Only Nine Shopping Months Left!!!

Today is Annunciation. I took the day off from work and went to Divine Litrgy at St Nicholas Orthodox Church with my youngest son, Basil. It was beautiful. Kathleen went with me to the Festal Vigil last night. So far, I'm on track to attend all the festal vigils this year. To celebrate the Feast today, the only fish day in all of lent, I fried catfish. Kathleen had never had catfish before and was surprised by how light and flakey it is.

So, as this is Annunciation and there are only 9 shopping months left between now and Christmas, it seems a decent respect for everyones schedules requires that I post my Christmas list a little bit early this year. (Last year, after more than a decade of begging, my cousin actually bought the lamp for me! It is beside my bed.) Here is the list:

1. Since I have become active in Boy Scouts again (just to work the council's BB gun and rifle ranges) it would be nice to have one of the red BSA jackets.

2. I no longer have any hope of forming a family band but back when I did harbor that longing I learned to play the recorder and the ukulele. The instruments I learned on were definitly starter models. I think I would like to step up now to someting better: A concert size ukulele from Lanikai or Cordoba.

3. I used to have a fountain pen for writing letters but during the remodel of the house it disappeared. Now I have been reduced to using disposable ball points, and the look of them on paper is not beautiful. I don't want one of those ghastly expensive Mont Blancs. I'm sure I would be very happy with the the Dryden Designs medium nib models.

4. It seems to me that for short overnight excursions, when I don't want to take the trailer-tent and camp kitchen but just want to take a wool blanket and a rifle in hopes of getting a dawn boar, it would still be nice to boil water for a cup of coffee. From what I can tell a Ghillie Kettle looks like the best solution to the problem.

5. I like bow ties. I especially like bow ties from Beau Ties of Vermont Ltd. I like stripes, and patterns, and prints. I like special bow ties for various holidays. I like them in slimline/standard and butterfly/jumbo. They have to be for 19" to 23" necks.

6. A copy of the Antiochian Archdiocese's Pocket Prayer Book. The helps for preparing for Confession are useful.

7. During the last several years I have on various occasions made cakes. But I do not have a cake dish to put cakes on. I think I need one. Regular dinner plates and serving platters are raised around the edges and distort the shape of the cake. A cake plate is totally flat. I don't want anything fancy. Functional is better than fancy. A covered cake plate would be okay as long as it doesnt have a raised lip. Second hand is fine and this link is merely for the purpose of illstration. Ceramic or glass is perfect as long as it works.

8. If such a thing exists, I think it would be nice to have a framed Saturday Evening Post cover but only if it is one of the covers painted by Norman Rockwell. (Please, do not get one that he signed. I just want the picture not the signature.)

9. A simple wool prayer rope in black. I think anywhere from 33 to 150 knots is fine. No facy beads, if possible. No tassels, if possible. Monastery made is preferred but if they are out, as they sometimes are, I guess, any will do.

10. A Jonathan Adler pipe match strike. I bet there are some good deals available on eBay.

11. A license plate frame from the old alma mater.

Last trip to Truckee/Donner/Reno for 2020 and an Eagle Scout.

Kathleen and I went to Reno last Friday night.  I promptly got altitude sickness and was no good most of Saturday.  I had never experienced that before, and I hope I never do again.  It was misery but I started feeling better late on Saturday.  In the afternoon we went shooting at Reno Guns and Range then out to dinner at Wilde River Grill.  I had meatloaf.  Kathleen had braised beef spareribs.   On Sunday morning we stopped at St Anthony Church to pray before going up to Donner Lake to get the boat.  We had to get the boat because the berth I rented back in June was only until September 20.  So, we strapped it to the roof of the car and drove it home.  Now it is in Kathleen's garage.  I'm going to have to do something about that.

When we left San Jose on Friday night it was horrible smokey and still very hot.  Reno was the same.  While we were gone something must have happened because when we got home the air quality was much improved and the temperature was much lower.  It is almost like a normal September.  I'm starting to plan for Thanksgiving.

Covid is still messing with my life.  One of my goals every year is to be in church for all the Great Feasts.  I have never achieved this goal.  I was off to a good start with Nativity of the Theotokos but due to restrictions put in place because of Covid none of the parishes in the in the San Jose area had services open to the public.  So, maybe, next year.

Exactly a week ago tonight, Anselm Samuel (AKA the Little Boy) attended his last Boy Scout Troop meeting.  Technically, he hasn't been a Boy Scout since the spring when he turned 18 but Covid messed stuff up and there were no more troop meetings from before he turned 18 until last Wednesday.  And at that meeting, he was given the emblems of the Eagle Scout rank.  He did it.   Fewer than 5% of the boys who start out as Cub Scouts attain the rank of Eagle Scout.  He started in 2008.  It's been a long 12 years.  I  am super proud of him. 

A trip to Reno, an Eagle Scout, and a Fountain in the Garden.

Kathleen and I just got back from spending two nights in Reno. 

We drove there on I-80.  I've spent so much time on that road this summer I am starting to memorize all the business along the way.  We stopped in Auburn to eat at Ikeda's. All we bought there was water and coffee because I can't eat their food. (It is difficult.  I used to enjoy shopping for groceries but now I just feel resentment when I go shopping.) But we used their outdoor tables and ate some cold roast pork and cheese.  I also bought some  of their peach jam for Basil Wenceslas, who was minding the garden and the dog while we were gone.

We arrived Monday afternoon and went to our new favorite shooting range, where we practiced with the Swedish Mauser (the most accurate rifle I've ever fired) and the Star Model S.  We fired about 200 rounds and got some really good groups.  Kathleen has decided that because she likes revolvers more than semi-autos and because of the price difference between .380 ACP ammo and .22 LR ammo she wants to get a Heritage Rough Rider.

For dinner we ate at Mel's.  I went off my diet and had a Reuben sandwich.  Other than Max's in San Francisco, it is the best I've had.  Yes, I felt the pang of no martini with my reuben.  But something really wonderful happened during dinner:  Anselm Samuel called me to say he had passed his board of review and was officially an Eagle Scout, something we have been working toward since the autumn of 2008.  Yes, I cried at the table.

We had a room at the Sands Regency.  And it was a great price; much lower than the rate I paid at the Inn at Truckee were we stayed last week.  It was a nice room with a great view of the Sierras to the west.

We woke up early Tuesday morning and drove to Donner lake to go fishing.  We trolled the lake for three hours but caught nothing.  After stowing the boat we stopped at Cabela's in Verdi where we bought matching shooting vests.  I was going to buy ammo for the guns so we could go shooting again but since the wuhan there has been a shortage of ammo in America,  and Cabela's was out of almost everything but bird shot and .22.  They had no .380 or 6.5mm Swedish.  So, we drove to Mark Fore and Strike.  They had the Swedish but, wow, crazy high price.  I'm used to paying between $25 and $27 for a box of 20 bullets but this was $34 for a box of 20.  I really need to start reloading my bullet casings.  It doesn't look that hard.

The afternoon was about doing nothing.  Kathleen went to the pool to lounge.  I stayed in the air-conditioned room and read.  For dinner Kathleen picked the Wild River Grille.  I had the meat loaf.  Kathleen had the rainbow trout.  It was good food.  That night I played blackjack in the Casino.  I stayed within budget and it took me almost 3 hours to lose $50.   I think that is, probably, enough gambling to last the rest of my life.  Kathleen played a slot machine and won $16 on one spin.

On the way home we listened to a book by Sir Roger Scruton: How to be a Conservative.  It was very enjoyable.  One thing he said very much rang true.  He was discussing Edmund Burke and conservatism being based in  love for family, truth, beauty, and goodness, when he said something along the lines of this:  Those who disrespect their ancestors also hate their descendants.  And I thought, wow, that really sums up the American leftists.

When we got home this afternoon we found the stem on the garden faucet broken.  I turned off the water at the main and began fixing it.  Then I broke the pipe and, to the joy of the neighborhood kids, sent a fountain of water 30 feet into the air.   It seems I had turned off the wrong valve.   Thankfully, one of my neighbors is a landscaper and helped me find the right valve, told be what parts to buy at the hardware store, and then fixed the pipe.  We paid him with tomatoes from the garden.

It is good to be home.

 

Anselm is 18, a shopping list, other stuff

Today is Anselm Samuel's eighteenth birthday.  He has turned out okay; a better son than I deserve. He seems to be ready for adulthood.  He's better prepared than I was. We can't have a party for him since we are not allowed to do anything in groups per the Health Department's order.

It is the case, as I discovered a couple of days ago, that Anselm did not miss the deadline for Eagle Scout.  He has all the requirements met, and all the forms signed.  Only one thing is lacking: The final Eagle Project in which he leads a bunch of Scouts in a big public service project.  It was supposed to be finished yesterday but because of the Health Department's order he couldn't assemble the Scouts to do the work.  The BSA is giving him an extension on the time.

I wasn't too worried about the Covid-19, or the Chinese Bat Disease  as I am calling it just to annoy Chairman XI and the Chicoms, but since yesterday I've been trying to file and claim for unemployment insurance and have been able to get through to their office.  (The census bureau has delayed my start time until late April.)  Their website is down and they don't answer their phones.  They seem to be overwhelmed.  Also, I read that the Javits Center, a VERY BIG convention center in Manhattan is being turned into a hospital, and the Navy is sending its hospital ships to New York and Seattle.

The California Health Department is planning on 50% of the people in the state getting CBD by the end of April.  But they are not all going to die from CBD.  Depending on age group the death rate from known cases ranges from 0% (19 and younger) to 27% (85 and older), so lets just go with a 2% death rate to keep things simple.  The population of California is about 40 million people.  That means, if the California Health Department is right and the CDC is right, that 20 million Californians will catch CBD, and 400,000 Californians will die from CBD before the start of summer.

So, because the chances of getting the CBD seems to be about 50/50, I'm going out today to buy the stuff needed to take care of Kathleen and I.  This is made more difficult for me because yesterday something happened to my left foot. 

My foot has been hurting for a few weeks but the pain was tolerable, but yesterday, while I was walking there was a loud, audible pop right in the middle of my foot and now I can barely walk.  The various websites I went to say I probably have arthritis in my foot.  I don't know.  I sent an email to my doctor yesterday but haven't heard back from her.  She's probably busy treating people for CBD.

So, what will I have on hand to deal with CBD?  I think a couple of gallons of Gatorade, about 20 cans of Ensure, beef bullion, lots of kleenex tissues, aspirin, Tylenol, a thermometer, laundry soap, a big bottle of chlorine bleach.

Christmas, Birthday, the Boys, and the Garden

Christmas was pretty busy.  I did manage to find the time to go up the mountain to get Christmas trees.  It was, probably, the last time Anselm Samuel will do it.  I expect next Christmas he will be off in Alaska or Texas or South Dakota working as a welder.  I didn't find the time to make the Christmas sausage or go to any services at the Cathedral, but I was able to go to the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas on Christmas morning and the boys went to vespers at St. Stephen with their mother on Christmas Eve.  I was surprised by that.  I didn't know she still went to church.  About the only things I remember from Christmas this year are the party at my sisters house, going to church, and going for a walk along Fulton Street in Palo Alto with Kathleen and her kids.  Unlike the crazy, crowded, loud, over-the-top decorations in Willow Glen or some other parts of the bay area, Fulton Street is quiet and quaint.  You just walk along in the cold, looking at the houses.  It kind of evokes the feeling Rat and Mole had experienced when they were walking through a human village on Christmas Eve.

January is kind of a blur.  All I did was work.  Everyday.

In February I began taking a class on wastewater management.  It is something I have always been interested in but I never knew how to get into it.  I tried to get into it about 10 years ago but the nearest school for it was in Los Angeles.  In January of this year one of my co-workers at Bass Pro Shops told me that her other job is for the City of Palo Alto and that she works in drinking water but knows all the people in waste water.  I mentioned to her that I was always interested in that but didn't know how to get into it.  So she told me.  Then I told Kathleen about the conversation and the next day she emailed me a flyer from the school where she teaches.  The flyer said that at the request of several local governments they were offering a course that meets the legal requirements for someone to take the waste water treatment plant operator test.  So, I signed up for the class and the test.   I am very excited about this opportunity.

My 51st birthday was on the 4th.  Kathleen and the boys threw a little party for me.  I had Rocky Road and Jamocha Almond Fudge ice cream from Baskin-Robins.  Those have been my favorites since I was a little boy.

Basil and I went fishing at Lake Amador a couple of days ago.  We had fun but caught no fish.  He is still doing high school and college concurrently.  He got straight As in high school last semester and a B in his college class.  This semester he is taking another class at Evergreen Valley College: intro to philosophy.  So far, he is enjoying it.  I love that he is spending two nights a week with me.

Anselm missed a dead line for Eagle Scout so he won't be getting it.  I don't think it matters to him.  He just likes going on the camp outs.  Him getting Eagle was always more important to me than it was to him.  Besides, he is more involved with his Venturing crew and Order of the Arrow  lodge than he is with his Boy Scout troop.  He has finished his welding training but is still to young to get a job as a welder so he is working full-time at Starbuck's and trying to get into the apprenticeship programs at either the pipe-fitter union or the sheet metal union.

The garden.  Not to scale.

The garden is doing okay.  The garlic we planted in the fall is ready to ready to harvest.  It isn't the typical big-bulbed garlic you see in stores.  It is tender flavorful spring garlic.  I've been cooking with it for a week.  On Monday (today is Thursday) we built a new planter box.  So now we have four 4'x8' boxes and a bunch of pots.  We planted a lot of tomatoes, some bell peppers, pumpkin (from seeds we saved from our favorite pumpkin last year), some early squash, and a lot of flowers.  As soon as all the garlic is harvested we'll plant cucumbers and zucchini.  The garden always makes me happy.  Yes, we still have grubs, but not as many as last year.  And more nematodes are being delivered today.

Nematodes and a new Life Scout

I want to plant garlic seeds before November but not with all those nasty grubs in the soil.  So Kathleen bought 40,000,000 nematodes and I treated two of the raised beds.  She said she is going to buy more so I can treat all our other growing areas.  Hopefully the nematodes do their job and we will have lots and lots of garlic in the spring.

Anselm (AKA the little boy) had his board of review for Life Scout tonight.  He passed.  Next step is Eagle Scout.  I can hardly believe he is almost there.

A Pumpkin, Camps, Bones, and Jobs

Today's harvest from our garden

Today I harvested the first pumpkin from our garden; no easy feat with only one hand.  It makes be happy.

Basil, Kathleen, and her children have been camping up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for the last 5 days; first at San Jose Family Camp then at Yosemite National Park.  I couldn't go with them because of job interviews.   I had an interview for a great job.  I am pretty sure I got the second interview.  And I was hired for a thank-God-I-got -the-job-offer-because-I-don't-have-anything-else job.  I start on the 27th.

I got a message from Anselm.  He's been working as a life guard and swimming instructor up at Camp Hi-Sierra all summer.  Somehow, he's managed to find the time to earn three merit badges when he was scheduled to work.  And, he's been having a lot of fun.

I was hoping that the hand was almost healed, its been over a moth since I broke it, but I saw the doctors the other day and was disappointed when they took off the cast just to put a new on on.  The cast and the pins holding the bones together will stay put for another month.   The good news is that even if the broken bone hasn't yet healed, at least, the dislocated carpals have stayed in place since the surgery.  The side of my toe is numb to the touch (nerve damage?) unless I bend it, in which case the bones hurts quite a bit.  I can hardly believe I broke both a hand and a toe.  How clumsy can one man be?

Fatherhood and the Garden

In 9 hours Anselm leaves for Camp Hi-Sierra where he will be working all summer. He is driving himself  (n the car he bought with his own money earned from working at Starbucks.) up into the mountains. I'm worried. I keep reminding myself that when I was his age (17) I had thrown hand grenades, jumped out of towers, and survived a barracks brawl. But I'm still worried about him driving into the Sierras by himself.  It seems like just yesterday I was having to correct his behavior in restaurants.  How did he get so old so fast?

In other news, I pulled out that yellow pear tomato plant.  In its place I planted 6 butternut squash seeds.  I know it's kind of late but, I think, we should be able to harvest them in the first week of November, before it gets too cold..  It will, I hope, make good soup.

A squirrel got one of the smaller pumpkins.  I wish that hawk would come back.

Also, Kathleen wanted a tomato plant in a washtub that has a couple of sunflower in it.  (Basil had planted some carrot tops in the tub back in February but when I pulled them up last week they looked like crazy misshapen mutant carrot creatures from Mars.)  So I planted a Bonnie Original.  It is about 15 inches tall and already has some flowers on it.

Scouting and Gardening

Anselm Samuel (aka the little boy) turned 17 two days ago.  Its hard to believe that that same little boy who used to race snails after the rain now towers over me, is a high school graduate (two years early) works full time,  and goes to college part time, has his drivers license, and is progressing through his welding certificate requirements.

After the divorce he lost interest in scouting for a couple of years. I guess it was hard with me not having a place to live near him.  I don't know.  And when he got back involved he didn't want to do the stuff required for advancement, he just wanted to go to troop meetings and go on all the camping trips.  But last spring her really jumped back into it with both feet.  All last summer he worked as a life guard at Camp Hi-Sierra, became a patrol leader in his troop,  and decided to go for Eagle Scout rank. He was awarded Star Scout rank a couple of days before his birthday and has to advance two more ranks before he turns 18, which is the cut-off age for earning Eagle.  So, he went by the Scout store yesterday and bought all the books, got his Scout Master to sign off on the forms, has contacted the merit badge counselors and has begun work on the remaining merit badges.  Its going to be a lot of work, and he has no time to goof off.  I hope he can do it.

The garden is doing well.  We lost two tomato plants; the Cherokee Purple and a Big Boy.  Kathleen really likes the little yellow tomatoes so I replaced the dead plants with Yellow Pear and Sungold.  Altogether we have 11 tomato plants.  It looks like the summer squash has decided to come up.  4 of the five seeds I planted have sprouted.  None of the sunflowers have come up.  The parsnips, onions, and carrots are doing okay, I guess.  It's hard to tell since they grow underground.   In other news, a red-tailed hawk has begun perching on top of the oak tree behind the garden.  I heard his (her?) cry when I was planting tomatoes.  WOW!  it is loud!  Other than that one cry the only evidence of it's presence is an absence of squirrels and, every few days, a scattering of pigeon feathers in the garden.

A High School Graduate

Well, he did it.  It took three months of intense study but Anselm Samuel passed the CHSPE and he is free of high school two years early.  He spent all summer working at Camp Hi-Sierra so he wasn't home when his diploma arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. 

I had wanted him to start next week at  SVAE to learn to be a welder (it pays about $20 to $30 per hour in California; not bad for a 16 year old.) but the classes conflict with his Boy Scout schedule.  He is on a pretty tight schedule with them to make Eagle Scout rank before he is 18 (He has earned Star Scout rank over the spring and summer.  along the way he also picked up the 1 mile swim patch, the lifeguard patch, the gardening merit badge, and the lifeguard merit badge) so, he has delayed welding at SAE until January, when he will be able to take a 13 week break from the weekly troop meetings and complete the welding program.  So, what is he going to do until January?  Well, today he applied to De Anza College, where both I (liberal arts, 1992) an and my mother (early childhood education,1978) went to school.  He says he wants to study something technical, such as machining or automotive, it depends on what classes have openings.  He has already arranged to try out for the water polo, wrestling, and rifle teams. 

But I am worried.  I am worried because one of my neighbors is a 15 year old girl and she has her sights set on my son.  That wouldn't be a big worry for me if he was already trained and in a career.  But he isn't.  So, I am pushing the welding program in the Spring.  Boys Scouts will work around his schedule in the spring but they can't do it in the fall, and because the welding classes are at night they won't interfere with his day classes at De Anza.  Oh, he looks like a man, he sounds like a man, but he is just 16 and not ready for life.  I have to hurry.  I really wish I had the money to send him to St Herman Seminary in Kodiak for a year so he could do the reader program and find an Orthodox girl.  Why can't there be any girls his age in my parish?!

The Summer So Far

Kathleen and tri-tip

Billy and I

Kathleen at Light House

I've taken three trips so far this summer.   The first trip was Paso Robles, Santa Maria, and Pismo Beach.  I think that was in early June.   In Paso Robles we visited my son Billy's grave and prayed for him.  Even saying his name hurts.  In Santa Maria we ate tri-tip at Shaw's.  in Pismo Beach we played in the ocean.  We drove down on Hwy 101.  The drive home through the Santa Lucia Mountains and Santa Cruz Mountains was much longer but beautiful.  But it was also sad to see gorgeous productive farmland in Monterey county being turned into tract houses.  Before actually heading into the Santa Clara Valley we spent one night with a Kathleen's friend who lives on on the overlook La Selva Beach.

The second trip I wrote about a few days ago.

The third trip was to San Mateo County where we drove through mountains, ate a molten chocolate bundt cak Alice's Restaurant, visited a goat farm, played at the tide pools where Kathleen gathered salt at an evaporated pool, ate amazing artichoke soup, and visited a light house.  This might be the best day I've had in a year.  It's hard to believe it was all done in one day.

At the goat farm

Oysters and Artichoke Soup

In other news, Anselm Samuel (AKA the little boy) got his CHSPE results and is now a high school graduate two years ahead of schedule.  He will start a welding or machining course in a few days when he gets back from the Boy Scouts Camp Hi-Sierra, where he has been working as a life guard for the past few weeks.  This is a big achievement.  But his life has been full of achievements.

Memorial Day, 10 Years for Billy, and Some Other Things

On Memorial Day Kathleen and her children, Anselm (aka the little boy), and I went to the grave yard and heard some speeches, saw the local politicians, and honored the fallen.  It was good.  This year we sat in the shade.  There was a female Air Force sergeant who sang the Star Spangled Banner.  It was the best job singing it I ever heard.  She sang it exactly as written; no embellishments.  I appreciate that.  It's the national anthem, and to jazz it up is the equivalent of jazzing up the Flag or the Great Seal.  It shouldn't be done.  Kathleen's son and daughter enjoyed climbing into the tanks and helicopters more than the speeches.  My son seemed more interested in a female bagpiper.

On Pentecost, Anselm and I drove up to San Francisco for the Vigil at Holy Trinity Cathedral.   It was good to see so many old friends.  Anselm's godmother didn't recognize him!


Last Wednesday was the 10th year since my oldest son died.  It was hard.  There is not a day that goes by that I do not weep for him.  The sorrow and regret is always just below the surface.  People said when he died that it would get better.  I think what they really meant is that I would just get used to the pain.  It doesn't go away.   My friend Jeff (the same Jeff I used to blog with), my oldest brother, my sister, Anselm, Kathleen, her children, and some people from the parish came together to pray the Trisagion for the Departed for my son Billy.

On the weekend of All Saints Day Anselm was at Camp Hi Sierra going through his Ordeal.  He made it to the end and is now, just like like Archbishop Benjamin, a member of the Order of the Arrow.  I am proud of him.

Kathleen posing with the latino big-butt  manequins

Ski-Ball

On the Sunday of All Saints I over-slept!  I don't know how but I slept right through my alarm and didn't wake up until 10 minutes after the Divine Liturgy had started.  So, Kathleen and I went to the flea market.  The San Jose Flea market is the largest open air market in the United States and has been in operation since 1960.  It was my first time to be there since before i started kindergarten.  I still remember going all those years ago.  I remember the plastic swords my cousin Brian and I got but that is about all.  It was 45 or 46 years ago.

Kathleen bought me some hurache sandals (as mentioned in the Beach Boys song).  She bought herself some camping chairs.  We played ski-ball. We got some avocados and mangoes for lunch. 

Basil Swimming.  It is deep.

Yesterday Basil, my youngest son felt like getting out of bed so we went down to the creek where he swam and we worked on a fort.  Mainly we cleared brush.  He has plan to plant bamboos for walls.  The water is polluted with all kinds of chemicals and heavy metals, but I am just so happy any day he is brave enough to get out of bed.  I think it will work out okay.             

The geese were nonplussed

  Oh!  I should mention that Kathleen did something pretty neat the other day.  For almost 30 years I have been buying The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco as a present for people.  I think it is one of the best books ever written.  Well, the other day the author was in town and Kathleen went to the book signing and got a copy of the book autographed for me!  Isn't that sweet?

Kathleen with Patricia Polacco

Sons and Gardening

Anselm and me at Scout-O-Rama

Anselm Samuel seems to be doing okay.  He spends a lot of time with me now.  We work on math and English so he can pass the CHSPE.  Why the CHSPE?  Because in the years since the divorce he has failed lots of classes and has no way to complete high school before he ages out.  But when, he passes the CHSPE he will get a high school diploma and be able to enroll in a community college.  Right now he says he is interested in welding program at Cabrillo College.  It would be pretty amazing if he winds up with a high school diploma and a welding certificate before he is even 18 years old.  He didn't know what he wanted to do until he looked at help wanted ads and saw a local company's ad: "Perfect job for new welders! No experience necessary! Just pass the drug test and start working tomorrow. $26 per hour to start."

A shot of most of the garden

Watermelon vines

Yesterday was the Scout-O-Rama.  (I remember the first one we went to, when Anselm was six years old and Basil was two.) Anselm went yesterday and had a good time.  Basil would not leave the house. I couldn't even get him to leave his bedroom.  I am very worried about him.

Basil is not doing well.  I won't say a lot about it here.  He is not thriving.  In fact, I think it is accurate to say that he is withering.  I have had to step back from trying to help him because it was only giving him an opportunity to act out.  I no longer invite him to do anything with me.  All I can do for him now is pray.  I pray akathists for him and have him commemorated at liturgies. I informed his godmother of the situation so she can pray too.  Other than that, I don't know what to do.  His mother and I disagree even regarding the root problem; there can be no team effort regarding the solution.

Our garden is doing okay.  I enjoy working in it.  It's not a farm but it is good enough for now.  The first tomatoes were harvested last night.  Many more are on the vines and will be ripe soon.  That's pretty amazing considering it is only mid-May.  The watermelons are doing amazing.  Anselm started them from seeds the last week of February and they are ready for transplant.  I think I might not have enough ground for them; watermelon vines grow long.

We weren't going to plant corn this year but Anselm really wanted to.  So I gave him a pot and some

Corn and beans

soil.  It sprouted a couple of weeks ago.  Then one day, when I was out watering, I remembered the story of Squanto.  So I planted a bean at the base of each corn stalk.  Now the beans have come up.  I hope the corn starts growing faster or else the beans won't have a stalk to climb!

Of course, we have planted lots of wild flowers for the bees and butterflies.  I've seen a few of each.  Not as many as when I was a boy.  I learned an interesting fact yesterday while at the Scout-O-Rama:  As late as 1960 fully 60% of the western hemisphere's fruits and vegetables were grown in the Santa Clara Valley, where I live now.  I know change is inevitable, but I have trouble seeing concrete, tract houses, skyscrapers, and freeways, and tilt-up computer factories as progress when it means bulldozing fruit trees and ridding the valley of bumble bees and butterflies.

Red leaf lettuce.

Romain lettuce

Kathleen planted lettuce.  She likes to munch on it when she's in the garden.  None has yet made it to the table, but it makes her happy.

We also have three kinds of squash, two kinds of cucumbers, cantaloups, onion, leeks, two kinds of sunflowers, garlic (I use the garlic in the kitchen all the time.), sage, and oregano growing.  Today I bought two grape vines: merlot and zinfandel.  We had some last year but we had to pull them up because of a virus.  I'll sprinkle the new vines with holy water and ask God to protect them.  Hmmm.  I wonder if Fr. Basil blesses gardens?

Camping, a Rifle, and Saying No

Basil Wenceslas, Kathleen, her kids and I went to San Jose Family Camp for six nights.  (This is Monday. We got back on Friday.) Basil and I had a tent cabin on the summit of a hill so we could look over a giant valley filled with redwoods, ponderosa pine, and oak trees.  It was remarkable, as I've never seen those three species growing together before.   Our tent cabin had a balcony/deck built out over the hill.  That's where we slept because of the heat.  I saw at least one shooting star every night.  Two of them were totally amazing.  The one on the second night zoomed across the sky, then there was a flash of light followed, a few seconds later, by a muffled boom.  Then, on the forth night was the other unusual shooting star.  It had a long tail, it drew its white streak though a quarter of the sky.  I had never seen it's like before.
Kathleen and her kids had a tent cabin closer to the river.  I liked my location more.  If you ever go to San Jose Family Camp I recommend tentcabin #605.

During the day we played board games, fished (didn't catch anything), swam in the river.  Basil went over Rainbow Falls (19 feet from top to bottom) several times.  It inspired me to do it, too.  Boy that was a dumb decision.  I barely made it to the top of the falls then I had to wait 15 minutes to catch my breath.  Then, when I went over I was almost too weak to make it to the surface.  But when I finally got my head out of the water and gasped for breath there were two score people clapping for me. Kathleen climbed to the top of the rock beside the falls and jumped into the pool below.  I tried to climb the rock but was too weak.  At night there was a campfire where we all sang silly camp songs and the kids roasted marshmallows.  The last two days we were at camp there was a lot of smoke from a forest fire about 20 miles away.  In fact, the last morning, Basil and I woke up covered in ash that had fallen like snow.  The fire is still burning.

I bought Anselm Samuel a rifle the other day.  It's a Marlin 60.  I took him to the range Saturday and he shot a couple of hundred bullets at paper targets.  He's a pretty good shot.  There was another guy at the rage with the same rifle but with a scope.  Just using iron sights Anselm shot better than the guy with the scope.  I was proud of him.

Yesterday, Sunday, Kathleen and I went to church.  (Basil was sick, Anselm left early in the morning for a Boy Scout camp out, and Kathleen's kids were with their father.) Father John Takahashi was subbing for Father Basil, who is in Scotland right now.  It was good to see him again.  He used to be my pastor when I attended Holy Trinity in San Francisco.

Today I have reached a new record.  It is now 11:30 p.m.  My last drink was at 1 p.m.  That's 10 1/2 hours without a drink.  It has not been easy.  I started feeling jittery about 4 p.m.  The stomach cramps started up about 6 p.m. and for the last couple of hours I've been feeling pretty bad chest pains and my skin feels like it needs to be scratched off.  My doctors wont let me go to detox until I've lost 20 pounds. (Allegedly my heart can't handle detox.)  When they said that I weighed 336.  Now I weigh 321.  But I've been stuck there for a week.  Most of my calories come from alcohol so I have to cut that out to lose the weight to get into detox.  Its going to be hard but I know I can do it.

Catching up

It has been a busy and difficult month.   I became very sick right after Christmas.  I was in bed for the last four days before the start of the spring semester and missed three days during the first week of the semester.  I lost me hearing and have been referred to a surgeon but I haven't gone.  I really do not want surgery on my head.  So, I've been waiting, and guess what?  The hearing has come back in my right ear!!!  I'm still stone deaf in the left but one ear is better than no ears.  So, I am thankful.

I got tired of picking up my kids for church on Sunday mornings and them looking like bums.  I pay their mother 1/3 of my income for child support but she doesn't buy them clothes.  So, I took Anselm Samuel to Men's Wearhouse when they were having a sale on suits and got him a slate blue suite, an extra pair of trousers in gray, three dress shirts, and then we went to Macy's where he got his first pair of Florsheim shoes.  He chose blue cap-toed Oxfords.  I want him to take care of these shoes (he is so hard on shoes!) so I made him chip in $50 of his own money (earned from working for Kathleen) to help pay for them.  The funny thing about the suit; when he wears it he combs his hair.

I would have bought Basil Wenceslas a suit, too, but he is only eleven and still growing fast.  Kathleen had an excellent idea, though.  She took him to Savers and found two sports coats for him.  One in brown herringbone, the other in blue gabardine.  I was surprised at how happy he was.

I had my formal evaluation at work.  I got a perfect evaluation, except that my principal said I try to pack too much information into one lesson.  I'm okay with doing less.

I've finished one third of my M.Ed. program.  It is difficult because, unlike, other classes I've taken, I'm expected to drink the leftist Kool-Aid.  So far, I've been able to stay under the radar.  But, man it is hard to read and regurgitate the work of Soviet psychiatrists in the papers I write.  I have no hope the the California public schools.

Kathleen had her first Orthodox house blessing last week.  Archpriest Basil is such a good pastor.  All the neighborhood kids followed him from room to room as he splashed holy water on everything and he and I sang the troparion of Theophany.

Sadly, both of my sons decided to drop out of Boy Scouts.  It makes sense for Basil, he has health problems that keep him from camping, but Anselm, well, I just don't know.  It makes me sad.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the very good thing that happened.  Back in 1970s Time-Life Books published a series of books called The Old West.  I used to see the teevee advertisements for them and just ache because I wanted them so powerfully.  Well, guess what!  I found the whole series for sale for twenty-five dollars and bought it.  I've already finished one volume and have started on the second!

So much has happened

I will start with the most difficult things first.

One of my sons has spent a month in mental hospitals.  After the divorce he fell into deep depression. He gained 60 pounds in one year and only laid in bed.   His mother took him to a psychiatrist who put him on Prozac.  But Prozac is dangerous for kids.  It wasn't long before he began hurting himself.  Then he tried to cut off his hand.  THank God his brother was there and was able to wrestle the knife away from him. He spent a week in a mental hospital run by the Seventh Day Adventists. And another couple of weeks in a a facility owned by the Masons (Say what you want about their weird theology, they do try to help children.  I am thankful.) to make sure his medications were working.  He has been home since Great and Holy Wednesday.

Both of my youngest sons are supposed to start working on the Eastern Orthodox Committee on Scouting's Alpha-Omega Award program with out priest tomorrow.  There are two other Boy Scouts in the parish.  They are all going to work on it together.

Pascha and Holy week were very different for me this year.  First of all, I had a son confined.  His brother and I made Paskha at my girlfriend, Kathleen's house. (more about here later, maybe) but because of my work schedule and their school schedules, and my lack of a kitchen (I live in a truck) we were not able to make kulich.  So I bought one from my parish. (Some of the women bake kulich and sell them as a fund raiser for the parish.).

The only services I was able to attend this year were Bridegroom Matins on Monday, Matins and Liturgy for Pascha (Kathleen went to this with us.  I think "Christ is Risen" has become her favorite song.) and Liturgy on Bright Monday. I hope next year that I will be able to attend more services.

About half way through Lent my truck's ignition failed.  It doesn't run.  And two days ago my car's transmission fell apart.  So, I am depending on the bus to get to work each day (I am staying at my sister's house while she and her husband are on vacation all this month.).  Oh  I must tell you about a car related struggle.  I am homeless, technically.  At first I tried to buy insurance on my vehicles, explaining that I live in one of them and park them both on the street.  Not one company would sell me an insurance policy.  Which means I can't register my vehicles with the state. And that means my license plates are expired.  So, I decided to lie and say I live somewhere and have a real physical address.  The hoops I am having to jump through are nuts!!!  the insurance companies all want two picture IDs, copies of utility bills, and copies of bank statements.  Well, I can give them one picture ID, no utility bills, and copies of bank statements that are mailed to a P.O. box.  Gosh, I've already paid the taxes to the state for these vehicles, it seems to me that if the state is going to require me to buy insurance they ought to make it easier to buy insurance.

In other news, I have decided to try and finish my M.A. in history.  I only have until January to finish it.  I began the research on my thesis today.  I also have to take two more courses.  It is a lot of work but I think I can do it.
 
I have begun taking the tests required to be a history teacher in California public schools.  So far, I have passed two, am waiting on results for one, and still have one more to take.

I am still working at the YMCA, but I am looking for something that pays more money.  These car problems have convinced me that I need to be making at least double the money I am currently making.  I'm just not sure how I am going to do that.

Center of the Universe

I dislike thew NIV for three distinct reasons, but I like this translation of Ephesians 2:10 for it's immediacy and personal application. (It has one severe problem but it is beside the point I am making here.) On Sunday I told my youngest son that he is not the center of the universe, that he needs to get his act together, stop living for himself. Then he asked me, "Then who is my life for?" Saint Paul gives us the answer to my son's question: "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  And that is it.  Nothing else we do on earth matters, except that it might distract us from doing the good things God has prepared for us to do. 

So I asked Father Basil later that day for a favor, and he has agreed to sons #3 and #4 serving in the altar. (Because of the turmoil of the divorce and Athanasia's irregular church attendance they had not been serving as acolytes for the past two years. But now I have them all day on Sundays!)   These boys need to DO something that is not focused on themselves.  Even Boy Scouts is too focused on them.  But at Church, serving in the altar there is nothing about them.  The good works they do there are all for God and the people in the Church.  I hope it helps.

In other news, Anselm Samuel (also known as the Little Boy and son #3) turned fourteen on the 21st.  His birthday present from me was a razor (peach fuzz on upper lip has been growing more noticeable the last couple of months) and an antique "Warren Harding for President" campaign button.  

Schedules, A Date, Prayers, and Bible Reading

I had been taking the boys with me to church on Saturday nights and then taking them to Pizza on Monday nights.  Pizza night was a tradition from almost as long as we lived in Willow Glen, and I wanted to keep it alive for the boys.  Saturday's were always hard.  My ex-wife always saw other things as more important than the Saturday night vigil: "It's okay for them to miss tonight. They'll be Orthodox their whole life!"  After she kicked me out we decided that I would take the boys with me on Saturday nights, and she would take them with her on Sunday mornings.   But almost every week she would text me and say the boys had other plans on Saturday night, and I would think to myself, "well, at least they are going on Sunday."  But then I would hear that they did something else on Sunday.  It was very frustrating for me.  About a month ago I said to her, "How would you feel if I cancelled yout plans with the boys?" She didn't say anything to me then but about two weeks ago she sent me a text saying that Saturday nights don't work for her because the boys often have Boy Scout or social activities on those nights.  And she asked me if I would like Sunday instead.  So, the boys have been to the Divine Liturgy with me the last two Sundays, and it has been good.

On Monday night Basil Wenceslas and I went to pizza while Anselm Samuel had his first date.  He walked home from school with a girl, stopping at Starbucks on the way.  I was alarmed when his mother told me about this.  I added the girl to my prayer list.  I told Anselm he should invite her to Church and pizza night.

Beginning yesterday, I began driving to their house to chant the morning prayers with the boys, and then drive them to school. Today I added Bible reading.  We each read Psalm 1 aloud to each other and talked about it.  I think we'll read one of the 5 books of the Psalms, then read a Gospel, until we have read all the Psalms and Gospels. 

This week so far.

It is about 2 on Thursday morning.

On Sunday I didn't have enough money to get to church but I sold my last shotgun (The boys are not happy about me selling my guns.  They wanted then when I die.) so now I have enough money for my phone payment and some gas.  Of course, this means I won't be getting any spring turkeys.  Maybe some day in the future.  Who knows? 


On Monday I applied for a job as a bartender and was 99% sure I was going to get it.  The guy never called.  I've decided to stop counting the number of jobs I've applied for.  It is a little depressing.  A recruiter (a friend of my sister) looked at my resume and said "it's all over the place" and "it needs some work".  I know, the big companies like specialists.  But isn't that a boring way to live?  Isn't that kind of an insect way to live?  Soldier ants are only soldier ants.  Only one kind of bug gathers nectar from only one kind of orchid.  But I'm not an insect.  I'm a man and men are not specialists, We are generalists. 


I can do anything.  And if I can't do it I can learn how. In my life I've been an aluminum recycler, a sandwich maker, a parking lot striper, a soldier (which means I was a chaplain assistant, rifleman, clerk, and driver), an electrician's helper, a bookkeeper, a road paver, a data entry clerk, an advertising salesman (which means I was an account executive, copywriter, report writer, survey designer, researcher, guy who says to the engineers "Hey, I have an idea. Is it possible to..."), apartment manager, welder, mechanic, hotel front desk clerk, metal fabricator, cinema manager, shoe salesman, and car salesman.   So, I haven't had a lot of job stability.  But I've done more things than most people ever will.  And that doesn't even count the amazing things I've done as a volunteer for the Boy Scouts, political campaigns, and my Church. 


Well, also on Monday, I pulled in to the parking lot at Basil's school and when I got out of the car I heard a "click click click click" coming from the car next to me.  They lady's battery was dead.  So I gave her a jump. (I always carry heavy duty jumper cables, an emergency blanket, a box of road flares, matches, 2 gallons of water, and snow chains in my car).  Turns out she was the nanny of one of the other Orthodox kids at the school.  There are three.  Basil is in the third grade, then there are two girls.  One is in the 2nd grade and one is in the 1st grade.  When I walked up to the car the girl said, "Hi, Basil's dad!"  I thought that was weird until later when Basil told me she was Orthodox and that's how she knows me.  He said none of the Orthodox kids play with each other at school (different grades and sexes) but he likes it that he isn't the only Orthodox Christian at the school.


I ran into the 1st grade girl and her mother at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox in San Jose, which is where my boys go to Church School.  We chatted for a while. Turns out she and her husband used to be protestant.  Before they had children used to go to one of the churches in Silicon Valley I think of as a Rock and Roll churches.  But having children prompted them to figure out what they really believe.  One thing I thought was funny was when she said about her old church, "Matt, they had a fog machine but they never would have dreamed of worshipping God with incense."  I thought that was a very funny thing to say but I knew exactly what she was talking about. 


Tuesday I was feeling pretty low about my job hunt.  I don't want to talk about Tuesday.


Wednesday was good.  I applied for five jobs, took a nap, and went to Church for the praying of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete.  One this one night of the year the whole Orthodox Church all around the world sings the Great Canon and reads the Life of St. Mary of Egypt.  They let me read it tonight.  It is always a shocking story. I love reading and chanting in church.  Maybe, if I ever get my life together again I can pick up with the training to be a reader.

Camping and Forgiveness Vespers

Saturday night was the Cub Scout Pack camping trip.  Because of the job I had selling cars in 2012-2013, the divorce, and my bouncing around from place to place since last May I haven't been very involved in Scouting lately.  But for the last two months, since I've been unemployed and living in Sunnyvale I've become more active.   I helped Basil's Den earn the whittling chip, helped Basil make his pinewood derby car, judged the deserts at the Blue and Gold Banquet, and yesterday and today lead Basil's den (the regular den leader couldn't be there) during the pack camping trip.


The campground we stayed at had some really neat stuff.  There was a thing called The Mole Hole that was super cool.  It was a plastic pipe about 3 feet in diameter, 200 yards long, and tied to the side of a mountain.  The Scouts put on helmets, knee pads, gloves, and elbow pads and rode plastic sleds down the inside of the pipe.  The came out of the pipe at the bottom and landed on a pile of mattresses.  Of course, there was archery, arts & crafts, sports (Anselm took a vicious slice to the face from a hockey stick.), a campfire where the scouts entertained each other with skits and songs and where I told a ghost story.  Saturday night, after I and Basil and the rest of the Cub Scouts went to bed, Anselm stayed up late with the handful of other Boy Scouts who were there and played poker in the lodge.


This morning we broke camp, ate breakfast, and were going to go on a hike, but Basil fell into one of the rivers while he and some other Cub Scouts were trying to find physical evidence to corroborate the terrifying story I had told the night before.  I have no idea what they found, but they were all convinced the story was true by what ever they found.  So, since Basil was soaking wet we skipped the hike and just headed home. I got them to their mothers house about noon. and got them both bathed and into clean clothes. Then she got home from work, and I headed back to my sisters house for a nap before Forgiveness Vespers and the start of Great Lent. 


I have a friend who grew up Lutheran but now attends a kind of church I think of as a Rock & Roll church.  She always asks me if I get tired of tradition, and how I can stand being in boring irrelevant and unemotional services.  I always reply with something like "I find it very moving" and then tell her about the Gospel of the day or the life of the saint of the day, one or both of which I always find very emotionally moving and relevant.  Her responses make me think I am not a very good communicator. Tonight, at Forgiveness Vespers I thought of her.  The tradition is we prostrate before each other, one at a time (at my age and weight it isn't easy), ask for forgiveness, and give forgiveness with a kiss and a hug.  Is anything more relevant?  Jesus said if we don't forgive we will not be forgiven.  And with all that forgiveness can emotion not be coursing through our veins?  I don't know how many people were crying tonight, but I was one of them.  So, tonight, I was thinking about her and how, if there was any service that would disabuse her of her notions concerning Orthodox services this would be it.  But, it isn't my job to disabuse anyone of anything.  It's my job to repent.