Hello, Grandpa

It was such a delight for Grandpa to hear that 3 year-old Jillian wanted to say hi to grandpa and grandma. Unfortunately, Grandpa was already on the line talking with Grandma and had put her on hold to answer the call waiting tone. So I kept Grandma waiting for a couple of minutes while Jillian regaled me with a narrative that she was obviously excited about. I could have used some context or maybe an interpreter to really appreciate her side of the discussion. But is was still heartwarming to this old grandpa.

On the road again...

Not me this time, but my dear wife. They weren't kidding when, during her job interview, they told her the position would entail a lot of traveling throughout the state. Although there are programs in specific counties that she is primarily responsible for, she teams up with others in the office to make the visits go faster as well as be able to tap the expertise and opinions of others on the team. Thus she visits their counties and they visit hers. This means that she'll probably get to visit almost every county in the state at some point in her tenure.

She's been working at this job now for three months and to hear her tell it, she really loves the work, the people, and the daily challenges. It certainly wouldn't have been the job for her when we had little ones in the house but it's almost perfect for this time in our lives. Except for one little thing... I miss her.

Time for a tune-up

Twice a year we have to get our piano tuned, a $110 affair which is still cheaper than what I have to put out for my car and a whole lot less maintenance than just keeping a horse properly shod. A friend of mine informed me that costs $60 to $80 every six weeks.

The piano tuner this time expressed surprise that it was so much out of tune. He thought that at the ripe old age of 3.5 years, it would start settling in a little better. I, on the other hand, was not at all surprised. For one thing, I'm actually beginning to hear when a piano is out of tune better than I used to be able to do. For another, our piano seemed to be holding its tuning much better than it has in the past until we went to southern California over the New Year holiday. Thinking it would be a great time to cut our heating bill, we turned off all the heat in the house while we were gone a whole week. After we had been back home a couple of days and the house had returned to its normal temperature cycles, I sat down to play the piano. I was appalled. Some phantom had come and untuned the piano in our week's absence.

But all is well again. After an hour of expert care and mind-numbing ping, ping, ping, pause, ping, ping, ping, our piano is back in tune and ready for another six months.

On a side note, when I tried to tell our tuner about the miserable time we had sitting in the pouring rain to watch the Rose Parade (while our piano was dry but getting colder by the minute), he wasn't very sympathetic. Turns out that during the Christmas holiday he was flying to the east coast in a United Airlines twin engine airplane when the pilot announced that they had just lost an engine and would be making an emergency landing in Detroit. Although the flight crew were as shaken as the passengers and the pilot had only handled this particular problem before on a simulator, the pilot did land the plane safely. Of course it was 2:30 in the morning on Christmas Eve and the airport was not expecting anyone so there were no facilities such as food. It was a long night for everyone.

The Church of Reality

Get real! we sometimes tell friends when they start going off into some fantasy world or describing something that really is so much b___ sh__. Well, apparently someone told that to Marc Perkel and it inspired his creation of The Church of Reality (abbreviated here as CoR) which appears to be a legitimate organization recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt charitable organization (but NOT a church because churches don't ask the IRS for a tax exemption - they just assume it). The CoR doesn’t appear to be actively seeking conversions although it does accept donations. And it does appear to encourage is individual thinking and intelligent discussions.

Several months ago, when I first found the CoR on the Web it appeared to be the work of a single individual - Marc Perkel. But in the past few months it has grown to the point of having a board of directors (the Council of Realists) and some rudimentary organization. Also associated with the site is an active forum that is starting to reflect significant discussion about the beliefs of the CoR. I find it interesting that even when you restrict your beliefs to reality, there is still plenty to argue about. And on the web site itself there is so much satire and serious philosophical statements that it’s hard to tell sometimes where the serious ends and the satire begins.

Here are some quotes from the CoR web site I especially liked:

If it's real - we believe in it. The Church of Reality is a Personal Commitment to the Truth. We believe in real reality, not the way we want reality to be, not our personal reality, but real objective reality the way it really is.

We have no "holy book" or "holy web site" that contains any list of things that you are expected to believe in. You are not required to accept anything on "faith." The Church of Reality is a Doubt-Based Religion. We believe in the Principle of Bullshit, that bullshit is bullshit, no matter how many people believe it.

This is an alternative to other religions for some people. It is not an alternative for everyone. If you're happy with your beliefs then we're happy for you. The world would be boring if everyone believed the same thing. This religion fills a gap to serve those who are into reality. Reality isn't for everyone.

We don't look down our noses at the rest of the world. This planet is but a speck of dust in a galaxy of billions of stars in a universe of billions of galaxies. We exist for an instant of time. How important can we be? We are not morally superior to you, and you are not morally superior to us.

We don't worship anything - If you want to worship something it's up to you. But this church is about reality, not about God. We are not theists. However, if God comes out of hiding and shows himself in objective reality then we will believe in it.

If you want to get saved, go to a church that offers that service. In the Church of Reality "being saved" means having a good backup of your computer data.

We don't believe in the supernatural. There are things we can't explain because we don't know all the answers. But we do believe that explanations do exist and our purpose is to use science and figure it out. If something is outside of reality, then it's not real.

For 10 minutes or 2 hours of thought provoking entertainment, I recommend the Church of Reality.

Fifth Sunday

I read recently an article about how messy it gets when men try to apply human time concepts to physical reality. Natural time cycles such as the daily rotation of the earth, the (approximately) monthly revolution of the moon around the earth, and the annual revolution of the earth around the sun just don’t come out in nice even numbers no matter what you pick for a reference. Scientists, popes, and politicians have wrestled with the problem for millenia and have inserted days and months, deleted days, and even most recently (December 31, 2005 at 0:00 GMT) we were treated to an extra second to keep us in sync with some cosmological constant.

People have proposed 360 day calendars with 5 or 6 extra days each year. The 360 days could easily be split into 12 thirty-day months. Or we could have 13 twenty-eight day months so that each month always started with a Sunday and ended on Saturday. This 364 day year would have to be augmented by one or two days each year that wouldn’t fall within a month or even a weekday. It would be a “free” day, whatever that would mean.

Personally, I like the seeming randomness that our current calendar throws at us. Unless you’re a calendar savant, you can’t say for sure which day of the week your birthday comes on next year or whether Christmas will be on a 3 or 4 day holiday weekend. And I really like the “fifths”, the extra days that have to be scheduled differently. Like we always have board meetings on the “third Thursday” or the second Sunday. But no one ever has something planned for “the fifth Tuesday” because it’s so irregular. They occur “about” every three months but can’t be counted on.

I say no one and immediately have to correct myself. Our bishop this year has decided that since we have some ward committee or other scheduled for the first, second, third, and fourth Sundays, that we should take off the fifth Sunday whenever it comes around. We'll just have the general congregational meetings. I slept in this morning feeling not at all guilty. And I’ll be able to do that again in April, July, and October. Thanks, Bishop.

REGgie post script

... I won't get into any details but the Random Events don't stop just because we go to bed and turn out the lights. Like I said, I love my Reggie.

My little REGgie

From time to time, you will hear me describe my wife as my little REGgie where the REG stands for “random event generator”. Often, seemingly out of the blue, she will suggest activities or do things that seem to me to be completely random in the sense that I have no warning they’re coming.

Sometimes it can be something as minor as breakfast. This morning she asked me how to make pancakes from our homemade pancake mix. By the time I got into the kitchen she had made the batter and was heating up the griddle. But to my surprise she had included frozen blueberries in the batter. I probably wouldn’t have done that in a million years and certainly not without asking her if she was in the mood for blueberry pancakes. But this is an example of her random events.

Heavy rain had been forecast for today so Carolyn had said last night that she expected to spend most of the day at the computer typing into her PDA database contact names and addresses related to her work. I had psychologically prepared myself to spend the day reading or playing the piano.


So it was with some surprise that she announced we should go to the Sacramento Home and Landscape Show at Cal Expo. Another random event coming my way. It took me a few minutes to psych myself up for this event which was likely to be cold and a bit wet. Even though all the exhibits are inside, the food and passages between exhibit halls are outside, exposed to the rain and wind.


Once at the Show we had a great time listening to sales pitches and watching people. It’s still too cold and wet to do much with our landscaping and we really don’t need much done to the house anymore. But we did purchase some things like a “Sweepa” floor sweeper and squeegee, some toys for grandkids to play with when they visit, a slicer/dicer gizmo that will shred potatoes much better and faster than our food processor the next time Carolyn makes latkes, and a super heavy duty, aluminum extension ladder that we’ve been looking at for the past several years.

I love my REGgie.

We missed one...

As my daughter put it, "The only problem with doing a cool Christmas newsletter is that now everyone wants one." I appreciate the compliment, undeserved though it may be. And of course, the problem is that no matter how many we send out we will undoubtedly miss one or two. So many people have touched our lives in so many ways. We've tried to keep track of those who have moved away. It helps immensely that we have family members living in our old house who still have daily or weekly contact with friends and neighbors with whom we spent the past 30 years. But we still lose contact.

Besides reminding us to send a card and family photo to a specific person we missed, Jessica's email also prompted me to post the letter and photo on the family website.

Have a great weekend!

Sheer boredom

That's the way I describe working out at the gym. Oh, I try to mitigate the boredom slightly by reading a book if I'm using the stair stepper or the treadmill but there's not much to do while using the weight machines. I've tried listening to tapes or CDs but I dislike the earpieces or headphones more than the boredom.

But I'm finding that if I don't go to the gym at least twice a week, I feel like I'm missing something. I was going to say I feel guilty but that's not really it. I hope that's a sign that exercies is beginning to be a habit for me. I certainly don't enjoy doing it.

The Dollar Tree

When I was but a wee lad.... (I’ve always wanted to refer to myself that way. Must be the Scottish in me.) there was a local store we called “The Five and Dime store” or sometimes “The 5 and 10 cent store”. I think it was actually a Woolworth store. I always felt the moniker “Five and Dime” a little misleading because there weren’t that many items for sale for exactly five cents or ten cents. And some items were several dollars. But they did have a good variety of almost anything you could buy for less than a dollar – something we called “sundries” back then.

With inflation and time, I guess it’s not surprising that the stories occupying that market niche now are called The Dollar Tree, The 99 Cent Store, The Dollar Store, etc. (In Japan they’re called 100 Yen stores) They’re a lot of fun.


This week I realized that we were almost out of corned beef hash which we used to buy at the nearby 99 Cent Store because Ralphs or Safeways charge over $2.50 for the same stuff. Since our 99 Cent Store stopped carrying it, I visited various Dollar stores in search of hash – the legal kind, that is – corned beef hash. I finally found it not too far away from where our kids live but far enough away that I wasn’t taking any chances. I bought half the supply they had on the shelf – 24 cans. It keeps well enough so even a two year supply will be okay.

And since I was there I thought of all sorts of other things that sound really good for $1 – a couple of measuring cups, measuring spoons, an extension USB cord. And that doesn’t count all the items I put back on the shelf when I remembered that even at a good price, it doesn’t pay to buy things you don’t need.

Books on tape/CD

One of the more frustrating things in my life has been my wife’s listening to books on tape (and recently on CD). As parents of teens know, it isn’t easy to start a casual conversation with a person who has earphones plugged into their ears. Carolyn has made it very clear that she will pause the tape or CD the moment I want to talk with her but that just doesn’t work. Putting the tape on the home stereo so that we both hear it isn’t a good solution either. I’ll end up hearing parts of the story that don’t make any sense unless you’ve heard the whole thing.

It does work out when we make the long drive to Southern California or over to Utah. There’s only so much casual conversation possible and the story makes the time go so much faster for both driver and passenger. As the passenger I often can’t read with the motion of the car anyway.

This last trip we got home having listened to only 4 disks of an 11 disk book "Q is for Quarry" by Sue Grafton. A low-key murder mystery, it was clever enough to catch our interest but I've had to wait for Carolyn to finish the rest of the book. Now its my turn to walk around with earphones on or try to listen to the rest of the book in 10 minute segments on my drive to and from work. Its almost enough to make me want to take a long weekend drive just to complete the story.

This little light of mine

Is there something about technology that requires things to be engineered to death? I really appreciate the fact that an indicator on my dashboard notes that a rear light is out. I would appreciate it more if it said which rear light but there are few enough that the process of inspection is sufficient to indicate the left brake light. I decided that I should be able to change the light bulb – after all, how many grandpa’s does it take to change a light bulb? (Answer: only one but then it takes him the rest of the day to blog it.)

Well, it is certainly easier said than done. For one thing, Mercury has made the light bulbs impossible to access. This must be some national security feature because I can’t imagine any other reason from preventing a car owner from getting to the bulbs. Once I finally got access, removing it required knowing the secret combination – left one-quarter turn, depress lever, right half-turn, pull out part way, left half turn to free socket. Of course those directions weren’t printed anywhere and took some knuckle busting to discover.

The bulb looked perfectly healthy, at least to my untrained eyes, so I tested it with my voltmeter which showed both the brake light filament and the tail light filament registering the proper amount of conductance. Hmmm, I put the bulb back in the socket and the socket back in the car body. Light works, dashboard indicator doesn’t light. Problem solved? – probably not but who knows?

Oh, and it doesn’t seem to matter which way I put the bulb in the socket. I would think one way would be correct and 180 degrees different would switch the tail light and brake light connections. Doesn’t seem to work that way. The onboard computer must be smart enough to compensate for dumb technicians such as the car owner who replaces his own light bulbs.

A year with the Friends

A year ago, 52 weeks to be exact, Carolyn and I attended the annual meeting of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library held at the Central Sacramento Library on 8th and I streets in downtown Sacramento. That meeting was memorable for two reasons – I was elected as the new Treasurer of the Friends and, second, Carolyn managed to out bid (and therefore committed to buy) more books in the fundraising silent auction than any other participant there. So it was with some interest that we attended the annual meeting this afternoon to see who would get the biggest greeting. Carolyn won.

It has been an interesting year moving out of finance and accounting at work and moving into the same area in a volunteer capacity. Oddly enough, no one at the Friends has asked about my background or seriously tried to find out what I have done for a living. They take on face value that I can keep the books for an organization which has annual revenues of over $200,000, a bank balance of $100,000, and manages an endowment trust fund of $300,000. I have to have all checks co-signed and I prepare and present monthly financial summaries at our board meetings. But otherwise no one has questioned my accounting skills. I’m just an assumed expert.

Fortunately, I do feel in my element and could defend all the books and records I have been entrusted with. I just wish I could get more involved with the projects that the Friends sponsor such as the Book Den – a used book store with a huge warehouse of books, Focus on Writers – a chance to encourage new writers to learn from experienced and published writers, and direct participation in Children’s Programs at the various affiliated libraries throughout the county.

As the concluding action of my first year as treasurer, I gave the treasurer’s report for 2005 making it as short as I dared while still mentioning the fiscal implications of many wonderful activities in which the Friends was involved. The next item on the agenda this afternoon was the nominating committee report. I was re-elected Treasurer.

And although she didn't have as many as last year, Carolyn again walked out with the most books.

Happy Birthday, Timothy - part 2

Today was Tim's friend's birthday party and a wonderful affair it was. Mr. Weatherman was kind. His predicted partly cloudy did, in fact, come about and the kids were able to play outside during parts of the party preventing meltdown and much frustration. As usual Tiffany and Ed, Tim's mom and dad, had prepared well so there was something for the kids to do the whole time and with most of the kids' moms or grandmoms staying, there was plenty of supervision. I certainly enjoyed watching the kids play and interact with each other.



While Ed made balloon animals and hats, Tiffany set a table with individual cupcakes and little cups with chocolate frosting, sprinkles, mini-marshmallows, and chocolate chips for each child to decorate their own cupcake. When everyone was finished, a cancle was added to each cake, the candles were lit, and everyone sang Happy Birthday to Tim. Other activities included "Pin the tail on Tumnus" (the faun from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" since Narnia was the birthday theme).


There was a kind of pinata I hadn't seen before with strings for each kid to pull with one of the strings rigged to release all the candy. Sounds like a much safer setup than having a blindfolded kid swinging a bat in the middle of a bunch of kids.

And finally, each child got to hand Tim his present, help him unwrap it, and then pose with Tim for a keepsake photo (to come later). Each child was sent home with a bag of goodies, candy from the pinata, and a baggie of home-made play-dough courtesy of Grandma Loveridge. I think I could safely say a good time was had by all.

School days, school days

After a brief recess due to weird things happening at work and Carolyn's health issues, I have once again signed up for a class at the local American River College. Actually, I signed up for two classes but couldn't get into the Ceramics class - I was 11th on the wait list when the class started and apparently there were so many who went the first class trying to get in that the professor blocked any further online registrations.

The class I did get into - Film genres, Science Fiction - was a mistake so I have already dropped it. The class sounded interesting in the catalog (don't they all?) but at the first session it became ringingly clear to me that I would not be enjoying my time there and probably not be learning anything I wanted to learn. Since the only reason I am taking these classes at this stage in my life is to learn something, to enjoy myself, or to meet wonderful people - I had to question what I was doing in this class. As usual, I was the oldest in the class and, it turned out, the only one who hadn't seen at least half the movies listed in the syllabus. Dummy me, I thought we would be learning about the genre not just regurgitating what we had already seen.

But worse, the instructor was late, a little short tempered, and appeared to want to concentrate on less important details of the films we'd be reviewing rather than the story lines, philosophy, or even production techniques. After the class I checked the guy out on Rate My Professors.Com. I should have done this earlier and saved myself an evening. A full 90% of his raters had listed him as the poorest teacher they'd ever had.

I reviewed the catalog to see if I had overlooked some interesting courses available on my free evenings and found one - Introduction to Archaeology and World Prehistory. This time I checked out the instructor and found she is rated very high by her students - not an easy teacher but an interesting and helpful one. And what's also great is that this class doesn't start until February 2 so I haven't even missed a class yet.

The year of the temple

As far as the Mormon church in our area goes, this will be the “Year of the Temple”. Sometime late this summer or fall the building that was announced five years ago and has been under construction for the past two years will be completed. There will be several days of open house when all the area residents and VIP’s will be invited to tour the temple before it is officially dedicated. Although the actual dates for the celebration are unknown, we are now close enough that real preparation is beginning in earnest. All wards and stakes in the area are being asked to appoint Public Affairs representative and to start collecting the names of ministers, minister’s wives (they haven’t figured out that many ministers have husbands or partners), and other public officials living within the ward and stake boundaries who should receive special invitations.


As the action gets closer there will be committees for just about everything from directing the parking around the temple to helping people put on booties before walking through the building. Call center volunteers will be needed 12 hours a day and others will be involved with food preparation. This will be a major “meet the Mormons” sort of activity. Church leaders are hoping that everyone age 12 and over will get involved.



There was a lot of negative reaction when the temple building site was first announced and it took much longer than normal for all the permits to be obtained. It will definitely be interesting to see how the press and public react for the grand finale.

Here I go again

Shades of the past! One of my duties as the treasurer of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library is to prepare and send 1099 forms to the performers who put on children's programs throughout the year at the various libraries. In order to make their budget go further, libraries let their non-profit affiliates sponsor these programs. It gives something for the volunteer affiliates to do and a reason to exist and it certainly helps out the library. But because all the affiliates are just branches of our "big" Friends organization and covered under our 501(c)(3) tax status, we have to consolidate their income, expense, and payment activities. That means I need to get certain annual information from 28 subsidiaries. This is not unlike trying to get the quarterly report information from 8 or 9 wards back when I was the stake clerk and had to submit consolidated reports for the stake or not unlike trying to get 5 or 6 auxiliary organizations to give me their attendance or visit information when I needed to submit information to the stake. Why do I always seem to end up with this type of job. I really hate bugging people at least as much as they dislike me bugging them.

Of the 28 affiliates we have, 18 got their reports in on time and another 4 say they're in the mail. So that only leaves 6 more to go and probably 2 or 3 of those have nothing to report. But I need even the negative reports. Any suggestions?

Getting out

I'm trying to take some of my earned vacation days one or two at a time so that I will stay under the maximum and continue to accrue them as long as I'm working. Today was another of those days. They come in really handy to do little chores around the house such as paint the recently repaired siding at the back of our house, compile some more expense figures for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library tax report, prepare some W-9 information requests for the Friends, completely clean our and refill the backyard bird feeder, and repair and replace some of the Malibu lights along our front entrance. Little jobs that need to be done and can be done at leisure.

But often when I have a day like today, I feel a need to get out and meet people if only for a few minutes. My usual method is to lunch at Taco Bell. Our local Taco Bell gives a free small drink to seniors with regular food order so my lunch of a grilled stuffed beef burrito, enchirito, and drink comes to $3.75, a really decent price for a lunch. This Taco Bell is almost always busy so I can watch all sorts and ages of people or read a book I bring.

Sometimes I can talk with the interesting people. Like today when, standing in line to order, one of the directors at our local Eskaton senior center spied the book I was reading ("Why They DON'T Hate Us" by Mark Levine) and starting talking to me about it. After ordering our food, we sat down together to continue the conversation, although it was mostly one-sided. She told me more than I ever expected to know about senior care, her recent near-death experience, and the need to dialogue with the world. It made for an interesting break.

Time at the park

There are some days that just call our for having a little fun and today was one of those. Since it was a holiday, we worked all morning on chores because there just doesn't seem to be enough Saturdays to get them all done. But around noon we decided we just couldn't stay home any longer.



Luckily, our kids and grandkids had decided to take a field trip to the park to play with toys that work much better with wide open spaces than in the driveway or back yard. Tim had received a battery operated remote controlled airplane that needed some attention. It turned out to work surprisingly well even though the remote simply has one button. That button changes the normal easy left turn of the plane to a straight or even slightly right turn so that you can maneuver around obstacles. When the charge runs out, the plane soft lands so you hope you're on grass or sand. We were doing fine until we ran it into a tree and Tiffany had to climb up to shake it loose.


Tim also rode around in his quad, a present from Grandpa Miles. It goes surprisingly fast for a small vehicle so Tim knows to wear his helmet whenever he rides it. Jake brought along his big wheel tricycle so that he could keep up with the action wherever it was. It won't be long before he'll want to be riding the quad alone but for now he rides it with Mom or Dad.

Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

As some of you know, we have season tickets to the Davis Musical Theater Company productions. The current show is the Andrew Lloyd Webber production "Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", a rather jazzy, stylized version of the biblical story of Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sold into Egypt as a slave and turned out to be the salvation of his family. I think it was a chance for Webber to show he could write music in several different genres - cabaret, western, rock & roll, etc.

We subscribe for four tickets so that we can invite friends to go with us. This time we were delighted to be able to invite Shannah, a friend and former co-worker from Alta California Regional Center, and her partner Kathy to go with us. Shannah is a minister for the Unity church and was very familiar with the music of the musical (and the story of Joseph, of course) but hadn't been able to see the actual show until now. Prior to the show, they treated us to a fine dinner at the Jade Palace in Davis.

This production was as fine as any we've seen and we've seen some fine productions of "Joseph". I believe it has been said that the quality of the "Joseph" productions varies inversely with how serious the production tries to be. In other words, the more fun you have the better the production. Based on that, I'd say this group really had fun putting it on. And the set and music were also great.

Happy Birthday, Timothy

Tim turned 6 today. Grandma Loveridge can't be at the friends birthday party next Saturday so Ed and Tiffany decided to have a family party today. That isn't a bad idea in any case since this way Grandpa and Grandma can feel a little more a special part of Tim's celebration.

Tim selected his favorite dish for the birthday meal - pasta salad. Of course it isn't hard to see why it's his favorite because Tiffany makes a wonderful pasta salad. I'd probably be satisfied with pasta, olives, and canned chicken but Tiffany goes all out with peas, corn, garbonzo beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and on and on. You know you've had quite a meal with her salads.




Then came the cake per Tim's instructions since "that's the way birthday's usually go". The cake was vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake with a ballet theme reflecting Tim's interest in dance. And of course there were six candles on top to reflect his new age.



Grandma had selected two presents for Tim - a Cinderella type castle and a figure eight race track with a turbo-charging accelerator and air-jump to keep the cars from hitting each other. We were glad there were two presents so Jake could play with one while Tim was playing with the other. Jake wasn't about to sit back and watch the action even though it was really Tim's day.

No spin zone?

“I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

I believe this is the essence to the oath that witnesses in judicial proceedings are supposed to swear. I suppose it’s a good thing that we all aren’t held to such a standard all the time. There would probably be a lot less discussion and a lot more contention.

This came to me while we were watching the O’Reilly Factor the other evening. I have never watched the O’Reilly Factor before but my son Steve had informed me that the Colbert Report was a satire of the Factor and I would appreciate the Report more if I knew what it was satirizing. Interestingly, although I could tell almost instantly that my political positions and O’Reilly’s are poles apart, the show did not instantly offend. Although his position was always clearly obvious, he appeared to allow some discussion of opposing viewpoints. I was on the way to being impressed.

Unfortunately, late in the first episode and throughout the second episode I watched, I was completely disappointed. I have no quarrel with someone who wants to produce a highly biased political propaganda display but they shouldn’t use a slogan like “The spin stops here.” In reality, the spin just gets out of control here. And I trust that is obvious to intelligent viewers.

The episodes I watched included segments criticizing a judge in Vermont for sentencing a child rapist to 60 days in jail. On the face of it, this would appear to be a travesty of justice, a misuse of judicial power that deserves censure, ridicule, and possibly action against the judge. O’Reilly demonstrated or advocated all three. What he didn’t do was go beyond “the face of it”. He seemed to stick with “the truth... and nothing but the truth” but he ignored the part about “the whole truth”. I suspect that’s the hard part for most of us.

On the second episode, O’Reilly even had two guests who, I guess, had been invited to tell the other side, explain why the judge might have given such a sentence and what other considerations there were in this situation. But when each of them tried to explain, O’Reilly shouted them down, SHOUTED THEM DOWN! For what purpose had he invited them if he wasn’t going to listen to them? To give the appearance of “no spin”? To have a pretend debate?

It turns out that, surprise, there is another side to the story. Unless you send all criminals to prison for life or execute them, they return to society. You can punish them all you want in prison but they still return to society some time. In this judge’s experience, the state of Vermont was doing a lousy job of helping sex criminals in jail so when they came out their behavior was not improved by the experience. I don’t know all the facts in this case (O’Reilly wasn’t helping us to find out) but it appears the offender would have treatment opportunities out of jail that he wouldn’t have in prison. The judge seemed to feel that this treatment would be better for society than simple punishment. You can read the Boston Globe's treatment of the debate here. In reality, the sentence was a 10 years to life sentence with all but the first two month's suspended. That's a powerful incentive for the convicted to get treatment.

The whole sentence is still certainly debatable and that’s where O’Reilly could have used his mighty power of the airwaves. But to shout down the invited guests? To silence the opposition? That simply makes him look petty and petulant. And encourages government by mobocracy not democracy.

Dry rot - part 2

Well, as they say it ain't over 'til it's over. While we had the handyman here finishing up the dry rot project that we initially hired him for, we decided to have to look around the house to have his expert opinion about what other problems we might have. He convinced us that the patio support post that we've been shaking our head about for the past three years really should be replaced or one of these days a major portion of our roof would suddenly drop a foot or so. Then he found another spot at the side of the house where it was damp enough that weeds were beginning to grow between the siding and the trim. Possible hidden damage there as well. All told, we doubled the scope of the project and the cost, of course. And the worst part is that he can't assure us that over the next few years we won't see more of the same. I suspect sometime we'll probably need to have the whole house re-skinned. But at least it doesn't have to come out of this week's paycheck.

Dry rot

It was only a small discoloration by the window sill of our bedroom window. It was reddish-brown, like the water from the sprinklers had contributed to some rusting nails and the rust had bled into the wood. The paint was blistered and flaking away in some spots. It looked like something that a wire brush and a spot of paint could fix without a problem.


Twelve hours of craftsman labor later, the problem had been revealed for what it really was. Several spots over an area roughly covering 32 square feet had been affected by dry rot, a fungus that thrives on slightly moist wood, usually hidden behind trim or inside structures. I suspect that the overreaching sprinklers at the back of our house helped this particular crop of dry rot to thrive.


It was necessary to strip the exterior siding far enough to expose all the affected area then treat with fungicide, wrap with a moisture barrier, replace the siding, caulk the seams, and repaint everything to reduce the possibility of a recurrence of the fungus. I was very impressed with the skilled handyman sent to us by Handyman Connection and would definitely recommend them.

I thought I’d be much older

I thought I’d be much older when my friends began to die,
In my seventies and they would all be elderly,
Dying in their sleep and peaceful, having lived productive lives.
I thought I’d be much older when my friends began to die.
Australian songwriter/singer Judy Small from her album “Second Wind”

Just got word that a good friend Leighton Lee died recently. We've known each other for many years and have worked very closely together for some of that time. But we really haven't kept in contact since I moved to Sacramento. Leighton was a couple of years younger than me and I have no doubt that he led a very productive life. But I realize now that every day more and more of my friends are going to be dying and I begin to really feel my own mortality and ask myself whether my life has been “productive”.

I’m not ready to call it quits. But was Leighton? I think I’ve done some good things and certainly have a wonderful family and great memories to look back on. How do I keep living each day to the fullest knowing that my last one is getting closer? I thought I’d be much older when I had to start thinking seriously about that.

Comfort food

Kraft macaroni with franks, bagels and cream cheese, cold cereal. What is your comfort food? I thought about this yesterday when trying to decide what to make for our Sunday lunch. This year our schedule actually allows us to eat close to noon so we aren’t trying to do with a mid-morning snack, a mid-afternoon lunch, and a mid-evening snack. And I came up with meat gravy and mashed potatoes with a side of canned peas. You can’t get much more “meat and potatoes” than this. Nothing fancy, nothing frilly. And I thought of half the recipes in the family cookbook which tend to be the same no-nonsense type of meals.

But that doesn’t mean they’re worth less. In fact, after a week of eating out because we’re on the road or just too busy to take the time to cook, eating one of these plain “meat and potatoes” meals feels like heaven.

During the recent holiday season at one of the pot-luck suppers we had at our house, a couple of people who had signed up to bring entrees didn’t show up. The “main dish” category was conspicuously sparse. Fortunately, we had a large bowl of leftover macaroni and tomato juice in the fridge which we heated up and placed out with all the more “dressy” dishes. And you know what? That was one of the more talked about dishes. People remarked how it had been years since they had macaroni, tomato juice, and hamburger “casserole”. Or said how much they enjoyed that dish as a child. We didn’t have any leftovers.

Statements (a book review)

Garrison Keillor has his Lake Wobegon; Dave Berry has his “I’m not making this up!”; dooce.com has intestinal distress, and Amy Borkowsky in her book “Statements” has American Express. As the cover of the book says, “She was too busy to keep a diary… Luckily AmEx kept one for her."

Using what she claims are her American Express statements for the past several years and actually including lines from those statements, Borkowsky treats us to the adventures of a single thirty-something ad copywriter turned comedienne. This book is the hardbound equivalent of a chick-flick so some guys may not be able to relate but there’s enough cute situations and humor that it is worth trying.

An example in one of her tales is her wanting (as an adult woman) what she had always wanted as a little girl and had never gotten. She writes “Every birthday and ever Chanukah throughout my childhood I’d beg for one, and each year I’d get the same thing. Underwear. Fine for warming buns but totally useless for baking cakes.”

There are plenty of credits on her American Express statements along with the charges. As she states in the chapter called Returns: I have my own Return Policy: if I happen into a store with a policy that “All Sales Are Final,” I won’t return there. Closet space and money are too scarce. She even had the balls to charge a ticket to France on the Concorde to meet eligible men in the elegant Concorde airport lounge. She got her refund by canceling at the last minute.

I found her funny without being slapstick, sensitive without being maudlin. I recommend it for a good, light read.

Welcome back, good friends

Oh, welcome back to our house. I’ve missed you so much. Okay, so you haven’t been gone all that many days but, still, I have missed you. Days, especially meal times, just haven’t been the same. Nothing seems quite right without you. But you’re here now and all is right again with the world.

I’m talking, of course, about our fine Corelle Ware by Corning, the white set with the green flowered trim around the edge that looks like it is about 40 years old because, well because it IS about 40 years old. I am such a creature of habit that the size, the looks, the feel of these pieces of “fine china” are an important part of my day.

During the Christmas season, we usually get out of storage the “Christmas” dinnerware to use for parties and other special occasions while we continue to use our regular plates and bowls for more routine meals. This year the Christmas dinnerware took the place of our regular settings which were sent to storage for the duration. But they have returned – and not a moment too soon!

Curve ball

Life just threw another curve ball at the regional center where I work. Our Executive Director of 8 months announced that he would be leaving within the next two months to assume a similar position in Kansas where he has spent most of his career and where he can make a major difference in the life of his brother who has a developmental disability. Anyone who knows Gary and his commitment to the field as well as his commitment to his family will agree that this is the best thing for him to do.

But back at the ranch, the regional center may once again be thrown into a bit of turmoil as we deal with another turnover in the top position of the agency. A lot depends on the board of directors and how they choose to now fill this position. 16 months ago the departure of our Executive Director required an ACTING CEO (me) to fill in for a month while the board contracted with an INTERIM CEO who then led the agency while the board conducted a nationwide search for Gary. I think it will be Gary’s recommendation to the board that they promote, permanently or temporarily, his Chief Deputy which would go a long way in providing stability during this change. She’s eminently qualified but wasn’t selected by the board so they may feel the need to do another nationwide search.

The irony in this change is that the board specifically asked candidates during the last search how long they could commit to the job as the board was particularly interested in long-term stability of the agency. I understand there were candidates who were ruled out because they could not commit to a five year term. But it is not Gary’s fault either as the opening he is taking came about only because of a completely unexpected death of a good friend and mentor of his. He could not possibly have known life would throw him that curve ball.

Roll up the ribbons

Roll up the ribbons,
Fold up the papers,
Stow all these dreams away!
This day is done, and another is on its way.

Pack up the present,
Look to the future,
One thing I know is true.
The best day of all is the day that is on its way.

Waiting for you.
Waiting for you.
Waiting for you.

(words by Tom Jones from the Broadway musical “I Do, I Do”)

I couldn’t help hearing these words in my head as Carolyn and I (mostly Carolyn) were once again taking down and wrapping up the Christmas decorations. It is a ceremony at least as important and significant to us as putting out the decorations after Thanksgiving. We can take our time putting away the decorations. We’re not in a rush and don’t have a party we have to be ready for.

And we can focus on the future. What will we put on this shelf now? Will this be the year we finally get a china cabinet or a grandfather clock? How will this year change our family? Where will we all be a year from now? And in what condition?

We don’t think about what might have been. We think about the “best day of all” that is waiting for us – ahead.

The Elves are at Work

Remember the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker in which elves decide to help out a poor struggling shoemaker? Every night while the shoemaker slept, the elves produced marvelous shoes that amazed the shoemaker, his wife, and the customers who began to flock to his shop.

Well, I can’t say we weren’t warned but it was still with shock and amazement that Carolyn and I returned home after work to find that an elf named Tiffany had visited our house during the day and had cleaned the carpets in our whole house as well as damp mopped the non-carpet flooring. The place looked better than if a professional carpet cleaner had done the job. And we didn’t even have to leave food for this elf like the shoemaker had done for his. She brought her own Doritos.

Thanks, Tiffany! And feel free to come back any time.

Comments, anyone?

I took the opportunity while visiting family in Southern California to ask a couple of them what they thought of the blog versus a weekly "letter". Predictably, the response was mostly along of the lines of "the same stuff" or "can't really see a difference". Natalie opined that she misses getting a weekly letter that was addressed to her personally even if it wasn't very personal. A family newsletter and a blog are both going to be impersonal. In fact, a newsletter being imposed on the reader somewhat involuntarily is almost in the same class as spam. At least with a blog, a reader is voluntarily looking it up.

I'll have to admit that I had hoped for more feedback with the blog. I almost never got feedback from the newsletters except when Jon helpfully gave me links to purchase IBM computers at a good rate in response to my whining about our computer getting old. So far, the only comment I've gotten from my blog was a helpful one from Carolyn pointing out a couple of typos. Maybe people haven't figured out that clicking on the "Comments" count at the bottom of the post allows them a chance to talk back. Or maybe I just need to be more controversial or ask questions. What do you think?

Cycles

Whether we like it or not a lot of our life is governed by cycles. We live in a cyclical society. I'm acutely aware of this right now in my voluntary position I hold as Treasurer of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. On January 1 we just completed a fiscal year, a calendar year, a quarter, a month, and even a week. There are things I have to do and reports I have to complete and checks I have to produce and sign, and information I need to collect. And all these things are due NOW. Everything is due NOW. I just spent two full working days and still have probably another two before I'm completely caught up with all the cycles. Hopefully, I'll have time to do that before one or more cycles comes to an end again.

On the other hand, cycles make this Treasurer job easier to grasp, easier to accept because it doesn't come at you all at once. With non-cyclical jobs such as writing a book or managing a project, you can be tempted to do too much too fast. The overwhelming scope of the job makes you feel just a little inadequate. But cycles chop the job into bite-sized pieces and apportion them out to you in little time-limited steps. I can't do next month's financials because the information won't be ready until next month. I can't do next year's tax report for the same reason.

So even when all the cycles come to an end at once like they did this week, I think I still like cycles.

Happy New Year!

Oh, its just a little wind

The next time you see a sign on the freeway warning of “Gusty winds ahead,” believe it. I’m not sure exactly what they expect you to do with such a warning except maybe stop right where you are and wait until the warning is over. We did see a lot of trucks do exactly that. But at least four big rigs decided to brave the gusty winds and the drivers are now regretting their decision.

Driving from Los Angeles to Sacramento yesterday afternoon and evening, we saw four overturned big rigs on the southbound side of the freeway. One had completely blocked both lanes and had backed up traffic for five miles by the time we saw it. We could tell it would still be hours before they would be able to remove the blockage. To further complicate the mess, several cars had tried to cross the median strip to head back in our direction only to find that recent rains had left the ground like quicksand. With wheels buried to the axel, those cars wouldn’t soon be getting home.

Although our average speed was 15 to 20 miles per hour slower than normal, we did finally make it home to find everything pretty much as we left it. Home, sweet home.

Please don’t rain on my parade

If you tuned in to see the Rose Parade yesterday, you’ll know that thousands of people sat through heavy rains and wind to watch the traditional parade where hundreds of people have worked thousands of hours to produce stunning floats covered completely with flowers, seeds, bark, and other plant parts. We were a couple of those people sitting in the pouring rain. I don’t think it was a matter of braving the storm as much as it was a matter of being stupid enough to think that you can enjoy a parade under any circumstances as long as there’s little chance of your dying from those circumstances.

We had helped serve breakfast to 600 plus people that morning a figure that was down considerably from previous years as more intelligent people were staying away from the wind and rain. The breakfast is a long-standing fund raising tradition for the Holliston United Methodist Church. They also sell seats in the stadium seating erected in front of the Church along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. It’s a good location and a great idea for a fund raiser except every 51 years when the weather plays havoc with the parade.

Some of the parade participants including band members, horsemen, and float riders were prepared with panchos or rain coats that kept them somewhat dry. Others looked and must have felt like they were taking a two-hour cold shower because they were. I have utmost admiration for the flag twirlers who bravely smiled at what crowd there was to give them the show they came to see and for the band members who refused to be cowed by a little water.

Our grandson Perry held out as long as he could but when he began turning blue Grandma decided it was time to move him out of the rain. Four-year old Libby held out for the whole parade and said at the end, even though she was soaked to the skin, “I loved this parade!” It’s certainly one we’ll never forget.