2010 Outreach Council Annual Report

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

Busy week

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

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

Changing meds

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

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

Mid-week musings

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

Big week

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

Spring break (part 1)

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