Dance then,
wherever you may be
"I am the Lord of the Dance" said He
"I'll lead you all whom ever you may be
I'll lead you all in the dance" said He.

I danced in the morning when the world was begun
I danced with the moon and I danced with the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on Earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth.

I danced for the Scribe and the Pharasee
But they wouldnt dance and they wouldn't follow Me
I danced with the fishermen James and John,
They came to me and the dance went on!

I danced on the Sabbath when I cured the Lame
The holy people thought it was a shame
They stripped me, they whupped me, and they hung me high
They left Me high on a cross to die

I danced on Friday and the sky turned black
Its hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body and they thought I'd gone
But I am the dance and I still live on

They cut me down and I leapt up high!
I am the light that will never never die
I'll live in you if you'll live in me
I am the lord of the dance said He!

So dance, then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance said He
I'll lead you all wherever you may be
I'll lead you all in the dance said He.

The words and musical arrangement to this hymn are under copyright. If you wish to print, copy, cut/paste or duplicate these lyrics you must obtain permission from Hope Publishing Company (800-323-1049).

You deserve a great map made of Jello....

Had a rough night.....my faith in humanity was shaken but perhaps regained. I feel like ranting, so I left something on my rant blog. Nothing very interesting though....
Sunday morning....a gorgeous day. Sunny. snow melting like crazy. It rained all night....most of the snow is gone. Brenda took me to a play. Community theatre. It was very impressive considering it is all volunteers. Heck, I have seen professional acts which were not as good!

A walk in the sun seems called for.

My mom.

This was my mom's birthday. 23 march 1933.
May she rest in peace.

She was born a Lundeen....a descendant of Swedenborg himself. She joined the Airforce in '53, converted to Catholism, then because they didn't allow women to be married and be in the military, she left the air force to marry my Dad. This pic was taken at their first Christmas together. I came along later.

Its been, what....20 years now....and I still miss her.

She had a tremendous faith, and she firmly believed that she was going to a better place. Because of her great faith, I have never grieved her passing, but only wish she could have hung around us a little longer.

De-motivational pics....

Very fortunately, I do not have this to contend with!

Dropped into the "Habitat for Humanity Re-Use It Store" today. cool place, sort of a big warehouse full of "oops" paint, end lots of tiles, old doors and a remarkable number of toilets. I hear that Canadian high volume toilets are much in demand in some parts of the US. There are none on EBay though....so maybe I heard wrong! There were bathtubs in purple. Real honest to gawd purple. Not just lilac (though there were lilac bathtubs there as well). Also brown. Pink. Blue. And white. I'll be shaking my head over the purple bathtubs for awhile though! They also had fireplace mantles (new in the box) for 40 bucks. Solid oak. Must come back with a notebook full of measurements.

Class three tonight. A camera man from the local TV station was filming the whole time. He will be back with a news anchor on Friday to say hi, maybe do some more filming, and then he will be at my shop all day Monday. All this to get 2 and a half minutes on the "news at six"! Actually, I think that is pretty good...I am trying to imagine how expensive 150 seconds of advertising time during the 6 0'clock news would be.......This is quite exceptional. Cept I got my left and right confused right at the beginning....camera shy I guess! Oh well, gives 'em something to feature...Bill screwing up! At least I kept most of the pithy phrases out of my talk when the cameras were rolling....wildly politically incorrect phrases like..."Then you deflect his sword upward, move in on him and and club him like a baby seal!" (Hey, I was a drill instructor once!)

Well, enough of this. I see that blogger won't accept more than one pic at a time...and I have so many more de-motivational pictures thanks to the Wizard of Oz......

More on Malta

The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem were Hospitaler Knights. That is to say, their raison d'etre was to build hospitals, to provide field hospitals during warfare, and to save lives. Their history is a really long one, since it lasts for about 900 years or so....they are still around. If you were to receive first aid instruction from the St. John's Ambulance, you have had dealings with them. They are most famous for stopping Suleiman the Magnificent in his tracks at the Great Seige of Malta in 1565. If they had not done that, then Europe would have followed North Africa into Islam. There is still a Grand Master, and the flag of the crusades still flies over Fort St. Angelo, where it was first placed by Jean De LaValette in 1540. (not the Knight's flag...their symbol is inscribed over the entrance to the castle.) Their history is not so grand later on though....Napoleon kicked them out and they went to Rome, where they have quarters in the Eternal City. I note that they still have offices in the walls of Valetta though! The other flag, the one to the right is the flag of the Maltese Republic. It has a cross on it, but it is NOT a Maltese Cross...it is a picture of the "George Cross", a British medal given to the whole country for their bravery during WWII. And thats a whole 'nother story!

That picture is of the Fort St. Angelo from inside the Grand Harbour, looking North on a beautiful February afternoon! If you look down near the base of the castle, you can see the cannons being used as bollards to tie boats up. In the back, you can see the entrance to the Grand Harbour, to the left you can't quite see Fort St. Elmo, and to the right is Fort Ricasolli. They did parts of the movie "Gladiator" and "Troy" at Fort Ricasolli. They built those forts to last, but they are crumbling fast!

Malta Pics

Got thinking about Malta, probably from reading Jennifer's post about coffee...Malta has awesomely good coffee. St. Paul was shipwrecked on Malta, and went to the Roman Governor's house. The top pic was taken from the governor's house, looking at St. Paul's Bay (where he was ship wrecked) along the sides of the fortifications at MDina. MDina, or Medina is a common name in the Mediterranian...this one was the old capital city of Malta. It was a cool day, and not too many people about. I think it is also darn near the highest point on the Island!The second picture is of the great Crusader's cross. Thats the original...the one the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem carried from Jerusalem, to Krak de Chevaliers, to Acre, to Rhodes, and eventually to Malta. I had seen this in woodcuts and paintings, and was thrilled when the keeper of the lamps let us into a backroom to see it. (Backroom! Ha! It was the whole North transcept!) A little shock went through me when I saw the movie about Geoffery de Bhohun, in that not so bad movie about the Crusades that just came out last year, because the cross was there in the movie! Or a darned good copy of it I suppose! Considering part of that movie was filmed in Malta, I suspect the props guys made a point of checking out the real thing. I know they got the armour and weapons right. The K of St. J. were well represented, but their names and heraldry were changed because they are still around. (And they had not pissed off the Christian world with the far right extremism of the Templar Knights. ) Otherwise the weapons and armour was pretty much bang on accurate! (and I should know!)I had always had a problem with the concept of the Church Militant. I never really figured that there were conditions on any of the ten commandments...but clearly so many Deacons, Curates, Pastors and priests are smarter than I am, so who am I to point out that misappropriation of church funds is, like....stealing! And that a crusade is, like.....killing. But, I don't feel like ranting right now. It never seems to prove anything! But the Templars, Knights of St. John, and the Teutonic Knights were the three great orders of Church Militant Knighthood. They came from wealthy families, had no wealth of their own, but dined on silver plate and wore armour from Milan. The third picture is of an armour in the Palace Museum. It is all covered in grease (hence the shine!) and it is not nearly as rusty as it looks....the axle grease is dark brown, making the armour look rusty. The piece in front is quite ornate, both repousse'd (pushed into), embossed (pulled up and away from the background) and engraved. The edges are roped, the spaulder is articulated, and the cannon rotates as if it were new! After being in this trade now full time for almost 12 years, I am almost ready to tackle a job a nice as that one! You can see me in the background getting instruction from Mr. Stroud, the curator. (He wants me to work there. I am so not worthy of that honour, give me a few years to practice!)

What a dumb weekend!

That Blond's geometry test describes me all right! I may have to go to "auction-a-holics anonymous. I can see it now...a poorly lit room in a church basement, a circle of chairs, and I stand up and say "Hello, I'm Stag, and I am an auction-a-holic. "Hello Stag" goes the chorus. I tell my story. "I went to the auction, and some golf clubs came up. I figured, what the heck...I could play some golf...I mean, people DO! This is towards the end of the auction, and the auctioneer was getting annoyed, tired, and un-interested. He kept missing my bid. I was waving my paddle frantically, and he is going...."twennydollatwennydolla, no? Hey Ronnie, group some together. So Ronnie groups two more bags of golf clubs together. "Fiftydollarfifty dolla, okay, twennyfive twennyfive twennyfive FIFTEEN!" Now he sees my bid....I don't realize he has pushed three bags of clubs together. Thats dumb...Ronnie ain't normally dumb...I think he has grouped some other stuff, but three bags of clubs! I keep my hand up....somebody decides he wants some for 17, and I go to twenty. The drone of the people talking in the room coupled with the amplified auctioneer going Twennytwo, twennytwo, TwennyFive SOLD! Oh my gawd, I bought three bags of clubs! Brenda tells me to put it with the bag she had bought for me earlier. What, you mean I now own FOUR bags of golf clubs? Well, now I'll just have to go for that pile of balls....got 15 top flights in the sleeves, plus a bucket of used for 17 bucks. Not a bad deal, but I needed golf clubs like a dog needs an overcoat!
Yup....all in all....impulse buying at its worst. Like I needed golf clubs! Yes, I shall have to exercise more self control.
Hello, My name is Stag, and I am a auction-a-holic.

visitors

I have had lots and lots of visitors in my shop. This was in 2004, but I still love the pics. Jeff Greenwood (hidden in back) had brought in his young cousins to see a real honest to gawd amour making shop. We made a maple leaf out of steel for her. Not the world crushing mega vorple battle sword the guy wanted.....grin! (click on images to enlarge)

To donate or not donate...

The Ontario government is introducing a controvercial new legislation to allow doctors to harvest your organs if you have NOT signed indicated otherwise on your driver's licence. Theoretically, you can sign something on your licence now...but I just checked...its laminated...I could not sign anything if I wanted to! So I would have to go down to the license bureau, get a new licence...sign something on the form before it is made into a laminated card if I want to not be butchered like a sheep. So, unless I want to go through the hassle and expense between now and 2008, when I would have to get a new one anyway...it looks as though I will end up in pieces.
Ah well...just have to look on the bright side...
To Remember Me
Give my sight to a man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face or love in the eyes of a woman.
Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless pain.
Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week. Take my bones, every muscle, every fibre and nerve in my body, and find a way to make a crippled child walk.
Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells and let them grow so that someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her windows.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults.
If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.

(but a choice would be nice...)

My ancestors

This is a pic of the family taken I think when they stepped off the boat in Montreal. What a great family! Old grandmams, mustachio'd men. Big cossack coats, demure babushkas. Not a lot of grinning! But then, they were still probably seasick from the passage. as always, click on the image to enlarge.

They called themselves "Ruthenians". Actually they were from Bukovinia...part of what is now the Ukraine. This bunch were from the farming territory south of Lvov (pronounced "Le view" of course!) They tell me that my grandmother is the harried looking woman with the two kids on the far left of the picture. I actually had people visiting here last year who knew all those people, and wrote their names down....and like a fool, I lost the info!

quote..."Many grains of incense on the same altar, one falls first, another later, but difference, there is none."______________Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, book IV

Daring