'Twas the day after Christmas

Today is the day after Christmas. We received a heavy snow on Christmas Eve and have been inside the house ever since then. I walked to the mailbox and brought in the mail. Other than that brief sojourn, I have been inside.

I have been developing the art of lounging for the last two days. I have been playing the piano, working on my database of sheet music, reading, surfing the net, and staying inside. I have an appointment to see my dentist next Tuesday morning. That may be the next time I get out. One good thing about being retired is that your requirements to be at a certain place at a certain time is greatly reduced.

Today I fixed lunch. I pealed three potatoes and boiled a chicken breast, added some noodles, and called it lunch.

In the afternoon I read a Sherlock Holmes mystery on my Kindle: "The Man With the Twisted Lip." Yesterday, I downloaded another free book: The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain.

Tonight we watched a movie I had checked out from the library: Rain Man. Part of the movie was shot in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

I suspect it will be a few days before we get a significant amount of melting, being we are so early in the winter. The forecast indicates highs in the 30s the next few days.

Record snowfall hits OKC

Today was a big snow day in Oklahoma. OKC got, at last count, over 14 inches of snow. All interstate highways are now closed. I hope my friends from Tecumseh got to Springfield before this weather turned everything white. Several weather records were broken this day.

We had planned to go to Nick's tonight and open presents, but with the sleet and snow and cold, we decided to stay in. So the two of us had Christmas together and opened our presents here. After we opened our gifts, I went to the kitchen table and assembled a jigsaw puzzle from my cousin Vicki in Houston. Vicki, you are so good.

Three people were killed tonight in a car accident in Sand Springs. The accident happened at the intersection of Highway 97 and Highway 51, just on the south side of the bridge over the Arkansas River. A man, his wife, and a child were the victims. One moment they were fine; in the next instant, they were dead. This is the night before Christmas, and with people still out shopping, there have been many accidents this evening. I am glad I don't have to be out tonight.

Christmas Eve Eve

Tomorrow will be our last chance to do Christmas shopping. We went out today and shopped for both groceries and gifts.

This evening I read a short story on my Kindle written by Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. It is a story I read decades ago: "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League." It is from the collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This book is just one of several hundred, maybe thousands, which are free to download on the Kindle. Most of the free books are older books, such as the Sherlock Holmes books. A lot of classics of English and American literature are available to download at no charge. The books come in to your Kindle by an electronic signal. It takes about a minute or a minute and a half to download a book.

Also this evening, I worked on building my database of piano duet sheet music. At this time I am working on just the sheet music in collections in books. I have entered song titles and composers for 30 books now (some 230 titles). I have 14 more books to enter into the database. I also have several single pieces, which I may later add to the database.

sheetmusicplus.com

Tonight I want to write about a source for sheet music which I use. I like to shop at Saied's in Tulsa. They have the best selection of sheet music locally. However, they don't have everything. Whenever I can't find sheet music I am looking for at Saied's, I like to shop online at sheetmusicplus.com. They have about everything.

They have a low shipping charge of just $2.99 on most shipments. Also, when your shipment arrives, so does a coupon for $1.50 off your next purchase.

So, if you have never shopped at www.sheetmusicplus.com, go there and have a look.

As for my health, I am doing better now. I hope to be back to 100% soon.

Freerice.com

There is a web site called freerice.com. I have visited this site frequently. If you teach English, you might like to get familiar with this site.

It is an English vocabulary-building site. A word appears on the screen and four choices are available to choose from. The object is to select the correct synonym among the four. If you would like to hear the word pronounced, click on the speaker icon and hear the word pronounced. If you guess wrongly, the word will reappear after a few choices. The greater your success, the more difficult the words become.

Somehow, playing this vocabulary quiz is supposed to provide grains of rice to hungry people. I don't understand, but that is what the web site claims.

Sickness cancels plans

Tonight I had planned to go to Randy's for our annual HumanLight Celebration, but when I got up this morning I could tell I did not feel right. I made three phone calls (Gail, Randy, and Barbara) to inform them I would not be going to the Celebration. Instead of reaching Gail, I got her voice mail. I spoke with Randy and told him I would not be there. Barbara was out, but I spoke with her daughter.

Throughout the day, I napped on and off. When I got up in the morning, I felt as if it were time to go back to bed. And after being up just a couple of hours, I would go back to bed for a while. So I was up and down all day today. I have been inside the house all day. J made a trip to Braum's for a gallon of OJ. Gail returned my phone call and said we might do a performance for HAT later on.

Yesterday, I went to TCC to walk. I made my goal of a mile a day for this year. I'm at 369 miles for the year. How many miles did you log this year? Depending upon the weather, I may yet do another volkswalk or two before the year's end. Volkswalking is a popular sport in Oklahoma. In other parts of the nation it is almost unheard of.

I sent off my index yesterday. I heard back from the editor I was working with. She said the editors of the volume were pleased with the revisions I made. I should be getting a check for this work shortly. The index was 14 pages long.

Revisions complete

Tonight I finished making revisions to my index. Tomorrow I will send it off, and then I should have time to do other things, such as get ready for the party at Randy's house on Saturday. I will be playing piano. We have a little group we call Secular Singers, who put on a small show for the group. Last year we had about 25 people at Randy's house. Secular Singers is made up of four, sometimes five, people.

I also would like to go walking. If the weather is good, I would like to do a volkswalk. If the weather is not great, then I will go to TCC and walk there.

I had an appointment with Dr. Shirk, my audiologist at noon today. I told her about a couple of problems with my hearing aids. She made some adjustments which helped. Specifically, when I play piano, the sound I get from the aids has a rattle to it. It sounds somewhat better now, but when the volume increases, I hear the rattle. She seemed impressed with the piano I have and with the fact that I play duets on a regular basis.

Yesterday was the day of our monthly luncheon at White River Fish Market. Besdies the two of us, there was Dave and Marilyn. So the four of us had a meal together.

A message from Bob H.

Bob sent me a message to pass along to others in our group. The link to it is below:

http://countdowntohealthcare.com/

A Bell Choir Concert

I did not post anything last night, so I have some catching up to do. The week began with my piano partner, Gail, coming over. She had to take her dog by the vet and was a few mintues late arriving. Her dog had an abscessed tooth. The vet gave her some medicine for the dog.

That evening, J and I went to a bell choir concert at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Tulsa. We heard the Tulsa Festival Ringers in the sanctuary of the old church. There were 16 bell ringers who gave a concert lasting about an hour. By observing the bell ringers, I learned that there are various ways to ring bells. The normal way is to pick up the bell by the handle and give it a short wave. I also saw ringers striking the bell on the table in front of them. Mallets were used to ring the bells sometimes. After bells were rung, sometimes they were waved behind the ringers. Sometimes they were immediately muted by pressing them into the ringer's shirt. The ringers also had bells that looked a lot like a short piece of tubing used to support traffic signs - metal that is about an inch square and about a foot and a half long, with a clanker on the end to create the sound. Clanker may not be the right word; maybe striker would be a better word.

The bells were in different sizes. The short small bells make the higher pitches, while the larger bells create the deeper tones. It was a cold night, and we hastened home after the concert.

Before the concert, I received an e-mail from a client I index for. If was feedback from my latest indexing job. The editors of the collection of essays had a few changes they would like to have made to the index. Actually, they had a lot of changes. I started revising the index once I got home last night. I got up early this morning and continued working on the revisions, breaking in the afternoon in order to go to my optomitrist for my annual checkup. She said everything looks good.

I returned home and resumed revising the index, omiting some entries, adding others. It's a good thing I have the book on disk as a PDF file. That makes searching for a word quick and easy. I am in the M's now. I will try to finish by tomorrow evening, but that may be a little optimistic. After a few hours of doing this kind of work, I have to stop. The fatigue builds up rather quickly. Your mind goes numb.

I never did tell you about the lady at All Souls who rebuked me for taking pictures of the gathering for Greg Epstein, who spoke at the church. I took a couple of flash pictures and moments later a lady approached me wanting to know if i had permission to take pictures and what I was planning to do with the pictures. She said that she might lose her job if the pictures were published. While I was sympathetic with her situation, I wondered if she had thought out the situation she was in. She comes to hear a person speak on "Good Without God," and then is surprized to see someone there taking pictures. I was just the first person to take pictures. Kenny was there with his camera, and I think two other people were taking pictures.

As it turns out, I used only one picture on my blog, and it was taken from the rear of the congregation and shows the congregants from the rear. I have no idea what became of the other photographers pictures. I though at the time (ironically) "What a profile in courage," but I did not say anything. I did hear that there were some people from ORU there. Epstein did speak at ORU while in Tulsa. She might have been from ORU. I guess I will never know. I later looked at the pictures and saw one woman holding a book over her face. I think that was her.

Daily events (WARNING: Contains spoilers)

Today I went to Church of the Restoration. This was Bill's last day to attend CoR, as he will be moving back to New England later this week. Cleon announced that he has set up a web site for CoR. The URL is www.churchoftherestoration.org. I haven't yet taken a look at the site but plan to do so as soon as I get this blog posting up. Cleon was today's lay leader. There were seven or eight in attendance this morning.. Next Sunday's service will be a singing of Christmas carols, but I will have to miss that service. Jan wants me to attend her church next week.

After church, I drove to Woodland Hills Mall to do some Christmas shopping. The first thing i did upon arriving was to get something to eat. There are several choices in the food court. I decided to eat at a place called "Big Easy Cajun." I got the Bourbon chicken with brown beans and rice. There were a lot of folks out shopping this afternoon. The dining area at the food court was crowded.

After eating, I went to Dillard's and bought a cologne set called "Beautiful" for J. The price was the same as it had been at Stage earlier this week. Stage had sold out of the product when I checked on it there last Friday.

I went downstairs and bought a calendar for Nick. It is the kind of calendar where you tear off a page each day. The theme of this calendar is origami. When a day has passed, you tear off the day and fold it into something according to the instructions on the page. I had both gifts wrapped. It was free at Dillard's, but to get Nick's gift wrapped, I had to pay two dollars.

I passed by something interesting on the way out of the mall. A merchant was selling toy helicopters which actually flew (price $20 to $50). You control the toys with a remote control device. I would have bought one for Luke, but it looked like it could get him into trouble at his house. I could just see him flying the toy into people. He already has a bad habit of throwing things. A remote controlled helicopter would be too much of a temptation for him.

This evening, I went to the Methodist church for a musical program. Various choirs sang (including Ayla). The Dobbs and Matt performed as a brass quartet. The bell choir (with about a dozen ringers) performed two selections. I took my camera and snapped a few pictures.

When we got home, I took a couple of pictures of the homemade Christmas tree i mentioned last posting. I was going to post one, but J said no. She fears theives would be enticed to break into our house and steal the ornaments.

Our tree is up

Today we put up a Christmas tree. We have two trees and alternate between the two. One is a plastic tree in three sections which when assembled make one tree. The other tree is made from dowels. The trunk if made of a dowel about an inch and a quarter thick. It is this tree we erected this morning.

We had to get the stand out of the attic to hold the tree in place. The tree is made of five dowels. The inch and a quarter one for the trunk. Four other dowels about a quarter of an inch thick run through the trunk at various heights. It is homemade.

Each Christmas we buy a dated Hallmark ornament to add to our collection. It takes a while to unpack each ornament from its box and hang it on the tree. After Christmas, we will have the task of putting each ornament back in its box and packing it all away. The ornament we bought for this year is of a white horse on a wheeled base. A bear is riding on the back of horse. We now have 33 or 34 ornaments. We have bought one each Christmas since we have been married. I will try to take a picture of the tree tomorrow and post it tomorrow night. We have run out of space for ornaments. We had to place a few around the tree at the base. Since we are needing more space on the tree to hang ornaments, I will make another tree before next Christmas. I will buy a longer dowel for the trunk and add an additional quarter-inch dowel for another branch.

Ayla is spending the night with us tonight. She will go with J to church in the morning. I will go to my church in the morning, and afterwards I may do some shopping for Christmas.

Book Signing

This morning after getting up (we slept late), we headed over to Barnes and Noble Bookstore on 71st Street for a book signing held by Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain for Harvard University. Greg has written a book titled Good Without God and is on a book tour promoting his book by speaking to sympathetic audiences. He spoke last night at All Souls Unitarian Church.

The book signing was held from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM today. Here is a picture I had taken with the author.


This evening J and I went to Border's Bookstore for the monthly meeting of the poetry group. Tonight we read and talked about poems written by Thomas Hardy and two minor English poets. Next month, we will read and discuss selected poems by Tennyson.

U. N. Declaration of Human Rights Anniversary

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since 1948 was the year of my birth, that would make this year the 61st year the declaration has been in effect.

I was glad to hear Rick Warren come out and condemn the bill which would make homosexuality a capital crime in Uganda. My friend, Galen, from California send me a link to a YouTube message in which Warren condemns the proposed law and urges his fellow Christians in that country to oppose the bill. You can view the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/saddlebackchurch

Today I took the '96 Saturn to the repair shop. The coolant light was flashing. I had added coolant to the reservoir, but the light kept flashing. We decided to take it in and put the system under pressure to see where the leak was originating. I also had a brake light that was out, which I did not know about until I was driving the car to the shop and J (following me in the other car) noticed the tail light being out.

A couple hours later the man from the shop called and told me the repair would be covered by a repair warranty from back in February when I had the radiator replaced. Once the car was fixed, the man at the shop called and said my car was ready. We went in and discovered there was no charge. They even replaced the tail light for free.

Tonight we went to All Souls Unitarian Church to hear Greg Epstein, the Humanist chaplain from Harvard, speak on the topic "Good Without God." There were a couple of hundred people there to hear Epstein speak. The visit was sponsored by the Tulsa Coalition of Reason, the Humanist Association of Tulsa, and the Interfaith Alliance.

I took my camera and shot a few pictures. Here is one:

This is not my best photo work, but it will give you an idea of the size of the crowd (I would estimate about 200). Some of the sanctuary is not visible in the photo.

The event was originally to be held in Emerson Hall, the fellowship hall for the church, but was moved to the main sanctuary to accommodate the large turnout.

A woman I had never met came up to me and rebuked me for taking photos. I will write about this incident tomorrow.

Christmas shopping

Today we went Christmas shopping. We shopped at three stores in Sand Springs and one store in Sapulpa. We bought items today for my cousin Vicki who lives in Houston. I won't say what we bought, since Vicki sometimes reads this blog. Tonight my spouse wrapped the things she bought and I wrapped the things I bought, and J packaged them up in a box, ready to mail.

While we were out, we ate at Lin Cuisine, a Chinese restaurant. The music was so loud in the restaurant that I had to remove my hearing aids. Our last stop was in Sapulpa where we visited the Dollar Tree. Vicki and I have a tradition of getting each other ten items from the dollar store for Christmas.

Today a winter storm passed just to the north of us. It is supposed to get very cold tonight and not warm up a lot tomorrow. Winter has arrived. We finally got around to putting the storm door glass in the front door tonight.

Tonight I printed some poems which we will be reading this Friday evening at the poetry gathering at Border's.

Geraldine Brooks at Tulsa Central Library

Recent events

I had another good practice session with Gail this morning. We had our first run through of "Give Thanks" -- a piece we are considering playing at the local Methodist church sometime in the future. We also played a couple of Christmas pieces we will be playing at Randy's later on this month.

Afterwards, we went to Dr. Shirk's office to get my hearing aids. Hearing aids have really gone high tech. In addition to getting the hearing aids, I got a device you wear around your neck (about an inch and a half square and a half inch thick) which you use for listening to an MP3. The signal is sent directly to the hearing aids. The aids even have a remote control. When I figure all this out, I may have more to say about it.

One thing I did yesterday is go to a program at the library where the Distinguished Author Award for 2009 was given to Geraldine Brooks. I took a few pictures and may post one here.

Good without God video

Click the link below to view a video on being good without God.

http://tulsa.unitedcor.org/node/46

Among friends

This picture was taken tonight at Movie Night at the Bradleys. Those in the picture are (going clockwise from my wife) Jan, myself, Gail Storey, Dawn Bradley, Randy Bradley, Bea McCartney,Barbara Frey, Shane McCurdy, Marilyn Clarke, Herb Van Fleet. We sat around and talked for a while and then Gail and I played "Yankee Doodle Variations." We moved to the Bradleys' movie viewing room and watched Labyrinth.

Prior to Movie Night the Secular Singers held a rehearsal using Randy's piano.

Barbara's son-in-law, Clinton, took this picture.

I opt out of flu shot

I have spent most of this day indexing. We went up to TCC's Fitness Center this morning and walked three miles. While there we saw the Tulsa County Health Department setting up to give flu shots.

On the way home we stopped at Subway and got a 5$ footlong, Black Forest ham. We took it home and ate it.

In the afternoon, Mrs. Nerren went back to TCC and got the flu shot. The shot was for the H1N1 flu. I did get a seasonal flu shot about two months ago.

It's time to go to bed and get some rest and continue indexing in the morning.

Flu shot?

This morning I spoke with the managing editor at DO and told her I plan to send the index file next Monday. She said that would be fine. She sent me a list put together by the editors of the volume of terms they thought might be included in the index. She said to use it as I see fit. The index is now 11 pages long.

I have not had the time to do much with my new Kindle. I have not yet downloaded any books. I thought I might wait until the index is finished before doing that.

I saw Dr. Rapacki today. I asked when it would be OK to get a shot for the H1N1 virus. He said anytime, but warned me about studies which show that people who get consecutive flu shots (such as one shot five years in a row) have a higher susceptability of developing Alzheimer's disease. I have already had one flu shot this year - the seasonal flu shot. Should I get a shot for the H1N1, or just take my chances?

This evening while Nick was at choir practice, we had Luke and Ayla. We drove them around looking at Christmas house decorations for the hour he was away.

Appointment change

Yesterday, we went to Dr. Rapacki's office at 11:00. When we got there we learned that my appointment had been changed to the next day at 10:40. No one had called us to let us know. We went back home.

Work on the index is going slower than I had planned. Galen, I have received your questions, but it may be next week before I can respond to them. I had hoped to have the index finished by Friday, but it loooks now like it will be Monday before it is ready to send.

Three down; four to go

I have reached the end of the book I am index. The next step is to edit the thing. I have printed out a copy to work from. I want to update this blog before I get to work on the index.

This morning Gail came over, and we played duets for two hours. We rehearsed the piece we will play at Movie Night: "Yankee Doodle Variations" by Robert D. Vandall. We also played "Alexander's Ragtime Band," as well as several other pieces. We rehearsed the two pieces we will play at Randy's for the HumanLight ceremony: "In the Bleak Midwinter," and "Go Tell It On the Mountain."

This afternoon, we went to Jenks and did the YRE (year-round event) there. The weather was mild -- a perfect day for a walk. Our club sponsors seven YREs. You can walk each for credit once in the first six months, and then again in the last six months of the year. We have walked three of the walks so far in the last half of the year. We have walked Keystone, the Promenade Mall walk, and the Riverwalk in Jenks. We have four more to do if we want to walk all the walks our club sponsors for this year. Occasionally we do walks sponsored by other clubs. In the first half of the year we walked only four of the seven. Two of the walks are out of the Tulsa area: there is one in Bartlesville; one is in Galena, Kansas.

When we got home from the walk, I found a package had been delivered by UPS. It was a book of piano duets I had ordered. The title of the book is "We Love a Piano." It contains 15 duets, including "Peg O' My Heart," and "Satin Doll." All of them look to be great. Gail originally had a copy of the book. I decided to buy a copy after looking through hers.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr. Rapacki. I am glad my back is better. Having back pain is a real bummer.

HumanLight approaches

As November draws to a close, it is time to think about HumanLight, which for us in Tulsa, will be observed on Saturday, December 19. If you are unfamiliar with HumanLight, please watch the video (link below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsiYANxesTo

Food & Fellowship 11.28.09

This photo was taken today at The Rice Bowl on S. Sheridan Rd. From left going around the table are: Bob Noble, Bill Dusenberry, Dave Tinney, Dawn Bradley, Randy Bradley, Jan Nerren, Barbara Frey (not visible in this photo), and Marilyn Clarke. I was seated next to Marilyn and took this photo.

Thanksgiving Day

This Thanksgiving Day my sweet wife and I fixed a dinner for nine. There were Gary and Adra Dobbs (Jennifer's parents), Jon Dobbs (Jen's brother), Nick and Jen, Luke and Ayla, and, of course, the two of us.

With my wife serving as the primary chef, I did some of the less glamourous work: pealing potatoes, making tea, stirring gravy, etc. The crowd assembled around 2 pm. We had to run the dishwasher three times to get all of the pots and pans, dishes, and silverware clean.

Later on in the day, I began indexing. I marked up one chapter tonight. After I get it entered into the indexing program, I will be at page 309. My deadline is December 4. I have a week left to get it ready. The fun part comes at the end, once all the terms have been entered into the index. It is at this point that I find that I need to make revisions in order to make the index internally consistent. I will make a number of refinements to improve the index. Having the manuscript on a searchable pdf file really helps. When I began indexing (in 1996), file disks were not provided. With the document on a pdf file, you can locate every appearance of the word in the text.

Adding Site Meter to your blog

I just checked to see who is reading my blog. How do you do that, you might wonder?

First, you need to add Site Meter to your blog. Google Site Meter and read about this free service. Instructions on adding Site Meter will be given. Follow the instructions and you should have a Site Meter box at the end of your blog. If you click on the site Meter box, you should see a screen with some options. Click on Location, and a list of cities with the ISP number of each user should display. I currently receive around 10 "hits" a day. I have about three regular readers: Marti in Tecumseh, John in Tupelo, and Galen in Rialto. You can tell what search words were used to find your blog. Other information about the users is displayed, also.

Update

I did not get around to updating my blog last night. So here goes:

Yesterday began with a two-hour duet practice session with Gail. We looked at some of the new music Gail bought in Springfield, and we also practiced the two pieces we will be playing at the annual Winter Solstice gathering at Randy's this year. Gail and I have another video ready to upload to YouTube. We recorded the video a week ago but have not had time to upload it.

My Christmas present from my lovely wife was delivered by the postman on Monday. It is a Kindle e-reader. I have been getting familiar with it. It is lightweight and your stored library can be taken with you as you go places. It is no longer necessary to tote a load of books; take your entire library of 1,500 volumes with you as you travel.

It is also possible to highlight text as you read. You can add your own notes also as you are reading. For the English major, this device is the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are six font sizes. You can select the one you wish to use.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday reading the user's manual. The Kindle has a built-in wireless receiver, making it possible to download a book from the Kindle Store in about a minute. Most titles sell for about 10 bucks. Many of the older classics sell for peanuts. Many titles are free. I have yet to download anything. I am still learning how to manipulate the device.

I had the weekend off from indexing. I received an e-mail on Thursday informing me that more changes are being made to the text and asking that I stop and wait for new page proofs. The page proofs came on Monday. I downloaded it to a disk and took the disk to a copy shop and had them print the pages.

Yesterday evening my lovely wife and I attended the annual Thanksgiving service at Broadway Baptist Church. There were nowhere as many people this year as last year. Maybe that's because the service was held on a Monday instead of on a Wednesday or on Thanksgiving Day itself. On the way home, we stopped at Chinese Express and took some food home to eat.

Today the Fex-Ex truck came by the house and gave us a package with our church pictures in it.

I need to say that the new medicine prescribed by Dr. Rapacki has relieved my back pain. I am now pain free. I don't know what brought on the pain, but I am glad it is gone.

Back home again

We are back home once again. We left on a short trip to Springfield, MO on Friday morning, early. We had the alarm clock set for 5:30 am. It was still dark when the alarm went off. We got up and loaded up the car and drove over to Victor Ave. in Tulsa. There we picked up fellow freethinker and piano duet partner Gail and headed for Skepticon II in Springfield.

We stopped first just across the state line in Missouri at the tourist info center. I had brought my GPS receiver with me, and the three of us went looking for a cache. We found the cache right away. It was inside an army ammo box about fifty feet into the woods at the back of the travel center. We also looked for another cache, but we did not know exactly what we were looking for. It turned out to be a benchmark, but we did not know that until later. Had we known what we were lookikng for, we might have found it. Instead we gave up looking for it.

We arrived in Springfield about 11:00 am. The events were held on the campus of Missouri State University. Several well-known skeptics were at the conference, including D.J. Grothe, Victor Stenger, Robert Price, Joe Nickell, Dan Barker, Richard Carrier, P. Z. Myers, and Rebecca Watson. We registered for the conference and ate lunch in the student dining area in the student union.

The conference began with a student debate followed by a debate between some of the speakers and some local people representing the theist point of view. The topic was "Does God Exist?" The debate was carried on at a high level of respectable discourse. At the 4:30 break, we went over to the Arbor near where my parents live. We three checked into the motel for the following two nights. We went by my parents' apartment where Gail and I played "Birch Tree Rag" and "Irish Air" for my parents.

When we got back to the campus, we heard J T. Eberhard speak on "Why do we criticize religion?" There was a 10-minute break and then we heard P.Z. Myers talk. Myers is the 2009 recipient of the Humanist of the Year award.

While most attendees went out to the Fox and Hound pub following the Myers talk, the three of us went to the Red Lobster for our evening meal. I had the broiled fish platter.

The next day, Saturday, we went back to campus and heard D. J. Grothe introduce the speakers for the day. The first was Victor Stenger, who spoke on "The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason." Next was Robert Price, a member of the Jesus Seminar, whose topic was "The Gospels and Thorough-going Skepticism."

Following lunch, we heard Joe Nickell speak on "Investigating the Paranormal." After this we heard Dan Barker talk on "A Book of (Bad) Numbers."

Next we went to Springfield Music where Gail and I looked through the piano duet music available in the store. Gail bought $32 worth of duet music. That will give us a lot to keep us occupied for the near future. We ate our dinner at Logan's Road House.

Back on campus, Richard Carrier was speaking on the topic "Where the Hell is Jesus: Weird Stuff from the Gospels to the Apostles," in which he talked about a number of contradictions and absurdities found in the Bible. P. Z. Myers spoke again, followed by Rebecca Watson. I think it was around 11:30 by the time we returned to the motel.

Some of the talks may be available for viewing on YouTube. There were probably 200 people attending the conference, which was held in two buildings: Plaster Student Union, and Carrington Hall.

Food and Fellowship

Today was the day for our November Food and Fellowship. With only five of us there, listening to conversation was made easier. With a dozen people at a meeting sometimes two or three conversations are going on simulataniously. If you are speaking in one conversation, you miss out on the other conversations. I won't say that there was only one conversation going on at all times, but I left feeling like I did not miss out on as much as I usually do.

The broiled scallops at White River Fish Market are to die for. Today I ate the broiled fish platter with Spanish rice and potato salad. The plate included three scallops, three shrimp, two hush puppies, and a piece of catfish. It was a great meal.

One guy there (in his 70s) told us how changing his dentist led to an increase in his libido. At least that was his interpretation of events.

This evening, J had a meeting at the Methodist church. While she was in the meeting, I sat in the church library indexing. I am now at page 218 in the book.

After leaving the church, we went to Nick's house and stayed with Luke and Ayla while Nick and Jen went to choir practice. We learned later that the Charge Conference was still going on and that choir practice was canceled.

What my doctor said

Today we visited my back doctor. He asked me about my symptoms and I explained how I was feeling. He asked what I was taking for the pain. I told him Aleve. He shook his head and said that Aleve, along with Motrin, Ibuprofen, and a few other medicines whould be taken off the market. He said that they cause kidney failure. Now he tells me. I took Aleve back in 2006 for about six months. I think my GP said to take four a day. So I have probably consumed about 700 Aleve. Well, I'm still alive.....today. Don't know what tomorrow will bring.

My doctor gave me a prescription for Methylpred, which is a steriod. I have been taking it this evening, and I can say that my pain has decreased. You start with six tablets the first day and decrease by one a day until they are all gone. I suspect the medication relaxes me for I am ready for bed and it is not yet 9:30 at this time.

The doctor said to come back in two weeks for a follow up. If in the meantime, the pain gets worse, I should call him and he will set me up for a MRI. He is hoping the pain will go away on its own.

Indexing and piano playing

The day began with Gail coming over to play piano duets with me. We recorded another video, which we may post to YouTube tomorrow. We selected two duets to play at Randy's on December 19, the annual gathering of freethinkers. We will play "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain."

Tomorrow I will see Dr. Rapacki about my back pain, which fluctuates from a pain level of 2 to 5. I am glad to be retired. I certainly could not work this way.

I worked on the index tonight. I'm up to page 150 on the mark-up. Tomorrow I will see if I can get it typed into the program.

A trying day

Today was the day of the November HAT meeting. J and Ayla had left for church. I was making last minute preparations for the meeting. I had my things in a tote bag and headed out the door. On the way to the car I reached for my keys. They were not there. I had left my keys in the house. I was locked out.

I went to the gate on the south side of the house. It was locked up with a padlock. The gate on the north side (with a six-foot high wall) is locked from the inside. I looked over and saw my neighbor's trash cart and thought I might be able to use that to get myself over the fence. I rang his doorbell, but no one came to the door.

I wheeled his cart up to the gate and climbed on top. Mind you, I am doing all this with back pain. I put my foot on top of the gate and jumped over into my back yard. My destination was the shed in which I have a key hidden. I went to the spot where the key is usually hidden, but there was no key there. I had phoned J several times to find out where she was, but as I later found out, she had turned off her phone. I called Nick to see if he knew where she was. Nick said she had just left his house and should be home shortly.

Within ten minutes J pulled into the driveway and into the garage. As she came into the kitchen, I rapped on the back door. She opened the door and let me in. She was surprised to find me still at the house. I explained the situation to her and then went to change into dry clothes. It had been raining all this time.

By the time I arrived at Hardesty Library for the humanist meeting, I was thirty minutes late. The guest speaker, the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, was talking to the group. I had forgotten to take an Aleve tablet and so the back pain was increasing. When I returned home, I took an Aleve.

Tomorrow, Gail is coming over for our weekly practice. We plan to video record another YouTube presentation.

On Tuesday, I have an appointment to see Dr. Rapacki.