The Bothwell Estate

Coffee with Claire

I thought I would post the latest episode of "Coffee with Claire" for you this evening since both Oklahoma senators are mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05wAB9FMg4I

Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival

Below are some pictures I took at the 2013 Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri.  The Festival ran from June 5 thru June 8.  We arrived there on June 6 and left on June 8.

Vacation pictures

We ate lunch at this pub one day.

Food vendors on the sidewalk

Pettis County Courthouse

Stark Pavilion

Vacation pictures

Pettis County Courthouse

Statue

Food vendor 

 

Stark Pavilion

Vacation pictures

This is Tom Brier performing in the depot.

Vacation pictures

This is the Katy Depot in Sedalia.

Here is another view.

This is where passengers once boarded.

Sculpture

Vacation pictures

At an evening concert.

Vacation pictures

This venue is close to a railroad track (mainline between KC and St. Louis).  Whenever a train would pass thru, it would disrupt whatever was going on at the time.  The track was about twenty feet on the other side of the wall.

 

Here is the site of the Maple Leaf Club.  It is now a performance venue.

A tube player on the site of the Maple Leaf Club plays his instrument.

Vacation pictures

We did some geocaching on this trip.  Can you spot the cache in this picture?

 

This cloth is covered in notes.  The cloth is in The Ragtime Store on Ohio St. in Sedalia.

 

Vacation pictures

A mother and her daughter played and sang.

 

Street scene in Sedalia.

 

Street scene in Sedalia.  In the background is a large tent where piano players performed.  This was one of five venues.

We stayed at Rodeway Motel in Sweet Springs, MO.  It is about 30 miles north of Sedalia. I took this picture out the back window of our room.

Vacation pictures

At this venue, a woman is playing a clarinet.

Here a man is playing ragtime piano.  I am guessing that this piano was loaned to the Festival by a local piano company since the protective padding remains wrapped around the lower parts.

Here is a trio composed of piano, tube, and ratchets.

The tube player also sang.

Back from vacation

We are back from a vacation to Sedalia, Mo.  We left Wednesday evening around 4:40 pm.  We drove to Nevada, Mo. and got a room for the night at the Super 8.  There are several geocaches in Nevada, and we had just enough time to look for two before it got dark.  The first cache we looked for was on a caboose in a park.  We got some help finding the cache from a person who was familiar with the location.

The second cache was near the county courthouse.  There just happened to be a concert going on there with a crowd of a couple hundred out on the courthouse lawn.  As darkness fell, we had not found the cache.  But with so many people around, we did not check out every possibility.

The next morning, we got up and drove on to Sedalia -- a town of about 20,000 inhabitants. I took a lot of pictures there.  I will post some later.  There were plenty of people there for the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival.  This was our first year to attend the event.  It ran from Wednesday the 5th thru Saturday the 9th.  Some of the best ragtime piano players in the nation were there.

There were five performance venues going nonstop from 9am until 5pm each day.  The daytime piano playing was free.  Only the evening performances were ticketed events.

Due to the popularity of the event, lodging was sold out.  I had phoned motels looking for a room about a month prior to the Festival, but all were sold out.  We stayed in Sweet Springs, which is about 30 miles away to the north.

I had time to find two caches while in Sedalia.  We had pleasent weather while there.  We plan to go back next year.

Saturday afternoon, we drove to Springfield and spent the night at my parents' apartment.  We left Sunday afternoon and returned to Sand Springs.

Weather settles down

It appears the weather in Oklahoma has settled down for a while.  We have had a spate of rough weather.  Nearby Broken Arrow was hit with a tornado a few days ago.  Other parts of the state had it worse.

There is nothing new to write about.  I have been doing my usual activities.  Today I was the speaker at church.  I spoke about the book The God Virus.  It was written by psychologist Darrel Ray.

I will once again be playing piano for Edna on the 16th and 23rd.

It appears that I will once again be the speaker for Humanist Sunday in July.  I'm not sure yet what my topic will be.

I am continuing my walking regimen.  I am somewhere around 160 miles for the year so far.  I had to miss the last couple of volkswalks.  I should go out to Keystone Lake and do the year-round walk there a few times.

Reflections on a bad week for Oklahoma

Some two dozen people lost their life earlier this week.  Most of them were residents of Moore.  An additional several hundred sustained injuries from the tornado -- a tornado at one point 1.3 miles wide which stayed on the ground for 17 miles.  Several hundreds of homes were destroyed and many more suffered damage.

It is such an event as this that makes the atheist wish there were a god who could and would intervene on behalf of the victims.  But alas, there was no help from above.  If you value your life, don't pray for a miracle -- build a storm shelter.

This morning, we had our May Food and Fellowship gathering.  In attendance were David, Mark, Lisa, Randy, Dawn, Marilyn, Barbara, Gail, Jan, and Dan.  We ate at La Hacienda on Peoria.

Earlier this week I posted another duet video on YouTube.  Search for "Gail and Dan at piano" if you would like to view it.

We dodged a bullet tonight

May is a bad month for tornadoes.  Tonight three super cells developed near OKC.  They were headed up I-44 toward the Tulsa area.  They fizzled out before getting here.  I haven't heard yet if there were any fatalities.

Gail is expecting an important phone call tomorrow.  She asked if I would be willing to practice duets at her house.  So I will be going to her house tomorrow.

Quotation

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it.   --Terry Pratchett

Reading / Playing / Walking / Cutting

Last night I finished reading a book by C. S. Lewis.  The title was The Great Divorce.  It is the next book for discussion by the Methodist Book Club.  It was to be the book for May, but for some reason the May meeting was canceled.  Thankfully, it was not too long.  It was written some sixty to seventy years ago, a time when it was acceptable to hurl insults at atheists.  Nowdays people are more tolerant of religious diversity.

On Sunday, Edna, the church pianist, had another commitment.  I filled in for her.  I played a ten-minute interlude, and then our minister was led in.  He was led in account he is blind now and must be shown the way.  Shown is not the right word.  He has to feel his way around.  He is familiar with the sanctuary, having preached there many time before the onset of his blindness.

Vanessa had told me that the closing hymn would be "Over My Head," but she had not informed me of the opening hymn.  I suggested "Lift Every Voice and Sing."  She said she had been thinking about that hymn, too.  So that was our opening hymn.

Gail and I provided the special music, which was Gershwin's I've Got Rhythm.

Following the service, four of us engaged in hand-drumming.  I brought my two drums, and the church had two drums.  It was the first time I had drummed in a couple of years.  The four of us were myself, Vanessa, Gerald (the minister), and Hagi. I had to leave after ten minutes to get to a birthday party for Luke, my grandson.

At the birthday party for Luke, there were nine people.  We had fried chicken and potato salad for lunch.

The next day was Monday, and Gail drove over for our weekly practice.  She is considering going to a hospital in Denver in hopes of getting more information about her lung condition.  She has seen two doctors in Tulsa.  Both said it would be too dangerous to do a lung biopsy.

Today I cut the grass in the back yard.  We have taken so much out of the backyard that it is possible to cut it quickly.

Some recent photos

This picture was taken inside the Red Barn Cafe and Hen House Bakery in Mt. Vernon, MO just a few miles west of Springfield  We had dinner on the way to Springfield.  They had a good amount of business.

We got up one morning and looked outside to see sleet covering the car.  This was May 3, 2013.

Here is another view of the sleet covering many objects.  It snowed all day May 3 in Springfield.  Very little stuck to the grass.

This is a view inside our living room.  The object covered up in the background is my piano.  We had to cover up everything and move any items near the windows toward the center of the room in preparation for the installation of new windows.

A visit to Target

Today we went to the Target store at the Tulsa Hills shopping center.  On our last visit there a couple of months ago I saw a bookshelf which I thought might be good for my piano music.  Presently, I am using a shelf I built myself some twenty years ago.  I used it for my magazines for several years, but decided to use it for my sheet music a few years ago.

The storage unit I built is six feet high with nine shelves about 14" square.  Since I am constantly buying new music, I ran out of space a year or two ago.  We went over to Target to buy the shelf, but they had none in stock.  In fact, they discontinued the item.  We checked at Lowe's, also in Tulsa Hills shopping center, but found nothing to our liking there.  We returned home without making a purchase.

We came back from another extended stay in Springfield, MO on Sunday.  I had to miss church.  It was Humanist Sunday and Joy Avery gave the talk.  Edna, the church pianist, will not be able to be at church this coming Sunday.  I plan to fill in for her.

Back on Easter Sunday, my father fell and broke his hip.  Thus the many trips to Springfield.  Dad is at home recuperating now.

Yesterday, we had all the windows (except the laundry room) in the house replaced.  The new windows look nice.  The crew of four worked from about 7 am to noon.

Piano and medical matters

I was on the way to the post office today when my phone rang.  It was Gail.  Gail's mother-in-law is staying at Gail's house due to her (the mother-in-law's) fragile nature.  Gail invited me to her house to practice piano duets today.  She wanted to stay close to her phone (landline) since she was expecting a call from her doctor.  I said I would be there at 1 pm.

I showed up at the Storey residence at 1 pm.  Gail's mother-in-law, Ruby, was there, along with a caregiver and Gail's husband Glenn.  We talked some about my father's condition and about the trips we have been making back and forth to Springfield.  While I was there, Gail's doctor office called with the date of an appointment for Gail.  This is the phone call she has been expecting for the past few days.

Sometime ago, we, the Storeys and the Nerrens, took a road trip to Ponca City for the purpose of eating at a world-famous restaurant at the Ponca City airport by the name of Enrique's.  It is a Mexican restaurant.  We talked about doing the same thing again this year.  We might even search for a geocache while there.  There is a labyrinth in the city which I have never walked. 

If you would like to search for geocaches in your area, go to www.geocaching.com and type in your ZIP code and take a look at your area.

Poetry Sunday

Back to my blog.  I’ve been away for a while and have neglected to update this blog for several days.  It’s time for an update.

We returned home from Springfield after another extended stay.  In some ways going back to Missouri is like returning to civilization after a period in the wilderness.  After all, Oklahoma did not become a state until 1907, decades after Missouri became a part of the union.

I went to church this morning, having missed the last two weeks.  As part of the revised Sunday service procedure, I now play piano in the minutes before the service starts, while the church pianist, Edna, makes her way to the church.  Edna is also the church pianist for another church which has an earlier service time.

Today was Poetry Sunday.  Several of us read poems for the service.  I read “O, Kharma,
Dharma, Pudding and Pie” by Philip Appleman.

There have been a couple of big changes in my life this month.  The first involves my parents in Springfield.  I’m afraid I can’t say any more about this at this time.

The other big change involves a health scare for Gail, my partner of some eight years in playing piano duets.  She is undergoing medical tests.  We have not played together since March.  She had lung cancer two years ago.  We fear it is coming back.

To Springfield and back

We took a trip to Springfield, Missouri and stayed eight days.  We got back home on Monday, April 8.  The reason for the lengthy stay will have to be withheld.  Suffice it to say that both of my parents are still alive.

Monday evening was the date of the Methodist Book Club.  We uniformly agreed that the selection for April was a dud, with the exception of Kat.  I found the humor of the book to be juvenile.  The author of the book is Jenny Lawson, and I think her favorite word is "fuck."  The book's title is Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir).   Next month the selection is by C. S. Lewis.  The title of the book is The Great Divorce.

I have had to miss the last two duet practice sessions.  Maybe I will be home next Monday.

I got my hair cut on Tuesday.  I was a bit overdue for one.

The Jesus Diet

On Maundy Thursday, we gathered at the Family Life Center about a mile from the house.  The meal was the kind of diet that Jesus ate: nuts, raisins, apricots, dates, grapes, and fish.  The beverage was water.  Soft drinks were not around in that time.

This morning, I went to the worship workshop held at Restoration.  For almost three hours we went over every aspect of the morning service.  Joy was asked to volunteer to be a greeter to greet visitors.  The church pianist, Edna, also plays for Vernon AME church, which is down the street from Restoration.  She usually arrives just before the service starts.  It was decided that it would be nice to have some piano music for about ten minutes prior to the service starting.  I volunteered to play during that time.

The "Welcome" which had been coming around the middle of the service was moved up to the top.  The children's offertory was eliminated, in favor of having a collection bowl for coins which can be used at the beginning of the service.  The service used to end with the extinguishment of the candles.  Now music will be added as we exit.

Photos

 

This is a picture of the exterior of the library in Springfield, MO. 

 This library was not here when we moved from Springfield in 1986.

 

 

 

Here is a view inside a coffee shop within the library.

 

 

Here we see a couple of the stacks.  To the left is the teens area.

 

 

Inside the periodicals area is an exhibit on Route 66.

 

This picture and those below were taken on a volkswalk in Tulsa. 

Here we are looking at the 23rd St. bridge.

 

 

 

  

There are two paths along the west side of the river. 

One is for pedestrians; the other is for bicyclests.

 

 

This is the view underneath the 23rd St. bridge.

 

 

 

Here we see the west side of the 23rd St. bridge.  The two paths

become one, but the two areas are separated by stripping.

 

 

Here is another view of the 23rd St. bridge.

 

 

The tall cylindrical building is the University Club tower.  On election night in 2008, we watched news coverage from Barbara Frey's apartment on the 20th floor.  The building has been in the news recently as it was the scene of a murder.  A woman pushed her husband through a window, and he fell 17 stories to his death.

This is a view of the Arkansas River.  Due to the drought,

the river has dried up considerably.  Tire tracks are visible in this view.

 

 

 

 

Here is another view of the University Club tower.

The week in review

Last Sunday I went to Church of the Restoration at 10 am for the Religious Education hour.  Following that was the service at 11 am.  Vanessa was in charge of the service.  I had no meetings after church, and I came on home.

The next day, Monday, was duet rehearsal day.  We looked at some of the new music I bought while in Springfield.  Some of the pieces we played were The Pink Panther, Raiders of the Lost Arc, and I Got Rhythm.  (I'm leaving out the quotation marks to save time  because I'm lazy.)

On Tuesday evening, we went to the southeast campus of TCC to hear two concerts: the TCC Band and the TCC Symphony Orchestra.  We have a friend, Patty Mandrell, who plays percussion in the band.

Piano practice

Last Monday we were in Springfield and I had to miss my weekly piano practice with Gail.  We rescheduled the practice for Friday.  Because Gail had a tight schedule, she invited me to come to her house for today's practice.  I put my music in a canvas tote bag and drove to her house, about 20 minutes away in Tulsa. 

I bought some new music while in Springfield, some of which I took with me.  We also played the piece we are hoping to play at the next Humanist Sunday service.  We played from a new book some pieces by John Williams.  We finished up with Dvorak's Slovanic Dance No. 4.

Gail has three dogs who were excited to see me.  They sniffed and licked with abandon.  After a while, they settled down.

Nick got back from Colorado today.  Ayla is spending the night with us.

A trip to Springfield

Last Sunday we drove to Springfield, MO and visited my parents and my sister.  We came back to Sand Springs on Wednesday.  We took Paula out to Wal Mart where she did her grocery shopping.  My parents are still doing well at age 90.  Dad no longer drives due to macular degeneration.  Well, almost no longer drives.  He gets out a little bit, now and then.

Tonight we went to the Oklahoma Observer Discussion Group.  There were five of us there.  I asked that between now and the next meeting that the participants contact a person in government and express the view on some issue.  I read two letters I had written in the last month -- one to my Congressman and the other to the Governor.

A volkswalk and a HAT meeting

The title above pretty well sums up what I did today.

First we drove to the River West Festival area which was the start point for the monthly volkswalk sponsored by the Tulsa Walking Club.  After registering, we proceeded south along the west bank crossing the river on the 23rd St. bridge.  Then we went north to the 11th St. bridge where we crossed back over to the west bank and came back to the start point.  In all, it was 3.1 miles.

In the afternoon, we went to the HAT meeting at the Genealogy Center.  There were eight people present for the meeting.  It lasted for two hours.  Afterwards we ate dinner at the nearby Villiage Inn.

A Concert at TCC

Tonight we went to the TCC Southeast campus for a concert.  We heard the TCC Madrigal Show Choir, a Jazz Combo, and the Jazz Band.  The program began with two French madrigals, followed by two English madrigals.  Next was Hava Nagila, an Israeli folk song.  Last was Joyful, Joyful by Beethoven.

The TCC Jazz Combo performed Paul Desmond's Take Five.  Also performed was Charlie Parker's Yardbird Suite.  The TCC Jazz Band played music by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie.

We drove on the Creek Turnpike, avoiding the traffic of Tulsa.

Quoted

“We atheists lead happy lives, never concerned with the-dying-and-burn forever-in-hell nonsense. We know better. We enjoy happiness with our friends and neighbors and ignore all the greed and rituals that pay the parasite priests. Let them wallow in their medieval superstition while we enjoy all the wonders of our God-free universe.”

—Harry Harrison

Will you support research for Life Extension?

It seems that achieving a method of stopping and reversing aging is not out of the question.  If you would be willing to sign a petition to make research on aging a priority, then click on the link below and add your name to the petition.

 

http://signon.org/sign/presobama-fund-life-extensio

Day's activities

Today J and I went to a Lutheran church in Tulsa which was hosting a Hyechka performance.  First an organist played a few pieces on the church's organ.  Next the Hyechka chorus sang three or four pieces.  Closing out the program was a performance by Vicki Smith on harp.  Our reason for attending was our friend Gail Storey was one of the singers in the chorus.  We also saw and sat with Gail's sister Shirley and their friend Patti.

This evening we went to TU and heard Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow.  She spoke to a full room at the student center.

Week in Review

This week I saw my neurologist and got the results of the scans I had taken recently.  All is well.  There was no change since the previous scans taken in 2011.  My next scans will be in 2015.

We drove to Springfield on Wednesday and drove back on Thursday.  Paula said that after my parents are gone that she might want to move to Sand Springs.

Ho-Hum

One day has been pretty much like the next recently.  I noticed it has been just over week since I last posted anything, and lest anyone think I was missing, I decided to type something.

The big news lately has been the weather.  A cold front is moving through, and it appears we might get a little bit of snow.

Gail came over for our weekly practice today.  We usually play at 10 am, but this morning Gail came over at 2 pm.  She had a visit with her oncologist in the morning.  She got a good report from her doctor.

Tomorrow I will get the results of the scans (MRI & CT) which I had done about two weeks ago.

Yesterday, we had lunch at the Cracker Barrel.  We had a gift card we needed to use.

This and that

This past week was a washout, from my point of view.

Things started well enough with Gail coming over for our Monday piano rehearsal.  I had scans scheduled for Tuesday at 7:40 am.  I needed to be there at 7:10.  That meant we had to get up early to get over to Tulsa.  I had both an MRI and CT scan done.  About halfway through each procedure a contrast agent was inserted into a vein.  I have had this done before, but this time a contrast agent was introduced with both the MRI and CT.  I wasn't feeling at 100% prior to going to the hospital, I might add. 

We ate breakfast at the Crescent Cafe afterwards.  Then we came on home.  This was Tuesday the day Pres. Obama gave the State of the Union speech.  Being the political junkie that I am, I was looking forward to watching the speech; however, by that evening I was in bed feeling miserable.  I skipped hearing the speech in favor of trying to get more rest.  As the week wore on I regained strength.  I curtailed my activities and stayed inside to get rest.  Here it is Sunday, and I am back to where I was prior to getting the scans.  I was unable to make the Wednesday morning appt. to get the results of the scans.  That will have to wait another week and a half.  The scans are done to see if the tumor which was removed from my brain in 2007 is growing back.

On Saturday, I heard Dr. Stanley Rice of Southeast Oklahoma State University give a speech on Charles Darwin and Oklahoma.  While Darwin's ideas have been accepted throughout the world, here in Oklahoma he is still thought of as controversial.  There were around 40 people present to hear Dr. Rice.

Contemporary U.S. history was the topic for discussion in R.E. today.  The service was led by Rosemary Powell.  After the service three of us talked about chapters 7 and 8 of Zinn's A People's History.  Edna told me she would have to be absent on Mother's Day and asked me to fill in for her at the piano.

Another update

Last week we drove to Springfield on Tuesday and came back on Wednesday.

On Friday we attended the Tulsa Town Hall at the PAC.  Ann Compton of ABC News spoke.  She told about being with President Bush on 9-11.  She was the only news correspondent with Bush on the trip.

Friday evening at 7 pm was a meeting of the poetry group.  We are using the book How to Read a Poem by Burton Raffel.

Saturday I spent several hours reading The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.  That is the next book we are reading in the Methodist Book Club.  I finished the book today.

Today was Sunday.  Normally I attend Church of the Restoration; however, today I stayed home since I was not feeling 100%.  I drank lot of orange juice, hoping that it might have some salutary effect on me.

This evening we went to the Family Life Center (Methodist) for a chili competition.  Many kinds of chili were available as well as desserts.

Back from Springfield

Last Saturday night we were set to go to Randy's for Movie Night.  Randy called about an hour before the movie was to start and said he was at work and would have to stay there until they got a problem resolved.  Randy is a computer programmer.  I called Marilyn to let her know Movie Night was cancelled, but she had apparently talked to Randy and was aware of the cancellation.  She invited J and I to go with her to see a play being performed at the Heller Theater.  The play was Time Stands Still by Donald Marguiles.  The theater is small with seating for about 100.  The play contains much shouting and quarreling.  It was not my cup of tea.

The next day was Sunday.  We had RE at 10 and then the service at 11.  It was Humanist Sunday and the message was delivered by Larry Roth.  He gave a brief history of Humanism in the U.S.  There were about 15 people present.  Gail and I played "Cleopha" by Scott Joplin as the special music for the service. Afterward we shared a potluck dinner.  There was a young man there who played a drum that is often kept in the sanctuary.  I struck up a conversation with him and told him I used to play in a drum circle.  He expressed interest in getting into a drum circle.  I told him I would talk with Vanessa about starting a drum circle at the church.

On Monday, Gail came over and we worked on "Simple Gifts," a Shaker hymn.  That will most likely be our next selection to play on Humanist Sunday in March.  We also worked on Dvorak's "Slovanic Dance, Op. 46  No. 4" and Brahm's "Hungarian Dance No. 5."

Monday afternoon I went to St. Andrew Lutheran Church where a blood drive was in progress.  I donated a unit of blood.  They were short by two people and had to double up on the tasks.  It took longer than it usually does to donate blood.  After making the donation, I drank three small cans of cranberry juice.

Tuesday we drove to Springfield.  Dad's macular degeneration has affected his eyesight to the point where he does not get out driving like he once did.  I drove Dad to the barber shop.  Paula needed to be driven to a few places, so we took her around to those places.  We came back to Sand Springs today.

2013 Oklahoma Legislative Primer

If you ever wondered how state laws are made, the primer below can answer your questions.

http://okpolicy.org/resources/2013-legislative-primer

Randy Pausch addresses student

I just finish reading a book titled The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  The book is about Pausch discovering he has pancreatic cancer and only a few months left to live.  Below is a link in which you can watch a video of Pausch as he speaks to students at Carnegie Mellon University.  You will have to scroll down a little to find it.

http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=randy+pausch&v_t=comsearch51&b=image%3Fenabled_terms%3D%26s_it%3Dcomsearch51%26q%3Drandy%2Bpausch%26oreq%3D204a92aaa2ff4fe6941c692e847c1f85&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cs.cmu.edu%2F%7Epausch%2FRandy%2FRandy%2FwithMickey.jpg&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cs.cmu.edu%2F%7Epausch%2Fnews%2Findex.html&width=118&height=89&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages-partners-tbn.google.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcSX0FowKzHeDYhRMT7U3MSUZD5nbGLmr4gngJQnVm74RCOoVgrm-7a12AM&imgWidth=2848&imgHeight=2136&imgSize=1477529&imgTitle=randy+pausch

The last few days...

It has been a few days since I last posted here.  So to catch up here is what has been happening.

Last week the Mrs. and I saw the film Lincoln at the Promenade Mall.  The movie runs for two hours, but I did not get antsy.  Usually I will want to know how much time the movie will take.

On Thursday night, we attended the Oklahoma Observer Discussion Group at the Brookside Library.

Saturday morning, we took part in a volkswalk at Woodland Hills Mall.  We walked 3.1 miles inside the mall.  It was walk number 260 for me.  That afternoon, we went to the HAT meeting at the Genealogy Center.

Sunday, I went to church.  Attendance was low: just eight people were there.  (We had nine at the HAT meeting.)  The program at church was organized by the Religious Education team.

Today, Gail came over and we played piano duets for two hours.  We also watched a couple playing a duet on YouTube that we are playing.  We also watched a video of the Swingle Singers singing a Bach piece that we are working on.

An old poem rediscovered

This evening, J was looking for something and came across an old, yellowed piece of paper folded up.  I suspect at first she thought it might be an old love letter.  She unfolded the paper and found a poem I had written many years ago.  Here is the poem.

                               The Merry-Go-Round


Horse and rider spin about
There's many a ride and many a mount,
And I would say beyond a doubt
This merry-go-round whirls fast.

You riders close to the center pole
Whose slow-paced steeds are not so bold,
Dismount, move out, and leave the fold.
Take a horse on the outer ring.

The horses out here are not the same.
The ones out here you'll never tame.
You may even be thrown for occasional pain,
As you travel a wider orbit.

From here there's no encumbered view.
As riders discover the world anew.
Move out here where the riders are few.
Take a horse on the outer ring.

Freezing rain

It has turned cold in Oklahoma.  Yesterday, as I was about to leave for church, I discovered that we had received some freezing rain overnight.  I was unable to open the door of my car.  There was a sheet of ice covering most of the car.  I was able to gain entry into my car through the passenger side.  I crawled over into the driver’s seat and started the car.  From the inside of the car I was able to get the driver’s door open.  I went back into the house and filled up a glass with warm water and poured it over the car windshield, melting the ice.  I had to do that three times with two glasses of water before I was able to gain enough visibility to drive the car to church.

I was ten minutes late getting to church.  Mary was already into her lesson.  The lesson for the day was based upon a Bill Moyers program which we watched.  He was interviewing Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Religion and Politics.  (It’s available on the Kindle for $15.)  Rev. Gerald Davis gave the sermon.  He is now blind and has to be led around, but he is quite cheerful and upbeat.

I bought a few bargain books yesterday for the Kindle: Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and  Thriving At Work, Home, and School by John Medina, Merriam-Webster’s Book of Word Histories, and Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends by David Wilton.

This morning I picked up Nick at Midas where he had taken his car to get the brakes worked on.  Later, Gail came over and we played duets for about an hour.  I think our next performance piece will be “Cleopha,” a march written by Scott Joplin.

An amusing website

While surfing the web tonight a came across a group based in Oklahoma City which looks into spooky things.  It seems they operate mostly at night, the best time for spooky things.  They can be found at www.okpri.com.  Once you click on the site, looks for "videos" in the left column.  You might want to watch a few.  The Stone Lion Inn is among the spooky sites.  It is located in Guthrie.  We stayed there once, but we did not see anything strange.

Playing solo

Last night was Movie Night at the Bradleys.  Gail and I had planned to play a duet on the piano before the movie started.  We had been there about 20 minutes when Gail called on the phone.  Her 90 year-old mother-in-law had fallen.  She managed to reach her phone and called the Storeys.  The Storeys went to her house and took her to the hospital.  She was x-rayed but no broken bones were found.

This morning Gail called again to say that she and Glenn would be spending the day with Ruby.  I took my binder of musical selections that I love to play with me to church.  I played a solo this morning instead of a duet.  I played “Seagull in the Sky” by the French composer Chabon.  I received several complements afterwards.

We had a guest speaker today, Dr. Davis Joyce, a retired history professor who had taught at Tulsa University and East Central University in Ada.  Joyce spoke about historian Howard Zinn.  We are presently studying Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States at Restoration.

A trip to Okmulgee

We had received a recall notice from Saturn in December saying that we should arrange to take our car to South Point Chevrolet in January 2013.  The recall purpose was to replace a cable of some kind.  Our appointment was for 10 am on Thursday.  I pulled in at 10 am and went to the waiting area.  I told the manager to check the battery also since the manager at Same Day Auto had told me that the battery was weak.  He did so and said the battery was fine.  It took about an hour to have the work done.

We get on the Creek Turnpike at Sapulpa to go to Tulsa.  As we got off the turnpike, I headed in toward Sapulpa and went to the post office.  There I bought a sheet of commemorative stamps which were issued on the 150^th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. 

J had been looking for a new pair of boots.  The pair she was wearing had worn down quite a bit and needed replacing.  She had bought them at a Payless Shoe Source store.  The store in Sand Springs did not have any in stock.  Since we were in Sapulpa, we decided to check the Sapulpa store.  It is almost directly across from the post office.  They did not have any in stock either.  However, they checked their computer which indicated that the store in Okmulgee had one pair.  We called the store to confirm the computer inventory check.  We were told they had one pair and would hold that pair for us.  Sapulpa is about 10 miles south of Prattville, and about a third of the way to Okmulgee.

On the way out of Sapulpa we stopped at a Long John Silver’s for lunch.  I had the two-piece cod on rice with green beans and corn on the cob.  Delish.  We got back on the road (Hwy 117) and headed for Hwy 75, which goes into Okmulgee.  Going south on 75 there was an eighteen wheeler ahead of us also going south but in the other lane.  All of a sudden, “Ka-boom!”  The truck ahead blew a tire.  It threw “alligators” about the roadway.  Fortunately, none hit the car.

We found the Payless Store on the south end of Okmulgee and bought the shoes.  We got back on Hwy 75 and returned home.  Back in Sand Springs, I drove to the Case Community Center and walked three miles.

Recent happenings

Last week we made a trip to Springfield.  We were gone three days.  I thought I lost my Kindle twice.  On the first occasion, I brought the Kindle into my parents' apartment.  However, I was unsure about that.  I was even unsure I had brought the Kindle with me.  Anyway, I was thinking I had set the Kindle down somewhere in the apartment.  I was going to read a bit before going to sleep and noticed it was missing.  I went back out to my car twice looking for it.  In the morning my mother told me she thought the Kindle was hers and had put it into a drawer.  So it was within three feet of me all the night long, and I didn't know it.

The next instance was when we were heading back to Sand Springs on Sunday.  As we were on the James River Expressway, I asked about my Kindle.  We pulled off at Chesterfield Village and looked for it in the trunk.  We couldn't find it so I phoned my Dad.  He did not see it in the apartment.  I found it as I was talking to my Dad.  It was on the dashboard of my car.  My parents probably think I'm a dork.

I did not go to church last Sunday.  We were on the road at that time.  Next Sunday is Humanist Sunday.  On Monday Gail and I rehearsed for our part in the Humanist Sunday service.  We will be playing a bluesy piece titled "I'll Wait For You."