16 March 2015 ... my first entry? of the new year (come on) ... Liz' arrival ... meet the neighbor, Chris, finally ... call U of D parking authority, Wells Fargo debit card ...

So, here goes, after literally months of avoidance, I return to this blog and attempt, the day after, to begin a healthy process of recollection on a single day's activities, to gain some sort of perspective on this all-to-short human life. As I write this on St. Patrick's Day of 2015, a bright overcast day that will rise into the low 60s and as the grass has received a dosed of pre-emergent fertilizer from Nick, who knows Dancer and is greeted by her in the backyard as he takes the machine in rows and my darling

                                                   
                                                              Not Nick, not the front
                                                       yard and not the machine used.

therapy dog is not fearful, only attendant and loving as always, I know that this is a start, like my horoscope spoke of, a way to break out of the morass of inaction (Christine Shaw leads yoga at the YMCA as I type this and I am not there, again, to enjoy her healthy, physical pedagogy and spiritual enlightenment and to tell her how much I enjoyed the Delaware Symphony Concert where her group sang the accompaniment to opera selections ... loved her "Toreador"). 

At long last, I made the trip across the street and introduced myself to the "new" neighbor who moved in at the end of last year, yes, that's right, over 3 months ago. His name is Bill and he is the son of a DHS grad of '75, Cherie (?) Smith, who grew up in Limestone Acres. His wife -- this is 2nd marriage for both of them -- is Nicole and she is due in April with their first child, a boy, but he has a son from his previous marriage, a boy who has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound and will start school next year. The ebullient, singing child in the front yard, on occasion, is Avah, and their loving dog (name I can't recall). She came over and asked to ride her bike around the block. She is forthright, outgoing and just a dear.

19 February 2014: Wednesday (Woensdag, Mercredi) ... BodyKombat today kicked my butt with Jennifer & Renee tag teaming ... warmer day, snow melt ... Linda Wills, Beth Kincaid, & Skeesha Johnson all visit mom today ... nice talk with Heide ... Doug arrives tomorrow

15 January 2014: Wednesday ... When it rain, it pours, especially when you're napping mid-morning ... Carol, the Jehovah's Witnesses (who will come back), and Skeesha's call ...

Just had an idea for a daily entry on the blog ... why not, like I did in my classroom, have a Word Of The Day (WOTD). One of my FB friends, who I didn't know at Dickinson HS (she graduated in '75), Charla Larrimore, lives now in Hawaii (always wishing me 'aloha') and is a graduate of Stanford University. She is one smart individual. Well, she's sent me a WOTD for the past two days through instant messaging on FB.

Here's the first, or make that the second that she sent, which is part of the definition and not the exact word, but I love the definition offered up from the web site m-w.com. 

1. pecksniffian -- unctuously hypocritical
   
   
   
2. 
   

   
   
   I began this post with the phrase: "When it rain, it pours." Well, what did I mean? I was napping in my jammie bottoms and dad's leather slippers on the couch, listening to WHYY radio and the front bell sounds. It is the volunteer from Delaware Hospice, Carol, who has volunteered for 5 years as a companion and is a retired Special Education teacher from southeastern Pennsylvania for 10 years and happy to be so. It was hard and demanding work and her colleagues were not helpful. She has a wonderful visit with mom, who comments, initially on her name and its matching her sister. Mom loves people and it's good for her to have this companionship. She will return, weekly, to share some time with mom. I think it is good.
   
   Just moments later (here comes the rain), a couple of women, Jehovah's Witnesses, were at the door to talk about my faith. I stated, without equivocation, that I was "agnostic humanist" and a Unitarian Universalist. A lot of big terms, the woman said. And I was up front with my lack of belief and she wanted a conversation and I did, too. She left me with an interesting doc entitled Was Life Created? and it is surprisingly on topic and relatively unbiased. It's basis is the fact that ALL this complexity on earth, all its cycles and species and balance could not possibly have arisen by chance. There had to be a creator. Oh, if it were only that simple.

   

Had a good walk over 2 miles and avoided the mud on the sidewalks and circled St. John the Beloved School and Maplecrest in a mist that wetted Dancer and my jacket, pulled up over my neck (still have a lingering cold and tightness in my throat) and my hat over my ears, a necessity on this chilly, wet night, where the cars seem a lot closer on Milltown than they appear when I move to cross the road.

Some good PBS programs tonight. Fascinating piece on the German Zeppelins, made from cow's intestine (collagen) for its outer shell. It took a quarter million cows intestines to cover one zeppelin. They had a fleet of over a dozen and they flew over England and performed the first bombing runs, many incendiary. As a defense, the Brits put up the first rinky-dink fighters but they had to figure out how to shoot down these enormous, aircraft-carrier size structures. It didn't ignite with regular bullets. You needed to make a large hole to introduce oxygen that made the hydrogen explode and burn. A young pilot took down one and became an immediate hero. He made three passes and his last poured all his firepower into one section and opened up a large enough holed that ignited the gas and brought down the huge craft. Just incredible. 

The German commander in charge of the Zeppelins went on the last air assault and was shot dead in the craft going over the English Channel. Just desserts for a warrior who brought killing onto civilians during war, innocence on the ground.

*Something to note ... I did write Lindsay today!