"A career is a wonderful thing, but you can't snuggle up to it on a cold night." - Marilyn Monroe

On May 30, 1889 the bra was invented.

It's snowing in hell.
Deputy Defense Sect. Ashton Carter said today the administration is working to avoid cuts in defense spending mandated by last year's Budget Control Act, which mandates a 5% cut in Pentagon spending in the next fiscal year.
I know it's an election year, but a Democratic President arguing for a bigger military budget?
Remember when the "guns or butter" tag line identified the difference between Democrats and Republicans?
In his last speech before leaving office Republican President and former 5-star General Dwight Eisenhower warned America about the "military industrial complex."

They make a big deal here about the first triple digit temps of the year. We hit that mark a few weeks ago. They say we'll hit the teens before the week's out.
Uff-dah.

I have a love/hate relationship with swimming. I'd love to swim well but hate my inability to do more than what can best be described as drowning avoidance. After my first disastrous sprint triathlon I committed to learning to swim smoothly and efficiently, and spent the next year working through the Total Immersion program. (It should take 6-8 weeks.) Great program! Lousy student. The next tri went much better if the criteria is the degree of improvement. I never feared drowning. But anyone who hadn't seen that first disaster would have said I was a non-swimmer.

The wall of windows at the rec center gym looks out over two pools. The crowded one is a walking pool, a big deal anywhere lots of seniors live. Basically it's a large 3' deep pool with 10'-15' long curved 3'6" high walls inside, setting up a course for old people who want to convince themselves they're exercising.

Next to it is an 8-lane 25m pool that's 4' deep at one end and just under 6' at the other. The Sun City swim club meets there in the morning but the rest of the time it's underused. And mocking me as I work out in the gym.

So yesterday, after a week of thinking about it, I packed my suit and goggles along with my workout gear. I decided to work through the training drills in Total Immersion to remind myself of its principles. It starts with the most basic skills, and even experienced swimmers are supposed to relearn things like the back float. The system puts together a series of individual maneuvers, assembling them sequentially until you're swimming with maximum efficiency. If you're doing one of the early maneuvers improperly everything after that will be flawed. (Illustration in search of a sermon.) I only did the first three or four drills in the sequence to re-glue them in my head, but it came back quickly. At this point it feels easier and more natural than it did the last time I was in a pool - for that second tri two years ago.
But it's very early.

The sermon is "written" and the slides made. But this one needs the extra time to simmer.
In our adult class (second hour) we're doing "Ask the Pastor" during June. People can submit questions about anything to do with the Bible, theology, the church, Pathway Bible Church, or Pam's TV viewing habits. So far I have some great questions. Should be fun.