Today and tomorrow are big days in DC for those who love motorcycles. Tomorrow, DC will host "Rolling Thunder" where thousands of Harleys visit the Heart of our Nation. And today the National Cathedral will hold "the blessing of the bikes." I wonder how they do that. Do they sprinkle holy water or incense on them?
Looking into religious practices, I noted that the use of incense in the Catholic masses was to cover up the smell of their unwashed attendees.
When my late wife's grandmother died in the late 1950's, I was a pall-bearer, and sat on an aisle seat near the casket. The funeral was held in St. Joseph's Catholic Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts, an enormous, cathedral-like edifice. During the service, one of the priests swung a large incense holder over the casket for a while, and then, he walked over next to me and swung it 5 or 6 times in my vicinity. Did he know that I wasn't a Catholic? Or did I just smell bad?
---Speaking of smells, I've told this story before.. at one time when I was in the Air Force stationed in Germany, I developed a very painful boil on my neck. I went to the Air Force doctor to get it taken care of. This doctor was a German national who had enlisted in the US Air Force and was made a Captain.
The first thing this doctor asked me (in his very broken English) was: "You need to wash up before you come to see me." Huh! I took a long shower every morning and had just stepped out of one before I got there. I was highly insulted, but all I was allowed to say was "Yes, sir."
Obviously, this doctor had been and probably still was, a Nazi, because he took great pleasure in his painful treatment that day, and every day after that for about a month. First, he lanced the boil and dug a gaping hole in my neck, which he proceeded to fill with thread.. at least a mile's worth, if I estimated correctly. Then, he had me come back the next morning, where he rapidly pulled out the thread, grabbed another thimble and shoved another mile's worth into the hole.
After a month's time, I guess he decided that his torture would not get any Top Secrets out of this American cryptographer and gave up, leaving me instead of the hole, a big bump on my neck, which probably concealed a lot of thread, and which I carry to this day.
---Did you know that a boil problem like I had would have qualified as a 5% service-related disability and would have allowed me to have all of my college class books paid for under the GI Bill. I did not know that, so I had to sometimes decide if it was more important to put food on the table or suffer my professors' snide remarks about me not having class books available at the start of a semester.
---The Westminster area will be welcoming Dr. Thomas Ice at the end of May. He will be giving an "End Times" seminar. (I hope he makes it on time.) A couple of topics for discussion: 1. Current Events in Light of the Bible. 2. Battle of Gog and Magog. The subject of "the end times" has been around since before Jesus' birth.. but we are still here. It's still a good moneymaker though, I guess.
---I have been concerned about the title of a large fire in Arizona called the "Slide Fire." Everything I read until today has mentioned it as though everybody knew why it had that name. Finally, in the fifth Google article I read, I learned that the fire was "north of Slide Rock State Park."
The other "Slide Fire" is a company that manufactures "pure American firearm components."
---I mentioned party affiliation the other day and today one of the Carroll County Republican candidates for office has accused another of talking her Democratic friends into switching part affiliation so that they can support her in the Republican Primary. There is a problem this time for Republicans because of Democratic Gerrymandering based on the 2010 Census. Shoe-in areas for some Republicans have become unwinnable districts because Democratic areas have overwhelmed the Republican areas. Such is politics. Both parties love to Gerrymander when they can.
---I received a couple of nice emails from Patti Ritter of the Carroll County Times. She did slight changes to some of my submissions because of dates and titles that I messed up. She will be publishing all that I sent shortly. Now I won't be lynched by my fellow AARP Board Members.
Bye!
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