Urbi et Orbi
'Tis the Feast of All Souls—All Souls' Day. Pray for all those erstwhile members of the Church Militant who have shed this mortal coil & presently swell the ranks of the Church Penitent, pray that they might be cleansed of the last vestiges of sin & thus perfected be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven & assume their place in the Church Triumphant.

This afternoon & evening I volunteered at my second Knights of Columbus Friday fish fry, & before we started cooking we bowed our heads in prayer for all of our perished brother Knights.

Operation ÖSTERREICH
This week, I took my first two daily constitutionals in my provisional cold-weather gear, sweatpants in lieu of gym shorts & a sweat-wicking T-shirt & hooded sweatshirt in place of both a long-sleeved T-shirt & my wide-brimmed straw hat. Wednesday being blustery, I sallied forth with the hood up; this, combined with my neglectfulness in not wearing a headband, had a hothouse effect, & never before in the course of the daily constitutional have I fought against such a torrent of sweat beads pouring into my eyes. The wide-brimmed straw hat did more than just shield me from the death rays of teh Accursed Sun, it also acted as a sweatband, one I sorely missed. I wore a headband on Thursday, & also went forth with the hood down, partially to avoid repeating the human hothouse & also because the conditions, while still chilly, were much more mild than on the day before. I set my third-fastest time, & avoided Niagara Falls. The disadvantage of having the hood down is that my head was naked & exposed to all of the low-hanging branches on my root; I've become accustomed to the wide-brimmed straw hat's helmet-like qualities.

There are yet issues to address & the experimentation must continue. On milder days, I might well pair the sweatpants with one of the traditional long-sleeved T-shirts & retain the straw hat as a helmet-cum-headband, not for sun-thwarting. Moving into the truly cold weather, I might have to supplement the sweatpants with long-johns. (Also, the old sweatpants I wore resulted in some chaffing issues; when next I walk I shall sport a different pair of sweatpants & hope that solves the problem.) There are some knit caps lying around that I could use as ear-protection come the winter, perhaps even in conjunction with the sweatshirt's hood. I need some new socks, & I might as well buy longer one than the ankle socks I'm wearing through now. Lastly, gloves. The past two walks I wore a pair of open-fingered weight-lifting gloves gifted me by a kinsman. Obviously open-fingered gloves are not a viable choice for the harsh winter ahead, but I wore them because {a} they were at hand & {b} I have no compunction about dousing them in sweat. Clearly, another glove shall be required. I could of course wear my yard-work gloves, which are meant to be sacrificed to sweat & wear. We shall see. Experimentation shall continue, but for the moment I am confident that the daily constitutional can continue despite the cold. Further evaluations, & possibly a rethink, will be required once there is snow on the ground.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Ramones, "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)" from Ramones Mania (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I prefer the song's original title, simply "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg," but the band themselves changed it to "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)." So be it. Amidst the complexity of Cold War politics & the steadfastness of West Germany as an ally, President Reagan made the right decision in visiting the German war graves in Bitburg, & he should have gotten more credit for touring the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on the same day, & using that occasion to unequivocally denounce Nazism & the Holocaust. That said, I understand The Ramones' outrage.