St. Matthews Station

Progress!

2011-03-05T16:49:00.000-08:00

Click on each of these images to see evidence of Vincent's school progress. The information below was from the English he was essentially taking for the fourth time - for the second time for high school/college dual-enrollment credit.

Medical innovations

2011-01-26T20:57:00.001-08:00

All three of us have been embarking on medical innovations. At a quarterly visit with one of Vincent’s doctors, the doctor heard more stories about Vincent’s long sleeping and sometimes sleepless nights and laid out a path for Vincent to take a waking-up medication that might require a sleep apnea diagnosis – so off Vincent is to a sleep specialist later this month. Although Vincent’s got less than a month to finish his English class, he’s been periodically energetic, apparently writing down ideas for novels, scripts, or video game storyline ideas. Vincent apparently came back from a counseling session with this idea – ostensibly to do research for Asian-themed story lines – by going back – 2 ½ years after quitting – to St. Matthews Martial Arts, where teachers all seemed to remember him.

As I continue to go to physical therapy to work on my knee, I’ve gone back also for an aspect of the shoulder-neck-back problem that began during a June 2006 visit to Michigan. I had hoped to combine knee and shoulder visits – but I’m having to separate them , for reasons of time – and so I’m going not only for essentially do-it-yourself work on my knee, but also work on my shoulder, for which I need more help. On my first visit my PT found evidence of shoulder problems and gave me a chiropractic-style intervention that I’ve only gotten for this injury (not for the knee injury). We also took about her idea (an epidural) and my idea (acupuncture?). PT for two different injuries for a while.

Stephanie’s forays into sewing classes helped her realize that it’s not easy to find patterns that fit her, and some patterns may produce clothes that need to be altered. That – and a return to Weight Watchers, with its new Points Plus system – got her not only to count points (plus) again but to use our gym membership regularly. After going to the Breckinridge Inn gym/pool twice in one year (for some $600 – that’s $300 per family visit), we’ve gone five times in the past month – including three times in the past week. Now, in turns out that some of the knee weight machines actually bother my knee. But between swimming and weight machines and the stationary bike/”elliptical” machine – both of us have been losing weight.

-- Perry

2010 Outreach Council Annual Report

2011-01-26T20:52:00.001-08:00

Outreach Council serves as a hub and catalyst for Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church’s outreach, mission, and evangelism activities. In 2010 Agnes March, Bob Abrams, Chris Snyder, Izzy Jones, Janine Linder, Jeff Gilbert, Lowell Linder, Lucy Steilberg, Marcus Perry, Perry Chang, Rebecca Barnes-Davies, and Wanda Abrams participated regularly in Outreach meetings, with Amy Linfield, Carlos Lara, and Pastor Jane Larsen-Wigger also participating periodically. Marcus and Perry led the Council as co-chairpersons. Participating in individual meetings were Alan Pauw, Brooke Pierson, Diana Stephen, Gail Bingham, Jennifer Thalman Kepler, Kashama Lengulula, and Paula Tibbs.

Everyone is welcome to Outreach meetings at 7:00 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month, in the Fireside Room.

Key activities of the Council, and the church, this past year included:

- Book distribution. Thanks to the generosity of CHPC’s Ann Yeargin, the church gave 1,000 books (Bluegrass Breeze and One Tiny Twig) to local children and families through half a dozen partners: United Crescent Hill Ministries, Presbyterian Community Center, Eastern Area Community Ministries, Breckinridge-Franklin Elementary School (in Irish Hill), and Fairmont Elementary School (in New Albany) (pictured above). The council worked with the books’ author, Dan Rhema. Among the others who helped with this were: Alan Pauw, Chris Snyder, Dave Bush, Diana Stephen, Gayle Trautwein, Izzy Jones, Pastor Jane, Johanna Wint, Marcus Perry, and Stephanie Gregory.

- Food for Thought series. Working with Pastor Jane, Charlie Boyd, Molly Boyd, Bruce Whearty, and Lora Whearty began this series of light lunches and presentations by Crescent Hill folks involved in various missions and ministries this past spring. Many presenters made PowerPoint presentations, and most let folks know how they could get more information and what follow-up action they could take. Making presentations were Anne Del Prince, Bruce Whearty and Lora Whearty, Christi Boyd and Jeff Boyd, Fletcher Padoko, Jerry Van Marter, Mary Love, Stephen Bartlett, and Tricia Lloyd-Sidle. These lunchtime events gave people a chance to hear about different mission, outreach, and advocacy opportunities, and gave individual CHPC folks a chance to reflect on what difference their work (paid and volunteer) has made in their lives and the lives of others.

- Mission month. With a kickoff sermon at the beginning of the month by Pastor Jane that reminded Crescent Hill folks why we do mission, Crescent Hill celebrated August as mission month. Church mission teams that traveled to Appalachia and Guatemala (and participated in the Presbyterian Youth Triennium) led worship services. All long-term Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-workers who Crescent Hill supports participated in this. Christi Boyd and Jeff Boyd (in west Africa) spoke at a Food for Thought lunch, and Jeff also gave a Minute for Mission during worship. Amanda Craft (in Guatemala) spoke to a Wednesday evening audience (pictured below), before Council meetings. (Our own Hunter Farrell, director of PC(USA) World Mission, also preached.) Carrying over into early September were: (1) a worship service led by participants of Louisville Presbyterian seminary Brazil mission trip (with Rebecca Barnes-Davies preaching), which Outreach had recommended for church support; (2) a sermon by JoElla Holman, who later this past fall left for the Caribbean became a fifth PC(USA) mission co-worker the church supports; and (3) a dinner with Nancy Collins (in east Africa) and some Outreach folks. Carrying over into December was a talk by outgoing Young Adult Volunteer Luke Van Marter to current Youth Group folks and Youth Group alumni/ae. The month plus helped focus the church’s attention on mission.

- Ministry opportunity fair. In October Outreach put together displays about its work and arranged for displays by several CHPC ministries and CHPC partner organizations (many of them staffed with people to respond to questions): greeters ministry, Guatemala mission partnership, Habitat for Humanity, joint three-church English as a foreign-language teaching ministry, PC(USA) international mission co-worker liaison team, Presbyterian Community Center, Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville, and United Crescent Hill Ministries. Participating in this were Amy Linfield (who designed two beautiful displays), Ana Lara, Bob Abrams, Diana Stephen, Jamie McMillin, Jennifer Thalman Kepler, Lowell Linder, Stephen Bartlett, and Wanda Abrams, along with mission partners Irene Spicer and Lori Jacobs. Several dozen Crescent Hill folks signed Christmas cards for the mission co-workers, and their families, who the church supports, and several people signed up for volunteering or to receive more information for each of the ministries with displays/sign-up sheets. The Latin American food in the Outreach Council corner (which Lowell supplied) was among the most popular at this very successful event, and drew more people to the displays (pictured below). The event also pushed Outreach to pull together more detailed information about fall 2010 volunteer opportunities with some dozen ministries with which the church works.

- Preschool. 2010 was a time of promotion, reflection, and restructuring for this 50-year-old-plus children’s ministry of the church. Licensing issues, up-and-down enrollments, staff changes, the economic downturn, and changing marketing strategies helped trigger a discussion among Outreach Council, the session, and especially the preschool board about the preschool’s future. A mid-year marketing campaign that included several dozen Crescent Hill families and individuals putting CHPC Preschool yard signs in their front yards, and inviting opportunities to talk about the preschool and the church in general with neighbors, netted just enough students to continue preschool operations during the 2010-2011 school year. Discussions about the future (of both the preschool and ministries to children in the community, in general) continue. Participating on the board are Ada Asenjo, Katherine Futrell, Pastor Jane, Janine Linder, Julie Leake, Lucy Steilberg (board chairperson), Lowell Linder, Sally Flick (preschool director), and Tom Peterson.

- New members. Two classes of 16 people total joined, affiliated, or associated with Crescent Hill church, in March and October. Those included: Andrew Black and Dawn Black, Anne Del Prince, Dana Hemming, Donna Burch and Marsha Berry, Eric Proctor and Laura Hayes, Jennifer Thalman Kepler and Paul Kepler, Jim Hubert and Kristy Hubert, Kara Smith and Taylor Smith, Risa Musto, and Stephanie Gregory (who moved from affiliation to membership). Pastor Jane and Lucy Steilberg helped coordinate new member activities and connecting new members and sponsors.

- Giving and benevolence. Outreach helped coordinate the church’s participation in four churchwide special offerings, the One Great Hour of Sharing offering (which helps fund the PC(USA)’s Disaster Assistance, Hunger, and Self-Development of People ministries), Pentecost Offering (which funds PC(USA) ministries for at-risk children), Peacemaking Offering (which helps fund the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program), and Christmas Joy Offering (which helps fund assistance to needy active and retired church workers and PC(USA)-related racial ethnic schools and colleges). This year the church received about $7,300, down slightly from the previous year, when there were fewer competing giving opportunities. That includes $2,715 for the One Great Hour of Sharing offering, $1,321 for Pentecost, $1,862 for Peacemaking, and $1,398 for Christmas Joy. Two of these offerings include local funding opportunities, and Outreach recommended that $330 of the Pentecost Offering receipts go to support the Bellewood Presbyterian Home for Children and that $465 of the Peacemaking Offering go to help support the peacemaking lecture series at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, in honor of Professor George Edwards, who died in 2010, and Jean Edwards. Brad Wigger, Chris Snyder, Janine Linder, Jerry Van Marter, Martha Gee, Ruth Farrell, Sally Pendleton, Shannon Langley, and Stephen Bartlett helped promote the offerings. Outreach made recommendations about use of the brand-new CHPC Mission Fund, including $1,000 that went to the United Crescent Hill Ministries (and got the church a logo on the December Santa Sprint and Stroll promotional materials and T-shirt) and $500 to the EFL ministry. Outreach also worked with Dave Bush and UCHM to turn some $800 Crescent Hill church folks donated into $4,000 for utility assistance for Crescent Hill residents (through the Metro Match program) and to have Crescent Hill church folks donate nonperishable food items for UCHM’s emergency food assistance program once a month, instead of just once a year. Outreach played a role in a successful December effort to shore up end-of-the-year finances, which helped the church keep its 2010 benevolence commitments.

- New ministries. Outreach Council blessed and helped provide an advisory committee member (Lowell Linder) for an outreach ministry with French-speaking African immigrants and other French-speaking people. Helmed by Kashama Lengulula and Paula Tibbs, the ministry began offering Sunday afternoon worship services in the CHPC sanctuary in November. Outreach also helped provide a member (Lowell Linder) to a new board for the CHPC Community Garden, as well as $500 to the year-old EFL ministry.

- Neighborhood outreach. Outreach Council talked periodically during the year about ways to reach out to Crescent Hill/Clifton neighbors. The Council continued to have the church buy ads in the Crescent Hill Community Newsletter, mailed to residents, and considered other strategies.

-- Perry

New ventures

2011-01-18T20:07:00.001-08:00

Only one of three new endeavors for us today panned out. After a 2 ½-year absence, Vincent went back to martial arts classes – Kenpo – down the street, and that seemed to go well, although he said he was a little sore. Although Stephanie and I going back to the gym for the second time in a month (after an eight-month-plus absence) went OK, my effort to shift from physical therapy for my knee to PT for my shoulder, etc. failed, as I miscomunicated in appointment-making with the staff (and I stuck with my knee instead). I’ll try again next week. After sewing lessons with her colleague and twice at Joann Fabrics, Stephanie was excited to go to a two-hour in-home class, with someone she had found on the Internet. But the woman was skeptical about whether Stephanie would be able to alter dresses that Stephanie had found patterns for – patterns that it turns out weren’t exactly Stephanie’s size – and so Stephanie mainly went back to making pajama pants something she had learned and mastered at JoAnn’s last week. Bummer. Now Stephanie’s back to the drawing board, trying to find patterns for clothes that will fit better.

-- Perry

"How to Maximize Your Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Productivity"

2010-12-02T06:03:00.000-08:00

Key points from the final (Wednesday, November 10) workshop University of Louisville business professor Russ Ray (pictured above) offered on time management and related topics (a workshop that I attended):

- Spend 10-15 minutes every morning planning, going over your calendar and to-do list for the week, month, and further. Review goals/goal-setting. Emphasize goal-setting.

- During large swaths of time, minimize interruptions – perhaps including not checking e-mails or ignoring all e-mails except for immediate colleagues and known clients.

- Work on whatever is most important/urgent in the morning, when you are most productive, including setting aside time for big projects that you need uninterrupted time to work on.

- Minimize subscriptions/listserv subscriptions, etc. Only read that which is essential.

- Avoid meetings. If meetings are absolutely necessary, start meetings on time, end them on time, and stick to an explicit agenda.

- Avoid having conversations in your office, as you can’t control as easily how long someone will stay there.

- Delegate as much as possible.

- Say “no” politely to non-critical tasks.

- Participate in Toastmasters, learn speed-reading, and develop an exercise routine. Get enough sleep. Take real vacations. Nevertheless, go in to work early and leave late.

-- Perry

E-mail from outgoing Congressman Baron Hill

2010-11-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Perry,

I want to take a moment thank all of you who have supported this campaign with your time, your effort, and your generous contributions. None of you need me to tell you that this was a tough race. And while the outcome may not have been exactly what we'd hoped, I want you all to know how incredibly proud I am of the organization you helped build. In all my years in Congress, I have never seen anything like it.

This job has never been about winning elections for me. It's always been about fighting for the people of Indiana and about doing the right thing.

I'm proud of my record, and of all the things we've accomplished over the past two years:
- We created over 3 million jobs and turned around the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression
- We saved the auto industry, preventing the devastation of Indiana's workforce.
- We made college more affordable for millions of students.
- We passed important regulations ending the worst practices of credit card companies and protecting consumers and our economy from risky Wall Street investment schemes
- And of course, we passed historic reform of our broken health care system, expanding access to millions of uninsured Americans.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I believe that when the history books are written, it will be said that it was the Democrats who saved this country. I have no regrets from the last two years, and neither should you.

Betty and I have been deeply moved by the support, hard work and dedication you have poured into this campaign. I don't know yet what the next step is for me in my career of public service, but I hope to see you all again, and I look forward to continuing our walk together.

Sincerely,

Baron

Time for a change?

2010-11-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

Five races we’re watching that could be decided early (as all polls close by 8 p.m. Eastern time): For southeastern Indiana’s U.S. House seat: U.S. Rep. Baron Hill vs. Republican challenger Todd Young; for Kentucky’s open U.S. Senate seat: Attorney General Jack Conway vs. Dr. Rand Paul; for Metro Louisville mayor: Democrat Greg Fischer vs. Metro City Council Member Hal Heiner; in Ohio: Gov. Ted Strickland vs. Republican John Kasich; and for Florida governor: FL Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink vs. Republican Rick Scott (pictured above). If the Republicans take all of these (certainly possible), I predict they will also take the U.S. Senate.

Watch Perriello-Hurt in VA and Chandler-Barr in KY also. In two other Congressional districts where we have roots, Democratic incumbents Allen Boyd (in FL) and Mary Jo Kilroy (in OH) seem already headed for defeat.

- Perry

Emergencies

2010-11-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

Last week we faced a number of emergencies:

- We discovered that all of Vincent’s three online dual-enrollment high school/college classes had “timed out,” after four months and lost the money invested in them. We were able to get Vincent signed up again for one of the classes, at the same reduced rate, although incompletes will now show up on a community college transcript for him. As he tries a third time to complete this class, it’s more clear he will have until the end of February only.

- Contractors for the gas company came to our house to dig up our lawn and upgrade our natural gas links and they decided our natural gas hook-up to our dryer was outdated and shut it off, pending replacement. (The picture above shows the bulldozer they left in front of our house for a couple of days.) We were eventually able to reach our landlord and persuade him to consider covering this, and a plumber was out to our house today to do so. Our dryer should now run after being out of commission for nearly a week.

- Taking some of my stuff up to file in my boxes in the second-floor alcove, I made what may have been a mistake of peeking into Vincent’s room (which takes up most of the second floor and has no door). His room was a disaster area and this eventually led to our first post-Vincent returning argument. We seem to have made up – although I promptly left for a long weekend for work – even though Sunday night (by days of the week) was the one-year anniversary of the big argument we had that triggered Vincent’s ten-month stay with his father in Ohio. Stay tuned.

In the midst of the construction and dryer problems last week, bad weather – including two tornadoes – struck Kentuckiana. Vincent and the dog had to go into the basement, my colleagues with windows had to leave their offices, and Stephanie’s school lost power and then had to spend an hour on the floor in the hallways. Some of the kids were upset, and the events threw the whole week off.

- This past week Grandpa Beck, Uncle Don, Aunt Sandy, and her sisters helped arrange for him to shift from regular home health care, with extra therapy, to hospice care. This should give Don, Sandy, and June extra help but will mean that there are limits to what health-care workers are to do to keep Grandpa alive if he goes to the hospital. More on this later.

P.S. During my last few minutes at the sociology of religion conference my colleagues and I went to last weekend, I managed to inadvertently humiliate my manager, in a way that I imagine he’s still annoyed about. Although I’m relieved the conference – including my presentation and several other projects I was trying to get done by the end of the month – is over, as well as the election (in 20 hours), November brings the final few weeks for me to get things done before my Annual Review – probably at the end of the month – including two Panel reports, a Panel reestablishment time line, and so on. Already my manager seems annoyed that the November Panel survey is obviously going to go out late. And another mediocre Annual Review would not be a good way to go into the next round of layoffs in a year or two.

In up and down health news, Mom tried a new machine that assesses balance this week, and came through with flying colors, impressing her former physical therapists and not appearing to be the resident most likely to fall. On the other hand, I left a drawer open in the bathroom and Stephanie’s foot was injured – and bloodied – in an incident shortly thereafter.

- Perry

More victory!

2010-09-29T17:57:00.001-07:00

Victory!

2010-09-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Surprise!

2010-09-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

Thursday night my new urologist called and said that my blood test results with regard to my prostate were OK, but that I had low testosterone. TOngith Stephanie read more about this and this can be connected with a whole nexus of male menopause/andropause symptom and it has some weird treatments, which the doctor alluded to. I am to get another blood test and see him in six months.

Friday - after almost finishing one of his on-line classes in time for his Mom's birthday - Vincent first said explicitly what we suspected recently - that he thinks he'll stay here with us instead of going back to Ohio and staying with his father. He was somewhat disappointed with his father aborted a planned-for move to Florida and he told Stephanie he's been surprised how easily he's almost finished this class here. They don't currently have Internet access in the RV they were staying in - with no working toilet or shower. Today Vincent highlighted the creature comforts - a bed, food (homecooked by Mom), Internet access, video games - and didn't say what I think is also true: we've been getting along pretty well, enjoying each other's company, and for better or worse we haven't been bugging Vincent much about things we used to (school work, getting a job, cleaning his room, bad language, etc.). We've also done some fun things together. I wouldn't say Vincent is that much less isolated here - he's really disengaged from his friends (including ones we don't like) and stayed in the house for the most part - as in Ohio - but in principle he still knows how to get around here more (and Meemaw is no longer in Ohio). (We also do a better job of taking care of him - with doctor and dentist et al. visits - and he seems to have quit smoking here!).

Sunday night two more surprises awaited us when I pulled the two baby turtles out fo their habitat and put them in bowls of dechlorinated water with a piece of dog food I'd been soaking. First, it appeared after a while that Big Mac - who I saw on Saturday in the contained with food in the habitat - had defecated (which they would do in the water), and then Filet of Fish - the scrawnier, less active baby turtle - whom Dr. Williams and her colleagues had tube fed - began to bite at the piece of dog food. Filet of Fish ate! Check out the video above for more evidence of this.

-- Perry

- Perry

Other health

2010-09-22T06:03:00.001-07:00

Aunt June and Aunt Sandy called us Tuesday to tell us that Grandpa Beck, 97, is in the hospital, facing undetermined ailments. His blood county and kidney count are low, he has bronchitis, and it's possible he had some mini-strokes. We may visit this weekend. We feel bad that we didn't spend time with him this summer, as we did last summer. This is complex, since Vincent has talked about returning to Ohio this weekend, but we don't necessarily want to encourage that (and all of us going to Ohio would certainly encourage that). I may go alone. This may impact Mom's visit, slated to start in eight days, since we may want to include an Ohio visit, which wasn't originally planned.

This week Mom is taking a two-morning AARP driving class, which hopefully is giving her tips on how to perfect her driving strategies and assess her driving abilities. After trying and failing at participating in a swim class several months ago, Mom engaged in regular one-on-one swim lessons. Her mixed feelings about water, being out of the water for 30 years, and Parkinson's made the in-class experience scary and humiliating. But her general work on stretching, strengthening, and balancing - and her specific work in the pool - made her return to the swim class a success. She's still better at some things than others, but no panic in the pool this time. Good work, Mom!

Our doctor said Tuesday that I have an infection in my inner ear - my stubborn than the more run-of-the-mill infections Vincent and I had last month - and so he put me on a new round of medication. If that doesn't work, I may head off to an ear, nose, and throat specialist, potentially to have the fluid in my inner ear drained though a tube (through my ear drum!). To try to prevent the need for this, I'm also supposed to do things like I do in an ascending or descending plane to clear my ears.

No luck feeding the turtles. We are buying a new heating element to try to get the terrarium at a better temperature (instead of only 77 degrees or 107 degrees). We tried hand feeding Monday and Big Mac tried to bite Stephanie (hope that's a good sign, that he's trying to eat)! It's very hard to get the pieces of food small enough (especially cutting up live worms into small pieces). We were also told we could try fruit.

Heard from Penny Tuesday on how Serge and Jacob's birthday parties went last week. It turns out that she and I will both be in the D.C./Baltimore area - me for a conference for work, her for another round of movement classes - so she may stay with me in Baltimore one night.

P.S. Our Weight Watchers leader and meeting were in the Louisville paper today. Check the article and accompanying pictures out at: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010309220035

-- Perry

More health

2010-09-20T19:18:00.001-07:00

Friday I took Vincent for his follow-up visit to the oral surgeon did removed his wisdom teeth. Vincent’s mouth had been bothering him all week, but when we got there the doctor removed Vincent’s stitches (I missed it – I was out with the dog – in a couple of minutes. Vincent has used up almost a whole bottle of Advil, but is getting better. I’ve faced health issues as I re-re-injured my right knee (on my way to the doctor three weeks ago) and have started going back irregularly to physical therapy. Fall allergies – worsened by dust in Nancy and Bob’s basement and Nancy’s things now in our house. When I went to the doctor, I got some antibiotics for among other things an ear infection. Replacing it was a weirder ear condition that has made my hearing a little worse and has lately mimicked tennitis. Tuesday I go back to the doctor – but no running to the bus this time. In between, I’ll hope that my allergies and sneezing don’t wake me up in the middle of the night again. We’re also fighting health problems with our baby turtles, who haven’t eaten after three and a half weeks (despite one and a half reptile vet visits). This week we’re going to try to a different heat lamp.

-- Perry

Health issues

2010-09-06T07:57:00.001-07:00

Vincent and I continue to battle colds and ear aches we picked up in recent weeks, even after we’ve run through a whole series of antibiotics. Fall allergies – plus suffering from all of the dust we’ve tracked into the house with the dozens and dozens of receptacles of fabric, etc. we brought from Nancy and Bob’s – also plague and this may be behind some of both Vincent and my symptoms. Ironically – on the way to the doctor – I ran to the bus last Monday and my knee is as bad as it’s been since I reinjured it in June. I’m behind enough at work that it’s hard to know how I’d go back to physical therapy regularly. I’m trying to do some stuff at home. Vincent has picked up a Perry-like illness – athletes’ foot, for which it’s possible we’ll try to take him to the doctor early this week. Vincent is already slated to go Tuesday to the dentist and to the psychiatrist and Wednesday to the oral surgeon to have his wisdom teeth pulled. I will take him to the Tuesday appointments and Stephanie will take him to the Wednesday appointment (her taking a day off of work, even though Tuesday will be her first day for bringing students to her new classroom, even though not everything in the classroom is ready), while getting to the doctor herself that day. After doing a lot of yard work and playing Wii Sports Resort Saturday, Stephanie’s back has been bothering her. We both hope to get back to Weight Watchers Tuesday also.

-- Perry

Baby turtle stupid pet trick

2010-08-27T04:24:00.002-07:00

The larger of the two baby turtles, then five days old, wouldn't eat worms, but did crawl out of the food receptacle, land on his back, and then right him/herself. The smaller turtle was not quite so active. Click on the arrow to watch the video.

Baby turtles

2010-08-27T04:24:00.001-07:00

For years one of our adult turtles, Speckles, has been laying eggs once or twice a year. In recent years, we've adopted an elaborate incubation system for the eggs, but grew pessimistic about them hatching (We knew they could be fertilized.). Imagine Stephane's surprise two weeks ago when she noticed something moving in the incubation chamber, and found not one but two apparently less than one-day-old baby turtles. We've done lots of research since, but haven't got them to eat, which we are very concerned about. We've created a somewhat different kind of habitat for them than for their parents, tried different foods, and tried fiddling with the temperature and lighting (and tried taking them outside). Their father (Greenville) went on a five-month hunger strike when he first connected with us, but the vet we took them to last week said the babies definitely wouldn't last that long. Wish for patience and ingenuity for us and energy, healing, and (eating) inquisitiveness on the part of the babies, who Stephanie have dubbed Big Mac and Filet of Fish.

-- Perry

Challenges

2010-08-26T19:54:00.001-07:00

Tough couple of days coming up: stressful encounteres anticipated, with a church meeting Friday and then spending time with Stephanie's stepfather and stepsiblings. We'll hope to see Vincent during this.) Also Friday: Mom shifts the stuff she couldn't fit in her apartment from a storage space a couple of miles away to a space within her retirement center complex. Keep all of us in mind as we make our way through these days.

-- Perry

Mid-week

2010-08-25T05:12:00.000-07:00

In mid-week news: I learned that my student loan income-based repayment arrangement has been extended for another year, Stephanie learned the name of her mother’s/stepfather’s lawyer (from Bob) as we prepare for our Ohio visit this weekend, and I learned that my nephew starts 5th grade this morning. The school (pictured above) is a K-5 school, and so Jacob will be a senior!

Tuesday I narrowly averted catastrophe when I turned out my key had NOT broken off into the ignition, requiring rebuilding the ignition. Instead, the key had just broken off apparently onto the ground and all I needed was to have a copy of Stephanie’s key to my car made. We’re holding our breath because I think my transmission is going, but it’s possible we’re going to wind up with Nancy’s car, perhaps depending on what’s going to happen this weekend.

-- Perry

Atlanta experiences

2010-08-23T05:12:00.000-07:00

The presentation I made on behalf of my colleagues Joelle and Ida and me at the Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR) Annual Meeting earlier this month in Atlanta went OK. Not a lot of feedback until I talked with fellow panelists and others afterwards – who gave advice on an alternative tactic – using hierarchical logistic regression, as a form of multi-level modeling. (So far some web materials almost make it sound like multiple regression – as well as SPSS - is out in academic circles.) There were a few other religion presentations that looked at community involvement/civic skills issues also. We may explore these (other methodological approaches) for our upcoming Religious Research Assiciation Annual Meeting presentation. (Pictured above is the Hyatt Regency hotel, site for the ASR meeting. Pictured below is another of the scholars on Friday morning panel, presenting.)

Rhys Williams’ ASR presidential address on the development of Muslim American identity also dealt with the controversy over the “Ground Zero” mosque, as did at least one other ASR presentation. I thought his speech was good.

The Census Bureau director (pictured below) continued (what he’d started talking about at the American Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Meeting, which I attended last May) to talk about ways the census might shift to using some administrative records, like Social Security files, and some public pressure to do so (don’t you guys already have this info in several other federal government databases?). He also talked about public outcry about various things, including a number of steps that they were sure would enhance response rates (and ultimately save money), including the controversial Super Bowl ad.

The American Sociological Association (ASA) presidential address dealt with efforts to get undocumented non-citizens able to take classes at state universities and colleges and eligible for federal financial aid. Some of the introduction dealt with school segregation for Asian Americans, Latinos/as, and Native Americans, some of which I didn’t know about (“Oriental schools” in California, for example). There were a number of other presentations I heard vaguely related to the Arizona law: administrative, political, and social-movement opposition to immigration, etc.

Another ASR theme was unconventional worship and congregational activity (particularly centered around young adults) including a panel discussion mainly among Emerging church movement practitioners. Most of them also tried to be amateur sociologists, but the most interesting presentation was PowerPoint slides and stories from a PC(USA) NCD organizing pastor of a emergent church ministry in SW Atlanta. The pastor talked about an Ash Wednesday event in which folks had burned their own (something?) and then they texted everyone and asked that everyone meet at dinner time at a MARTA (Atlanta subway) stop and they combined their ashes and played music in the subway station. It’s not clear if this was an alternative to conventional worship. He also talked about lunching with the pastor of a black Pentecostal church in the neighborhood and generating ideas for how to help the local neighborhood tackle the problem of child sex work in the neighborhood. Here’s a web presence (though I find the website confusing): http://churchasart.com/blog/neighborsabbeyhome/about/

Afterwards I asked the pastor if he found helping coming up with new ideas for activities all the time both liberating and exhausting. He said - not at all – that’s my personality, as it is for most of the creative class that we’re partly angling towards. These folks control many of the messages that we receive from the culture industry – why wouldn’t we want them in our churches?

Keep in mind that the ASR meeting program coordinator’s books are both studies of congregations catering to young adults: http://praxishabitus.blogspot.com/2009/12/hollywood-faith-holiness-prosperity-and.html).

Monday I had lunch with two friends, including one who formerly worked here (Columbia seminary prof Martha Moore Keish) and her husband, a pastor at Atlanta’s First Presbyterian Church, and we had an interesting conversation, including about the future of the denomination.

-- Perry

Mid-August news

2010-08-16T17:57:00.002-07:00

Mom went to the doctor and got set up with yet another new medication. Stephanie will meet with her principal Tuesday about which kids she will be teaching and starting when. Apparently she will stay put in her new classroom, but her classroommate - who's been very helpful - will move into a different classroom (with a smartboard). Stephanie will not be sharing rooms, although she and Tiffany will continue to work together as the two READ 180 teachers. Part of an expected bump in enrollment did not materialize, and so another classroom opened up. Stephanie and Papa Bob talked a couple of times this weekend about us coming up there in a couple of weeks to get more of Stephanie's mother's stuff. More things may be forthcoming later. Apparently Bob is not doing great. He said Nancy has left him notes throughout the house which he is uncovering gradually. I got in a little trouble today because late last night - for a complex reason - I erroneously sent out a wrong version of something to an important client. Wednesday - half a day after returning to Louisville - I am slated to help follow up on an issue from last month's Guatemala mission trip.

-- Perry

Doggie day care pics

2010-08-16T17:57:00.001-07:00

First day

2010-08-09T05:25:00.001-07:00

First day of school for Stephanie, and first day back for both of us. It's the first day for teachers in her school district (with no big district-wide meeting this year), but no doubt there will be some meetings today and Tuesday at her school. Students arrive Wednesday; Stephanie is supposed to not have students until later, but she now has a classroommate, and her students, and her classroommate spent all last week what Stephanie had planned to do: set up the classroom ("volunteering"), them having both moved over the summer and now sharing a classroom. We'll see what kind of negotiation there is with her (Tiffany) and with their principal (Susie Gahan). Stephanie also doesn't know what she's teaching exactly, who she's teaching, whether she's doing after school activities (she didn't sign up for this), let alone do any lesson planning. You'll recall that the school lost the 5th grade, which Stephanie used to teach, but gained 100 extra students, plus the usual new students, with all of the district-wide school closings. Also, last year, Stephanie started teaching the READ 180 intervention program and sometimes math, in addition to teaching English as a new language, and we'll see what happens with that. You'll also recall that a district-wide ENL administrator got promoted.

(Also: As part of the reorganization, the school district switched the middle school and elementary school times, and now elementary schools start earlier, and so Stephanie must be there at 7:40 a.m., instead of at 8:15 a.m. We both got up at 5 a.m., and I may start coming in to work at 7:30 a.m. instead of more like 8:15 a.m. myself. Even if we're not carpooling, things work better if we leave at around the same time.)

Things are also a little different at my work, where I've also been gone for a week. I had to clear out much of my office before I left (when I thought I was going to meeting in Chicago), for recarpeting and refinishing the desks, etc. This is done, but now I must move back in. I've lost my telephone, which I'll probably have to pay to replace. I have behind with a range of projects and am slated to go to a couple of conferences in Atlanta for five days, starting this Thursday PM, and must prepare a Friday AM presentation for that (plus church meetings this Wednesday). Lots to do while we also try to follow up on this past week's events.

P.S. I did get some good health news for me over the weekend, although some follow-up is needed.

-- Perry

Notes for Pastor Hamilton's August 5 funeral sermon

2010-08-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

Romans 8:31-39
“31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jn. 14:1-6
1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4And you know the way to where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I knew the first time I met Nancy that she had a kind and compassionate spirit. We met at the hospital when she was visiting her mother. We talked briefly about her automobile accident. She greatly loved her “big” brothers and was well-loved by all her family.

Born February 19, 1950, Nancy was part of a caring clan. Graduated from Olentangy High School in 1968. Worked for Merle-Normon, 7-Up, Shasta, and Coca-Cola before retiring in 2005. Maybe some men objected to having a woman as their boss—but she won everyone over.

Nancy possessed a character that—

• Did not complain or talk ill of others.
• Served others even when sick herself.
• Didn’t seek pity and never lost hope.
• Generous, compassionate, patient.
• Faithful and family-oriented (Hostess of a lot of family gatherings).
• She loved to laugh, had an infectious smile, and knew how to have fun in life.
• She listened because she genuinely cared.
• Deeply loved her four stepchildren.

Oh how she liked to shop. She appreciated beauty (Biltmore) and took care of her looks over the years. Yes, she was the family princess, but she could be tough and put bigger, stronger people in their place. When she was laid up for a while because of a serious auto accident, Nancy was still concerned about others before her own needs.

Growing up in Powell when Powell was country meant some lean times. She learned to sew and at times stayed up late at night to make her clothes for the next day.

Nancy was wife, mom, and “Memaw”. She was there for all her family, and will be truly missed.

Nancy and Bob celebrated thirty years of marriage in September of 2009.

On her Facebook profile Nancy wrote “there is never enough time in the day to accomplish everything you set out to do.” She maintained a positive outlook on life and endured all kinds of treatment for her cancer, but in the end, her body wore out and she passed away without doing all she would have liked to do on this earth.

The author of the book in the Bible called “Ecclesiastes” knew similar frustrations. There were things he wanted to know and do, but because he lived in a sin-cursed world, he found many of these pursuits “vanity” and “striving after the wind” (Ecc. 1:16). He learned that God’s sovereign hand controls everything.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die…” (Ecc. 3:1-2).

A life can be ended suddenly in the prime of youth, or the eventual end of years of suffering.
“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time, and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

One can die so suddenly and leave others wondering how this happened, or one can pass after years of cancer. The fact remains the same—we have an appointment to keep.
“It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

Solomon learned, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” (Proverbs 27:1)

No one should presume upon the future. God reminds us of the brevity and uncertainty of life. The arrogant fool assumes that he is “the master of his fate, and the captain of his soul.” He assumes that he controls his destiny. The Christian knows that God controls the future, and that what God wills will happen. It is not, “What will be, will be,” as though no one is in control. It is not, “What I will, will be.” It is, rather, “What God wills, will be.”

When Nancy was diagnosed with cancer I was able to visit her at Mt. Carmel East for a short talk. I shared with her some truths from Ephesians 2. We didn’t get to finish the study until a few months later when she was receiving treatment at Zangmiester. As she heard what the Apostle Paul said about our spiritually lost and dead condition, Nancy blurted out, “I believe!” At that moment she stopped trusting good works and trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ for salvation.

A funeral causes all survivors to think about mortality and eternity. The departed loved one is missed and mourned. Family and friends wonder why. We try to comfort each other. Did you know that heaven rejoiced when Nancy arrived?

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” (Ps. 116:15)

Most people would not put “death” and “precious” in the same sentence. We say that life is precious and worth protecting.

Death reminds us that we are not in charge, but that we have an appointment—with death. A person’s view of death reflects their world view. Living in this cursed world we need redemption of body and soul. You are not only dying, but you are dead! Or were (spiritually).

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air…carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:1-3).

We want to hear that we are good and doing fine, but the fact is that we are born sinners and estranged from God. Something must be done to change our status or we remain condemned.

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

Many of you witnessed changes in Nancy over the years. Maybe she wasn’t as spry as she used to be. Maybe she could not wear her favorite shoes anymore. Maybe the treatments left her sick or tired. Maybe you noticed spiritual peace the last year of her life.

“When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

God provided a remedy for the curse of death. Jesus our Savior was the perfect, sinless, Son of God. He had no sin of His own, yet He took our sins upon Himself on the cross. He died in the sinner’s place, bearing the penalty for sin, the curse of death.

But God also raised Jesus from the dead. He is now in heaven, sitting at the Father’s right hand. All those who repent of sin and put their faith and hope in Jesus as their Savior have the forgiveness of sins, and the assurance of eternal life.

None who trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior need fear death. On the authority of Scripture we can claim an unshakeable confidence that we are Christ’s child and that He will guarantee our safe passage to heaven.

Those who are saved by the blood of Christ will never see hell or a made-up place called “purgatory”. The moment they die, their spirit goes to heaven, and they will be given a new and glorious eternal body. For the unsaved the picture is not good. They will know eternal suffering in a literal hell that was prepared for Satan and his demons.

Just as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, He will also raise the true believer to eternal life. Death need no longer be viewed as something we dread, but rather can be welcomed as our passage from this cursed existence to a marvelous one.

“1For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Cor. 5:1-10)
David prayed in the Psalms, "Now, also, when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not." The closing words of Psalm 23 record David’s confidence—“…and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
All who have put their faith in Christ are assured that they need fear no evil. Make sure your sin has been put on Christ, and you have been declared righteous by His perfect sacrifice. Live! Like Nancy, “Live joyfully” (Ecc. 9:9). The way to live joyfully is not to live for yourself, but to live for Christ! Live with the prayer on your lips “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”!

“To the old rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away, where His glory for ever I’ll share.”

1 Cor. 15:50-58
50I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

"Death is swallowed up in victory." 55 "O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?"
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Memories of Aunt Nancy (August 3)

2010-08-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking all this for days, and this is how it comes out...

I will start by saying that I have the honor of being the first grandchild and the first niece, so my memories go back, far back, to young Aunt Nancy. No offense cousins, but being first has its advantages, I suppose (and I take this very seriously : ). So, at least for this generation, I will go back as far as I can remember.

But I digress.

(Already. Imagine that.).

($100 to anyone who can guess the other cousin who can out-digress me. You know who you are.)

I also hold the distinct honour of being named after Aunt Nancy.

Ever since I can remember, the Haywood's have called me Nancy Ann. I don't think I realized it until I was older, but being called Nancy Ann made me feel special. I was named after my beautiful, glamorous aunt. But in addition to that, my family gave me my own name, too. It is difficult to explain how it makes me feel when I hear it, even today…especially today.

Only as an adult do I realize that all those years ago, I hoped more than anything that I would grow up to be as fabulous as she. Correct me if I am wrong, but I always think of Aunt Nancy (even at 60) with the hourglass Barbie doll figure wearing the latest fashion and that big, beautiful, blond (or red, oh the beautiful red of late!) hair that she did herself, as well as everyone else's hair around Grandma and Grandpa's big kitchen table where every seat was full, with the kids running up and down and under the table and everywhere. She was always, all her life, so put together with the stylish clothes and hair and makeup. I know now that I inherited my love of hats and shoes from her.

More importantly, I remembered she always smiled, was always patient, always happy, always fun.

I remember Grandma and Grandpa's old schoolhouse house, and learning one day that the back room off the kitchen had been Aunt Nancy's room when she was growing up. When you're little the smallest things inspire amazement…I always loved that room after that. I got to walk through it every time I was allowed to go through it into the scary basement and watch Grandma put the clean, wet clothes through the old scary wringer which I will never forget NOT to put my hands near.

Then Aunt Nancy started to work for Coca-Cola and she would drive into the big yard full of cars and trucks and tractors and stray 50s era bumpers and other unidentifiable metal things in that great big new shiny white van with a green 7-Up logo on it. I still cannot, NOT think of Aunt Nancy every time I see a 7-Up.

As an adult I learned that Aunt Nancy was the queen of detail. Not so unlike myself, but oh, so different! I could change a tire on an 18-wheeler more easily than I could embroider the most beautiful set of cloth napkins I have ever laid eyes on. I feel I am the most un-domestic woman on the planet, so those napkins are something that I treasure. And her stories…I can picture her newly decorated house in colour, down to the new vacuum cleaner that she wanted and got (thank you Bob!) and every recipe she has given me, easy and practical as they are, include all the little tricks and extra careful thought that make it taste that much better.

Amy and I were at Grandma's with the family last Christmas. The pressure was on, as usual, to get all the gifts wrapped. Amy and I both live in Chicago so don't wrap, just fly unwrapped so those airport fools don't undo our crappy wrapping going through security and make it that much more crappy. We are crappy wrappers. Grandma cleared off the table and set us up with all the necessities and Aunt Nancy and Steph helped us wrap it ALL! We sat at the dining room table together and talked and laughed while Steph did her best to remove the lingering chicken stink-age from Vincent. (God bless the child for working so hard during the holidays.) Steph told us about Korean (Korean right Steph?) food, kim chee, etc. Aunt Nancy gave us the latest Bob and other gossip and that woman wrapped her cracked little fingers off while Amy, Stephanie, and I sat around and talked and laughed with her and wrapped nary a thing! The most beautifully wrapped Christmas gifts I have ever given. Believe me when I say that my gift recipients were highly suspicious…

One of my last memories of Aunt Nancy is also from last Christmas. We were all at Grandma's and there was this HUGE box there. All day, the box is sitting there. Everyone there KNOWS the box is for Aunt Nancy, but Aunt Nancy herself. Inside was a lighthouse. I still do not know the significance of the lighthouse. (Someone fill me in, please.) When the time came for the giant box to be opened and Grandma told Nancy that it was for HER, NOT Grandma, who Aunt Nancy THOUGHT the box was for, she was so happy! AND THEN…when she opened the box…MOTHER OF GOD. I have NEVER seen anyone's face light up like that! NEVER! It was joyous to see the joy, joy, joy, joy on her face! That damn lighthouse made her so happy!

God bless her for allowing me to see that smile and pure happiness on her sweet face.

I know I loved her from the time I could comprehend who she was, even when she was far away in years and distance and time.

I am very proud to be Nancy Haywood the Second.

(Just don't call me Junior.)

I love you Aunt Nancy and can only feel comforted that you are gone by the plain fact that I know you will be looking out for me, and everyone you loved, and who loves you dearly, until the end of time.

I believe that you died of happiness, and nothing more.

Love,
Nancy Ann

***

These are the words to one of my favourite songs, written by Dolly Parton's sister Rachel, sung by Dolly and Rachel in A-Capella harmony. It is a beautiful song and the words…well...

I have always attributed my love of bluegrass music to the Haywood in me and I think Aunt Nancy would have loved this song. I only wish she could have heard it.

But you know what?

I think that maybe she will.

***

I AM READY

I am ready
Oh, my children
When Jesus knocks at my door
I'll be there come morning
Don't weep for me
I'll be with my Lord

There's my bible on the table
Read it to me once more
I can hear God's heavenly angels
Singing me on through heaven's door

Hallelujah Lord
I am ready
No more sorrow
Hallelujah, yes
I am ready, I am ready
I am ready to go

Oh, Hosanna
Take my hand now
Lead me to the promised land now
I am ready, I am ready
Hallelujah, I am ready to go
Oh, Hosanna
I am ready to go
I can hear God's heavenly angels
Singing me on through heaven's door
Singing me on through heaven's door
And I am ready

- Nancy Blank Writing Services

Remembering Nancy

2010-08-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

When I think of Nancy, I think of falafel: three Fs and one L. She was Fun, Listening, Family-oriented, and Faithful.

I’ve never seen someone so determined to have fun. I’ve known Nancy for about 14 years. For a majority of that time she was injured or sick. But she didn’t let a serious car accident or late-diagnosed illness stop her from having fun. The example par excellence of this for me came Memorial Day weekend this year, when Nancy came down to Louisville to see some of the sights with us. We had a great time. Nancy went with us for 2 ½ hours to a mostly outdoors Beatles festival, even though it was very hot. The next day she watched 10 races with us at Churchill Downs. This was only two months ago, and Nancy must have already been getting sicker. But I don’t think she was faking it. She was determined to have fun, and we all did. (The picture of Nancy and Stephanie above is from the last couple of hours of that visit.)

Something else that surprised me a little about that visit was – as busy as we were – Nancy wanted to go to church with us Sunday morning. After worship she got to meet some of our church friends and our pastor. This past Sunday during worship I passed a note to our pastor about Nancy’s death. Our pastor said a prayer of thanksgiving for Nancy’s life and a prayer of concern and hope for Stephanie and our family. Then she said just seven or eight words about Nancy, talking about Nancy’s optimism and zest for life. This is someone who had talked with Nancy at most for about two minutes. Nancy’s determination to have fun was very obvious even to virtual strangers.

Nancy was also a great listener (and a good viewer and reader). Stephanie and I are both big talkers. And Nancy was so patient, attentive, and enthusiastic as we told our stories and talked about challenges we faced. Stephanie called and talked with her mother about every day, and she is never going to find someone who listened to her like Nancy did. My own mother is a very good listener too, but she is no Nancy. Nancy also viewed (and also) kept hard-copy photographs when we generated them and gave them to her and - more recently - read our blog entries and Facebook status updates and looked through our Facebook photo albums - then and now, religiously. Since we stopped blogging as regularly, I usually e-mail a few regular readers a link when we've done a few new entries. After blogging obliquely about Nancy's death a couple of days ago, I habitually typed in her e-mail address as one of the few people I was notifying about the entry before I realized that didn't make sense. Sadly, I deleted her e-mail address. No one will follow us and interact with us on Facebook like Nancy did.

Most people know how close Nancy was with her family. An interesting thing was how expansive her vision of who her family was. It certainly included all of her stepchildren, their spouses and partners and widows, and their kids – all the way down to the daughter of her recently newfound youngest stepson, who she helped show around when the granddaughter visited the United States. It certainly included all of her brothers and their kids and grandkids. And it even included people on my side of the family, including my (step) grandfather. I wasn’t there, but I’ve heard this story: One day Nancy and Stephanie were driving near Westerville and they decided to stop by my grandparents’ house, where I also lived. It turns out only my Grandpa was home, but Nancy said she wanted to meet my Grandpa. Nancy bounded in there and gave Grandpa a big hug. This was perfectly natural, as far as she was concerned: She’d heard a lot about Grandpa, felt like she knew him, and – even though Stephanie and I weren’t married yet – as far as Nancy was concerned, he was family. Grandpa, who was in his 80s then and is somewhat reserved, was a little flabbergasted. But you couldn’t help but like and love Nancy, and soon Grandpa did: Now, every time I see him, he asks about her.

A lot of us – after a bad car accident and after being diagnosed with cancer – might say: God, why did I get stuck with all of this? Why me? It’s not fair. We might doubt there is anyone up there at all. Nancy may have asked herself these questions. But she certainly didn’t talk about it. In fact, Nancy’s faith seemed to grow stronger, deeper, and richer during the last few difficult years. She was ever more faithful in her final months and years. I don't know if I could have done that.

God: We don’t know why you took Nancy from us, and we don’t know why you took her when you did and how you did. There’s a big hole here that it’s going to be awfully hard for us to fill, no matter how hard we try. But, God, I believe you have a plan for every single one of us. I can’t know this, but it seems obvious to me that part of your plan for Nancy was that she would be an example for all of us, that she would demonstrate to us how to have fun, how to listen, how to be family-oriented, and how to be faithful. Maybe just maybe Nancy had done all of this that she could, and you called her home. We miss her terribly, and I have feeling that folks there with you are getting the better end of the deal. If it wasn’t already like this, I have a feeling there is starting to be a lot of laughter, a lot of smiles, and a lot of hugs up in Heaven right now, among all kinds of folks, many of whom Nancy already regards as family. May it be so.

-- Perry

Missing Nancy

2010-08-01T11:27:00.001-07:00

Stephanie called me at 3:45 a.m., after texting Vincent, to tell me the news. Hard to believe that just two months ago Nancy (pictured above during Night 1 of that long weekend) joined us for a marathon weekend that included 2 1/2 hours at a largely outdoor Beatles festival and 10 races at Churchill Downs and two weeks ago Stephanie and Nancy went shopping for a wedding present for Dustin and Jamie at Kohl's in Pickerington. Nancy went through an awful in the last eight years - with her car accident, Bobby's illness, and her own illness - and she remained determined and in good spirits - and deepened her faith - during almost all of it. But we so wish we had even a few more months with you.

- Perry

News

2010-07-30T04:34:00.001-07:00

Good news and bad news: It appears that my health and job are somewhat secure for a while. Mid-year review went OK and blood test came up negative for cancer. Stephanie has met the new assistant principal for her school and had lunch with the person promoted to head up the school district English as a new language education program, and got along with them both. Mom's closing went fine - and she met and liked the young woman who will live there and her parents (and found that the A/C - probably 20-25 years old - died, but Mom had insured it for the whoever the buyer was before. Stephanie's mom also went home from the hospital, as her condition has improved somewhat.

Still, Nancy is weak and will be embarking on somewhat unfamiliar medical territory. And Vincent - we think - after he changed his mind and stayed in Ohio - apparently didn't get his job back (which he quit when he thought he was coming back home). Hopefully, Vincent will join Stephanie to visit Nancy and Bob at their home Saturday, while I entertain Peter and his family, before leaving for three days of meetings in Chicago Sunday night. Stephanie will come back to set up her room early this coming week.

-- Perry

Big 24 hours

2010-07-28T14:20:00.001-07:00

It’s already started to be a big Wednesday/Thursday for us. In Ohio, as we speak, Stephanie’s Mom is getting out of the hospital and heading home. Also in Ohio, Vincent – who called us this morning and asked us to pick him up to come back for good today - is – having been persuaded to stay on – trying to make up with his father (maybe they'll even move to Florida together, Vincent said), with whom he’s been living in an RV parked in the front yard of a friend of his father’s.

Today Stephanie – having met Tuesday the new assistant principal at her school - had lunch with the person who has been promoted essentially to head up her school district’s English as a new language education program.

Thursday afternoon – more or less simultaneously – I’ll have my mid-year review – which I’m anxious about, all the more so in this layoff-prone environment – and Mom will go with her realtor to the closing on the house. If everything goes OK, I’ll still have a job Thursday evening, but Mom will no longer have a house. There are still a few things from the house – like a chair or two – that Mom needs to figure out what to do with.

-- Perry

First of the week

2010-07-26T20:21:00.003-07:00

Leading into an unnerving Thursday Mid-Year Review - in the wake of a mediocre January review and May's layoffs - as well as an unnerving now-annual review of my student loan restructuring - are three medical appointments for me: follow-up to Friday's colonscopy (pictured above) which what Stephanie figured out was partly a test for prostate cancer; an follow-up to my knee reinjury with an orthopedist; and our first appointment with Vincent's/our counselor since Vincent's blow-up there earlier this summer (and our first appointment with her without Vincent since last winter).

Stephanie's Mother continues to be in the hospital - with some visitors. They've ruled out kidney problems, but she is still having bladdar problems.

Mom's realtor called to say that the closing Friday is apparently on, and so, by this weekend, Mom may no longer be a homeowner.

Stephanie was back to school for the first time in seven or so weeks, at a paid week-long district-wide curriculum planning activity. Next week she'll probably "volunteer" setting up her new half classroom.

After helping entertain houseguests this weekend, I'll be traveling a lot for work-related meetings/conference in the next couple of weeks: first to Chicago and then to Atlanta.

-- Perry

Back in the saddle

2010-07-26T20:20:00.001-07:00

Thursday, after a six-week gap, we coughed up the money (with some help) to reestablish our hotel gym/pool membership, paying the extra $20 for a family membership, so Vincent is still on our membership. We hadn't been there for quite a while.

-- Perry

Thursday

2010-07-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

We made it three for three today, as - having gotten a new furnace and new A/C unit during the past year or so - today we got a new water heater. I left work early today as I prepared for my first colonoscopy (Friday AM) - inspired by me going with Mom to get one in December. Nancy, Stephanie's Mom, got a blood transfusion earlier this week, as she fights side effects of cancer treatment. Frisco got dental work done Tuesday, and Vincent decided his breathing problems had subsided enough that he doesn't need to go to the doctor. Vincent said Wednesday he would go today in Columbus to take the written test for his learner's permit driver's license. And Stephanie tried enjoying her next-to-last free day of the summer (now interrupted by me). Next week she will be paid to go 8-4 to continuing education activities, and the week after - her last official week - while I'll be in Chicago, part of the time - she'll probably go ahead and "volunteer" and set up her classroom, which - for the first time in New Albany - she'll be sharing, and - for the first time in four years - will be a classroom that is new to her. Custodians, Stephanie, and Vincent already moved her paced boxes to the new classroom, but the room isn't really set up. We're also planning for Vincent's next visit here, an early-September visit that will combine routine health care check-ups with the removal of two of his wisdom teeth.

-- Perry

Housing and health

2010-07-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

My Mother spent a nervous weekend waiting to hear whether the would-be buyer of her house would go ahead and buy. He had been trying to get Mom to pay to fix some additional wood rot that was found. But no final phone call came him and the drama will apparently go on until the end of the month, when the closing is scheduled. The buyer will lose some money if he does not go ahead with it. He's buying it for his daughter, a Florida State student, to live in (and probably housemates). Mom also reached a couple of milestones: she turned in the last work product for work - a short narrative describing and analyzing some data she had put into tables - and marked her fourth week of one-on-one swimming exercise activities.

Health problems also abounded in Central Ohio, where both Stephanie's Mother and Vincent have been having trouble breathing. The guess is that Nancy's problems stem from her cancer treatment and Vincent's from smoking and asthma. Nancy was slated to go to the doctor Tuesday to find out more. Vincent and his father - having left their apartment - somewhat near Vincent's work - are now staying very near the motel we sometimes stay at when we visit Ohio - and not too, too far from Stephanie's Mom. The two also had a short drive Saturday to Canal Winchester, scene of cousin Dustin and Jamie's wedding. Vincent and his father are currently staiying in an RV - apparently Vincent's grandparents' old RV - parked in the yard of a friend of Vincent's father. (They are quite far now from Vincent's job, at the North High Street Bob Evans.)

I'm wrapping up physical therapy this week (as my knee continues to feel better - the PT said I had gone from 45% to 85%), starting taking antibiotric for stomach problems I picked up in Guatemala, and start the prerlude Thursday for a Friday AM colonoscopy. i hope my current stomach problems do not jeopardize my colonoscopy.

-- Perry

Congrats!

2010-07-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Upon her return earlier this week, Stephanie learned that the New Albany-Floyd County (IN) school board had granted her tenure (having taught in the district for five years and her principal having giving her positive recommendations) (click on the image above to read the tenure letter). It’s complex because Stephanie occupies a niche. But, in general, it means it would be harder to lay her off and, if her position was eliminated, she could “bump” non-tenured teachers, if she were qualified for their positions.

Over the past week and a half, Mom received an offer on her house, went back and forth with the would-be buyer (a man buying the house for his daughter, who will attend Florida State, and presumably some housemates. Friday Mom’s realtor helped engineer a deal. In a couple of weeks the man will – or will not – put up a downpayment and then two weeks later a closing will take place. The downpayment will be big enough that if he pays it, he’ll definitely close. The sale somewhat official (at a somewhat discounted price), the house is apparently off the market for now. Mom doesn’t seem to be rushing back to see the house another time or two. She won’t have to worry about having to keep the outside mowed, etc., won’t have to keep paying pest control and utilities, and won’t have to worry about not being able to sell and having to rent it out.

- Perry

Health and housing

2010-07-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

Frisco spent a day at the vet, with vomiting, but was back Monday night, seemingly as good as ever (see above)– though he vomited again Thursday night. The half a dozen eggs Speckles laid late Saturday night continue not to look good, and the one good one she laid earlier this spring has done nothing. The Nissan is still in the shop, undergoing rear axle work. I completed my second week of physical therapy on my right knee. At some points during the day it feels great; other times it does not. I plan to bring my cane to Minnesota and Guatemala. Stephanie (pictured below) came home Tuesday night via the Cincinnati airport (without luggage - it arrived the next day) after a challenging nine days away (in China and elsewhere), jet lagged, exhausted, and with swollen ankles and a bad cold (probably due to exhaustion, too much salt and MSG, and lots of air pollution), but no blood clots. After working on the yard all day Wednesday, she slept all day Thursday. She took something like 1,300 photos while she was away and had an mediocre-to-OK excuse for not calling me from the LA airport and not contacting me by computer once she got to China. Although she did miss having dinner with my father in Koreatown, she did not miss having Peking duck in Peking. My Mother also started one-on-one water exercise classes this week. Although the water is still cold, she's done better at this than she did with the group class, although she may re-join that as she gets used to the water. The exercises she are doing are similar to what she does every morning in the gym, but these under water. She also continues a group exercise class also at the gym, I think twice a week.

Vincent and his father are awaiting the clean-up of their place-to-be in metro Columbus, while Mother awaits word Friday on the possible sale of her house after three months on the market (including one month - May - which was the worst market for U.S. home sales in years and years).

- Perry

Exercise

2010-06-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

It’s easy to blame Mom for some of the physical problems she’s facing, although we also profited from her working many extra years for the Department of Education. Sitting behind a desk all day and being physically active only sporadically in recent years contributed to her physical problems today. One of those problems goes at least back to her knee replacement surgery, when she was not able to do some of the exercises to get back her range of motion and make it easier for her to get up off a chair.

Tuesday I got some of this medicine myself, however. Ten days ago I reinjured an old knee injury – that goes back to running in high school and then a 1994 NYC car accident – when I slammed my knee into a metal barrier I was trying to climb over (something I’ve done several dozen times there) while walking the dog. Not only did the circumstances seem freak/stupid, but – when I got to physical therapy – one thing the therapist asked me to do that I couldn’t do was lower my foot slower from one step to another – and it was clear this was not just due to my injury but due to my failure to work out my leg muscles, as I was to do at home after my 18 months of post-car accident PT. In other words, my recovery from this latest incident might have gone more quickly if I had only exercised my leg muscles more (Mom would be too nice to say: take that, son!).

My knee really hurt after I slammed it into the barrier. Unfortunately, I had a whole long list of activities planned for the rest of the day – including door-to-door canvassing in the mid 90s in New Albany between 2 and 4 in the afternoon – and I did them all. Very late in the weekend I iced my knee and elevated it, and I have taken some somewhat hat baths since then too. Gradually, I’ve gone to some of my whole post-injury routine: using a cane (sometimes) (I didn’t find it until Friday, after we had gotten the trunk fixed), not running at all, wrapping my knee in a Ace bandage, avoiding stairs or going very slowly up and down them, driving with my left foot, etc.

I did 18 months of PT back in 1994-95 partly because I loved it, and I loved going to my physical therapist in Louisville for my neck/back/shoulder injury. So, ten days after the accident, I was finally back up at KORT Spine and Sport (inside pictured above), a few blocks from our house, being diagnosed and then – the next morning – doing an hour of exercises and icing/electrical stimulation. Some of the exercises were surprisingly hard. Periodically after walking the dog in the morning I do about 5-10 minutes worth of exercises: including some I picked up from past yoga classes, some from 1994-95 PT, and some from Louisville PT a couple of years ago. However, I have never been good about using light weights to do leg lifts, which is the kind of exercise I needed so that I could step down from that stair slowly (instead of going . . . plunk!). I also have some electric stimulation device my Dad got me, that I haven’t gotten out for years. I may have to use all of these, as I try to figure out how to do PT for at least a few weeks while I try to negotiate my PT being gone next week and then me being gone to Minneapolis and then Guatemala after that. The big question: will they allow me to take a cane on the plane? It’s going to be an interesting – but sometimes painful – few weeks. And who knows whether Stephanie dodged the blood clot bullet on her elongated (but also spread out) transcontinental flight? She won’t tell.

P.S. Two more Mom connections: Mom and I may even be doing some of the same exercises (she formerly in physical therapy and now at home or at the gym; me in physical therapy). Also, I plan to check with the physical therapist/gym staff about whether Mom could use the facility to do some exercises if she were to visit us for a week or two at some point (so she wouldn't get too far behind with that).

-- Perry

Changes

2010-06-20T07:28:00.001-07:00

Vincent and my car going through some changes. You’ll recall that Vincent his grandparents’ long stay at his father’s and his one-bedroom apartment in Columbus got them in hot water with their landlords. His father had talked with us about him trying to buy a house in Upper Arlington (?!). Then Franklin County had pushed Vincent’s father to pay child support.

Vincent called Saturday and we got out of him that they lived their place near Easton, tried moving into a house and something like asbestos in the house made his father sick, and so they’re staying in a motel while the landlord cleans it up. Vincent didn’t say where in metro Columbus they were staying or arre staying now. Vincent called us putatively to try connect the WiFi on his father’s family’s laptop from a Bob Evans near where they’re staying (putatively to work on his classes). Apparently they can’t afford to pay the extra WiFi charge at the motel. (We weren’t able to help him figure how to get it connected.)

We’ve been working on Vincent to try to get him to go to our cousin Dustin’s wedding, at his mother’s house in Canal Winchester. We got the surprise news that he and girlfriend Jamie are getting married next month, via Facebook message. We met Jamie earlier this spring at cousin Corey’s wedding to Brittany.
Vincent says he’s been working six days a week at Bob Evans.

Ever since we got the brown Nissan back from my sister a couple of years ago, I’ve almost never locked it because the alarm system goes crazy when I try to unlock it. Twice this month – including until almost midnight Thursday – the alarm system has gone off and these times it just wouldn’t quit (even if we got the sound to stop, the car still wouldn’t stop) and so we had the car towed to a nearby mechanic. Whatever they did the first time obviously didn’t entirely solve the problem, and so back it went Friday night. Friday Stephanie got it back: They didn’t charge us, but said if we wanted to fix we’d have to take it to the Nissan dealer (presumably expensive), but gave us some advice on how to keep the alarm off. We decided to risk it and not take it to the dealer – yet, even though this is a good time to take cars in since Stephanie is not working.

One of the reasons I’m sometimes tempted to lock the car is that the trunk – which worked some until a few months ago, when my key broke off into the trunk when I was parked at a metered spot downtown – doesn’t work. A couple of months ago I took the car to a local St. Matthews locksmith. They got the remains of the key out and oiled the lock, but we still couldn’t get the trunk open. They recommended I try taking the car not to the dealer but to another locksmith on the far end of town. Friday – on the way from the doctor’s to the track for the Friday night under the lights – we decided to drop the car off at this locksmith. Saturday lunchtime we went back and got it. They said the oil must have seeped in by then and the trunk lock was working fine, and sure enough it was. They said we’d need to oil it regularly. No charge. So we got some advice from folks at both of these businesses and no charge, although we had to drive to the southern part of town once (although we’d found time to do it).

Hopefully Vincent will get into their apartment soon, and we’ll stay trouble free with my car’s alarm system and trunk lock.

-- Perry

Busy week

2010-06-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was the last day at work for Mom and the last day of the school year (without kids) for Stephanie. Mom’s colleagues had a modest-sized good-bye party for her, and she went through some more files. She still has a work laptop at home and a very complex table of numbers she’s trying to finish working out.

Monday morning Mom lost the close-to-the-building handicapped parking space she had informally used since she moved to the retirement center and will have to use a space she now has at an outlying parking lot. Along with not having to drive to work, this will encourage her to drive even less frequently. Mom has consoled herself about her retirement by continuing to tackle a host of transition business she’s got to take care of. She’s also begun visiting and participating several different above-ground and in-the-pool exercise classes at the retirement center. Mom hasn’t been swimming since the early 1970s, and so we’ll see how that goes. Mom concedes that she has gotten out of shape and hopes to remedy some of that without straining too much. (Her initial swim class and riding the center shuttle to a shopping mall Thursday didn’t go great.) Mom also faces challenges settling into a dining routine she likes (as practices at the retirement center continue to change) and finding people she enjoys eating with.

Stephanie ended up going back to school every day during the first four days of the week (volunteering all but one of the days). She finished packing up – or bringing home – the stuff in her old classroom and helped the custodians move some of it to the much smaller new classroom she’ll be sharing with another teacher. Tuesday Vincent and the dog went to help her. Vincent has been here for most of the week.

While I was away for the weekend, Vincent’s father – on a moving job to a nearby town – essentially brought Vincent here. Vincent – who still has a job as a Bob Evans dishwasher up in Columbus - was here ostensibly for an informal one-year class reunion of his old high school and a doctor’s appointment. As usual, Vincent spent the first couple of days here out with friends – although this with a friend we approve of - and then was tired and somewhat grouchy much of the rest of the time. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all eventful. The two kids Vincent hung out with most of the time he was here back in April – who soon thereafter got arrested – had tried to be in touch with him, and stopped by several times. Vincent finally visited with one of them, but apparently told this kid – who is probably headed to prison – that he wanted to take a break.

Then Monday, when Vincent went to counseling – in the end, with Stephanie and Frisco – Vincent, apparently tiring of counseling – brought up stuff from the long past. He’s apparently been going through some of his father’s court records and started a debate with his mother about who was right in the expensive trial we were in vs. his father some 10 years ago. Tuesday and Wednesday Vincent went to the doctor and then an oral surgeon and then set up an early September for having two of his wisdom teeth out (an experience, Vincent recalls, that was particularly painful some 14 years ago for his mother). Thursday Vincent’s father called to explain that the child support enforcement office in Ohio had finally gotten on him, threatening his driver’s license if he didn’t start paying child support, and he enlisted Stephanie’s aid in lowering the monthly amount due (never mind that the final amount to be paid is shrinking in real terms, due to interest and inflation). Stephanie also got out of Vincent that – being kicked out of their apartment for having two extra people (Vincent’s grandparents) for the past few months – they kicked out the grandparents but are now having to look for a new place to live. (The child support enforcement effort may put a crimp in their plan to buy a fancy house in Upper Arlington.)

(Vincent also reprised his knife incident in a very small way by knocking over and braking a glass jar with marbles in it but also surprised us by going to church for the first time in months, for a Wednesday night dinner designed partly to help out people in the congregation – like us – having trouble making ends meet, with a free meal.)

Unsure about how to afford the time and money to driving Vincent all the way to Ohio Thursday (Vincent pitched that we shouldn’t do the usual meeting his father in Covington (KY) just south of Cincinnati), instead, for the first time, we drove him to the Cincinnati bus station and but him on a Greyhound bus for Columbus. This was a trial run and he should be able to do the whole bus route between Louisville and Columbus at some point (but not if he has a lot of stuff). With a driver’s license or not, his father picked him up last night and they got home safely last night. Vincent was to work this morning.

(In the past, Vincent’s father has gotten out of the driver’s license penalty by saying he can’t work – driving a moving truck – without a license and therefore wouldn’t be able to pay child support anyway. But it’s a vicious circle, because when he gets his license back and works, he doesn’t pay any child support either.)

(Because Vincent’s relationship with his friends here has dwindled – except for the friends in trouble who he broke it up with – and I guess except for the guy he hung out with this past weekend – having Vincent home this week – when he wasn’t asleep – especially since Stephanie was home some of the time – was a bit like back when Vincent was on house arrest, in that he was willing to hang out with us and do stuff with us. Vincent and Stephanie watched “Ghost Hunters” and a PBS show about ferrets and their people on TV together Wednesday night.)

-- Perry

May session devotion

2010-06-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

Popular culture has influenced my interpretation of scripture and my understanding of my faith as much as it has influence me in other ways. As a very, very, very late baby boomer, I’m of the right age that the two pop culture that did this for me at a particularly impressionable age of 11 or 12 were the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” and the musical “Godspell.” I have a particularly vivid memory of my sister, my mother, and me going to the theater district in downtown Boston in the winter of ’72 to see what seemed at the time to be a particularly loud performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” As many of you probably know, “Jesus Christ Superstar” depicts several days during Holy Week. “Godspell” covers Jesus’ adult ministry and teaching, mainly before Holy Week. Of the two, “Superstar” is darker, even cynical.

As I grew older, one thing I noticed about these two interpretations is that they both essentially lack the Resurrection. This is particularly blatant in the movie version of the “Superstar.” The movie is a performance in a film. The performers arrive in a bus at a site, apparently in the Sinai, and perform “Superstar.” Then, they get back on the bus, all except for the performer who played Jesus, whose character has just been crucified. It’s not entirely clear what has happened, but it appears that he’s dead. The other performers, - the “disciples” – look sad. But it’s almost like it’s all a bad dream that they’re trying to forget. Needless to say, this is kind of odd.

In spite of these oddities, what is it that I got – positive – out of these interpretations? What do I value in them? “Godspell” reminds me of the joy, spontaneity, and music of the small, progressive, mainline Protestant churches I spent part of my childhood in. A year or two before I was in Boston I was riding around Southern California listening on the radio to a conservative, evangelical pastor criticize what he called “Christian rock.” It took quite a while for me to get used to the association between the job, spontaneity, and music of what became known as “contemporary worship” and large, conservative, evangelical churches, instead of churches like my childhood churches. For me, “Godspell” and Crescent Hill churches are reminders that that doesn’t have to be the case.

The Holy Week set of stories are probably my favorite scripture stories. I’m going to blatantly steal some ideas from Pastor Jane here. One of the reasons I like these stories is that – during Holy Week – Jesus – and, by extension , God - experiences a full range of very human emotions – from joy, anger, and communion, to fear, pain, doubt, betrayal, despair, and forgiveness. It seems to me that a God who has experienced all of that might be able to relate with us in a variety of situations and support us in those situations.

When my cousin-in-law died, her family had her funeral at the charismatic, don’t-worry-be-happy church that they attended. Soon after I arrived at the service, we were admonished not to be sad. We were told that we were there to celebrate Kelly’s life and that she had gone to a better place. I didn’t necessarily disagree with all of this. But this was a woman who was probably abused as a child. She got married at age 17 and went on to face some real challenges in her marriage, at her job, in court, and with her health – some of those health challenges being self-induced. She had died at age 28, leaving two children – about the same age as my sister and me=I when we went to the play – without one of their parents. It seems like there should have been a LITTLE room for feeling sad. The God of Holy Week, and of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” would have given us that space, ad would have supported us in grieving.

It’s hard for me to think of Holy Week without thinking of my friend Todd. Todd and I were high school classmates together. Todd became a professional journalist, and went on a “working vacation” to Peru, where he studied the drug economy there. Soon before he was set to leave, Todd was kidnapped, tortured for three days, and killed, apparently by the “Shining Path” guerillas. Immediately after this, Todd’s friends and family asked themselves a question I’m pretty sure Todd also asked himself: where was God, during those three days?

I ‘d liked to believe, and I do believe, that God was there with Todd, holding his hand, keeping him company, staying up with him through the night. The God of Holy Week, and of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” would have done that for Todd, just as God will do that for you and me during our darkest hours.

I’ve kept this in mind – and felt this – during the last few difficult weeks and months for those of us who work at the Presbyterian Center. And I trust that you have felt this during difficult times.

-- Perry

Countdown

2010-06-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

Four more days of work for two people in our family: till the end of the school year for Stephanie (who will take all but the last week of summer off, because the school district couldn’t afford to have summer school, and is currently spending part of her time at work packing up her books, files, and so on, since she'll be moving to a former closet, which she'll share with a colleague, over the summer); and – apparently – for the rest of her life for my Mother. Mom is trying to finish two projects at home and to go in to work (in the Florida Education Center - or Turlington Building - pictured above) to go through more of her files. A couple of months ago she gave her manager June 4 as the date. Mom is not advertising the end of her 35 years with the Florida Department of Education as much as she might because she has mixed feelings about wrapping things up, as her health really pressed her to do it. Jacob has another week and a half of school. This weekend I may see Penny, Jacob, and Serge, as I head through there on my way to or from a college reunion in Pennsylvania. At this point, Stephanie is slated to stay home, as Vincent will be back with his own little one-year reunion and a doctor’s appointment.

-- Perry

Cyber-activists!

2010-05-21T06:05:00.001-07:00

Stephanie and Vincent have both become cyber-activists! Vincent told us last weekend he’s been spending some time on-line arguing – apparently in chat rooms or through comments on-line – in sites frequented by the Nation of Islam (black separatist strand of Islam at one point associated with Malcolm X) and white separatists. He said the white separatists have kicked off their website three times. Earlier this week Stephanie started a new Facebook “group” called “Boycott BP until the oil spill is stopped” (logo she used for the group above). Said Stephanie in her invitation to join the group: "If Facebook can get Betty White on SNL maybe we can do something even more important! Let us send a message to BP that we need this oil spill stopped." We’ll see what Stephanie and other members do with the group. I know when we drive to and from Florida this weekend we’ll be avoiding gassing up at BP gas stations. Check it out on Facebook!

Perry

New ramp and elevator/lift pictures

2010-05-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

Family news

2010-05-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

Friday is the big day at my job. Earlier this week Mom got the go ahead to work at home, up until her retirement date (June 4). She went in for several days and got some important work done that she could have only done in the office. She met with a fitness center staff and was a little surprised that she can only mainly do what she’s been doing at the gym (she missed a couple of days when she was at the office most of the day) – She may have to consider breaking down and do exercises in the pool. Hasn’t gone swimming for 32 years.

I called Mom’s realtor’s office about whether we could get in to see Mom’s house during our brief visit next week, and she said that prospective landlords – attracted by the four bedrooms – have been the biggest draw to see the house so far. One person who visited didn’t like the house backing onto the apartment complex (over the fence). The pictures on the realtor’s website certainly don’t show the complex behind the house (though it peaks out behind the fence in the picture above). The bigger recent challenge as been the now student rentals on both sides of Mom’s house, and we probably won’t feel great about contributing to that.

(Mom will also be headed to the doctor's office Friday for a routine visit.)

Stephanie’s had a crazy week, staying at school to work late every night, five nights in a row. Tuesday afternoon was the probably the last district-wide English as a new language teaching staff meeting with the long-time leader, who will probably have different responsibilities next year (and Stephanie’s Camry may get fixed as a follow-up to that meeting). Tuesday night brought a very modest-sized group of parents and children coming mainly from the school whose families tried to hard to keep it from getting closed (the school that President Bush visited several years ago). But one Silver Street parent said he opposed the closing but was excited about Fairmont’s diversity (including many of Stephanie’s students). Wednesday afternoon brought some annoyances but bottom line a visit by a group of district staff, local academics, and state staff eager to let the IN education officials how Stephanie’s ENL program could be a model for others around the state.

(Earlier Thursday Stephanie also took her fifth-grade ENL students - and this year the fourth-graders too - in an annual field trip to see the middle school where most of them will be attending and to meet some of the staff. The regular ENL teacher - the one injured in a bad car accident this winter - is of course still out. But they met the long-term sub who Stephanie met last week, as she's a student in one of the Indiana University Southeast teaching ENL classes.)

Undergoing new treatment, Stephanie’s mother is already seeing some new side effects (without the old side effects all going away). Earlier this month Nancy and Bob had their swimming pool filled in with a dirt – a pool that Vincent, Stephanie, and I enjoyed regularly – and that dates back almost to when Stephanie, Nancy, and Bob first lived there. Maintenance is a challenge, and neither Nancy nor Bob ought to be outside in the sun.

-- Perry

Job news

2010-05-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

Lots of job news today. Stephanie learned that she has got a final positive recommendation from her principal before she goes up for tenure – over the summer? – with the school district and school board. Stephanie - still recovering from being ill - stays late at school all week this week: Tuesday night for an open house for families of incoming students, aimed particularly of parents of one the four schools that the school district is closing next month, most of whose current kindergarteners, 1st-, 2nd- and, 3rd-graders will be coming to Fairmont. (Families associated with this school had in recent years campaigned very hard to keep the school open.)

I learned at a big all-staff meeting that there will be a net loss of 45 jobs at the Presbyterian Center. Friday is still layoff day. Apparently people won’t have to leave immediately or lose their e-mail accounts immediately. I looked up more information about layoff policies (which would include about eight months of pay and benefits for me). My Mom learns more Tuesday about whether she will be able to work at home for her last three weeks or so of work. She had started to do so but then learned that it wasn’t all approved. For the first time in months, last week she started going back to work. June 4 is the day she set as a retirement day. Stephanie and I are set to visit her and go to a high school reunion for me later this month.

And then there’s kids news: Vincent and Stephanie talked twice briefly by phone on Mother’s Day. And, just as importantly: Today we got a chance for new kids! As she often does in the spring, Speckles laid an egg – but just one (unusually), so far.

"Bare Necessities"

2010-05-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

From the production of the kids' version of "The Jungle Book" by Fairmont Elementary School (Stephanie's school). Click on the arrow to watch the clip.

Opryland Hotel

2010-05-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Late last July Stephanie and a colleague broadly construed who teaches middle school English as a new language in New Albany (Laura Martin) stayed in the sprawling Opryland Hotel in Nasvhille, where a READ 180 - the reading program both of them have taught this year to ENl and non-ENL students alike - was held.

Nine months later Laura is recovering from a very serious winter car accident but still plans to teach in the fall. And the hotel lies in ruins, thanks to the Cumberland River flooding.

There's no money this year for the school district to send people to conferences. But it's not clear this one will happen. Unless perhaps it moves to Louisville, and then maybe Stephanie can participate affordably. Another friend named Laura (Laura Chambers) watched much her Bellevue (TN) neighborhood submerge and is rallying people to help her neighbors move the water and repair their homes. We're thinking of all of you.

Remembering Kelly

2010-05-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

Taken during an August 2009 Central Ohio visit

Indian Lake

2010-05-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

Click on the arrow below to see Indian Lake (from Lakeside, OH) on a cloudy April morning (where we stayed and then awoke two weeks ago tonight)

New Albany night

2010-05-06T21:10:00.001-07:00

Stephanie, Frisco, and I were all in New Albany until late Thursday. I planned to take Frisco with me to an “Organizing for America” phone bank making calls to Southern Indiana Democrats to urge them to call U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) to urge him to vote for financial industry regulatory reform. First time I’d phone banked for several weeks, and the first time not for health care reform. Frisco came along with me. Stephanie stayed late for a “family literacy” program put on by Indiana University Southeast for her English as a New Language students and their parents. Stephanie was kind of a star, as the MC essentially interviewed her, asked her questions about the families. Plus there were two IUS ENL education grad students who said they had heard of Stephanie , were excited to meet her, and hoped to follow up. A new READ 180 coach also appeared during the day to offer Stephanie feedback.

Things weren’t so great back on the other side of the Ohio River. Thanks to me leaving Frisco in the back yard during the afternoon (and taking him to New Albany with me), he had no accidents for the first time in three days. Back at work, however, things did not go so well. Some long, closed-door meetings, and rumors from other sources, suggest that the cuts – in general and in our offices – may be quite severe, which leads me to believe the Presbyterian Panel, which I’ve administered in 14 months in my new position, may be on the chopping block. Hard to see how they could justify keeping me – instead of some of my colleagues – if they got rid of my research program. Mid-week next week will find at least three people from my office headed to a de facto job search workshop at work (why before the layoffs? Asked my colleagues; I answered: because if they do it afterwards, the laid off people will all be gone – it will be too late). There are other interpretations out there. This may not be by accident – we may all three be on our way out. Thursday I came closer to finishing a draft of another report and signed up for the new jobs e-mail distribution list at church.

Mom went into work for the first time in months and found that her new medication doesn’t seem to work as well as her old medication. She was sleepy at work, but – more importantly – she found some of her Parkinson’s symptoms – ones she may or may not have missed in recent days – were more in evidence – which made it tougher for her to walk. She’s going through her files electronic and hard-copy and logging more hours in so she doesn’t use up all her vacation.

-- Perry

Changing meds

2010-05-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

This week doctors prescribed new medications for both of our mothers. Nancy heard not great news from her doctor about the status of her illness and will now start once every two weeks more aggressive treatment with some more serious side effects. My Mom will switch to nighttime medication – and with lots to do in the office, another hiccup with getting approved to work at home, and learning that she could cash out any leftover vacation time – she’ll go in to work for the first time since January Thursday. Mom is also trying to find answers to some insurance issues. Earlier this week Stephanie learned that she will be paired with a former classroom teacher, a 20ish single woman, who is being shifted over to READ 180, and go into a classroom on the opposite end of her current wing/hallway of the school. She and Tiffany get along OK but it will be a challenge cramming much of their stuff in their together and teaching at the same time (or not). Stephanie will continue to teach English as a new language and READ 180 (and still math?). It’s been an up-and-down roller coaster on my end, as Tuesday we thought we figured out how they were going to prevent a bloodbath in my office, but now I’m not sure. Wednesday the group I've been working with to plan another Guatemala mission trip learned that two more people (up to six to seven now) would be going, but some complications will ensue. Coming up: a big (and unprecedented) meeting Monday outlining what will happen (?) on layoff day, next Friday. Frisco and we continue to face challenges as it turns out I might need to come home TWICE during the workday to walk him to keep him from having accidents, which I can’t do, and so we’re going to have to figure out different strategies. Two options: changing his prescription dog food, or taking him to doggie day care (which costs about $250 a month). On the boy front: I talked with one of Vincent's lawyers today who said he would work on Vincent's expungement.

Mid-week news

2010-05-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

Another big mid-week: Stephanie goes to a faculty/staff meeting at her school this afternoon, when more of what’s in store for them this coming school year will be made public. It’s been musical chairs with the rumor mill as to which teacher she might be paired with and in which room. Stephanie finished our contribution to this year’s Children’s Fellowship Sunday, leading a fun Mexico/Cinco de Mayo-themed activity, and then topped off her after-school Culture Club Mexico unit Monday with a parent – a parent she’d seen the day before in a long, parent-teacher conference – bringing in Mexican food (with leftovers coming home).

I learned Monday evening that the larger unit at work within which my office is by far the largest subunit may be facing a 19 percent budget cut, which means May 14 it’s likely that 2 of the 10 people (possibly including me) in my office will be laid off. I had a dream last night that I or we were moving to a new city so I could start a new job. Back at work, I’ve turned in one report and trying to finish one more this week (while layoff decisions are still being made). In perhaps a swan song, the three or four days’ worth of Presbyterian “Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study” podcasts I recorded earlier this year went out over the weekend: http://www.pcusa.org/missionyearbook/podcast/may/myb050110.mp3

Also, Wednesday is the first meeting of a small group of people from church going to Guatemala on a mission trip in July. One of the trip leaders, I purchased tickets (with the pastor’s credit card) for four of us last week. A Spanish class (partly to prepare) at church, after Weight Watchers, starts up again today.

My Mother has been trying to nail down some of the details of her retirement and exit from her office. She also has an appointment with her neurologist this week. I knew she had talked with the realtor and her contractors, but it turns out her house has been on the market for a week or two, with three people coming to see it already. Check out the pictures at: http://www.libbyallen.com/content/listdetail.html?propid=111315592&proptype=*&minprice=-1&maxprice=-1&bed=-1&full=-1&ag_id=162936&pageclicked=1&proppos=10&ids=108928250,107852264,102765984,105037361,91721122,78676355,105073187,108425781,109801255,111315592

Over the weekend my sister had her four modern dance performances, and received an award, but was also in a car accident soon before one of the performances, which shook her up and damaged her car and created a hassle for her trying to track down after the fact the person at fault who sideswiped her and her insurance company. Jacob got to see most of Stephanie’s performances. We’re glad Penny’s OK but know it must have been stressful.

Stephanie and Vincent were in touch Monday after we went to see a movie by a Korean filmmaker whose previous movie (“The Host”) Vincent loved. Vincent says he’s working on his classes, mostly right now the English class that he’s essentially taking for the third time. He continues his job, which he alternatively says is fun or boring.

- Perry

Decadent and depraved

2010-05-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from Leah and Delilah's readers' theater plus performance of Hunter S. Thompson's "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" 1970) at Friday evening's extreme infield/gawking party (click on the arrow):

Vincent news

2010-04-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week Meemaw Nancy (Stephanie’s mother) and Grandma Mary stopped the Graceland Bob Evans where Vincent now works (inside of a Bob Evans restaurant pictured above) for lunch. They often stop at Bob Evans, but this time went to a different one so they could see their grandson/great-grandson. Vincent came out and gave them hugs and they got to chat for a little while. Stephanie also talked with him later: The job is hard but he likes the people. He says he’s been taking the laptop his father got from another family member and – since the restaurant has WiFi – been working on his on-line classes on break or after work when he waits to be picked up. Thursday Vincent said he also went from working at Bob Evans before, during, and after lunch to working on a moving job with his father. Perhaps Stephanie’s father will stop by some time.

-- Perry

Pre-Derby week news

2010-04-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Mom got the OK to start back to work late last week – getting medical permission for working at home – and worked through the weekend. While she worked she started getting dinner take-out and eating in her apartment instead of in the dining room. Mom has been exercising at the retirement center gym every day since her therapy wrapped up more than a week ago.

Mom has been limiting her driving, but did get out to a Tallahassee American Association of University Women annual social event – to which she invited some other friends – last week (over the weekend – besides the funeral and wedding in Ohio – she missed the state AAUW – an event she twice ran for an organization for which she served as Historian during the past year).

Friday Mom’s realtor met with the contractors. Another damaged wood spot outside was found, this one on the bank of the house. Mom has spent about $5,000 on fixing up the house. The realtor sounds close to taking pictures of the house and putting it on the market. I hope it hasn’t closed by late May, when I’m planning to visit – I’d like to see the house one more time and like to check out what the contractors did.

Although we visited Ohio this weekend, we didn’t get to see Vincent. He started his new job as a dishwasher at a Bob Evans near Graceland shopping center in north Columbus. He worked a few hours Saturday and then more hours Sunday. He had to be there at 8 a.m. Sunday and seemed tired Sunday afternoon. The only bus that goes near his apartment goes across Morse Road to near his restaurant, but it sounds like he’s gotten rides from his father or grandfather (who’s been staying at their one-bedroom with Vincent’s grandmother and their dog) so far. We offered him a ride home Saturday but he didn’t go for that. Apparently he may have opportunities for advance, but we’ll see if he sticks with it. It’s ironic because until very recently he associated Bob Evans with breakfast food and complained when we tried to go there.

If Vincent sticks with a job he may not have a week every month or two to visit us – as he’s been doing since he no longer had a job as of early January. And given what happened late Monday night to the people he hung out with while he was here last – including hanging out with them all night exactly a week before this – http://www.fox41.com/Global/story.asp?S=12362720 – we may not want him here either. Not the comments also.

Vincent has apparently tried out some of his on-line classes he signed up for and says some of them are easy. We’ll see if he can work on school and work simultaneously.

It remains to be seen what if any classroom space Stephanie will have available to her once her school takes in 100 or so new students over the summer.

I’m excited to have Oaks Day (the day after the Pegasus Parade before Derby – the Oaks is the all-fillies race that Rachel Alexandra won last year) sort of off. We’ll see if I can get the problems with my work laptop power cord/adaptor fixed before then (which would allow me to work home some that day) and whether I’ll still have a job exactly two weeks (14 days from Oaks Day) later.

Penny is busy preparing for a series of dance performances this weekend in Virginia, where she will receive an award.

-- Perry

Mid-week musings

2010-04-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

Good news and bad news: Our church had been wavering on whether to go ahead with a Guatemala mission trip in July, with dwindling numbers on our end, and Tuesday we determined that we have 5-6 people going and we would go ahead and go. A surprise late addition was the Guatemalan American daughter of the man who was a guest pastor for us for six weeks several years ago (her first chance to go home in 3 ½ years). The bad news is that now I have to finish organizing the mission trip (which helps me avoid paying much).

Tuesday I also got my first speeding ticket in 10 years, and in a school zone (I don’t know how I missed that blinking light), which means I can’t just mail in a check and must also go to three-hour traffic school and be even more careful in the future. A fellow church member who is a lawyer contacted me via Facebook and phone and is going to try to help me get the court fee waived (and maybe get out of making an appearance).

On his birthday, Vincent commented on my Facebook page for the first time ever. He was slated to go to see the movie Kick Ass with his father for his birthday. (We celebrated his birthday this past Friday and then went to Thunder Over Louisville Saturday with him.) Vincent said he was slated to start his Bob Evans job later this week. I didn’t ask him about starting his classes (clearly he’d been on the computer) and he continued his hermit line which may mask that he’s bored and depressed and has got no non-family friends in Ohio (and for that matter doesn’t see his relatives on Stephanie or my sides of the family – he seems dead set on boycotting Corey’s wedding this Saturday). Stephanie wasn’t really able to reach him on his birthday.

One of my first assignments at the Presbyterian Center was to write a report for a Presbyterian Panel survey that I had not authored – about attitudes towards reparations. Later on I had gotten assigned a second Panel report – for which I had drafted a small part of the survey – which I’d never finished. More than a year ago I got the transfer/promotion that made me administrator of the Presbyterian Panel (random samples of Presbyterian church elders, other members, and ministers whom we send questionnaires about various topics four times a year), and yet I had not finished that report or any for the three or four surveys that I have worked on since becoming an administrator – something my managers were not happy about and was not good given the impending layoff date (May 14). This week final hard-copy versions of two Panel reports (the long delayed one and one for the first Panel survey I wrote entirely – the May 2009 survey on the Environment) came out and I distributed them. If I can just finish two more Panel reports before May 14 . . .

--Perry

Happy birthday, Vincent!

2010-04-20T07:30:00.001-07:00

Today is Vincent’s 19th birthday, which we celebrated with him this past Friday night, when he was still in town. I wrote Thursday about Vincent’s school “progress.” Apparently Vincent’s father has lined up a job at a Bob Evans near Graceland shopping center in north Columbus. Vincent may start this week (even on his birthday?). By days of the week, a year ago today Vincent went to court and essentially escaped with a de facto year of probation, with nothing on his record, and his house arrest ended (and this week he completed the online high school he’s completed most recently). I have called the lawyer about getting his record expunged – after one year – and haven’t heard back.

Mother heard from her manager late last week that apparently there was some paperwork that needed to be completed for her to work at home, and he asked her to stop working because they needed to start with her doctor for that paperwork. Mom was just getting going on some work projects at home, and was sorry to have that cut short. She would also like to finish those by June (her putative retirement month) and is a little worried that she currently is eating up the rest of her vacation days (it’s not clear what to do with these stop-work days). Mom has kept busy, entertaining, going to programs at the retirement center, taking care of personal business, maintaining her medication regimen, getting used to her walker/rolator, meting more people at the center, and exercising at the gym (in the new, post-therapy era). She has also been in contact with the contractors working on her house, and the real estate agent we’re working with will do a walk-through of the house with them this Friday. She will take photos at that time that will appear on her company’s website. Apparently the house will go on the market soon. The real estate agent will stop by Mom later Friday to let her know how things are proceeding. I’m hoping Stephanie and I will be in Tallahassee later in May, and hopefully we can see the house – somewhat transformed – at that time, before it might be sold. Who knows?

This past Monday Stephanie wrapped up a three-week unit in her after-school Culture Club about Korea. I had stopped by the first week to talk about and show pictures and mementos of my 1995 visit with Penny and Serge there. Last week Stephanie had hoped Vincent would stop by to show the kids some Tae Kwon do moves (a Korean martial art), but that didn’t work out. Monday she brought radish kimchee and rice and bulkogi steak she had made, and they had a feast. She had done Korea a year ago in Culture Club, but they did not repeat any content this time, since she still has some kids from back then in Culture Club. Negotiation continues about where Stephanie’s school will put all of the teachers/students they will have next year. Eventually, they may need portable classrooms.

-- Perry

Vincent news

2010-04-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

Vincent’s two classes had timed out. He can’t get his old work back. Vincent and I toyed with the idea of signing him up for the high school General Equivalency Diploma pre-tests. Vincent had been signed up for dual enrollment English and math classes, which cost us $100. The English class, which is required to graduate, he had almost finished. (Both of these classes he had taken before, at Brown.) Jefferson County High School did not kick him out of school. In fact, he signed up for FIVE classes: the dual-enrollment English class (again), a whole year of dual-enrollment computer class (for which he may need to buy Office for his father’s laptop computer), and two easier lifeskills and career development classes. Since he needs to take the second semester of the math class, I’m not sure he really needs all of these classes, but I decided not to argue with the school official. She still has to find his second-semester World Civilization, which she couldn’t find a record for. We’ll see if he does better at taking five classes than he did at taking two. It’s still not clear whether these time out in five months or one year. This cost us $150. It remains to be seen whether Vincent can make any more progress over the next five months than he did during the past five months (not any progress).

I told Vincent Stephanie would probably want us to take him out to dinner for his birthday on Friday evening or Sunday after church, which he seemed OK with him (probably Friday). He mentioned also the possibility of seeing a movie Friday, which I had wanted to do also. We’ll have to see how it will all fit in, since I must get ready for a worship service Saturday morning. He was threatening to go off with his friends today (on to Brown School vicinity after our JCHS visit) and during Thunder (I imagine he’ll start with us). He said he had a headache which he partly attributed to not smoking. He said he blew off a young woman with whom he had exchanged text messages during the past month.

-- Perry

Mid-April news

2010-04-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

It’s been a newsy week. My Mom got the walker she wanted and got trained in its use. If she drives to church Sunday, she will try putting the walker – or rollator (10 pounds) – in her car for the first time ever. Mom will finish up occupational therapy and physical therapy early this week and transition to exercising at the retirement center’s gym and in her apartment. Mom also entertained two guests today in her apartment, something that she feels more comfortable as she has straightened up and arranged her apartment even more. Mom also decided against visiting Ohio in a couple of weeks, because of the difficulties she expects traveling. Mom has taxed many of the remaining vacation days she had left. She is trying to work as close to 40 hours a week as she can and make it till June, when she may retire. She also has projects she wants to finish or tie up.

Stephanie found out from her principal and colleagues that she knows three of the four new teachers who will be working at her school next year, along with the influx of 100 students coming in from other schools. The list was made public earlier this week. No teacher will be leaving Fairmont (not even one teacher who wanted to leave). Stephanie’s school district closed four elementary schools and moved all 5th graders to middle school, you’ll recall, but basically laid off no teachers. The day after this decision was formalized, Indiana’s governor, whose budget was blamed for some of the need to close schools, criticized the school district for not laying off teachers instead. If the economy and budgets continue in the same vein next year, layoffs may be in order then.

Vincent originally talked about coming to visit this time for more than the usual week, but later this week we learned he’s back to a week. We’ll pick him up Sunday evening, partly so we can go to a concert with the Australian hard rock group AC/DC which we were supposed to see this fall and go to the annual Thunder Over Louisville air show and fireworks display at the Louisville waterfront. We’ll find out Monday whether we’ll get to go with our dog and meet a colleague and her son and use the Presbyterian Center as a home base. We’ve got other things we’d like to do with Vincent – he’s said yes to going to counseling and no to showing Stephanie’s Culture Club Korean martial arts – and we’ll hope to celebrate his birthday – which he’ll leave just two days before – but we’ll see what happens. This week Vincent’s father told us that the two online high school/college dual enrollment classes Vincent was taking – that cost just $100 total – including one he hadn’t just about finished – have timed out after a year, and so he’ll have to start all over again (if they don’t kick him out of the school). I’ll mention the GED route while he’s here. Vincent’s father also said the illness he’s been suffering from has been getting worse.

News from our dog and our house. We’ve been thinking we’d get Frisco a haircut some time this winter as part of a scheme to get him doggie day care. But he foiled our last attempt in Ohio when he bit the would-be stylist. But it was hot here this week and he was wilting in the heat and so we went out of a way to get his hair cut Thursday – and he got some other medication too (Frisco as I arrived to pick him up pictured above). A visiting repairperson last month alerted us that our furnace was in dangerous shape. After a month or so the landlord and the repair people he works with persuaded themselves to go ahead and replace the furnace, and they did the majority of the work today. We went for a couple of chilly nights with no furnace but it never got cold enough (down to 65 degrees) to use the space heater.

-- Perry

Patrick in the Northeast this week

2010-04-06T15:00:00.001-07:00

My friend Patrick Bond is over from South Africa giving several talks in the Northeast this week. Check them out if you're in Boston, NYC, or D.C. this week:

6 APRIL: CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, GRADUATE CENTER

CLIMATE POLITICS OR CARBON TRADING?
The Story of Cap and Trade

Film screening and discussion with Patrick Bond

The Story of Cap and Trade (http://www.storyofcapandtrade.org, featuring Annie Leonard), launched on December 1, 2009 and was seen 400,000 times before the end of the (failed) Copenhagen Climate Summit. The nine-minute film helped open a global and US debate about the core modus operandi for top-down climate governance: commodification of the air. Patrick Bond, an advisor to the film, will address social, spatial and temporal features of climate politics in an era of fading financialization but durable neoliberalism.

PATRICK BOND is senior professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies in Durban, South Africa, where since 2004 he has directed the Centre for Civil Society: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs. He has written or edited numerous books including Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society(2009); and Looting Africa (2006). He was a founding member of the Durban Group for Climate Justice and is active in Climate Justice Now!’s South Africa branch.

Moderated by ASHLEY DAWSON, Faculty Fellow, the Center for Place, Culture and Politics

April 6, 2010
Room C198 at 6:30 pm

THE CENTER FOR PLACE, CULTURE AND POLITICS * CUNY GRADUATE CENTER * 365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street

***

8 APRIL, CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

Patrick Bond speaks on Development, Environment and Social Struggle at Clark University, 8 April

10.25-11.30am: Development Policy class, Geog104: “RDP, GEAR and South African Development Policy”

12.00 noon “Carbon Trading: A Critique” and “Dennis Brutus: A Tribute”

3pm Worcester State College Dennis Brutus Memorial

***

9 APRIL, ENCUENTRO 5, BOSTON

http://www.justicewithpeace.org/node/1243

Patrick Bond on South Africa, the World Bank, and Climate Justice

When: Friday, April 9, 2010, 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Where: Encuentro 5 • 33 Harrison Ave, 5th Floor • Chinatown T Stop • Boston

Start: 2010 Apr 9 - 12:00pm

End: 2010 Apr 9 - 2:00pm

South Africa now has its 4th post-Apartheid president... But the country is more unequal than ever! It is also under consideration for a World Bank loan to “modernize” it ailing electrical power generation and distribution infrastructure. Revamping its grid would normally be a decisive opportunity to set a new course, redress inequalities and deveop a green strategy. But activist-intellectual Patrick Bond warns that the opposite seems likely with the Bank loan. It will strengthen the private sector and sharpen the gap between rich and poor: urban residents prepay their electricity at 4 times the rate of large transnational corporations. Further, the proposed loan will finance the world's 4th largest coal-fired plant and raise rates on working people.

On April 8, 2010, the World Bank will make its decision. Patrick Bond will reflect on the outcome.

Also invited to the conversation is Tufts University professor, William Moomaw who consulted with the World Bank and who is in support of the loan.

This Bank critic meets Bank supporter discussion allows for a reasoned engagement of ideas.

For Patrick Bond's biography, see: http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?10,24,8,55

For William Moomaw's biography, see: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/Moomaw/

See http://www.encuentro5.org for more directions. Also check website

***

10 APRIL, BUSBOYS&POETS, 5TH & K Sts, WASHINGTON

Social Movements; the World Bank and Energy Financing

Africa Action

With: Friends of the Earth- US, GroundWork, Institute for Policy Studies: Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, Institute for Policy Studies: Foreign Policy In Focus, Jubilee USA and Haymarket Books

This week, Thursday, April 8th, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors will decided whether or not to lend a US$3.75 billion loan, the vast majority of which would be for the 4800 MW Medupi coal fired plant in South Africa.

Africa Action and coalition partners will be hosting a public education event Saturday, April 10th at Bus Boys and Poets (5th/K Streets, DC) at 6:00pm to learn more about the loan to Eskom and its affect on communities and the environment.

Who: Patrick Bond

Patrick Bond has longstanding research interests and applied work in global governance and national policy debates, in urban communities and with global justice movements in several countries. He is professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies where since 2004 he has directed the Centre for Civil Society. His research focuses on political economy, environment (energy, water and climate change), social policy and geopolitics, with publications covering South Africa, Zimbabwe, the African continent and global-scale processes.

Dave Zirin

Named of the UTNE Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World", Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine. He is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence. Zirin is also the host of Sirius XM Radio's popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. He has been called "the best sportswriter in the United States," by Robert Lipsyte. Dave Zirin is, in addition, a columnist for SLAM Magazine, the Progressive, and a regular op-ed writer for the Los Angeles Times. He was Press Action's 2005 and 2006 Sportswriter of the year. He recently traveled to South Africa and he will share his experiences interacting with social movements and civil society.

And….

This discussion will include other coalition partners involved in the No Coal Loan Campaign

Where: Bus Boys and Poets, 5th and K Streets (1025 5th Street NW, DC)

When: Saturday, April 10th at 6:00pm

For more information on the loan, please visit

http://www.africaaction.org/no-coal-loan.html

Be sure to read our new resources, including a response to World Bank-Eskom Panel Report and Fact Sheet, the coalition statement, and Letter to World Bank Executive Director

RSVP to outreach@africaaction.org for updates before coming to the event.

Also check out this video clip from the Colbert show with Patrick's friend Annie Leonard (scroll down): http://www.storyofstuff.org/

- Perry

Big week

2010-04-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Today (Monday) we heard from Vincent, whom we haven’t been able to reach several days, that he may come here for 10-14 days for a concert (with us) and for Thunder Over Louisville (with us). It’s possible he could take care of some legal issues while he is here. Tuesday Stephanie will find out from her principal, who is staying, who will be teaching at the school next year. Receiving 100 new students and losing 4th and 5th graders, Fairmont may lose some 5th grade teachers and gain teachers from some of the four elementary schools that are closing. This will help determine whether Stephanie will get any kind of classroom. On Wednesday Mom will go to a neurologist for the first time. Mom took the bull by the horns and pushed for a different neurologist than our doctor in Tallahassee initially referred her to. Mom also took the bull by the horns and asked a friend of hers (from AAUW) to go with her. Mom had done something similar last week when she pushed back when the physical therapists who worked with her tried to get a walker that Mom thought was too flimsy and low-end. Late last week Mom got the walker she wanted, but the therapists asked her not to use it until they show her how. Also this week, Sunday was the deadline for submitting to deposits for our church’s summer Guatemala mission trip. Only a few people signed up, and so Monday the pastor and I agonized about whether to plow ahead. The suspense continues.

-- Perry

Saint Marks Wildlife Refuge

2010-04-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

Whenever Perry and I get to return to Tallahassee we try to enjoy some of the nature in the surrounding areas. We try to get to Saint George Island, or the Wakulla River for canoeing, or Saint Marks. This time Perry didn't get to go to any of these places but I was able on the last full day I was there to get away for awhile and go to Saint Marks.

I first went to my friend, Rachel's, house. I had wanted to see her little girl, but she was at her dad's house. Rachel and I reminisced about going to Saint Marks the week of my graduation from FSU. She was my neighbor at Hidden Villas then. My Mom and Dad had both come down to see my graduation. Martha, Rachel, my Mom, and I had all gone to Saint Marks. My Dad was flying in later so Perry picked him up from the airport and brought him out to meet us at Saint Marks. Once we were all there we ate dinner at Ootz's Too. As Rachel and I drove by Ootz's we laughed about the drive back on the dirt road that led to Natural Bridge.

Perry, Vincent, and I when we lived in Tallahassee would always go down to the lighthouse and then go to the right to walk out to a rock jetty. Because of several hurricanes the grassy walkway is still there separating the fresh water from the gulf but the rock jetty that we could climb out on during low tide has been swept away. Since the jetty wasn't there Rachel and I headed out to the left of the lighthouse, breaking from tradition but allowing me to see several beaches that I don't think I ever realized were there.

Spring was defiantly in the air. Flowers were blooming and grass was growing everywhere. Looking back from the gulf towards the wildlife refuge I kept thinking that if I didn't know better the grassy areas could be mistaken for the Savannah grasslands of Africa. I even joked that I could imagine seeing a long neck of a giraffe in the clumps of pine trees growing here and there.

Flowers in Tallahassee and especially along the beach don't seem to be as showy but they are still pretty. I found these tiny little pink buds growing in the sand. If you look closely at the picture you can see the holes from crabs peeping out from the sand. The purple flowers below were also along the beach but a little further from the water. They were growing on a low lying shrub. They seemed to be everywhere.

Rachel and I walked along several different paths until the water bottles we had drank during the drive down caught up with us. Hearing the water from the tide coming in didn't seem to help matters.

Here is a better picture of Rachel. It was warm and windy, but after this past February it was a welcomed change.

I tried to catch the sea foam that was along the edge of the water. You can also see some of the grass growing along the beach.

Here I was trying to be Samson! The palm trees were so close together I couldn't help myself. You can tell I was having fun, enjoying the break, and catching up with Rachel.

Tallahassee had a lot of rain before Perry and I got down there. It even rained pretty heavy one night while I was there. When Rachel and I were leaving Saint Marks and driving back towards the visitors center we noticed lots of high water along the road.

There were signs along the way saying they were preparing for prescribed burns but I'm sure all the water was keeping them from doing it when they had planned.

While Rachel went into the visitors center I walked a little of the trail around the pond outside the visitors center. The shade felt good but also seeing all the plants and nature was very calming. The whole time Rachel and I were there the only time we really saw people was down at the lighthouse and a few horse back riders along the road.

Riding a horse or bike along some of the trails at Saint Marks would be fun but it could get pretty buggy. This was probably early enough in the year that it wasn't too bad for some people. We did notice that the horseback riders were actually walking the horses (probably because of the heat) on our way out of the park.

Sometimes getting to see all of the nature around Tallahassee reminds me that I don't get out and see the nature in Louisville as much as I should, just as when I lived in Tallahassee I didn't get out to see nature as much. I guess sometimes you have to pretend to be a tourist in your own city to actually appreciate some of the things that are there. Or, better yet...I could invite lots of friends and family to come visit us in Louisville so I can show them around...and get to be the tour guide for them!

---Stephanie

Miccosukee Greenway

2010-04-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

The last day Perry was in Tallahassee we drove by the entrance to a new park, or at least a park that Perry and I had not visited or heard of before. We discovered the entrance and then due to time constraints had to leave, but I secretly plotted a way to return. Two days later I was able to get away for an hour long walk at the new found Miccosukee Greenway.

The entrance off of Miccosukee road (one of the roads leading to Westminster Oaks) was mostly an open green area, but once I got past the greenway and walked partly around a pond (I couldn't get all the way around because of a fence) there were lots of live oaks covered with Spanish moss (a Tallahassee tradition).

There were several paths to choose but all the paths seemed to be tree-lined and shady. Since it was relatively early in the spring season I didn't encounter too many bugs. While on the path I only came across a few other people walking the paths. One man and his boxer dog warned me that walking alone as a woman probably wasn't a good idea. I did keep going on the path but didn't return on later days partly with his warning in mind.

Lots of little flowers were starting to poke out from all the underbrush. It was very different from the flowers and weather we left in Louisville (except for the few days before when the temperature in Louisville was only 3 degrees cooler than Tallahassee).

Some of the paths with the live oak trees and flowers were amazing. I ended up walking for a half-hour before turning around. I wasn't able to make it to the end of the trail since I had to use the bathroom and the only public bathroom was all the way back to where the car was parked. While my walk ended up being about an hour long, I definitely walked faster on the way back to the car.

On the way back to the car I did stop and take a few pictures of the ferns growing on some of the extremely low hanging branches of the live oaks. The way the low branches and ferns were growing reminded me of some of the scenes in the movie Avatar when Scully was first walking in the jungle on the alien planet. It seems sometimes the littlest things can look so different when viewed up close.

Ironically when I got back to Louisville some of the trees in our own front and back yards were flowering much like this tree below.

I had seen these same flowers and berries when I walked the trail at the San Luis Mission right after Martha's knee replacement surgery. I still don't know what type of plant these berries are but they are beautiful with the bright red and green.

By the time I got back to the greenway open area I was relieved. I really had to use the bathroom (maybe from all the previous Tropical Smooth Cafe visits). In the corner you can see the pond where several herons were walking along the edges earlier. This time I bypassed the lake and went straight to the restroom.

In the cluster of trees were several picnic tables. Hanging from poles were gourd birdhouses. By the time I got back to this area were several families and dogs walking around and even playing frisbee. Frisco would have loved running around.

Here are more low hanging branches and picnic tables. I got a little lonely and thought it would have been fun to have Vincent and Frisco and Perry there to enjoy this with. Maybe even a picnic would have been good.

Can't you just picture a big blue human-cat creature walking along these limbs trying to avoid being eaten?

These ferns growing on the limbs I could imagine changing colors at night.

Miccosukee Greenway was a great walk and worth repeating. I'm looking forward to doing this walk again but maybe making it all the way to the Fleischmann's road entrance/exit/parking lot.

---Stephanie

On the way back home

2010-04-03T17:56:00.001-07:00

Click here on the arrow in the white box far below to see a video of Frisco running across the parking lot of the hotel where we walked minutes after I'd returned to Louisville from Tallahassee and had picked him up from boarding. The hotel is the one whose pool and exercise room we use periodically throughout the year.

-- Perry

Back and forth

2010-04-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

Click on the arrow in the small white box immediately above to see a video clip with Mom and her physical therapist trying an exercise activity that probably improves Mom's balance and agility.

Weber on rationalization

2010-04-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

How has the world been changing?

Many historically minded social researchers who have tried to answer this question have had in the back of their minds some kind of theory of social evolution. They believe that all societies are progressing, from point A to point B.

This is not so much the case for the German sociologist Max Weber. For some reason, we’ve never Anglicized Weber’s last name, and so it’s still VAY-burr, not Webber.

Weber’s ambivalence about evolutionary theory is apparent in his multiple, varied uses of the concept rationalization. I’m going to do three things here: I’m going to give a little bit of information about Weber. I’m going to talk about five forms of rationalization in Weber’s work. And I’m going to give a contemporary application of Weber’s rationalization analysis. Weber is a dead white man, but his ideas are certainly not dead.

Weber was most active in between the turn of the century – that’s from the 1800s to the 1900s – to right after the end of World War One. Weber’s most famous book was "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." But his magnum opus was really the two-volume, 2,000-page "Economy and Society."

In Economy and Society Weber argues that there are four kinds of rationality:
- Affective rationality: emotions: how we feel
- Value rationality: ultimate principles: what is right
- Traditional rationality: the way we’ve always done things
- Instrumental rationality: the most effective, or efficient, means towards a given end

Let’s keep in mind this information about Weber as we look at the forms of rationalization in his work.

When you hear the word rationalization, you probably first think of a logical sounding excuse for something that is truly inexcusable. This is not so much how Weber used the concept rationalization. Rationalization, for Weber, was any one of a number of different types of process of social and historical change.

One form of rationalization in Weber’s work is the separation of the spheres. Weber held that the spheres of life that had appeared in the modern world, in earlier times in some cultures had been all fused together with the religious sphere as predominant. Over time what separated out and developed were the aesthetic or cultural sphere, the sphere of knowledge or science, the economic sphere or the market, the political sphere or the government, and finally even the erotic sphere or the sphere of personal relations.

A second form of rationalization in Weber’s work overlaps with the first. This was the internal logical development of really any area, and the elimination of logical inconsistency. For example, Weber argued that the development of the Calvinist-Presbyterian doctrine of predestination was among other things a kind of logical working out of certain problems in theology.

A third form of rationalization in Weber’s work was the ascendancy of instrumental rationality, linked with the development of science and technology. Weber gave the same examples of this several times. Let’s say the Chinese regard a certain mountain as sacred. When an engineer and an economic development specialist tell them: You must build a railroad right through or right around the mountain. It is the perfect place – the Chinese would balk. Among other things, they fear something bad might happen if they build the railroad.

Another country, in an analogous situation, might not have the same scruples. They might go ahead and build the railroad, and let’s say nothing bad does happen. (Weber clearly hadn’t seen the movie "Avatar.") This other country might develop economically in a way China does not – hence, the ascendancy of instrumental rationality, over what Weber might call magical thinking.

A fourth form of rationalization in Weber’s work was what I call thematization and publicization. Weber believed that important issues of the day ought to be discussed and debated, and debated publicly. Weber was not so much a champion of democracy, as a German nationalist. We believed that the secrecy and lack of debate in the years leading up to Germany’s entry into World War One, which they lost, disserved his country. He felt like public debate could help produce better policy decisions and help rationalize the policy-making process.

A fifth form of rationalization in Weber’s work was increasingly disciplined lifestyles. For example, Weber argued that the impulse to make profits had existed since the beginning of time, in all cultures. We might call this Jack Sparrow capitalism. But the systematic, methodical, disciplined pursuit of profit-making and property accumulation – sought for a time with religious fervor – was something that was truly unique to what Weber called rational bourgeois capitalism.

You can see how a number of these different processes of rationalization overlap. For that reason, it may come as no surprise to you to learn that a number of students of Weber have argued that these processes fit neatly together in one, overarching evolutionary scheme. But I think this really misreads Weber. These processes can also clash. A given country, in a given historical situation, probably faces choices, faces different possible development paths, instead of one straight-line path, on which it must travel.

I promised to give you a contemporary application of Weber’s rationalization analysis. This comes from the debate over stem cell research. On the one hand, you have advocates of stem cell research, like the President, who sometimes argue that this is a scientific issue, that scientists should settle by applying scientific principles. On the other hand, you have critics of stem cell research, some of whom are religious leaders, who argue that religious and ethical issues are involved.

You can see a clash here between the religious sphere and the sphere of knowledge or science. These spheres are separating, but still are overlapping, engaged, and, sometimes, in tension. It’s also possible to interpret the criticism of stem cell research as a kind of challenge to the ascendancy of instrumental rationality, linked with the development of science and technology.

I have reviewed forms of rationalization that appear in Weber’s work. I’ve talked about: separation of the spheres, internal logical development, the ascendancy of instrumental rationality, thematization and publicization, and increasingly disciplined lifestyles. I have argued that Weber’s various forms of rationalization do NOT fit together into one, overarching, evolutionary scheme. And I have tried to show that Weber’s analysis of rationalization is still relevant in the contemporary period.

Now, I have to admit: I love Weber. I love reading Weber. I love writing about Weber, and I love talking about Weber. I hope you will not see in my claim of Weber’s contemporary relevance just an excuse for me to talk with you about him. I hope you will not see this claim as just another . . . rationalization.

-- Perry

Click here to see the separation of the spheres diagram up close:

Spring break (part 1)

2010-03-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

We left Friday morning, together, to take Frisco to boarding. On the way out I used the flash to take a picture of newly emerged buds (it's spring!). We got to the boarding place just before 8, but several "Dog of the Day" dogs were already waiting with the people for us.

After work we drove to the airport and took Delta Airlines flights through Memphis to Tallahassee. Stephanie and I last flew together back on the way back from Vegas.

We picked up a rental car and drove to Mom's retirement center. We'd only seen her new apartment when it was empty, before she was close to moving in. Either Friday night or Saturday morning Mom showed Stephanie her room.

This one walk-in closet - and a smaller one in her entry way - replaced Mom's four or five closets in her house.

Saturday morning - after walking on a retirement center trail and visiting with Mom - we stopped at the nearest local version of Tropical Smoothie Cafe, a small chain we disocvered back in December in Tallahassee.

While Mom went to an AAUW event, Stephanie and I then went to her house, where our friend Andrew was to meet us. We looked around at what was left after Mom and Penny and the movers and Penny's friend Lemae and her Coalition for the Homeless colleagues had gone through it (and after a burglar had apparently cleaned out some items in the garage).

This is the "blue bedroom" where Stephanie lived for two years and she and I for part of a year (and Serge and Penny at other times). It was originally a guest bedroom.

Across the hall was Penny's bedroom, where Vincent lived for two years and where Penny, Serge, and Jacob had all stayed during Christmas break 2 1/2 months before.

In the back of the house are Mom's bathroom and bedroom.

Also in the back is Mom's computer room, which was originally my bedroom (with the 1970s drapes originally paired with black and white dressers (now on our 2nd floor in Louisville), a black beanbag chair, and red carpet in the house we lived in Tallahassee before this house - where Stephanie first started vacuuming (baseboards, walls, and ceilings, too!).

This is the family room, with a pile of stuff to go to Goodwill at far left, looking into the kitchen. Before Mom moved her TV would have been in the middle of the picture.

Here's the little alcove part of the kitchen, with the door leading out to the side yard with trash and recycling, which Mom couldn't navigate a year or two ago - maybe an early sign of her challenges. The alcove was once full of plants and shelves with books. There is still one plant.

The realtor suggested we have all of these kitchen cabinets painted white and the handles replaced, but there ended up being a debate about this (now settled).

Here's the dining room/kitchen eating area, with the "new" ktichen table (as Mom statted to switch from 1970s green and brown, to white), which I've never liked, and the light fixture that one of my Mom's choirmates and her boyfirend installed a year and a half ago, which the realtor said to keep.

In the family room looking out the sliding glass doors to the back yard. You might recall that the realtor also suggested getting rid of all of the draperies and curtian rods, opening up the house to more natural light, and installing faux wood blinds.

This is looking down the hallway past the bedroom doors into the bathroom. About a year ago the contractors who were about to start working on the house did some other things for Mom, including painting the halllway walls. Mom and they misconmmunicated and they took all of the family pictures that Mom had on both hallways walls down and did not put them back up. But then Mom held off on having us put them back up, which turned out to b e a good move. After I left - with some input from Stephanie - Mom had a few pictures - including some of these - put up around her new apartment.

This is the living room. Neither Penny and Serge nor the Coalition for the Homeless wanted either of Mom's couches or her brown corduroy chairs. Mom thought about taking the chairs but decided there would not be room. The chairs - again - were rather "new" additions to the house. The love seat once went with a bigger sofa, at our last house in Gainesville - where we got them from Scan Design. The sofa bed in the family room hasn't really showed up in a picture yet. Mom hasn't been able to sit in any of these for a good while, since she can't get up out of them.

There's the sofa bed on the far left of the picture below.

Andrew turned up at the house, and we packed reclycing into his truck. We stopped at the storage space and switched Mom's winter clothes (which we had in the rented car) with some spring and summer clothes, and then went out to the land fill to recycle hazardous materials and cardboard recycling. For the second time in a few months, I failed to take any pictures of the person who helped us at storage (last time it was Michael Moline). Thankfully, I've got both Andrew and Moline pictures coming up in a little while. After Andrew and we subdivided, Stephanie went to a favorite Tallahassee resturant, San Miguel's.

A few hours later - on the way to the Saturday night phase of the Flambeau reunion - we stopped at Andrew and Jan's. Here's Jan in their family room.

Here's the doggie staircase they had gotten for one of their Boston terriers who needs it to get up to the sofa in the family room.

Here is one of Andrew and Jan's "new" dogs. When we used to house sit for them, Tina and Tatum would sleep in the bed with us and Frisco. It got a little crowded. We can no longer tell these twins apart.

Below we're out in the backyard between the hot tub and the swimming pool.

We drove from Andrew and Jane's north up Thomasville Road to Water Oak Plantation Road, then drove on a bunch of dirt roads past a big old house overlooking a lake to the servants' quarters or boathouse or whatever it was, where the evening informal dinner - Day 2 of the Florida Flambeau reunion - The Flambeau was a five times a week paper with a press run of about 21,000. It was originally the student newspaper at Florida State University - which, importantly, had no journalism school - but was kicked off campus around 1970 for running abortion information and editorializing against the administration - or something like that. A fixture of the progressive community on campus and in the community, it fell victim to the downslide of hte newspaper industry, decades of right-wing attacks, and a few too many attacks on the cmapus Greek community, when it wass essentially bought out by a new competitor, after the mainstream corporate paper in town - which we always viewed as the competition - refused to print any more copies of the "Flam" unless it paid its bills. I worked at the "Flam" off and on between 1980 and 1989, and still have great friends from my years there. In 1986 I worked there from 9 in the morning until 11 at night - 5 1/2 days a week - and made $6,000 for the whole year. It was the best job I've ever had. Somehow it seemed apropos that it was quite an odyssey to get back to the reunion (which was essentially set up as a class reunion - featuring people who had been on the news or production staffs mainly in the 1970s and 1980s).

This one was particularly incongruous. We're still not back there yet. Guiding our way were large late 1980s cardboard cutouts of "Mr. Stupid, " a cartoon character who appeared in the "Flam" in the 1980s. Its creator, Bill Otersen, was actually in NYC part of the time I was there. Many hip or ambitious people in Taallahssee back then either wished Tallahassee would become Athends, Georgia, or Austin, Texas, or wanted to be in Atlanta or NYC. Some of them moved to one or the other. Indeed, Moni (who works for CNN), David (for whom Stephanie, Vincent, and I house-sat for in New Orleans before Katrina ran him out), and Eileen came from Atlanta for the reunion, and Moline came from NYC. Steve had just moved back to Tallahassee from NYC. While in NYC, Bill crafted designs for T-shirts (as he was unable to sell "Mr. Stupid" to publications there), but he chemicals he encountered in the garment district finally drove him home. As with any class reunion, you meet people you never knew (like the very nice Leon County commissioner Stepahnie and I spoke with - whose time on the commission has been recent eough that I never covered him) and talked with other people (without mentioning names) who you knew and liked but had completely forgotten about. I don't think I ran into any people who fall into the other class reunion category: As I said after my 10-year high class reunion: I had forgotten how much I hated some of these people. By the way: That's righit - that's Mr. Stupid, in a bikini, in front of some (real) sheep.

Stephanie and I finally arrived! Below is John Lowndes, who was the last "Flam" news editors I worked with. He's a county attorney in the Orlando area.

Here's Danni Vogt, who at one point was a lawyer in Tallahassee, Andrew and I had reminisced a few minutes about the time Danni tried frying a bar of soap at one of the four legendary parties we had at our rented, off-campus house in 1981-82 (during one of my two long "Flam" runs) - all four parties with diverse attendees and four broken up by the police. David asked Danni to leave. Several years later I turned down an offer of help from Danni - one of two mistakes I made writing one of the better - and personally scariest - "Flam" pieces I wrote - this one about conditions at the country jail.

Below - talking with Danni - is Diane Roberts (formerly "D.K.") - host of our Sunday morning event - another legendary "Flam" writer - now a Florida State University English professor and regular National Public radio commentator. Diane has written a book about Florida (as I have).

Here's Michael Moline - who had helped us move stuff into Mom's storage space back in December - my boss/editor twice - at the "Flam" and then briefly during my post-"Flam" Tallahassee stint with the now defunct United Press Internatoinal. I've visited him twice in San Francisco - but last time it turned out that he'd moved to NYC (and I didn't know he was there when I was last in NYC - Facebook has cleared all of this up). He edits a national legal newspaper and lives in (Brooklyn's) Park Slope (until recently with Dollar) - not too far from where I lived with Tony. A runner before I knew him, he was a chain smoker when I worked with him - and once irritated then Senate candidate Jim Crews by lighting up during a candidate interview in the old "Flam" office - but then quit (but apparently has gone back).

Louis worked in the "Flam" production office during the 1980s.

The Saturfday night event was set in this old servants' quarters house off the lake - with plenty of pictures of "Flam" people from the 1970s and 1980s - mainly in black and white - and a video of other still pictures - like a wedding anniversary or funeral video - many from former "Flam" photographer Bob O'Lary. There was also a great buffet dinner, a fireplace, and music from a Jimmy Buffett-like folk singer, Dell Suggs, who chaired the "Flam" board for several years. We talked with but did not get a picture of some of the people who cooked and served the food - including a Presbyterian pastor from nearby Havana, FL, and one of his parishioners, whom he had married. Below are several former "Flam" greats posing: Eileen from Atlanta, Mark (a longtime feature writer for Tallahassee's mainstream paper), Steve (whose wife helped organize the event), Diane, and Jack, a former "Flam" production director who is now good friends with Andrew.

We went home pretty early (some folks stayed out until 1 a.m. and then headed to a bar near my Mom's retirement center). For the second night in a row, we drovce into Mom's by night gated commnity but managed to get through there when the gate was not down (there's a shift change around 11 p.m. and the gate is apparently open for about half an hour). In the morning we got up early enough to join our old Sunday school class (First Presbyterian's Faith and Families). We're always late, and this time we were almost on time - and we were the first tog et there!

We skipped worship to go to the third and final reunion event - brunch - with mimosas! - at Diane's cute (but cold) 1920s house, one house away from the old Leon High School (my alma mater) gym!

Here's a mediocre picture of Moni, my former editor, who has done tours as a journalist in Iraq and Haiti. She was slated to head back to Haiti soon and then on to Afghanistan. This is one of the "Flam" Atlanta people I may see if I go to the sociology meetings there in August. - if they're in town! Long ago I visited Moni there.

Here's the brunch buffet table - we ate everything up fast - with Diane's mother in the background. Diane is from an Old Tallahassee familiy - the law school building is named for her grandfather I believe - and she was a radical!

Away we go at the food. There were more people at this event whom I didn't really remember - until I thought about it.

Jack I do remember.

Likewise Christine. Chrsitine and Gary are one of the couples I know where I knew both of them before they got married or even dated. Both are essentially free-lance writers. I talked with Gary about their kids, who went to preschool at the same private school where Vicnent went to grade school, but are now in school at the Catholic school just down the street from Diane's house.

That's it for reunion photos! As we talked with Mom about whether to make any changes in teh way her apartment was laid out, Monday visited our friend Dee, who lives a couple of floors above Mom at the retirement center. Dee has a studio apartment.

Monday we went back to the house to meet Goodwill staff. Here's a head-on picture of the sofe bed, with some other Goodwill items on and around it.

You're heard of the last supper (we just celebrated it Thursday night). This is the last lunch, with food and drink (although we were one short) (of course) from Tropical Smoothie - on the white table, which even if I hated it was nice to have there.

I took a picture from the street of the front of the house. Love all of those tall pine trees and all of that green!

In the middle of that picture above are Mom's prized azalea bushes (Stephanie noticed just one was dead). Below is a close-up of one of them.

The Goodwill staff took a bunch of small stuff and then the big furniture that was still there (like the two sofas).

Gary and Christine weren't able to see us, becuase one of their children was sick. So we walked around Lake Ella, Tallahassee's midtown pond. (Below is one of the houses that line the street that circles the lake - Love those tall like oak trees!)

We stopped at the Black Dog Cafe, along the lake (which I'd never been to), and our friend Brant ended up meeting us there and we talked for a couple of hours.

Brant is one of two or three high school friends I've kept in best touch with. He lives on the south side of town, near the airportk, with several companion animals. Back at the retirement center, here's a look inside Mom's front door

Tuesday we were back at Mom's house, meeting her former and now again contractors, who were going to be followig through on the realtor's suggestions. The contractors were Cindy, who grew up in an Amish family, and Scott, and their two sons whom they and one of the grandmothers home school. Below - standing on Mom's relatively new asphalt driveway - are Stephanie and Cindy.

Scott stood in the front yard.

Before we left, I took one more walk through and around the house - there was a remote chance Mom will somehow sell the house before I get back there. On my way through the back yard I greeted Sawyer - who ran away there in November 1999 - and paid tribute to one of our frogs, buried back there. I also took a picture of the magnolia tree whose tree fort we tore down long before Vincent moved there.

Back at the retirement center for Mom's therapy appointments and dinner, we took a picture of a picture of Mom posted along with pictures of other new residents, along with a little bio.

Starting on Tuesday with an hour of occupational therapy first, Mom worked on a kind of silly putty to strengthen her hands and fingers, affected by arthritis.

She also did various leg lifts.

This is an exercise she started doing with an earlier specialist, trying to keep her back straight standing against the wall.

An interesting exercise Mom did with the physical therapist, with whom she spent another hour, was bouncing a ball/balloon back and forth. Stephanie remembered Mom doing something similar with Vincent, back when Stephanie and he lived with her, when it was easier for her. I've got this on video too. I imagine this is for both balance and agility.

Mom ended up in PT with her leg being warmed. This reminded me more of some of the things I've done in PT. I was in therapy for some 15-18 months in NYC and Albany, after I got hit in the knee by a car in Manhattan, and then off and on twice in Louisville after I sustained a back/shoulder/neck energy in Michigan. (Back in Tallahassee) the therapist finally got annoyed at me for taking pictures. We'd BEEN annoying Mom, who said she'd prefer that we sit near the door, so we wouldn't embarrass her. The therapists are the ones who first diagnosed Mom's Parkinson's, and hinted to the doctor that's what she might have. They also have more influence over the retirement center's overall policies, and first recommended Mom use a more flimsy (and easier to use) walker than she wanted to. Now that they relented and recommended her for a more heavy duty one, they've ask that she not use until they train her in its use (and - implicitly - until they decide whether it's safe for her to use).

Next we went straight to the dining room, where we to meet a couple that helped Mom get into the retirement center, when the marketing peopel were taking forever to get back with her. Dinner has been a bit of a challenge for Mom. She was unsure about dining from the start. Many of her friends from before either eat their one meal at the dining hall per day at lunch, or live in a house or villa and cook for themselves. Mom somtimes goes to dinner late and eats by herself. Many dinner people go very early - even at 4:30 - a time that Mom - all the more so when she's working - finds too early. It's not easy to break into long-time groupings of diners, and some of them Mom finds more interesting than others. A couple she enjoyed meeting a couple of weeks before we were there weren't there one day - It turns out the man had died, and now the woman has fallen. It reminds me a little of me trying to break into the lunchroom in high school. Mom also isn't necessarily inclined to sit and talk for hours, all the more so when she figures she has stuff home she can do. Mom has started to go to a Monday evening music program that a woman from our church organizes.

Here's a view of Stephanie on Mom's computer in Mom's living room - most of which is a home office.

Instead of getting a new but much smaller dining room table, Mom has found it more convenient to eat at a little tray table that she can move around easily. She gets up by leaning on the chair, that doesn't move so easily.

I left late Wednesday morning, met Stephanie and Mom at the storage space where they picked up some more spring clothes (not as many there as she thought there would be, because she has Goodwill-ed so many), then picked up lunch at (you guessed it) Tropical Smoothie. My flight got to Louisville a couple of minutes early, and I needed every minute I could get. I drove across town to the boarding place, and got there with 15 minues to spare to pick up Frisco. We walked around the hotel where we have exercise. swimming privileges.

I dropped Frisco off at home and then got to a church board (session) meeting just five minutes late.

-- Perry

England Culture Club

2010-03-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

After school two days a week I tutor kids through the 21st Century Bridge to Success grant. One day a week I also sponsor an enrichment club. There are several clubs kids can choose from but for the past two years I have been the sponsor for the "Culture Club" where kids learn about different countries and cultures around the world.

I started this club partly to help my kids from other countries share their country's history and culture. I teach about each country for about three weeks. Sometimes we watch movies or documentaries about the country. Usually I try to get some type of food from the country we're studying for the kids to try. We also do some type of craft and learn about the history and if I can I teach them a little of the language. My Culture Club has just finished studying about England. Our art project was to make Robin Hood hats.

While making the Robin Hood hats wasn't exactly easy (it even required a call to my mom to find out how much material to buy) the kids were able to finish their hats in one session and wear their hats home.

Since we used fabric glue instead of sewing the hats we watched Disney's animated Robin Hood while we waited for the glue to dry. The following week we finished our movie and had a tea party with scones and clotted cream and Earl Grey tea with sugar cubes. I had bought the plastic coffee cups at Doll's Market (so the hot tea wouldn't melt the otherwise Styrofoam cups). All the kids wanted to take their cups home so I let them.

---Stephanie

Biztown Field Trip

2010-03-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

Two years ago I went with my fifth grade students on a field trip to Biztown. Biztown is a grant sponsored program where students learn to write checks, and advertisements. They also learn a little of how the work world runs with breaks and lunches scheduled. Students are put into groups of five or six students into various businesses. As with my last trip to Biztown I was in the newspaper shop or as it is called in Biztown, the Courier Journal. We started to day with a town meeting where everyone sat in front of their jobs. The people who run Biztown gave us an overview of what we would be doing for the day.

Each business had written a newspaper advertisement before coming to Biztown. The newspaper employees got busy typing the advertisements and then collecting the money. With several students as "advertising executives" (including the student below that is an ESL graduate and his friend who I had in 21st Century culture club) there were some disputes over who had to type and who got to ask for money from the CPAs at the other businesses. We also had several reporters busy typing stories and interviewing Biztown citizens and even the mayor. Our photographer also was busy taking pictures of all the activities. Perry would have been proud.

The reporters had some trouble getting started with ideas for writing. They had about nine pages of newspaper to fill and the interviews were rather short in the beginning. For some of the students this was the first time they were under the gun to produce a typed piece of writing. Typos in the newspaper could be a big problem, especially with one of my ESL students as a reporter.

To get started with the interviews the students first made a list of all the CEOs and CPAs (and the mayor) as important citizens of Biztown. They divided the list into groups and each reporter went of to interview those students that were playing those roles. Because Fairmont is a small school (at least for the time being) we were at Biztown with Green Valley, another school from our school district. They were given several businesses that they were in charge of and this year that included City Hall and the mayor's position. The reporters at the newspaper were anxious to meet the mayor and the other students from Green Valley.

Each computer in the newspaper office had a different computer program on it with labels at the top of the computer screens for who was supposed to be where. The programs were simplified software to enter articles, advertisements, or as in the case of the CPA, documenting checks and deposits. The CPA even had to print payroll checks since the "employees" got paid twice during their workday at Biztown. My after school tutoring student worked hard to get everything right.

After checks were collected from other businesses for advertisements or after someone purchased a newspaper the CPA would have to enter the amounts received and hand it to the CEO to take to the bank for deposit. Part of the learning experience was remembering which checks had already been recorded and which bill had already been paid.

Our CEO was in charge of the layout of the newspaper. He decided where the advertisements and articles would be placed. He was pretty quick to figure the software out. (Did I mention he is one of my graduates?) Ironically at least four of the newspaper staff were ESL.

Biztown also had a radio station that played music upon request and did shout outs. They also had radio advertisements for the businesses. They ran the equipment and the music played through loud speakers throughout the day.

I had helped the radio station employees prepare for the day. We had named the radio station DownTown music and had come up with a jingle. The students were anxious about what kind of music they would be playing. I had to settle a dispute between the country music and the pop music groups.

All three of the following kiddos are in my READ 180 group. They were working in the environmental shop. They collected recycling and made things out of the materials that were recyclable. What they made they then sold for a profit. It was a very cute program.

These three kiddos are also in my READ 180 class. They were working at UPS delivering supplies, and packages that students sent to each other.

The bank was a busy place with students learning how to make deposits and withdrawals. I had several students in the bank that were either READ 180 or ESL or in some cases both! It was great practice of their soft skills.

The bank CEO is also a ESL graduate. He was very careful when loaning money and making sure the loan payments were properly distributed.

The international shop was sponsored by Churchill Downs and was a gift shop. The TV station was busy filming an ad when I stopped by.

Lots of kiddos enjoyed stopping by the TV station. It seemed to be a little chaotic at times but it went well eventually.

Some of my lower English speakers worked at Walmart, the supply center. Without them the other shops wouldn't have been able to open since Walmart had all the supplies. Hmm...a little like real life in some ways.

They enjoyed getting all the things together and being needed.

We even had a restaurant. It was sponsored by Papa John's. The students were very upset to realize that they only sold lemonade and popcorn. They all had wanted to eat pizza.

Utility workers came around and read our meters...and then billed us! All the students then started to be more aware of turning out lights and such.

After everyone got their initial supplies from Walmart, they started to get replenishment. The newspaper desperately needed pencils.

At the end of the day another town meeting was called. CEOs were called up to discuss the day and give a report of how they did. It reminded me of Market Place on NPR. This was also a great economy lesson.

I was very proud of one of my READ 180 students who did a great job of being a CEO.

Our newspaper CEO received an award for such a great job, even though like the real world we didn't make much of a profit.

My student that was bank CEO did a great job also.

All of our students in 5th grade and some 4th graders were involved in some form or another.

---- Stephanie

Remembering winter

2010-03-13T17:35:00.000-08:00

It snowed several times this winter - starting in December and then increasingly frequently and heavily in January and February. Stpehanie's school district had about a week's worth of snow days. These are various similar pictures of our home in the snow, but taken after different snowstorms.

Here's a picture of a snowplow at work down the street from us. We live in a suburb with some excellent services, including plowing of side streets like ours relatively early on. Our street is also quite wide for an old side street, which may make it easier to salt and plow.

We share a driveway with our next-door neighbor Diane. I often plowed first, but on her days off especially Stephanie got into the act, using our snow shovel and a broom to clear off the driveway. Below Diane and Stephanie join forces.

(Diane is our neighbor who knew the woman who lived in our house for 50 years before we did. When lights go on up in Vincent's room without anyone touching them - or occasionally other odd things - we say that Martha (or Mrs. Loran) is at it again. Stephanie - and to a lesser extent I - have stripped out much of the paint and wallpaper that this family had on the first floor. We still occasionally get mail for her. Diane tells us that she fell and went to a nursing home, but then came back and lived on a hospital bed in what is now our dining room before dying at home.)

This winter I actually liked shoveling. We didn't have any super heavy snows, and I always went out before it had turned to ice. Also, I sometimes shoveled after waking the dog or when I was dressed as if I was walking the dog. Either way, I would not be very cold (except for maybe my extremities). In fact, shoveling is hard work/good exercise, and so I might actually get hot pretty fast. With relatively light snow and not a huge area to shovel, I could get my part done in 20-30 minutes. Stephanie might shovel our walk and driveway much more thoroughly later. It took some of our neighbors much longer to shovel the sidewalk in front of their houses. The house, neighborhood, and area could be quite pretty snow, at least until it started melting - especially before other people had really started shoveling/plowing. One more set of winter pictures later.

-- Perry

Health time

2010-03-09T05:51:00.000-08:00

Today Vincent – whom we picked up on Sunday night in Covington (see picture above)– goes to his psychiatrist in Jeffersonville. Later in the week he’ll go to our counselor and to our regular doctor. Today my Mother has an interview appointment with a nurse who works for the company that may provide her with long-term care insurance and then an appointment with her regular doctor scheduled (the latter may lead to other appointments). Some people theorize that some of her problems walking may reflect more than physical deterioration.

Three people we know died over the weekend: a woman who’d been attending our church, a family friend (and college friend of Mother’s) who I’d visited twice in Rochester (NY), and one of Stephanie’s aunt who we’d last seen at her cousin’s wedding. Mom and I may try to go to Phil’s committal service in Ohio in April. We also learned that some of the extended family members on Mom’s side of the family we visited at Thanksgiving have been ill. And Aunt Sandy, my Mother's sister, also has key doctor's appointments coming up.

So, in the past week, some folks who faced health problems no longer do so, and we’ll see how medical intervention helps Vincent and Grandma Martha, among others.

-- Perry

Thursday

2010-03-04T05:18:00.001-08:00

Today's a big day. This morning - instead of on Monday - movers come to my Mother's old house to get whatever items are left (that weren't already stolen) to take to my sister and brother-in-law's in Virginia. This afternoon a staff meeting at Stephanie's school will reveal a host of changes there (including no doubt some staff changes) in connection with the school district's $6 million in budget cuts. I will continue to try to finish a draft of a report that was due on Monday. No definite plans yet for a Vincent transfer this weekend. My speech Wednesday did OK, and I got a lot of work done and checked in with my Organizing for America colleagues Wednesday also. Dog had an accident.

-- Perry

Bumpy week

2010-03-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

Lots going on this week:
- My manager reminded me that I had missed a (somewhat abstract) deadline Monday, which is bad in all kinds of ways, all the more so with May 14 looming. I’m continuing to figure out how to focus more at work (and at this point at home) and scale back anything else I might be doing.
- Stephanie’s principal and her peers around the school district were at a meeting this afternoon after which they were to hear the budget bad news. Stephanie opted not to call her at home to hear whether she’s still got her job.
- Mom is now waiting until Monday for the movers to come to take whatever is left of the tools, furniture, and boxes of stuff that are going to my sister’s. Someone broke in and stole some of the tools last month.
- Stephanie’s mother and stepfather are working and watching as they have their upstairs renovated and figuring out how to cope with a cold downstairs.
- Vincent – slated to come here probably this weekend for a Tuesday doctor’s appointment – called about belatedly trying to get Internet access at home and an extension for his classes (one of which he was almost finished with), which I believe timed out Monday (ironically, same day I missed my work deadline).
- Stephanie’s father and she are making some plans.
- Mom and I are talking about Stephanie and my upcoming Tallahassee visit and what we will do to help her.
- Wednesday I give my fifth and final speech for the Toastmasters “Speaking to Inform” series. It’s a blast from the past – about sociological theorist Max Weber – but we’ll see if it’s also a precursor of things to come.

-- Perry

Car accident

2010-03-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

A little more than a week after being at Bobby’s service, we’ve been to a couple of visitations in the past weekend. More harrowing, even, was visiting one of Stephanie’s English as a new language colleagues at the same downtown hospital rehab center where I visited another church member a month after he’d had a stroke. Stephanie has been to several conferences around Indiana with her colleagues – mainly from other schools – and then last July she and one of the middle school ENL teachers, Laura, went to the READ 180 conference in Nashville together, roomed together, and went on the ghost tour together. Practically the same month, Laura had gotten married to a man she’d known less than year and moved with him and her kids out to the country. During one of the snowstorms in February, she drove off the road and suffered a head injury (also in the car was her won, who turned out to be OK). It took four hours to get her to the hospital in Louisville and she was in coma or unconscious for a couple of weeks.

We visited her Sunday afternoon. Her brother and nephew had just flown in, but her new husband – who’s been there a lot – told us most what was going on. When we got there, Laura was taking her first shower. After she came out and sat in a wheel chair, she mainly stared into space or interacted with her husband. But she did smile at a joke Stephanie made and looked over at her (although I never heard her speak). I had never met her before. (I’ve visited one other person in the hospital after she suffered a head injury, but Laura’s injury seemed even more severe . . . ) She’s obviously made a lot of progress, but Stephanie said it’s hard to imagine she’d be ready to go back in the classroom. She and her husband are obviously very religious – in an upbeat way – but – even with the progress – it’s hard not to be sad too. Laura is probably going to come out a different person, for better or worse. Laura’s husband talked about some logistical issues too – like car registration, bank accounts, power of attorney. It makes you think – puts current challenges in perspective, make you wonder how things would go if we were in their shoes.

Say a prayer for Laura and her family.

-- Perry

February portraits

2010-02-27T21:47:00.000-08:00

Dog day

2010-02-27T21:39:00.001-08:00

Friday was a big day for Frisco. First, on the way to pick up Vincent to go to the memorial service, we took Frisco to the Petsmart near our motel for a haircut (and de facto dog-sitting), and he bit the hair stylist. They declined to cut his hair, and then we had to hope that the Petsmart on the way to Vincent's, at Easton, would take him for dogsitting. The questionnaire we got (never before) even asked if he had bit anyone. But they figured how to get him back there without much more misbehaving. Otherwise, we might have had to leave Frisco in the car during the memorial service. After we picked Frisco up on the way to drop Vincent off at his father's - almost eight hours later - we drove to an old art-house movie theater we had frequented when we lived in Columbus and its adjoining cafe (the Drexel Radio Cafe - we even have T-shirts for it) (I'm not sure I've been back there since we lived there). To my complete shock, they let us bring Frisco into the cafe while we ate dessert/drank tea (we were just going to carry out and walk some more with him) and then let us take him into the 10:00 "Single Man" movie, where he slept mostly but occasionally looked up and watched the movie (we sat in the back). Only one other patron noticed him. The manager had said it was so slow that as long as no big crowd showed up and Frisco behaved he could stay. They did not ask us to pay for Frisco. Frisco did steal some popcorn from me. It had been a big day for us - and our dog. We've dreamed of going back to the Drexel and mused about sneaking Frisco into one of the Kentuckiana discount theaters. On this day we got to do both!

-- Perry

Mixed weekend

2010-02-27T19:55:00.000-08:00

Thursday night we drove to Columbus for the memorial service and en-urnment of Stephanie's stepbrother Bobby, who had died Saturday the weekend before. Vincent's friend Jessi had helped talk Vincent into going with us. We picked him up, drove by my old Victorian Village apartment, and parked under the Statehouse. We walked clear around the Statehouse to get to the old downtown Trinity Episcopal Church, site of the service. It was sunny but cold. We were carrying a box with some pictures of Bobby and a wooden candleholder he had made for us. I think I have been in Trinity before, in connection with my dissertation research (and in fact my parents worshiped there the morning after their wedding in 1957), but I had never parked under the Statehouse. Many of the buildings around us figured in Chapter 2 of my dissertation.

The sanctuary of the church I don't think I'd seen before.

Vincent, Stephanie, and I sat in the second pew, behind Nancy, Papa Bob, Grandma Mary, Stephanie's stepsister Vickki, and her friend Loren. There was de facto a "groom"'s side and "bride"'s side, and we sat on the groom's side.

Below are Vickki and Loren.

The priest who had met Bobby and wife Terree a week before did a good job with a service. There was a time for several friends and family members to speak about Bobby, who was remembered as a friendly, loyal, can-do person. The first to speak was a long-time friend.

Last to speak was Tom, Bobby's older brother, who also officiated some in the service. Some relatives had apparently slated Tom to be a priest at some point. He's now a retired schoolteacher, back in the classroom sometimes.

The picture below did not turn out well, but it shows Bob and Nancy looking on during the en-urnment, when the urn with Bobby's cremated remains was placed in little locker-like box along a short wall of the sanctuary. We mostly got up and stood. Bob had had surgery just a couple of weeks before and began feeling weak and had to sit down.

After an hour-long reception in the church basement, after the service, with some pictures and refreshments, we drove to Stephanie's mom's to pick up some meatballs (Nancy and Bob stayed home), and drove to Bobby and Terree's relatively new house in Gahanna, which we'd only visited a couple of times after he got sick (most recently on the King birthday holiday weekend - by that time, Bobby - who died of brain cancer - had been on hospice for several months). Pickerington, where Nancy and Bob live, and much of the rest of Central Ohio, was shrouded in snow.

Tom, Vickki, and Loren were at the house for a while, but mainly Stephanie, Vincent, and I got to meet some of Bobby's very nice friends and in-laws - folks listed in the obituary whom we had never met. Terree has several siblings and they had lots of friends, a couple of whom recalled helping Bobby and Terree pick out presents for Stephanie when she was a pre-teen.

On the left below is Terree.

Vincent liked the food and conversation for a while, but then said he wasn't feeling well. On the way to take him home, we picked up Frisco at the Petsmart PetsHotel at Easton, and they got to hang out for a little while in the car. As always, Vincent asked if Frisco could stay with him and his father for a little while.

We dropped Vincent off at his and his father's moments later. A little more about Frisco and Petsmart and the rest of the evening later. On Saturday Stephanie and I went over to Stephanie's mom's, but I also drove 20 minutes over to my aunt's in Canal Winchester. I hadn't been there for some time.

Aunt Barb (below) has been living with Aunt June for a couple of years, since she moved back from Las Vegas. Barb was on her way to work at WalMart.

June's son, my cousin Dustin, who was staying with his mother for the weekend, lives in Lancaster - as of about a month ago, with his father, whom he first met back around Thanksgiving. Dustin and I had an interesting conversation, including about what would happen if I lost my job - but I didn't get a picture of him. June came home after a while - after shopping at Barb's WalMart - and we talked. June, Barb, and Dustin all have challenging health problems. I later talked on the phone with June's daughter, my cousin Diana (who introduced Stephanie and me), and Grandpa Beck, in Marysville. I didn't reach Aunt Sandy.

I stopped back by Bob and Nancy's. They recently had their downstairs redone and refurnished and the second floor gets redone over the next couple of months. Like the rest of us (although we didn't get Vincent to go with us for this), Frisco likes visiting.

-- Perry

Critical time

2010-02-27T19:11:00.001-08:00

A season of budget cuts reaches landmarks this week. This coming week the administration and board for Stephanie’s school district superintendent pictured to the right) will make decisions about how to cut $6.6 million from he school district budget. The cuts will no doubt affect Stephanie’s school and Stephanie and her colleagues. The details will likely be fleshed out over time. Stephanie and some of her colleagues talked more about this late last week. Also last week the board for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s largest national agency – the one I work for – met to establish “guidelines” for its budget cutting. Income to the PC(USA) General Assembly Mission Council is slated to drop up to 15-20 percent over the next two years. Four years ago 75 people (including nearly me) were laid off in my organization, but the agency has managed to avoid big layoffs since then. May 14 is the day no doubt more of us will go.

Stephanie and I have had to speculate what we would do if we BOTH lost our Kentuckiana jobs as we think about opportunities here and elsewhere and our parents, child, and companion animals. Already this month, Humana has laid off 750 Kentuckiana employees.

For more on the New Albany-Floyd County schools corporation cuts upcoming, see: http://www.newsandtribune.com/schools/local_story_012221729.html

For more on the PC(USA) budget problems, see: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2010/10176.htm

P.S. Another odd twist: A majority of Stephanie’s current English as a new language students speak Spanish, but, among those who do not, the largest are Japanese: kids of fathers who work for a Japanese firm whose New Albany plant makes parts for Toyota. With all of Toyota’s problems, it’s possible that fewer of these Japanese families may be coming to New Albany in the near future.

-- Perry

More big days

2010-01-23T20:28:00.000-08:00

(Written Friday afternoon) Friday is a big day. Mom goes to her doctor for the appointment that will help determine whether Westminster Oaks lets her in to independent living. In her phone interview earlier this week with the long-term care insurance nurse, Mom had belatedly volunteered that she might be asking Dr. Kepper for a walker prescription. The nurse stopped her and said that if Mom said anything about this to Dr. Kepper and the long-term care insurance company got wind of it, there’s no way she’d get long-term care insurance. We’ll see how Mom has done today. It probably helps that she’s seeing her doctor of 30 years.

Monday Mom has another hoop to job through. The marketing person from the retirement center called and said Mom has to go for a short appointment with the retirement center nurse – again to get into independent living – on top of today’s doctor appointment – and Mom will go for that Monday afternoon. It’s possible that the long-term care insurance company may ask Mom to go to one of their doctors later too, as she tries to accomplish two goals: getting in to Westminster Oaks independent living and getting long-term care insurance.

I think I’ve already written about how Mom suddenly is going to try to move the week of February 1, since that’s when Penny is available to visit.

Today is also a big day for us – We’re going to the Cincinnati area (actually Covington – scene of our wedding - rendezvous location pictured above) – to pick Vincent up for his long weekend visit to Louisville. We’ve seen him 2-3 times in Columbus, but at some points he has said he might not come back to Louisville for 10 years. We’ll see how things go, as he and Stephanie got into an argument on the phone Tuesday, and she was suddenly less enthusiastic. At times this week he’s also hinted that he might spend most of his time out with his friends, though we’ve invited him to a church potluck and Korean lunar New Year’s event Sunday afternoon. He’s been used to smoking inside and going to bed late, and so we’ll see how things go. When we saw him last weekend in Ohio, he said his grandparents had just left after a month of staying with his father and him in their one-bedroom apartment.

One reason why Vincent is even coming for a long weekend is that he and his job parted ways last weekend – on Sunday, while we were there. We had planned to pick him up from work but it turns out he was home as he had You can’t fire me – Iquit quit earlier in the day, after a visiting manager found him slow at a new responsibility: making hamburgers.

The official reason for Vincent’s visit is to go to his psychiatrist in southern Indiana – hopefully, to get renewals for the three prescriptions he has. I tried to get him set up with our old doctor in Ohio, but he nixed it and made it possible for him to return. After watching some of the PBS miniseries on psychology and its segment on depression, I felt it was even more important to give him the opportunity to stay on as even more important to give him the opportunity to stay on medication. Now, we have a complex day set up for Tuesday, which Stephanie will take off from work. First, I’ll go with them to Vincent’s 7:45 a.m. psychiatrist appointment. Then I got Stephanie in to a 9:00 a.m. dentist appointment back in Louisville (she has a tooth bothering her), and then Vincent has his regular dental cleaning appointment (two months late – recall also that we rushed him to one of Grandpa’s dentists in December to clean his gums). They may go out to lunch and get Vincent a haircut. Then at 3:00 p.m. Vincent has an appointment with his counselor (who we’ve talked about him doing phone appointments with, but he’s never done it – he used to see her weekly). Even though at times we’ve hoped Vincent would stay longer, Stephanie then may miss Weight Watchers again and drive Vincent probably to meet his father in Cincinnati. I’ll probably stay home not just for Weight Watchers but for my Spanish class.

Monday is also a big day for me, as at 2 p.m. is my Annual Review, when I’ll find out how much my manager will downgrade me for missing a bunch of 2010 goals. Today wasn’t a good day at work. Besides the fact that I got stuck trying to find a new president for our employee association, I suddenly had a client for the February Panel survey try to drop out. After my manager pushed me, I pushed her, and she agreed to keep her two pages- through we’re going to try to replace some of her questions with questions from her colleagues – but she was not happy. The whole thing did not reflect great on me – as I should have been finishing up the February survey earlier in the month, and I should have been staying in touch with her more since we last talked about it back in October (her budget has been slashed since then, after the One Great Hour of Sharing offering receipts from this spring came in low). We’ll see how that and Mom’s appointment go and how the whole Vincent at home in Louisville visit goes. We’ve been cleaning up a bit – including his room and his bathroom, which the dog has been staying in during the day, in his crate during the week. No vacuuming and dusting just for Vincent, but some straightening up. Next Saturday the Guatemala group is supposed to be back at our house, and so we’ll have to clean up for that too. Wednesday I have a session (church board) meeting and then I may go and watch the President’s State of the Union address with some Obama folks.

P.S. Sunday I also have to speak to the congregation twice – once to start out worship, and the second time as part of a congregational meeting – and Monday Mom has an Advanced Placement or AP meeting she’s scheduled – maybe one of the last of the standardized test meetings that she’s helped lead over the years.

-- Perry

Big days

2010-01-20T05:59:00.001-08:00

Today is a big day for me as I have a meeting scheduled with my manager at 2 p.m. going over my draft Annual Review materials. This coming Monday at 2 p.m. is our official Annual Review in which he'll let me know how much he's docking my 2009 Annual Review for not achieving some of the Presbyterian Panel objectives we laid out for me last January (and in general not keeping up with my Panel administration responsibilities as much as we'd hoped I'd be able to) (and in this general down-sizing environment - even though the Haiti disaster - along with the stock market's rebound - might ultimately take a tiny bit of financial pressure off the national church). But today's meeting will give an inkling of what direction he's going in. Of course, I've got to continue to make progress on Panel projects and responsibilities.

Yesterday was a big day for Mom. She made progress accessing funds she'll need to "close" on her Westminster Oaks apartment next week. And given Penny's schedule she set a very ambitious time table of moving during the first week of February, when Penny is now slated to be there. Mom was also interviewed by staff with the possible long-term care insurance insurer yesterday. Friday is her next big medical appointment, as she goes then to see her doctor in an appointment that could help insurance she gets into her apartment (independent living), instead of going to Westminster Oaks' assisted living unit, where she would not be able to eat in the dining room with the independent living residents.

Wish us both luck.

-- Perry

Vet visit

2009-12-29T20:46:00.000-08:00

For the second time in three Tallahassee visits, we took the turtles to see Dr. Brumfield, the reptile vet at Northwood Animal Hospital, which also treated Frisco in his youth. We usually want Dr. Brumfield (pictured above with his colleagues, two of them relatively new) to give the turtles a general check-up plus to trim and shave their beaks and toenails. Both had had medical emergencies in the past year or so – ones that generated some calls but no actual visits to potential Kentuckiana reptile vets. We’d inadvertently left Speckles behind during a trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and she’d apparently fallen down the stairs and there was a little dark blood on her head, which she must have hit on her way down the basement (where we amazingly found her, looking for her, even though we didn’t know she was there). About a month ago Stephanie had cleaned out the bathtub with a bleach-based cleaner and then I – not knowing this – had filled the tub with water for Greenville for his weekly swim. About an hour later I figured out that the bubbles were residue from the bleach, and we called around and ultimately gave him a milk bath. Also, a third turtle, a water turtle named Speedy, had visited with Dr. Brumfield during our visit two and a half years ago, but Speedy subsequently died.

Dr. Brumfield weighed and examined their animals and did the nail and beak care (to the extent to which Speckles allowed him to), and he was generally positive about their condition. Later this week we’re going to bring the practice some fecal specimens to analyze. Among Dr. Brumfield’s suggestions:

Try leaving the turtles outside during the summer for a few hours. Of course, the last time he suggested this, disaster ensued as Sawyer escaped. But he gave us suggestions for keeping him, including burying the chicken wire for their outdoor play enclosure deep in the ground. Covering the enclosure with wire might ward off any airborne predators (such as hawks). Exposing them to direct sunlight is important.

Try harder to get the turtles to eat vegetables – not just fruit (if we’re lucky) and superworms (beetle larvae). Material he gave us suggested some vegetables we haven’t tried before (such as squash), and our Community-Supported Agriculture produce may provide some possibilities. He also suggested cooking – like pureeing (?) – vegetables to make them even easier to eat. Although we have vitamin and mineral powders to sprinkle on their food, we confessed we’ve never really used them, and he suggested we do so one or two days a week.

In the past Dr. Brumfield had turtles and he suggested using as the bedding of their habitat the mix he used: cypress chips and sphagnum moss. We’d tried that (instead of Sawyer’s Astroturf), but very recently had switched to something more expensive but probably similar – turtle bedding that was said to be less likely to have pesticides or bacteria in them. Instead, Dr. Brumfield this time suggested that we simply use dirt. He hinted that we also might try to keep the habitat moist, possibly by spraying water. In Minnesota, I briefly tried using a humidifier during the winter – with all of that dry heat – but found it difficult.

In winter, he suggested – consistent with other suggestions – giving the turtles a swim twice a week instead of once a week.

We’ll try to implement some of this. The materials Dr. Brumfield gave us had some daunting suggestions: including NOT using a glass case, NOT putting female and male turtles together (because sexual harassment by the guy will stress out the girl), and NOT leaving out food. In general, Dr. Brumfield said the turtles were in good health and looked well cared for, even if he had a few suggestions. Dr. Brumfield spent more than an hour with us (and that’s without the fecal test analysis), which also yielded one of the turtles’ more expensive vet bills. But, Greenville and Speckles, you’re worth every penny of it.

-- Perry

Surprise visit

2009-12-29T19:16:00.000-08:00

We knew on the eve of my Aunt June's key doctor's visit that June and son Dustin - and, it turns out, Dustin's aunt on his father's side, Brenda - traveled to Missouri so that Dustin could meet his biological father for the first time. June called from the road - traveling from Missouri to Ohio in one day - to say hello and said they couldn't stop - but then Brenda helped change her mind. We met Brenda and heard about the trip - where Dustin spent a couple of days with his father and was emotional on the way back.

June has lost some weight and was about to find out that her illness has not grown worse but not grown better. June, Mom's youngest sister, has been eating partly through a feeding tube through her stomach and showed us some of this. This is another health issue, since it has not been working properly.

After June got home, the doctors put her on an IV, in hopes that she would gain weight. A week later June spent several hours at home - with her son and sister at home but not noticing her discomfort - with a blinding headache and vomiting. Eventually, son-in-law Jay called 911 and the squad took her to Mt. Carmel East hospital. Blood pressure spikes sometimes precede the headaches, but health care providers have never figured out what might be behind the headaches. Days later Stephanie actually drove June home, and she got to see Dustin again, as well as Barb, Diana, and Jay. Although we gave June, Dustin, and Brenda no grand tour, Stephanie had just put up a bunch of Christmas paraphernalia (see "Christmas preparation") and I had been cleaning the house. I feared that no one would see the Christmas paraphernalia - since Vincent was gone and we'd be gone for 2-3 weeks at Christmas - but June et al.'s visit - plus those by our plantsitter Jessi and her family - assured that someone would see our handiwork.

-- Perry

Surprises

2009-12-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

Two surprising things Mom’s financial advisor told us the week before Christmas:

- Mom might be able to pay $300 a month to secure long-term care insurance.

- The way tax brackets work is not that, when your income goes up from let’s say $10,000 to $20,000, you jump up from the 10 percent tax bracket to the 20 percent tax bracket. Instead, you pay federal taxes at 10 percent on the first $10,000 (or whatever) and then at 20 percent at just the rest of the year’s income.

The realtor also called us back to tell us that getting a house on the market by April before the $8,000 tax break for first-time homeowners expires would be good, but she hasn’t talked with that many clients who used this. In Louisville, many house for-sale signs include an extra sign about the tax credit; we’ve yet to see such a sign in Tallahassee (even though on a short dog walk earlier this week Frisco and I saw NINE houses and one lot for sale!).

For more information on Mom’s financial advisor, see: https://my.hdvest.com/clements
Her office is located in the shadow of the old Tallahassee Community Hospital (pictured above), where Mom nearly died 14 years ago.

-- Perry

Expert advice

2009-12-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

Mom and I talked with realtor Libby Allen, recommended by, on Monday afternoon. She thought Mom – with $2,000-5,000 of work – could sell her house for around $160,000. (about $100 per square foot – with 1,600 plus square feet – not counting the exterior store room). She hinted against the rental option (and her team doesn’t manage rentals though she said she personally owns some rentals). She also hinted that the 1970s décor, etc. was dated and suggested selling the house empty (after Mom has moved out, likely to Westminster Oaks). She said buyers are not looking for fixers-uppers – they want to be able to start living immediately in a house without having to do a lot of work. She said it might take as long as six months to sell a house. She brought a lot of information about the neighborhood, including how much houses had initially been offered for, how much they sold for, and how long that took.

Among the suggestions she made:
- Fix some rotting wood on the outside of the house, pressure wash the outside (and hand remove vines if pressure washing doesn’t do it), and paint all of the gables and selectively paint elsewhere. Paint the floor of the exterior store room and the carport.

- Once out, have the carpet steam cleaned but don’t replace it (saving Mom about $2,500). Consider an end zone treatment to eliminate any odors. She was not overly concerned about nicks in the linoleum or the bulletin board on the door to the interior storeroom. Leave both as is.
- Get a new range hood – perhaps Braun – for about $100 – white.

- Have the kitchen cabinets painted whites and change out the pull hinges – brushed nickel or silver color – to update the look and match the appliances.

- Paint the whole interior of the house – the walls a neutral color close to the carpet – a tan color like desert fortress – and the trim and ceiling in white. It looks like we’ve painted the walls before in semi-gloss and therefore it may not be possible to go back to flat, and so a light semi-gloss like egg shell must do. Semi-gloss walls are OK if you live there, but – for selling – flat hides imperfections. Also, fix imperfections in the walls.

- For $40, get white ceiling fans for the bedrooms, with one globe each, and change the fan blades in the family room to white. She didn’t recommend ceiling fans in the kitchen and living room.

- In the hall bathroom, have it painted and at the same time caulk the vanity and get a new sink fixture – with a lever (?) handle, silver or brushed nickel – between $55 or $88- Peerless is most affordable, or Delta or Minerva (?). I believe she suggested touching up the bathtub too (?).

- Much more radical suggestions for the master bedroom bathroom: Take out the entire set of fixtures to the right of the toilet: the sink, lights, faucets, and cabinet. Get a pre-fab vanity complete with sink, and faucets – in white – and ge ta new light fixture at the top.

Keep the mosaic tiles on the floors of the two bathrooms – but go to a pool supply store – to use commercial bleach the tile.Extending a conversation she and I had about natural light, she recommended we get rid of the curtains and rods before painting so the painters can fill the holes and leave for buyers to install (Mom remembers putting up all of those curtain rods.) Get for each window - for $50 a window – 2-inch faux wood blinds, white. For some of the wider windows, we might get two sets of blinds if that’s cheaper.

She also suggested modernizing the three light domes on the kitchen ceiling and replacing the damaged door bell. Domes cost like $20 for a set of two – Postlander – silver or near white – 139989 – also use fourth dome to replace the dome in the hallway. Also get a globe for the outdoor light fixture. On the outside door from the exterior store room, get a gold kickback (?) to cover some imperfections.

Use a razor blade on a set of spots on the interior storeroom linoleum floor.

In the kitchen, spend $100 to get a new faucet, a high-rise, and use Barkeeper’s Friend to clean the kitchen sink (also clean the overflow sink next to the washing machine.

- Keep all appliances: refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, and even the washer and dryer – they can tip the balance if the buyer doesn’t have these.

- In the yard, also mow and rake the yard more closely, clear out some sticks and debris, and trim the grass around and pressure wash the steps leading from the driveway to the front porch but keep some of the “shrubbery’ in the back yard – near the back fences – because this obscures the view of the apartment complex behind our house and the yards of the houses to the right and left of ours. On the whole, she liked our yards.

We’ll have t spend about $2,000 more at the end – documentary stamps, termite inspection, home warranty.

She can list this as a 4-bedroom or a 3-bedroom. She pays to get listings for the house in the paper and in (Tallahassee) Homes and Lands magazine, rotates the listing through her marquee on North Monroe Street, and gets the listing with about 20 photos on the Web. She’ll put a lockbox outside of our house, and when realtors stop by with potential buyers, she gets an e-mail that tells her who has stopped by, she follows up by asking what they thought, and then she gets feedback about what people do and don’t like about the house, which she’ll share with us.

The realtor also shared with us that there are 500 fewer (from 2,000 down to 1,500) realtors working in Tallahassee than there were five years ago, and she went from a staff of 14 realtor, to three, which she said is fine with her.

She also said in the past year she has started writing Christian contemporary songs, built a recording studio where she uses a synthesizer to play all of the instruments, and then brings in a friend to sing the lyrics. She even shared with us a CD. Her non-real estate Web site has the first song she wrote, about loss: http://www.myspace.com/libbyallensongs

-- Perry