On Freddie and Solzhenitsyn

OK, that's a fairly lame title. Probably not as lame as Sunday Wrapup 9/18/2011 though, which is what it would have been otherwise.

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We got six tenths inch of rain last night. It was an occasion for thanksgiving in church this morning, and long before then, no doubt, for whoever heard the rain during the night. The troubles are not over for the long term, however, as today's National Weather Service story proclaimed: Severe To Exceptional Drought Continues Over the Southern Half of Kansas.

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My sister Carol is much improved and returned home after almost two days in the hospital. The last I heard, there was no definitive diagnosis, although a blood clot was considered a possible cause of the pain.

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Today we were at David and Susanna's for Sunday dinner, along with the Choice Books guys who attend Center regularly, and several others. It was a pleasant afternoon, and helped me avoid my Sunday afternoon nap without regret.

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Yesterday Freddie and his best doggie friend from down the road at Cliff's house must have taken each other for a walk. They ended up at a residence across the section to the west.

Freddie is a Welsh Corgi, and Mrs. Southards thought perhaps he was our dog. She has biked past our place in the past and seen Shane's dogs here, one of whom is a tri-colored Corgi named Brandi. Freddie has similar coloration.

From Jonny, who owns Freddie, I've heard tales about how much Freddie loves Gator rides. (I think that's an All-Terrain Vehicle.) This causes a training dilemma when Freddie strays. They usually retrieve him with the Gator, inadvertently rewarding him for his naughtiness.

Freddie has been known to sneak into the shed or garage where the Gator is stored, whenever the door opens. Then he climbs onto the seat and waits for someone to indulge him by giving him a ride. Silly, irresistible dog.

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The "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" program we have used for typing class at school for years is giving us fits this year. Maybe it's not the program itself, but something about the computers running it. It locks up repeatedly, and necessitates a start-over. I think I'm getting as tired of having to bother Mr. Schrock as he is tired of being bothered. The students, of course, are as tired of it as anyone. We've been in contact with the business that maintains our equipment, so maybe there's help on the way. I hope so.

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Here at home, I am dealing with my own set of computer problems.

Hiromi has given me almost daily admonitions about getting rid of old emails, with solemn intonations about when a hard drive is clogged up like this, all the little bits of information have to be stored in the tiny spaces wherever there's room, so it takes a long time to find available storage and then retrieve it later. (I've taken to asking him if this is lecture number 5--or whatever--and he says yes to whatever I ask.) So I have deleted thousands of old emails. It doesn't help. Firefox still regularly crashes and all its functions are as slow as a caterpillar crossing the road. I can't even delete anything fast.

Joel is offering us the use of a machine he used to use at work. It needs a new hard drive, but $40.00 should get us up and running.

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We cleaned the church again this week. Ditto the message from two weeks ago about clogged toilets, except this time it was in the ladies restroom.

There was an apparent glitch in one part of the process. Hiromi told me tonight rather casually that his cleaning didn't pass inspection. Shane, who is one of the Sunday School superintendents and sits up front on Sunday mornings, apparently came upon an un-swept-up dirt pile somewhere near the front of the sanctuary. He suggested to Hiromi after church that maybe he'll want to slip over before church on Wednesday evening to sweep it up.

Hiromi is actually a very efficient and through worker, and we all know that forgotten details like this are quite untypical of him, so no lectures on the matter are necessary.

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Earlier this summer I had done some reading on making sourdough starter with flour and liquid, which, when everything works right, eventually provides leavening for stellar, zesty-flavored breads. I have memories of my grandmother and my aunts making sourdough bread, and I was fascinated by the challenge.

I carefully printed out the instructions on how to do it, using pineapple juice as the liquid. The rationale for using this instead of water or milk was fascinating--documented by a home baker who also works as a microbiologist. I even borrowed my sister's grain mill so that I could use fresh-ground flour. Then life happened, and we went to Grant's wedding and school started and Saturdays were market days, and I didn't get the starter started.

But today, over Sunday dinner, Lovell, who is into all sorts of natural foods, talked about sourdough bread, and I was reminded of my unfinished project. So I'm almost ready again. Sourdough bread, here we come.

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Yesterday was the first Saturday since the middle of May that I didn't go to Farmer's Market, necessitating a rising time of 5:00 or earlier. I think it was the most relaxing day ever. I had forgotten that it was possible to sleep till 9:30. (My high school students could no doubt have reminded me.) I woke up several times at more reasonable getting up times, but every time I smiled because I didn't have to get up. Then I rolled over and kept right on sleeping. If this is a perk of being empty nesters, maybe I'll be OK with it after all.

Shane and Dorcas manned the market booth. It was cool enough for someone in the third trimester of pregnancy to avoid overheating.

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Hiromi is moving a bit painfully the past few days. His back hurts.

"Does Mark have back problems?" Hiromi asked tonight. Before I could think where he was going with this, he reminded me that if Mark is in this back-problems group, that gives all our sons and their wives a dad with back problems. Maybe our grandchildren will be subjected early to back-muscle strengthening exercises.

None of our boys have had back injuries, which was not the case with either Hiromi or Bob by the same age as our boys have now.

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I was saddened to learn of the death of Atlee Troyer from Sugarcreek, Ohio. He was the husband of my dear friend Clara (Ropp) who was my co-teacher and housemate when I taught school in Ohio.

He had a stroke about a week ago, and when it became apparent that he was unlikely to recover, he went home from the hospital and died there several days later. I don't have plans to attend the funeral, but my thoughts will be there and I'm praying for the family. Being a thousand miles away at such a time is a significant hurdle in time and money.

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I'm wading through the 500+ page Too Big to Fail book, and am still finding it really interesting. I'm also wading through the written reports the students wrote on America's Finances. This would be a lot faster if I didn't have to evaluate and assign a grade to them.

This week I came across an online BBC news report with the title "Is Greece the Next Lehman Brothers?" and reflected on the fact that such a title would have a host of meanings and associations for our students, whereas a month ago, nothing about that headline would likely have clicked with them.

I wonder if September 2011 will someday be viewed as Europe's watershed event as September 2008 was America's. September 15 was the date that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

I consider it one of the perks of teaching that I have an excuse to learn about things like this. I'm certainly more engaged with the events in Europe now than I would be otherwise. For them, there are political implications that weren't in play in the U.S. The integrity of the European Union as a political entity is in question if Greece, and then likely also Italy and Spain go down in financial flameouts.

In the online reviews of Too Big to Fail, someone complained that the author doesn't assign blame for the catastrophic events. The reviewer claimed that the author had not done his job right since he did not reach a conclusion and present it in writing. I beg to differ. I like a book like this that tells exactly what happened and lets the reader make up his own mind. I don't need that author to tell me what to think. If he had felt compelled to boil it all down to a simple good guys/bad guys formula, the story would have been much diminished. Every character involved had some good and bad traits and made some good and bad choices. That's true to life.

My most sweeping analysis of the characters involved in the near-meltdown of America's finances is that most of them needed their mouth washed out with soap when they were children. Either that, or they acquired a foul mouth in adulthood and should have repented of it by their own choice.

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My cousin Duane recently quoted Soltzhenitsyn in a discussion of politics on Facebook: " . . . the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. ..." That insight should temper whatever inclination we have to pin succinct labels on people with a prominent public profile--or without one, for that matter.

"Judge not that ye be not judged" the Bible says. That simple injunction is apropos for any situation.