Recent news

Yesterday, I went to an eye surgery center to have my cataracts evaluated. I went to the place recommended by my optomitrist. It is on Harvard Avenue in Tulsa.

The center did a thorough test of my vision. They concluded that I did not need to have surgery at this time. I was told that if I noticed any degeneration in my vision, I should come back. So I will bide my time until I notice some vision impairment.

Today was Ayla's eighth birthday party. Her party was held at a roller skating rink in Sand Springs. Her parents had reserved the rink from 5 to 7. She had presents and a cake.

Back on Tuesday, we had more storms roll through. Our neighbor on the south side of us has a storm shelter in his back yard. We went over there and rode out the storm underground. The storm missed Sand Springs. I hope that was the last storm for this season.

Silent Night (new lyrics with an evolutionary perspective)

Click on the link below. Then click on "Music Videos for contemporary church services" in the lower right corner. Click on Connie Barlow. Then select "Silent Night." Have the sound on and click to enlarge the image. Read the new lyrics as you listen to the music and enjoy the visuals.

http://thegreatstory.org/

Weather worries

Again tonight we had some rough weather passing through. I figure it is only a matter of time before a tornado hits Sand Springs. How many times can you dodge the bullet before you lose? There were 116 people in nearby Joplin (100 miles from here) who lost their lives yesterday. We had storms in the area tonight, but fortunately we dodged the bullet again. I heard on the news this evening that we have had more than 1,000 tornadoes in the U.S. so far this year. I suspect global climate change is the source for all the weird weather we have been having.

Our next door neighbor has a storm shelter in his back yard. It might be worth looking into having something like that in our back yard.

Volkswalking in Owasso

Today when I woke up I headed out for Owasso, a suburb of Tulsa about 20 miles away. It had been a while since my last volkswalk. The walk today was only my second of this year. We had walked in Owasso before, but it was probably five years (a guess) since I last walked in Owasso. J did not go with me today.

The walk started in Elm Creek Park and then went around a lake. From it I returned to the park. Although the weatherman said rain showers were likely, we saw not a drop of rain.

This is good

A friend sent me a link to something on the Internet. There is a lot of truth in what this man says.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33qF4LDAXvQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Update

I've got a few minutes before it is time to pick up Luke and Ayla from school.

Here's a quick update on things since my last posting. On Saturday, we had seven members of HAT meeting at the church for a discussion led by Herb. We are now meeting at Church of the Restoration, except for our main meeting which is still held at the Genealogy Center (for the time being).

The service last Sunday at Church of the Restoration was led by Mary Rounds, Rosemary Powell, and Vanessa Adams-Harris, all from the church. The title of the talk was "Freedom Riders, Justice Bound: Are We There Yet."

Monday morning Gail came over for our weekly piano duet practice. Our next performance piece will be "Plymouth Pride" by Melody Bober. We should be playing again at Restoration on Sunday, June 5. I will probably be the speaker for that service.

The last few days

What has happened in the last few days? Last Wednesday I went to my eye doctor, Dr. Riggins. She checked my eyes for cataracts. She said the cataracts had progressed to the point where I should think about having something done about them. We talked about surgery and that appears to be the option I will take. I never realized I had a problem with cataracts and wouldn't know anything about having cataracts had not Dr. Riggins brought it to my attention. I thought my vision was fine.

It is about time for another doctor's appointment -- a follow-up to having pneumonia. I will finish this later.

Try again

The last time I tried to post to this blog, I got a message saying that Blogger was down. That was a couple of days ago. I tried again last night and got a similar message. So instead of writing a lot and not getting it posted, I am going to stop here and see if this will post.

Death of co-worker

Last week, I learned of the death of a woman with whom I had worked at the railroad. She, like me, was a clerk. She was about my age, being born in January of 1948. The last I knew of her, she was in good health. She left the railroad in the mid 90s for other pursuits.

I had intended to go to her funeral, but someting came up and we were needed to take care of our grandchildren. So I am left to wonder what happened to her. I recall that she was something of a free spirit and would on occasion put the pedal to the metal while driving the messager van. May she R.I.P.

Sickness

Last Friday, I saw a doctor for a cough I had been having. She took a couple of chest x-rays of me and then told me I have pneumonia. Since then I have been taking it easy. I skipped church last Sunday and let my meetings go. Tomorrow night we will skip Movie Night. The doctor told me to stay away from people as I am susceptible to catching something from somebody else.

The schola (chant) practice at the cathedral is tomorrow from 10 to 1. I will let that activity go by the wayside. This is my third time to miss. I think I will give up on that. A three-hour rehearsal seems rather lengthy to me.

I need to focus more on getting well at this time.

Just checkin' in

It has been a few days since I last posted on this blog. All I have to say at this time is that last Friday I had a visit with my doctor, and she told me I had pneumonia. I knew I was sick, but did not realize how serious it was. Since that time, I have been perfecting the art of lounging. It is not quite 10 am, but I am already thinking about taking a nap.

Good night.

Back from Springfield

We made a trip to Springfield to visit my parents this week. We drove there on Tuesday and returned to Sand Springs today.

We have Humanist Sunday coming up on May 1. This Sunday, Randy will be speaking. The title of his talk will be "Healthcare and the Moral Choice." Tomorrow I will assign the various remaining parts of the service to members of either CoR or HAT. Since Edna, our pianist, will be away, I will play the piano at the service.

The day closes

Here we are at the end of another day.

This day the highlight of my day was having a meal with my friends at The Royal Dragon, a Chinese restaurant in the Fontana Center.

Attendance was off somewhat. We had eight people there by the end of the dinner. Three was late arriving due to having been at the opera.

I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow; I think I will turn in now.

Garden pictures

This is a picture of the garden alone. The bed has been prepared and awaits planting.


This is the tomato plant that suffered trauma in my garage. I don't think it is going to survive. I will probably replace it in a day or so.


This is the same plant pre-trauma.


This is a topsy turvy plant in the back room.

Another garden picture.

Dan in the garden.

We visit the Philbrook

We visited the Philbrook Museum today along with several members of J's Sunday School class. Although the church provided transportation, we opted to drive to the museum ourselves. The traveling exhibit was on streamlined design and how it influenced commercial products of the times.

Following the visit, we all went to Luby's Cafeteria for lunch. The best deal with cafeteria food is at Furr's. It had been a while since I had eaten at Luby's. The food was good, but it was more exepensive than Furr's.

After the evening news, we drove over to the Katy Trail and walked two miles. We went in to the Drug Warehouse store and bought two cans of raisins. (Why? I will explain later.)

A couple days ago, I bought a 40 lb. sack a Miracle Grow potting soil. I finished filling up the topsy-turvy bags with potting soil. One topsy turvy is hanging in the back work room/library/computer room. The other t.t. had been hanging on a clothes line in the garage. When I put the t.t. back on the clothes line, it dropped like a rock to the floor. As you know, the plant grows upside down (out the bottom) from the container. So the first thing that hit the floor was the plant. The weight of the potting soil on top of it, didn't do it any good. I inspected the plant, thinking it might have broken. Seeing no break, I hung it from a more secure spot in the garage. Nevertheless, the plant did not look too good today. I may have to replace it with another.

At the Episcopal Church

Today we went to St. Matthew's Episcopal Church for the final Journey to Easter service. It is in a beautiful setting overlooking Sand Springs Lake. Off in the distance one can see the tall buildings of downtown Tulsa.

The service today was entirely scripted. The vicar asked for and received volunteers to read from a booklet distributed as participants entered the building.

After the service ended, we all went to the fellowship hall for a meal.

And now for a quote from Chapter 2 of Saving Jesus From the Church by Robin Meyers.

Christianity as a belief system requires nothing but acquiescence. Christianity as a way of life, as a path to follow, requires a second birth, the conquest of ego, and new eyes with which to see the world. It is no wonder that we have preferred to be saved.

What I Did Today

Once again, it is Sunday. I got up earlier this morning and went to Restoration for a special program that starts an hour before the 11:00 am service. We are watching the video series "God in America," which can be seen for free on the Internet. Today we watched the program about the rise of individualism in the religions brought over from Europe. Anne Hutchinson was one of the key figures examined today. Did those who came over to the colonies fail to anticipate that some of their contemporaries would apply their new freedom to their religion?

We decided that next week, instead of watching an hour-long episode with only a few minutes left for discussion that we would wtch only a half hour of the next episode and have 30 minutes left for discussion. Unitarian like to discuss things. That reminds me of a cartoon I saw a few years back. The scene is near heaven and shows two sign posts. One reads "To heaven" and the other reads "To a discussion about heaven." The Unitarians opt for the second path.

Which reminds me, last night I downloaded a fairly new book to my Kindle. One written by Robin Meyers, who I have heard speak twice -- once many years ago in Tulsa and most recently back on April 4 of this year in OKC. The title of the book is Saving Jesus From the Church. Meyers is pastor of the Mayflower Congregational Church in OKC.

Writes Meyers,"Among a myriad of fictions in the land today is the one that theology doesn't matter, and that whatever people want to believe is okay. But in truth, our national nightmare is not just political. It is theological. And "As long as Christianity is the dominant belief system in America, we cannot afford to be biblically or theologically illiterate." Forgive me, but one more quote: "Yet the people in the pews are not just reading The Da Vinci Code, The Secret, or The Prayer of Jabez. They are also reading Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossen, and Karen Armstrong." Okay, no more quotes from Meyers...for today. These quotes are all from the first chapter, incidentally.

Back now to the church service. April is "National Child Abuse Prevention Month." (I sometimes wonder how they come up with all these national months for this and that, but that's another topic.) the heading on the order of service reads "Poetry Month & National Child Abuse Prevention." Mary "Dependable" Rounds led the silent meditation, candle lighting, prayer, plus sang the special musical selection, and then gave the message. A real workhorse she is.

I had with me a check for $75 from the Humanist Association which I gave to Vanessa. We humanists will be using the building for three months, as a trial period. If things go well and our membership likes the facility, we will continue to meet there. Already space in the building is being used by the Quakers, Tulsa Peace House, Secular Organization for Sobriety, Center for Racial Justice, and a Muslim group. There are several rooms in the builing making it possible for more than one group to meet at a time.

Since today was poetry day, the poem I chose to read was Langston Hughes's Harlem Sweeties. The poem begins with the words "Have you dug the thrill of Sugar Hill?" Sugar Hill is an area within NYC's Harlem area.

After the service was over, I drove to Wendy's and got a couple of chicken sandwiches, not my usual serving of chili. When 2 pm rolled around, I was at Randy's for a meeting of FFRF Tulsa. We talked about an upcoming effort using billboards featuring the faces of some of our members. Each billboard (as many as ten in all) will have the face of one of our members. "Our" being HAT, TAM, and FFRF Tulsa.

On Saturday, April 30, All Souls Unitarian Church is sponsoring an event called "Seminary for a Day." The speaker is going to be Brandon Scott, a charter member of The Jesus Seminars. There will be three sessions. Session I is titled "A Quiz: What Do You Know About Resurrection?" Session II is "An Investigation: Pauls' Letter to the Philippians." Sessions III is titled "A Discovery: The Empty Tomb." If I am here on April 30, I would like to attend this seminar.

After the FFRF meeting was over at Randy's, I came on home and moved my topsy turvy planter (I have two this year) to the front porch and watered it.

Thoughts from Brian Dunning

Skepticism is, or should be, an extraordinarily powerful and positive influence on the world. Skepticism is not simply about "debunking" as is commonly charged. Skepticism is about redirecting attention, influence, and funding away from worthless superstitions and toward projects and ideas that are evidenced to be beneficial to humanity and to the world.

The scientific method is central to skepticism. The scientific method requires evidence, preferably derived from validated testing. Anecdotal evidence and personal testimonies generally don't meet the qualifications for scientific evidence, and thus won't often be accepted by a responsible skeptic; which often explains why skeptics get such a bad rap for being negative or disbelieving people. They're simply following the scientific method.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, particularly in claims that are far fetched or that violate physical laws. Skepticism is an essential, and meaningful, component of the search for truth.

Humanism and the Arts program

We had some stormy weather yesterday. Fortunately, we suffered no damage from the winds. I can remember the weatherman on a local TV station saying the storm would arrive in Prattville at 5:38 pm. By the time the storm got here it had veered south somewhat and passed over Sapulpa. The storm never formed a funnel cloud in our neck of the woods.

We did two things today. First, we attended the sixth and final Tulsa Town Hall program at the PAC. Today's speaker was Jon Meachem, a former editor of Newsweek and presently co-host of Need to Know on PBS.

And this evening we observed a "Humanism and the Arts" program. Leading off tonight's program was Joy Avery singing and playing her guitar. She sang "Johnny Has Gone For a Soldier." Next, the church administrative secretary, Vanessa Adams-Harris, did an excerpt from another dramatic monologue she will be presenting to the public within the next year. She is perhaps best known for a rendition of Rosa Parks. She also has another show titled "Who Will Sing for Lena." Since our church is without a minister, Vanessa sometimes fills that role also. She is the backbone of our church.

Next we were treated to a dramatic enactment of a poem written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar. It was followed by James Weldon Johnson's The Creation. Then Barbara Frey read "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost. "Something there is that doesn't like a wall" wrote Frost.

And then for something completely different, Larry Hochhaus (aka Larro) performed some magic tricks. He did six or eight tricks and left his audience baffled.

Next David Myers of our Poetry Group read "The Starlight of Tulsa," a piece he wrote as an entry in a writing competition. That was followed by Larry Roth reading the second part of a three part story titled "The Ghost Behind the Attic Door." I closed things out by playing "School Years" by Dmitri Kabalevskovo at the piano.

So far this week

I see that I have neglected to update my blog for a few days. Last Monday Gail come over and we played piano duets for a couple of hours. That afternoon, we went to the fitness center and walked. Likewise, we did the same on Tuesday and Wednesday. I have reached the 82-mile mark for the year. That's nothing to brag about. We have had some disruptions this year: sickness, and J's knee surgery. April so far is looking pretty good.

Tuesday we went to the Presbyterian Church for the latest pre-Easter service. After the service there is always a meal. We had chili, which seems to be a popular item to serve at these dinners. The Presbyterian Church is set on a hill overlooking the city of Sand Springs. There is one more service to go before Easter.