It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do.

Henry David Thoreau.

I'm not usually one to take excessive note of atmospheric conditions around me. I pretty much try to take whatever comes my way in stride. Today, however, the weather brought back childhood memories of Hollow Creek community in Aiken County with the thickness of the air and heat of it all.

I recall the yellowflies and gnats dive bombing us when we ventured out doors. There was a white insect repellant balm which came in a tube that members of my family would smear on my face, mostly the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears — which helped somewhat.

It was a time where if the 98 degrees didn't get you the 90% humidity would. Such was the weather in my yard today.

Humidity is good for some things, bad for others. The general comfort level is improved with diminished humidity in the presence of heat. Personally, I'm pretty sensitive to humidity in the summer heat.

The heat index is a composite of the temperature factored with the humidity and represents what the current temperature "feels like" on your skin. Lately my local heat index has been steadily running in the 105 to 110 degree range during peak sunshine.

That is what the weather "feels like" lately. I hope your weather is more amenable to your lifestyle. I'm pretty much shut in the air conditioning. I'm very fortunate to sport the 3 ton unit in my small home which accommodates all the electronics I maintain.

Locally we don't see much in the way of gnats and yellowflies. I have been wondering if this holds true in rural Aiken county nowadays where they flourished in those hot humid school days of my youth.
 

I have always had a problem with chocolate. Being a chocoholic it has reeked havoc on my complexion with each and every bite. I have read in technical literature that chocolate does not cause acne ...

This was the point at which I realized that some so-called "experts" didn't really know what they were talking about and that the gullible were a rampant element of society.

Chocolate has ALWAYS given me acne and I don't care what the publications say. They are incorrect. My issues with it have only grown worse with advancing age and resultant rosacea — which is essentially 'adult acne'.

Chocolate is a food product made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels. It's availability includes various states of being such as liquid, solid, or paste.
 

Chocolate covered cherry cordials have always been a personal favorite. I'm also quite fond of roasted cacao nibs which I purchase by the bag full and consume with great gusto.

Chocolate is eaten as a flavor in other foods or on it's own as a confection.

Cacao has been consumed in some form since the Olmec civilization which spans the 19th through 11th century BCE and the majority of Mesoamerican people which include the Maya and Aztecs, both of whom made and consumed chocolate beverages.

Today is Chocolate Day aka World Chocolate Day. It is a day to celebrate the taste of chocolate and it's versatility in other food creations.

Anyway, if you're one of the lucky ones unaffected by eating chocolate celebrate the day. Should you find yourself in my predicament which is loving chocolate yet suffering the ravages it imposes on the complexion then by all means, moderate your consumption to the most reasonable level you can determine.

Happy Chocolate Day !
 

I used to be one to engage in a lot more kissing than I do these days. It used to be one of my favorite past times.

Whereas kissing was once second nature to my existence I must admit to it having been years since I've engaged the practice. I feel that intentions and reality are somewhat incongruent in this aspect of my existence.

Today is International Kissing Day aka World Kiss Day. It is said to be an official holiday and is celebrated annually on June 22nd.

The observance originated in the United Kingdom and was adopted worldwide sometime in the early 2000s.

Another date, February 14, has also been identified as the International Kiss Day but which is also known as Valentine's Day and is a day set aside for amore and those with whom you seek closeness of an opposites attract variety.

The concept behind the International Kissing Day is stated to be how many people may have forgotten the simple pleasures associated with kissing for kissing's sake, as opposed to kissing as mere social formality or prelude to other interaction.

I can assure you this is NOT me by a long shot.

However, this being said was never one for political kissing at any time and the creepiness of his election thievery the sitting anarchist Joe Biden has certainly not helped the concept of political kissing or being close to others in photo-ops.

So if you're so inclined go forth and get them lips as my best old ex-friend Joe Dodson used to say ... I say SMOOCH — by all means.
 

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,
JOHN HANCOCK, President.

Attest.
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.