Good intentions

My apartment looks very nice this evening. Bathrooms clean, floors mopped, all rooms dusted and vacuumed, everything picked up and put away. That's because I have company coming tomorrow.  When I moved into this apartment, a major downsize from my house, I thought it would be so easy to take care of and it is. I figured I could clean every week and keep it spotless and I could.  Unfortunately I didn't recon with the fact that I don't enjoy house work now any more than I ever did.  There are way too many more interesting things to do with my time. it's just a good thing that I do have company from time to time.

They should have seen this coming.

On the news this morning they were discussing a recently rolled out app for one of the social media venues (not facebook, something much newer and cooler). This little app will show you a "heads up" display so you can see and share you're driving speed while you're texting and sending selfies to your friends. In their defense, the developers of this app said it was designed as a safety feature and they had no idea that teens would use it to send images to their friends showing how fast they're driving.  And of course the idea that one teen, seeing that a friend is driving 99 mph, would try to beat that speed never occurred to them. Surprise, surprise! They're being sued after a fatal accident.

more fun hymn facts

Tonight, night three in the four part series on the history of hymns that I've been attending, we focused on older and more contemporary American hymns. Here's what I learned: John Quincy Adams wrote a Psalter and a number of hymns after his presidency. Can you imagine any of our current presidential candidates writing hymns?  Composer Jaroslav Vajda was a Missouri Synod Lutheran. It took 50 years for the hymn "Rock of Ages," originally written as a Camp Meeting or Revival song, to be accepted as suitable for inclusion in a hymnal. Singing Schools were started at the end of the 17th century to teach people to read music so they could sign psalms and hymns. A side note here - the hymnal my father used as a boy contained only the words, no music. That's it, that's all I know.

some serious voting

I heard on the local news this morning that people who wanted to vote early could vote at one of the four largest branch libraries in Allen County starting today. I'm not ready to vote yet but I was pleased to know it could be that easy. Evidently so were many other people.  I stopped by the Dupont branch library about two o'clock this afternoon just looking for a book.  I was amazed at what I saw.  The parking lots were full and when I got inside I saw that the line of people waiting to vote wound its way from near the front of the building all the way back past the stacks.  As I was leaving after checking out I heard a conversation between one voter leaving as another was coming in.  The person coming in was told that the wait would be about 45 minutes.  I don't know if the situation was the same at other voting sites but I won't be surprised if we break all kinds of voting records for a primary this year. I guess people have strong feelings on this one. Thanks Donald.

a sleep experiment

I heard a sleep expert on TV the other morning giving tips on how to improve one's sleep experience.  Among other ideas, she suggested that the bedroom should be completely dark or a person should wear a sleep mask to block out the light. As I looked around my bedroom I realized that there are several little lights - my digital alarm clock, the control for my electric blanket, the power light on my phone and more.  I really don't want to disconnect all of these items every night so I decided to try the sleep mask idea. I happen to own several sleep masks since they pass them out on overnight flights so I've used one for the last three nights and, what do you know, I really do seem to be sleeping deeper. I've also been sleeping longer. That pesky early morning sunshine doesn't bother me at all.  Now if I could just train the geese not to honk until after 8:30. Are ear plugs next?

An anniversary celebration

Today at First Presbyterian Church we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the building we're in now, the fifth in a series of buildings dating back to 1831.  The service was lovely and I was interested to learn that all the music - prelude, postlude, choir piece and hymns - sung today were the same as those used at the consecration service in 1956. I must admit I wasn't too crazy about the anthem the choir sang but I felt right at home with the hymns: "The Church's One Foundation," "All People That On Earth Do Dwell," and the ever popular "A Might Fortress is Our God." Of course they sang the Presbyterian translation of that last one which, after more than 35 years as a Presbyterian, still doesn't sound quite right to me. Ah well, it was still a lovely service.

another fine performance

I saw another excellent performance by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic this evening.  With the Philharmonic Chorus, three fine soloists and the Fort Wayne Children's Choir, they presented a rousing rendition of Carmina Burana. It was a special pleasure to me to see my youngest granddaughter's name in the program as part of the Children's Choir.  I caught myself daydreaming that maybe someday she would be the soprano soloist.  They all start somewhere.

Fort Wayne Night Lights

One of the pleasures for me of living in my 10th floor apartment is standing on my balcony after dark and enjoying the city lights spreading out in front of me. At first glance it looks like a sea of white lights but gradually the colors start popping out. Of course there are the usual red and green traffic lights, red brake lights, red and blue police lights and the red flashing TV tower lights.  There are also the crayon color painted chimneys on the Science Central building. They started lighting these up at night a few weeks after I moved in here and they are fun, but my favorite show of lights is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge.  It's always beautiful but tonight whoever controls those lights (or programs the computer) is really putting on a show. The colors have been shifting from rainbow rows fading in and out to solid colors, red, yellow, blue, green to deep purple followed by sparkles. It's really very beautiful and I'm guessing that at least the purple part is a tribute to Prince. If so it's a beautiful tribute.

What makes it vintage?

I love the word vintage.  Somehow it just sounds better than old. I'm watching Antiques Roadshow and they just discussed the value of a dinette set from the 1950s. I thought it interesting that the style of the chair legs was like those of the first dinning room set my husband and I bought after we were married. Who knew those chairs would become vintage.  Sadly they fell apart and are long gone. Ah well, I guess I'll continue to be the only vintage item in my household.

opportunities missed

I was having lunch today with a group of ladies celebrating one friend's birthday.  As we were talking one woman said, out of the blue, "If I could be 18 again I'd want to be a wonderful dancer."  Another woman chimed in with a similar sentiment and talked about how much she enjoyed "Dancing With the Stars". I was a little shocked at my strong internal reaction to these comments. I don't think I would ever want to go back to the great unknown of being 18.  All day, I've been musing on this question and began to think about what I would have liked to do with my life if I had known more about the wide world when I went off to college way back in 1965. Mind you I've had a wonderful life so this is just daydreaming. I grew up in a small town where the approved options for women who didn't get married right out of high school were to become a secretary (or clerk in a store) or go on for more education and become a nurse or a teacher. I opted for teacher but, when I think about it, I think I would have liked to be an archaeologist or a commercial artist. My father, who quit school at 16 to go to work with his father, was a carpenter all his life.  He had a great love of reading and was an intelligent man so when he made a casual comment one day that he had never really wanted to be a carpenter I asked what job he would have liked. I was expecting an answer like teacher or librarian. His answer "I always wanted to be a plumber." Who knew?

preschool prowess

It was my turn to help babysit with the Moppets this morning so their moms, the MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) could enjoy their meeting.  It was three of us "grandma aged" adults against seven preschoolers so we were pretty well matched. I came away with a greater respect for Fischer Price and Play School.  They build some tough little toys.  I was particularly interested in watching several kids playing with small carry around toys that had little figures that popped up when you pushed, turned, or flipped the right lever. The one to two years olds knew there was something in the little boxes but simply pried up the lids to see inside while the three and four year olds were quite competent about flipping, turning and pushing the appropriate buttons.  I just think it's fascinating to see how much development occurs in those years. I also appreciated how tough those toys need to be.  And yes, I was able to figure out all of the controls.

people with generous spirits

I admire people who have generous spirits, those who always seem to be thinking of someone else.  On Mondays I'm one of a group of 10 volunteers who tutor children from South Wayne Elementary School.  My charge is a delightful fourth grade girl.  Today one of the volunteers, a retired teacher and principal, spent almost the whole period in a group activity with all of the children.  She had just come back from a few weeks in Florida and showed the kids pictures of the beach on her cell phone, read them a book about shells, showed them, let them feel, white sand from the beach, showed them four different kinds of shells and let them take turns feeling them.  Then, just when I thought she was finishing up, and I was full of admiration for what she had done - she really held their interest - she gave them each their own little box of white sand with four shells in it, plus a piece of foil to spread the sand as she had demonstrated, and handouts explaining what kinds of shells they were. My little girl was delighted and we spent the last few minutes of the class admiring her shells and writing words in the sand.  I hope the teacher who did this appreciates what a fine thing she did.  I'm pretty sure several, if not all, of these children have never seen a beach.  Now they have a new insight into a really different part of our country. So kudos to this generous spirited person.

a real sign of spring

OK, over the last few weeks I've seen geese flying, ducks paddling in the river, robins shivering a couple of weeks ago, flowers blooming, trees blossoming. but today I saw the really, real first sign of spring - kayaks on the river.  There were two of them, one bright yellow, one splattered in rainbow colors.  The people rowing them (or paddling - not sure which is the correct term), one in each boat seemed to be having a really good time, not working too hard, just gently moving along.  It was a beautiful sight. Now I'm thinking if I don't have the nerve to ride a bike any more maybe I could try kayaking. I've paddled canoes but never a kayak. Hummm...

going for a bike ride

Fort Wayne has recently installed bike rental stations in five or six locations around the city.  I'm not sure exactly how the rental process works but the bikes are available for anyone.  My first reaction when I heard the news story (and incidentally saw a row of nice looking bikes across the street from the Museum of Art) was that it's a great idea but nothing to do with me.  But then I stood on my balcony looking at the paved path along the other side of the river, remembering how much my brother and I used to enjoy bike riding, and I started contemplating the possibility. I have several friends who are older than I am and still ride bikes regularly but I haven't been on a bike for over 30 years. Will I or won't I?  Time will tell.

changing fashions

I'm pretty sure I've arrived at the that phase of my life known as "old fuddyduddyism."  I'm obviously out of tune with modern fashion trends.  A couple of evenings ago I went to a gallery exhibit with a friend. I debated what to wear and decide on a casual blazer and slacks  (my granddaughter assures me no one calls them slacks anymore but you know what I mean). As I was riding down in the elevator, a young lady got on two floors below me and indicated she wanted to go to the ground floor. I pushed the button and said "OK, we're going to the same place." meaning the ground level. I was going to my car and assumed, at a quick glance, that she was going to do her laundry because she was wearing torn jeans, a long blouse (another antique word) and loose jacket.  Imagine my surprise when I saw her a few minutes later at the gallery.  I realized on a second look that these were artfully torn jeans - same four holes on each leg - and deliberately casual layered tops. I'm sure she was much more "in style" than I was but it just looked sloppy to me. As I said, I guess I'm officially an old fuddy duddy now. Although, if I took scissors and bleach to my oldest pair of jeans maybe I too could be cool.  On second thought, I guess not since my granddaughter, my fashion and everything else critic, tells me I'm too old to even use the word 'cool'.

The Gallery Crawl

When I moved downtown seven months ago I promised myself that I would take advantage of opportunities to walk around down here, so when a friend asked if I wanted to do the Gallery Crawl sponsored by Art Link I couldn't say no.  We walked more than 14 blocks and visited seven venues. Each stop had musicians playing, displays of art by local artists and food from a variety of restaurants.  It was a very enjoyable evening.  The great weather helped a lot. We saw some excellent art and some so so, enjoyed some really good music and some so so, and ate quite a lot of really good food. Beyond that it was just fun to walk around down town, enjoy the views and feel the energy of lots of people milling around. It's not Barcelona, but downtown Fort Wayne is doing ok.

Love those old hymns

I attended a class this evening, the first of a four part series, on the history of hymns.  Here are some facts I found interesting. The oldest hymn in our Presbyterian hymnal was written sometime in the 4th century ad, it's the earliest hymn that still exists "O Gladsome Light".  John Calvin believed that "music should be a funnel pouring God into our hearts." He also didn't approve of instrumental music in church. While Martin Luther, who used familiar folk melodies for some of his hymns, is supposed to have said "Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?"  Presbyterian hymnals have been published at pretty regular intervals from 1831 to 2013 (eight in all) and there are eight hymns that have been in all eight editions: "Abide with Me", "Come Ye Thankful People Come", "Holy, Holy, Holy', "Joy to the World", "Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing".  Oops, I didn't write fast enough to list the other two.

salesmanship 101

A homeowner in Fort /Wayne is disappointed this evening because City Council refused to remove the protected historic designation from his home.  It's a home here in Fort Wayne designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and the owner claims that the designation is making the house hard to sell.  ARCH, the local architectural watchdog, is trying to find a way to buy the house from him.  They said on TV this evening that he's asking one hundred million euros for the house.  That's about $110,000,000.00. I know I've been retired from real estate for a while and may be a little out of touch with current house values but I would like to humbly suggest that his asking price may be the problem.

electric cars

They had a bit on the news this evening about the advantages of owning an electric car and it does sound appealing - totally quiet and it doesn't need gas. My son has a hybrid. He has just driven it to Florida and I'll be curious to hear about his mileage when he gets back.  All you need to keep a total electric car running, so they say, is a place to plug it in, and there's the rub.  A proud electric car owner being interviewed explained that if you wanted to take an electric car on a long trip all you had to do was stop every couple of hours and charge it up. That sounded ok until I started wondering just where you would plug it in. I suppose you could just pull into someone's driveway and plug your extension cord into their outside outlet. Of course, if they came home while you were still charging, it might slow your getaway.  I realized as I thought about this that I'd better not rush out and buy an electric car any time soon since the only way I can think of to charge it up would be to drop a very long extension cord down from my 10th floor balcony to the parking lot below. I think not.

tea for two

The friend who came up for a cup of tea after the concert yesterday evening emailed me today asking me for the recipe.  I was embarrassed to admit that I simply brew a pot of tea in my 'Mr Coffee' each morning, add some agave syrup for a little sweetness, take out the teabags after about 20 minutes, and, after my first cup in the morning, turn the pot off and just let it sit all day.  Then, whenever I want tea during the day I just pour some 2% milk and tea in a mug and heat it in the microwave.  As I was describing this process to her, I was reminded of my first introduction to Indian tea many years ago.  My daughter's best friend from third grade on is from India as are her parents.  When the girls were just getting to be friends her mom invited me over for tea one afternoon. I was very excited, thinking I would learn how real Indian tea was brewed.  Since their house had an open floor plan I was able to watch from the great room as she mad the tea. She put four Tetley tea bags in a saucepan of water, let it boil for about 15 minutes, then poured it into cups.  It was the strongest teat I have ever had. Happily, she did serve it with milk and sugar so it was actually quite good - but not as exotic as I had anticipated.  But then, why mess with a good thing?

music and another fun elevator chat

I went to a lovely philharmonic concert this evening with a couple of girlfriends.  The music was Bach and Sibelius and the violin soloist was amazing. After the concert the friend who drove agreed to come up to my place for some tea and cookies.  I'm out of wine at the moment. A young man got on the elevator at the same time.  He asked where we had been this evening and when we told him the philharmonic concert he said "Oh, I was there too."  When I looked at him more closely I noticed that he was wearing a white bow tie. He laughed and admitted he was the oboe player in the concert. Another interesting elevator encounter to add to my list.  This is such a fun place.

I'm cured, maybe???

I went to a giant garage sale with my daughter this morning. It is being held at my church - still on tomorrow from 9 to 2 - and is an accumulation of stuff (furniture, clothes, books, dishes, Christmas ornaments, decorative items and so much more) donated by many members of the church.  Some people rent space and sell their own items. Proceeds go to a variety of charities.  For the last three years I rented tables and sold lots of stuff from my household; two generations of toys, mountains of electronic bits and pieces, tools and more. But this year, when  I thought about renting table space, I realized that I don't have much left to sell.  After my grand downsizing last summer when I sold, donated or pitched 3/4 of what I owned, I don't feel like getting rid of anything else, at least not yet. So I seem to be cured of selling.  But even better, as we strolled through the rows of tables I was tempted by a few items but I didn't buy anything --- yet.  I've volunteered to work there tomorrow and many things will be marked down to half price. If the little kitty statue is down to $1 I might just have to buy it. My daughter says if it's still there tomorrow, it's meant to be. We shall see.

Spain, one mire time

I keep remembering the amazing building we toured in Cordoba, mosque on the outside with a cathedral in the middle.  I was going over my pictures again and found these tow which I think give a little idea of what it was like.  Look to the left in the top picture and you can see the original red and white arches of the mosque, which go on and on, row after row.  We were sitting in the pews when I took this picture, then looked up and took the bottom picture.  Such an amazing contrast to the original flad roofs and rows of columns.

God's not Dead 2

I saw a really good movie today "God's Not Dead 2". A friend recommended it or I probably wouldn't have gone to see it. The movie obviously carries a strong Christian message but not in a hyper emotional way.  The bulk of the story takes place in a courtroom where a public school teacher is on trial for supposedly "preaching about Jesus" in her history class.  The prosecuting attorney was a little too devilish looking for my taste - I don't think that the producers needed to hit us over the head with the fact that he was a greedy opportunist. But all in all it was a good story with a satisfying ending.

the great grape dillema

This weekend I bought refreshments for a meeting scheduled for Monday. Then, for a variety of reasons the meeting was cancelled.  Much of what I bought was packaged or could be frozen and saved for the next meeting in two weeks, but one of the items I bought was two big bags of grapes, one red, one green.  Faced with the prospect of eating grapes morning, noon and night for the next several days, or watching them rot, I decided to take them along to another meeting today, one where we don't usually have refreshments.  Well, surprise, surprise, everyone loves grapes (especially when there's no other option). My grape glut has been taken care of.  As we were leaving after the meeting, one lady, who evidently really loves grapes, said to me "You know, you can freeze grapes. Then eat them frozen and they taste like ice cream." Who knew?  I'll have to buy more grapes to test this out.

holy humor Sunday

On Sunday, during our regular worship services at First Pres, we celebrated Holy Humor Sunday, an ancient Sunday after Easter tradition but new for our church. We had lots of fun; the kids told jokes during the children's sermon time and "the devil" showed up during the sermon.  He claimed to have had a hand in several church related activities over the generations, "Who do you think invented committees?"  My favorite joke of the day: A surgeon, an attorney and a politician were debating what is the oldest profession. The surgeon pointed out that Eve was made from Adam's rib, a surgical procedure.  The attorney said that before Adam and Eve, God brought order out of chaos, obviously a legal maneuver.  But, said the politician "Who do you think created the chaos?"

another kind of walk

I've finished with the recap of my Spain / Portugal trip, at least for now.  I do have 600 more pictures just in case someone would like to see them all some day. This evening I took a different kind of walk.  I was part of a walk from the MLK bridge to our church followed by a very inspirational program commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King's 'mountaintop' speech. There were several inspiring speakers with the special guest being Rev. Dr. C. T. Vivian, now 91 years old, who was on Dr. King's staff for several years and has gone on to do his own work for desegregation, been an adviser to business people and presidents, and a frequent award winner.  Altogether a very moving event attended by at least 200 to 300 people from several different churches in Ft. Wayne.  While I appreciated the warmth and  camaraderie, especially as we all joined hands to sing "We Shall Overcome" I couldn't help wondering what the future holds for the five young black men (apparently teens and pre-teens) sitting in the row in front of me.  They all looked like perfectly nice kids, bright, attentive and well behaved, and yet, statistically, one or more of them will end up dead or in jail before they reach 20.

My favorite city in all of Spain was Barcelona, founded over 2000 years ago by the Romans. I liked it because of the wild variety of architecture among other things. We drove through the "Modernism" section of the city, apartments from the early 1900's, definitely the high rent district. Very ornate street lights, three different architects on one street, one of them Gaudi. Casa Mila was built 1906-1912. "Passa de Gracia", a street from 1906, originally lined with large homes and apartments, now elegant shops, expensive apartments (owned like condos). You can buy one for 2 million euros. I'll keep this in mind when I win the Power Ball. Gaudi, one of the city's most famous architects, said "there are no straight lines in nature", so none in his work. He died in 1926, hit by a tram, never married. Gaudi's park, which was originally intended to be a suburban housing development but no one wanted to live that far out of town, is amazing, very fanciful and fun. Spain is a fun, fanciful country. Everywhere you look things that make you smile.  I'm ignoring the bull fights here. The Church of the Holy Family, Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's final project, is a combination of traditional Gothic, started by another architect, and Gaudi's unique style. Impressive, some beautiful elements, lovely strong sculptures on the front of the building. They expect this church to be finished in ten years. Gaudi is buried in the crypt. I still really like "pure" Gothic.  When asked when the church would be finished Gaudi said "My God is not in a hurry." 1936-1954 nothing done on this church, money ran out.
Olympics were in Barcelona in 1992. Reawakened interest in the city, lots more visitors to church. They have plenty of money to finish it now.  Lots more tourists in general. Olympic athletes stayed on cruise ships, Then Barcelona became a popular cruise stop. An exciting city and a wonderful place to end out trip.

While staying in Barcelona we drove to the monastery on Monserrat (serrated mountain - we might call it saw-tooth mountain - certainly lived up to its name). The Black Madonna is there. Legend says two young boys found the Madonna statue in a cave. Men from the village came to help them carry it down to the town. At one point she got so heavy that they couldn't carry her anymore, decided that was the place she wanted to be and built a Benedictine monastery on the spot. The Romanesque Madonna there now is not the original found by the boys. This Madonna is black because of 400 years of accumulated smoke stains from being in a small space with candles burning constantly. This is considered the most important religious site in Catalonia, one of the five districts of Spain.  Long winding road to the top, almost collided with a car on the way up. Our bus backed up a ways to let it pass. I would have made the car back up but we have a really good driver, Alberto. 80 monks live in the monastery now.  There is a famous boys choir here. Spectacular mountain views going and coming up this mountain. Can't do justice with a camera but here are a few of ,my attempts: