Letters for George: Giving Thanks for 2015

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Giving Thanks for 2015

Dear George,

Aside from turkey and pro football games, Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the many sources of pleasure and well-being in our lives. Once you start thinking about giving thanks, it makes you realize how many people contribute in valued ways to our lives. I started making a list that began with my childhood, but that was totally unmanageable, so I decided to stick with 2015. Here some thanks for my year to date:

BIG THANKS TO:

· Katja for getting me a Fitbit and lots of other good stuff too.

· L and V for being such smart and funny grandchildren.

· J and K for lovingly raising those wonderful kiddies.

· Linda and Ted for being devoted grandparents.

· My sister Vicki for being there through thick and thin.

· Gayle for her many cheery e-mail messages (continuing Peter’s good habits).

· Ami for joining us for a family holiday in Cincinnati.

· David for lots of laughs via California cell-phone calls.

· Donna for being a hardy sheepdog hiking buddy.

· Jennifer for lots of Clifton walks and talks.

· Phyllis for organizing our flea market expeditions.

· Eleanor and Sam for being such steadfast longtime friends.

· Cate for inspiring us wannabe poets.

· Jill for making line dancing a lot of fun.

· Sally, Carol, John, and many other classmates for good times at our high school reunion.

· Bob and Lois A. for hosting me on my July Menominee trip.

· Our nephew Greg for keeping our family Birch Creek property thriving.

· Dr. Bo for helping us through painful end of life dog decisions.

· The Bengals and Packers, the UC Bearcats, Cincinnati’s wealth of cultural activities, the Esquire Theater, HBO and Showtime, our new Clifton Library, my new Nikon camera, and a host of other attractions and amusements in our world.

· Perhaps most of all, our Old English Sheepdogs Mike and Duffy for bringing thirteen years of joy to our lives.

Love,

Dave

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MARCH 2024 HOLIDAYS

MARCH 2024 HOLIDAYS

Sun., Mar. 10. Daylight Saving Time starts. Clocks move forward one hour at 2 a.m. // Sun., Mar. 17. St. Patrick’s Day. Celebrating one of Ireland’s patron saints and Irish-American culture in the U.S. // Wed., Mar. 20. Spring Equinox. One of two annual equinoxes in which the length of night and day are nearly equal. // Thurs., Mar. 21. World Poetry Day. Promoting linguistic expression through poetry. // Sat., Mar. 23. Purim starts. A Jewish holiday which commemorates Jews being saved from extermination in Persia. // (Source: wincalendar.com)

CINCINNATI NEWS

CINCINNATI NEWS

According to ratings by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, Cincinnati ranks 4th best in parks among the nation’s 100 largest cities. 88% of Cincinnati residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. Neighborhoods where most people identify as a person of color have access to 4% less park space than those in predominantly white neighborhoods. Park amenities ranked high for Cincinnati in categories of basketball hoops, playgrounds, bathrooms, recreation, senior centers, and splash pads. Dog parks were much lower, only 1.6 dog parks per 100K people. Cities ranked higher than Cincinnati were Arlington, VA, St. Paul, MN, and Washington, D.C. (wcpo.com, 5-5-22)

EVERYDAY FOIBLES

EVERYDAY FOIBLES

I have one pair of prescription glasses for reading, one for distance (driving, movies). I also have a dozen $1.00 reading glasses from the Dollar Store so I can keep my prescription pair permanently on our dining room table. Of course I lost my distance glasses two years ago. I’ve been sure they was somewhere around the house, but I’ve scoured everywhere. Last week I got ready to go to my writers group and picked out a pair of reading glasses from my bedside table. One had orange and purple rims, one green and yellow, and one dark brown. I chose the conservative dark brown pair. At my group I tried reading with them, but everything was blurry. I was sure they weren’t Katja’s glasses, but they certainly weren’t my reading glasses. Back home Katja suggested that maybe they were my distance glasses. I looked out the window, and the house down the block was in clearer focus. So my lost distance glasses have been sitting next to my bed for the past two years.

FAMOUS POETS

FAMOUS POETS

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888. His father, a prosperous businessman, sent him to Milton Academy and Harvard where he excelled. At Harvard Eliot studied philosophy, earning a master’s degree under George Santayana. He then studied linguistics, poetry, and philosophy at the Sorbonne and at Oxford University, settling in England after his studies, working as a banker, and writing poetry. Eliot published his first masterpiece, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in 1917, and he followed it with “The Waste Land” in 1922, a long poem that had tremendous impact on Western literature. Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted Eliot’s 1939 children’s book, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” into the stage musical “Cats”, one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948, Eliot died in 1965. (Tessitore, Extraordinary American Writers, 2004)

MY WEEK (Mon., 4/15 - Sun., 4/21/24)

MY WEEK (Mon., 4/15 - Sun., 4/21/24)

Katja had appointments with her primary care physician and pain doctor. She had a fall at T.J. Maxx, banged her head, and was taken to emergency by ambulance but turned out o.k. We toured the new Clifton Cultural Arts Center, complained that they didn’t have our name in the wall of donors. I put most of my academic library out for graduate students in preparation for moving offices at the university. We had dinner out at Longhorn Steakhouse, chop steak for me, lamb chops for Katja. I shed a tear at Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office on PBS.