I got a number of nice Christmas gifts this year, including among other things a couple of lovely ties that have already proved to be big hits at the library, books, DVDs, a wooden model car (that I have to assemble myself) and the always-popular cash!We had a nice Christmas visit from Helen, Jay, Rebecca, Lucy, Arman and John. (Peter, of course, was here already.) After Mexican food, turtle cake (which Tom insisted was pie), roast beef, mashed potatoes, figgy pudding (hard sauce or whipped cream?) and a fistful of pistachios and chocolate, the house emptied out. Peter, all celebrated out and with nowhere he had to go, slept peacefully on.
On his way out the door, Jay mentioned to Tom what he could do to fix the kitchen sink faucet. It has been more or less frozen in position for a long time, meaning that we cannot run water into the sink with the drainboard. According to Jay, apparently this would be easily resolved.
We spent some time doing basic cleaning up: vacuuming rugs, picking up scraps of wrapping paper and tissue flowers the cats had snagged from the tree and disemboweled, loading breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and tossing linens into the washing machine. I then headed to my comfortable bed and took a long morning nap. (I hadn’t slept all that well for two nights at the motel). And while I slept …
Tom decided to fix the faucet. He took it apart so well that eventually something cracked. So off he went to one of his favorite haunts – Home Depot – to pick up another fixture and the things he needed to install a shiny new faucet.
And he set to work while Peter in his room and I in my cap snored softly along in our sweet winter’s nap.
After much grunting and forceful exclaiming -- I don't think there was any seasonal mention of Dasher and Dancer in any of this -- and a few more trips to Home Depot, Tom was making progress when I finally woke up, stretched, pushed Cassidy off my legs and went out to investigate.
After a number of trips down to the basement to find tools and a number of digs through the pile of parts scattered on the dining room table and the occasional call for me to find the crescent wrenches he had stashed under his back, Tom was nearing the end of the exploit.
There were a few false starts, but he finally had everything lined up the way he wanted and descended to the basement to turn the water on. About this time, Peter wandered out, got himself a cup of coffee and dialed up his girlfriend. At exactly the moment he greeted her on the phone, water began pouring out of everything around the sink – except for the faucet.
I shouted to Tom, he turned the water off, Niagara slowed and we all went in search of towels, Peter saying a fast and unexplained goodbye to the phone.
After getting things mopped up, Tom found the problem, fixed it and we now have a lovely working faucet.
Along the way, the kitchen floor got the mopping it so badly needed. And Peter was able to provide a credible explanation to his girlfriend for his abrupt departure earlier.
The mouse – who seems to have taken up permanent residence in Peter’s room – meanwhile stayed warm and dry throughout the adventure.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all, nice dry pipes!
Cassidy was determined to get one of the flowers off the tree, and she finally dragged one down and demolished it. I had to sprinkle water on her to prevent her from taking more down.
Tom hard at work with his designer's eye ...
Close-ups of the flowers ...
And the whole thing ...
[Tom's painting of the Streewise vendor from Chicago peering out behind the tree looks strange. I think maybe it represents Santa's evil twin watching to find all those who have been naughty.]
I don't know who the dude is, but that cat could pass for Cassidy.
Seth Walsh was a sweet, intelligent boy who loved his family and did well in school. He was also gay. And for this, he endured years of relentless bullying and verbal abuse at his Tehachapi, California, school.
It is minus 4 (-20 C) at 6:30 this Monday morning, and we have survived the first blizzard of the year with relative ease. No power loss, although the DirecTV disc had to be cleaned a couple of times. No trees down, the roads got plowed and so on. It will be pretty cold all week, and Kathie and I will certainly be cold out on the Bookmobile. But we will run the heat and wear long johns. I can sport my new D&Y faux fur trapper hat that Rich and Peggy brought me back from Canada. With my red HRC scarf, it will complete my Snoopy look.
There was a professor called Dodd,
Whose name was exceedingly odd;
He spelled, if you please,
His name with three “D’s,”
When one was sufficient for God.
A BLIZZARD WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR ALL OF SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN FOR TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY. A MIXTURE OF WINTRY PRECIPITATION WILL QUICKLY CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW EARLY THIS EVENING... BUT NOT UNTIL MIDNIGHT IN THE FAR SOUTHEAST. MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED WITH SOME AREAS NORTH OF A MILWAUKEE TO MADISON LINE LIKELY RECEIVING 12 TO 16 INCHES OF SNOW.I know Sunny likes snow, but this is going to be a bit much. At any rate, Tom went out and stocked up on various supplies, including fuel for the generator. The odds are we will lose power, and we don't want to be without heat with sub-zero weather. We will huddle up with the cats and see what happens.
OUR BIGGEST CONCERN IS THE POWERFUL NORTH WIND THAT WILL ARRIVE BY MIDNIGHT NORTHWEST OF MADISON... AND TOWARD MORNING IN THE SOUTHEAST. SUSTAINED NORTH WINDS OF 30 MPH WITH GUSTS OF 40 TO 50 MPH WILL CAUSE CRIPPLING WIDESPREAD BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. WHITEOUT CONDITIONS ARE LIKELY WITH MANY ROADS BECOMING IMPASSABLE. EAST TO WEST ORIENTED ROADS WILL BE MOST IMPACTED.
BITTERLY COLD AIR... WITH WIND CHILLS DOWN TO 15 TO 25 BELOW ZERO... WILL FOLLOW THE STORM SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY. THE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL CONTINUE SUNDAY NIGHT.
A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE FROM IOWA... ACROSS NORTHERN ILLINOIS TONIGHT... WHICH IS A FAVORED TRACK FOR HEAVY SNOW. AS THE LOW PASSES TO THE EAST... A VERY STRONG PRESSURE GRADIENT WILL GENERATE THE SUSTAINED WINDS.
THE COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOW... STRONG WINDS... BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW... AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES... WILL MAKE FOR EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CONDITIONS FOR ANYONE TRAVELING LATER TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY... ESPECIALLY IN RURAL AREAS.
We met with the lawyer yesterday afternoon about the wills and so on. It went well and will cost us significantly less than originally anticipated.
Norman Vincent Peale used to tell a story about a missionary in Africa who received a beautiful seashell as a gift from a student. He had walked a long way -- to the coast of Africa to get the special shell for his teacher.
"You've traveled so far to bring me such a wonderful present," the missionary teacher told him.
""Oh, teacher," the boy replied, "long walk part of gift!"
On the bookmobile, Kathie and I entertain (?) ourselves by making up lyrics to songs or composing silly little ditties. The other day she came up with one -- I don't recall what it was, but most of our efforts are noteworthy mainly for being instantly forgettable -- that reminded me of Emily Dickinson because it was an instance of slant rhyme, i.e., not a perfect rhyme but one in which the consonants or vowels of the stressed word are identical. You might think of it as almost-but-not-quite a rhyme.Crumbling is not an instant's Act
A fundamental pause
Dilapidation's processes
Are organized Decays.
'Tis first a Cobweb on the Soul
A Cuticle of Dust
A Borer in the Axis
An Elemental Rust --
Ruin is formal -- Devil's work
Consecutive and slow --
Fail in an instant, no man did
Slipping -- is Crash's law.
I have a little dreidel
I made it out of clay
And when it's dry and ready
Then dreidel I shall play!
Oh - dreidel, dreidel, dreidel
I made it out of clay
And when it's dry and ready
Then dreidel I shall play!
It has a lovely body
With legs so short and thin
And when my dreidel's tired
It drops and then I win!
Oh - dreidel, dreidel, dreidel
I made it out of clay
And when it's dry and ready
Then dreidel I shall play!
My dreidel's always playful
It loves to dance and spin
A happy game of dreidel
Come play now, let's begin!
Oh - dreidel, dreidel, dreidel
I made it out of clay
And when it's dry and ready
Then dreidel I shall play!
The Temple of Vesta was one of the earliest structures located in the Roman Forum although its present reincarnation is the result of subsequent rebuilding. Instead of a cult statue in the inner chamber, there was a hearth which held the sacred flame. The temple was the storehouse for the legal wills and documents of Roman Senators and cult objects such as the Palladium, a statue of Athena (Roman Minerva) believed to have been brought by Aeneas from Troy. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Romans believed that the Sacred fire of Vesta was closely tied to the fortunes of the city and viewed its extinction as a portent of disaster.
Next Monday afternoon we meet with an attorney about estate planning. As I have said before, my estate is pretty much non-existent -- a couple of bank accounts, a few certificates of deposit, a roomful of stuff not worth a drive from Texas. Tom's will be more complex, of course. My main concerns have to do with a simple will and the power-of-attorney papers for health care and such.
Blessed Denis & Redemptus - Martyrs (1638): Denis of the Nativity, priest, whose secular name was Pierre Berthelot, was born at Honfleur (France) in 1600. He was cartographer and naval commander in the service of the French and Portuguese crowns, but in 1635 became a Discaled Carmelite at Goa. It was also at Goa that Thomas Rodriguez da Cunha, born in Portugal in 1598, had been professed as a lay brother under the name of Redemptus of the Cross in 1615. They were sent together to Sumatra, where they were martyred on November 29, 1638 at Achen.
I had occasion today to look up my books on Amazon.com. I was amused to see that the Elijah book, which sells for $9.95 brand new, can be purchased as a used book from a couple of places for about $28.
Subject: Last Minute Thanksgiving Dinner ChangesDear Family & Friends,I know that you were eager to accept our family's invitation to Thanksgiving dinner when you found out that the famous Martha Stewart would be joining us. However, due to scheduling conflicts beyond her control, Ms. Stewart finds that she is unable to grace our table this year. With that in mind, there will be a few minor changes regarding the meal and decor, as outlined below. Please be aware of them, and adjust your appetite and dress appropriately. Thank you
1) Our driveway will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After several trial runs and two visits from the fire department, it was decided that, no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.
2) Once inside, please note that the entry space will not be decorated with swags of Indian corn and fall foliage. Instead, we included our dog in decorating by having him track in colorful autumn leaves from the back yard. The mud was his idea.
3) The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china, or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork. Since this is Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the paper Sponge Bob dinner plates, the leftover Halloween napkins, and our plastic cup collection.
4) Our centerpiece will not be a tower of fresh fruit and flowers. Instead we will be proudly displaying a hedgehog-like decoration hand-crafted from the finest construction paper and pine cones. The artist assures me it is a turkey, albeit one without wings, legs, or a beak.
5) We will be dining somewhat later than planned. However, our daughter will entertain you while you wait. I'm sure she will be happy to share every choice comment her mother made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims, stuffing choices, the turkey hotline, and especially her husband. Pleaseremember that most of these comments were made at 7:00 A.M. upon discovering that said husband had only remembered to pull the turkey from the freezer at 6:00 A.M., and that the thing was still hard enough to cut diamonds.
6) As an accompaniment to our daughter's recital of these events, I will play a recording of Native American tribal drumming. Curiously, the tribal drumming sounds a great deal like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, but that only enhances the holiday appropriateness. If our daughter should mention that we don't own a recording of Native American tribal drumming, ignore her. She's only nine; what does she know?7) A dainty silver bell will not be rung to announce the start of our feast. We have chosen to keep our traditional method of assembling when the smoke alarm goes off.
8) There will be no formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table and sit where you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask all the children to sit at a separate table. In a separate room. Next door. And I would like to take this opportunity toremind our younger diners that "passing the rolls" is neither a football play nor an excuse to bean your cousin in the head with bread.
9) The turkey will not be carved at the table. I know you have seen the Norman Rockwell image of one person carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. Such a scene may occur somewhere in America, but it won't be happening at our dinner table. For safety reasons, theturkey will be carved in the kitchen at a private ceremony. I stress "private," meaning Do Not, under any circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children, or older, helpful grandparents into the kitchen to check on my progress. I have a very large, very sharp knife. The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win the battle. When I do, we will eat.
10) For the duration of the meal, we will refer to the gravy by its lesser-known name: Kraft Cheese Sauce. If a young diner questions you regarding the origins or makeup of the Kraft Cheese Sauce, smile kindly and say that you know the answer, but it's a secret that can't be revealed to them until they are 18.
11) Instead of offering a choice among 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and dog tongue marks. You still have a choice: take it or leave it.
That concludes our list of alterations. Again, I apologize that Martha will not be joining us this year.
There is an article on Huffington Post about student debt, in which they list 13 schools that will not leave you in the financial dump.The Project on Student Debt's recent report (PDF) on student debt and the class of 2009 examined which schools left their students owing the most money -- and which schools left students with their pockets a little fuller.I note that Sam Houston State University was on the list, with students leaving with an average debt of $6,196.
According to the report, members of the class of 2009 graduated school owing an average of $24,000 -- a six percent increase from the previous year.
If you're looking for a college that won't break the bank, gaze westward: most of the low-debt schools can be found in the on the left side of the Mississippi. Below, we outline the 13 institutions that had the lowest per-student debt averages last year.
In the monastery, it was our custom to go through our closets the week before Thanksgiving and to select items that we wanted to donate to St. Vincent de Paul or Goodwill. Tom and I do this several times a year, and this is one of those times. Besides the closets, we are taking the opportunity this year to do something similar to the sadly-in-need-of-cleaning basement.1) Things that should be trashed. Period.How does that sound?
2) Things that we want to keep.
3) Things that will be boxed up for family to look at when they are here for Christmas to see what they want to take home with them. We have lots of sleeping bags, blankets and bed linens, folks. I even have a couple of full size (not queen) electric mattress pads to make sleeping cozy in the winter. There are also boxes of things that belong to the kids that they will want to go through and select what they want to keep. Hint, hint: That means things you want to keep in YOUR OWN space, not junk you want us to keep cluttering up our basement. Things no one claims will be added to what we have already put into the fourth category, which is ..
4) Things to donate to St. Vinnie's or some such thing. Likely-looking books, for example will be donated to the library for the next book sale.
NB: We will make exceptions for things that someone plans to take away in the relatively near future. After all, there is only so much room in a car.
4) Tom and I watched an old Roy Rogers Show this afternoon, complete with Dale Evans, Pat Brady and Nellybelle and Bullet (Roy's wonder dog!) Truly amazing to think that we stayed glued to our television sets on Saturday afternoons watching this. Bullet, the wonder dog, was a cheap imitation of Rin Tin Tin, I think. Pat Brady was campy comic (?) relief. As for his jeep, Nellybelle, well, what can I say? Trigger, on the other hand, did manage to maintain his dignity throughout it all. (Denver Pyle, who later played Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazard played an exceptionally laconic mountain man in the episode we watched. I recognized the name in the credits, but mistakenly thought it referred to Bob Denver, the actor who played Maynard G. Krebs -- everyone's favorite beatnik from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis -- and, more famously, Gilligan.)5) Did I mention I did the dishes?
So I jump up from the dinner table and rush over to the bank -- not my regular bank, BTW -- to cash in the CD that just matured.
I got a nice letter from the Provincial saying that he has consulted with his Council and will soon send the Generalate in Rome a request for my separation from the Order. This is not a big priority in Rome, I don't imagine, but at least things are moving.
