The World of Grandpa Don
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Merry Chriesmas |
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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This is the transition week. We relax after the Christmas festivities, think about the new year as we reminisce over the past year. It has been an eventful year but you have had enough of that in the news media and I don't need to rehash it again except to comment that many are going to be feasting on warmed over hash in the coming months. We will be glad to have it. Add some ketchup and with eggs it makes a great breakfast.
It was also a transition in the weather department. After weeks of cold and snow with a generous portion of ice thrown in, the two days after Christmas brought unseasonably worm air with temperatures in the high 50's (F) along with thunderstorms and flooding. Winter had arrived early and the traditional January thaw came at the end of December. Last Friday I read the prolog of one of my Christmas books, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Folett. This is "my kind of book", set in the 1100's and centered around the construction of a Cathedral. The prolog is captivating and I know I shall enjoy it.
I spoke with my sister Rita on Friday. She told me of the family gatherings in Cleveland. There was the sad news that her husband John will not be coming home but will be taking up residence in a nursing facility nearby. Rita will also move but to a facility that offers more independent living than the place initially selected for her and John. It will offer her more freedom and less cost.
I selected the place in the living room to hang the tribute to (my)
grandpa Lou Copeland in his Spanish American War uniform. That
particular space on the wall has been waiting for years for him to
arrive. The photo of Caitlin and Kelly replaced the older photos of them
on the end table. Then on Saturday, Anne Marie sent copies of Christmas
photos. Would you like to see them?
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Bella ready for Christmas |
Unto us a baby is Born |
Bella Loves Santa |
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The gang gathered at Grandpa's house |
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| Sarah, Dominick & Isabella Ann |
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Great Grandpa with Bella |
Somebody noticed a pattern. | ||
| The Greys Marc, Anthony & Ana |
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The Greens Kelsey, Karen & Grandpa |
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The Solids Anne Marie, Dom, Sarah Dominick |
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The stripes Nick, Dan, & Joe |
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In the face of uncertainty, |
The transition included a 99% melt of the snow and ice along with heavy rain and thunderstorms. The rivers rose above flood stage in many areas and water inundated roads in the low lying areas. I am high and dry and so invested the time in reading. Sunday turned colder but did rise above freezing in the sun, Being the 28th, my thoughts were with Anne. It was the date of her birth in 1932. I was so fortunate to have had her in my life. It was the day of the parish Christmas concert but I went to dinner at the Albano's. Bella and her parents were there. Bella was the perfect baby there as she usually is at grandma's house and as she was at mine on Christmas. When at home she is also perfect, ... a perfect terror making it impossible for her parents to sleep or get any relaxation. That is the way it should be, punishing parents for the way they were when they were infants and rewarding the grandparents. At the Albano's when she gets a little "fussy" her grandpa rests her on his ample belly and she is soon fast asleep. When Sarah complained that she is not so comfortable with her, Dom explained that her chest is too bumpy. After a great chicken paprika dinner, Mikey and I returned home for the rest of the evening.
Some preparation was made for the new year. I did a complete backup to disk for The World of Grandpa Don. That is so I will have an archive available for the 2007 "Current Events". I will delete them from the web site the first week of 2009. I also set up the web pages to start archiving 2009 as the weeks move on. In addition I put all my photos on a DVD, nearly filling it with photo files. Thoughts again went to transferring my old family VHS tapes to DVD. I must continue with more chapters of "How I Became Grandpa Don" and all I need is some snapshots from those old tapes from 1990 - 1996 in order to finish Chapter 16 - the Pre-Retirement Years. I invite you to say some prayers for Bob Lewis' surgical team as he will have hip surgery on next Monday. He has connected with a very good doctor and hospital in the Tampa area and looks forward to being able to navigate better on his two legs. May the surgical team have a very good day on Monday.
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If you do what you've always done, |
When I made an archive copy of the web site I always go through a few pages just to make sure it is a good copy. In doing so this time I came across a photo that was was of the wrong people for the page. That happens when I make the mistake of giving the photo a file name like "Wedding.jpg". It is fine as long as it is in it's original folder on the computer and another folder can have a photo of different people with the same file name. However, when you put the two photos on the web site, the second overwrites the first and the first page will display the wrong photo. And so, I had to rename one of them and get the correct photos on the pages. It is easy to spot the mistake and easy to correct but it may be months before I view some pages and it happens when I least expect it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Nick ! He is one of those people who seldom gets a birthday party since the day falls between Christmas and New Years. But Nick has now entered the "real world" having advanced beyond the years of children's birthday parties. Congratulations Nick. Every year brings new adventures and accomplishments. May yours be fruitful and full of joy. Don't look for these things in where you go and what you encounter, just look within yourself and draw them out to share them with the world.
Monday, Tom had cataract surgery on his right eye. The problem was probably caused by a previous eye injury and the left eye shows no problem. He called on the way home to report all went well. The doctor will check her work on Tuesday. He called Tuesday afternoon while I was out foraging for food and left a message that the eye doctor had checked his eye and told him he now has 20/20 vision again. Tom said that it is like night and day .. it being day again. There was a bit of amazement in his voice and I know how that is when the cloud is lifted. I imagine that Heaven will be a little like that. We will arrive, we'll look around and say. "I never imagined that it would be this spectacular."
Yesterday, Tuesday, I thought I would get to work on copying a VHS tape during the day on New Year's Eve since I had nothing else to do. The problem is that I picked up "The Pillars of the Earth" and couldn't put it down. I am already into the second chapter which opens a window to tenth century monastic life. It is fascinating. It is also a view of life in general in those times. We would consider it crude and harsh but of course those who experienced it would never been able to imagine the comforts of the lives we now have. To live then and see how people would live in this century would be akin to glimpsing into Heaven. They would, indeed, say ... "I never imagined that it would be this spectacular".
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The poor person needs not a program, not a plan, just food
and a home. |
New Year's Eve found me watching a live concert by the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra, an evening of great music. I am in awe of this
kind of performance and the inventors of the wondrous musical
instruments, the composers of the music itself and the talent of the
instrumentalists as well as the vocalists. The fact that mere humans can
produce such beauty is amazing to me and is, I believe, a great tribute to
the Creator of us all. It is a glimpse into heaven, a promise of what
can be if we would only strive for creativity (in place of destruction)
and harmony (in place of ego driven discord). I confess to emotional
tears at the beauty of it and an evening like that, for me, is far
better than any noisy party. I went to bed at 10:00 not needing to be
awake for midnight (delayed for one second in 2008) and the
welcoming of a new year. We place great emphasis on the passage of time,
particularly this arbitrary instance when we mark the transition from
one year to the next. In our own lives, birthdays are probably more
significant and on January 1st we say ...
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
to my son Tom and my grand-nephew Dan Cecora. May each birthday find
you with all the love and happiness that life can give and may your
vision of the world be 20/20 forever. We also jump forward a day and say
...
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
to my nephew, Matt Lawler. May there be many more, and may each find you
prosperous and content with the world.
The first day of the new year is looked upon as a new start and that is probably good. There are many aspects of 2008 that we should discard, although they should not be forgotten. Hopefully we learn from the bad things and profit from the good. I usually do not make New Year's resolutions preferring to be open to new starts any time the opportunity presents itself. It is most important to live life each day because what we do each day, no ... each hour ... each moment ... is the most important, for what we actually do is what makes our life and now is the only opportunity we have to do anything. We can only remember and build on what has happened in the past, learning from it to make what we do now a better choice of action. We can plan for the future but we must act the moment. Hopefully we will chose to make beautiful music rather than foster discord and leave scars on those we touch. Hopefully we will see the music we make in this world as a mere shadow of the glories to be found in the next thereby making this world the more bearable when there is grief and troubles and more enjoyable when there is kindness, friendship and love.
Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered.
And lo, no one was
there.
~ Anonymous
I turned down an invitation to join the Albano's for dinner on Thursday, New Years Day in favor of a quiet day at home. It was very quiet, invested in reading "The Pillars". I have not read any of Ken Follet's earlier books but it is obvious why he has been such a success. He knows how to weave a plot, introducing characters in early chapters who come together later as seemingly unconnected events lead them to new situations. He blends the basic survival of individuals with the intrigue and rivalry within both church and state. There is the pious and the profane, the kind and the cruelly ambitious, the wise and the foolish along with the compromises each makes toward their goals, either noble or self serving. It is a story of life.
There must be (good) music in Heaven! The evening of January 1st brought another heavenly treat for me in the broadcast of the New Year concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra featuring waltzes, polkas and marches of Johann Strauss with a little of the genious of Haydn thrown in for good measure. I was spellbound and profoundly moved, especially after setting my sound system to emulate the acoustics of a large concert hall and turning up the volume to give me a front row seat. Along with the great music there was a bit of history thrown in, always intriguing for me but particularly, in this case, with Haydn's connection to the wealthy Hungarian Esterházy family. As you may know my great granddaughter is blessed with Hungarian blood through her grandfather, Zolton Nagy.
There is good programming on TV but it is, unfortunately, rare and you have to look for it. There is good in life as well but you need to look for it and learn to appreciate it when it is found. Once the thread if found it can be followed and one can chose to remain with it. One can be oppressed by fear and the culture of instant gratification or seek a more lofty path that leads to faith and contentment. Faith, real faith, that which needs nurturing and constant reinforcement, conqors fear every time. Contentment, by it's very nature of longevity, is far superior to instant gratification which quickly fades and always demands more in its unquenchable selfishness.
If you have much, give of your wealth.
If you have little, give of your heart.
~ Arabian proverb
I start the new year in contentment knowing the past has been good to me. I have said it before and I'll stick with the concept that I would not change any of it, good, bad, or indifferent ... for my past life brought me to where I am and I love where I am. I think I have found the right path and so I will follow it, knowing that end of it I will find beautiful music and even more beautiful glories, ... glories unimaginable to us in our primitive human state. It would be like a slug in the garden trying to imagine itself dancing to a Strauss waltz, or a 10th century stone mason contemplating the construction of the Sears Tower. The building materials have not even been discovered and the needed tools and machines necessary are beyond his imagination. I will not only survive what obstacles I find on my path but I will be stronger for overcoming them for I will continue to follow my faith and endeavor to enhance it so it will support me when in need. That then is my New Year's Resolution. And ... I wish to you ...
I Also wish you a Merry and Blessed continuing Christmas season.
Don't forget ... Christmas day was the start of the 12 day Christmas season. Keep the Spirit with you.
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I am blest |
Grandpa Don
Plefka
. Links
of the Week
Following the link is ...
the name of the person who led me to it.
Dominick The Italian Donkey
... Frank Schober
The First Christmas Gift ...
Bob Clarke & Frank Schober
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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