Searching for Peace

   We had the dormer worked on by Larry Fulger right after the snowstorm. It took 2 days and $650 but has not leaked yet. Luke picked Jane up at the Amtrak Station Friday the 30th in the afternoon. Jane took Gramma to visit her friend and to the senior mass and dinner at Christo-Rey. On the 8th of December we went to Petra's for a dinner for Gramma before leaving for Florida with Gloria. Jane got her share of Gramma's gift to each of her children which she put in a Money Market account. On Friday the 14th Jane and I went to Mrs. Bard's for the Elmwood Christmas party and had a good time. I began winter break on Friday the 21nd and we left for Valpo Sunday and stayed until after Christmas having a quiet day with the boys and going to Jon's church Christmas Eve. There was very little snow in December and it was not overly cold. There will be lots to do but it's time to catch my breath and find peace away from this troubled world.

Coping With Uncertainty

   We spent the weekend in Valpo as Jane is staying until Friday to take care of the boys. Sharon is going to a conference in California so Jane gets to stay and come home on the train and bus. We had Thanksgiving, Thursday with Jane's brothers and Gramma eating Honeybaked ham and turkey. We took some of the leftovers to Valpo and still have plenty to finish. The end of October Jim and Betty celebrated their 60th Anniversary and Jon and family were here for the mass at St Jude's and the dinner at the Cadgewith Farms Clubhouse. Gramma also spent that weekend at our house so we all had a great visit. The doctor confirmed my carpel tunnel in my right hand but since it hasn't prevented me from being able to do things we'll monitor for now. Elmwood finally hired Mr. Hager's replacement the 16th so now Mrs. Delaney is in charge and she seems well qualified. Oh yeah, there was an election November 6th that overall restored my faith in America and hopefully some checks and balances to the trumpery that was threatening our democracy and freedom. Steve Reck brought over the settee that my parents courted on and that Hannah will get to restore. On October 22 I got to talk to Ray Curtin a childhood friend from the St Joe/Main Street days as his mother passed away. I also found out his brother Bill passed the year before as there was only a private service. Life is full of uncertainties that we must learn to cope with like the 6.6" of today's snow day.

A Question of Integrity

Today we saw Greg in Calendar Girls at the Starlight Theatre. Jim and Betty, Peg and Denise were there as well as 2 friends from Silver Sneakers. We joined Costco this week though there was a lot of signing up involved. Jane and I have turned in our absentee ballots voting against trumpery! Jane spent the first week of October in Valpo helping with the boys and having a great time. Jon bought her tickets to take the bus to Kalamazoo via way of Grand Rapids and then the Amtrak train to Michigan City where they picked her up at 10 Sunday night. We left Friday and spent the weekend leaving after church to bring her home. Lukas went to the new Xfinity store in Eastwood and we updated our old control box to give us better reception and internet service. Jane has been taking Gramma to the mass and dinner at Cristo Rey on Wednesdays as she has been staying at Mark's because Patti had knee surgery.  They still have not found a teacher to take Hager's place so except for 3 days I've been covering there with Mary Kay. The weather has cooled off the last 2 weeks and I had to scrape frost in the morning 2 days this week. Trump is out creating stormy lies on his political tours while the world suffers from real storms and political destruction destabilizing the world's peace prospects.

Andy Pratt

 On August 26, 2018 Andrew John Pratt died at 57 years old. It was Sunday morning and I got a call at 8:40 from Debbie asking me to meet Lori, Peg and Todd at Sparrow Hospital as Andy had died and they were not going to tell Peg until then. He had fallen down his basement stairs at 6:00 that morning and had been taken to Sparrow. I arrived 15 minutes before them and asked about if they had arrived but there was no record at the information desk about him and Emergency told me I'd have to wait for the family to arrive. I saw them enter the Emergency desk and as I looked walking up there they were telling Lori they would have to wait for the head nurse in charge to come down. When they turned to wait for her, Peg saw me and knew something had happened and Lori told her Andy had died. She screamed "not my Andy", and broke down. Since Andy was in the morgue they could not let us see him so we had wait in the Chapel for a minister to talk to us and the head nurse went down with us and stayed giving Lori the information she needed. At 11:00 Fr. Gary from St. Thomas came and prayed with us and comforted Peg. His funeral was Thursday at Palmer Bush at 1:00. Jane picked Jim and Betty and I worked until 11:30 and picked up Lukas and Simon. Jon came with the boys and as we pulled up to the light at Cedar and Mt. Hope they were right in front of us. The dinner was at IHM and we stayed until 4:00 when Jon left. Only Peg talked at Andy's service by herself as Dave and his son Nate remained silent.  I briefly talked to Dave at the dinner and introduced myself to Nate. Mr. Hager took a principal's job at Cavanaugh School so his last day was September 7th making me in charge of his class until they hire a replacement. Mary Kay Riley and I are keeping up so far but we're ready for more help and someone else to be in charge! Jane and I celebrated 43 years of marriage and had our pictures taken for the St. Gerard Directory. Jane has taken Gramma to Cristo-Rey 2 times for mass and the seniors dinner on Wednesdays which has kept her busy and giving her the chance to spend quality time with her. Lukas and I went to early morning appointments yesterday out on Pinetree Rd at the same building and it turned out the same waiting room. I finished an hour earlier even though my appointment was an hour later but I had to get to work so he took the bus home. My reason was a EMG for my right wrist which my have carpel tunnel so I was shocked and needled for about an hour. Andy was a big listener of WMMQ so I e-mailed them about his death and they knew him well and expressed their consolations which I passed on to the family. Irony: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning.(Socratic irony)

To Unfriend Dave

 We had our 10 days in Grand Haven with 2 of the boys spending all their time with us. Jon, Sharon and the boys stayed at place near by for 2 days and Simon stayed with April and Adrianna 3 days at the motel once they arrived. Phillip came with Stephanie and she stayed 2 nights and returned to Ohio for a week and then drove back for a day the following Saturday. We brought 2 cars as I had to drop Phillip off at the airport Tuesday for his flight to Houston. We had lunch in Holland with Lukas at the Big Lake Brewery on the way to Grand Rapids. The cottage had new locks and a deadbolt as well as the premium movie channels this year.  Dave was unfriended on Facebook by me yesterday as he was insulting and obsessed with deporting illegals while exploiting the death of Mollie Tibbetts. Pushing the "Illegal immigration kills Americans", conservative agenda posts and calling me a Liberal Democrat insensitive to the crimes of all the immigrants and accusing me of defending these criminals of the trump state. After bantering with him and not being rude or insulting to him, I finally had my last straw when he told me to give to the Go Fund me page for the accused and to harbor illegals in my home, I took the higher road and cut ties with his disrespect. The fact is that immigrants commit fewer crimes, than those born in the U.S. based on real research going back 100 years. "The way to counter trump's claims of MS-13 criminality running rampant is to remind people of a positive vision that lots have about immigrants and that they are human beings!"

About to Leave

   We got a hand delivered invite to Gabe's open house by Patti who told Lukas Gabe had forgotten to give it to us at the family reunion. Lukas went with us on Saturday the 21st and we stayed for about 3 hours avoiding contact with Patti but making sure we talked with all her friends. Gabe told us how he asked to have us come but Patti would not until to save face she did. We were able to visit with Charlie Becker, Gloria, and Lisa as the weather was good. Jane and I went to some music concerts around town and the dance program at LCC. I had lunch with Ed, Howard and Joe H. at Hibachi Grille last Friday for a meeting of the minds. We have been going to the Y and we will be in Grand Haven for 10 days starting tomorrow. We finally got some rain but still need more as the temperatures have been in the 80's consistently.  July was the 11th warmest in the USA at 75.5 degrees average and May-July the warmest ever according to scientists at NOAA. 

Looking Back

Yesterday was the 34th Alvarado Reunion at Hawk Island Park with good attendance on a cloudy but pleasant day. Petra Boyer decided to boycott which only was a problem because Gramma and Gloria had to miss being with family.  Simon has spent 5 days with Adrianna at April's the 4th of July week and this weekend which is nice for him to be away from our house. Mike and Sharon Fabiano both lost their dads this week who we will be attending funerals for. The 2 week+ drought ended Friday morning but we still need more precipitation as the temperature has been in the 80's during that time. Rusty passed on July 5th from a blood clot while Jane and I were at the Y. Lukas took him to Miller's Animal Clinic as he went limp on the floor like Orange had and died on his way there. Good news of the 13 trapped in the Tham Luang cave in Thailand all being rescued reassures us there is still hope for our world when we work together. Trump stop dividing, learn to unite to be a real winner!