Happy Halloween

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Even to the curmudgeons amongst you

Show of hands: How many of you buy the candy you'd most like to get stuck with? Let me know if it's less than 100%.

I first heard this poem in about 1969 or thereabouts. It's still good!

A DIET PRAYER
By Victor Buono in his book It Could Be Verse

Lord, My soul is ripped with riot
incited by my wicked diet.
"We Are What We Eat," said a wise old man!
and, Lord, if that's true, I'm a garbage can.

I want to rise on Judgment Day, that's plain!
but at my present weight, I'll need a crane.
So grant me strength, that I may not fall
into the clutches of cholesterol.

May my flesh with carrot-curls be dated,
that my soul may be poly unsaturated
And show me the light, that I may bear witness
to the President's Council on Physical Fitness.

And at oleomargarine I'll never mutter,
for the road to Hell is spread with butter.
And cream is cursed; and cake is awful;
and Satan is hiding in every waffle.

Mephistopheles lurks in provolone;
the Devil is in each slice of baloney,
Beelzebub is a chocolate drop,
and Lucifer is a lollipop.

Give me this day my daily slice
but, cut it thin and toast it twice.
I beg upon my dimpled knees,
deliver me from jujubees.

And when my days of trial are done,
and my war with malted milk is won,
Let me stand with Heavenly throng,
In a shining robe--size 30 long.

I can do it Lord, If You'll show to me,
the virtues of lettuce and celery.
If You'll teach me the evil of mayonnaise,
of pasta a la Milannaise
potatoes a la Lyonnaise
and crisp-fried chicken from the South.

Lord, if you love me, shut my mouth.

Fine Old Customs

It seems to me a certain party who gave a fine sermon last night, was all too familiar with the old custom of Halloween pranks. It was noted that in the past the "yuth" didn't receive the prepackaged treats given to children now. They did get homemade treats. Some of the "yuth," boys in particular, used the night for pranks. Some fairly harmless, some, shall we say, more ... involved. This might have ranged from tying tin cans on the back of cars as they were stopped at a stoplight, to adorning a rooftop with a farm implement. Adventures for the real risk takers may have run the gamut from knocking over a row of mailboxes to full out outhouse tipping. I expect if outhouses were still in numerous supply today, there are a few communities who'd scarce have one standing by the dawn's early light.

Father mentioned how many of the halloween customs, such as the jack-o-lantern derived from the Irish immigrants. Upon further questions after Mass regards his intimate association with pranks, he allowed that he had fallen in with a gang of "yuth" or two in the past. Further queries boxed him into taking the fifth amendment. I think at this remove he is safe from being put in juvenile hall.

Father gave a fine sermon on All Saints, and All Souls. He particularly wanted us to remember that we shouldn't associate purgatory with hopelessness, but that it was actually a very hopeful place, because it gave us a chance to cleanse ourselves before heaven.

Evelyn Waugh would be 104....

He's "no longer with us" on earth in the physical sense, but I hope he has found a heavenly reward. Today is his birthday.

Here is another favorite passage of mine from Brideshead Revisited. Charles Ryder, the protagonist, is talking about his early faith, or lack thereof. It is about the 1st inkling we get that the book is really a more about the Catholic faith, and the many degrees of embracing the faith that are to be found.

"Sebastian always heard his mass, which was ill-attended. Brideshead was not an old-established centre of Catholicism. Lady Marchmain had introduced a few Catholic servants, but the majority of them, and all the cottages, prayed, if anywhere, among the Flyte tombs in the little grey church at the gates.

Sebastian's faith was an enigma to me at that time, but not one which I felt particularly concerned to solve. I had no religion. I was taken to church weekly as a child, and at school attended chapel daily, but, as though in compensation, from the time I went to my public school I was excused church in the holidays. The masters who taught me Divinity told me that biblical texts were highly untrustworthy. They never suggested I should try to pray. My father did not go to church except on family occasions and then with derision. My mother, I think, was devout. It once seemed odd to me that she should have thought it her duty to leave my father and me and go off with an ambulance, to Serbia, to die of exhaustion in the snow in Bosnia. But later I recognized some such spirit in myself. Later, too, I have come to accept claims which then, in 1923, I never troubled to examine, and to accept the supernatural as the real. I was aware of no such needs that summer at Brideshead.

Often, almost daily, since I had known Sebastian, some chance word in his conversation had reminded me that he was a Catholic, but I took it as a foible, like his teddy-bear. We never discussed the matter until on the second Sunday at Brideshead, when Father Phipps had left us and we sat in the colonnade with the papers, he surprised me by saying: 'Oh dear, it's very difficult being a Catholic.'
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(Photo of Waugh taken in 1940 by Carl Van Vechten)
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Of Harvest Moon and Dancing Cows

As I came home from the grocery store tonight - I was struck by the awesome sight of the moon backlighing the smoke from the fires. Not a sight I'd want to see again, just because of what the county went through, but a fascinating sight all the same. At this time there are still 45, 000 people still evacuated from the fires. Please keep the firefighters, and all those in distress in your prayers.

Today was the first day back to work at our company for the full crew. We were all relieved in the office to get out of our homes and away from cabin fever. Why it should be so satisfying to win a game of computer chess and cause a cow to dance I couldn't say. But it is.

79 is the new 59 - Happy Birthday to Msgr. S.

Father was ordained on May 5 of 1954. Father's birthday is on the 26th. He graduated from the major seminary in San Diego county, when we still had one. He later got his PhD in Philosophy from the Angelicum. He's such a smart guy he was able to shave a year off the time it normally takes to get a doctorate - and this was when you had to take all your classes in Latin and do all your tests in same and defend your dissertation in Real Time Latin. He's entitled to one of those fancy schmansy 4 cornered academic birettas with the piping, and he could wear a ring like a bishop just for the heck of it, if he wanted to. But he's not that kinda guy. [Ha-ha, if it was ME, I'd have gone to all the graduations at USD and worn it, just because the bishop doesn't have one of those 4 cornered jobs.]

Years ago, when Father's mother was still living, the ever sociable Mrs. S. let me in on Father's B'Day, which had hitherto been a semi-state secret. Bless her. I recently wrangled a nice copy of a photo of Father taken after his 1st solemn high Mass. Tempted as I am to post what Father calls his "little Lord Fauntleroy picture" I shall refrain, lest one of Father's confreres runs across this blog and taunts him with it. No sense in getting the snot beat out of me. It's kind of hard to ask someone for absolution when he's choking you to death. All I can say is that he DOES look like LLF and no one is smiling. It does look like they've buried a Cardinal or other similarly exalted personage.

Given that Father has said Mass pretty much every day since he's been ordained, I estimate that makes about 19,500 Masses. Adjusting for binations and days off sick, I bet it still works out to at least once a day. Given that saying Mass is the most wonderful thing a priest can do, I'm glad he's done it all those times. I honestly don't know why a priest would NOT want to say Mass at least once a day.

I've also refrained from posting a pic. of him in Gaudete or Laetare vestments. He hates it. The women in the parish love it. The men sympathize. That particular color on him makes us think of a nice Easter Bunny. Father does not relish the compliment. I particularly like those two Sundays. Think about it. How often does a priest get to bust out that color? Twice a year, and it took him 50 years of priesthood to get to 100 times. It's like spotting a prothonatory warbler. [Father's a good singer too, BTW.]

Fr. is a native of Chicago, and is about the most down-to-earth man you'd want to meet. He taught at the University of San Diego since the late 50s and just retired a few years ago. One alum who always took the time to come back and visit is a Saudi Prince he had taught years ago. Father taught close to 3 generations of students. I.E. there were cases of him teaching a man and then that man's son or daughter - and in theory could have taught man A's grandchild.

Father says a Monday through Friday 6:30a.m. Mass at Holy Family in San Diego. And on Sunday he supplies the ICC 5:15 Mass in Old Town. Not to leave out Saturday, he says Mass at home. I've assisted him at Mass one way or another for a little over 30 years. He's taught me so much. I think I finally taught him not to buy software or hardware versions of x.0 anything. He already knew not to draw on an inside straight.

I took this picture of him last month, and I think I've finally caught him with his best, and usual, expression.

Since this blog is, AFAIK under the radar, and I'm not "broadcasting it" around church [at least no one at Mass has said "Yo, I caught your blog"] I will not "name names" as he knows who he is. And Fr. S., if you read this, you might want to give me a shout out back. You could always style yourself "Bill, of the Amazing Wolverine Tribe" and I think I'd figure it out.

Prince of Peace Abbey Update as of 102507_1530

You can see the hybrid map of Camp Pendle-
ton and the adjacent areas of northern Oceanside and the area to the west of Benet Hill, where Prince of Peace Abbey is. I have enhanced the image here. The map was updated roughly 3:30 p.m. Thursday, 10/25/07.

The red area is a fire area on the grounds of Camp Pendleton which are being fought. The area in question is roughly a mile from Prince of Peace Abbey. The yellow diagonal line is roughly the boundary between Camp Pendleton, and the City of Oceanside (which is to the south). I've done a rough outline in light blue of the Prince of Peace Abbey, which abuts the base.

Here is a google earth overhead - taken most likely early 2006.



Last year I took a bit of video outside the Abbey - most of the buildings are of concrete block construction, and ceramic tile roofing. The clip is 13 seconds long.



The Abbey is built with mostly Concrete block and ceramic tile. The military is on the fire. Keep them in your prayers.

(The still at the top is of the outside of the church, taken 9/18/06. There are some times and situtation where building churches out of concrete blocks and ceramic tile makes sense. This is one of them!)

Update: Last fire map late Thursday night local time shows current fire area farther north in Pendelton area - i.e. further away by a "grid" or two, away from PoP Abbey.

Thursday Fire Status, San Diego, Ct. 102507_11:16a.m.

Here is the latest news on the general conditions of the fires:

10-25-07 10:00 a.m. Evacuation Notice Lifted for Escondido.
All areas within the City of Escondido previously evacuated have been re-opened to residents.

Evacuation Notice Lifted for County’s Portion of 4S Ranch
The County of San Diego has lifted the evacuation order its portion of 4S Ranch. All of 4S Ranch is now re-opened to residents.

10-25-07 9:38 a.m. CAL FIRE provides the following update:

The Harris Fire is 81,000 and 10% contained. Full containment is estimated for October 31. Currently there are 93 engines, 16 crews, 4 helicopters (2 of which are helitankers) 3 airtankers, 2 dozers, 12 water tenders (1,611 firefighters). Fire behavior remains active in old and extremely dry fuels. The winds have returned to a normal diurnal flow (from the west). Major wind reversals in this area have caused firefighter fatalities during past incidents. There are heavy fuels and steep terrain on the northern edge of the fire. Active structure protection continues in Lyons Valley.

The Witch Fire is 197,990 acres and 20% contained. There have been 22 injuries to firefighters and it up to $5.3 million in suppression costs. Currently there 325 engines, 45 fire crews, 45 water tenders, 22 dozers (2,619 firefighters). Winds in the fire area are still variable with coastal influence returning to valleys as normal weather pattern. Warm, dry and unstable conditions still exist at the higher elevations and the eastern areas of the fire.

The Rice Fire is 9,000 acres and 30% contained with full containment expected on the 28th. Cost to date for suppressing this fire is $1,283,133. Currently there are 112 engines, 19 fire crews, 13 water tenders, 11 dozers (1,095 firefighters). Firefighters made good progress with perimeter control and structure protection. Evacuation orders still in effect for Fallbrook and outlying areas.

The Poomacha Fire is 35,000 acres and 20% contained. Cost to date for suppressing this fire is $950,000. There have been 12 injuries to firefighters. Currently we have 75 engines, 25 fire crews, 1 helicopter, 1 helitanker, 9 airtankers, 10 dozers, (859 firefighters). Firing operations were conducted but were hampered by wind shifts. Firing will continue today. Interior burning was most active within the eastern portion of the incident. Burning trees and rolling material continue to be a safety hazard to resources. Re-entry plans are being developed for displaced residents.

For latest updates see: San Diego County Emergency page -- Satellite maps available, as well as a list of known structures *in unincorportated areas of the county* lost/heavily damaged in the fires.

The sosdfireblog.blogspot.com seems to have the best frequent local updates.

Who Controls The Past, Controls The Future

There are too many born every minute

In Spain there was a man baptized in the Catholic church as an infant who has rejected the church. Well, that's his right. But does he wish to disassociate himself from the church by simply filing an official notification as the church provides for? No. He takes it upon himself, with the help of idiots in the Spanish court system, to require the Catholic church to destroy his baptismal record and expunge it from the church records. This is altering a historical fact. It is frightening that any government in a supposed democracy would viciously suppress the truth. You can read the full details on Paul's blog entry Thoughts of a Regular Guy: Who Controls The Past, Controls The Future.

One person who commented on his blog suggested that perhaps the church should comply by pasting the court order right to remove the record of the man's baptismal entry right over the baptismal record. There's something to be said for fighting fire with fire.

Apparently, Orwell's Animal Farm is not required reading in the Spanish schools. I do not know if reading that was ever a standard part of the Spanish secondary school curriculum. And I wonder if in the English speaking world this once commonly assigned work is still regularly read by students. The left has so destroyed and infected anything which smacks of development of ideals of western values. A chief value used to be "the objective truth." I wonder if the imbeciles who made this decision realize the extent to which they look like perfect jackasses. Some jackasses, of course, being more equal than others.


Perhaps it might be fun to find out more details of who, exactly, in the Spanish court system made this inane and dangerous decision. It might be fun to flood them with Spanish translation editions of Animal Farm.

How about it? Is reading Animal Farm still a commonly required assignment?
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Check out Digihairshirt's Blog

For in-
formation on the fires in Orange County - and please keep them in your prayers.
Her link is here.

Twilight Sky; San Diego, 5:55 PM 102307

Here is a photo I took early this evening. Sunset's about 6:35 -- This is taken from my front sidewalk, looking WEST, towards the ocean, about 8 miles away. This is NOT a Marine layer tinged with red from the sunset. It is, however, the smoke from the fires backlit by rays from the sun.

I had to get out to the store to grab some more drinks, etc. I got a scratchy throat just in the half hour I was out and about. "They" were estimating earlier today that some of these fires won't be entirely out until Nov. 1.

Some good news: So far - Eastlake, Spring Valley, Bonita, and Jamul - no homes lost today. (One of my friends and her family live in Eastlake area.)

And "only" some 2000 acres burned in the Harris fire today in the south end of the county. [It was hellish on Sunday and Monday.] The fires up in North County are still bad.

One out of three homes in the county have been evacuated overall. (Some have been let back to their homes/area.)

CBS News 8 has some Excellent Resources/Maps here.

San Diego- Register Your Cell Phone for reverse 911 alerts

If you live in the City of San Diego, you may register your cell phone to receive emergency reverse 911 calls. The link is here.

Good frequently updated information online is here.

Also: San Diego County Emergency Homepage.

Fresh bulletin: May be new concerns for JULIAN AREA. (5:05 PDT -- Voluntary evacuations as of this time.)

At least 50 homes/structures have been destroyed in Fallbrook area.

Update: 11:30p.m. - Julian evacuation now mandatory in the last hour. 75% had taken heed during the voluntary evac. Also they want people out of the Cuyamaca area, and Wynola area.

Fire Update Some Bad News, Some Better News

According to recent report, fire up in Fallbrook area (Rice fire) has burned 6100+ acres. Area isn't getting any air support yet - Palomar Mountain and La Jolla Indian Reservation area also in trouble - these fires will likely join. Right now, "they" are concentrating on the more populated areas. There are some more tankers on the way - but it's already 1p.m. and it gets dark about 6:30 now. A good friend of mine and his daughter and her family lives up in Escondido in a evacuated zone - and in the south parts of Chula Vista are threatened, another friend and her family live out that way - I don't yet know if they've had to evacuate. There has been some air support. There are a few helicopters out down there - it can drop 10 tons of water a time on a drop.

A fairly decent map which someone is updating is pretty good. Link is here. The map can be expanded.

In the county all told some 350,000 (yes that's the right amount of zeros) homes have been evacuated.

On a better note, some areas are allowing people back in - Del Mar Heights area, plus some of Poway and the Scripps Ranch area.

So far at very least 1200 homes and structures lost in the county (and they don't think they have an accurate count) - 240,000 acres have burned - it's at least as big as the Cedar fire 4 years ago.

The area shelters are fairly well provided for with individuals and corporations stepping it up with food/toiletries etc.

National Guard is deployed in evacuated areas, and other than a report of two teens looting in Ramona (who got nailed right away) there haven't been reports of looting.
The US Navy Seahawks are also assisting with water drops. Thank God for them, they have more capacity than the contracted aircraft.

Today is supposed to be make or break - the winds are supposed to die down some time tomorrow - they are still really fickle and unpredictable. All schools in San Diego unified school district will be closed through end of week.

Yesterday, one of the local reporters was reporting in the wee hours of the morning that his home had been evacuated. Some hours later he'd found out his home had burned down. He was positively heroic in keeping his chin up. "We'll rebuild, we'll get through this. It's only THINGS." They'd managed to grab the most important "things" and pack up the cars with people and pets - but most people were glad to get themselves and their animals and the most important items out. This time around communication and notification was much better - the "Reverse 911" system working fairly well. I.E. 911 calls YOU to tell you it's time to pack up and get out.

I've been through fire scares before - and when you really analyze it pretty much "everything" can be replaced - so what you end up grabbing are you, family, pets and PHOTOS, and important papers. So for all of you who can, but haven't: Scan your important photos in your computer! And keep a backup in a safe deposit box somewhere. The rest is G.R.A.V.Y.

FIRE! Keep us in your prayers

There are currently 7 counties in California in a state of emergency due to fires fueled by Santa Ana winds. The fires started Sunday and there are 7 major fires in San Diego County alone, thousands have been under mandatory evacuation yesterday and early this morning new fires have kicked up and there are thousands of acres burning. At mass yesterday, we could smell the fires from miles away. And it's very acrid now.

As I write this at 4:30, in some areas there are wind gusts up to 45 mph. Generally if there is a Santa Ana, at night the winds die down, but this is not the case. Breaking fire updates for San Diego County here. Please pray for the safety of those having to evacuate and the firefighters.

Update: At almost 1PM today, roughly 100,000 acres are in the fire area, and approximately 250,000 (yes that's right 1/4 million) people in the county were advised to evacuate to other areas - the winds were I am in town aren't much but it there are gusts up to 60MPH - Click here to see a rough map of the area. I've highlighted in red SOME of the areas where the fires are hopscotching though. Solana Beach has just gotten voluntary advisory notices to evacuate. We are supposed to have Santa Ana winds at least until Wednesday. There are more fires south of San Diego - just at the bottom edge of the map you can see UCSD in the lower left, and Miramar Airstation towards the bottom center. Some of these areas are very heavily populated. One hospital in the North County has been evacuated, the staff there on top of things and started evacuating patients early this morning to other hospitals. There were at least 7 firefighters critically injured so far, by early this morning.. A few minutes ago we have had the good news that the Navy can now safely go in to use some of their choppers on the large fires in the southern part of the county. [Off this map[ Where fires have been also burning since yesterday - closer to the border - but at least 20,000 acres down there by Dulzura and Potrero There are also some fire areas north of this map.

Sex Ed in the early 1970s

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Less is More

Jackie, over at Catholic mom of 10, talks about some of the sex education materials used by some of the Catholic schools in the UK and wonders if they are too detailed or graphic. I have to say I am proud, on this issue, to belong to the:

"Thank God, they pretty much left us alone" generation. i.e. the basic plumbing was covered in biology classes in a clinical way. The few pages of line drawings in our biology textbooks were the only ones guaranteed to be well thumbed and read by the entire class - even the goof offs. Everyone got an "A" on that test.

The guys got a lecture or two in gym class, the girls got a lecture or two in THEIR gym class covering the consequences of STDs. The girls and (for all I know) boys got a graphic "mother gives birth" video which made us realize: "girls, if a guy puts tab "A" in slot "B" - be prepared for something the size a watermelon coming out of you. The very thought of which, when viewed through the prism of mid-teenage years, made most of us shudder for weeks afterwards, if some boy asked us out. That was natural "birth control" for most of us. We'd long absorbed through osmosis the fact that we had, in fact, not come out of a crackerjack box - but we were stunned at what mom went through.

Turtleneck sweaters were popular for a reason. For the "girls gone wild" headed for "hell in a hand basket" they covered up 1,647 hickies the next week at school. If worn by a girl while on a date, the girl was signaling to the guy that'd he'd be lucky to get a good night kiss. Like "Run, Hillary, Run" bumper stickers which could be attached to either the front or back bumper of a car, the turtleneck sweater was used by both "kinds" of girl. Upon reflection, I expect the "wolves" amongst the boys viewed any girl who wore a turtleneck sweater DURING the school week as "hot to trot" material. I can't say for sure, having never hung out in a boy's locker room. I can, however, confirm that in the girl's locker room we traded information on which boys were likely occasion of sin material, by being known patrons of drive in movies - and we also knew which boys were destined for the priesthood. Equally to be avoided if one wanted to be kissed by sweet sixteen.

Other than that we were blissfully free to speculate whilst hanging out on street corners. We knew enough that black patent leather shoes didn't really reflect up - and good catholic girls usually avoided protestant boys, whom we *knew* all thought that catholic girls were "hot to trot." They were too often right. Bad catholic boys trolled for protestant girls and probably catholic girls who wore turtleneck sweaters during the school week.

For purient material we scoured the south sea islands and Africa sections which were neatly contained between the pristine covers of National Geographic. In my junior year(age 16), one of our daring classmates, Gena Statutory, got hold of the then much talked about Burt Reynolds "spread." What a rip off, Burt was coyly lying on his side in the buff, with his left hand strategically placed. Glad it wasn't my two bucks. He may as well have had a catcher's mitt on for all we saw. Most of us marched out of the girl's washroom more than a little miffed, without even bothering to smoke a verboten ciggie. Burt, you STILL owe me.

To sum up: Yes, we knew you didn't get pregnant from kissing, for which we were grateful, but at least the adults in our lives left us blessedly alone to our devices. Otherwise, they'd have "ruined" it for us by talking about it any more than they absolutely had to. I'm not sure whatever happened to Gina. My guess is she either ended up having 5 kids by 5 different guys, or became a Carmelite nun.
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