21 December, 2021 - The First Day of Winter

"Winter and summer, then, were two hostile lives, and bred two separate natures. Winter was always the effort to live; summer was tropical license. Whether the children rolled in the grass, or waded in the brook, or swam in the salt ocean, or sailed in the bay, or fished for smelts in the creeks, or netted minnows in the salt-marshes, or took to the pine-woods and the granite quarries, or chased muskrats and hunted snapping-turtles in the swamps, or mushrooms or nuts on the autumn hills, summer and country were always sensual living, while winter was always compulsory learning. Summer was the multiplicity of nature; winter was school."

- Henry Adams, 1905

My 2021 Christmas Postcard to All

For My Property Value, Zestimate Is Graded F -

Zillow's property algorithm is a mess. It has its hits and misses. The venerated estate company did not bother to investigate, for exmaple, why my property's SD is ±$50,00 between the summer of 2020 and summer of 2021.

In the preceding year, my house valued the most among the houses on the block. In this year 2021, however, my property value is ranked last on the block by Zillow. Reasons not given.

Case in point, on my neighbor's smaller lot, the house has a poorly constructed leaking patio roof; the house also has peeled exterior paints with exposed trim. These exterior blemishes has existed for many years. Yet Zillow estimated my neighbor's property worth thousands of dollars more than my.

Of coourse, Zillow would not care or know that I have invested $100K in recent years sprucing up my house. It is built on a larger lot than my neighbor's. As Lundquist sums it up in the referenced web below, "Zillow can't smell if twenty cats live there [house]."

Nevertheless, this blogger thinks Zillow is still satisfied with its arm-chair Zestimate algorithm.

Zillow's Home Flipping Fiasco   (November 2021)

Google Has Locked Me Out My Custom Blog

It is what it is.

I had spent hours in writing a total of 1860 lines of HTML/CSS codes to create this customized blog. I ain't going to trash it. Google says it no longer support any old blog formats. Who is to say the next generation of Google staff won't abandon the extant formats, say, three to five years from now?

For sure, I can no longer change the personally selected seasonal images. In other words, I am locked out of the image editor. The spring orchard of white almond blooms you are seeing can not be changed - for now. Maybe there is a way to by-pass Google's questionable wisdom on blocking user's custom blog.

On This Reformation Day, 31 October 2021

The Reformation churches Five Solas:

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)

*Scripture Reading: Psalm 19:7-11

Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)

*Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:8-9

Sola Fide (Faith Alone)

*Scripture Reading: Romans 3:21-28

Solus Christus (Christ Alone)

*Scripture Reading: Galatians 3:10-14; 1 Timothy 2:5; Acts 4:12

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be the Glory)

*Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 1:17

On This First Day of Autumn, 2021

Autumn Days

The summer joys are fleeting fast
From forest, field and glen,
And soon shall winter’s piercing blast
Sweep o’er the earth again.

How lovely were the bright spring flow’rs,
That decked the landscape o’er;
But now we see, on fields and bow’rs,
Their dainty forms no more.

The leaves are falling in the wind,
From many a lofty height,
And birds are calling to their kind,
Upon their farewell flight.

But still, how cheering is the thought,
When other joys have flown;
That the little snow-bird leaves us not,
But chirps till winter’s gone.

- Henry Reed Conant (1893)

This World Is Contingent on God

Dear S__ & E__:

COVID-19 or its Delta variant, has affected our communities here in M__ , and also 10 miles north at the small town of R__, where my church is situated. This pandemic virus has infected the church senior pastor and others.  The severity of the illness varied, but with most of the infected recovered.  Nevertheless, some of our church parishioners or their loved ones were hospitalized or died of COVID-19 related complications.  The corollary of this pandemic has garnered followers into three divergent camps: “must vaccinate against”, “not going to vaccinate against”, and “maybe to vaccinate against” the COVID-19 virus.  Nevertheless, conflicting views such as aforementioned are common in private and public spheres.  A testament to the “wisdom of this world; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Still, this viral scourge and other grand-scale recurring calamities, fallen man deemed them as “natural” occurrences.  

The wisdom of this world has shrugged off God’s proclamation that “every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.” Further, that man “cannot make one hair white or black.” Therefore, there is no such things as “natural” occurrences in one's life tapestry. God affirms that He created and own all in the world.  The hairs on one’s head and life steps are numbered. All that in this world are contingent on God. The God defying Invictus of man thinks and acts otherwise.

However the cultural rebellion, marriage is God ordained between a man and woman. For us Christians, marriage conceals the deeper meaning of eternal covenant relationship Christ and His church.  I so very pleased for A__ and J__ in their recent union. So it was, "time goes on crutches till love hath all his rites." You must regale me with stories of their marriage the next time we meet.

All grace be with you and loved ones.

L'

A Death and A Marriage

3 September 2021, 1715

L’

We hope all is well at your end.  One of our long-time friends died this morning from Covid.  She was feeling well on Wednesday 4 Aug, then felt sick on Friday/Saturday.  I think she checked into the hospital the following Saturday when she could not stand (very low oxygen level?).  Her daughter texted us yesterday saying that her mom's body was shutting down.  She is the first that we knew personally that died from Covid. 

All is well at our end.  A_ and J_ got married last Sunday in Palo Alto.  It was a small wedding.  We thank God that everything went well.

Take care.  We plan to see you before the year's end.

S_ and E_

"To Paint the Lily" Not

Mother’s Day, 2021

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.

- Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Johnny Pearson, piano and Orchesta  (1967)
- Friendly Persuasion
(Tiomkin)

Click or tap here to view this L'Envoi YouTube.

Northern Hemisphere - First Day of Spring, 2021

"The spring has come again to the hills and valleys of our home. The day awakes, a breeze moves strongly through the forest, as if its task were to carry away the lingering night; the birds begin to twitter, and here and there an early lark utters his note. Among the pine-trees, with their fresh green needles, a whispering and rustling is heard. The sun has risen above the mountaintop, and shines upon the valley; the fields and meadows are glittering with dew. From the cherry-trees comes a stream of fragrance, and the hawthorn hedges that blossomed in the night are rejoicing in the first sunbeams, which penetrate to the very heart of each floweret."

- Berthold Auerbach
Excerpt, "Landolin" (translated from German)
1878

On This Fateful Day

"Beware the ides of March."

  - Soothsayer, Julius Caesar, 1.2

The McGuffin of the 1942 Movie 'Casablanca'

A McGuffin is "an object, event, or character in a story that lacks intrinsic importance but serves to set and keep the plot in motion."

Here is question: What is the McGuffin in the movie?

Many have seen the 1942 movie, "Casablanca" one time or more. But how many viewers have actually seen the two 'letters of transiit' (i.e. the McGuffin.) These no question asked 'letters of transit' metioned many times in the movie, but never seen. The war resistance couple Victor Laszlo (Henreid) and Ilsa Lund (Bergman) acquired them from Rick Blaine (Bogart)to escape French-Morocco from the clutches of the Nazi.

What is this McGuffin looks like?   Here it is.

So long. We'll always have Paris.

♥ And Such A Love Was Never Seen ♥

My Love is neither young nor old,
Not fiery-hot nor frozen-cold,
But fresh and fair as springing briar
Blooming the fruit of love’s desire;
Not snowy white nor rosy red,
But fair enough for shepherd’s bed;
And such a love was never seen
On hill or dale or country-green.

- Robert Jones (1601)

Lunar New Year 2021

Year of the Ox

Daffodil’s Return

What matter if the sun be lost?
What matter though the sky be gray?
There's joy enough about the house,
For Daffodil comes home to-day.

Bliss Carman
1921

New Year's Day 2021

Another year has roll'd away,
With all its sorrows, joys and fears,
But still the light of hope's glad ray,
Yet beams within our heart, and cheers.

One year, one span of time has pass'd,
So swift to some, to others slow;
But it has gone, and we should cast
Along with it, remorse and woe.

T.F. Young