Officially Old

Well, this settles it. I am officially old. I have completed and turned in my application for Social Security.

Though it's been on my radar for every bit of the last decade, it seems just a bit weird to be at my doorstep. I'm already on Medicare, so I suppose the blow has been softened. And I don't live in Canada, either, where their compassionate, socialized medicine will kill you if you get the sniffles.

Yes, that's a dig at you, Canada.

But I'll surely say more on that later. For now, wow. It's really happening. In April, I'll begin seeing money dumped straight into my bank account. It does seem a bit surreal.

Mom's Sense of Humor

Me Pops was well known for his sense of and good humor. That would not stop me Mom from sometimes playing a trick or two on him.

One time as they made their way home from a fast food restaurant, Pops stopped at a party store for whatever. While he was inside, Mom took a bite out of a hamburger and re-wrapped it. She stuck it in the bag but made sure he got it at home. He sputtered and stammered and was ready to run back to demand an explanation, refund, and whatever else he might force the restaurant manager's hand to do before Mom fessed up and took the burger she'd bitten for herself. Pops thought it was funny...several days later.

Another time he picked up pizza. Unbeknownst to him, one of the boxes (he had bought I believe three pizzas that day) was left empty. It was sheer inadvertence, and the pizzeria (a place called Audia's, which I've spoken about before) called before he had gotten back home, to apologize and explain that they were sending a pizza by their delivery driver. Mom took the call yet didn't tell Dad.

At home at the kitchen table, he opened the empty pizza box. His jaw dropped in shock and surprise. But then the doorbell rang and one of us kids fetched the replacement pizza before Mom could have much fun out of the situation.

That one me Pops did find immediately funny, perhaps because he hadn't time to get upset. Plus, he knew the Audia family; they were good people and that it was a simple if silly mistake.

Veterans Day 2026

Veterans Day is upon us. One Hundred and Eight years after the guns fell silent in Europe, in the Eleventh month on the Eleventh Day at the Eleventh hour, we honor our Veterans. It is a good thing.

It would be difficult to begin a Holiday with a more sublime, dramatic flair. After four years of war, in the War to End All Wars as it was called before World War II overwhelmed our naive planet, the fighting stopped. Originally it was Remembrance Day and/or Armistice Day. Now we remember all Veterans.

We say thank you simply because we can't say anything more profound. Our Veterans deserve more than that, especially the ones who haven't really come back yet, whether MIAs or suffering from war related issues and injuries. 

Still, thank you. From the bottom of our hearts.

November Hessel

I'll be on my way home when most of you read this blog. It's 3 AM and I want to get back in time to put in at least a half day's work. The weight of having a Catholic conscience can be great; I've come close to talking myself into hanging around another day. But all that would mean is delaying the inevitable. Heavy sigh.

I'm rarely in Hessel at this time of year. I passed through on November 8, 2023, according to Facebook memories. It offered me a short video I took with my phone from the side door of the garage as a light snow fell. But that was only a quick stop as I passed nearby for work. I wasn't around for more than a couple hours and had to be off. Before that, I don't think I've been here this late in decades.

There's a desolation to Hessel this time of year which I had quite forgotten. Other than the cedars, of course, the leaves are off the trees. There's a noticeable lack of activity as well. And needless to say (though I'll say it anyway) it is colder, although not bad. Highs have been near 50 with lows around 40. Still too chilly to sit on the porch to read, though I did manage to hang out in the garage and read for a bit. I think the walls made just enough of a wind break that, so long as I had my winter coat about me, I could tolerate things for a while.

The stars are out this morning. I have always liked that, a sky full of stars. Some say it makes a man feel tiny and unimportant. I don't understand how or why. I feel the sublime delight of being able to enjoy them overwhelms any smallness. Human importance isn't based on spatial geography anyways. Smallness does not, and I would argue cannot, indicate insignificance.

That said, I better wrap this up. I still have to pack and do the last couple of housecleaning chores before I go. I'll be back before I know it, time flying as it does these days.

Hessel Reads

Reading is fun. Even rereading can be enjoyable, if the book is particularly good and you haven't read it in a while.

Fighting a cold hasn't hurt my concentration on the books I brought to read during my last Hessel trip this year. They're all rereads too. I've finished Halfway House, the first Ellery Queen murder mystery without a nationality in the title. Prior to its publication, every EQ book was called, 'The Roman Hat Mystery' or 'The Dutch Shoe Mystery' or, my personal favorite of that bunch, 'The Egyptian Cross Mystery'. Halfway House was going to be The Swedish Match mystery as I recall, but the authors changed course. It also contained Ellery's final 'challenge to the reader' where the story was briefly interrupted to tell readers that all the facts were at their disposal, daring them to solve the case ahead of the master detective. I miss that aspect, though I was never very good at finding the culprit.

I'm in the middle of The Inklings, a book about the informal literary club which featured C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, among others. The group met regularly for years discussing one another's works in progress. It's more about the friendships, though, and is a neat peek at their lives.

If I get to it, I've also brought along The Hound of the Baskervilles, perhaps the best stand-alone novel in the business. It may be the most well known Sherlock Holmes story any way you put it. This would make the third or fourth time through it for me. A book, particularly a mystery, which you can read when knowing the outcome, is very good and very rare indeed. Interestingly, it's also the Holmes book where Sherlock appears the least!

Should I have offered a spoiler alert before that?

What book have I read the most? That would be Lewis' The Abolition of Man. I try to read that one once a year. Yes, it's that good. As a matter of fact, that will likely be my next read. But when I'm back home. I didn't bring a copy with me.

Cold Hessel

Sitting in Hessel and fighting a cold.  But at least it's Hessel.

On my way to Mass now...

The Major Point

Deron on Amazon says this about my book A Subtle Armageddon:

The title itself carries a powerful message, suggesting that destruction does not always arrive suddenly or dramatically. Sometimes the greatest changes happen quietly, gradually transforming everything people once considered normal. This idea creates an atmosphere of mystery and anticipation while raising questions about awareness, survival, and the future. What makes the book's premise particularly interesting is its potential to combine suspense with deeper philosophical questions. Rather than focusing solely on catastrophe, the concept invites readers to consider how easily stability can be disrupted and how important it is to recognize the warning signs of change.

I like his take. The fact is that changes in attitude rarely happen immediately. We slowly develop, as C. S. Lewis opines within The Screwtape Letters, and generally through forces outside of us (though we must strive hard to think for ourselves), into whatever people or peoples we finally become. To be sure, sudden, dramatic change can occur. The villain occasionally transforms into a hero within an instant. Yet we tend to be products of an extended process, both as nations and individuals.

Do you think not? A Subtle Armageddon may change your mind, and dramatically, perhaps.