The End of 2011

Well the end of another year is fast approaching and it has seen some major changes for members of our family. We saw moves, a new arrival, a new dog, a retirement, a knee replacement and an engagement. In many ways we were a family of movers and shakers; so to speak. So come on Fiddler Kin and share the year in your life on the blog!

John and I started the year with a trip to Hawaii---wooohoooo! I highly recommend Hawaii in the winter. I must say there is nothing quite like sitting on a beach chair in the ocean while talking to your sister back in Kansas and hearing about the snow that is falling. A partly cloudy day in Hawaii still beats a snowy day in Kansas.

The year flew by and as usual John and I led pretty boring lives---eat, sleep and work was our MO for the most part. In May we started the never ending home improvement jobs or as I like to think of it "the feeding of the money pit beast". The first little project was a new and improved toilet for the upstairs guest bath. It is powerful flusher. You don't really appreciate a good toilet until you have one that has to be flushed twice. We also tiled the upstairs bathroom. In October the beast was fed again. We started with the atrium. We finally replaced that leaking all glass roof with a real roof. It only took us 8 years. John and his new worker bee Gary did the work themselves. John added lighting and a ceiling fan. We are replacing the outside doors this week and getting rid of the glass on the north side. Next year we will hopefully be able to replace windows in the atrium. "The Beast's stomach will be growling by then. We also replaced a great deal of the deck. I didn't realize it but our deck is over 600 square feet. We were just going to replace some of the boards, but wouldn't you know it the joints were bad so we had to replace the entire upper deck and the stairs. The lower deck will hopefully be next fall along with the ballisters(sp?). Have to feed the beast next year too. We also made another gate for the lower deck. That board we had nailed up was a bit tacky, but it kept the dogs on the deck. Maybe next year we will finally work on the kitchen, or not. We also installed a new fireplace liner. The wood burning fireplace insert we have downstairs weighs about 600 pounds, so you can imagine the fun John and Gary had removing it and putting it back. Just for fun John dug up two 20 foot redbud trees and transplanted them in the puppy yard to offer shade to the atrium in the summer ----if they survive that is. They did get several inches of rain after the planting so that was a good thing. We still have dozens of projects that will take us into 2012 and beyond. Well I hope 2012 brings good health to all, new jobs to those who seek and an abundance of laughter. Happy New Year Everyone!

Tis the Season

I have not posted for awhile. Hope everyone who reads this is well. Today is sunny and beautiful, although cold. We are grateful for the rain we received yesterday, but we love to see the sun when we get up in the morning.

I was moving pretty slow this morning. Normally, I jump out of bed and get ready for church. I usually go to the 8:00 service, but today I could not make myself get dressed and leave the apartment. Instead, I drank coffee and watched early morning tv. There was a heavy frost on my car windows and I did not feel like scraping them. I ate breakfast, and after awhile I did take a shower and go to church. I guess I am getting old.

Yesterday we unpacked our Christmas decorations and decorated the apartment. We have a wreath on our door. Our nativity scene is lit by a few white Christmas lights. It sits on the file cabinet by the window. That nativity set is about 30 years old. Doug bought it at Sears the day after Christmas for around ten dollars. We lived in Broken Arrow at the time. It has survived several moves with all the figurines intact. We have two snowmen and one Santa Clause standing by the a pot of artificial pointsettas. We also have a Santa sitting on top of our clock. He is preparing to go down a chimney. A bowl of Betty's homemade ornaments sits on top of a bookcase. We look like we are ready for Christmas.

On Friday Doug presented an advent calendar to Beth. He made it for Jacob. Beth and Jacob glued Hershey Kisses in each day slot from the first to the 25th of December. Beth remembers that someone sent a Christmas calendar to her and Tom when we lived in Oklahoma. That person also provided Hershey Kisses for Beth and Tom to enjoy on the days leading up to Christmas Day. This is a special memory which Beth wants to share with her children.

Beth and I went to Walmart to look at toys yesterday. I hoped to see a special doll that would melt my heart. There were a lot of dolls at Walmart, but they were not very appealing. Remember when we were kids and we would pour over the Sears and JC Penney's catalogues just looking at the toys. The dolls then were pretty or cute or both. My favorite doll of all time was the Tiny Tears doll I received one Christmas when I was 8 or 9 years old. I was overjoyed to receive her. That Christmas is one of my favorites.

I just finished reading two books with a Christmas theme. One is the christmas train by David Baldacci. The story is about a man, Tom, who is traveling across the country on a train a few days before Christmas. Tom is writing an article about train travel and wants first hand experience. Tom meets a lot of quircky people and eventually all of them become snowbound on the train. The book is entertaining, unpredictable, and educational. I would like to travel by train someday.

The other book is by Dave Barry, the humorist, who shares his childhood memories of Christmas. They include the yearly Christmas pagaent at church, and the family dog Frank. Frank is a huge friendly dog who is more like a family member than a pet. One Christmas Eve Frank dies. The events that follow are touching, amazing and hilarious. The name of the book is The Shepherd, The Angel, and Walter, The Christmas Miracle Dog. This is an easy book to read and should not take over an hour to finish, if that long.

I have not sent out Christmas cards yet. I have bought greeting cards. So far I have lacked the discipline to actually sign, address and stamp them. It is early days yet, so there is hope.

Speaking of hope, I hope the week ahead is a great one for everybody. I am living a quiet life in Emporia, Kansas. I don't have a lot of news to share, but I am glad I have family to share it with. Take care Fiddler kin.

NY Times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/us/in-kansas-city-sermons-avoid-mention-of-abuse-scandal.html?_r=2&hp

I find it interesting that while the church members keep their faith in God, they aren't able to vocalize their anger, frustration and distrust in the church and its leaders. Is the reason because they fear god or the church? Or do they feel that if they ignore it then it will either go away or maybe if they ignore it then it doesn't really exist. does the philosophical question, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there does it make a sound, apply here?

The ending line by the priest "I wish I could make it all go away"----yes I bet he would.

Just thought I would share the NY Times perspective. Just trying to stimulate conversation. Thoughts anyone?

Carmel Corn---Childhood Calling

Fall has arrived. The walnut trees are dropping their yellow leaves and walnuts(go squirrels). The pin oaks are dropping acorns and the deer are making their annual return to our Downing Road backyard and driveway to feast on them. It is an Indian Summer with warm days and cool nights. Halloween is just around the corner. Coyotes are yipping. I guess the sights and smells of early fall triggered a yearning for some good ole fashion carmel corn---the easy stuff that Mom used to make on the stove. So one evening I got out a pan, heated up some olive oil and popped me a big ole bowl of popcorn. Then I cooked some brown sugar, butter, salt(optional) and water in the same pan(after I dumped said popcorn into the bowl of course). I stirred the concoction until it stared to bubble a little and slightly thicken then I drizzled it over my popcorn for a light coating, just enough sweet but not too much as to make the popcorn soggy or to be overwhelming. John came down stairs and grabbed a handful not realizing it was carmel corn(Yuk, said his facial expression) and while he obviously does not really like carmel corn, he did say it was the best he ever had. I guess it was the best carmel corn he ever disliked.

Anyway I ate nearly the whole bowl, probably thousands of calories, but it tasted so good!
So if you ever get a hankering for something on the sweet side and you have some popcorn, brown sugar and butter available there you go.

Mom used to make this once in a while when I was a kid, so I like to think that maybe Mom was sharing that bowl with me----unfortunately probably not the calories.

Alabama Immigration Law

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44793726/ns/us_news-life/

This article is about the new immigration law in Alabama. It is one of the toughest in the country. The overview follows

The law allows police to detain people indefinitely if they are suspected of being in the country illegally and requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll. Those elements make it perhaps the toughest law in nation.

"The law targets employers by forbidding drivers from stopping along a road to hire temporary workers. It also bars businesses from taking tax deductions for wages paid to illegal workers and makes it a crime for an illegal immigrant to solicit work. A federal judge has temporarily blocked those sections of the law so she can study them more.

Right now the fall out is that " legal americans" are not rushing to take over these back breaking jobs. Farmers are not finding enough field hands to harvest crops. People are not flocking to be roofers or rough in construction workers. It is hard work and does not come with benefits. "

John has found this to be true, even in this economy with so many out of work people it is hard to get someone to want the labor jobs. He recently posted signs at various places looking for a farm hand, being a rural area this wouldn't seem like a big deal, anyway he was paying $12.00 an hour and you would supply your own chain saw as he wanted some trees cleared in the fields that he is having converted to switch grass. It was going to be about 2 weeks worth the work. He did not get one inquiry. He finally did get a young guy who was unemployed, but he was referred to John by someone. We wanted some things done around the house. The big one is putting a roof on the atrium. We had someone come out and give us an estimate and said he would be available in about 2 weeks. He never showed up and never returned John's three phone calls. John is doing the work himself with the help of a young strong guy to help him. This is a physical job, for those of you who remember the atrium the roof was all glass. These panes of glass are 8 or 10 feet long and very heavy. They were able to remove the panes without breaking any. They are now roughing it in. We are lucky, since John has done so much home remodeling from back in his college days and his engineering background he is able to really oversee the work and because he couldn't really find anyone willing to work, help with it. The young guy who is helping is between jobs, likes physical work and is very strong, but he is not able to really "think through a problem" So John has to pretty much be hands on. The point is that even with high unemployment there is a lack of workers to do labor unless it is for $20.00-$40.00 an hour, now you can argue that it is worth that kind of money, probably true, but then you have to be willing to pay for it all the way down the line and down the line is at the grocery store, any tangible items and so forth. May I say that most women have been accepting these kinds of wages and lower for generations, even when the economy is strong. So what do you all think? would you take $12.00 an hour if you were unemployed or if you needed to supplement your regular job or would you find it degrading and not worthy of you? If I could find a 40 hour a week regular job for $12.00 an hour that included health insurance I would be thrilled. I wouldn't have anything left over at the end of the day, but I don't know, so what the heck.

As farmers Rebecca and Tom could not afford to be full time farmers if not for the fact that they did not have to purchase land, as they are using the family farm. The members work a few hours a season and that helps with labor. They have two interns as well. They offer the interns a small salary a week, free housing and all the produce they can eat. They in turn learn about organic farming. They work 10 hours a day in temperatures that range in the upper 30's or 40's in early spring and late fall to 100 degree temperatures in the summer. I would not want to do it and I am grateful there are people who do. They could not afford to pay workers $20.00 an hour to harvest crops and that is true of most small farms. That is part of the problem, so many family farms are being developed for homes and also sold to agrifarms which use pesticides other unhealthy growing systems.

I don't think we have the right to exploit migrant workers or any worker for that matter, but our style of living, as well as our entitlement belief has gotten out of hand.

OK the floor is open for comments.

Church Home

I think I have found the perfect church for me. A few weeks ago at a Saturday afternoon masters swim practice, I was doing a kick set with one of my teammates, and he mentioned his church. Since I was still looking for a church home in Wichita, I asked him about it, and the first thing he said (sort of nervously) was, “Well, we’re kind of progressive.”


My ears perked right up. “Tell me more.”

And so he did. He told me about the new, inspiring pastor at College Hill United Methodist Church. He told me that the church supports a woman’s right to choose.

“What about non-believers?”

“Everyone’s welcome.”

“Good. I don’t want people judging me when Trent doesn’t come to church with me … what about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people?” I asked.

“Everyone is welcome and valued,” he replied. “My brother was gay, and I can’t abide churches that disparage people based on sexual orientation.”

“Was?” I asked.

“He died of AIDS.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, he was a great guy.”

So after swim practice, I got on the church’s website (http://collegehillumc.org/), and I was thrilled with what I found. Parishioners are encouraged to read Scripture with “patience, openness, humility, knowledge, critical thinking, skepticism at times, and a willingness to wrestle with complexity and contradictions” (College Hill Convenant). Yes! And the church is very focused on social justice and taking action within the community to raise awareness about injustice and take steps to right it.

In a couple of weeks, for example, the church is facilitating a three-day series on human trafficking. Did you know that Wichita is among the top five origination cities in the United States for exploited children? Traffickers come to Wichita, kidnap children, and take them to other cities and states to exploit them, usually sexually. Local experts estimate that 400-500 children and sexually exploited in Wichita each year. That’s horrifying. Now I want to figure out what I can do about it.

So I have been attending College Hill United Methodist Church for about 4-5 weeks now. I’ve joined the choir, and I attend practice on Wednesday nights with them. They are really good too. Most of them have musical backgrounds. Several are music teachers, and several are paid soloists at the church. But even with all this talent, they are extremely welcoming toward me and my non-professional voice. I know they don’t actually need me to sound good (heck, sometimes I’m just lip-synching because I’ve forgotten the notes), but every week every single person in the choir and the choir director welcomes me to practice, welcomes me to church, and thanks me for joining them. And today, I received a compliment on my voice from one of the soloists who teaches music at a local middle school.

“Surely, you must have been listening to someone else,” I replied.

“No, I was right behind you, and you sounded great.”

Totally made my day.

I love this church. I’m home.

Happy 4th of July

Happy Boomer Day Everyone. Actually it is the boomer part of the 4th I dislike the most, not to mention the 2nd , 3rd and 5th as the boomers continue to light up the night with color, sound and smoke. If you drive through Kearney tonight it will look like bombs have been going off it is so smoke covered. Not a good time for those war veterans with PTSD nor those with asthma. I keep waiting for a really good rain/wind storm to take out all the fireworks tents in the days leading up to the 4th. It would not break my heart to see those products drenched in water, but alas no such luck in past years or this one. I guess I am a 4th of July Scroogette.

It was good to see everyone. Sharon thanks for hosting. the house is always so welcoming and comfortable and the food everyone brought and that which Sharon prepared was wonderful as usual. Carol, Ben and Jerry better watch out. You could open your open shop. Homemade ice-cream between two sugar cookies with half dipped in chocolate. I think it would be a winner. That just came to me-----inspired. Honor you looked especially cute in that little hat of Dads. He would be pleased. July 11th wear the hat and have a beer or a scotch, or wait in true Francis tradition have both and then go toss some bird seed to the birds. Katie, Princess Eloise is a sweetie. I can see how Trent could fall in love with her. I suspect that every volunteer has one animal that really touches their heart in such a way that they fall in love with and need to save it and then they can move on and be content to just do the best they can to make life easier for the pets that will come and go in shelters. It is not an easy job to volunteer at a shelter it takes a strong and compassionate soul to do that work. I will be excited to see pictures of your new home as you start the renovation & move in process. It is nice to feel like you are "Home".
Well enjoy the day off everyone, stay cool and be safe if you are hitting the road, now that Kansas believes it is safer to drive faster. That's Kansas for you, everyone else believes that higher speeds kill, but Kansas says go for it----thinning the herd perhaps. You gotta love being on a highway with a semi flying down the road and 75-85 miles per hour, hopped up on caffeine and who knows what else while texting their ETA to someone. Ok that was a holiday buzz kill.
Happy Boomer Day one and all!

Free Dog Jack

Well Jack was at it again; out on another "walk about". A couple of weeks ago I sent Annie and Jack out into their yard for their last puppy break for the day. The time was about 9:15pm. I go out about 10:00 to bring them in and lo and behold, no puppies. Now once in a while Annie has popped one of the white vinyl pickets and dashed out in to the wide open yard, but she always comes back when called. Jack has always stayed in the yard. He is not one to go through narrow spaces. What if one of those other pickets touched me. He is like that about other things in the house. He doesn't go down stairs to the basement if the door is partially closed. He doesn't go behind a door to get a toy and especially not behind the rocking chair---yikes! Did you see that? The chair moved! That is how he got his name Chicken Jack. So you can only imagine my shock when I see Jack streaking across the backyard and into the deep dark dense woods. Annie was gone too, but quickly returned when I called her name. I guess this night, two pickets came off and the lure of being a free dog was too much. He made a run for it. Chicken Jack grew a brave heart. The sights and sounds of the night were too much. He was on some heady drug. He was at Disney Land. He was gone into the night. Now in the past when this has happened he returns in about 20-30 minutes. He is usually panting and covered in stick tights. In the past his great escapes have been during daylight hours, now it was night and time for dogs and humans to be in bed. I stayed in the yard calling to him with my "happy voice", calling out to him with the tempting names of his favorite toys "purple ball", "rope toy", and "lime loop". Jack knows his toys by name, but the lure of the night was too much. John got in the truck and drove down to the meadow and up to the pasture calling his name. We hoped that Jack would see the truck lights and think "Ok a ride". Again the lure of the night.....
John came back to the house and decided to grab a flashlight and trudge a path into the woods in search of his buddy. I heard him calling his name. Then to my left I hear noise in the woods. I call Jack's name. I spot him. He is about 10 feet away. He sees me, turns and runs back into the woods. The stinker. I call to John. He makes his way back to me. I tell him I saw Jack. This of course was a big relief, because honestly we didn't know if Jack was on the scent of something how far he would go. A border collie can cover 5 miles in no time and even though highway MM is not busy it only takes one unsavy dog and one car to have a tragedy. So big sigh of relief, mixed with frustration/aggravation. John heads back into the woods calling his name. Then there is silence. John turns off his flashlight. We listen to the sounds of the woods and see the darkness lit with little glows of lightening bugs. Then I hear a woof and John's voice low. A few moments later man and dog are walking into the yard. John and I give each other that look, "Can you believe that dog". We are relieved. Jack is exhausted, but happy. It was 11:45pm.

Sawing logs

I have never posted photos to the blog before, but John and I are going to give it a try, hope it comes out ok. John cut down some trees on the property, some were dead, others were damaged from storms, anyway he found a guy in Liberty who owns a portable saw mill. This guy brought it out to the property and they spent the day sawing logs. One of the logs was about 36 feet long. A neighbor had to help John pull it up to the pasture with his tractor. It was an all day event. John was pretty tired at the end of the day, but also pretty darn proud of his bounty of boards.

Summer Reads

Well I made my most recent trip to the public library for a bit of light reading material. I thought I would share a couple of my selections.

The first is a book titled The Daily Coyote, by Sherve Stockton. It is a true story about a woman who on her cross country journey to move back to New York City from San Fransisco fell in love with the state of Wyoming. She is given a 10-day old coyote pup from a boyfriend who works for a wildlife management department who's job is basically to exterminate coyotes for the farmers and ranchers. I admit that it is tough to read parts that talk about that aspect. She makes it brief and glosses over it somewhat. She lives in a community of 300 people so it appears she is careful not alienate her neighbors who have a different view point of coyotes. Anyway the book chronicles about the first year of this coyotes life with her. She also has a blog. She is a photographer and some of the photos are sweet and beautiful. If you like animals it is a good summer read. It is cheap on Amazon and is available on Kindle, but I checked it out from the library. Katie I think Trent would like this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Coyote-Story-Survival-Wyoming/dp/B003JTHSFO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305809641&sr=1-1-catcorr


The second book is The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, now there are many books out there titled The Alchemist so be watchful to get the one by Paul Coelho. It is a simple tale of a shepherd boy who goes off in search of his personal treasure and the people he meets on his way, as well as the lessons he learns. It is a very easy and short read. Coelho does not get rave reviews from literary reviewers for his works, but for simple enjoyment and simple thought provoking messages it has a sweet quality.


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+alchemist&x=0&y=0

OK that is it for now. Enjoy all your Summer Reads whatever they are!

Tact, anyone?

Saturday was WSU's graduation for the College of Education, and I had the pleasure of shaking the hands of 14 of my 16 graduates after they left the stage. It was wonderful. After commencement, the COE held a reception for graduates and their families. It wasn't particularly well attended, and only 2 of my students showed up.

One of them, whom I'll call Betty, introduced me to her mom. Her mom whispered to her, "Is this the one you were telling me about?"

Betty replied, "She's one of them. She and Dr. B--- were my favorite professors."

The she turned to me and conspiratorily added, "But I liked Dr. B better."

Sometimes I have to wonder about my students' sense of audience and purpose. :-)

Norma's Advice

I recently went through my old autograph book. It was a present for my tenth birthday. This book is 53 years old. I can still read the messages people wrote in it. Since today is Mother's Day, I thought I would share what our mom had to say. It is advice she probably gave to each of us at one time or another.

My dear daughter,
After all these years I have decided to write a few lines.
Be Patient, Be Kind.
Have a smile on your lips
a pleasant word for your fellow man.
Give a helping hand,
you will always be remembered and loved.
your Mother

I treasure these lines Mother wrote. I hope this Mother's Day is lovely for all my Fiddler Kin.