Roaming, brooding & scattering thoughts

To glimpse Michelangelo's "Pieta" is reason enough to travel.

Roam the earth & see the beauty ....

It seems to me that a primary advantage to residency on the European side of the Atlantic Ocean is being much nearer to centuries of art and architecture. So much is there to appreciate. Spending a few moments within St. Peter's Basilica standing before Michelangelo's 15th Century marble "Pieta" is a reminder that while years pass by, there is some beauty which may resist change until the end of time.

I sort of like this photograph, even though the technical quality is rather dismal. The photo might also be a reminder for us to roam the earth while there still is earth to roam, and while we are fully alive to enjoy it. Our days are numbered, and neither god nor man will keep us young or safe forever.

The brooding Norwegian runs his errands ....

Yes, I am in a somber mood today. Brooding Norwegian equals one-half of me, fastidious German equals one-quarter, and with an indefinable mix spilling into the "final quarter." I have a dozen things on my mind right now, but the thoughts are too unfocused and random to capture more than a few words about any of them.

Today included run-around time for me. I had to go to a bank and shuffle some money from one to another. I had to go to the post office for a money order. Whenever I do that, I always vow never again to buy anything online from an individual or business which only accepts money order-type payments. However, in this case the item was something that I absolutely had to obtain. It was still another magazine for the Fabrique Nationale 6.35 mm pistol I bought Thanksgiving week. The magazine was made available on the "GunBroker" auction site, and I won it. I now have the original magazine for the pistol and two spares. One more spare, and that will be that. Right. Something I really needed.

I replenished my refrigerator and my closet food shelves today. I do that only once every ten days to two weeks, so it takes more time than I like to give it. I usually make at least one error while selecting food items. When I got home today, I discovered that I had picked up a box of sugar cookies instead my favored chocolate chip cookies. I suppose I can handle it.

I also replenished my liquor cabinet today, which meant another stop. Shopping for myself has always been easy in this category, but trying to keep a variety around for guests once was a difficult chore. I finally solved this dilemma simply by buying one of everything. With decision-making skills like that, I should be qualified to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Random thoughts from a scattered mind ....

I regret: That I never learned how to play a guitar. I absolutely love the music of the great rock and roll guitar players.

I wish: That I could travel through time to witness any number of events the way they actually happened. This is my dream of what "heaven" would offer me.

I feel: That I am indestructible until old age takes me. In the language of the Old Norse, I have money-luck, battle-luck and health-luck. It would be nice to have weather-luck and woman-luck as well, but I would not trade away any of those I do have.

I know: That there is power greater than my own; I just do not know what it is or where to look for it.

I believe: That good and evil are real and existing entities, with corporal bodies, and present among us, and not merely personifications of religious myth.

I like: People who are honest and people who are courageous.

I have no respect/time for: Career politicians, hustlers and wimps.

I hope: That I will be able to build another Sanctuary/Refuge.

I am still thinking about: Whether or not romance really is vanishing from the earth.

Music Note: Trying to psych myself up by listening to "Arena Rock" on cable television ....

Guns & Norwegian liquor

Sunday was a good day, at least in terms of the way I measure them. I drove 250 miles to go to a gun show. Then, I drove 250 miles to return home, having spent only about $50 to purchase an old, new magazine (clip, to the uninitiated) for one of my pistols. I like to have at least two magazines per pistol, and it is not always easy to find spares for some older models. I doubt I would have made today's trip a few months ago when the price of gasoline was ranging around $4.00 per gallon. A man must always be practical ....

This weekend, I also was able to obtain Volumes 1 – 10 of the Norwegian-American Studies series, and at a reasonable price. Published by the Norwegian-American Historical Society, these first ten books were produced between 1926 and 1938. As you might imagine, there aren't a great many of these older publications floating around. I've been working at acquiring the entire series (35 volumes) for four or five years now, so I consider myself fortunate to run across so many being sold as a unit. This acquisition will take care of my reading needs for a (brief) while ....

Just to offer a taste of the Norwegian-American Studies series and maybe to drive you up a wall, here are some of the essays/papers contained in Volume I:

-- Health Conditions and the Practice of Medicine Among the Early Norwegian Settlers, 1825-1865 by Knut Gjerset and Ludvig Hektoen

-- The Norwegian Quakers of 1825 by Henry J. Cadbury

-- Norwegians in the West in 1844: A Contemporary Account by Johan R. Reiersen and translated and edited by Theodore C. Blegen

-- An Emigrant Voyage in the Fifties (that is as in the 1850s) by H. Cock-Jensen and translated by Karen Larsen

-- Reminiscences of a Pioneer Editor by Carl Fredrik Solberg and edited by Albert O. Barton

Sound exciting? It is if you want it to be. All right, time to move along. Today, we will just wander the country of snow and cold, and skip San Francisco. It's time for a bite of lutefisk (think fjord) and sauer kraut (to satisfy the other part of my being), the taste buds first taunted by a bolt (or two) of icy Aquavit .... and, maybe later, a bit of room-temperature Bache-Gabrielson .... life truly can be sweet ....

Music Note: Currently listening to Neil Young .... fantastic stuff ....