85 degrees today!

Finally, a beautiful, sunny day! I even noticed a couple of leaf buds on the lilac bush.

I scanned another image of St. Augustine's. It's a postcard, with an illustration by Ethel Adams. I'm not sure of the year, but it appears to be before the building of the house next door that I grew up in (which I think was 1968 or 1969), where my nephew now lives.

I finished the taxes, and mailed them yesterday. I was actually done figuring on Friday, but I waited until Monday to fill in the forms. Since Monday was Patriot Day in Massachusetts, and that's where my federal taxes are processed, we get until the 17th to file both the federal and NYS forms.

We had a surprise 80th birthday party for my father on Sunday. It was at the height of the nor'easter! Only 12 people canceled, but 5 others came whom we weren't expecting, so we had about 52 people there. There was no electricity, luckily my brother had a generator. Here's the fabulous cake (I wanted to get a better picture but there were too many people crowded around admiring it to make that possible):

The campus shootings at Virginia Tech are so upsetting. Last week, a woman I didn't know who was wearing hospital scrubs came into my classroom, looked around, sat down in the front row nearest the door, and then after a while, got up and left. I nervously joked with the students after she was gone, trying to guess what her intentions may have been. I know the odds of something horrific happening aren't that high, but in 1994 we did have a gunman hold students and a professor in a lecture center hostage. He was eventually overcome by a group of students. One student was shot during the struggle. The case was the subject of this PBS documentary. I've never received any training on what to do in any sort of emergency situation on campus aside from the once per semester fire drill in my building. I'm pretty calm under pressure, but I think some sort of guidance would be a good idea.

The hard drive in my computer on campus was dead when I got there yesterday morning. The computer support guy was able to recover the documents I had saved (I usually use the network to store documents, but for some reason this spring semester I made a folder on my desktop and have been saving there lately). But what a hassle not having a machine! What is there to do in the office with no computer? I had to go to the student lab to check my email, and I also had to ask someone with access to my network drives to print my class rosters. The computers in the lab must have a ton of spyware, they are so slow and the mice are all jerky. I managed to find old handouts from a few semesters ago to adapt for the group exercises I had to assign. The copies were kind of messy, but it worked out OK. I am hoping the hard drive has been replaced by tomorrow, when I am on campus again.

Otherwise, I am good shape as I go into the end of the semester. The changes I made really have evened out the workflow. Today I worked on the taxes, and I'm almost done.

I'm freaked out by the pet food recall. So there is rodenticide (according to NYS) and melamine (according to the Feds) in the wheat gluten. It seems like the plot to a bad science fiction movie. Is someone trying to kill off our pets? It makes me really glad that I feed my animals a homemade diet. I also wonder about the possibility of human grade wheat gluten being tainted too. I think it is totally plausible.

On a brighter note, I finished half the journals for two classes (the rest will be done on Monday) and all the midterms for another. Wednesday will be devoted to the taxes. Right now I'm making apple pies for Easter. (This minute I'm typing, but you know what I mean.) Sophie is driving me crazy, wanting the peels - or preferably, her own apple. Or several apples. Even the entire bag, if possible. (Sam wants apple too, but that's only because he's imitating Sophie.) The pet food manufacturers can shove their products, as far as she is concerned. But bring on the apples!

Yesterday, we went to Hartford, CT to the Mark Twain house and museum. I've wanted to go there for years. It is about 100 miles from here, and it took under 2 hours to get there. There were two separate tours of the house, one of where the family lived, and the other of the kitchen area where the servants spent their time. It's a lovely brick Victorian house, built in 1874. Mark Twain lived there from 1874 to 1891, and sold it in 1903. He wrote many great books while living there with his family. Most of the furniture was sold off in 1903, but his one daughter who survived him was still alive when the house became a museum in the 1960s and she donated the things she had inherited. There also is a visitor's center on the grounds, with a great museum shop (I spent $146 in it!). I think I may have known more than the guides, although I kept my mouth shut because I hate it when people act like know-it-alls at Cherry Hill. Next door is Harriet Beecher Stowe's house, but we didn't go there.

On the way back, we stopped in Lee, MA and ate dinner at the Salmon Run Fish House. Great place, this was our third time there.

I sponsor a little girl through CFCA. That's a reputable organization if you're interested in becoming a sponsor. The girl lives in the Philippines and will turn 13 on April 15. On Saturday, I got a heartbreaking letter from her; a typhoon struck not far from where she lives and her family lost their house. She included a colorful Easter card that she made and a new picture. So, I sat right down and answered her. This is one of the pictures I sent, from October 2006:

Here’s something that sparked my interest. Certainly the Ladies in White have a clever business idea. I dreamed up this business (although I’d never actually do it), so I understand seeing an opportunity to exploit the way our society handles death. But after reading the article, I am left wondering why this market even exists. Must we subcontract everything in our lives? As I mention in the linked post, I’ve heard from florists that on Mother’s Day, they get a lot of orders that are delivered to cemeteries. These customers don’t actually visit the cemetery. I’m not passing judgment on whether people should visit cemeteries, but why are they bothering to have flowers delivered?

I do know a few people whose ashes have been sprinkled in a wilderness area, scattered into a body of water, thrown out of a plane, or sadly, misplaced (to maybe wind up in a landfill). However, most people I know who choose to be cremated have friends or relatives who either 1) keep the ashes in a decorative container in a bookcase or on a fireplace mantle; 2) bury the ashes in the yard and plant a tree; or 3) buy a cemetery plot for the ashes (actually two cremains will fit in one standard grave) and put up a monument.

As it happens, I do visit cemeteries, including some where no family or friends are buried. I have always loved cemeteries. Many are so beautiful. I’m a trustee for Mt. Pleasant Rural Cemetery, and Mountain View Cemetery is behind my Castleton house and that was Rudy’s favorite place for a walk. My brother lives next door to Bushkill Cemetery, and a little section containing Ashokan Reservoir removals borders his house. As a history buff, I believe the cemetery plus monument route is the best, regardless of whether the grave contains cremains, or remains.

An aside, Ladies in White reminds me of this.

Here I mention the posters that are everywhere on campus. They put up new ones recently. The last ones were shades of electric blue. These are fuscia. They say something like "Did you know 65% of students report that they don't drink until they are impaired*" (at the bottom, it lists that the * means .08 BAC). What are they thinking? Obviously not about the 35% the rest of us are focused on!

Howie knew "speak" and other tricks. Penny never cared to learn any, since she always got a treat when Howie performed. I taught Rudy tricks as well. His favorite was "speak." Sophie would get her reward when Rudy did the requested act, but she too had no patience for formal learning - although she wasn't as nice about it as Penny was. Sophie let us know in no uncertain terms to stop that foolishness. So now we are trying to teach Sam the repertoire. He is still so babyish, even as he gets near to two years old, and so far we haven't had any luck. The other day, as Bob was trying to teach him "speak," Sophie was there, perched on the stairs, waiting for her treat. Finally, when Bob said "speak," she let out a little woof. Both of us were shocked! She learned just from watching Rudy all these years, but would never show us what she knew until now. I guess Sam's resistance has been frustrating, and so she decided it was time to step up. We've tested her several times at this point, and she does it every time. So precious.

I know being 45 and childfree raises suspicion of being a kid hater, so I hesitate to write this! But this is one of those days when I am tempted to open a window and yell. A group of kids often rides downhill in the neighbor's yard after school when it is a nice day, and there is enough snow. The hill behind our houses is perfect for sleigh riding. Whatever dogs I have had, this results in nonstop watching out the window, while barking. Howie, Penny, Rudy, Sophie, Sam: two dogs barking at once, without missing a beat. It drives me insane. What compounds the irritation is that these kids don't even live in one of the houses on our hill. The neighbor does have a grandson, but it isn't him. These kids are much older. I know the kids are having fun; sledding was something I loved to do, also. But Daylight Savings Time means that there is another hour of daylight while there still is snow this year!

The day after we got the car back from the body shop (it came out beautiful), we are clobbered again with snow! But this time the car is safely tucked away in the church parking lot.

On campus, recently there have been very attractive posters put up here and there. My reaction has been the same as many of the students quoted in this article. The one that says "Did you know 88% of students have never been involved in an alcohol-related fight" is prominent in my building. I couldn't help but think of the 12% who reported that they had!

When I wrote the post before this one, I copied and pasted it from a word processor. I usually type right in the blogger interface, but lately - either because of the blogger upgrade or because of some other change I have made recently in my computer (and there have been many), when I write a long post, all too often the machine crashes or freezes and everything is lost. I suppose one thing I've learned (but haven't consistently done) from blogging during the past five years is that it's safer to copy/paste. However, the line breaks are irritating. I fixed some of them, but I probably won't bother to spend the time correcting them all, even if it looks crummy, and my detail-ish-ness is peeved over it.

I'm so irritated that daylight savings time has been extended this year. Why did they do this? Who benefits? Certainly not me. I am just going to let the time be wrong on my computers. It isn't worth trying to patch.

I've been meaning to write something related to this topic, but when I started yesterday, I got interrupted. Then today I had to write a midterm for one of my classes (and for some reason it was an agonizing experience this semester). After that I had papers to grade from my other class. It seems lately I mean to write about things here, but never get to it.

Actually, what I want to write was sparked by the linked topic, but really has nothing to do with it. The story reminded me of an incident when I was a doctoral student.

I was taking a required class one semester. As I recall, the class was rather large for the doctoral program (maybe 20 students?). I never had the professor before (or again), but he was nearing retirement, and although very nice, he was not very inspiring. One day he was reading out loud from a text - it was something on
organizational theory (or it may have been Weber), and he used a fake German accent. I was surprised; I thought it was a silly, tacky thing to do (and I also thought reading the text verbatim was a boring method) but what happened next was way worse.

Perhaps encouraged by the ridiculous reading, a student in the class raised his hand and made some disparaging remarks about southern Europeans, and people of southern European descent. It had something to do with how they don't care about educating their children. At a prior class, he had made some negative remarks about women. I'm sorry that it has been so many years that I can't remember exactly what he said.

This guy was always the fastest hand in the west, constantly participating. Today, as an instructor, I know how much that is appreciated, how you'd do anything to cause a ripple in the sea of blank faces, but my recollection as a student is that students who are loud mouths tend to stifle other, less glib students. That was the impact this guy had on the class atmosphere. I remember looking around at the few classmates I knew well (this was when I worked full-time and took one class per semester, so I was something of an outsider) and if they cared, or were even listening, it wasn't apparent. Now, or even then under the right circumstances, I would have taken him on, but having had this guy in several other classes I didn't want to mix it up with him. I believe I and maybe one other woman spoke up when he made the derogatory remarks
about women, but I think I let the southern European descent ones slide. Regardless, our protest was meaningless - he became very animated, angry and even louder when challenged.

I do remember suffering through the first three or four classes of the semester with
him always having something obnoxious to say, the professor allowing him to dominate, and leaving class when it ended, feeling offended. I also recall that I knew a woman who was not in the class, but was in another required class with him that semester (that I had already taken), and that we commiserated about how awful he was behaving. As I mentioned, I'd already been in a few classes with him before, and he always had something to say in those classes too, but if it was particularly offensive or inflammatory, I didn't notice.

After several classes, I concluded that the weekly aggravation wasn't worth it. My job was very demanding, and I was at a very low point in my interest in the doctoral program. I went to my advisor, and informed him that I intended to drop the class. During the conversation that followed, he tried to convince me not to do it and I explained that I just couldn't take sitting through the excruciating comments for the
rest of the semester. But he asked me to give it another chance, and so finally I agreed. (I now know how much risk there is when PhD students take a break...they may not come back.) And the offending student never made another remark like that again. I assume my advisor spoke with the instructor, who then counseled the student. Or maybe my advisor spoke directly with the student, but that wouldn't be the usual academic protocol. Regardless, I have always been grateful to my advisor for saving me from running out the door.

I wrote "more later" on my last post but then didn't bother writing anything more. What I was intending to do was write up some thoughts on five years of blogging. I guess I didn't find that inspiring enough.

The alumni event was great! It wasn't in Oneonta, it was at the Parker Inn and Proctor's in Schenectady. At the Parker Inn, we had a private room with appetizers and drinks, then we saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Proctor's. It was a package deal, $50 for the whole thing and it even included wine. The seats were great and so was the show. It was way more enjoyable than our trip to NYC all around. Cheaper for one thing, and the show didn't leave us feeling depressed. Our seats were so much better, Bob had legroom, and the audience is more polite at Proctor's. In NYC, someone's cell phone went off for a long time during the performance and there were about 30 high school students sitting near us who were text messaging each other, fidgeting, and complaining how boring it was. Spoiled.

Anyway, about the Proctor's show, I read the part of Genesis that it is based on, and it actually follows it pretty close. Amazing they can do that and made it modern at the same time. It is one of those shows from the '60s/'70s, like Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell, kind of hippyish, a collaboration of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice. I think Donny Osmond played Joseph when it was on Broadway, at least it is him singing on the CD I bought. The seats alone would have been more than $50 I think. An alumni was in the cast - he played Jacob, Joseph's father. He came to the reception and after the show, he came out and signed our programs. I think there were only a few alumni besides us though, the majority were Oneonta faculty and staff. All very nice people, we had met many of them at other events. But there were only 2 other men there besides Bob!

There are never any alumni who graduated with us. I guess most people don't care to go to alumni functions. Or it could be that only donors feel comfortable! (We have moved up from the lowest level "Red Dragon" club to the next one, the "Centennial Club.") Two professors from the speech/theatre department came to see the show too. One of them has recently retired, and he was there when we were students. Neither of us had him, but many of our friends did. I chatted with his wife for a while, very nice woman who reminded me a bit of Aunt Ital. They still live in Oneonta and mourn the loss of Bresee's. She says they now have to go to Albany to shop because even though there are more stores on Southside, there is nothing to compare to Bresee's. Bob ran into the weatherman on our CBS channel and talked to him. He was sitting right behind us, but he wasn't part of the alumni group.

This is the fifth anniversary of Gully Brook Press. More later.

Staying on the historical theme, here is something Mimmie wrote.

The Old Hinkley House on Whispell Road

The cottage in the vail, as Elwyn called it. When we moved in this house the window glass was all broken. Some of the window frames were missing. The cellar wall was down completely on one side. Porch on back was falling down, the flooring on porch was gone completely. Some boards was missing on front porch. The windows that where missing where covered with roofing paper. Plaster was off walls in many places upstairs and down. Wallpaper was falling off in living room and bedroom. All room where full of old newspapers and magazines and other junk. There was 2 ton of lime in the kitchen and some other farm implement which was very large. In the living room was a large broken piano and an old organ. For one whole day we burned newspapers and magazines. The first week we managed to remove the lime, old piano, organ and othe things. The door knobs where all gone and some of the doors where off. It wasn't possible to get any water from the well as the pump was off and some parts missing. No outhouse or toilet of any kind. After the first rain the roof leaked and the cellar filled with water all most to the floor. The first summer we fixed the cellar wall, porches, pump and built the outhouse. Tarred the roof and papered all the rooms downstairs. After we fixed the plaster, the walls that where on when we came all had to be washed several times as they where covered with many coats of kalsomine to which paper will not stick. In the fall we fixed one room upstairs. The following year we fixed the second room upstairs.

Buddy put on a new roof and put a new porch on front by the kitchen. Next he put the water inside. Finally we had it wired. The next thing Buddy did was put hot water in and a toilet. One of the improvements was a cellar drain which kept the water from coming up to the living room floor when it rains. The rooms have been painted and papered many times to make the place look livable. Buddy also fixed the walk to the kitchen as there was an old porch there when we came on which the flooring was so broken that it was dangerous to walk on.

The old place became very dear to us and I was very grieved to move out after Elwyn died. I moved November 28, 1977.

I decided to see what Elwyn said in his diary on some of the years, and in a strange coincidence, this was his birthday.

1926 February 23 Tuesday - Clear, cold, moderate northerly wind. Clear & crisp tonight. Run the mill sawing mostly oak logs, sawed _____. Sent 640 ft bridge plank to Cold Brook bridge by Ed. Hudlers team. This is my 36th birthday. Aunt Cornelia made my usual soft chocolate birthday cake.

1932 February 23 Tuesday - Blustery, squally, pretty raw day. fair, glorious clear moonlight and cold. Thermometer 7 above late evng. My 42nd birthday and Aunt Cornelia made my usual soft chocolate cake. Started cutting ice at Hesley’s. The thickness runs from 7 to 8 inches. Lauren Hesley has rigged up a power ice saw on a frame with a Chevrolet engine on one end and a saw mandrel with circle rip saw on the cutting end. It sawed but was hard to steer straight. Due to its cutting so deep, a cake of ice broke loose and I got a wetting in the pond PM.

1933 February 23, Thursday — MY 43rd BIRTHDAY. Light rain early this AM – but broke away. Strong westerly wind, inclined to be a bit rain squally. Mild and clear tonight. Got the sawing outfit set up and sawed Aunt Cornelia’s wood, Pa & I, Charley Hesley, Boney VanDemark and Harold Constable. Mrs. Moore and Genevieve spent the evening with us also Aunt Cornelia for a little birthday celebration. Aunt Cornelia made me my annual soft chocolate birthday cake. Funeral of little Jean Coffey held at Phoenicia Baptist church, burial in Binghamton.

1934 February 23 Friday — My 44th birthday. Blustery, colder, more or less snow squally. Near zero tonight. We sent a home eats box to Mariam. Busy with chores etc. At home all day. Aunt Cornelia made me my time honored plain soft chocolate covered birthday cake. Wrote up Freeman copy evng. Donald came early evening from Oneonta. Cornelia did not attend high school.

1936 February 23 Sunday - My 46th birthday. 10 above this a.m. 10 tonight. Lovely bright crispy day, northerly winds. Cornelia, Mariam & I went to Phoenicia to see noon snow train from NY arrive at ski slopes Snyder Hollow switch. With the crowd that came with the Friday night snow train Phoenicia was swamped - 1000 cars were counted this p.m. We called on Mr.and Mrs. West and her sisters. Ralph Longyear and George Kessler came fro our turkey birthday supper & spent the evng. Mother made my customary soft chocolate birthday cake as was dear Aunt Cornelia's custom sure I was a boy.

1937 February 23 Tuesday. My 47th birthday. Mild and sunny AM became cloudy and raw PM - snowing this evng. 1 inch. The Benders did not come yet today. C.C. Dunham delivered me 1000 ft of 8" spruce novelty siding AM @ $50 per M - less 5%. Mr.and Mrs. Henry Winchell had planned to have birthday dinner with us - but she was ill & unable to come. Daisy made a freezer of my favorite chocolate ice cream & mother my time honored plain soft chocolate cake. Did chores & split wood altho feeling pretty grippy.

1946 February 23 Saturday 20/7am, 14/11pm
Bright sunny cloudless day & evng. Winds northerly. Cleaned out granary this am - spread load manure on meadow behind barn, as road was slippery. During pm drawed out with dray firewood oak top logs at Ollie's. Today is my 56th birthday & mother made my annual time honored favorite plain soft chocolate cake. Had lovely chicken pie supper & mashed potatoes. Too tired to go to lodge tonite. Rec'd box cookies from Kay also greeting cards. Ruth Pleasants & Clifford S. Inghram married in United Congregational Church Bridgport, Conn.

1953 February 23, Monday — 20 degrees at 7 AM, 23 at 11 PM. Partly cloudy, crispy, light raw northerly wind. Cleared beautifully evng, brilliant moon, freezing quite sharp. This is my 63rd birthday — Turn backward, I pray thee oh time in thy flight. Mother made me my time honored plain soft chocolate cake. This AM I cut a dray load of yellow birch pole wood over in woods behind barn & neighbor Will Davis (up for the holidays helped saw it up) I took him 4 PM to the Boiceville bus.

1975 February 23, Sunday — 39 at 8:30 AM - 47 at 8:00PM. Light rain in night this AM damp and foggy, murky, sun came out briefly at 2:30. Cloudy dismal evening. Daughter Cornelia called up from Florida. Wishing me a happy 85th birthday. (Its foal time again as Dear Grammy called it. Only birthday callers was winsome friend Mrs. Charles (Carol) Davis, she gave me a fancy small corner festooned pillow, had a few ½ glasses of tawny port. My days libation 2 snorts of 4 roses & soda. Only exercise ½ hour late PM house walk. Ollie rested considerable on her couch. We had delicious supper boiled taters & cooked kraut & Mrs, Beatrice Ducs fancy birthday cake, green lettered Happy Birthday Elwyn.