Of course..... I got a call from the publisher; she doesn’t know that she can make it today.  Why am I not surprised???

I’ve reached the point that expecting something is painful.

If you are seeing large lime green caterpillars on plants, especially parsley, don’t kill them.  They are pre-butterflies.  Monarch I think.  They won’t eat much before they spin a cocoon.  Save the animals, birds, insects etc.

Except roaches and rats.

The temp in my area went from the 90’s to the 50’s yesterday and today.  I sat on my back porch and talked to God and explained how thankful I was he decided to give us relief.  

And then it rained.  Hallelujah!!  My tomatoes said, “Thank you.”  I said, “Thank you,” as well.

The large bare dirt 15 feet across place in my backyard where a huge (huge) crape myrtle had shaded the ground, for thirty years before I bought the place, is now grown over with grass--once I had the tree trimmed, the sun did it’s thing.  My entire yard is now green.

I’m feeling blessed today.

 

The problem with losing your computer for two weeks is that when you finally get it back there are hundreds of e-mails and a zillion facebook notices.  

The only way to deal with it is to delete them all and hope none were important.  Which is probably true.  It’s the same with the postal mail.  All junk.

I’m sure that I lost some of my blog readers.  They probably thought that I bit the dust.  That said...I will say....hello to you!

I have received notice from my publisher that tomorrow morning she is coming to my house with a bound final copy of my first book.  I am afraid to believe that it is true.  I have an emotional flutter in my chest that I can’t calm down.

I wonder what it will look like to see a book named “The Letter” with the author’s name “Janie Jacks” on the cover.  It seems surreal.  I can hardly wait.  She says that I will have copies to take to Hardy’s book store for the high school reunion on the 3rd of July.

I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.  I’ve been disappointed too many times.  There are two ways to publish: pay someone, ie Amazon, or find a publisher that will buy the book.  When you sign a contract with a publisher who buys the book, you are at their mercy as to when it is published.  But the advantages are immense.  One is that they push to get it into libraries.  They do extensive advertising...I hope it works.  I’m holding my breath.  It is definitely not the money--which is minimal--I just want everyone to read it....

ng th s

Not blogging is like loosing an old friend. I have done this for over 2500 days.  It’s amazing that I didn’t quit at some point.

My curser on my computer quit moving.  I couldn’t even shut it down.  Craig worked on it for days, finally re-synced it.  Whatever that means and it is up again, but he and Becky both think it’s time for a new one.  I just do what they tell me to do.  Both of them are engineers and computer gurus

And as I am typing this, the curser is failing again.

I am in Bible  School this week and I think this is my last year.  It is a lot of walking jumping and playing which my old bod can’t do any more.  My grandson Brady is staying with me so he can go.  He loves it.  Which is good.

Today is the last day.  Which is also good.  I’m worn out.  

Craig fixed the old computer--somewhat.  I have to use a mouse with it, and I haven’t used a mouse in six years.  It’s an adjustment--which I don’t like.  The older I get the harder adjustment gets.  A new one is on order and will be here next week.  It will be lighter and smaller.  Lighter I like.  Smaller, I don’t know.  I am going to have to adjust.  No choice.

My computer crashed.  I’ve been out of sync for days.  I get a new one next week.  I’ll be back.

I am drowning in paper.  I don’t seem to be able to figure out what to do with it.  Some of my friends take a picture of it with their phone, but I don’t think I would ever be able to find the phone record when I wanted it.  Problem is, I don’t even know if I want it.

That’s the problem.  What if I decide I want it and I threw it away.  Every thing else in my life I know where it goes and what to do with it.  Not printed paper.

I have started shredding bills once I pay them.  Which is a vast improvement.  I used to save them for a year.  Why?  I have no idea.  I have the check stub or the record on my computer.  Now I only save the bills where I have made a purchase that might be returned.  Because I know that although I have the receipt, I wouldn’t be able to find it.

How can a mathematician be so incapable of organizing paper?  I haven’t figured that out yet.  It’s on my to-do list.

If there was a class on how to use my phone and Mac-book Pro that was close by---I’d go.  I-phone for dummies is what I need.  I have found the Command Z on my Mac.  Which gives me some confidence.  I can now un-do what I just did.  So I am not so fearful of making a mistake.  Tech is not easy for my generation.  Or maybe it’s just me??? 

Sunday we studied the appearance of Jesus in the room where his disciples and the women and others were hiding from the Jews.  He just appeared.  Scared them to death.

Which is interesting, because Jesus said to touch him that he was flesh and bones, and then he ate a fish.  Bodily form.  He wasn’t a ghost.  How did he get into the room if he was flesh and bones?  Did he just pass through the walls?

Which made me think...what is the  way he changed from spiritual to physical?  And next, where is the abode of the spiritual?  Where is heaven?   We always look “up” to heaven, but if that is true, what about the people on the other side of the earth.  Their up is our down.

Maybe heaven is all around us but we just can’t see the spiritual--we don’t have “eyes” to see.  I don’t know.  But when I start asking those kind of questions, my mind rattles back and forth. 

God is everywhere.  He is spirit.  What is that?  What is spirit?  Where is it?  How does it go from spirit to bodily form like Jesus did that day after the resurrection--in such a way as to pass through walls.

Maybe I ask too many questions?

June 1, and it is still cold in mid-Oklahoma.  Strange spring.  Yesterday it rained all day.  I’m wearing a sweater today.  I slept under a down comforter last night.

I have decided that this is a good time to read the writings of Josephus.  Many educated Bible theologians quote this Biblical figure.  He was a Pharisee living in Jerusalem at the time of Christ, and considered to be the most informed historical writer about Herod.

I think I finally want to find out for myself what the big to-do is about Josephus.  So far, all I’ve learned is that Herod was a murderer of an extreme degree.  He even killed his own sons.

I’m not much interested in Herod.  Or his wives.  Or relatives.  Their names are hard to keep track of.  Many names look similar.  Suffice to say that it feels like I am wading through quicksand.

I want to get to something that adds to the narrative about Jesus.

However, I’m reading it.  I finished reading “Their Finest Hour” by Winston Churchill the last few weeks.  It has me prepared for quicksand.  Every memo he wrote to a zillion people prepared me to read Josephus.  Both are rich in detail.  And I have the attention span of a gnat.  But, I’m getting it done.