Christmas List For the Man Who Has Everything, 2023

I started putting Christmas lists on here in 2017 because Kathleen (She is the woman to whom I am married!) said I am difficult to buy for. I didn't do one last year, so I figure, since a lot has changed since then, I should do one this year. Therefore, the list (in no particular order):

1. Does your man teach his students about politics, economics and history while he and they sit around an enourmous oaken table? Yes? Then he needs an inspiring bust of Cicero to put in the middle of that table.

2. Long ago when your man's Dad was old and dying he metioned that when he was a boy he had a little candle-powered boat made of tin. So, your man found a company that sold them, and he bought one for his Dad. His dad cried when he opened it but never felt well enough to walk the 30 yards to pond. His Dad died a few weeks later. His Mom gave the boat back to him and he played with it in the pool with his sons. But it was lost in a move and he hasn't seen it since about 2006.

3. He watches It's a Wonderful Life every year. Do you know why? Because of the Midland jump spark cigar lighter George Baily wishes on in Mr. Gowers' drugstore. They don't make new ones anymore but they are available on the secondary market. Just think of all the wishing you and he will be able to do together with one of these in the house.

4. He's needed new hubcaps for, at least, a year.

5. You know, he wears pretty nice shoes but there is no place to get them shined since Nordstorm went out of business in San Francisco and and the shoeshine stand on Market Street in the Financial District has been gone for years. So don't you think one of these shoe shine boxes would be nice.

6. Years ago a very rich woman (She owned a bank.) saw your man looking at a catalog of expensive bathroom stuff. She asked him, "do you know the difference between rich people and poor people?" He said he didn't so she told him. "Rich people won't spend more than twenty-five cents on a shower curtain." So, when he says he would love a new spatula he does not mean one of those $15-$30 spatulas at Williams-Sonoma or Sur la Table. He means this spatula for less than $2.

7. Five words: Steer horns for the Subaru.

8. You know his razor isn't like other razors. It can cut fingers off if you don't keep an eye on it. It can cut though those flimsy vinyl toiletry bags just as easily. Your man needs a sturdy leather or waxed canvass toilety bag with lots of pockets for all the essentials.

9. He doesn't smoke often but, sometimes, when your man travels he would like to take his pipes with him. Unfortuntely, the zipper on the pipe case his son gave him broke several years ago. He needs a new one.

10. He has some scottish ancestors, you know. So don't you think he should learn to play the bagpipes?

11. It has been over a decade since my mother died. I have her last two Bibles. One she had from the early 1970s or maybe earlier, I am not sure. One she had the last three years of her life, it was large print for she was losing her ability to see. The last one is in good shape nd has a few passages underlined or highlighted, but the older one is the one that has all her notes in it. The prayers and notes and sayings in the margins are precious to me. There are verses she has underlined that cause me to staop and say, "Why did she underline this?" and I will look at it for a 1/2 an hour or more trying to think what did this mean to her, what should it mean to me? I came across this a few months ago: "When the Devil reminds you of your past remind him of his future." Well, if there is a gift worth giving, it is the rebinding of my Mother's Bible.

A Vision

I want to write this down before I forget it completely. Already the words are getting confused in my memory.

Holy Tikhon of Zdonsk

Last night was standing in the nave of St Nicholas Orthodox Church in Saratoga. My mind was wondering and I was praying for my children instead of praying the communal prayers being sung by the choir. Suddenly it was like I was having a dream and St. Tikhon of Zdonsk was standing in front of me. And he said something like "Remind the Holy Synod of Metroplitan Leonty" or "Tell the Holy Synod to remember Metropolitan Leonty". Then the vision was gone but I was shaking a little and crying.

Metropolitan Leonty at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, 1955.

As soon as the service was over I found Fr. Basil in the church hall and told him what had happened and asked him what I should do. I didn't know anything about St. Tikhon of Zdonsk excpt that I saw his icon and have heard is name mentioned during Saturday night vigils. And, other than having seen a photograph of Metropolitan Leonty and having read his name somewhere I knew nothing about him. I didn't even know he had been the primate of the OCA. I told this to Mitered Archpriest Basil, and as I was a telling him I started crying and shaking again. He told me then that the Holy Synod is trying to decide whether or not Metropolitan Leonty should be recognized as a saint in the Orthodox Church. And he crossed himself and said "I believe this" and said he would relay the message to the Holy Synod.

Needless to say, when I got home from church last night I read everyting about these men I could find online.

Honeymoon and Covid

We went on a cruise to Alaska. We flew from San Jose to Seattle, where we got on the ship, the M.S. Westerdam. Our first stop was in Juneau where we visted St Nicholas Orthodox Church (They currenty do not have a rector and are surviving on reader services and occasional clergy visits), and then Glacier Bay, then Sitka where we visted St Michal Orthodox Church and were blessed to venerate a relic of St Herman. The ships next stop was Ketchican, where we went fishing.

We caught amazing number of fish, and Kathleen caught the largest one, a 34" Silver Coho.

We had 180 pounds of various species of salmon flash frozen and shipped to us, even one chum salmon which we will feed to the dog.

The next stop was Victoria, BC but we did not get off the ship. That was the night Kathleen started coughing. The next morning we got off the ship in Seattle and Kathleen had a fever. Our hotel, the Mayflower Park Hotel was very comfortable and the staff was very helpful. As soon as I told them my wife was sick they had a room ready for us, letting us check in 7 hours early.

Kathleen spent a miserable night. I walked to a nearby drug sstore to get her medicine but it did not do much. The next morning I was coughing too. By the time Basil Wenceslas picked us up at the airport in San Jose on the 31st of June we both had fevers. When we got home we went strait to bed. The next morning we both tested positive for covid. Then the next day Basil tested positive. All three of us got perscriptions for paxlovid that day. As of Sunday (today is Tuesday the 8th of August.) we are both testing negative and Kathleen says she is 80% recovered. She began teaching her fall semester yesterday. Today was the first day I was able to get out of bed. I can't taste anything except for salt and citrus, or smell anything except for what I think is a hallucination (burning wood), and my sense of balance is off, and I am partially deaf. Hopefully, that all corrects soon. I go back to work tomorrow so today I spent writing my course syllabi. Basil is doing worse than Kathleen and I. This is his third time to have covid.