10 November 2013: Sunday ... listening to the mellifluous founder/host of loe.org, Steve Curwood, as the teapot boils ...

What a morning at Paper Mill Park where I walked the pathway around the park because I was early and we did not have choir rehearsal this morning. The day was brilliant and I thought, when I was hanging from this bar and seeing my shadow, what a nice picture it would make. So, I got down and waved, hid the iPhone and snapped and sent it to Facebook before I continued my walk. Just amazing, wonderful technology.

Then, we were treated to a magical, engaging, fun-loving, singing, stomping and spirit-lifting service by Clem Bowen, storyteller, musician, pantomimist and trained clown.

What a wonderful service at UUSMC this morning followed by a great potluck highlighted by Randy's incredible split-pea soup with ham and potatoes and pasta, which he gave away with special plastic containers and which I took and shared with my parents when I got home. They loved it, too. Just an incredible gift of this cook, who is a CIA graduate, not the spy agency but the Culinary Institute of America.

He strummed this dulcimer made for him by a instrument maker in Newark. It was simple and his songs had just a few word lyrics but we sang robustly and enthusiastically about peace (Shalom) and about a fox and his home. Magical interaction ... what a talent. 

My candle had four parts to it ... beginning with a shout out to Andy Levin, who played and sang for us and who sang a lovely song that I thought was a nice gesture to his granddaughter, a baby, visiting the church for the first time; the performance of Serafin last Sunday afternoon; the performance and help of Delaware Hospice regarding my mother and assisting my father; and the safe arrival of Liz, my cousin, who was travelling to Delaware from Connecticut as I spoke my joys. 

One individual, who I found quite attractive and had an empathy to match her beauty, lit a candle for the victims of the typhoon. She is a meteorologist and she works a lot in the RE wing of the church (today's service was intergenerational) and she was very knowledgeable of the storm in the South Pacific and she mentioned her husband, a printer, who does the shopping and the cooking while she does the laundry and the cleaning, quite a gender neutral household. Her name is Terri.

Addendum: Before bed, I sort through the records on the shelf in his TV bedroom and I pull them out and fire questions at him. MY gracious, does he know his records, spouting out facts on the performers and the words in a rapid pace. No mental loss here. I am astounded that he knows so much ... where have I been? Why have I not been questioning him and learning from his vast store of classical music knowledge. It is awesome.

On my walk, I have a unique exchange with Doug, who I called after trying to talk in the morning as I walked Paper Mill Park and he walked the fairway at Atlanta Athletic Club. Like a kid, he told me of a dining experience the previous evening at an exclusive steak place, very expensive, with a gazillionaire patient who was hosting him and a couple of his friends. He asked whether his date, a former beauty pageant winner from Hawaii all buxom and curvy and wearing threadbare clothing went on to drink more than a few Cosmopolitans and spout her bisexuality and the food came and the hors d'oeuvres and the wine and the bill, believe it or not, was at least a $1,000, all picked up by the wealthy patient, who eats at this establishment about five times a week. Go figure.  

27 October 2013: Sunday, a brilliant sunrise and lingering milk smoke downstairs from Cream of Wheat overflow (fan and open windows and door/door window)

I thought about this e-mail, seriously, and wrote it this morning after an "extraordinary" Saturday with our father and a Dutch couple's dinner visit to our home:Doug,

In thinking of a subject header for this post, which I will make brief (sort of) honoring your skill at being concise, I came up with "extraordinary" to cover a wide emotional space.

The first and foremost was the drive, one of our last, in the country with our dying father, still with it, thankfully, and how perfect I felt it went. Not talkative, dad, still, in his silence, soaked in the beauty of that Sat afternoon.

The second event was my imposition and its initial, though not continuing, upset on you, dad and mom. It was an imprudent and selfish decision on my part to invite the Stams over for dinner. Granted it was thrust on me by the couple's overt, encompassing generosity, but, nonetheless, I should have discussed (it with our parents and you and Norma). Enough said. My apologies, post-incident.

We are entering a new phase of our lives. We shall soon, hopefully not too soon, be the surviving generation. My hope, my dear brother, is, that despite our divergent temperaments and worldviews  that we continue to share the beauty of a fall afternoon and realize what is truly lasting -- our love as a family.

May it be so ... and in loving humankindness, your brother, always,
rudy
Went to church and with no choir practice, went for a walk around Paper Mill Park and came to a trail that led me to some nice homes and this horse and baby/small goats with budding horns:

Just off the asphalt track around the athletic fields of Paper Mill Park is a trail that led to this enclosed area with goats and this sociable and obviously, hungry, horse. I had nothing to offer him/her but an iPhone. Not going to get it but I did grab this image as I walked prior to the start of service at UUSMC. Walked for a total of 1.5 miles. Nice activity prior to the service where I got to sing with Kristen and Laurie on a hymn late in the service with Larry Stomberg accompanying on cello. He is an Assistant Professor of Cello at University of Delaware School of Music (Loudis Recital Hall).

Doug posted some amazing photos from our Saturday (yesterday) afternoon trip to the country with our father:

Travel to the country and The Whip this afternoon but it was packed due to the Eagles football game versus the Giants (they were losing 15-0 late in the 4th quarter) and so we traveled, thanks to Doug's expert GPS in his droid phone, to the Greathouse at Loch Nairn and had a nice late lunch, leisurely served by 18-year-old Eliza, younger than the cat that observed the dining area through the door outside (Doug went out to her and fed her some bread), who might be 19 or 20 years of age. Dad ate well -- an oyster stew -- and even drank a martini, his first in ages.

Male Muslim attire required at Greathouse lunch table ... with apologies to the Muslim faith. 

He waxed a little nostalgic about the place, he's eaten here so many times, he goes back a long way. Prior to coming into the restaurant, took a nice photo of Norma and dad, which I sent to Doug, Norma, and Norma Virginia via an e-mail and attachment. Here is the photograph:

Norma and dad posing in front of the Greathouse at Loch Nairn waiting for Doug to return after parking the car and going in for lunch on this sunny, beautiful Sunday, 27 October 2013. 



Mid to late afternoon, Dancer needed a walk so I got Norma to come with us to Bark Park for a walk, even though she wasn't wearing the exactly right shoes for the trekking adventure. We did the trails and the park for a little over a mile walk into a brilliant sun which became my thrown together Daily Dancer pic for the day.

A few short hours after our fairly big meal (good bread, filling) at the Greathouse, Doug made reservations for Feby's but dad was unable to go. We left our parents recumbent on mom's bed watching a TCM offering on the wide screen TV. Prior to that, I'd brought up the oxygen for dad for a second time and he fiddled with the nasal cannula to get it fitted properly and I set the level at 2.0. Doug had ordered, earlier, pulse oxygen reader on the Internet and it should be arriving soon. We will determine dad's levels and see if he does need the supplemental oxygen, but now, if he feels the need, he's going to get it, of course. Dinner was too filling and the restaurant was packed, many ordering the lobster due to a special of 3 courses for $30.00.

 
The view of Feby's as you turn into the restaurant's parking lot off Maryland Avenue.

Got home after 8 p.m. and dad was still up, but not for long, and they said their goodbyes and headed for the Holiday Inn Express, an early departure in the AM in the plans, probably 5 a.m. Doug set his phone alarm for 4:30 a.m., as though he needs it. Well, it was a good visit and we got a lot of time with dad as he went out of his way to travel in the Chrysler 200 (a car Doug poo-pooed as inferior) over the hills, valleys, and narrow causeways of rural Maryland and Pennsylvania. Just a beautiful weekend. The challenges remain and Doug will be here if I need him. Tomorrow, it's back to the office in the afternoon after flying in to Atlanta in the morning and making their way, about 45 minutes, to their home in John's Creek.