard from Cloud10. I'm firing off an email this eve, now that the computer is pristine and in hyper deluxe working order. Time will tell.

Above is a video of a longtime fave, Bobbie Gentry. The title of this post refers to a long running and comical bit of silliness between my pal Amy and me. We joke that if Bobbie were to ever come out of her reclusivity (No one really knows where she is!) and had a concert, we would hold up our lighters and plead "Bobbie! Play Penduli Pendulum!". You had to be there, I guess, AND you have to hear the song.

The song in the video is "Fancy" and her dancing cracks me up. Every move is planned and she has that soulful, scratchy voiced thing going on. She's awesome and I thought it fitting for my first video post. I finally figured out how to do it.

Peace!

Divine Mercy Sunday

Pic is from photobucket.com

Get ready. I'm going to wax spiritual for a minute here. Today is divine mercy Sunday. This is an important feast day for me. Before I became Catholic I was going through some hard times. Toward the end of it I came to a spiritual understanding that soothed and calmed my soul and continues to do so even now. This was not a revelation or vision. It was just an understanding of the ways of God. I knew that I was loved by God and that I was supposed to trust Jesus. So, when I learned about St Faustina, the divine mercy image and the inscription at the bottom of the image (Jesus, I trust you), it was a confirmation of sorts. Everything I'm quoting here, I know to be true from other sources (pamphlets from church, St Faustina diary, etc). The folks I use for quotes explain more clearly than I ever could, instead of explaining it all myself.

A bit about this celebration from Wikipedia:

According to the notebooks of Saint Faustina, Jesus made the following statements about this day: "On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity." (Diary of Saint Faustina, 699)

Famous quote of Pope John Paul II on first celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2001:

The elevation to the honors of the altar of this humble religious, a daughter of my land, is not only a gift for Poland but for all humanity. Indeed the message she brought is the appropriate and incisive answer that God wanted to offer to the questions and expectations of human beings in our time, marked by terrible tragedies. Jesus said to Sr. Faustina one day: "Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy" (Diary, 300). Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity at the dawn of the third millennium.

About the image (see picture above) from Wikipedia:The painting shows Jesus raising his right hand in a gesture of blessing and pointing with his left hand on His chest from which gush forth two rays: one red and one white (translucent). The picture by Adolf Hyla contains the message "Jesus, I trust in You!" (Polish: Jezu ufam Tobie) shown underneath to emphasize the meaning of the figure. The rays streaming out have symbolic meaning: red for the blood of Jesus (which is the life of souls) and pale for the water (which justify souls) (from Diary - 299). The whole image is symbolic of the mercy, forgiveness and love of God.

My comment: When we receive mercy, we are able to be merciful.