April Come She Did

   I turned 68 this month as my license and plates were renewed. Jane and I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch and with the boys to DeLuca's for dinner. We went to the Y all spring break week and fish fries every Friday mostly at the K of C Hall. We were in Valpo for Easter and brought Spanish rice and blueberry-rhubarb crisp to share along with buckets for the boys of Easter goodies. We still have not warmed up too many days  with only a couple of days above 70.  Larry put in the new shower door in the bedroom bath as we fix things up in the bathrooms. I had a wart removed from my left bicep by Josh the 3rd and Lukas and I went to the MSU Science Fair on April 6th. April has come and soon to be gone like living in the USA. The primrose blooms have given the assurance of new life having risen as our hope and promise!

Cold Spring

   January ended with a complete week with no school due to snow and the Arctic vortex freeze, -17 and wind chills and then 2 weeks with 2 days off each due to snow and icy conditions. Larry was able to finish the bathrooms and so now the floors are complete. Jane and I went to Valpo February 15-17th and we all went March 15-17th to celebrate 3 birthdays early. Jane stayed until the 22nd to watch the boys and returned by train and bus on Friday. Jane got back from Houston Monday February 11th as her flight came in at 10:30pm and fortunately we avoided snow again. Life goes on and we stay busy as warm weather still has not made an appearance.Trump declared a National Emergency to steal funding for his wall after congress did not give him what he wanted. Congress rejected it but trump vetoed  and the courts wait to decide it's fate.

35 Days

   The government shutdown lasted 35 days thanks to trump and congress. That was 5 weeks of delayed paychecks for over a hundred thousand workers. Yet most congressmen took their checks without a thought of the struggles of lower paid workers. I was able to go to Silver Sneakers before school restarted along with a couple of snow days since then. On January 3rd we got a 3 year lease on a black demo Equinox from Pat Iding. Jane and I had pizza with Peg at Falsetta's and found out they are having problems with Rachel about Andy's house. We ordered the flooring for the kitchen and bathrooms and Larry has done the kitchen but because of the cold and snow wasn't able to get to the bathrooms yet. Jane left for Texas Saturday the 26th at 5:30am and the roads were in good shape as she is avoiding this polar vortex that along with the snow has closed school for 4 days now. It is -12 degrees now and colder tomorrow as I am alone with Simon at April's and Lukas at Joe's. I went with Mark, Scott and a librarian friend from the prison to the Robert Burns' 260th birthday Dinner at Eagle Eye last Saturday. It was entertaining with the Glen Erin Pipe Band and Highland dancing but not something I'd attend again. No wall but no more shutdown is needed so give him some wall where needed and plenty of money for real security safeguards.

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)