Changing Direction?

This has been a very busy week, bookwise. We had our Zoom meeting on Wednesday afternoon. It was a mystery, Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. I had read it some time last year for another book club and didn't like it. I didn't like it any better this time. But it did serve a positive purpose; or at least I hope it does.

The book's story takes place in 1948 in the Watts area of Los Angeles. Obviously, one of the themes is the racism of the times. That subject got the group talking about today's unrest with immigration, ICE, and the general unhappiness of the current administration. Long story short, I vented with my unhappiness about the current selection of our mysteries. I went on from there and expressed my unhappiness about not reading any nonfiction, like I had at Books and Brews.

As we continued to discuss our dissatisfaction with the current political climate, I suggested that we take a breather from our present lineup of mysteries and instead read a short book on political science, which asks twenty questions of yourself. That's the photo of it above. 129 pages only. "Why don't we read this instead? No need for questions beforehand. No need really for a leader. We'll just discuss each question for a few minutes and then move on to the next."

Surprisingly, we all agreed. So next month, we will delay the original mystery for a month and see how this interjection of political nonfiction works. If nothing else, it will give everyone a sense that we are not alone. But then again, maybe it will lead to better things.

RDG

Remembering an Old Friend

 Every once in a while, I search Facebook for friends or just people I once knew. The other day I went looking for a friend from my early running days. When I began running in 1978. I was stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. So it was just logical that I would seek out runners on the post. One was an officer, a major like me, who ran every day at noon from the post gym. His name was George Estabrook.

George worked at the Command and General Staff College. He had gone to the University of New Hampshire, where he had a very notable running career. We often met up at lunch on weekdays at the gym and would run together for about 45 minutes. Soon, we decided to run the Kansas City Marathon scheduled for May 1979.

Here is a photo of us, with another officer from the post whom I can't remember, after we finished. 

George is on the right. I'm in the center. So an So is on the right. 

Anyhow, after I left Leavenworth, I lost touch with him like so many of my army friends.

Last year I went online to see if I could find him. I found a 2015 photo on Facebook and sent a message asking if he was the same George Estabrook I knew. I never heard back. 

I found later an obituary posted for him dying in 2018. 

That was him. I was so sorry to hear that.

When I went online to post this today, AI offered to generate an auto-generated icon for me (I can't remember what they are called).

Not bad.

RDG

Who is She?

 A few days ago, my brother posted his weekly email about local (Colorado) archaeology news. One item was about a book I gave him about Southwest digs quite a while ago, written by a woman archaeologist, Ann Axtell Morris. Excuse the poor quality of the photo, but I didn't have the capability of doing any better.

The photo intrigues me because she reminds me of someone I know or knew. I don't know if it's a famous person like an actor, or whether a friend I know or knew sometime ago.

Anyway, I'll keep it here so that when I remember, I'll have it.

RDG

Remembrance Shelf

 Cleaning my study today, I decided to rearrange many of my things I've been given or collected over the years.

I'll mention many of them later on in other entries. For now, I'm glad they are here.

RDG

Just Dropping In

 It's been quite a while - since May - and just thought I'd begin again to get back to writing each day. Not much, just things that are on my mind and things I remember. 

The two youngest daughters and their families are coming for a couple of days tomorrow; The oldest and her boyfriend from Nashville, and the youngest, her husband, and her two daughters, 11 and (almost) 4.

I'm busy with my three book clubs - one Zoom mystery, and two physical, classic, and mystery. They're keeping me busy reading.

Well, this is a start.

RDG

Dropping In Reading - Religion

 Today, I decided to look at two small books on my Bible shelf: the Jefferson Bible and Lincoln's Devotional.

 The Bible was actually a reprint of Jefferson's attempt to make a "Bible" from Jesus's words in the gospels. He began it in 1804 but didn't complete it until 1819.

Lincoln's little book was a devotional from a sect in England in 1852, with a short saying for each day of the year.

Interestingly, just as I was sitting down before lunch, and after I had looked at the two books above, I glanced at one of my Shakespeare shelves. I was going to read a novel from the local library, "If We Were Villians" by M.L. Rio, and it involved college students and Shakespeare and murder, etc. I noticed on the shelf a book by Joseph Pearce titled "The Quest for Shakespeare". When I pulled it off the shelf, expecting it to be about who Shakespeare really was, I was surprised to find it was an argument for showing that he was a Catholic in a very un-Catholic period of time in England! 

I am adding this to my Reading List - along with the two small presidential books. 

Varia 4

 Yes, it's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd try to log in a few things that I may or may not expound upon later. I'm calling this #4 since I went back and checked to find I had used the varia word in the title three previous times. (Before I did that, I was sure I had done it many more times!)

So here goes:

• I am joining two more real, meeting-in-person book clubs in addition to my monthly Zoom mystery club, I've been a member of since COVID.
• My 81st birthday passed with nothing really notable.
• Drop-In Reading - a new thing I am starting. More later.
• I recently had a scratched cornea. Kinda limited my reading. Almost completely better. Will talk about it later.

Speak of the devil - "Later."  ;)

Reunions

 The last two days have been exciting in terms of finding old friends. Yesterday while I was sitting in my living room chair watching English football, or soccer, my phone rang. It was an unknown caller, the address was Glen Bernie, MD. Usually, when I get an unknown number I ignore it. I don't know why I didn't this time, but I answered it. A man responded to my "Hello" with "Could I speak to Ron Grandel?". I replied, "This is he".  He said, "This is Rich Morseburger, your driver from Vietnam". 

I couldn't believe it. When I first on Facebook in 2010, Rich was one of the very first people I looked for, but couldn't find him. Turns out, that he doesn't have a social presence online. Anyhow, we chatted for almost an hour trading stories, mentioning common friends from Vietnam, and each other up-to-date to some degree. We left our phone call of almost an hour promising to each other some photos we had each taken.

About two hours later, I got another call from a northern Virginia area code.  I didn't recognize it, but feeling good about my earlier call with Rich I answered.  It was Cordell Burch, my 3rd platoon leader from Vietnam. Rich had called him and gave him my phone number. Once again we reminisced about 1969 Vietnam and brought each other somewhat up-to-date.

It was a very gratifying afternoon. 

Then this morning I FB message from one of my Xavier ex-cadets, Mike Patti. He found a favorite teacher of his, Al Nilles, who lived in Lexington, Virginia. He sent me the address and I am going to try to look Al up (Al and I would run the annual school walkathon instead of walking it). 

All in all, it was a good last two days.

A Family Death

 My Uncle Wayne died last Friday. He was eighty-nine. He would have been 90 next month. Only nine years older than me.

He was a very good man. He was a juvenile delinquent. He gave my mother's mother many a day of angst, fear, and anger. But eventually, he married and settled down, had two sons, and had two grandchildren by the time he passed. He was an Air Force veteran of the 50's. He was a welder for most of his working life.

He would always call Jerry and me on our birthdays and wish us a happy birthday.

I will miss him.