A long week, good and bad …
Inspired by a new friend on Facebook, I started making videos of myself talking, in particular, weekly recaps and previews of considerReconsider.com. I also made headway in organizing the Earth 2 Mouth program, coordinating at least one service date with D'Youville and through people there discovered another soup kitchen that serves in the evening. Word spread between the alumni staff, campus ministry and I even...
Rethinking My Desire for the Small Town
While in one of our road trip chats recently, my daughter told the tale of how she spent some time back in the old neighborhood in South Buffalo. It surprised her how little things have changed. It wasn't just the landmarks, but the same people doing the same things, saying the same things, and dating among the same people in those places, be it a school parking lot hangout or the local bar. After living in a...
Kung Fu, Pies, and a Haggus
It was a three-party Saturday like no other. Red Dragon brought in the Chinese New Year with their usual Lion Dance and Demo at McKinley Mall. I led the parade as crowd control as usual, dressed in my wedding outfit. The lion players seemed better trained than most years. I also go to meet a couple of Kimura's Kendo students who did a demo as well. In the evening, I went to a business networking theme party,...
The Beginning of the Year
I've closed my archives for 2011 after reorganizing some of the old photo albums, and am just waiting for some paperwork to complete my business books for the year. The Little Christmas party was one of the best ever according to many, and did not pass without some home-made gifts, such as crocheted scarves, slippers, and stacking dowels for crochet squares that I applied my woodworking and staining skills to....
A Quiet Spring Morning … Wait, What?
After a bit of a pleasant sleep-in, I had tea with Merry on the front porch in my pajamas this morning. It seems like there's million things to do to start off 2012 and my brain's about to freeze up. Speaking of freezing up, it's gotten dark and some "arctic blast" is supposed to come through in the next few hours ... After a hot shower and getting into warmer clothes, I plan to go through some old miscellaneous...
A Good Year, One I Will Remember
I can't say that financially we're any better off this year than last, except that a few positive things looking forward are in place, such as a better plan for taxes and refinancing our mortgage into a lower interest HELOC. But that's not what life is about. Life is about me coming to peace again with my own mortality, which I had lost since LadyBug died a year earlier. The change was like a burden had been...
Our Tree Gerald
We decided to get an artificial tree this year, since we wont be ready to buy a really tall artificial one until we take down the drop cieling in the living room -- possibly this next year. It was hard finding one that was a good shape, tall enough, and not flimsy like a Frasier Fir. We discovered the "Noble Fir", and after going to Country Peddlers and Home Depot, found the perfect tree at Galley's nursury. We...
Blizzard and Books
I was caught in a blizzard in Springville yesterday, coming back from working on the farm and buying eggs from the Amish. At first, it was just heavy snow, then a beautiful twilight, then driving 25 mph on the 219. When I got back and stopped in Wegmans to get a fruit smoothie to my wife at work, I had the only car in the lot with a snow-covered license plate. A spat of brief hail a few days back, but no snow...
Halloween toward Thanksgiving
I almost went to a Samhain celebration, but couldn't get Mer to come with me. Maybe next year. However, we did have the trick-or-treat get-together at our place again this year (Merry didn't have to work late), and the context results were different this year. Sure, Di won AGAIN, but this time instead of a landslide I took a close second and Mom-mom a close third. I didn't...