Off to the races

Much of the time I would normally be blogging has been eaten up recently by reading. Reading the Bible has become a rather fascinating endeavor, certainly not because every episode in it is enthralling. Still in the middle of the Old Testament now, in one of the two Kings books. For now it is generally quite repetitive, as we go from one king and/or tribe that strays from the true path, most often by worshipping some God other than Yahweh by erecting altars or pillars, and whom the Lord then smites in turn, sometimes hundreds of thousands of them. My mind goes back to Ernst Gombrich's Little History of the World which portrays the Hebrews as this uniquely peace-loving folk, revolutionary monotheists who possess a religion that focuses on ethics. Admittedly, he is trying to compress an awful lot into 120 or so pages, and I do love that book. But he elides an awful lot.

But then in the middle of this serial straying and punishing of kings and their subjects there are moments of interest, you just have to wait for them.

Today my phone started blowing up early, which disrupted my morning routine a little. Working on logistics around a get-together and also some back and forth with mom about some land in Roxboro we hope to dispose of one of these decades. All of which is distracting.

Got Marvin by the house yesterday to look at some painting we want to get done (Mary's Xmas present is knocking this out). Of course that took two hours, but honestly that's why we have Marvin do our painting. So I can get some private hanging out time with my boy.