Note to Galen

I just finished reading your blog, Galen. I don't know how difficult it is to find the book you mentioned, the title of which is Know Your Limits -- Then Ignore Them by John Mason. I will be happy to mail you my copy. Just let me know.

The book is a collection of 101 nuggets (of wisdom?). Nugget number 47 is "You Can't Get Ahead When You Are Trying to Get Even."

"Never cut what can be untied" (Joseph Joubert). When you have been wronged, a poor memory is your best response. Never carry a grudge. While you are straining under its weight, the person you are mad at is out producing.

Forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them more. There is no revenge as sweet as forgivness. The only people you should try to get even with are those who have helped you.

"Forgivness ought to be like a cancelled note -- torn in two, and burned up, so that it can never be shown against one" (Henry Ward Beecher). One of the greatest strengths you can show is when you forego revenge and dare to forgive an injury.

"He who cannot forgive, destroys the bridge over which he may one day need to pass," said Larry Bielat. The one guarantee for limiting your potential is unforgiveness. Hate, bitterness, and revenge are luxuries you cannot afford.

People need loving most when they deserve it least. Forgiveness heals; unforgiveness wounds. When we think about our offense, trouble grows; when we forgive, trouble goes.

That's about half of that essay. Titles of some of the others are: If You Are Only Looking Out For Yourself, Look Out!, The Most Dangerous Place To Be Is In the Middle of the Road, Climb Out of the Grandstand and Onto the Playing Field, and Unless You Enter the Beehive, You Can't Take the Honey.

The book was published here in Tulsa by Insight Publishing Group, which tells me it might be hard to find in California. I picked it up for fifty cents at a book sale at my local library. If you would like to have it, just let me know.

Today was Halloween. We had fewer trick-or-treaters than in years past. I noticed that some area churches had organized alternative events. That may have kept a large number of kids from being out on the streets.

I'm still trying to decide between a Kindle and a Nook. Each has some advantages the other lacks.

Braum's for breakfast

This morning we went to Braum's for breakfast. While there we read the newspaper the old-fashioned way, on paper. Recently we have been reading it on screen.

After our breakfast of sausage and egg buscuit with coffee for J and orange juice for myself (I never drink coffee), we returned home and took care of a couple of handyman projects: I sawed a board to use as a shelf, and I sawed off a piece of a chair slat so we could get the slat back in place. How the slat got out of the chair, neither of us knows. While we were in the garage, we swept it out and gathered up our soft drink cans in a large trash bag. Periodically we sell our cans to Yaffe Metals on Charles Page Boulevard. I hope to finish reading A People's History of American Empire today.

Clear day

There was flooding in Tulsa yesterday, but today the weather was clear. We went to Lake Keystone and picked up the money for the walking club. There were 17 walkers in the fourth quarter so far. I have yet to do the Keystone Walk for the second half of the year. I need to walk Keystone before it turns too cold.

From there we drove to the Lowe's in Tulsa (on Yale). We bought a new kitchen faucet set for $112. It has a high neck and a sprayer. The brand we bought is Delta, that being the brand our plumber recommended. He will be out here next Monday afternoon to install it.

After we left Lowe's we drove over to a shopping center on 51st St. There we had lunch at a Subway. From there we walked to the Beltone office. My hearing aids were back from the factory. I have until November 24 to decide if I want to keep them or turn them back to Beltone. Next Monday I will call Hearing Specialists of Tulsa. They are supposed to have a discount on hearing aids in connection with United Healthcare Allies.

After leaving Beltone, we went to Saturn of Tulsa. Cars are no longer being sold there. The showroom was empty. However, the parts department was still open. We had ordered touch up paint which had come in. We picked it up. From there we got on the Creek Turnpike and drove to Sapulpa. We got off the turnpike there and took highway 97 on in to Sand Springs.

Tomorrow is Halloween. The weather is supposed to be mild and clear, and being it is a weekend, I expect to be visited by many little ghosts and goblins tomorrow evening. Tonight J went with Nick, Jen, Luke, and Ayla to Springs Village (about a mile from here) for a candy giveaway. The event was held in the old Med-X location; however, there was such a huge crowd that they came back before they ever got inside the store.

I read a few more pages from the book by Howard Zinn today and recorded my progress on Good Reads. Do you use Good Reads? If not, go to goodreads.com and sign up. Good Reads is a way to let your friends know what you are reading.

Rainy day

It rained today. We had planned to go to Tulsa, but it rained so much that we decided to stay home and go tomorrow. We have a few errands we need to run tomorrow -- Loew's, Beltone, Saturn.

I think I got out only twice today. First, I went walking at TCC. Then later I went to the library to pick up books.

I got an e-mail from Vicki in Houston that she had received the puzzle which I had mailed to her. She is going to send me a puzzle also to put together.

Next week I should have the page proofs for my next indexing project.

I looked again at the short YouTube video I posted yesterday. It had received more than a dozen hits. I am looking forward to recording and posting "Birch Tree Rag" with Gail next week.

Getting ready for our YouTube debut

I have a short video on YouTube. The video is of me playing my doumbek. This video was uploaded just as a test to see if we could actually do it. It works. The video was shot about a year ago and is of me in my office playing a rhythm on my doumbek. We will probably take the video down shortly. We just wanted to see how difficult it was to get a video up on YouTube. As it turns out, it is pretty easy to do.

Anyone wanting to see the video should type into the search box "Dan and his doumbek 145." Again, this short video was uploaded just as an experiment. We added the number 145 just to make the video easy to find.

Next Monday, Gail and I will be videotaped by J as we play "Birch Tree Rag." We will then upload it to YouTube.

In other news, I went to TCC and walked three miles around midday. In the afternoon I read some of a book by Howard Zinn.

Then we went to the Methodist Church and had our pictures taken for the directory. We also ordered about $250 in photos from the photographer.

In the evening, J and I went to my son's house and stayed with Luke and Ayla while Nick went to the church and sang with the choir.

Newberg and Waldman on the brain

Here is a quote from How God Changes Your Brain by Newberg and Waldman:

Some people put their faith in God, while others put it into science, relationships, or work. But wherever you choose to place your faith, you must still confront a deeper question: What is your ultimate purpose and dream? What do you really desire in your life -- not only for yourself, but for the world as well? And how will you begin to make that desire a reality? Having hope and faith are essential, but something more is needed: the skill and discipline to organize your brain in ways that will successfully motivate your life. Our meditation studies have provided a few basic tools that can help you achieve those goals, and if you apply them to your life, not only will you find a little more happiness, you'll bring a little more peace into the world.

I'm going to Atlanta

I think I will be going to Atlanta next January. In the past in January I have met my good friend John from Tupelo, MS in Little Rock for a visit. The last time we met in Little Rock was January 2006. In January 2007, I underwent a craniotomy and have not made a reunion trip since then to Little Rock. However, I am now ready to resume the annual trip to see my good friend. I have long wanted to see Stone Mountain, which is just a few miles north of Atlanta. Perhaps I will get the chance to see the place in a few weeks.

The day began with Gail coming over to practice piano duets with me. Next week, J is going to film us playing "Birch Tree Rag" by Robert Vandall. Then I am going to try to upload the video to YouTube. Our long-term goal is to play at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Tulsa.

We had a plumber come over today and fix the faucet at our kitchen sink. It was squirting water at the place where the neck comes through the surface of the sink. We had a deteriorated O-ring which needed to be replaced.

This evening I went to the Prices' home for drumming. I told them about my vacation and about a couple of YouTube finds.

Events of the day

The first thing I did today was go to church. Another small group was there. Patrick has left and is now going to All Souls. There were just six of us there. I expect some day to get a call telling me that the church is no more.

Today was "Heretic Sunday." Some Protestant denominations celebrate something called "Reformation Sunday." We celebrate "Heretic Sunday." It is a time to remember those who were called heretics and perished by being burned at the stake. Since we have no minister, Betty Morrow read a sermon written by Suzanne Meyer who is a Unitarian minister somewhere out west (Colorado?). It was an excellent sermon. It is available online. I might look it up and print out a copy.

Following the church service, I went to the Tulsa Atheists Meetup. I opened the meeting and soon turned it over the Kenny. Today was my last meeting as Organizer. I have now resigned as Organizer of Tulsa Atheists Meetup. I resigned as well as Organizer of Tulsa Humanism Meetup and the Liberal Action Network. I could not take the constant complaining from my wife about my activities. So I am backing out of everything.

It is time to launch out in a new direction. There are other things I can do. I will need to make new friends and get involved in new activities. I think this will be a major turning point in my life.

Food & Fellowship at Lanna Thai's

Now that Barbara F. is back from Michigan, we went by her apartment and gave her a ride to Lanna Thai's restaurant. It was the day for our October Humanist Food and Fellowship. There were eight of us there. Gail has been looking for a public venue in which we can play piano duets. She noticed recently that there is a grand piano in the Crowne Plaza Hotel (formerly Adam's Mark). She will contact someone there and see if they would like to have a duet team visit occasionally and play piano.

After the meal was over, we took Barbara by an apartment she is considering moving into. Her daughter and son-in-law will be moving from California to Tulsa before the end of the month and will be living with Barbara. She will be moving out of University Club tower and into a duplex. She will miss the view she now has of Tulsa from the twentieth floor of the tower.

While we were there, one of her next-door neighbors came over and was most helpful telling her about utilities and other matters.

New song discovery

My friend Dan Cagle (living now in Pryor) sent me this link to a bluegrass song. I like the philosophy it expresses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlaoR5m4L80

Tulsa Town Hall and a Movie

Today J and I went to a Tulsa Town Hall event at the Performing Arts Center. There was a large crowd there. I would guess about 1,500 people. Today's speaker was Rory Kennedy -- the youngest daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. Rory Kennedy is a filmmaker, specifically of documentaries.

When J stepped into the ladies' room she saw Gail. They chatted briefly and J returned to where I was. We sat up in the nosebleed section. The speaker was barely visible, being so far away. We attended the event thanks to being given tickets by Bill D., who is away on vacation.

We were going to park in the parking garage, but it was closed. I don't know if it filled up or was being used for some other purpose. We parked in the lot to the east of the PAC (Performing Arts Center) for $5.

Maybe it was because we were seated so far away, but the speech seemed a bit dull to me. Rory showed clips from a few of her documentaries and spoke a bit about each one.

After we left the PAC (which took about 20 minutes), we went to the AMC 20 theaters to check on the time of the next showing of Capitalism: A Love Story by filmmaker Michael Moore. We had an hour before the next showing, enough time to go up the street to Saied's Music Co. I went in and looked around, but I did not see any new piano duet music. I'm always on the lookout for new piano duet music.

We returned to the AMC and bought tickets and went inside. There were only a few people inside the theater. I thought the movie was great. It does seem that the middle class is disappearing. Will the people ever decide to revolt against the one percent who controls more of the wealth in the country than the bottom 95% combined? Stranger things have happened.

When we returned to Sand Springs, we stopped at the Crescent for supper. We both had the all-you-can-eat catfish dinner. We watched NOW and Bill Moyers Journal to close out this busy day.

Another hearing test

The day got off to a good start with the mailman bringing us a package from my cousin Vicki, who lives in Houston. She had made us four bibs, two apiece. Now when we go out for barbecue, we can strap on a bib and not worry about dripping barbecue sauce on our clothing. Many thanks, Vicki, for making these for us.

I went to TCC and walked three miles. I set my MP3 player to"Shuffle" and listened to a variety of music as I walked.

I took another hearing test today. The test was given by Cleartone. Cleartone clearly has a larger operation, at least in the Tulsa area. When we were at Beltone, we were the only clients in the building, and there was only one employee at that location. When we walked in to Cleartone, there were almost a dozen people in the waiting room. I saw at least a half dozen employees there. Whereas Beltone was located in a strip mall, Cleartone had their own stand alone building. Free cookies and coffee were available for clients. I scarfed down a cookie while filling out the paperwork.

Pretty soon a woman steps out and calls my name. (The setting had the feel of a doctor's office.) We walked back to exam room number 12 and sat down. The lady (the nurse?) left, closing the door behind her. Soon a man in a white lab coat (the doctor?) walks into the office and asks me why I am there. I said I want to get a second opinion. It seemed an approprite response to me. So we talked for a while and then he gave me the hearing tests. It was similar to what had taken place at Beltone, but not exactly the same. Both tests showed that in the upper frequency range, I do not hear as well as I once could.

After the tests were finished, we went to the Promenade Mall. We had lunch at the food court. After lunch, we walked across the mall to the nearby "As Seen On TV" store, which specializes in products you see advertised on TV. I wanted to try a hearing aid I saw on TV which looks like a Bluetooth mouthpiece. I bought one for less than twenty dollars. It amplifies sound without distinguishing between various pitchs of sound.

Next we went to the Penneys store where I bought a new pair of walking shoes -- New Balance.

I forgot to mention that when I got up this morning, my tooth problem was gone. I hope it doesn't come back.

Batteries and more

Wednesday evening one of my hearing aids had exhausted its battery after only a few hours. Natalie at Beltone said if I found I had a problem with battery life to bring the devices in and she would send them back to Beltone for repair. So that is what I did today. We returned to devices to Beltone. That stopped the clock on the 30-day trial period. Tomorrow I have an appointment at Cleartone in the afternoon.

We noticed a leak in our kitchen faucet. Water was gushing up from around the base of the spigot. Maybe it just needs a new washer. So tomorrow we may be buying a new faucet and have a plumber install it. You have to be something of a contortionist to install a faucet in the kitchen sink. There is always something to be fixed with home ownership.

Tonight for the first time I noticed a bit of pain from a tooth. It seems to be coming from a tooth with a crown. My gum is swollen at the base of the tooth. I will need to call my dentist tomorrow morning and see if I can get in for him to see me. One a scale of 1 to 10, I would say the pain is at level 3.

I went walking this afternoon at TCC. I did the usual three miles. I listened to a CD titled "Ikon" by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. It is one of my favorite CDs.

Glad Hearts of the Ozarks

This musical ensemble goes by the name Glad Hearts of the Ozarks. We saw them and a few other acts perform while we were at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas on the evening of October 4, 2009.

Tomb of Abraham Lincoln

Flowers

This picture was taken at the botanical gardens in Springfield, Illinois.

Piano, hassle, and puzzle

Gail came over yesterday for our weekly piano duet practice session. Monday is usually our practice day, but we moved it to Tuesday this week as Gail had something planned for Monday.

We went to see Natalie (hearing aid specialist) and had the aids tweeked a bit on Monday. They are still not working right. I have had to change the battery in one of them twice since we were at Beltone on Monday. Tomorrow I have an appointment at ClearTone. What a hassle!

Note to cousin Vicki: the size of the puzzle when assembled is 12" X 9". I will wait until I hear again from you before mailing it.

Running around town

I seems like I did a lot of running around Tulsa today. The first thing we did was check the Internet for information on hearing aids. I have 30 days to decide whether to keep the devices I got from Beltone or to return them for a full refund. I scheduled an appointment with Clear-Tone to see what price they might offer me. Beltone wants $5,154.56 for their hearing aids.

We went back to the Beltone office and talked with the representative. She made an adjustment in the devices because the shuffling of papers was annoying to me. It seemed to drown out other sounds. They work better now.

(Dad, if you are reading this to Mother, you can skip this paragraph.) Next, we went to the Red Lobster where I bought a gift card for my Mother for her birthday. She will be 87 years old on Wednesday. Then we went to the dollar store and bought a birthday card for her.

I also bought a couple more recorders in case we have more people who want to play with the Secular Singers in the future. I bought a pack of six whistles which I thought the Secular Singers might use for our upcoming Christmas Concert. They may or may not be useful. Since they were only one dollar for the pack of six, a bought a pack. I have yet to try them.

Also, I bought a small jigsaw puzzle. Vicki, you may remember a few years back when I mailed you a puzzle without the box and asked you to assemble it. Would you like another challenge? This one is a snowscape. It contains three geese, two cardinals, one snowman, one barn, and one shed. The lamp is in the upper left hand corner, and the frozen lake is in the lower right hand corner. The Christmas tree is near the frozen lake. The puzzle contains just 100 pieces. Think of it as a means to ward of the onset of Altzheimer's.

(Dad: Skip to next paragraph. ) Next we drove to downtown Tulsa and put the card with gift certificate in the mail at the main post office.

I thought my page proofs for my next indexing job would arrive today. If they don't come tomorrow, I will call the editor and ask about them.

This evening I returned a couple of items to the library. In the library, there is a shelf where donated books are sold to raise money for the library. I saw a couple which interested me, and I bought them. Hardback sell for one dollar; paperbacks for 50 cents. I bought one of each. The hardback book is titled Ta'i Chi in a Chair: Easy 15-Minute Roputines for Beginners. It is a series of exercises you can do sitting in a chair. Each exercise is accompanied by an illustration.

The other book is a softback. It's title is Know Your Limits -- Then Ignore Them. The book is a collection of 101 "Nuggets of Truth." Some of the nuggets are : Don't End Up Like Concrete, All Mixed Up and Permanently Set; If You Wait Too Long, the Future Is Gone When You Get There; The Purpose of Life is to Have a Life of Purpose; and If You Have a Desire, Distance Doesn't Matter. These sould like sermon titles, don't they Galen?

It is about time for Leno. I will post more later or tomorrow.

Today's events

Today I attended the Sunday morning service at Church of the Restoration. How much longer can this church continue? That is the question on everyone's mind these days. There were only seven in the service this morning, and that included the lay leader and the pianist. My guess is that the church will have to fold before much longer.

Following the service I went to Barbara F's apartment and gave her a ride to the Humanist meeting at Hardesty Library. Barbara said one of her daughters from California would be moving to Tulsa. Both her daughter and son-in-law are now unemployed. Her son-in-law is a photographer. He shoots weddings and similar events. His business has declined with the general economy.

Barbara speculated that since she is now 84 years old that her daughter is moving closer to her mother, in what is most likely her final days. When Barbara left for Michigan earlier this summer, she told everybody goodbye as if it were the last time she would see us.

At the HAT meeting today we heard a speaker from the Tulsa Interfaith Alliance. We talked some about a possible role for humanists in the organization.

On the way back to her apartment, Barbara and I stopped at Wendy's since we were both hungry. Barbara reminisced about her earlier days and about her father who she greatly admires. She retold the story about her brother, the Presbyterian minister, who on his deathbed asked Barbara if she would be returning to Christianity. Barbara said "No."

Riot reminders

Yesterday I went walking at the TCC Fitness Center. I did three and a half miles, which brought my weekly total up to seven. While walking I listened to music by Respighi, one of my favorite composers.

Later that evening, I watched the NBC Nightly News, and then I watched NOW with David Brancaccio followed by Bill Moyers Journal.

This morning I did a 5 K volkswalk in the Greenwood District. Greenwood is the site of the infamous "Race Riot" of 1921. I put the words in quotes because it was more like an attack on a helpless people, the black citizens of Tulsa. Even a private plane got into the act by strafing the citizens below. Death estimates range from 60 to 600. Several square blocks of the city (all in the black part of Tulsa) were destroyed.

The Greenwood District was very prosperous before the massacre. As you walk along the sidewalks you will see metal plaques imbedded in the concrete sidewalks indicating where certain businesses were located. A barber shop here, a dry goods store there; grocery stores were along Greenwood Avenue as well. Archer Street was the dividing line between white Tulsa and black Tulsa. Greenwood was called the Black Wall Street. Many of the destroyed businesses never rebuilt. Many blacks fled the city never to return.

Today's walk was number 231 for me. I hope I can reach 250 by the end of the year.