More on sacrifice:

"As soon as sacrifice becomes a duty and necessity to mankind... I see no limit to the horizon which opens before him."--Ernest Renan

"The artists must be sacrificed to their art."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In everyday things the law of sacrifice takes the form of positive duty."--James A. Froude

"Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness."--Napoleon Hill

"True love grows by sacrifice and the more thoroughly the soul rejects natural satisfaction the stronger and more detached its tenderness becomes."--St. Theresa of Lisieux

"Let others laugh when you sacrifice desire to duty, if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in."--Theodore Parker

"There is no moral authority like that of sacrifice."--Nadine Gordimer

"Nothing so much enhances a good as to make sacrifices for it."--George Santayana

"The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality."--T.S. Eliot

Sorry for the length of this posting... I must post more often...

Now having "Networking" problems on Gail's WinXP computer. The "Opera" browser had seemed to help a bit as far as the "Browser" errors are concerned but now the "Networking" errors occur. Gail does like the "Opera" style and functionality better than IE6. Same problem with different error messages ? Did a "System Restore" to try to help... but some problems persist... and now I can't re-download "Opera". Still digging for answers. Wednesday p.m. thru most of Thursday a.m.: Un-did the system restores and "Opera" has re-appeared. Created a new network launch for browsing and continued to tweak Windows. The problem seems to be a heating problem with the box itself... it has been very hot weather wise for computers. The main fan is functional, but I'm leary of cracking the seal of the box in case Gail wishes to try the warranty route to check the CPU fan and air flow through the cables, et al. I've no such compunction with my old box.

My/Dad's car... Gail's nephew, Greg, connected the coil wire I found inside the car and put some gas in and it started right away... and nothing was done for repairs... it ran until the gas ran out. Dunno... it's been sitting almost 5 years since it died on me. All I remember trying way back when was installing two new gas filters, changing wires and plugs and I couldn't get it to go. Maybe it just needed a long nap... that's pretty much how I've felt these last near five years. With depression hitting I just hadn't cared pretty much about anything. I pray I'm over that hurdle... but I know it's just not that simple. Time to start saving for tires, et al.

Temperature near 100° Fahrenheit on Monday afternoon (on the 5th). Gail and I toughed it out until late afternoon and then retired to the pool to cool off. The water was too cold for Gail, she got out rather quickly, but just at the limit of my tolerance... sweet ! Dinner al fresco with the in-laws, who also own the pool, a large doughboy that's about as deep as 6 feet, just about 17 centimeters less than 2 meters. More of the same, temperature wise, on Tuesday. I went in the pool at about 4:00 p.m. for a l-o-n-g soak. The grandkids, David, 7, and Ashley, 3, joined me after about two hours... they, perhaps, tired of the heat and cartoons in our non-air conditioned home... well, maybe not the cartoons. We then left the pool about an hour later much refreshed and me a bit prunish. Thursday thru today... the heat down to a modest 85° to 90° Fahrenheit with light breezes on occasion.

Chrissy and the gang arrived home just as we finished dinner from San Francisco on Monday last (the 5th). Newish motor cycle, for Richard, in the back of Richard's cousin's truck. Tales of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Wax Museum by grandson David. No Alcatraz this trip... evidently now $40.00 USD per person for the package deal they peddle... the Wax Museum was something like $14.00 USD. It's hard to believe it's been nearly twenty years since I've been to The City by the Bay... and I lived relatively close, in Campbell, as late as 1991... it just doesn't seem possible.

I'm a space buff, amongst other things. The Cassini project studying Saturn and its system has me as jazzed as when the comet, Schumacher/Levy, plunged into Jupiter a few years back. Here's a link to a site keeping tabs on the Cassini project from Space.com (I get a daily newsletter). Makes me glad I get the NASA, National Space Administration, channel on DSS satellite TV now too !

Power Macintosh / Power PC 850/180 (box only) w/ O.S. 7.5, 64MB ram, 2 Gigs hard drive only $ 15.99 USD at a thrift store !!! Had I not a need for cash to fix up Dad's car I would have snatched it up !

Wednesday... we went to Auburn for some x-rays for Gail... the technician took at least 3 x-rays of her back. An interest was definitely piqued by the tech, though Gail was not apprised of any info at this time. Gail said it may have to do with an extra vertebrae she was once told she has... news to me. Gail can barely walk at times with her pain.

Wednesday night "Sunday school"... reading from "True to the Faith... a Gospel Reference". I was asked to say a closing prayer in advance by one of the teachers, which I managed with some trepidation and halting. I have an immense aversion to speaking in a group, let alone in front of a group. In school I would rather avoid standing in front of class by being absent for a verbal report and take a lower grade than deal with the angst of being bared. There are those that believe getting out of one's "comfort zone" is good... but I still have a long way to go in this discipline... my failing. The evening's readings and discussions have aroused intense feelings within that need much more reflection... as I continue on His path toward salvation.

Nearing home on Thursday we were passed by fire units tearing off down the American River Canyon (south fork). Sure enough, a fire perhaps five miles from home just off Highway 193 near the turnoff to Mosquito... evidently an exercise by the local fire departments. A helicopter appeared to actually land in a turnoff on the Highway. I'm thankful that the fire was 'knocked down' in quick fashion... the fuels for a disastrous fire are quite available up in our area and the dangers of out-of-hand exercises do exist.

The Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) has been formed as of June 2004... cool !!! Another link added to my Accessibility page, see side bar. I've had an interest in designing for accessibility for years, unfortunately I have minimal skills at this point, but now have a place to perhaps answer some of my questions and lead me on to the straight and narrow in that respect.

Friday... sister Deb finally got hold of me after some phone-tag. Looking forward to the pictures of Mandy's wedding from last March. I have yet to edit the pictures I took with my modest digital camera... most of the pictures were under- or over-exposed, due to the lighting conditions and my lack of a flash unit for the camera.

Saturday noon... My mother-in-law, Candy, was having problems breathing... EMT's, Emergency Med Team, drove her to Auburn for monitoring. I had no clue what was going on 'til my sister-in-law called, long distance, to see what was going on. The EMT's left shortly after with Candy. She returned home in the early evening after treatment.

Gail and the family... and many of the Breland family, Richard's brother(s), etc., went to another picnic at Bear Creek on Sunday the 11th. I elected for some peace and quiet at home after returning home from Church.

Wonderful day at Church on Sunday... Ward conference... A talk on "Centering your life in Jesus Christ" and a lesson on 'sacrifice' the most memorable.

Walks to and from the point of my ride to Church accomplished... no foot pain at all !!!

Interesting... I had noticed my BLOG appearing differently on my sisters', Peg's and Debi's, MAC and PC in times past... but now that I see the difference using Opera versus IE6 on Gail's and my computer I am aware of the greater truth... HTML tables, especially my tables of 'tiled .gifs', do not render as I format them in other browsers... in fact they're apparently non-existent except when using IE6 with my current settings. Guess I'll have to learn the CSS method and see if that will solve the disparity, not that the white background looks bad in my eyes. My main hope had been to set off the poetry from the main. What one should  see is (2) tiled .gifs as a background that lies in a layer under the verbiage: a lighter background 'tiled .gif' for the main body, and a darker 'tiled .gif' background for the heading quotation and poetry. What really fries my mind is that sometimes the darker background 'tiled .gif' seems to render on my "More Poems" collections pages once in a while in "Opera" ? Other differences are apparent, like the fact that hovering the cursor over my animated .gif of Figaro and I gives a small caption identifying the picture in IE6, but does not in "Opera"... the ALT attribute ignored. These differences are near moot aesthetically... a few template HTML edits made.

Interesting Too... my gmail account with Google is not supported in "Opera" ??? Weird... looks like no matter what one does for an alternative browser, IE will still be needed for this application or that... as well as the plethora of patches and fixes for Microsoft Windows itself.

Updated my Accessibility links web page... it's at the top of the list on the right in my links (recht!!!) section.

My entries... " Poetry in Motion " daily contest:

~~~~~~~~~~ Rose Moon Rose Moon in daylight Pearl set in an azure sky Canyon's rough crags fête :Bobby Nichols 7-7-2004 The Desolate Tree Lone stark witness stands Against a desert of snow As ranch hands drive herd :Bobby Nichols 7-6-2004 ~~~~~~~~~~