On Fire

On fire is an apt description of my physical well-being over the last several days. It is no fun to have a fever.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? Or instead make my favorite, sour mix for an amaretto sour!

So while my fever was going I used the time to work on two projects that required me to sit and do nothing, which is all I was up for anyway. And there was a bonus VICTORIA!

Maple Syrup Time

My sons and I have been collecting maple sap for about two weeks, and today it was time to begin the boil down process. I got a start on it a couple of days ago, but I became too sick to tend it. Today I was the perfect amount of unwell to be unable to DO anything but well enough to be awake. Score. I will have a longer post about our first year of Syrup making when we are all ready and have eaten some. And not died from it. Stay tuned.

Roman Calendar Widget

Do you see that beautiful date up top? The one in Latin? Like this:

Hodie est ante diem quintum decimum Kalendas Apriles (a.d. XV Kal. Apr.).

That bit of Latin is generated by script that I built (with help from Granny Google of course!) that inserts today's date in the format of the Roman Calendar but compliant with the Gregorian Calendar, from Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582. Great Britain, and the British colonies in America by extension, adopted the Gregorian calendar in September of 1752 by skipping the eleven days between Wednesday, September 2 and Thursday September 14). It probably required a four-day weekend to get used to it all. The change from the Julian to Gregorian calendar is only a modification of when we take a leap year since the solar year is just slightly less than 365.25 days, which means eventually we will have to not Leap one year that the current rules say we should, near the year 4000.

The Calendar, with 365 days, all the same months and month lengths, was already set by Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, 44 B.C. The Gregorian reform only tweaked the leap year rules and decreed a market correction to skip the 11 days we should have leapt. Leaping days or adding special months or festivals was not new to the ancient or medieval world, however.

So the mystery that I am still chasing is when we changed over from counting the days of the year with the Kalendis/Nonis/Idibus system to numbering them from 1 to 28/30/31. This mystery has yet to reveal itself, so I will keep you posted. If you know more about this, please let me know!

I will soon write a full post with how-to's and sharing of my charts, etc., so stay tuned.

Victoria Bonus!

Victoria dulcior est quam omnia dulcia.

Victory is sweeter than any sweet.

I could have nibbled my way through the day. But I chose to eat when I was hungry, eat slowly and give my body time to say Enough, choose a modest treat when I felt I could handle it, and then I closed kitchen after the evening meal.

A friend posted recently on social media a request for people to share how their year has been. The responses were collectively inspiring. Some people had serious health problems, financial upsets, or relationship explosions. Others had risen from some previous crisis and were soaring on new wings. Many were holding steady, grateful for their blessings and struggles. But everyone shared in general terms in the spirit of encouraging one another with the honesty of their lives. I sensed a divine blessing in the lives of all of the people, the grace of God out-poured in each instance.

And now I am asking myself, how do you want your year to have been? So many things are out of my power. But a few, a very few, are well within my purview. One of these things is what exactly goes into my own mouth. I am lucky to have so much control over this at this time in my life. It is actually too much right now for me to contemplate where I will be in a year from now. But I can sit in the moment with myself. I can love me today, as I am. And I can take care of myself today, as I am. I can turn down a new path, and I can stick to. O Fear, O Shame, O Lonliness, O Jareth, you have no power over me!

You say, "I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want."

You say, "Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave!"

But this say I: "You have no power over me."

"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city. For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great. You have no power over me!"