A recent walk through the cemetery across the street has revealed that spring has indeed arrived. The artificial Christmas wreaths have been remove and artificial forsythia is now in full bloom. It will only be a matter of time before the artificial roses blossom.

Journal 04/12/01.  A vision in prayer.

I was in the Throne Room standing before Christ. I asked Christ if there was something that He would like to show me.

Suddenly, the ceiling of the Throne Room opened up. I could see blue sky and clouds. Christ and the throne went up through the ceiling and then the ceiling closed up again.

I was left alone in the Throne room with the lost souls. I wondered what would happen next.

I looked down from the golden pyramid and saw someone approaching it. I wondered if it was a lost soul.

I realized that it was a child so I came down from the pyramid and approached him. I asked him what he was doing here. He said that he was looking for the King. I told him that the King was not here right now but that He would be back in a little while.

The child said that he was sick and in a lot of pain. He said that he had been praying to the King asking Him to heal him. I said that I was sure that the King had heard his prayers. I told him that the King hears everyones prayers even when He is not present in the Throne Room.

One of the lost souls yelled “He won’t hear my prayers because I won’t pray to Him.” And then the lost soul started laughing.

Suddenly, Christ and the throne returned. Christ came down from the throne and picked up the child in His arms. He then carried the child up to the throne.

When they were seated on the throne, the throne rose up into the air and the ceiling opened up again into the blue sky. They went through the hole in the ceiling and then the ceiling closed up again.

When I arrived at home the other night, there was a message on our answering machine. It was from a former high school classmate of mine whom I haven’t seen in over 40 years. He said that several of my classmates were going to get together on Friday night at the local hometown pizza place and wondered if I was interested in joining them.

I was surprised, nay, startled to hear from this person whom I haven’t seen in over 40 years! And, even more startled to be considered for a class event.

I contacted a friend of mine who also is a former classmate to see if he had been invited. He knew nothing of the event. Interesting.

Why was this person contacting me after all of this time and why the short notice? Was I an after thought? Or more to the point, why the sudden interest?

Since the pizza place is not large enough to host more than a few dozen people, I doubted that it was a class reunion. And, since I was not “buds” with this guy in high school, I doubted that he just wanted to catch up on old times. While I hate to be cynical, I suspected that there may be other motives besides seeing an old classmate.

We are busy on that night so we can’t attend. I guess that I will never know.  Maybe if there was more notice, I might have attended.  But then again, I might not have.

The other day while shopping at an oriental market, I found some Sichuan Peppercorns! (The meat case at this place would make most Americans scream and run.) These peppercorns were banned many years ago over the fear of contaminating the American food supply. But, that ban was recently lifted. I have many recipes that call for Sichuan Peppercorns, so, I was delighted!

Sichuan Peppercorns are not related to peppercorns at all. In fact, they are the seed pod of the Pricker Ash tree and look like miniature brown pistachios. And, unlike the regular peppercorns, these are not at all spicy. Instead, they have a citrusy flavor to them.

When cooking with these peppercorns, you have to separate the seeds from the pods. The pods are eatable while the seed are not because they are too course. So, if you don’t separate you seeds from your pods, your meal will be quite gritty, like eating sand. Fortunately, you get several ounces for a dollar so they are not expensive.

I am delighted to have them. The first meal that I cooked with them was Sichuan Beef.  It was delicious!

It may take us awhile to recover from seeing the oriental meat counter.

I recently received a correspondence from an old high school classmate of mine whom I haven’t seen in over 40 years. This prompted me to get out my old high school senior year book to figure out who this person was.

In reading through my year book, I had to smile at the signatures in my book. (It was a custom to have your year book signed by friends and classmates.) Most of the signers had the decency to sign their first AND last name or at least their first name and the year that they would graduate.

But, there were some who just signed their first name.  I guess they assumed that they were someone of such importance in my life that I would never forget them. Well, guess what, I have no idea who these people were.

First, there was Ann. She seemed to think that we were the best of friends. In actuality, I knew a lot of Ann’s back then. Some I dated, some didn’t. So, it could be any one of many. But, she wrote such nice things about me, so I guess that we must have hit it off.

Then there was Lyn. He/she too wrote like we were the best of friends and wanted to stay in touch. Again, I knew several Lyns , some male, some female, but like Ann, I don’t remember who he/she was. And, I couldn’t tell the gender by reading the signing. He/she wrote upside down in my year book. Maybe he/she was from “down under”. Who knows?  I guess we didn’t stay in touch.

Finally there was miss/mr foreign student, I guess. He/she wrote in a foreign language though I couldn’t tell what it was.  Her/his penmanship was so bad that it made it hard to identify the language of the writing. Even her/his signature was not recognizable. In reviewing all of the exchange students, I couldn’t match any of their names to the signature. I hope that we had as much fun as she/he said that we did.

While I am sure that all of these year book signers had the best of intentions, the fact remains that I don’t remember anything from my senior year in high school. I graduated, I guess. The rest is a blur.

No, this is not the name for some covert activity, but it is an unusual event.  The other day, a turkey flew in to one of the windows at work. Unfortunately, the window was not open. We don’t know if the impact killed the turkey or the two story fall but either way, the bird was dead on the ground.

After about 4 hours, one of the women that I work with saw the bird and went out to rescue it. She loaded the bird up in a cardboard box and headed to the zoo.

The vet at the zoo declared that the bird was dead but he did add that the Golden Eagle would have a feast tonight. Waste not, want not.

While I was shopping at Meijer’s (regional grocery chain) the other day, one of the items on my grocery list was a jar of hot sauce. Now, I am not talking about the bottled stuff that you use for cooking, I am talking about the sauce that you use for dipping corn chips into.

Now, they had medium hot sauce and mild hot sauce, they didn’t have any hot hot sauce.  But, they did have tons of hot salsa.

Now salsa is OK but I really don’t care the chunks.  What I want is a hot sauce that you can dip chips into with out having to fight with the chunks.  Besides, it is hard to get the chunks to stay on the chips so eventually, I will end up with a chunk of something in my lap.

As I scanned the shelves for a stray bottle of hot hot sauce, I noticed a brand of hot sauce that I had never heard of before, so I decided to give it a try.

Buying hot sauce should not be that difficult.

Journal 08/20/00.  A vision in prayer.

Today, I am taken to a golden city. I follow the throne as it wanders around the city. The streets and narrow and empty. Soon, we come to a court yard where there is a well in the center. I am told that it is the well of living water.

We quite often buy danish for our weekend breakfast. And, because the plastic container that they come in is rather bulky, when the contents get down to one, Kathy will store it in a zip lock bag.

Well, the other morning when I got up, I found the leftover danish lying on the kitchen floor. Apparently one or both of the kitties were on the kitchen counter and knocked the bagged danish to the floor.

When I told Kathy about my finding, she commented that the kitties must have had fun with the danish as it was rather damaged. That is when I explained that I found the danish when I stepped on it.

She opted for a pop tart instead.

Each year, Campbells sells around 350 million cans of Cream of Mushroom soup which is its biggest seller. But, only 10% is actually eaten as soup. The rest is used for cooking.

Well, 350 million cans of Cream of Mushroom soup will sure make a lot of green bean casseroles.