I find Joseph Joubert's penned thoughts to be quite elegant. If one were to click on the link above a lengthy list of his quotes are noted. I note here those that strike a chord in me... more from Joseph Joubert, writer/philosopher:

~~~~~~ "Writing is closer to thinking than to speaking." ~~~~~~
~~~~~~ "Are you listening to the ones who keep quiet?" ~~~~~~
~~~~~~ "The word, in fact, is disembodied thought." ~~~~~~
"The poet. He paints passions under glass."
"Melancholy: when we have sorrows without a name."
"Thought forms in the soul in the same way clouds form in the air."
"Where do thoughts go? Into the memory of God."

My daughter Chrissy has started her new job up here locally. The only thing I know that she will do is handle the phones, maintain appointments using Microsoft Outlook, and possibly use a word processor for letters, and maybe use Microsoft Excel for reports. I gave her a quick over-view of Windows XP with Gail's computer last week.

I played some pitch, hit, and grunt with grandson David on Monday. I pitch, from a safe distance away, and he hits, very well for a seven-year-old, and I chase after the baseball... grunting all the way, doing my best to get up the hill that used  to bring the ball back to me by way of its slope. He now hits the ball beyond to a plateau. I'll have to scout out another spot to save my energy again.
Tuesday David was too sick to go to Summer school with a sore throat, that seemed to get instantly better once his mother left for work. That left the two grandchildren with my wife Gail for the day. Individually the grandkids are somewhat well behaved... together they're often quite horrid... as on this day.

Bats in the early evening dark, Tuesday and Saturday, wheeling and diving while I water some plants. Fun to watch in the near-full moonlight. With the weather being moderate so far this Summer I've been able to be lax with the watering.

My Mother-in-law is showing her puppies, Shiba Inu's, to prospective buyers. Beautiful dogs. Everyone remarks on their resemblance to a fox... perhaps their color and size.

A letter from LDS Elder Talbot. He makes note of a great difference in the noise and population between that of the greater Sacramento area and our quiet little back-country life. Ministering the gospel will be no challenge to one so blessed as he, as with Elder Thompson who left our area before him. I bless the missionaries in my prayers as often as I can, especially Elders Thompson and Talbot who first took me under their wing.

Wednesday meeting at church, LDS, on the Abrahamic Covenant(s). I had a question on the meaning of the Celestial marriage covenant ( D&C 131 ). It appears that not being married in the Temple might obviate, possibly, or at best delay an ascension to the highest plane of heavenly glory for an LDS/non-LDS couple, lest, after a period of time, instruction and covenant making after death of the non-LDS spouse allows the couple to be worthy of an after-life Celestial marriage. This further necessitates the need for future family to continue the Lord's work in the Temple in the manner of baptisms for the dead, to attain the apex of salvation's reward for all family members past...... as best as I could ascertain from the Elders and Teachers. I find it to be a blessing that Gail and I might still become worthy if Gail never embraces the full Gospel in this mortal life, but may do so in her after-life ... I pray she does.

Beautiful full moon out this week, Wednesday & Thursday, with wispy clouds reflecting the silvery moon's glow.

Friday: Contentious day for Gail and I... all my fault... I apoligised... nuff said.

Finally was able to download "Opera" a full featured free version browser to take over for Internet Explorer, IE6, on Gail's WinXP computer. Her computer has been slow and nearly useless for use on the web with browser this error and browser that error when she tried to surf the web. Her connection speed is half mine on a separate phone line which accounts for some of the speed issues... but the browser errors stumped me. I have anti-adware and anti-spyware and a software firewall, ZoneAlarm freeware, that should have wiped any spyware out... and set and reset IE6's options many times... some reverting back to what was after I reset ? Bye-bye IE6 !!! I'm still happy with IE6 on my computer, Win98SE, but have had "Opera" installed as a backup for occasional browsing and IE6 trouble-shooting for quite some time. I may yet take the bye-bye IE6 route myself soon... but not yet.

Saturday, Gail's nephew, Greg, attempted to start my car, Dad's old car, that has been sitting for almost 5 years. After he charged another battery, mine is quite dead, and connected a coil wire borrowed from his truck, mine missing?, he poured gas into the carburetor, since the gas in the gas tank is most probably polluted, and did manage to 'turn it over'. At this time Mom had called and while I was chatting with her and watching Greg with the repairs/diagnosticating the carburetor managed to catch fire, a few times. Nothing too bad, just a minor adrenaline rush. While Gail was yelling to get the water hose and Mom was telling me over the phone to smother it and I was watching and talking on the phone, Greg and my brother-in-law Kenny calmly blew the fire out... two or three times. Poor car needs tires, battery, and who knows what else. Oh, and that stuff from DMV to update... shudder !!!

Mom had been gone from her home in Alaska for about a week and was 'checking in'. Evidently the fires up in Fairbanks are worse than I had imagined from the news because Mom said the smoke was visible beyond Anchorage.

Another critical update from Microsoft... done and done.

I've finally started on my fourth, fifth, and sixth poetry collections and begun the edit of my BLOG template... just a little more time to finish. Hopefully 30+ poems, or what pass as poems in my case, per collection... including 10 older, pre-November '03 attempts, making 100+/- poems to transcribe and edit and debug (the HTML/CSS).

" Love Wings... "... A quick poem to render... the 'tiles' most kind. I didn't have to print out the list of 'tiles' as I usually do before manipulating them into fashion. The only hangup was in creating the word 'through' which I had to pare down from a combination of five 'tiles' to four to get the 'tile' count down to the maximum of 20.

" Seeking Celestial "... Life eternal with Heavenly Father.

" The Phiz-ical Gnome "... a Haiku: phiz... a British term for visage or face. Actually the water course, or stream, appears to be an entire gnomish figure with pointed cap and all with one huge black eye and button nose midst a bushy brow and beard of white... framed by trees with heavy powdered snow.

" Years After the Fire "... a Haiku: The oak tree a lone monument to a past fire... while flora that began anew after the fire flourishes in Spring.

" Eye "... a Haiku: Before I turned off my dial-up accelerator (Earthlink) the photo appeared to be a pixelized/stylized nuclear explosion with its reflection in the water... actually very pretty. In reality the photo forms an eye, the camera obscuring black the feathered outline of the orb. Rippled blue water fading to amber in the foreground gets separated from the sky by a thin set of mountains in the center framed themselves by the amber light from a setting sun and reflected water. The sky going from amber to creme-colored to blue. The tiny golden dot of a sun nestled between the mountains throws off an equally golden linear reflection one-third of the way back towards the foreground in the water forming an upside-down exclamation mark... or the letter 'i' in small case.

" Fall Leaves... Gold "... a Haiku: "... a quiet falls"... both a quiet falls in the aspect of no noise, and as appearing like  a falls in inertial quietude, static, merely appearing to flow down the embankment... the path defined by the shadows of the surrounding trees, in the photo, whose fall raiment is of gold... not browns, nor reds, nor purples.

Ah... it's later than I intended for this session... still hot and sticky. A quick shower and to bed...