Morning Vent, 1 February 2026

Pretty low key morning here at the homestead. Most of the family is lounging in the living room around the pellet stove, trying to keep warm. We've been having issues lately with our furnace and baseboard heat, so the pellet stoves have been a godsend.

The picture above is Exoplanet PDS 70c, 370 light years away. It's a protoplanet with a disc around it. The small dot adjacent to the exoplanet is a moon in the process of formation. It's an astonishing look at what the Earth-Moon system likely looked like 4.5 billion years ago.

I'm feeling OK, tho I had a close call day on Friday last. I got so sick I thought I was literally going to die. It passed in a few hours, thank the Lord.

A bit rambly, today, sorry. Anyway, the picture above made me think how the atoms in my body, like everyone else's, were formed in the heart of an exploding star billions of years ago. I want to have faith, but perhaps it's enough that, in that form at least, I can find some permanence. God bless you all with a peaceful and restful Sunday. See you tomorrow, Good Lord Willing.

Evening Vent, 28 January 2026

 The oncologist has ordered a lumpectomy for my wife to remove the breast tumor. After some time for healing, she'll get radiation for the lung tumor, as well as hormone therapy. We're all of us in God's hands.

Heading to work in a bit. Hopefully, things will go smoothly. They never do. But there's always hope.

Bless you all.

Morning Vent, 26 January 2026

 Wife told me that the 2nd biopsy came back positive for cancer. We're waiting on the oncologist to develop a treatment plan. That should be this week sometime. We're all in God's hands.

Today, we're struggling to dig ourselves out of the mountains of snow that dropped on the homestead overnight. When I stepped off the back porch, I was in snow up to my knees.

My daughter and my granddaughter were out with me, trying to dig out. We moved quite a bit, but in the end, we had to call for my daughter in law's snowplowing cousin to help us out. He's coming with the plow truck and a shoveler. Fingers crossed, as they say.

Morning Vent, 25 January 2026

 

Left work at 4 AM due to the big snowstorm coming in. It's snowing like heck outside.

I'm back home with my family, watching the snow pile up outside. I feel fine for the moment.

My wife got a new bookcase this week. My granddaughter won it at a raffle at her job. (She works at an assisted living place. When someone dies, and their family doesn't want their furniture, they raffle it off to the employees there). My daughter accommodated the new bookshelf on the stairs leading down to the back bedroom. While tidying up, she found a handwritten cookbook. The earliest date on it is from 1917.

Some of recipes have faded almost entirely, but some are legible. It's an amazing little piece of family history.