The eight-hour treadmill becomes seventeen hours.
You put the child to bed.
You sit beside the bed to read to her.
Turn off the light.
And start singing her favorite songs to help her get to sleep.
And while you sing you silently pray,
“Dear Lord, let her fall asleep before I do.”
And while you sing you silently pray,
“Dear Lord, let her fall asleep before I do.”
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Commentary
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Daily life is often fraught with boring repetition.
Why do we subject ourselves?
In the underdeveloped world, people are chained to whatever treadmill they find vacant.
And happy to have a spot on which to walk in place.
Not so we in America.
We have choices.
Almost all of them are their own treadmills and which, once chosen, have ample share of monotony and frustration.
From which once begun, it’s hard to escape.
And yet, this can be the good part.
We make a choice fully cognizant of which treadmill on which we’ll be walking.
Okay with it.
And then catastrophe.
Your part of a couple that suddenly splits.
You have a child.
That child is now solely your responsibility.
And you accept whatever has to be done.
You lift that twenty-pound backpack and shoulder it while you continue to walk the treadmill.
Doable.
For the first fifteen minutes.
Slowly the weight settles on you.
Your legs get tired.
Your walk becomes a trudge.
Sweat.
In your eyes.
Burning.
Tears.
The eight-hour treadmill becomes seventeen hours.
You put the child to bed.
You sit beside the bed to read to her.
Turn off the light.
And start singing her favorite songs to help her get to sleep.
And while you sing you silently pray,
“Dear Lord, let her fall asleep before I do.”
Springtime in Boston.
Rain and mild temperatures for a couple of days yet and then comes the sun and very warm temperatures.
The hours are ticking away and if we don’t make the most of our time another day will soon click past.
Unnoticed.
Unappreciated.
Tick Tock.
In clock language:
Enjoy today.
Enjoy the week.
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Postings Count, Weather Brief, and Dinner
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Our 440th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
After 440 posts we’re at the 8.80 percentile of our commitment, the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.
We are racing to the 10% mark.
Now there’s a mark: only 9 more of such marks in front of us.
Time is 12.01am.
On Thursday, Boston will enjoy mild temperatures, with a high of 68* with a feels-like of 72* with light rain.
Dinner Tuesday was leftover chicken with artichokes and shallots to liven it up.
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Chuckle of the Day:
Thursday, June 20, 2019
A magician worked on a cruise ship and repeated the same tricks every time a new cruise started.
The captain's parrot saw each show and began to understand how the magician did the tricks.
The parrot took to kibitzing, shouting in the middle of the show, "Look, it's not the same hat!" or, "Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!" or "Hey, why are all the cards the ace of spades?"
The magician was furious but couldn't do anything since it was the captain's parrot.
Wood ducks taste better than parrots.
And they’re much bigger.
Then one stormy night on the Pacific, the ship sank, drowning everyone except the parrot and the magician, they sharing a piece of wood floating in the middle of the sea.
They stared at each other with hatred, but neither spoke a word.
This went on for a day... and then 2 days and then 3 days.
Finally on the 4th day, the parrot couldn’t hold back any longer, "OK, I give up. Where's the freakin’ ship?"
We love getting mail.
Contact me at domcapossela@hotmail.com
Thursday, June 20, 2019
This from Sally C:
“Baby food until second grade? I hear you. Well into my teens, I continued to eat Gerber’s boxed dry rice and oatmeal cereal (it resembles wallpaper paste – very fine flakes – but tastes better) – just add milk, water, or fruit juice and stir. Even today, if my innards are feeling tender, a bowl of that settles things nicely.
Sally
Web Meister Responds: And a soft-boiled egg never tasted as good as when my mother fed it to me.
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Today’s Topic
This text reworked from Wikipedia
Thursday, June 20, 2019
The Tang dynasty or the Tang Empire was an imperial dynasty of China spanning the 7th to 10th centuries.
It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilization, and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture.
Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty.
The Tang capital at Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) was the most populous city in the world in its day.
Emperor Gaozu of Tang (7 April 566 – 25 June 635), born Li Yuan, courtesy name Shude, was the founder of the Tang dynasty of China, and the first emperor of this dynasty from 618 to 626.
被迫退位於子的唐高祖。
User Kellerassel on de.wikipedia - http://painting.npm.gov.tw/Painting_Page.aspx?dep=P&PaintingId=1823
The Lǐ family founded the dynasty, seizing power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire.
The dynasty was briefly interrupted when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Second Zhou dynasty (690–705) and becoming the only Chinese empress regnant.
In two censuses of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Tang records estimated the population by number of registered households at about 50 million people.
Yet, even when the central government was breaking down and unable to compile an accurate census of the population in the 9th century, it is estimated that the population had grown by then to about 80 million people.
With its large population base, the dynasty was able to raise professional and conscripted armies of hundreds of thousands of troops to contend with nomadic powers in dominating Inner Asia and the lucrative trade-routes along the Silk Road.
Various kingdoms and states paid tribute to the Tang court, while the Tang also conquered or subdued several regions which it indirectly controlled through a protectorate system.
Besides political hegemony, the Tang also exerted a powerful cultural influence over neighboring East Asian states such as those in Japan and Korea.
Tang dynasty at its greatest extent, c. 669a
No machine-readable author provided.
Louis le Grand~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims).
The Tang dynasty was largely a period of progress and stability in the first half of the dynasty's rule, until the devastating An Lushan Rebellion (755–763) and the decline of central authority in the later half of the dynasty.
Like the previous Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty maintained a civil-service system by recruiting scholar-officials through standardized examinations and recommendations to office.
The rise of regional military governors known as jiedushi during the 9th century undermined this civil order.
Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era; it is traditionally considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry.
Two of China's most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, as did many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, and Zhou Fang.
Scholars of this period compiled a rich variety of historical literature, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works.
The adoption of the title Tängri Qaghan by the Tang Emperor Taizong in addition to his title as emperor was eastern Asia's first "simultaneous kingship".
Man herding horses.
Han Gan (Chinese: 韩干/韓幹) (c. 706-783), a Tang Dynasty painter.
He came from a poor family in either Chang'an, modern-day Xi'an, Shaanxi; Lantian, modern-day Shaanxi; or Daliang, modern-day Kaifeng, Henan.
As a young man, Han Gan was recognized by Wang Wei, a prominent poet, who sponsored Han in learning arts.
Han became a student of Cao Ba, a court painter.
After his studies, Han became a painter in the Tang court.
Han painted many portraits and Buddhistic themed paintings during his career; however, he is most widely remembered for his paintings of horses.
He was reputed to be able to not only portray the physical body of the horse, but also its spirit. His reputation rose and surpassed that of his teacher.
Horse painters of later generations studied Han.
He is honored with a crater named for him on Mercury.
Many notable innovations occurred under the Tang, including the development of woodblock printing.
Buddhism became a major influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence.
However, in the 840s the Emperor Wuzong of Tang enacted policies to persecute Buddhism, which subsequently declined in influence.
Although the dynasty and central government had gone into decline by the 9th century, art and culture continued to flourish.
The weakened central government largely withdrew from managing the economy, but the country's mercantile affairs stayed intact and commercial trade continued to thrive regardless. However, agrarian rebellions in the latter half of the 9th century resulted in damaging atrocities such as the Guangzhou massacre of 878–879.
I have a small piece of porcelain from the Tang.
I visited the Chinese exhibit there.
I do so love mementos
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Good Morning on this Thursday, the twentieth day of June, 2019
We posted a comment on the humdrum of life and its taking a dramatic turn for the worse.
We posted the Boston weather report, the ticking calendar, and the growing number of posts as a time marker, noting that we are rushing to 10% of our commitment, an important marker: only 9 more such segments before time for a reassessment.
And we posted a note from Sally on baby food and well as a chuckle.
We ended with a thumbnail on the Tang dynasty.
And now? Gotta go.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Love.