25 April 2014: Friday ... first law mowing in 40 years with new Honda ... short workout at Y but saw Jamie K. and Pamela ... Nielsen gear installed by Allen & Mike ... haircut by Debbie Leago ... picked up dry cleaned shirts (still out in the car on this rainy night) ... got soaked in walking Dancer thru Limestone Acres on 1.5 mile walk

Saw Barbara Ehrenreich's, a confirmed atheist with a rational, humanistic view of life, interview with Tavis Smiley, a confirmed Christian and believer, as I used the Nielsen view box for the first time in the TV room after Allen and Mike installed the equipment this Friday, 25 April 2014. He did not convince her to disavow her belief system.

I loved this post which I Shared from someone I did not know but the interaction between daughter and father was just precious and so in synch. This father is truly and literally (with the ukulele and all) connecting with his child.

Kristen Tosh-Morelli oh, that was beautiful. so sweet!

18 April 2014: Friday ... Good Friday ... Nick called, will be in Columbia w/Susan, Lindsay & Granny for Easter ... met Hanna, St. Mark's junior at Y ... good workout this AM ... doin' core work when Pamela walked into stretching room ... goin' to Riverfront Imax Theatre for "Grand Budapest Hotel" with Linda Lucero (7:45 p.m. showing) ...

The Y was open today but there were no group exercises today. The fitness instructors got the day off to be with their families, although I did see Pamela doing a one-on-one fitness instruction in the warm-up room as I did one of the routines (passing a large ball -- OUCH! -- between by legs and my arms). I told her that someone, who looked an awful lot like her, had taught me this exercise. "Do I have a twin?", she amusingly asked. "Perhaps," I said, "or a word I love, a 'doppelganger'". Also, used the "bosu" (both sides up) to do leg flexes and standing and lifting, but had to ask the older male instructor the name of the device, which had been told to me earlier in the week by the aforementioned Pamela, who taught me, yes, an exercise routine using it. An exhausting one but great for your core and your cardio.

         

22 February 2014: Saturday ... I found Maude Carey or she found me at the Y at the coffee station ("Rudy Nyhoff?") ... dinner at the Farmhouse with Gail tonight ... bowtie bought for annual event starting tomorrow (courtesy Gordon Roth) ...

FROM THE ANNALS OF ADVERSITY: I saw it coming and could do nothing to stop the spillage of many of the pills from mom's 7-day, 4-chamber pill case, all over the floor of my bedroom closet. Oh, the feelings of anger and the words but it was cleaned up easily, especially when the small flashlight, held in my mouth, illuminated corners where a few Vicodin hid, but from this adversity, this pain-in-the-butt accident in the morning led to me finding a nice sweater, something lacking in my wardrobe. From an irritant to a delight, one must see through the anger of the moment and see what light might be revealed by moving forward and taking care of business. 

I was accosted, not really, by a woman, who I did not recognize initially, who queried ... "Rudy Nyhoff?" ... at the coffee/tea station in the main hallway of the Western "Y". When I took a closer look, she said her name, ***MAUDE CAREY***. What a revelation this morning and such a joy. 

She has been married since just after graduation from U of D to another graduate, Buddy Niedzielski (5 years her senior), and they have lived in the same home in Montclare, just behind Dickinson High School, ever since. The have one daughter, Anastasia, who is a 3rd year med student at the University of Michigan. Her husband is recently retired attorney from the Justice Department, a graduate of Widener, before the era of Professor Hayman. Maude is also a law graduate but did not pursue it. She is in the insurance industry.
                        WHAT A JOY TO SEE HER AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!!!!

I hold within me hatreds that can come to the surface and it is so difficult to look within and evaluate oneself honestly. I cannot separate from myself, stand away and look back at my actions and determine whether my path is correct. Judgmental is a state that is common in my being and tonight at dinner I displayed it in earnest. Our dear friend spoke of her experience in Australia in a godforsaken town (Oodnadatta, in the Australian state of South Australia) far out in the Outback with a couple hundred residents, far from civilization. I felt she disrespected the Aborigines by calling them "Abos" (sic). What right did I have to play the role of judge and jury. They say you should stand up to injustice and racism, but what do I know of her true intentions. Why do I have to judge? 

On the drive home it is so easy to say things that are hurtful but at the time of their utterance, feel so right. Why do we have to feel as though we are so in the right that our own declarations salve our needs but pour lemon on the open wound we have created in our loved one. It is passing fast this life of ours and like the African-American woman minister spoke, so eloquently, last Sunday -- compassion is love's companion, it's most critical and vital one. May it be so.  

3 February 2014: Monday ... started as cold rain, became snow, then sleet, then snow again, now slush which may turn to ice as temp goes down tonight ... Y closed early ... CJ & daughter, he joined me shoveling the slush on our respective sidewalks and driveway

The driveway, wetted by slushy snow and puddles earlier, shoveled to the side with some sweat and cardio, but not completely, has frozen and offers a slick predicament to foot travel as I make my way, minutes before the start of a Flyers' hockey game out west at 10:30 p.m. EST, to deposit the lid of a dog food can into the can for recyclables (What is done with that agglomeration of varied items from paper to plastic to metal?).

 

1 January 2014: Tuesday ... got it right but had to look at the right numerical key and not press "3" ... but took advantage of Y offer and worked out today ...

We were actually dancing, with some encouragement from me, to the concluding waltz of the Vienna Philharmonic's annual New Year's Concert conducted for the second time by Daniel Barenboim. 

I needed to make a Dancer post, especially on January 1, 2014, so I grabbed her and she was not particularly enthused but I clasped and then held the iPhone out and shot away and caught at least a decent frame.

Is is serendipity of what ... I get an e-mail from Heide Harper. I read it. Respond to it. Includ my cell number. Think I have and I had in previous e-mails. I think, why not just call her. Go to iPhone and look up number for Heide. Not there. Why? Go to e-mails in the match.com file and find the number posthaste, go to, finally, place number in iPhone. Before I can save, I get a call from ... you guessed, it's Heide. We talk for a good 30 minutes. She's engaging. She's not an Eagles fan, of course, either am I to any great extent but she declares, hesitatingly, that they're in the playoffs, are they not? Well, I say, you didn't hear the loudspeakers in Kennett Square declaring that they'd made the playoffs. She then brought up a love of hers, along with yoga and being a Quaker ... more to follow, I'm sure, KNITTING. I said that I would love to learn and maybe she could teach me ... well, later, mom mentioned knitting and I thought I would bring Heide here to teach her.

Well, to make a long story short. She's having a yoga class at her studio tomorrow late afternoon -- 5:30 p.m. at Bliss Yoga (blissoutyoga.com) just outside of the public parking garage which has free parking after 5 p.m. I said I'd be there for the class, which is free for the first one. See if I can find my yoga mat. Not sure I can. She said there'd be some there. It should be fun.