Sunday, April 6
Apr. 7th, 2024 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Waking up in a much better frame of mind today, and better rested.
A slow, lazy start to the day, and being able to just spend time with my Sweetie before we "tackled the day".
He chose to go back over the door frames in the porch and sand them better and he already filled in various imperfections with wood filler, all which should have been done before I put the first coat of paint on (and now it is sanded off again).
When I had painted these door frames, I was quite disappointed to see what a rough job had been done on the sanding, and the small brad nails they used somehow left big marks in the wood (my husband looked at it, and said that the handy man likely could have avoided those holes by adjusting the pressure of the nailer, so maybe we can avoid those holes in future work).
Thus I asked him to go back and look at them, and address the holes and the rough sanding job. The wood work done in this house originally is so impeccable, we have to at least TRY to do a good "finish" job on our work. This is a fine "craftsman's" house, not shed.
The frames look a little better this time, so maybe I can paint them soon.
I went to see River today, and it was such a warm, lovely spring day too.
He was (thank heaven) in a better frame of mind today, and was just fine in our work.
I know that horses have "stuff going on" in their lives too, things like concerns about other animals outside, weather changes, interpersonal things with the other horses, metabolism, maybe a weird ache or pain,all just like how I have weird days too. It would be nice to be able to communicate better to understand how he's feeling, so that on days where he's "off" we could work through it better.
Today he did fine with our groundwork, and I used the saddle again to see how he'd do with it (we've used the bareback pad most of the winter) and he was fine with it (I thought maybe the saddle worried him last time).
Oh well.
One of the other riders has brought her two Icelandic horses to R's for the next while to get more training, so she was there today checking on them, and we chatted. She's very nice.
About the time I was wrapping up, R came back from her day of teaching lessons at another barn, and we also chatted for a while about her day.
I went home and my Sweetie was sitting outside in the larger pasture with the goats/ponies, so I went and sat with him for a while.
We came in and ate and watched another episode of "Boardwalk Empire".
Vatican City is a land-locked, independent country/city-state entirely surrounded by Rome, Italy.
"It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, and it is a distinct territory under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains the city-state's temporal power and governance, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. The Vatican is also a metonym for the pope, Holy See, and Roman Curia.[i][20]"
It consists of only 49 hectares with a population of about 764 people, making it the smallest country by area as well as by population.
"s governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church.[6][22] The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere."
The area was known as the Vatican as far back as the Roman Republic (509 to 27 BC), when it was kind of a swampy area across the Tiber River from Rome.
During post Republic Rome, (Roman Empire) the marshes were drained and villas sprung up. There are still remnants of what was the Circus of Nero. There was also a great cemetery with many tombs and monuments.
For about a thousand years, the popes of Rome didn't live in the Vatican, they acted as governors of the papal states, which made up most of the Italian peninsula (modern Italy) right up until those papal states were seized to become the Kindom of Italy in 1871, and the Vatican, surrounded by Italy, had an uncertain status within it.
During the time of the Kingdom of Italy, it was uncertain what the role of the Pope was at all. For the most part, the popes resided within the walls of the Vatican and kind of pretended that the King didn't exist.
The Lateran Treaty in 1929 between the Vatican and the Kingdom of Italy (signed by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini) established the Vatican as an independent state.
During WW I, Italy was fighting against the Austria-Hungarian army. Vatican City mostly did humanitarian work.
During WWII, the Vatican itself remained neutral, even though Rome itself was occupied by Nazi Germany. This made things pretty tough for the U.K., who were reluctant to bomb Rome for fear of damaging the Vatican with its neutrality, but the bombing became necessary, though they tried to focus entirely on the rail system, many people died, and many cultural landmarks were destroyed or badly damaged. In the city of Rome, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Forum were badly damaged.
Nazi occupation was just like everywhere else, with Jewish people being sent to camps to die, many other people killed or sent to work camps, and the destruction of a lot of the city.
The Vatican itself was bombed twice during WWII. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_the_Vatican
There really is no "ecosystem" here, though almost half of the Vatican grounds are beautiful gardens.
Defense in terms of a military is provided by Italy, though within the Vatican there is a Corps of Firefighters, and it's own Vatican City police force (the Gendarmerie). People committing crimes within the Vatican are handed over to Italian authorities and go to Italian prison.
Since the Vatican is basically one giant beautiful museum full of priceless works of art, that is how most of its income is generated. Tourism. People buy tourist stuff, stamps (being it's own country, it has it's own stamps and postal system), coins, medals, admission, as well as many donations.
The Vatican also has a mosaic studio. It maintains mosaics within the city, but also produces mosaics for sale.
https://www.basilicasanpietro.va/en/saint-peters/the-mosaic-studio.html#:~:text=The%20Vatican%20Mosaic%20Studio%2C%20under,for%20sale%20to%20the%20public.
Citizenship is interesting, because people tend not to be born there, but appointed there.
Demographic oddities: very high ratio of men to women, very high crime rate (among tourists), and very high per capita consumption of wine.
There is actually a Vatican Amateur Sports Association, and there are eight football teams (the soccer kind of football).
There is a heliport and a railway system, it's own telecommunications network, and a recycling program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
A good video about how the Vatican was established, and the interesting dual role of the Pope as King of the Vatican.
https://youtu.be/OPHRIjI3hXs?si=V3fb7YYf4VwjIc98
Waking up in a much better frame of mind today, and better rested.
A slow, lazy start to the day, and being able to just spend time with my Sweetie before we "tackled the day".
He chose to go back over the door frames in the porch and sand them better and he already filled in various imperfections with wood filler, all which should have been done before I put the first coat of paint on (and now it is sanded off again).
When I had painted these door frames, I was quite disappointed to see what a rough job had been done on the sanding, and the small brad nails they used somehow left big marks in the wood (my husband looked at it, and said that the handy man likely could have avoided those holes by adjusting the pressure of the nailer, so maybe we can avoid those holes in future work).
Thus I asked him to go back and look at them, and address the holes and the rough sanding job. The wood work done in this house originally is so impeccable, we have to at least TRY to do a good "finish" job on our work. This is a fine "craftsman's" house, not shed.
The frames look a little better this time, so maybe I can paint them soon.
I went to see River today, and it was such a warm, lovely spring day too.
He was (thank heaven) in a better frame of mind today, and was just fine in our work.
I know that horses have "stuff going on" in their lives too, things like concerns about other animals outside, weather changes, interpersonal things with the other horses, metabolism, maybe a weird ache or pain,all just like how I have weird days too. It would be nice to be able to communicate better to understand how he's feeling, so that on days where he's "off" we could work through it better.
Today he did fine with our groundwork, and I used the saddle again to see how he'd do with it (we've used the bareback pad most of the winter) and he was fine with it (I thought maybe the saddle worried him last time).
Oh well.
One of the other riders has brought her two Icelandic horses to R's for the next while to get more training, so she was there today checking on them, and we chatted. She's very nice.
About the time I was wrapping up, R came back from her day of teaching lessons at another barn, and we also chatted for a while about her day.
I went home and my Sweetie was sitting outside in the larger pasture with the goats/ponies, so I went and sat with him for a while.
We came in and ate and watched another episode of "Boardwalk Empire".
Vatican City is a land-locked, independent country/city-state entirely surrounded by Rome, Italy.
"It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, and it is a distinct territory under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains the city-state's temporal power and governance, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. The Vatican is also a metonym for the pope, Holy See, and Roman Curia.[i][20]"
It consists of only 49 hectares with a population of about 764 people, making it the smallest country by area as well as by population.
"s governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church.[6][22] The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere."
The area was known as the Vatican as far back as the Roman Republic (509 to 27 BC), when it was kind of a swampy area across the Tiber River from Rome.
During post Republic Rome, (Roman Empire) the marshes were drained and villas sprung up. There are still remnants of what was the Circus of Nero. There was also a great cemetery with many tombs and monuments.
For about a thousand years, the popes of Rome didn't live in the Vatican, they acted as governors of the papal states, which made up most of the Italian peninsula (modern Italy) right up until those papal states were seized to become the Kindom of Italy in 1871, and the Vatican, surrounded by Italy, had an uncertain status within it.
During the time of the Kingdom of Italy, it was uncertain what the role of the Pope was at all. For the most part, the popes resided within the walls of the Vatican and kind of pretended that the King didn't exist.
The Lateran Treaty in 1929 between the Vatican and the Kingdom of Italy (signed by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini) established the Vatican as an independent state.
During WW I, Italy was fighting against the Austria-Hungarian army. Vatican City mostly did humanitarian work.
During WWII, the Vatican itself remained neutral, even though Rome itself was occupied by Nazi Germany. This made things pretty tough for the U.K., who were reluctant to bomb Rome for fear of damaging the Vatican with its neutrality, but the bombing became necessary, though they tried to focus entirely on the rail system, many people died, and many cultural landmarks were destroyed or badly damaged. In the city of Rome, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Forum were badly damaged.
Nazi occupation was just like everywhere else, with Jewish people being sent to camps to die, many other people killed or sent to work camps, and the destruction of a lot of the city.
The Vatican itself was bombed twice during WWII. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_the_Vatican
There really is no "ecosystem" here, though almost half of the Vatican grounds are beautiful gardens.
Defense in terms of a military is provided by Italy, though within the Vatican there is a Corps of Firefighters, and it's own Vatican City police force (the Gendarmerie). People committing crimes within the Vatican are handed over to Italian authorities and go to Italian prison.
Since the Vatican is basically one giant beautiful museum full of priceless works of art, that is how most of its income is generated. Tourism. People buy tourist stuff, stamps (being it's own country, it has it's own stamps and postal system), coins, medals, admission, as well as many donations.
The Vatican also has a mosaic studio. It maintains mosaics within the city, but also produces mosaics for sale.
https://www.basilicasanpietro.va/en/saint-peters/the-mosaic-studio.html#:~:text=The%20Vatican%20Mosaic%20Studio%2C%20under,for%20sale%20to%20the%20public.
Citizenship is interesting, because people tend not to be born there, but appointed there.
Demographic oddities: very high ratio of men to women, very high crime rate (among tourists), and very high per capita consumption of wine.
There is actually a Vatican Amateur Sports Association, and there are eight football teams (the soccer kind of football).
There is a heliport and a railway system, it's own telecommunications network, and a recycling program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
A good video about how the Vatican was established, and the interesting dual role of the Pope as King of the Vatican.
https://youtu.be/OPHRIjI3hXs?si=V3fb7YYf4VwjIc98
no subject
Date: 2024-04-08 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-09 05:51 am (UTC)It's beautiful as a museum, if you think of it as a Catholic Museum.