We have a tulip in our yard. That’s weird since we’ve never grown tulips in the decade and a half we’ve lived here. We had a week of severe weather (tornadoes to the north of us and monster hail to the south—all we got was the 40 mph winds with much stronger gusts and an …
Last Thursday was one of those high wind, low humidity, fire watch days that are not uncommon in Spring. Unfortunately, a barn in our neighborhood caught on fire, which spread to the adjoining field. It was big enough that the fire departments from the three closest towns were called in, so it was a day …
Paul Evdokimov defined asceticism as a practice of self-discipline which heals the effects of the Fall and inaugurates a new relationship of the human person with the material creation: “[t]he word ‘asceticism’ comes from the Greek askesis and means exercise, effort, exploit. One can speak of athletic asceticism when it seeks to render the body …
November and December are typically early winter in this part of the world, but aside from a few cold days, highs during these two months were in the 50s and 60s, turning these two months into late autumn rather than winter. That changed on Christmas Eve when temperatures dropped into the teens and have not …
I spent a college summer volunteering with what is now called Victory Ministries, but what was then called Arctic Missions. The mission consisted of a dozen or so mission families ministering in village churches along the Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers, a summer camp, called Victory Bible Camp, located near where the Matanuska Glacier turned into …
We came home after dark last week, but before going into the house, I stepped out of the garage to look at the sky, and to my surprise, delight, and yet, distress, a Starlink satellite train was passing overhead. (The attached picture was not taken by me, btw.) I’ve only seen pictures prior to this, …
The neighbors down the street … Some folks at our place say they’re our best friends, others don’t know much about them and mostly ignore them. I guess I would count them as friends … but, our neighbors down the street, they beat the dog and I feel sorry for that dog. It’s been going …
Early last week, I was gazing out my windows. The hostas are blooming, and that means for this two or three week period, the bumblebees have gathered. A word of advice: It is well worth our time to stop writing essays (in my case) or put down our phones, and simply watch the bumblebees. There’s …
During my lunch hour I frequently walk along the Floyd River Trail, which is a block from work. The Floyd is more ditch than river as it passes through town. It’s been channelized with tall levees through Sioux City for flood control (a proper Mississippi river in miniature). The small space between the levees and …
One of my post-Covid symptoms was the loss of taste and smell. Both came back very slowly, but I suspect neither have returned to their full functionality. Both are so subtle it’s difficult to compare how my smeller is working compared to eighteen months ago. I assume it’s not working the same based on a …
Just Another Jim 