Ana took her placement exams for high school and met with her councilor. She will be in all advanced classes as well as trying out for Soccer and Cross Country Track. There is little doubt that she will be doing both. Karen was concerned about this work load but the councilor pointed out that most of their athletes are in honors classes, ... they are the ones with the determination to excel. Sounds familiar. Way to go, Ana.

In an email to me from her brother Nick, speaking of his latest athletic adventure, he said, ... "I look at it as simply another stepping stone in a sport that requires total control of ones mind and body. A personal test if you may." There is a whole bunch of wisdom in that statement. There are some who would not even consider exercising control over their mind or body. They are called failures or maybe even criminals. And testing your own limits is off limits to those who have no ambition or those who expect success to arrive out of the blue with no effort on their part. .

Anthony's new head coach contacted him. Team management has changed and he is now offered a salary far less than promised by the former management. There will be negotiations! This season the team will be known as the Midwest Sliders but will find a home as the Oakland County Cruisers in 2009 when the team's 3,954-seat ball park opens in Waterford, MI. See Sliders.

Meanwhile, his brother Marc went to work at the firm of tax accountants that employs his mom. The intent was to have him work in the front office doing filing, running errands and answering the phone on a part time basis during the busy tax season. However, anything Marc is given to do, he does and with competence. He is working more hours than intended and the accountants want him to work with them. His current boss will not allow that until the end of this tax season, he is too valuable to her where he is. The partners in the firm have offered to give him all the training he will need to pass the CPA exam. Mark has passed the City of Chicago Fire Fighter's exam and is close to the top of the waiting list. He had considered that to be a great opportunity but now ... ??? .Isn't it a good feeling to be wanted Marc?

The other grandchildren are busy with their school work, sports, and the rest of their young and exciting lives. It has gotten to the point when the term "grandchildren" seems too juvenile to be applied to them. It seems like a hundred years ago that they would sashay in front of grandpa so he could grab them ... hold them tight ... and event tighter as they pleaded "let me go", knowing grandpa's arms would spring open when the "magic word", Please was uttered. .Now the grandchildren are transforming into grand people. They have long since learned the magic of Please and most of the other secrets of success.

Of the nine, there isn't a carbon copy in the bunch. Similarities abound but each has unique interests and talents, hardly surprising when you think about the diversity of genes that contributed to their existence. We can be proud of them and take a little credit for getting them started in the right direction but it doesn't take long to realize they are on their way beyond us to places of which we can only dream ... if we dare that!. Gibran said it a lot better in his discourse on CHILDREN in The Prophet.

 

I am not enamored with the American system of primary voting to select candidates for office. The primary reason for my distain of the system is that there is no American system of primary voting. Maybe that is as it should be. It is a hint at the existence of independent states functioning as they please without any regard for national uniformity. But even within the states the parties have their own variations of what takes place. Some states have caucuses the "stand up and be counted" system where the party member demonstrates the courage of his convictions for all to see. Others defer to the secrete ballot within the party. In both systems they pretend to select a candidate but do not. They select delegates who,  at the party convention, is "generally" committed to vote for the person we selected in the primary, at least on the first ballot. In the Republican party, the entire slate of delegates vote as a block  but for Democrats they are split according to the percent of the popular vote. Did you think that every vote counted the same? Then there are "special" delegates who are not selected by the voters but are just "special" by someone's definition.

Now the theory is that everyone belongs to one of the political parties and participates in his parties' primary selective process. The fact is that one may favor one party for national elections but another party for local elections. Parties function differently at different levels. That loyalty may be further divided  for statewide office and county or city office.. For myself,  I do not believe that I have ever voted a straight ticket in any general election. As a result, when I vote in a primary I select a party which represents candidates about whom I have a positive feeling and vote for them. However, the ballot may include candidates for other offices which, in the general election, will be running against my favored candidate. In that case I may vote for the weakest candidate I find in the primary. I am sure that is not what the politicians intended when they designed the systemless system.

It is true that birds of a feather flock together but I do not blindly lump all members of a party at the same  level of competence,  honesty, or moral character. I prefer to vote for the man based on those factors. Oh well, the only perfect candidate is probably fictional. We'll do the best we can with what we got and live with the results. Even if he wasn't my choice, he is my president. (or is it she?) (Hope not.)
 

To be simple is to be great. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I lost my shirts!  I had done laundry a few days ago. The wash pants were hung in the closet the next day and the sox and underwear brought up and thrown in drawers. (Sox are matched on an 'as-need' basis and who needs folded underwear --- only the paramedic will see it and he better be to busy to notice,) The shirts were hung up damp and left in the basement. I remembered them after Barbara left on Tuesday afternoon and went down to get them knowing she would have needlessly ironed them. But ... no shirts! Good grief ... did she bring them up to my closet?  No, the shirts weren't there either. For a moment I was baffled but then it occurred to me to look in the guest room. Yes, the guest closet had a new supply of shirts cuddled up with the ones I have put there because they have shrunk and no longer fit me. Mystery solved!  I transferred them to the proper closet and left the shrunken shirts for the time when I will also shrink and be able to wear them. ... if ever! 

With the primaries and the severe weather getting most of our attention, Ash Wednesday came like a surprise attack, arriving on the earliest date since 1913. Even I don't remember that!  It announces the arrival of Lent for us Christians. I was happy to learn that some Protestant denominations who had abandoned the practice of applying ashes to the foreheads of members as a reminder of our mortality have readopted the practice. All major religions have a period of reflection of some sort to get themselves focused on God and their beliefs. Most involve sacrifice of some sort. Fasting is a way of putting our minds and spirits back  in control of our bodies, letting the mortal body know it doesn't control us. Abstaining from meat or other things is another form of fasting. Since Vatican II more emphasis has been given to the positive aspects of the season by emphasizing charity and love of our fellow beings. It is not so much what we don't do but what we do that is important. The purpose of the season is to develop habits of life that will continue after the season is over. If we do that ... what will we do for Lent in 2009? Why, ... more, of course. It is called improvement!  If the theory works, we all become Saints. Isn't that the ultimate goal?

There is quite a bit of evidence in the book of stories and poetry written by my father that he thought of heaven and the here-after. He recorded the day of a former soldier in heaven in which the "Ex-Buck" is rewarded with the revenge, if you will, of the injustices that a common soldier endures in the army. With a change in rank and terminology to fit the Navy, I can emphasize with our deceased friend. He also wrote a "Soldier's Prayer" in which God is asked to protect him from some of the hazards of being a soldier, ending with a promise that If forgiven he would not enlist again. In the poem "Questions? Questions? Al bemoans "Why do they knock the regular army", referring to the glory and praise, though deserved, given to the draftees who served in Europe during the "big" war (WW I ) while the regulars who endure the "normal duties" are, at best, ignored. I was captivated by the last two stanzas of the poem which introduce a bit of history, a period during the Mexican Revolution when the Mexican Federalists would chase Poncho Villa's rebel army into the US and it was the 17th Calvary's job to chase him back.

We chased old Villa all over the map,
Through the sand and the boiling hot sun.
It wasn't exactly a big world scrap -
There wasn't no glory - there wasn't no fun.
There was hard tack and bacon for breakfast and lunch,
Sometimes a cake of sweet chocolate to munch.
Scurvy and summer complaint hit the bunch,
Some of us died - and some lived to tell,
But all that we're askin' is why in hell
Do they knock the Regular Army?

Most of us held our country dear -
We sweated and worked and drilled.
But we never worked to the sound of a cheer -
We worked as our Captain willed.
Sometimes we kicked a bit, sometimes we cussed,
Sometimes a few of us went on a bust,
Sometimes a century, poor guy, bit the dust -
And no little white cross marks the spot where he fell.
But all that we're askin' is why in hell
Do they knock the Regular Army

When my sister Marylyn put together the page she also did a little research and included a photo of Poncho Villa. I have corrected a couple misspellings that Marilyn left in for authenticity (I presume). Those minor errors of course will always be in the original. The page notes that this particular poem was a work in progress, started on Dec 14, 1918 in Douglas AZ. and completed in Oahu, HI on May 8, 1921. It is a work of Pvt. A. J. Copeland, 17th US Cavalry. 

The BIG news on the local news this morning was ... "It is not snowing". That was probably more meaningful to the people living in and beyond the north side than for us south-siders. We just got a few inches overnight while up north of the city there was over a foot of snow. Still, we have already had more that the normal amount for the entire month of February ... and it has just begun.  My cold hasn't been keeping me awake at all but in the mornings it seems to be at its worse, I didn't bother to go out to get my newspaper ... still coming until the end of the month ... and when it came time for Bible study, I stayed home. There is no point in me exposing those good people to what I have got. In stead, during my meditations, a nap crept up on me and took me far away into dream land. At least I had stopped coughing.

When I came back to life it was the computer that captured me, primarily a report on the Ash Wednesday activity on the parish web site. We had an astounding number of visitors to the web site as we did in church. Did you know that Ash Wednesday attendance rivals Christmas and Easter? As a matter of fact, one of my Catholic friends from a southern state mentioned in an email that it was a Holy Day (of obligation). It is not, of course ... never has been ... but many seem to treat it as such. (I continue to be surprised at what we misunderstand about our own religion.) However many feel an obligation to be marked with those ashes ... and that is good. Ours is a very busy church on that day with the following schedule: .Masses with the Distribution of Ashes: 8:00 a.m., 7:00 p.m. Word Services with the Distribution of Ashes 4:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m. The church open all day for private prayer, and ministers to distribute ashes from after the 8:00 a.m. Mass until 3:15 p.m. Even with the many visits to the web site, many to get the schedule for the day, our parish secretary reports that it is the busiest day of the year for the phone inquiries.

My neighbor from the condo across the street called. I was not a bible study and my newspaper was still on my snow filled driveway. Yes Helen, I'm OK Thanks for the concern. I have a lot of people looking out for me. It is difficult to deviate from my normal routine. That is great!  A short time after, Joe came in the back door and was soon firing up the snow blower. It is not a big one but being "two stage" with the horizontal auger to gather in the snow and the vertical high speed auger to propel it out the chute, it is well suited to handle the heavy wet snow that came last night. He did the driveway, front walk and then cleared the patio for Mikey. He declined lunch with grandpa to join his brothers clearing their snow as well as their grandma's. They have a single stage blower and with this snow it just clogs up the chute and stalls out. So ... all hand (and back) shoveling for them.
 

Peggy has been researching the Clay family.  Martha Clay had Married Shepard Packard. they were Jim's and my second great grandparents being born in 1818 and 1829 respectively. Not being able to document Shepard's parents Peggy has turned to Martha;s and has found a bit more. She writes: