Just a few days ago we experienced the longest day of the year AND the beginning of summer! Hopefully you are satisfied with the things you have spent your time on this past spring and are looking forward to this new season.

Here are a couple of verses that I came across when thinking about summer and the seasons:

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22)

"Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter." (Psalm 74:17)

After the Prayer and Bible Study meeting on the 21st, Scott, Robin, Laurel and I went over to Angie's for a bite. I chose a raspberry sundae which really hit the spot! Laurel got a slice of pie and some ice cream

Looking back, September 29, 2020 marked the beginning of a new hobby for me. Mind you, at the time I didn't really consider it to be the start of a new hobby, but in retrospect that is exactly what it was. Allow me to explain.

That year, I had received one of my favorite types of presents, an Amazon gift card. I love Amazon gift cards, because to me they are more than just a means to purchase something. To me, an Amazon gift card is an experience! That experience generally involves multiple cups of piping-hot coffee and an enjoyable exploration of Amazon's website, never knowing what one may encounter or stumble upon along the way. An Amazon gift card is a gateway to adventure!

The particular card to which I have just alluded lead me to the wristwatch section of Amazon. It had been years since I had last worn a watch, though they were a fairly constant companion during my childhood, teens and early young adult life. Initially drawn to the striking dials and handsets of the analog watches, I kept coming back to a little black digital watch made by Casio. Call it nostalgic, call it retro, even call it ugly, but that little black watch spoke to me that day.

Now, almost three years later, that diminutive Casio represents the start of my journey down the horological rabbit hole of watches and watch collecting. While it doesn't get as much wrist time as it used to and it isn't my "daily driver," it maintains an important place in my watch box and in my collection. Here's to the Casio F-91W!

Image source: Amazon

One of the songs I have sung from time to time as a special for church is the old Stuart Hamblen title, Until Then. In looking around online, it seems that there are a number of variations and arrangements of it, some with two verses, some with three, and some featuring minor changes in the words. Here is the way I usually sing it, the third verse being one I composed a year or two ago.

UNTIL THEN
Stuart Hamblen
© 1958 Hamblen Music Co.
Arrangement and third verse by Derek Linder

My heart can sing when I pause to remember
A heartache here is but a stepping stone
Along a trail that's winding ever upwards
This troubled world is not my final home

But until then my heart will go on singing
Until then with joy I'll carry on
Until the day my eyes behold that city
Until the day God calls me home

The things of earth will dim and lose their value
When we recall they're just borrowed for a little while
And the things of earth that cause our hearts to tremble
Remembered there will only bring a smile

But until then my heart will go on singing
Until then with joy I'll carry on
Until the day my eyes behold my Savior
Until the day God calls me home

When I at last shall enter heaven's portals
Where sin and death give way to victory
I'll raise my voice with saints of all the ages
And praise His name through all eternity

But until then my heart will go on singing
Until then with joy I'll carry on
Until the day my eyes behold King Jesus
Until the day God calls me home

Laurel and I are excited to welcome you to the grand opening of our blog! We've been getting moved in, shared a few posts, and are starting to feel settled. Thanks for your interest in our ongoing adventures and please feel free to contact us!

The free Grand Opening gif can be found at giphy.com

Remember blogging? Though still alive and well today, it seems to have come of age in the first decade of the 2000's, before the widespread introduction and adoption of social media. Remember how simple blogging was? There were no algorithms or AI to try to dictate or prioritize what you should and should not see. There were no endless newsfeeds, lavishly garnished with blatant advertising, in which a choice post or two becomes seemingly forever lost in a torrent of digital noise. Instead, one simply visited the blog of his or her choosing, following whatever content the blogger chose to post. If the content was of interest, you kept coming back. If it was not of interest, you didn't. It was that easy!

I was reminded of this the other day when I revisited my old blog, BENT EAR. Established and maintained during the halcyon period of blogging's heyday, it is still extant, frozen in time, a mute testimony of my life and thoughts during those years. (To be precise, it is a testimony of "The ramblings, ideas and life of Derek Linder," but I digress). What a wave of nostalgia came rolling over me as I read over those posts! What a flood of memories as I looked at those pictures!

Why bring up blogs and blogging in 2023? Why discuss it, beyond the amusement of a sentimental stroll down Memory Lane? The answer is easy. Laurel and I have started a blog! Yes, you heard that correctly...a new blog in 2023! As to the reason, let me try to explain.

Ever since Laurel and I were married, and specifically in the last couple of years, I have wanted to establish some kind of home for us on the Internet, our own little corner of the World Wide Web, a place where folks could keep up with the latest in our lives, a place outside of the walled gardens imposed by social media platforms. The result, as you have undoubtedly surmised, is Puzzle Box Top.

So, for both of you still reading this, grab a cup of coffee, kick back, and enjoy sharing our adventures with us. Drop us an e-mail if you are so inclined, and let us know what has been going on in "your neck of the woods." Who knows? Maybe you've been inspired to start blogging again! If so, drop us a line and let us know. I would be more than happy to start a blog roll again of friends and family.

Blogging? In 2023? You bet!