"The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe." - Gustave Flaubert

That quote up there describes some of what happened when I wrote Questions In Dispensationalism. In the course of my research for some sections my thoughts on some issues morphed. An astute reader will notice a couple of places where the second book takes a different position than the first.

As days go this one didn't start very well at all. Early, but not well.

I got up about 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom, something fairly normal for me. (Sometimes I make it to 2:30). But two minutes later I could feel a wave of trouble coming. I laid down on the bathroom floor where I broke into a sweat that quickly drenched me. I did my best and succeeded in fighting off the urge to purge and got myself up and back into bed about 30 minutes later.

Because of my history with things like this I was VERY glad I didn't go into a seizure, especially because I'm alone in this house. When a seizure happens I depend on Pam to protect me during and help me afterward with the near total exhaustion. I felt the exhaustion and once back in bed didn't move until about 7 a.m.

When it happens that quickly and at that interval after eating it's almost always food poisoning.
Yep.

Someone did a great job of stocking this house with basic food items. Three boxes of cereal, some cans of soup, a loaf of bread with peanut butter and jam..... Even a 2 liter of Diet Coke in the fridge.
Yesterday I noticed a salad "kit" also in the fridge, way in the back on the top shelf. Hmmmm.
Lettuce, croutons, grated cheese, and a packet of dressing all in one bag. Clever idea. I mixed it all in a bowl and had it along with some of the rotisserie chicken I'd purchased earlier in the afternoon.

So this morning after I'd regained my sea legs I dug that salad bag out of the trash.
"Expiration date: 2/22/18,"
I figure it was the dressing.
I probably won't finish the leftovers.

By noon I was ready for some food and had a PBandJ sandwich and a banana.

At 3:00 I went for an easy loping 2-mile run, just enough to get out of the house and move. I took my camera with me to show you some sights.

One of my frequent running routes takes me down South Bay Ave that leads to....wait for it!....the bay. Just up from the bay is a marina and boat service business. They have hundreds of boats big and small all wrapped up for the winter. I asked one of the guys who was out working on a boat how they do that. It's a special plastic that they lay around the boat and then heat with a big propane torch attached to a tank like on a BBQ. The plastic shrinks tightly around the boat.

Most of the wraps are opaque but a couple of the boats had a transparent wrap.
I said to the guy, "There's a lot of money in here."
"Oh yeah."
He said they'll start showing up in about a month, get their boats recommissioned, and spend the summer on the water.
Lots of money on Long Island!

Almost to the end of South Bay Ave. is this B and B. I went up on the porch to peek in the front doors and the guy opened it. (I jumped in surprise.) The place was built 20 years ago but he and his wife have just been running it for about the last 10. It ain't cheap (prices here).

He said they do well during the summer but need to get more off-season rentals to really make a go of it.

I installed motion-sensor lights on the end of MoHo and on the south end of the barn. The sensors are aimed so that as I walk down to Fred they come on as I walk and keep the path illuminated. Sometimes the lights come on during the night or early in the morning when I'm up before the sun. Sometimes it's deer, sometimes it's a heavy rain - especially the one on the barn - and sometimes it's the cats.

When I talked to her today Pam said the barn light came on the other night just as she was headed to bed. She looked out the blinds and saw a nutria. They are rodents, indigenous to Brazil, were imported to the southeast by people who were going to raise them for fur, and then things got out of hand. Now they're considered an invasive and very damaging pest that eats vegetation so fast that they quickly turn areas around a creek into bare ground. And they breed incredibly fast. Ten to 20 pounds each.

In Oregon it's legal for a landowner to shoot them so long as firing a gun is legal where they live (it is out in the woods north of Elmira!). The question: can I get close enough to take them out with my 9mm pistol or do I need a .22 rifle? I'll have to get to work on this problem as soon as I get home because Pam will be planting our vegetable garden soon and it's just up from the creek - the nutria's preferred habitat.

#ThisRuralLife