Jim Putnam - Thinking Through My Fingers

Writing About Me XXIX - Wrap-Up

Since its inception I've felt Writing About Me is a pretentious title.   It hasn't even been accurate.  Much of what has been written in these posts has been about other people, people who have been a part of making me who I am.  And that what such a series should be.

The pretentious title had the virtue, though, of keeping me focused.  For the most part, I have enjoyed returning to the past, reliving, remembering, regretting, and rejoicing in its moments.  Just as I am no longer the person of the first issue, "Considering Embarrassing Moments", the process of going through the entire series has pushed me further toward whom I will become, and I am not even the person who began the series two and a half short months ago.

This past week I had the good fortune to read an article in "AARP The Magazine" an article, one of a series in the magazine called Life Lessons.   The current issue has an essay by John Updike entitled "The Writer In Winter".  I recommend the entire article, but there were a couple of sentences that leapt at me because they very nicely describe how I've felt, not only but especially while writing this series.

With ominous frequency, I can’t think of the right word. I know there is a word; I can visualize the exact shape it occupies in the jigsaw puzzle of the English language. But the word itself, with its precise edges and unique tint of meaning, hangs on the misty rim of consciousness.

<snip>

When, against my better judgment, I glance back at my prose from 20 or 30 years ago, the quality I admire and fear to have lost is its carefree bounce, its snap, its exuberant air of slight excess.

First, any 76 year old author who can use imagery like this doesn't have to be overly concerned with winter. 

The first two sentences give me an excuse for the poor expression within this series.  Not only words, however, but memory's "precise edges and unique tint" can also hang on a misty rim.  While some memories seem misty, others continue to bring a blush, and some a hard fist in the gut.

Substitute "life" for "prose" in that last sentence and you have a good idea of what this series has been for me, except that I've looked back over sixty years. 

Life has had, and now has, an exuberant air of slight excess, and I'm fortunate to be able to recognize people, friends and others, who have been a part of it all.  Writing this, I was reminded of negative excesses as well as exuberant.  I've been able to look squarely at some, though by no means all, of my mistakes after years of pushing them away, and take hope from knowing that they, too, have made me who I am.  I've enjoyed writing it all.  I hope those of you who have read them know me better.  It's apparent to me that I do.  Thanks to every person in this series, and to all of them who did not get mentioned.  You have all been important parts of me. 

Writing About Me XXVIII - Quilting And Internet Friends

Yesterday I realized that I hadn't written anything about quilting.  That is a major omission.  Quilting has been an important part of my life since approximately 1993, and the most difficult part is explaining to people why I began quilting.  At its base, the answer is that I don't remember.  I had been interested in quilting for a long time and often told Marrianna that I would like to try quilting.

Sometime in 1993 for some unforgotten reason I was in a fabric store in Rockville, Maryland.  There was a sign advertising a hand quilting class to begin soon.  I signed up, took the class, and the rest is history.  I've been quilting ever since.

I have developed an answer that better satisfies people when they ask me why I quilt.  I tell them about the time Marrianna and I had a business trip to Heidelberg, Germany just before the Christmas holidays.  We stayed in a small, 5 room, 350 year old hotel.  Naturally, it occurred to me that there were no buildings in the US that were nearly as old.  In fact, other than some Native American work, there is nothing 350 years old, at least not still being used daily.  I knew someday that I would like to build a house that would still be lived in 350 years later.  But, I also knew that wasn't ever going to happen.

At home, I saw an antique quilt in a museum, and it struck a chord.  As I said, I had wanted to quilt for some time.  I thought that even though I couldn't build a lasting house, perhaps I could make a quilt for someone that would still be around many years or decades after I am gone.  So the idea of quilting filled a couple of needs, and even though I didn't begin by thinking of one of my quilts becoming a heirloom, it makes for a nice story when people ask.  I've become relatively good at quilting.  It's still a pleasure to have people express surprise that I am a quilter, especially when they learn that I do all my work by hand.  I am a kind of throwback since all my work is by hand.  Many quilters today use sewing machines in one or more quilt construction phases.  I suppose I like the attention a little.  Well, more than a little, if I am honest. 

In 2001 I submitted a king size Bethlehem Star quilt to the North Carolina State Fair, and it won Best in Class and Best In Show.  In 2005, I submitted a quilt made for my niece, and it won third prize.  Fortunately, all the family members will have either a quilt or quilted wall hanging when I complete the one I am currently working on.  Perhaps there will be some heirlooms passed down and examples of my work will be around long after I have departed.

As I have reviewed my life, it has become clear how much more important people have been in my life than place or work.  Since 1999, there have been a special group of people, most of whom I have never seen in person.  In 1999, the nation was in the midst of a political morass known as the Clinton Impeachment.  There were several attempts to use the Internet to facilitate communication about the proceedings.  One of these was Reality Check.  I became interested, joined, and was assigned to Reality Check Dialogue Group 13.  That turned out to be the luckiest assignment of my adult life.  After the group experiment terminated, several of us continued as an email group, calling ourselves RC13.  We've added several wonderfully interesting and diverse people over the years, but the core are still participating, if not daily at least regularly.

It is absolutely impossible to overstate how important these people have been to my personal growth, change, and satisfaction over these almost ten years.  Only Marrianna has been more central and important.  Out of the email conversations, this blog was born on November 5, 2003.  Originally titled "Thoughts and Pontifications", it has also changed.

The very first of this series was as an attempt to answer a question by one of RC13's newer members how I became the person I am.  I'm not sure I've answered the question, but I've sure enjoyed the attempt.  I will wrap it all together in the next, last entry.

Writing About Me XXVII - Moving To A New Life

I started work with my new employer on April 19, 1995.  As almost anyone knows, that was a terrible day for the nation as it was the day of the Oklahoma City bombing.  I have to confess that I didn't have a clue about it until late in the day, driving home listening to NPR.  Even then, its horror didn't hit me.  I was too wrapped in myself, mentally reviewing the first day at a new job, new state, and new people all around me.  Later, it pierced through my self absorption and I knew the nation would never quite be the same.

Keane was a class company.  Keane's contract, and my first assignment, was with a small, wholly owned subsidiary of a larger company.  Two weeks after I began work, the mother company absorbed the subsidiary, and the subsidiary closed business.  Keane was given two weeks notice.

Marrianna was still in Maryland, having sold the house and preparing to move.  I was driving home most weekends, and the weekend we were notified that our contract was terminated, I went home with a very heavy stone in my stomach.

In the DC environment if there isn't a contract very few employers would keep a person on the payroll more than a week or two.  I knew that from personal experience, having been laid off several times.  I just knew that I was going to be without a job, and soon have no place to live.  It was a very, very bad weekend.

Monday morning when I arrived at the office, I was told that Keane didn't hire for contracts but for experience and skills.  They would put us on "the bench" for some time while another application for our skills was found.  I can't tell you, even over 13 years later, how wonderful that felt.  I damn near cried, but was able to contain myself.

Marrianna and I found and were fortunate enough to buy a very nice house, and moved to Chapel Hill.  I worked for Keane longer than for any company, nine years and eight months to the day.  If the various jobs and base assignments I'd had in the Air Force are considered different jobs, it was the longest single period of employment I'd ever had.  The last five years were with one contract, the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

NCDOT has a tarnished reputation in the state, a large portion of which is deserved.  My experience, however, was nothing but positive.  We worked at developing requirements for a new financial system for the Department.  After a vendor was chosen, Keane worked closely with the implementation of the new system.  My concentration on both was the equipment shops across the state.

The upper echelons of NCDOT have severe political problems, with more than their share of corruption, but the people who maintain the roads and the equipment for North Carolina are professional, honest, ethical, and very dedicated public servants.  It is a shame that all NCDOT employees are often painted with the same brush as their political managers.

In November, 2004 my portion of the contract expired.  I was on the bench again after nine years.  By mid-December, it was apparent that there wasn't another fit for me, and I was laid off on December 19, 2004.  Marrianna and I reviewed our options and decided to not seriously look for another job but to retire.  I've been retired, officially since February of 2005.  We often wonder how I ever found time to work with all that keeps us busy now.

This quick review of almost ten years of work isn't detailed enough to indicate its pleasure or how much I liked working for Keane.  It also hasn't provided much about any other aspect of the years in North Carolina. The nation has undergone humongous changes in that time.  The Clinton impeachment proceedings, President George W. Bush, 9/11, Afghanistan and then Iraq War, and so many other horrendous impacts on our nation.  In the next of the series, I will discuss the most important impacts on my life in that time.  The next will probably the the last of the series.

Writing About Me XXVI - Wonderful People

Whenever I think of the years after meeting Marrianna (AM), I primarily think of people I associate with those years.  It has been people, and often groups of people, that have changed my life and helped form whom I've become.

Marrianna and I began attending church together shortly after we met and well before we were married.  We chose a small Presbyterian church in Silver Spring, and that, as Robert Frost said, has made all the difference.  We formed relationships there that are today to be very important threads in the fabric of our lives.

Possibly the single most important person, other that Marrianna who is a given, in my new life was the pastor at Silver Spring Presbyterian Church (SSPC).  Actually, when we first met Margee, she was the "Interim Pastor" as the congregation's founder had recently retired and the congregation was looking for a new person to be their leader.

I'm not able to adequately describe Margee, so I'm not even going to try.  She was, and remains a dear friend.  She encouraged, actually insisted on, questioning and through the questions opened a completely new, radically different perspective on a spiritual life.  I think my growth of my understanding of God and what that understanding is supposed to do in my life began to change with Margee.  I still do not fully understand, and am not even sure I believe there is a Creator Being, but I can thank Margee for allowing and encouraging me to question.  I still question.

Two related but separate aspects of Margee's leadership were inclusive language, and gay and lesbian rights within the denomination.  I became more involved with our congregation's leadership, ordained as an elder and on a couple of committees of the congregation.  I learned new ways to speak of God, none of which connoted gender.  I also became a leader in opening the congregation, and to a lesser extent the denomination, to gay and lesbian concerns.

Margee asked me if I would like to be a part of a Spiritual Formation group she was starting.  She intended it to be six to ten folk who would meet regularly and discuss spiritual issues.  I said yes, and the group that formed is the best thing that happened to me.  There were seven of us, six women and me.  These women and I met together every week for over three years.  They changed me.  We would open with a quiet meditation.  We lay on the floor, holding hands, and meditated.  When we broke, it was astounding how often we had very similar meditation thoughts and experiences.

Toward the end of the time we were together, the husband of one of the women joined the group.  Two of the women moved away, and the group disintegrated.

Shortly after that group ended, Margee formed another group with a formal leader.  This time the group were all men, and the leader was a counseling psychologist.  One of the men was the husband from the Spiritual Formation group.  We didn't work the same, but the effect was similar.  All of us became extremely close.  We were more verbal than meditative, which probably says something in itself.

Several of us were undergoing major changes in our lives, which is why Margee thought we needed a professional counselor leader.  Carl was an ordained Presbyterian minister, and professional counselor.  We paid him a small amount each week, and met at 6:00 AM before each of us would go to work.  This group lasted several years also.

My problem was that my career was changing underneath me.  I was without a job twice, one time for four months and another for almost six.  I don't think I would have survived if it hadn't been for these guys.  In fact, the think there is not strong enough.  I know.

Another group I was a part of for almost exactly a year was a Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC).  Margee was given some land in western Maryland, and decided she would follow her dream and open a retreat center.  It was a wonderful opportunity for her, and she develop  "Phoenix Rising" over a couple of years.  Marrianna and I have been up there several times.

The PNC was responsible for searching for a replacement.  There were nine of us on the committee, led by Irma, a remarkable woman.  Irma was a natural leader for committee work, and I learned how meetings should be held from her.  Among her strengths was organization.  She maintained that if a meeting was less than 30 minutes, it probably wasn't necessary, and if it went longer than 2 hours, it wasn't well planned.  In over 15 months of meetings, usually twice a week, we had one meeting go longer than 2 hours.

The PNC was assisted by an minister who was the head of a Conscientious Objector Organization in DC.  Bill was another important influence on me.  He and I discussed my military career, and his organization.  At first, I was very defensive, but over time I could open myself to his concerns about the military, and I hope I gave him a perspective about how those of us in the military felt.  Bill never, ever said that those of us who served were wrong.  He insisted that I see that those that could not serve were not wrong either.

I remember one humorous incident at one of our meetings.  Bill didn't attend a lot of meetings, but he was at this one, and I was sitting next to him.  He had his Bible with him, as usual.  At sometime during our discussion I wanted to look up s Biblical reference.  I pulled his Bible over and opened it.  It was in Greek.  I closed it and pushed it back to him.

Finally, the PNC made a selection.  The week that he appeared before the Presbytery, the regional governing body for Presbyterian congregations, I received a job offer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  I had been out of work for five months, so I jumped at it.  I didn't see him installed as Silver Spring Presbyterian Church's new pastor.  That ends a period of my life I still cherish, and this issue.

Writing About Me XXV - A New Life

It is almost as difficult writing about myself in what could be called my current period.  The last issue closed a section of my life that, while difficult to recall, was about times and events that seem very long ago.  Beginning with this section I'm into now, and even though it, too, is based upon my faulty, sometimes blurred memory, it isn't any easier to write.

In XXIV, I said: After a couple of years, I left.  It must have been 1982, dates are fuzzy in my memory. Since then, reconstructing some of those fuzzy dates, it must have been 1981 rather than '82.

I had a really good job with GE, and was attending evening classes at the University of Maryland to complete my degree.  I've always liked evening class for several reasons.  Many such classes are taught by people who are not members of the faculty but by people who teach part-time and are full time involved with careers in the classes they teach.  And the students are usually older, more serious, and interesting to get to know.

One such student was a lady returning to classes to complete her degree after assisting her husband through medical school and raising their children.  She was a delight to get to know, and we would take our breaks together.

Somewhere in the middle of the semester she told me that she had a friend she would like for me to call for a date.  I wasn't really interested, and procrastinated.  Finally, after about three weeks of stalling, she made me promise to call her.  I did, and we set up the only blind date that either of us ever had.  I picked her up at her home the evening of Friday, October 29, 1982, and Marrianna and I have been together since.  We dated for almost four years, and were married on September 6, 1986.  We have just celebrated our 22nd year of marriage, and are about to celebrate the 26th anniversary of our first date.

It occurs to me that I could, probably should, end this entire series right here with "They lived happily ever after."

There is a lot more to living than marriage.  Marriage is, however, what makes the rest of life worth while.  I say marriage, but it isn't the marriage certificate that makes it so; it is the person who makes the living worth while, regardless of whether there is a certificate.

I remember the first time I met her family.  Her parents lived in Brevard, North Carolina, a small town a half hour south of Asheville.  I drove the three of us down, about a ten hour drive.  We arrived, and her entire family were in the front yard to meet us.  Marrianna and Anastasia, twelve or thriteen at the time, got out of the car first, and were greeted by everyone.  I climbed out and stood next to the car stretching from the drive.  Marrianna's sister came around the car, hugged me, and thanked me for bringing them.  And then I was led around the car to meet everyone.

It's probably important to know that Marrianna and I were two very different personalities, especially so back then.  Marrianna described our relationship as a "knee jerk liberal with a right wing fascist", and in some respects that was accurate.  While not fascist, I was certainly well right.  I described myself as a social liberal and political and fiscal conservative.  The social liberalism expanded to the political, and now I too am a knee jerk liberal.

I think I'll close today's issue here.  There are likely to only be a couple more before it's finished.  I want to cover the progression of my work experience, and how I changed.  That should complete a review from a very high altitude of a thankful life full of almost every kind of hurt, both given and received, along with wonderful blessings received, and hopefully given.

A Brief Explanation

Twelve days without writing.  That's a long time, and inexcusable in a blog world accustomed to nearly every day posts.  I have excuses, and even a few reasons, but none that tell the entire tale.  The point, I hope, is that with this post I am returning to regular, if not everyday, posting.

As a form of warm-up as I return, let me refer to a column written for the dead-tree Time magazine by Joe Klein.  This is in my opinion an excellent example of good reporting, and I am very happy to pass it on with the link.  It provides a glimpse of Senator Obama that is all too often hidden in bite sized advertisements or even longer speeches and debates. 

I also read and watched on blogs some interesting reports of Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama.  Unfortunately, since they are so "yesterday" in the news cycle, I cannot find links.  Reporters who only used the televised endorsement and weren't around for the question and answer session after the TV program missed an opportunity to see an example of thoughtful, logical, complete sentence answers to questions.  If it were not for Powell's appearance before the UN supporting the administration's WMD lies, I might have been even more favorably impressed.

As the day that G.W. Bush finally leaves office approaches, I have begun to find new sources of concern for the nation.  I believe Sen. Barack Obama will be elected by a landslide.  Kevin Drum has his own estimate, with many more within the comments, of how strong the Democratic majority will be.  My concern is in how the Democrat Party will handle success.  More tellingly, will my, and our, high expectations for the new administration turn to disappointment as we expect too much too quickly?

I think it has been a mistake on the part of Speaker Pelosi not to allow impeachment proceedings.  GWB will, I fear, pardon anyone and everyone within sight for all misdeeds while in his administration.  If he were under impeachment proceedings, that wouldn't be possible.

By most accounts, Senator McCain has run the worse campaign ever.  That too raises a concern.  I have become cynical enough to wonder why.  Could it be because he knows he cannot lose?  Does he know that some combination of voter repression, fraudulent voting machines, and court decisions is going to hand him the office regardless of how poorly he campaigns?

And that cynicism is another reason I absolutely cannot abide GWB.  His administration has been so corrupt that I have almost lost faith in the ability of anyone to turn the nation on to a path toward becoming who we have said we want to be.  I am not even sure that GWB will not find, or be presented with, some excuse to declare martial law and not have an election.  Such cynicism doesn't sit well on my stomach.  But I have entirely too much of it, and can only hope that I am wrong.

I hope to be posting regularly, including completing the Writing About Me series. 

Writing About Me XXIV - A Relationship I Never Understood

We returned from out brief trip late last Monday afternoon.  I've intended to write several times, and have not been able to put into words the next part of this series, especially my relationship with Jan.

Jan was a wonderful woman in many ways.  She was often funny, and always intense with her girls.  She was extremely intelligent and the girls inherited that.  Jan was good looking, another thing the girls inherited.

Jan was a Registered Nurse.  She got a job as head nurse at a small, community hospital, and seemed to enjoy working again.  She also began taking classes at a college in the area.  There is a story there that could possibly bring out more of her personality.

Jan did not have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.  Her RN license came from the Rhode Island School of Nursing, a hospital based nursing school.  When I met her, I was recruiting physicians and nurses.  There were three sources of a RN license:  an hospital school of nursing; an Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) (2 year, usually community college); and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).  Naturally, Jan felt that the hospital trained nurse was the best nurse.  The Air Force required the ASN or BSN.  I think that the nurse accreditation boards no longer recognize either hospital nurse schools or Associate Degrees for accreditation as a Registered Nurse, though I'm not sure of that.

Jan was working toward a bachelor in counseling.  She got a job in another local hospital as head nurse in the Psych Ward.  A very intense person, Jan worked very hard and received her degree in counseling in less than two years.

Through all of this, Jan's spiritual life continued to be a major part of her life.  She was a charismatic Christian, believing that God spoke directly to and through her.  It worked for her.  But it made living with her very difficult.  How could there be a difference of opinion about family decisions when she spoke and listened to God?  I became increasingly unhappy.  As I once told someone, I felt like a piece of furniture, an end table specifically, useful, but not alive and part of the family.  He was surprised that I used the end table as analogy, not an arm chair or even a coffee table, but an end table.  But that was how I felt.

After a couple of years, I left.  It must have been 1982, dates are fuzzy in my memory.  I felt that I had to leave to regain any independence.  I got an apartment and moved into it.  I wasn't happy about it, but it seemed the only alternative at the time.

At some time or another, in one of our disagreements, I told Jan that I had always thought that people who studied psychology and counseling were primarily interested in learning about and understanding themselves rather than others.  She, of course, disagreed until much later.

She and I worked through a mediator lawyer in our divorce proceedings, who actually represented both of us.  I agreed to pay her alimony for a specific period since the girls were in various stages of college.  When I delivered the last check to her, she and I sat in the living room and talked for a long while.  It was probably one of the best conversations we ever had.

She reminded me then about my statement about why people studied psychology, said that she thought I had been right, and that she understood herself a lot better now.  I took a lot of comfort from that, because I thought it was a tacit admission that the divorce and disagreements had not all been caused by me.  She was admitting that a part of the problems had been hers.

In a very real way, Jan saved my life.  Without her interceding when I was drinking so heavily, without her giving me her love and support, even without her drive, I may very easily have slid off the deep end.  I appreciate everything she did for me.  She came into my life when I most needed her, and I am thankful.  I like to think that I was good for her also, and in some way good for the three girls.  I can only hope that is true.  She is gone now.  I heard from one of the girls that she died a few years ago.  I know that if there is a Heaven, she has a special place in it.  She certainly did in my life here on earth.

Though a reader may not understand, this has been the most difficult post of this series for me to write.  There are huge blank areas in it that I cannot put into words, and probably never will.  As the title says, it was a relationship I never understood.

An Interesting Question

A friend asked a group of us a question this morning that initiated this post.  She wrote:

Early -- very early -- this morning I wondered what I would do if were president for one day in October, 2008.

Her answer was a very good one.  She said:

First, set up a modern WPA. Put all unemployed Americans to work improving the country's infra structure by October 31st. That would put money in their pocket instead of bailing out the financial world. Initially, that could save their homes, while quickly restoring credit and banking systems.

She then challenged the others in the group to answer.  With minor modifications, here's what I wrote.

Another idea that I think could change the entire world would be to fund the NGO's of the world with $1B each in the form of a grant.  Organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, (I'm having a senior moment and cannot recall others, but you can put your own in the list), who would then go about changing the world.
<snip>

I am obviously not an economist, but I believe that splitting the one trillion or more dollars between a WPA like effort and a worldwide grant system to improve health and welfare of the world would be more effective than anything that is presently being considered.

Since writing that, I have Googled "non-governmental organizations + third world".

That certainly resolved my senior moment.  I received these as the first replies, with the descriptive material deleted.

1. Campus organization combats hunger in third world countries - Features

2. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOS) and third world development ...

3. Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOS) and Third World Development ...

4. WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources ...

5. International Nongovernmental Organizations and Third World ...

6. Third World Resource Directory Fact Sheet

7. Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures - Google Books Result

8. Nongovernmental Organizations - Research and Read Books, Journals ...

9. Non-governmental organization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

10. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics - Google Books Result

Obviously, there is a universe of knowledge about NGO's I did not know, and, therefore, my original statement may not be such a good idea.  But, I believe the concept applies.  Certainly there are NGO's that deserve the funding and will use it effectively.  It shouldn't be impossible to identify approximately 500 of them.

The world, all of us, is facing changes of a scale that none of us can comprehend.  A perfect storm of environmental, economic. resource, political, cultural, and social changes is about to overwhelm us.  If we cannot separate ourselves from an isolationist mentality and move forward on every front our chances of emerging on the other side of the storm are slender.  As my Dad used to say, we have two chances, slim and none, and Slim left town.

I happen to be reading a set of books by Jeanne DuPrau that paint a furure on the other side of such a storm.  There is a movie of the first of the series, "The City of Ember" coming out this week.  In most bookstores, the series are filed under juvenal fantasy.  These books are deep and we should be proud that our juveniles are reading them.  We so-called adults can learn from these books.  I hope the movie is as good as the book.

The second in the series is "The People of Sparks". [2004, Random House, New York].  In this, the people of Ember have left their city and emerged to a world 200 years after the war.  The people of Sparks are living in a world without electricity, communication, or government other than the town's officials.  Their life revolves around producing enough crops to survive the winter, and the people from Ember threaten their having enough.

Jeanne DuPrau has shown in these books the possibile results of the stresses of the current challenges listed above.  They aren't apopcalyptic, but hopeful reflections of our true strengths.  I just bought, and have not yet begun reading, the fourth of the series, "The Diamond of Darkhold" [2008, Random House Children's Books].

This has grown from an answer to a question posed to a book discussion.  I'd like very much to continue the question discussion.  Use comments or email. 

A Few Notes While Traveling

This post is being written on our laptop rather that our friend's computer as I did yesterday.  This at least indicates that I've learned something about accessing networks.  I'm not at all sure that it works the same everywhere I would want to use Wi-Fi access, but at least I know basically how to begin.  I didn't know that before last night.

There is an image in my head of me sitting in a coffee shop or similar location, laptop connected, making notes of the people I am watching.  I thoroughly enjoy people-watching.  Marrianna and I often eat at Panera, a chain restaurant in Chapel Hill that's close to the University.  Panera is one of the few chain restaurants with a menu that Marrianna can eat.  It's a popular place for students to work over lunch and is always full.  They have Wi-fi, and it seems that half the students and some faculty work over their     laptops while eating.  I'm not likely to be there with the laptop, but something similar is my image.  Actually, it's possible, or probable, that I just envy the young folk and a freedom that wasn't  possible when I was their age.

When I write, I try to be sensitive when writing about others.  Usually, I think I'm successful.  In yesterday's post I inadvertently touched some sensitive areas of a person I care very much for.  It is possible I shouldn't have revealed some movements, but at the same time, I cannot censor my every word on the chance that it will hurt someone.  I know that my words caused pain, but the pain was truthfully caused by another's actions rather than my words.  There have been discussions, and there may be a better understanding of the need to communicate now.  I hope so, and I also hope that this hasn't been too cryptic.  It is, however, all that I'm going to write, at least at this time.

It's time to watch a little football with my friends rather than be down here.  I'm sure the internet friends will understand

Traveling Again

Marrianna and I are on the road again.  I'm posting this from our friend's computer in Silver Spring, MD.

Wednedsay morning we left home, driving to Asheville, NC.  We picked our our daughter and her dog and Thursday morning left to drive to Maryland.  when Marrianna and I travel, we almost never use Interstate Highways or freeways, but time was more important this time, so we used IH 81 N along the Virginia Blue Ridge mountains.  Even via Interstate it was a very nice drive.

We have Anastasia with us so that she can attend her 20th high school reunion. this evening.  Tomorrow she will go to New York City to attend a wedding of one of her childhood friends.  From there she will travel around New England visiting for almost two weeks.  Marrianna and I will leave Silver Spring with Copernicus, her dog, this next Monday morning to return to Chapel Hill.  We will keep Copernicus until Anastasia returns.

I brought our new laptop with us in hopes of using it while we atre on the road.  Anastasia used her laptop here in our friends home last night, but I can't get ours to connect this morning.  She is out right now, but when she returns I'll have to bow to her superuior technical ability and ask how she got hers to connect.  I'm writing this from the friend's computer. 

That's it for now.  I'll try to post again later.