The World of Grandpa Don
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What's New In the world of Grandpa Don |
Week Ending Friday |
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Go to the Current Event for ..
Archive
Or to learn more of Grandpa Don and his remarkable family ...
Many of the quotes found on this page are from the daily messages I receive from Covenant House  |
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There was a big swim meet Saturday morning with Tom and Diane there to watch Caitlin and Kelly perform as members of the Marist team. Caitlin came in second in the 100 yard freestyle, fourth in the 200 yard freestyle, and swum the third leg of the 400 yard relay. In that race she started her leg behind the leader and overtook her but the Marist team fell behind in the last leg and came in third. Kelly arrived fourth in the 500 yard freestyle and her team took third in the medley relay. In this six school event, Marist was third, overall. Saturday evening Caitlin attended the Homecoming dance. Tom dropped Kelly off at a friend's house and came to visit at my house. We went to dinner at Ashford house where we bumped into Bill Lubin Sr. & Jr. along with their wives. I had a chance to chat a bit with Deacon Bill and his dad who asked about his old friend and fellow worker, Ted Buchler, Dan's father-in-law..
Returning home, I put Tom to work. Biscus needed to come into the living room for the cold months. The chilly nights had already turned a lot of his leaves yellow and there were lows in the 40's predicted this week. Tom and I then watched ER, recorded from the previous day, and then a little baseball, disappointing as the Sox were. I am sure that my Cleveland family did not find it so. After a pleasant evening, Tom left to pick up my granddaughter and I was off to slumber land.
That was very enjoyable but I had anticipated a much different evening. Kelso-Burnett Company, my employer for over forty years and where I made my way from draftsman to vice president and member of the board of directors held their 100 anniversary celebration that night. Apparently my invitation was lost in the mail. All of us who attended the 75th celebration were looking forward to a reunion 25 years later. No matter ... I have been told that it is not the company it once was. Many of the people who helped make it a great company are now gone.
Too blest to be stressed. Too anointed to be disappointed. Too overjoyed to be annoyed
Sunday Sara's RCIA Mass was moved to 10:30 so I got to introduce her and Dominic to a few of my friends. During the instructional period afterward ... I think Sarah does most of the instructing ... we were informed that Sarah and Elizabeth will have their Rite of Acceptance at the 9 AM mass on October 12. That is great news, their Catholic Confirmation and First Communion.
That afternoon, Mikey and I went to the Albano's for a roast pork dinner. Joe was at Dominick and Sarah's helping to paint the baby's room, so it was just Marc and Anthony home with their parents. Of course my daughter provided me with a generous slice of Banana cream pie. Did I need that?
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Shoot for the moon. |
I was out of the house about 8 on Monday, off to the blood lab in preparation for my Friday afternoon doctor's visit. He will then be able to lecture me about my glucose levels, Triglyceride, levels, and Cholesterol levels. He will ask me why I had the banana cream pie and I will have to tell him that it was so as not to offend my daughter who worked so hard to buy it. There was no waiting at the lab to process the paperwork or to get the blood drawn. From there I was off to Ashford House for my reward of Eggs Benedict.
I stopped at home to use the necessary room and then rush off to an appointment with the eye doctor. Half way there, I remembered that I did not bring the re-order form for my eye drops. It needed to be signed by the doctor and faxed in to my mail-order prescription provider. I returned home, grabbed the sheet of paper and headed back, arriving exactly on time for my appointment.. Once there I told Dr Mann that I was having trouble with my right eye. The exam confirmed that there was a problem and further examination reviled that the artificial lens had fog on the inside. My eye was dilated and 10 minutes later he used a laser to puncture "breathing holes" in the lens. Then I saw the gal in the eye glass department who graciously and expertly straightened the pair of glasses that I had sat upon, distorting their shape. Oh yes, I almost forgot about the prescription! I pulled the sheet of paper from my pocket to give it to the receptionist only to discover it was not the right one. Curses, ... it was 11:25 and they close the office at noon. Telling her I would be right back with it, I dashed off to home.
But I could not find it! I called to let them know I would find it and would bring it in on Tuesday afternoon. She suggested faxing it to them but I didn't know if this computer could do that. I sat down to catch my breath and heard a crunching noise. Stupid me ... the elusive paper had been in my pants pocket all the time. I NEVER put things like that there! It went immediately into the flat bed scanner and once scanned, I looked to the options, finally finding "print to Fax". A wizard popped up asking for a name and fax number. I called the doctor's office, got the number and the computer did the rest, finally telling me it had sent the fax. Another called was made. Yes, it got there and the doctor had already signed it. She was about to fax it to Walgreens in Arizona. It was 11:57, 3 minutes to spare before she left for the day. Great, I will be out of drops in 5 days and my new 90 day supply should be here by then. .
Look ma ... no glasses! I first noticed it Tuesday morning when I read the day's passage from C. S. Lewis. With my glasses on, It was so clear! The same thing applied to my little prayer book and finally the short inspirational piece at the end of my prayers. The right eye was no longer foggy and was not fighting with the left to see. They both focuses perfectly on the same thing. As I sat in the living room, I observed that Biscus had shed many leaves so I got the shop-vac from the garage. As I started to vacuum them up, Barbara came down from the bedrooms, upset that I was doing something. She immediately took over, there was no stopping her, she even stripped the yellow leaves that had not yet fallen from the bush. I put the machine back in the garage when she finished and came down to the computer. As soon as I started reviewing my email, I realized that I did not need my glasses with the screen about 18" from my eyes. It was now clear and in focus, both eyes cooperating to do the job that God meant them to do in the first place. Thank you Dr Mann. And, ... thank you God for giving us the intelligence to develop technologies like artificial lenses and lasers to to keep us functional in our "senior" years.
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When you arise in the morning, |
My Tuesday morning email brought the following from my 85 year old friend, "Grandpa" Frank Schober ...
"The damned idiots in Washington failed to do their job and yesterday the stock market fell 777.68 points, the greatest fall in history. I own 1,000 shares bank stock that I paid $56.00 per share for and today it's worth less than $2.00. Most banks are in big trouble because they loaned money to people that they didn't have and people borrowed money that the couldn't pay back. It's like people owning three credit cards and spending the limit on each winding up in debt of $30,000.00 that they can't pay. This has a terrible effect on our economic system causing banks to fail. I'm an old man and can honestly say that I've never bought anything I couldn't afford. I've had a Visa credit card for years but have never paid any interest using it. I pay the bill as soon as I get it whether it's $50.00 or $2,000.00. It is said that "A fool and his money are soon parted". Envy causes many people to buy beyond their means trying to outdo their neighbor. Our economy is in big trouble but we will weather the storm and see better days."
Frank hit the nail on the head. A financial commentator on the morning news who was bemoaning the fact that the House of Representatives failed to see the problem. and that we desperately needed to get the system working again by making money available so people and business could resume their borrowing. Wait a moment ... isn't that what got us into this mess? We need LESS borrowing! We need to become financially responsible. That is one thing that Anne and I both learned from our parents ... don't spend what you don't have. Sure, I have two credit cards but like Frank, I never carry a balance, but pay for my purchases in full when the bill is due. The credit card is not only a convenient way to make purchases but it gives you as much as a month of float on the payment. An exception to the borrowing rule is the purchase of a house. The principal you pay is to build equity in your real-estate investment. But you must remember that an investment is something that can gain or loose value and you should only invest what you can afford to loose. The interest that you pay on a mortgage can be considered as being the rent you would pay if you had to pay rent. It also is an amount that can be paid from your income that is within reason. The government gives us a bonus here in that if it is mortgage interest, it can be considered as tax deductable rent, a break that the renter doesn't get.
In our family, the only thing other than a home mortgage that was considered an item for which to borrow money was a car and that would be for the smallest possible amount and the shortest possible time. Dad always considered the interest paid as part of the cost of the car and in his view the car had to be worth that total cost in view of our need to make the purchase. In his view, the cost of the car included not only the purchase price but the "owning" cost, ... interest, licence fees, insurance, gas, oil and routine maintenance. After all, if you don't have the money to maintain it, you shouldn't own it.
I get a kick out of the TV ads of a local car dealer. The enthusiastic, smiling girl tells you to come to them to get any used car, SUV or truck you want. If you have good credit, bad credit, or no credit, you are approved if you have a job. Walk in and drive away! They don't really care if you can pay. How do they do it? The cars they sell, are overpriced. They get you to sign for a high interest car loan through a lender who is willing to take a risk. The dealer gets a discounted amount from the loan company so they have made their profit immediately. The loan company's risk is cushioned by the fact that a device has been installed by which the loan company can send a signal to disable the engine if a payment is missed and a global tracking device will tell the repressor exactly where to find the car. It probably goes right back to the same used car lot.
But our entire culture is based on the fact that we need to have the highest possible "Standard" of living and we need it right now. If someone will loan me the money then I can raise my "Standard" of living. The "Standard" has become inflated from what we actually need to what we would like to have. This is the "System" that we now want the government to support. But it is an addiction. Not to fix it is to quit an addiction cold turkey. The pain is excruciating, mentally and physically. Drug addicts remain addicted because the cure is tough. They will steal (as some lenders do as well as individuals) in order to support their habit.
I see three choices. The first is to do nothing and force a cold turkey quit. Those who have over borrowed and over loaned will suffer the most but everyone else will suffer with them. Ask a family member of a addict who went cold turkey. The second would be to supply more of the drugs, in this case money in the form of credit. This will alleviate the pain. But it will not cure the problem, leaving it to fester and return, worse than before. The third would be to temporarily, prop up the system while weaning the people in trouble from their addiction, a rehab effort, based on common sense living, thrift, and tightening of credit. There was a time when charging interest was considered sinful. A loan was a charitable act when the borrower had a real need due to a misfortune of some kind. We probably will never see those days again. But we need to work in that direction. People who run businesses ... and it gets back to people, not some nebulous entity we call "big business" ... must treat customers, associates, and employees with integrity. All people must act with integrity towards themselves and each other. We will solve our problems when we stop trying to get all we can, however we can, as soon as we can while we step on whomever we must to do it. Why not try to be more kind than we need to be. I think that would be a good start. I refer you to the "Prayer for this Week" (above)
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You just don’t luck into things... |
The Pastor's page of our parish bulletin included the following:
"... our anxiety can know no limits because they are fueled by our
imagination and worrying: we can keep piling up our anxieties because we
can’t turn off our imaginations and worries. Our brains keep generating
worst-case scenarios. What can we do to alleviate our worries? We’re
certainly not going to solve the global problems, fix the stock market
or cure everything that ails the world. Sometimes we just have to stay
focused on the good things, the simple things that are close-to-home and
that are do-able.
Consider the old Yiddish saying, “Worries go down better with soup than
without.” That is, take comfort in the small things, the stuff at hand,
and let tomorrow’s worries take care of themselves."
Rev Steve Lanza
They say you shouldn't sweat the small stuff but sometimes the small stuff is all that you can control. A man was asked who makes the decisions in his house. He replied that he makes the major decisions like ..., should the country go to war, should the state build a new toll road. My wife makes all the small decisions like ... do we need a new car, what should we watch on TV tonight, and what will we have for dinner tonight. The fact is that it is all a matter of perspective. In the case of the American monetary crisis, I'll just let those who think they can control it muddle through it while I pay my bills as they come due and refrain from buying what I don't need and can't afford.
Anne Marie went to the Sox/Twins tie breaker game with her boys on Tuesday. In an email from work on Wednesday she said:
Yes, it was awesome yesterday! I am so lucky my kids don't mind me hanging around...I had a blast. I mentioned to my friend that since I am going to be a grandma shortly, maybe I should have been home knitting or something, but instead I was tailgating with a group of twenty-something's, dressed in black with some 40,000 random people.
Even I watched that game on TV ... it was that important. We do need diversions to keep our minds off the economy (over which we have little control other than our own actions anyway). Just imagine ... a subway series ... all World Series games played in Chicago this year. Well, we can dream!
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“Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. |
I have been doing a little more extended family genealogy snooping, mainly to complete information that I already have and to see if the census reports for the oldest people in various lines list the parents as being from other than the US. One of the questions included in late 1800 and early 1900 census was the place of birth of a person's parents, (It would have been wonderful if they recorded the parent's names but if they weren't living in the household it was not recorded.) But, in many cases, I have been able to add to our tree the place of birth of ancestors, thereby giving a country of origin. I did, however stumble across a partial family tree of Marilyn (Harvey) Buchler's great grandmother, Addie Race (1850 - 1877) She had a short life, indeed, but gave life to the three sons of Wesley Harvey. The trees on Ancencestry.com can be unreliable but this one seems to be logical and believable. If correct it extends our knowledge of Adeline to her parents, Calvin Rice and Janett Emmerson. Yes, Addie spelled her last name with an "a" while her father used an "i". But then his father Calvin O Race used the "a" It also seems as their children couldn't make up their minds either. In any case we find "Race" ancestors going back to 1791 in Massachusetts and Emerson's to 1800 in Vermont. There we have a dead end. I did check my book on "Mayflower Families" and found just a mention of people named Rice and Emerson in colonial Massachusetts but there is no way to connect them to Marilyn Buchler. Maybe someday when somebody, ... a lot of somebody's, go through all the records in the land and record what they find on the internet, these family trees can be completed.
I had asked Ana and Kelsey to report on their high school track meets last weekend. Ana reported::
At our cross country meet I came in 10th out of about 80 girls and I beat my time by more than a minute, so it was a really good meet. And also, overall our freshman/sophomore team came in third, so everyone did well. ~ Ana
And this from Kelsey:
The meet was really good. It was a little cool in the morning but ended up warming up by race time. It actually ended up to be perfect racing weather. Anyways, I did well. I ran in the Varsity Top 7 race and got my second best time of the season. I am now the number 4 runner on the Varsity team and I hope to keep improving my time. All the girls are doing really great this year and we should finish the season off in good standings. Hope to see you soon! ~ Kelsey
Great Job girls! Congradulations. Both Andrew and Marist high schools had their Homecoming dances last weekend. I got pictures from the Andrew bash but the Marist photos are slow in arriving.
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Kelsey & Ana |
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| Kelsey & Friend | ||||
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Ana & date | |||
| A group of seniors |
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I can remember those days ... can you? Some of us lived those great times when we were actually dancing, then again when our kids were the ones involved and now it's our grandchildren. ... Impossible!
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Everyone chases after happiness, |
There were two emails from Peggy Cecora on Thursday after I returned
from Bible Study. My sister-in-law, wife of my deceased brother Ken
Cecora, had died and was being buried in a private funeral that very
day. I had met Anne Cecora only once and she struck me as being a very
caring person. I wish I had known her better but, in my book, the fact
that she was a "caring" person is all that I needed to know. Nothing
else matters. There was another death in the Cecora Family, the brother
of Jim Cecora's first wife Catherin. His name was Harold Misuraca..
There are so many members of my Cleveland family that I do not
know at all. We shall pray for them both.
Chicago as well as aging, isn't for sissies and when you combine the two
you have a daunting combination. We had several weeks of above average
temperatures. It was great and seemed as though Fall was not going to
get here. This week has been below average and it has been a shock. I
have not been in the yard all week. However, if this was January, I
would be out there enjoying the warm weather. Wednesday FedEx brought
plants that I had ordered. These are the catalog photos.
There is one
La Belle Campanula which will be planted between the yellow daylilies
and the Astor to fill a bare spot and reinforce the violet color. There
are three each of the other two and they will go into the trouble spot
directly in front of the Gazebo. I have had poor luck trying to grow
annuals there and these perennials will be a long lasting solution. When
someone comes to do the planting I will have them plant a couple
cuttings from Suzie with Eyes at the back fence directly behind the
gazebo. When the garden was built, I avoided flowering plants near the
gazebo thinking they would attract bees. But I have found that even
though that is true, the bees that do come stay near the flowers and do
not bother me in the gazebo. The landscaper who did the work initially
selected plants which did attract the rabbits and so they have not
survived. Now I only buy plants that are resistant to animal munching.
And so my garden is in a constant state of evolution, a trial and error
process that gets better every year. Funny ... I never thought I would
be a gardener and now I love it although I suppose I am more properly
termed a "gentleman" gardener with someone else doing the planting. Of
course, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be a great
grandfather either and in a month and a half I will have become one. My
garden and my great-granddaughter will have in common the fact that
although I have not done any of the work to produce them I still can
enjoy them ... at my convenience.
Necessity is the mother of taking chances.
Diane sent pictures of Caitlin's homecoming on Friday morning ...
except, as often happens, the pictures didn't arrive with the email. So,
we will enjoy them next week. I continue to be astounded by the
improvement in my eyesight, both for reading and for driving since the
laser treatment on Monday. However, my plumbing is not experiencing any
improvement and it seems like calls on nature are even more frequent and
urgent, especially in the mornings. I may be drinking too much coffee
but ... I fear I am addicted to it. Or maybe, as in a storm, things get
worse just before they get better. I'll go on that theory for a while.
The doctor warned me that this may happen. So ... I'll trust his advice.
I'll also use that theory on the current state of the economy.
Having said that, I tend to believe that our problem is found in the
separation of religion and life. We will always have problems when we
confine our morality and religious beliefs to one hour on Sunday, if
that, and treat our dealings with others for the other 167 hours as "get
all I can for me, right now, and to hell with everyone else". There is
no "them and us" in God's eyes, there is only "we". We were created to
work as a team for the common good of the team. Every "deal" must be a
fair deal or we work in opposition to God's plan. If we work in
opposition to God, guess who is going to win! We profess to believe in
God, and we shout "In God We Trust". If we truly trust Him, why do we
ignore His way of life? By the way, scroll down and go to the link about
the two wolves.
Grandpa Don
Plefka
. Links
of the Week
La Belle
Campanula
Beauty of
Cobham Monarda
Bonfire
Euphorbia
~ Mark Twain
Following the link is ...
the name of the person who led me to it.
The Two Wolves ... Alex Kapocius
Anne wanted everyone to be 'Nice'.
This button was in one of
her dresser
drawers I cleaned out in August of 2004
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