Popcorn, Barnes & Nobles, and the Angel of Death

Not sure what's up....still feel like the other shoe is going to drop or something. Anybody ever feel that way. It's nothing personal. Everything is fine. When I get like this I start calling family and asking if everyone is okay.
who knows.
I did a three and a half mile walk today. But ate popcorn for dinner. Yep, complete garbage.
the idea of dropping to fifteen hundred calories a day seems to be giving me strange cravings. I did better at 1700 without the idea of limiting myself. I ate more fruit. I ate more veggies. I may just decide to keep my calories between fifteen and sixteen hundred and see how far that takes me. You never know. Could work. It may just take longer to drop the weight. If that's the case, so what...if it takes me another year to drop thirty to forty pounds, I have already lost 53 lbs or so (probably more now). I feel so much better. If it comes off at five pounds a month, it will give me time to adjust. I have never done well with a ton of calorie restriction. The fact that I can eat just 1500 to 1600 is a revelation to me, and nothing to be sneered at. I may just accept this level and keep plodding along. I like working out, so can always pound it a bit more.
I felt blah this evening, like I needed a break so I went to Barnes and nobles ( I would set up a tent there if I could) and picked up a few books (not to buy, just to read). Mostly stuff about the Torah, the Talmud (Jewish oral tradition based on the Torah) and the zohar (a book about kabbalah which is just Jewish mysticism and some oral tradition, some high Kabbalah, but mostly from an Hasidic perspective, which is Kabbalah for the masses) I have been interested in it for years...ever since I spent time studying taoism and buddhism (just eastern philosophy in general). So, I was reading about Angels and Uriel, who is my favorite archangel...said in oral tradition to be the keeper of the gates of Hell and the bringer of the light of knowledge. He is also supposed to be the angel who slayed the assyrians when they gathered at the gates of Jerusalem. Which you can read about In 2 Kings Ch. 19.
Hezekiah went in to the temple after his bid to bribe Sennacherib had failed and asked God to remember him. In response God sent the 'Angel of Death' to preserve Jerusalem and slay the army of the Assyrians. Not only is this found in the bible, but is corroborated in the annals of Assyrian history.
This battle was Made famous by Lord Byron in his poem
The Destruction of Sennacharib
This poem is a particular favorite in our family...we take turns reading it. Trying to see who can read it in the most dramatic fashion without sounding corny. Try it, it's not easy.

The Destruction of Sennacherib
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea.
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death Spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail.
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
and the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
Written by:
George Gordon, Lord Byron.

I love it when God gets all kick ass.
We still can't decide whether it's better to read for affect or allow the words to kind of build. We're working on it...lol.
Well, enough with this...Hope
everyone is on track and steering clear of the Angel of Death...He's a doozy.
Hugs,
Chris