On this page you will find recorded what I found significant during the past week as well as my thoughts about those events and other reflections.

Since I had not read any of G. K. Chesterton's works, it became the first of my new books to get my attention. And ... it did get my attention from the start, On last week's Current Events page, speaking of my pre-spiritual days, I stated, "I was doing it "my way", not needing anyone's assistance.  I had some comments on this in 2001 in "A Creed". In his first few pages Chesterton addresses the problem of people who have it all together and feel they don't need any help . He links them to a philosophy of materialism and thinking that all things can be explained by logic, the very trap that held me for many years. Chesterton classified them as lunatics and suggests that room must be made for mystery and imagination allowing the poet in us to surface. He offers, "The poet only asks to get his head into heaven. It is the logician who tries to get heaven into his head. And it is his head that explodes." Not everything can be explained with logic and sometimes conflicting truths must be allowed. I like his observation, "He (the ordinary man) admired youth because it was young and age because it was not."

Leaving the real world, that of spirituality, and entering the material world of technology, my skimming of my new book on web building brought me to a chapter on using tables as a layout tool. In comparing the old way of using them to the new, it mentioned a common problem, one that I have been fighting, and offered a solution. I won't bore you with details but you will notice a bit of redesign at the top of this page. In doing it I was able to utilize the solution, making it much easier to accomplish.

After Mass Sunday Bob mentioned that he didn't get my update email on Friday and wondered what happened. He checked and found that The World of Grandpa Don had indeed been updated and concluded that something happened to his email. Thinking about it later I wondered what was wrong with his email server. (Its always the other guy, isn't it.) Then my ego got pushed aside and I checked my Sent Items folder. There was the email for half my Friends & Family but not the one for the other half. My Friends & Family list has been split in two because my email server limits multiple addressees to less than 100. I send the Update email to half the list and then resend, changing the addresses to the other half. Last week, in my haste, I forgot half of you. Sorry. If you ever fail to get the update email, check the web site. You do have it bookmarked, don't you?

A young man questioned his current course of action saying, "Am I wasting my time chasing a dream that may never come true?" He wondered if he should quit doing something he loved in order to concentrate on something more productive or something that could promise a better future. It reminded me of the four years I spent in the Navy. For a time I thought it would be my career but in the course of things realized that I was not cut out for the military life and would not reenlist. In my case I did not have the option to quit but I could have been a discontent and in doing so been very unhappy until my enlistment term was completed. In stead, I made the best of it, and not only enjoyed it (for the most part) but made it a learning experience and a step toward maturity. I still consider it to have been four years well invested, ... not just spent. No matter what situation we find ourselves it is only a waste of time if we make it so. Every experience can be a growth experience if we make the best of it and live with a successful attitude, giving it our best effort. 

 Anne Marie pointed my attention to an article that finally explains what is wrong with the Slippery Rock Sliders. It is amazing that they exist at all. I invite you to check it out at slippery ground. The fact is that if the coach and others did not love what they do, they would not exist. It is a learning experience and a step toward maturity.

I received another one of those "Good Luck" emails. Send it on to 20 of your friends and something good will happen, fail to do it and there will be a disaster in your life. SUPERSTITION and POPPYCOCK!  First of all, what gives the person who originates these things such awesome power? And ... how desperate are we that we need to trust to this nebulous thing called "luck" to govern our lives. That is the world of witchcraft and magic. And why would we send something, anything, to a friend that, if he fails to act in a certain way, will do him harm. Have we so little confidence in ourselves that we look to superstition to govern our lives? Yes, things happen by chance but there is no way that an email will influence the probability of the normal events of life. I did not send it to anyone. However, I did forgive the one who sent it to me. I know it was not maliciously sent and I ask God to bless him.

Sunday afternoon I joined the Buchlers at Dan and Karen's along with Kelsey and Ana for a bit of socializing before going to the new house. It is really shaping up. The cabinets are installed and the woodwork and floors have their finish applied. The light fixtures are installed and working and the air conditioning was on. It is beautiful and getting even more so. From there we all went to Rocco's where Nick met us. It was his 'going-to-school dinner. He will be going to SIU at the end of the week to start his senior year. It was a delightful evening,

Tom called Monday morning to let me know that my cousin Tilley Plefka had called while they were in Michigan for the weekend. So, I called her back in the afternoon. She was confused about the phone numbers she had, thinking I lived with Tom and Diane although I had told her where I lived the last time I spoke with her, She said that if she doesn't write things down immediately, she forgets the details. She called to let me know that her daughter does know their neighbors, the Buchlers, and that when her daughter's husband died, she gave Ted his woodworking tools. Our conversation was brief because I interrupted her session on a machine she needs to assist her breathing. But she was delighted that I called.

There is always something new. Spammers are very inventive and they direct their efforts towards those who are gullible and overly trusting. My in-box gets cluttered with items from senders I do not know, usually with no subject line but with an attachment that is a "pdf" file. Their reasoning is that spam blocking software can not read a pdf file and so their message will get thought to us. First of all, none of us with any intelligence will open a file that comes from a source we do not trust. The good part is that since this is obviously spam, we can, (and do) delete it immediately. The second type of mail that I have been receiving of late arrives in my in-box totally blank!  No address, from, date, anything. How do they do that? My virus protector always announces the arrival, letting me know that it had detected and "cleaned" an infected incoming email.

On Thursday a report came from my big brother's wife Peggy:

"We had a great time in Canada. We were able to move it up by a couple of weeks and were able to stay at Resin's house (indoor plumbing). It was a lot easier for Jim. Although he did have steps to walk up and down to the boat house. Dan was the big fisherman this year. He caught a 2 pound small mouth bass and a 2 1/2 pound large mouth bass. Jim and Dominic were skunked by the fish this year. On Thursday, Mary, Dominic and myself took a boat cruise of the 1000 Islands. I had hoped that we would of been able to get off to see Boldt castle, but there are only two tours one at 10 A.M. and one at 3 P.M. that offer that. We got there about 11 perhaps next time. Our trip up was uneventful. We left at 2 Friday afternoon and arrived at about 9 in North Syracuse were we spent the night. We left around 9 and stopped for brunch around 11 in Watertown. We arrived at Twin Oaks around 3 that Saturday afternoon. We unpacked the boat and Donald put the boat in the water for us. After the fish fry on the following Friday we took the boat out of the water and packed for our trip home. We did not leave until 10 on Saturday and then had the misfortune to get stuck and a 2 1/2 hour traffic jam just to get off the exit for the 1000 Island bridge. We made it home by 10 that night. It was definitely a long, long day. We have been experiencing the high humidity and heat as well. Tuesday's downpour caused flooding fortunately the only flooding we had was back on the patio where the drain was backed up. We may experience heavy rain later today.

Hope all is well. I was able to keep up by going back in the archives for the last July blog. The house is looking good, Dan and glad to hear that you were able to quickly sell the one your in now. Thank God that none of you were on the terrible bridge collapse in Minnesota and with God's help the rescue workers will be able to find those that are still missing along with hoping to find the trapped miners as well.

Well I need to get busy and start my chores. Take care, Peggy"

Their Canada trip is an annual event for the Cecora's. We are glad to here they are safely back in Cleveland. I sent a letter to John & Rita Barilla along with a group photo taken at the Copeland gathering at their home several weeks ago, I'll be sending a copy of the photo to my other Copeland kin as well in the near future. Letter writing has become a lost art and it is a shame. One of the problems is that it is time consuming and I have been as busy as a cat on a hot tin roof. But I do make time to write this page, adding a little each day for "publication" on Friday. I tried to print a copy of it to send to Rita and John but it is not formatted for printing and much is lost when I tried to do it. I did find that if I copy this page, then paste it into Microsoft Word it will retain almost the same formatting and appearance but to send this to my relatives who do not have internet access would require printing a document for each of them each consisting of at least eight pages. Another disadvantage is that they would not have the links to other pages or web sites that are present here on the web.

I have a pile of papers that keep moving from place to place and growing as it does. I have run out of filing space because I never throw anything away. I have every income tax file since my marriage including all the backup! I probably have a file for every appliance we had ever purchased. I have files on three houses we have owned. I have files for every financial transaction. I have files for computer hardware and software. I have files .... well I don't even know what they are. Wednesday I started to clean them out but I didn't get very far. A folder labeled H.O.W. contained the information for the first St. Julie parish web site. I thought I lost that information. I went to the web site and found they changed from "House Of Worship" to "ForMinistry.com". But there was our listing ... with our previous pastor's name, outdated web address and registered under my old MSN email address. I couldn't sign in because I forgot the old password so I had to send them an email to re-establish the account in order to make corrections to the listing. While I was at it I recreated the small web site we have there. Then I had to write down the history of the parish web site so it would not be lost to posterity and having done that send it to the other St Julie web team members for their information. And ... I still haven't returned to cleaning out my files! See the following links for the old St Julie web site locations.   http://www.forministry.com and http://www.rc.net/chicago/sjb/

Everybody is talking about the weather. It has been unusual to say the least ... it has gone to extremes where areas are unusually hot or cold, wet or dry and with storms of unusual magnitude. Couple that with a major bridge collapse and a mine disaster we wonder what is going on.  In January of 2005 I recorded my thoughts on the subject. You can review them at Nature's "Free Will".

I brought my camera with me when I went out to my little piece of heaven on earth for my morning visit with God and Anne. I thought I would share the views from my chair in the gazebo with you. It is too nice not to share. My morning visits have been the best since they precede the heat of the day and most of the noise. Two of my neighbors on the block are putting in new patios made with stone pavers and including small walls so it has been a bit noisy this week. Because of that and the high heat and humidity my visits to the gazebo to read have been rather brief. But due to the heat, humidity and rains that have come mostly in the night, my flowers are gorgeous, making it all worth while. I am sure the neighbors will enjoy their little bit of heaven just as I do and so the noise is a price easily endured in the quest for future beauty and comfort even if it is not for mine. Sometimes we must share the discomfort in order to share the glory of God's goodness. 

More next week ...
and 'till then, ... 

Let's be more kind than we need to be.

Grandpa Don Plefka 

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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