December 31, 2021. This morning it was 72° and I had a 4 knot breeze out of the SE. Water temp was 71.6°. Cloudy to start but it cleared up.

December 30, 2021 This morning it is still dark and cloudy but 30°. It snowed another inch last night. Jen came down to say goodbye. AJ came down to use a four wheeler. Then we went to the new shed to continue “boarding” (adding boards to finish the walls). Then I was off to Bangor for my flight home. Here in Bangor it is 28° and snowing.

Today the temperature went up to 37°, the snow is just right for a snowball fight, or a snowman, but….after I went out to make a snowman, the sun went behind the clouds and the snow froze up solid. I did build a small snowman though by using snow that fell off of the roof.

Tuesday December 28, 2021, a heat wave 28°! Still snowing off and on, solid clouds, no wind.

A video of the wood processer in action is at the following link:
https://youtu.be/Ts9m3kEBzJ4
We spent the day today offloading the wood processor and getting it going. We got a load done and took it over to Michael’s camp.

Yesterday AJ and Mike drove to Connecticut to pick up the wood processer. They arrived back home at 10 PM. The girls decided that they would slide down the driveway to meet them! 19° and I could see a few stars through the clouds.
[it is, as I write this, snowing like crazy!!]

Photos from Jen:

Monday, December 27, 2021, cloudy, some snow, no wind, 25°.

Sunday December 26, 2021, Cloudy, snowing, no wind, 25°.

Merry Christmas from Vermont

Saturday December 25, 2921, Cloudy, SNOWING, no wind, CHRISTMAS

Friday, December 24, 2021, Sunny (but the sun goes behind the mountain about 2:30 PM so at 4 PM it is mostly dark), about 4°F (it was -5°F last night), no wind, snow crunches underfoot. Christmas Eve!

Wednesday, December 22, 2021, Cloudy, 60°, humidity 75%, water temperature 68° (winter is here), winds 6 to 8 knots out of the North, waves 2-4 inch in bay.

Sunday December 19, 2021. Cloudy, foggy, 72°, humidity 82%, water temperature 71°, wind out of SE 4 knots, 1-2 inch waves.

Saturday December 18, 2021. Great day this morning, 71°,
humidity 50%,wind out of the East 4 knots, water temp 72°, 3 to 4 inch waves, beautiful day!

Friday December 17, 2021. Great day this morning, 69°,
humidity 50%,wind out of the East 2-3 knots, water temp 72°, beautiful day!

Thursday December 16, 2021. Great day this morning, 71°, wind out of the north 3-4 knots, water temp 72°, had a nice time.

Wednesday December 15, 2021, got my results from the blood tests, all passed! Great day this morning, 71°, wind out of the north 3-4 knots, water temp 72°, had a nice time.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021, managing the gym day. No kayaking.
An interesting article: http://Incredible ‘lost’ cities that have been recently found (msn.com)

My annual physical is Wednesday, so this morning they took blood to check for me. So I got out late. Wouldn’t you believe it, Allan saw three otters cavorting right behind his house! And I missed it!
71°, 1 knot winds out of the east, smooth water, on the way back, 74° and 4 knot wind out of the north. Water temperature 72°, that is why with temperatures down in the 60’s we had all that fog.

Guest photographer today (Kay), fog very thick but Kay and Marian went out anyway! Upper 70’s, no wind. Marian says that they saw dolphins, Anhingas, Cormorants and talked to a boat owner that was oa a great trip. Kay said that it was quite eerie out there, socked in by the fog

Today was crazy, the only thing I accomplished was continue reading a book written by Toby Wilkerson. He translates hieroglyphics. Here is one he translated that has survived 4000 years: (Note the West is the afterlife, I do not believe that the writer believed he has a soul, I think he was playing with us!)

The Dialogue of a Man and His Soul

This remarkable work is preserved on a papyrus from Thebes dating to the second half of the Twelfth Dynasty. It may have been composed only a few decades earlier (c. 1850 Be). At least half a sheet, perhaps more, is missing from the beginning of the manuscript; the remaining text comprises 155 lines out of a probable original 190.

The poem takes the form of a dialogue between a man contemplating death and his soul. In ancient Egyptian belief, the ba, translated as ‘soul’, referred to the aspect of someone’s personality that survived death. One of the ironies inherent in the text is that the soul should praise life, while the living man extols death; the man sees death as a blessing, while his soul sees it as painful and irreversible. Both man and soul accept the transitory nature of life and the reality of the afterlife; they differ, not in their beliefs but in their attitudes to death. The text thus explores the contrasting views of death as expressed in the official discourse and in people’s more private fears. In its cynicism, its rich imagery and its focus on internal angst and alienation, the work has affinities with The Words of Khakheperraseneb and other compositions of the Middle Kingdom.

At the start of the preserved text, the man, weary of life, urges his soul to stand by him. But his soul interrupts and argues that life should be valued. There follows an intense argument, the man warning the soul of dire consequences should it abandon him and the soul telling two parables to illustrate the wretchedness of death. Where the man has spoken of death as ‘a harbor’, the soul uses the metaphor of a shipwreck. The man’s images of a blessed afterlife are countered with images of despair. In reply, the man recites four litanies to justify his point of view. In the first, a series of hyperbolic images describe how his life ‘stinks’; in the second, the state of society in general is cast in wretched terms; in the third, the tone changes from despair to hope, the man presenting death as a release and a relief; and in the fourth, he extols the blessed afterlife as a consummation devoutly to be wished. The work ends with a final speech from the soul in which the two protagonists are reconciled and they look forward to life and death together.

Through a myriad of literary forms and a wealth of imagery, The Dialogue of a Man and His Soul explores death and attitudes to death in all their contradiction and complexity. It is arguably the masterwork of ancient Egyptian literature.

… several lost and fragmentary lines . ..

I opened my mouth to my soul to answer what he had said: ‘This is too

much for me today; my soul does not agree

with me.

It is beyond exaggeration: my soul departing is akin to

ignoring the problem!

He should stand up for me in this matter, my companion

who pushes his life away!

He will not be allowed to thwart me, since he is enmeshed

with my very body.

He will not escape on the Day of Suffering.

Look, my soul leads me astray, even though I do not listen

to him;

Pulls me towards death, even though I have not yet come

to it;

Throws me on the fire to burn me up!

What is his suffering …

That he should turn his back on his companion?

He should be near me on the Day of Suffering,

He should stand on yonder side1 like one who rejoices:

That is how to proceed and arrive there safely.
o my soul, who is foolish to downplay the misery of life,

Who drags me towards death, even though I have not yet

come to it!

Make the West2 pleasant for me! Is this suffering?

Life is a transitory state: trees fall.

Trample on Evil, cast my misery aside!

May Thoth, who appeases the gods, judge me!

May Khonsu, who writes the Truth, defend me!

May Ra, who steers the barque, hear my words!

May the god of the scales3 defend me in the Judgment Hall!4

For my need is heavy, the burden he has placed on me.

It would be sweet relief if the gods were to rid my body of

its difficulties!’

What my soul said to me:

 ‘Are you not a man?

So, you are alive, but to what end?

You should ponder life, as a possessor of riches!’

I said: ‘I have not passed on yet, but that is not the point!

Indeed, you are the one leaping away – to a place where

you will not be cared for

And where every criminal will say, “I will seize you!”

When you die, but your name lives on,

Yonder is a place of alighting, of security for the mind.

The West is a harbor to which the alert are safely rowed.

If my soul listens to me, without wrongdoing,

His mind in accordance with mine, he will flourish.

I will make him reach the West, like someone in a pyramid

Whose burial an heir5has attended.

I will make an awning for your corpse

That will make another lost soul envious!

I will make an awning that will not be too cold,

That will make another scorched soul envious!

I will drink water at the river’s edge and erect a gazebo

That will make another hungry soul envious!

But if you drag me towards death in this way,

You will find nowhere to alight in the West.
Be patient, my soul, my brother,
Until an heir exists who will make offerings,
Who will attend the tomb on the day of burial
And transport the bier to the necropolis!’

My soul opened his mouth to me, to answer what I had

said:

‘If you think about burial, it is heart-breaking, tearful,

miserable!

It is taking a man away from his home

And casting him upon the high ground!

You will not go out again and see the sun.

Those who built in granite achieved works – beautiful

pyramids, beautiful works –

So that their builders should become gods.

Yet their altars have been destroyed

Like the lost souls who have perished on the shore for

want of an heir,

When the waves have taken their toll

And the sunlight likewise,

To whom only the fish at the water’s edge speak.

Listen to me! Look, it is good to listen to people!

Be happy and forget all cares!’

The soul’s first parable

‘A commoner ploughs his plot.

He loads his harvest into a boat

And tows it along, for his feast-day draws near

And he has seen the darkness of a north wind coming on.

He keeps watch in the boat

As the sun sets,

Then gets out with his wife and children;

And they perish by a pool

Encircled at night by crocodiles.

He ends by sitting down and crying out,

“I do not weep for that one who was born,6

Although for her there is no leaving the West

To be on earth again;

But I think about her children,

Broken in the egg,

Who saw the face of the Crocodile7 before they had really

lived.” ,

The soul’s second parable

‘A commoner asks for (his) meal.

His wife says to him, “Wait until supper!”

He goes outside for a moment’s relief.

When he turns back to the house, he is like another (man).

His wife pleads with him, but he does not listen to her;

He is offended and unyielding to the (other members of

the) household.’

The man’s first litany

I opened my mouth to my soul, to answer what he had

said:

‘Look, my name stinks,

look, more than the smell of carrion

on summer days when the sky is hot.

Look, my name stinks,

look, more than a catch of eels

on a catch-day when the sky is hot.

Look, my name stinks,

look, more than the smell of birds,

more than a covert of reeds full of waterfowl.

Look, my name stinks,

look, more than the smell of fishermen,

more than the creeks of the marshes they have fished.

Look, my name stinks,

look, more than the smell of crocodiles,

more than sitting under a bank full of crocodiles.

Look, my name stinks,

look, more than a married woman

about whom salacious lies are told.
Look, my name stinks,
look, more than a healthy child
about whom it is said, “He belongs to someone who
hates him.”
Look, my name stinks,
look, more than a harbor of the sovereign
that utters sedition behind his back.’

The man’s second litany

‘To whom can I talk today?

Brothers are bad;

Today’s friends do not care.

To whom can I talk today?

Minds are greedy;

Every man steals his fellow’s belongings.

To whom can I talk today? .

Mercy has perished;

Sternness has descended upon everyone.

To whom can I talk today?

There is contentment with badness .

While goodness is cast aside everywhere.

To whom can I talk today?

He who should enrage another with his bad deed

Makes everyone laugh with his evil crime.

To whom can I talk today?

Plunder is rife;

Every man robs his fellow.

To whom can I talk today?

The wrongdoer is a friend

While the close brother has become an enemy.

To whom can I talk today?

Yesterday is not remembered;

No one helps him who gave help then.

To whom can I talk today?

Brothers are bad;

One resorts to strangers for honesty.

To whom can I talk today?

Faces are blank;

Every man’s face is downcast against his brothers.

To whom can I talk today?

Minds are greedy;

Nobody’s heart can be depended upon.

To whom can I talk today?

There are no righteous people;

The land is abandoned to the unrighteous.

To whom can I talk today?

Friends are lacking;

One resorts to a stranger to complain to.

To whom can I talk today?

No one is content;

The person one used to walk with, he is no more.

To whom can I talk today?

I am weighed down with misery

For want of a friend.

To whom can I talk today?

Wrongdoing afflicts the land;

There is no end to it.’

The man’s third litany

‘Death is in my sight today

like the recovery of a sick man,

like going outside after detention.

Death is in my sight today

like the smell of myrrh,

like sitting under an awning on a breezy day.

Death is in my sight today

like the smell of lotus blossoms

like sitting on the shore of drunkenness.

Death is in my sight today

like a well-watered path,

like a man coming home from an expedition.

Death is in my sight today

like the sky’s clearing,

like a man grasping what he did not know before.

Death is in my sight today

like a man’s longing to see home

after spending many years in captivity.’

The man’s fourth litany

‘Surely he who is there8 will be a living god,

punishing the deed of the wrongdoer.

Surely he who is there will stand in the barque,

distributing choice cuts of meat from it to the temples.

Surely he who is there will be a wise man

who, when he speaks, cannot be prevented from

appealing to Ra.’

What my soul said to me:

‘Throw lamentations over the fence,

My partner, my brother!

May you make offerings upon the brazier

And fight for life as you have said.

Love me here and now, having set aside the West,

but still desire to reach the West

When your body is laid in earth.

I will alight when you are weary,

And we will reach harbor together!’

So it is, from start to finish, as found in writing.9

NOTES

1. i.e. in the afterlife.

2. The land of the dead.

3· Isdes was the god of the plumb-bob which ensured the accuracy

of the Scales of Judgement.

4· Literally, ‘the sacred chamber’.

5· Literally, ‘a survivor’.

6. i.e. his wife.

7· Khen~y is one of several crocodile-gods revered in ancient Egypt.

8. i.e. in’the afterlife.

9· The standard colophon written at the end of a copy of a text.

Guest today (It has been foggy and I have been at the gym helping out, so no birds today).
The guest is Ugo from Nigeria, a young author who has about three jobs, this is one, preparing palm kernels to begin the process of making palm oil for all kinds of uses.

Palm oil and palm kernel oil based ingredients are found in approximately 50% of products on supermarket shelves, including food and non food items. Palm oil in many countries is used as a simple frying oil, but many other markets make use of both palm and palm kernel oil: 

• Consumer retail food and snack manufacturers
• Personal care and cosmetics (mainly palm kernel oil)
• Biofuel and energy 
• Animal feed (palm kernel expeller)
• Pharmaceutical 
• Industrial 
• Foodservice/service industry 

Palm kernel and palm oil uses are widely varied because they can be processed and blended to produce a vast range of products with different characteristics.

Here are some of Ugo’s published articles:https://paystack.com/pay/kalu-thankgod-ugochukwu

December 8, 2021, 67°, winds 4 knots, water a ripple, sunshine!!

December 6, 2021, 67° , winds 2 knots, water smooth. Fog, more fog, and more fog, I could not see my way home! All photos taken in the fog, thus very soft, and background is white!

December 5, 2021, 64° , winds 4 knots, water smooth. Partly cloudy, then cleared up and temperature went to 74°.

December 4, 2021, 69°, winds calm, water smooth. Foggy at first, then sunny.

December 2, 2021, 60° winds 4 knots in the open, out of the NNE, water ripples in the open, smooth otherwise, sunny!

December 1, 2021, 57° winds light 2 knots out of the NE, water smooth, mirror smooth out of the wind, bright nice sun!