Yesterday I took my 16-year-old son Joel to Sao Paulo to renew his passport. The consulate used to issue it the same day. Now it will take 10 days. All passports are being issued directly from the U.S. Good thing we didn't wait until just a few days before our travel date. As it is, I knocked forward our departure another day.

That also explains why you didn't hear much outta me yesterday.

"Malice will disappear like a cloud that evaporates when you eliminate the power of the wicked."

--Catherine of Sena

This was sent to the Uplift list today. Why not join us?

Time to evolve. Take the best features of Cloud Couplets, AhQuotes and Positive Poetry and rolled them all into one. Throw Yahoo, Topica, and Smartgroups out the window. Get a list server with no ads. Come up with a snapy name.

Tadah! You have UPLIFT.

Here's the list description:

"Uplift brings together short thoughts, quotes, couplets and verse for a delightful mix for those who want to keep their heads above the clouds and out of the mud."

Wanna come along?

Well, actually from the city of Taguatinga in the Federal District. My plane touched down in Sao Paulo 15 minutes early, and I was able to get a ride back home to Sao Jose dos Campos with Otavio and Valeria as they headed this way for our regular Sunday meeting. Was good to chat with them on the way.

I knew this time the attendance for the course would be small, reflecting the size of the group there. But they're an excited bunch, and the time passed all too quickly.

All my traveling done until the big one October 1, to the U.S.

I'm not terribly impressed by the search for Noah's ark. Yes, I believe it happened, according to the biblical account. But I doubt you'll find remains of it after so many years. And even if you did, you probably wouldn't have any way of verifying what it was.

Maybe it's the same desire to find "proof" that led some to see a miracle in a cloth purporting to be Jesus' grave clothes. My faith rests on reasonable grounds, and even available proofs, so I don't feel a need to go scrounging around Red Sea bottoms or peeking at Ararat's slopes from a satellite.

Though the view is interesting.