The last few days

In the last few days, we attended a lecture at Tulsa Town Hall on Friday morning.  We heard Dr. Andrew Weil, a popular writer and speaker, talk about health and nutrition.  I have started reading his book Healthy Aging on my Kindle.  (I downloaded the free portion -- roughly, the first chapter.) 

Saturday morning I did a volkswalk here in Sand Springs.  The start point was about a mile from the house.  I followed the course which was 3.1 miles in length.

Then that afternoon, I went to the HAT meeting.  I wrote an account of the meeting which is posted on the HAT blog.

That evening Vanessa sent me an e-mail to let me know that Edna, the church pianist, was not feeling well and that I would be needed to play piano at the Sunday service.  So I filled in for Edna this morning.  For the special music,  I played Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 3. There were about a dozen people at the service.

Check out this new blog

Here is the link to a new blog you might enjoy:

http://oddoklahoma.com/

A Visit to Springfield

Since we were gone for several days we had our mail held at the post office.  Since today was a holiday, there was no mail delivery.  I will pick up the mail tomorrow.

Gail and I had our weekly practice today.  We mostly played Christmas music.  Next time we perform we will play "Jingle Bells" and "Still, Still, Still."  We are also working on "Give Thanks."  Some people might find it strange that two atheists would be playing Christmas-oriented music, but we do not let religion get in the way of enjoying music.  We both love to play hymns.

While in Springfield I finished reading The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe.  I read it as part of my participation in the Methodist Book Club.  The group meets tomorrow night, but I will have to miss that meeting.  I plan to attend the Progressive Book Group which meets at my church.  We are reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.  We take just a chapter or two per meeting.  It will take us two years to get through the book, at our current rate.

Interesting stats (from Fox Business.com)

Election Day

Election day has arrived.  If you have not already voted, I hope you will do so today.

Chris Rock on the whiteness of Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDxOSjgl5Z4

Quoted

The following is a portion of a letter from Michael Moore:

I cannot believe it is possible that, after a group of rich plutocrats wrecked the economy, threw people out of work and stole our future, we may actually hand the keys to our country over to...a rich Republican plutocrat who made millions by throwing people out of work! This is insane, and despite all the legitimate criticisms of Obama, he is nothing like the tsunami of hate and corporate thievery that will take place if Mitt Romney is president. As bad as it feels now, it will only get worse.

I need your help to stop this. I can't promise you that your life will get better, easier under Barack Obama. I do think he cares and I know for sure that if the other guy is sitting in the Oval Office, I can guarantee you that not only will your life not get better, it will get much, much worse. Don't take my word for it. Just ask your parents what life was like before a 30-year pillage by the Republicans of the middle class. Your parents bought a house and eventually owned it outright. They weren't in debt. College was free. They bought a new car every 3 or 4 years. They took vacations and were home for dinner by 5 or 6 PM. They had a savings account in the bank. They didn't live in fear of not knowing if they'd even have a job next year.

That's all gone. I don't know if we can get it back, but I do know that Mr. Romney would love the chance to complete the final elimination of the middle class and the American Dream.

Romney's Storm Tips

Click on tips to enlarge image.

On Obama

"What can be said without equivocation is that Obama has proven himself morally, intellectually, temperamentally, and strategically. In my lifetime, or my parents,' he is easily the best president. On his own terms, and not merely as a contrast to an unacceptable alternative, he overwhelmingly deserves reelection."
                            -- Jonathan Chait, New Yorker magazine

Quoted

If President Obama is re-elected, health care coverage will expand dramatically, taxes on the wealthy will go up and Wall Street will face tougher regulation. If Mitt Romney wins instead, health coverage will shrink substantially, taxes on the wealthy will fall to levels not seen in 80 years and financial regulation will be rolled back.   --Paul Krugman

Early voting in Oklahoma

Early voting in Oklahoma starts today.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday morning J and I went walking at the nearby fitness center.  Normally, on a Monday morning Gail and I have piano duet practice together, but Gail had an appointment with her oncologist this morning.  As we were driving home, I got a call from Gail who had just arrived home from her appointment.  I hurried home and vacuumed the living room and mopped the kitchen and dining room.  Then I took a shower and got dressed.  Gail had received a good report from her doctor.  She has been cancer free for over a year now.

This morning, we went to the copy shop and made copies of some insurance papers.  Next we drove to the post office and mailed the papers.  Then we paid a city utilities bill.  I took a nap, and then we walked the Katy trail for two miles.  I have reached 368 miles miles walking this year, thereby reaching my goal of a average of a mile a day.  After the walk, we went in to the May's Drug Store and I got a flu shot for this season.

Election question

Given the choice of voting for a Christian or a Mormon, which candidate do you vote for?

Recent and coming events

On Thursday, Oct. 18, I met at Restoration with Larry R., Marilyn, and Gail for the first session of our study of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.  We had a good discussion, which lasted just over an hour.  Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at the church.  One thing I learned from the first session was that in the 1600s some colonists got so hungry that they dug up corpses and ate them. 

Today we had the HAT meeting at the Genealogy Center on Harvard.  I read a poem by my favorite poet, Philip Appleman.  It is titled "Hymn of Praise to the Intelligent Designer." We have moved the meetings back to the Genealogy Center by popular demand.  We had about ten people there today.  HAT will continue to fill the pulpit at Restoration on the first Sunday of each month.  I will be the speaker in November.

Bill Doolin, deceased

This photo was taken of the outlaw Bill Doolin following his death.

Daily activities

I gave an interview this afternoon with a reporter from Urban Tulsa Weekly.  We met at the Coffee House on Cherry St.  We talked about 25 minutes.  He is doing an article on the growth of atheism in Tulsa.  He said the article will appear either in November or December.

Gail came over for about an hour and a quarter starting at 3:00 pm.  We practiced the piece we will be playing on Humanist Sunday in November.  We also played a few other pieces.  Next Monday Gail has an appointment with her oncologist.  We plan to practice on another day.

Next, we took Ayla to her piano lesson.   We took Ayla home with us and later went to Braum’s for dinner.  Then we took her home.

Vacation, part 10

The pictures show the Ingalls Hotel in Ingalls, Oklahoma.  It is the site of the biggest shootout in the southwest.  It was here that Bill Doolin of the Dalton Gang was involved in a shootout with a law officer in 1893.  E. D. Nix, a U.S.Marshall, learned that Doolin was at this location and sent a deputy and a posse of 13 men to capture him.  As things turned out, three marshalls were killed.  Two bystanders were killed.  Three of the gang members were wounded.  Arkansas Tom Jones was wounded and captured.  Doolin was wounded but shot and killed Richard Speed, a deputy marshall.  Doolin was later shot and killed in Oklahoma.  Ingalls is about ten miles to the east of Stillwater.

Vacation, part 9

Look at the structure in the top picture.  Can you guess what the purpose of this tall building is?  Hint: It is located behind the fire station.  Firefighters would hang their hoses from this building to let them dry out before storing them on the fire trucks.  The picture below the top one shows a performer inside the Blue Belle Saloon playing and singing.  How about the third picture?  Looks like a cedar tree, right?  What you are looking at in this picture is a geocache hidden in the cedar tree.  The last picture is a close up of the tree showing two camoed containers about the size of a 35mm film canister.  The log was inside the first container.  I'm guessing trade items were in the second.  I signed the log and replaced it in the container.

A double dose of Sunday

Today I went to church twice.  My first visit was at All Souls Unitarian Church on Peoria Ave. for the 8:30 service.  They now have three services on Sunday: a Humanist, a Contemporary, and a Traditional.  The music was fantastic.  Rick Fortner played jazz piano, accompanied by a saxophonist.  Marvin’s topic this morning dealt with his recent visit to Romania, specifically Transylvania.  He was part of a group of people taking a tour of the area.  As they went by a school they noticed a sign that said something to the effect that the Unitarian church operated the school.  They decided to step inside for a visit, which resulted in the group being invited to return the next day and address the school children.

They were asked about where they would be going next.  Upon telling the group, they were warned about what to expect.  They were told the people in that country could not be trusted, to be careful and cautious.  However, once they got there, the people seemed okay.  However, before they moved on, they were once again warned about the people in the next country.  This seemed to happen repeatedly.  Each group of people was warning about the people in the next country.  But once the tour reached the next country, they found the people there just as trustworthy as people in the last country.

It seems that people are naturally suspicious of differences – all kinds of differences -- differences in race, ethnicity, and religion.  Why do we have the tendency to think the worse about people who are different from us?  Marvin then said that few people ever learn how parochial their beliefs are.  We grow up just believing the religion of our parents is the one, correct, true religion. 

Ask yourself this question: How much does my religion differ from the religion of my parents?  If it differs not very much or not at all, were you just lucky to be born into a family with correct beliefs?  Almost everyone thinks so, be they Islamic, Hindu, Jehovah Witness, Adventist, Primitive Baptist, Northern Baptist, Southern Baptist, Missionary Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian,  Lutheran, Christian Science, etc .  There are literally thousands of denominations, and each believer thinks that he or she has the truth when it comes to religion. 

Few people ever realize that they were indoctrinated with the beliefs they hold to be true from the cradle onward..

Moving along, after the service at All Souls ended, I headed north on Peoria and stopped in at Gateway Market and bought potato salad for Second Helping, an after- the- service meal at Restoration.  Today our minister spoke.  I played the piano, since the regular pianist had to be elsewhere today.  There were about 15 people there today.  During the RE period, Mary read a paragraph which resonated with me.  I asked if I could make a copy of what she just read.  She handed it to me and five other people asked if I could make them a copy also.  Here is the statement:

It is very easy to pretend to understand what one does not understand.  Often the degree to which we oppose a thing marks the degree to which we do not understand it.  Sometimes we use our opposition to an idea to cover our own ignorance.  We express our dislike for things, sometimes for people, when we do not understand the things we pretend to dislike; when we do not know the people for whom we have the antagonism.

Following the service we had our Second Helping in the Congregation Life room.

Vacation, part 7

Just outside the Blue Belle Bar we met a man giving free rides in his horse-drawn wagon.  So we hitched a ride with him.  The third picture shows the violin shop of a man who had closed up fo0r the day so he could attend the International Oklahoma Bluegrass Festival.  At bottom is a close-up of the door to his business.  The sign reads, "Gone Fiddlin.'"