Busy day and books

I woke up at 5 this morning and tried to go back to sleep but sleep did not return, so I prayed. Then Kathleen woke up, went down stairs, and discovered that the Christmas tree had fallen over less than 24 hours after we put it up. (Basil and I had brought it down from the Christmas tree farm in the Santa Cruz mountains on Thursday.) Many broken ornaments. She had a migraine (She's been getting them pretty often for the last couple of years.) and stayed home from the Divine Liturgy. After church I came home and worked on the fruitcakes. Basil came over to help me (He goes to church at St. Lawrence in Felton.) and take five of them to give to his friends. Then Kathleen stir fried some soba noodles and shrimp. Then I helped her grade her econ essays from last semester. Then I went to the jewler to have Kathleens cross chain repaired. Then I went to my work Christmas party. I only stayed for an hour. Then I went grocery shopping to buy ingredients for Christmas dinner. And now I am home.

A few days ago I mailed all the childrens Christmas books to my grandson. I kept all the books I read to his dad when he was a little boy. Many were destroyed in the flood of a few years ago but my sister had some of the same books and gave them to me when I told her what happened. Altogether they weighed but 51 pounds . I love the U.S. Postal Service's book rate. It is an amazing deal.

Too Much Stuff

Since August I've been selling guns for Bass Pro Shops. It is okay for money. And I do think I am helping people make good decisions about guns. My son Anselm (I used to call him "the little boy") has a son. His name is Oliver Augustine. A couple of days ago Oliver was "baptised" in the roman catholic church. My son and I have not spoken for weeks. I wish God would kill me.

Another Year, Another Christmas List.

1. You know the hours he has spent looking at Swiss watches on Chrono24 but you also know he is way too practical for those. He just admires the workmanship, engineering, and artistry of automatic watches. Also, he is a hunter. When he's running from a wild pig because he's missed every shot and only annoyed the pig, or when he's running through brush chasing a pheasant that refuses to fly, well, he just doesn't want to worry about damaging his watch in situations like that. He needs something that can "take a licking and keep on ticking". He needs a Timex field watch.

2. Ever since he was a little boy watching KBHK TV-44 out of San Francisco on a Saturday afternoon and saw the three stooges he has wanted one of these. He bought one on eBay for his two youngest boys the first Christmas after the divorce but it was from eBay and didn't work. And a few years ago he bought one for his friend. But here he is 50 years after he first saw Moe, Larry, and Curly playing with them in old movies, and he still doesn't have one. He would, don't you think, love finding a seltzer bottle under the Christmas tree.

3. You and he have been shooting pheasants for a few years but have nothing to show for it. Yes, they were good eating and, yes, it is fun to make pate from their livers and share it at church, but the one time he tried to have a pheasant taxidermied, well, it was a very expensive horror. Wouldn't it be nice to just have a bronze statue of a pheasant to commemorate all the pheasants you and he have downed?

4. It was September of 2020 when he was last at the Indian Colony Tobacco Store. Well, guess what. That's right his can of Captain Black (the original blend with the white label) is empty. You know you love the smell so this would, really, be a present for both of you.

5. You know how he loves to make fancy food and take it to church to share at the meal after Agape Vespers on Pascha? Well, you might not know this, but he has always thought he could do better. The only problem is that he has never had all the right equpment. Yes, you gave him a KitchenAid mixer and All-Clad pans but just think of all the yummy salmon mouse the people of your parish could be eating at Pascha if only he had a fish-shaped tin(or nickel)-lined mouse mold. If you get it for him for Christmas he will, probably, use it to make you yummy good food on Twelfth Night. Oh! And when it's not being used to make food it can hang on the wall and be beautiful.

6. About 40 years ago his mother had an old black and white photo of his grandfather hand tinted and framed. She gave it to her husband on his birthday. He kept it on his desk in his office until he retired and no longer had a desk. His mother and father are dead now. But it might be the case that his oldest brother's widow or one of her children, or his sister, or his yet living brother has the photo. Maybe, if one of them does have it, they will loan it to you long enough to have a copy made.

7. The years his kids were Scouts were the happiest years of his life. He would be very happy to wear the Eagle Scout and Arrow of Light lapel pins if he had them. They commemorate the highst awards his sons earned.

8. He likes Italian tuna . He eats several cans a month. He appreciates gifts of food. You can't go wrong getting him this.

9. Since 1996 when he was living in San Francisco flop houses he has been eating Molinari Salami. He would love get one for Christmas so he can slice it up and put it on this year's Astro Weenie Christmas Tree.

10. When he goes hunting for big game he doesn't want to tote around a whole box of cartridges with him. Nor does he want to carry loose ammo in his pockets. What to do? What to do? It seems a Tourbon leather ammo wallet is ideal for situations such as this.

11. He doesn't understand it. Where do they go? Regardless of the answer, the need is real. Black socks from Gold Toe.

12. He has bought them for his kids. He had one when he was a soldier (They sold them in the uniform store and its inside was the only thing in the barraks that wasn't inspected every morning.) but he hasn't had one in many many years. And the last few voyages he was on; to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona, to Alaska and Cape Cod he really wished he'd had a leather dopp bag.

13. He wears Aramis. Not the Aramis 900 Herbal his dad switched to in 1981 but the original Aramis, the first designer fragrance for men. Maybe, delight him with a whole gift set!

14. He's had that leather club chair for a while now, and he knows you think it looks worn out. An easy way to get him to part with it would be to give him one of these for Christmas.


15. He would love to make more holodets (the old ladies at church love them) but he doesn't have enough little ramekins to ensure everyone can get some. Just imagine the glory as he walks into the hall at church bearing a platter of little holodets! (Shredded chicken breast with spicy mustard is his favorite but he knows some people who like minced ham with carrots and black pepper.)

16. Many times he has thought to himself, "Gosh, that's an amputation waiting to happen." And he is, genuinely, worried about it. That blade needs to be covered. So get him this razor head cover and ease his mind.

17. Sometimes, he has the feeling that too much of his shirt is exposed, and that his tie is having to do too much work. He really needs a vest.

18. Have you ever seen his tie fly away? He needs a tie tack. Or a tie bar. Maybe one in a duck or pheasant theme would be nice.

19. Because of that listeria problem that killed 9 people last year it has been hard to find liverwurst in stores. Thankfully, braunschweiger is still available. Imagine the joy when he makes everyone braunschweiger and red onion sandwiches with dark mustard on dense rye bread! Yummm!

20. When he was a little boy his mother and grandmother made pickles; sweet never dill. He loved those homemade sweet pickles but never really liked other pickles; not dill nor sweet. They always tasted chemically to him. But then, one day he tasted Bubbies, and WOW! That's all. Just WOW! They are the best pickles he has ever tasted and he would be thrilled to find a jar under the tree this year.

God is not an engineer

When I was a boy I read lots and lots of apologetical books; defenseses of Creationism, mainly, that attempted to show that only God could have made the world. I believed, and still believe most of those arguments. But most of them came down to this: Only an amazing engineer could have made the universe. So, when I heard this joke I immedeately laughed hard and loud.

Three engineers got into an argument about what kind of engineer God is.
The first, says, "God is a mechanical engineer. Look at how we manipulate our arms, legs, lungs, and how blood flows through our bodies. God is a mechanical engineer."
The second says, "No. God is an electrical engineer. Our nervous system, heart, brain. Everything is run by electrical impulses. God is an electrical engineer."
The third says, "Your both wrong. God is a civil engineer. Who else would route the sewage system through the recreation area?"

But I don't think God is an engineer. I think he is an artist expressing different ideas in a theme. Just look at the primates! We are all so similar to each other. How many versions of primates did God make? Only one is man but those that are not man are still amazing. Look at the eye! Insect, fish, reptiles, birds, and mamals all have eyes and all the eyes are different. Among humans, many women have an ability to see more colors than any man. All normal human eyes see more colors that canines can see. But the mnts shrimp sees more colors and kinds of light than any other creature we know about. It's like god said, "Hey, I know what I'll do. I'll put the best eyes in the universe in a little shrimp and let human beings try to figure out why. That'll be fun!"

It was when I saw Linnea in Monet's Garden (It came as part of an eductional program I got when I was homeschooling Anselm Samuel for kindergarten.) that I first began to think about God being an artist. Specificaaly, it was Monet's paintings of the Charring Cross bridge that got me thinking about it. Its just a bridge but Monet painted it over and over again, each time higlinting something in the bridge that he thought was important. Likewise, God has made millions and millions and millions of eyes. And each eye perceives light differently from all other eyes. Maybe, like Monet wanted us to understand that the bridge is not just a means for crossing water, God wants us not to be content with using eyes to see but wants us to understand something about light.

The Best Arrangement!

There are two Christmas songs I have loved since the first time I heard them many years ago, The Holly and the Ivy and The Holly Bears a Berry have been among my favorite Christmas carols since I was a little boy. Now I have heard this arrangement, performed by the students at three different Church of England schools and am totally blown away. Wow, what beauty!

What we've done during July

A couple of days after I made that last post about Independence Day, Kathleen and I left for the high Sierras. It was our goal to go over the Sonora Pass on the way to Las Vegas. In the past Kathleen and I had been as far as the Strawberry Inn and the snow mobile area a a couple of miles beyond that, but because of snow the CHP had always locked the gate to automobile traffic when we were up there. But Strawberry is at about 5,000 ft elevation and the Pass is another 4,000 feet above that.

We had lunch in Sonora (Thanks, Jeff, for the resaurnt recomendation.) after lunch we fun looking in some antique stores. And I showed Kathleen where I panned for gold when I was a little boy. Then we headed up to the pass. One of the neat things was stopping and wading in the headwaters of the Stanislaus river, and then, once over the Pass, seeing another river, the West Walker flowing to the east and, eventually, into Mono Lake.

<

Oh, I should mention the lightning storm we ran into at the Pass. Lots of rain and snow and lighting. The wind was so stong and visibility was so low we had to pull over to the side of the road for a little while.

We spent that night at the Willow Spring Resort in Bridgeport. I liked it. We didn't use the fishing pond but I saw one Dad with two little kids fishing in it. The rooms for rent are clean but nothing special. I think the real attractions t Willow Springs Resort are the plentiful RV hookups and the proximity to good fishing places. But we were just passing through.

After that we went to Mammoth Lake to find some breakfast but it was super crowded with people, like all ski resort towns, I guess. So we skipped breakfast and went on down the road. Crossed through a Shoshone reservation and wound up in the town of Beatty, Nevada where we happened upon Smokin J's BBQ. HUGE PORTIONS OF MEAT. It ws excellent and it was enough to feed us that day and the next two. I should mention all the wild donkeys just south of town. You have to be careful not to hit them while driving.

The next three nights were spent at a resort in Las Vegas. It was our second time to go there and sit through their sales pitch in exchange for a three night stay. We mostly slept and watched C-Span for 3 days but we did buy into Blue Green this time. We weren't going to but two of the locations are marveolus. Golfing and hunting got us. So we are Blue Green "owners" now. It isn't really owning anything, rather it is pre-paying stays at a couple of hundred resorts. If I live 7 more years, I think, it should pay for itself. The salesman said 4 but, I think, 7 is more realistic.

We drove home over the Tehachapi Pass to the south. It was fun for Kathleen. She didn't know that the Sierras get taller and steeper the farther south you go. And she got to see the oil fields near Bakersfield, something she lectures about in her history classes but had never seen. And we stopped at Casa de Fruta for dinner while driving from the San Juaquin Valley through the Pacheco Pass and into Gilroy.

Oh, while driving over the Tehachapi Pass we came across a radio station playing a decades old recording J. Vernon McGee. I hadn't heard him since 1990. It was Kathleen's first time hearing him. She said, "This is what you listened to on the radio when you were a kid?!" Then a few days after that I took Basil fishing at Pillar Point. And then a few days after that I took Kathleen fishng there and then to The Moss Beach Distillery for fish tacos and iced tea while watching the sunset from the cliffs.

And today I finished all the paperwork for my candidacy and took the oath that qualifies me to run for school board. They make candidates hold an American Flag when we recite the oath to defend the Constututions of the U.S. and the State of California.

A Skillet

My 3rd son, the little boy, came home from the North Pole last week. He eloped with his fiance (I think there must have been some pressure from her side of the family about how/where to have a wedding.) and is now a married man. He brought his wife up to visit. I gave them Fr. Lawrence Farley's book about marriage and the square cast iron skillet my grandmother gave my mother on her wedding day. On Saturday we went to dinner at Flemmings (It's not very good. What crazy person puts sugar in Brussel's sprouts?)) with him, Basil, Athanasia, and his new wife Tiffany. On Monday Anselm and Tiffany went golfing with my wife and her son. I had to work. Anselm and Tiffany are going back to San Diego today.

Christmas Movies

I used to love watching Christmas Movies with my boys when they were little. I miss those years. This year I am planning on watching all of these: Love Actually (2003), The Muppets Christmas Carrol (1992), The Bishop's Wife (1947), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carrol (1963), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), A Christmas Carrol (1951), Die Hard (1988), Santa Claus is Commin' to Town (1964), The Little Drummer Boy (1967), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), Cricket on the Hearth (1967), A Christmas Story (1983), Elf (2003), White Christmas (1954), The Santa Clause (1994), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1967), Remember the Night (1940), Christmas in Connecticut (1945), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989, Home Alone (1990), A Very Murray Christmas (2015), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), Merry Christmas (2004), The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017), and The Santa Clause 2 (2002). I am curious to know, dear reader, what would you add to my Christmas movie list?

Finals Week

It is late Monday night in Finals Week. I gave the Final Exam to my civics (mostly political philosophy and economics in the Fall semester) and A.P. Government students today. They did pretty well. I am happy for them. They all turned in the term papers last Friday. One girl did an amazing job. I think her paper is publishable, and I'm going to send it off to a journal and see if I can't help her get sonme serious attention. Her research and synthesis abilities are amazing. She would be such an amazing politics scholar or historian but she wants to major in math or chemistry. Maybe, if I can get her published I can convince her to pursue philoshopy. Probably not though. She is Singaporean and her parents want her to get a B.S. in Chemistry and then go to Med school or get into a bio-chem Ph.D. program.

I've been pheasant hunting twice since Thanksgiving. I have a freezer full of dead birds but one was so beautiful I am having it taxidermied. Sadly, I had no idea that dry ice is considered a hazardous material and that I would have to pay mucho dinero to ship the bird to the taxidermist in Idaho because of the dry ice. I think I would have spent less mony if I had hired someone local. Oh well. Live and learn.

Saturday night (this is Monday night) Kathleen's niece spent the night with us. She is a single mother, has a drug problem, and some mental health problems on top of that. It is difficult to know how to help her. We would adopt her baby but as long as she has him the State of Claifornia pays her money so she won't give him up. I am vey worried about that little boy. Tonight Basil and Kathleen helped me make the Christmas sausage. It is something we have been doing since Basil was a little boy of only 3 or 4 years. He is 17 now. Wow, where have the years gone?

Well, in the morning I have to give final exams to my U.S. History classes. I'd better get to bed.

Teaching High School in the Age of Wokeness

The HR director in the the school district I work in the most has asked me to apply for one of their vacant social science positions. It would be a lot more money (and benefits!) than I get as a long-term sub. And I would LOVE to teach American history, U.S. government, and economics. In fact, because of all of the prep-work I've done for Kathleen over the past few years I've already written all the lectures and tests I'll need if I take the job. That part would be easy. So what is the hard part? Why don't I apply for the job?

There are two problems. The first is something called the Cal TPA. It is a tool the State of California uses to winnow out people who don't agree with the pedagogical philosophy and social mission of the system. I wrote a TPA a couple of years ago and it was rejected. I could do another one, I know what they want me to say, but I think it is wrong. I think, that for teaching history, especially, that reading history and writing history (with Chicago style footnotes and bibliography) is the best way. But the state wants teachers to embrace the idea that different people have different styles of learning and to use all those styles at once, to adapt each lesson every day to every student's imagined learning style, even though there is no evidence that that helps students learn more. But the woke mob doesn't want kids to read and write real history, such as those books written by Thucydides, Julius Caesar, James McPherson, SShelby Foote, Paul Johnson, David McCullough, and Winston Churchill. But the woke mob just sees white male opressors in that list of names. The woke mob only wants Howard Zinn the plagiarizer, the communist, the liar, the perverter of the minds of children. (I do think students need to know about Zinn, but not because he is right. They need to know about him because he is influential and wrong. Very extremely wrong.)

I think that for teaching U.S. Government one must start no later than the Mayflower Compact, but preferably with Moses and Plato for one,really, can't understand The Mayflower Compact without reference to the Bible and The Laws. and deal with the English Civil War, Separation of Powers (No, it did not start with Montesquieu, but with Moses and Isaiah. But I would still have my students read Montesquieu.), John Locke's Two Treatises on Government because they are the foundation of The Declaration of Independence, and the Declaration of Independence because it it is the foundation of the Constitution, and the Constitution (article by article with accomanying readngs from the Federalist Papers for who better to the explain the Constitution than the men who wrote it?) because the Constitution is the foundation of all our laws. But the woke mob only sees white male oppressors. They (according to a recent poll, more than 90% teachers in my area) think training studendents to "change the world" a la Paulo Freire, Saul Alinsky, and Angela Davis is what they ought to be doing, not teaching them what our civilization has learned over the millenia, which is what I think teachers ought to be doing.

My economics class would start with watching two movies. Yes, this is such an enormous departure from the book-based pedogogy of the history and government classes but these are such a good movies for introducing economics and illustrating why economics is important. The movies are I, Pencil and The Road to Serfdom. From there we would talk about the history of economics beginning with Sargon of Akkad, ancient Chinese economic philosophy (special attention to Confucious since he was and reamins so infuential) and coming up through the French Physiocrats, Adam Smith (with special atention given to the impact of coastal geography on the economies of Japan and Africa),William Bradford's diary of telling of the first communist expiriment in the New World, culminating with reading the The Law by Frederic Bastiat. That would all be in the first three weeks of the semester. Then we would read through Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, one chapter at a time, culminating with an assignment to read and criticize The Communist Manifesto in 10 to 15 pages. The woke mob would freak out at this because it deals with facts of how the world actually works; how people deal with scarcity, how people make decisions to allocate time and physical resources, and how people reckon costs and benefits of economic opportunities instead of the fantasy of a state-coerced collectivest utopia.

But why do I keep saying the "the woke mob"? Well, this brings me to the second reason why I am not going to apply for the job the HR department wants me to aply for. Like a mob they act as one are irrational and dangerous. While working in the distrct I see lots and lots of indicators that I, really, would not be welcome here as a full-time teacher. First there are all the social-justice activism signs, posters, flags, and murals. The people who put up all these eblems of anti-racism, and [insert oppressed group here] pride are a mob that shouts down disagreement, that looks at the ideas I hold as true and beautiful but sees oppression and hate; their reaction being one of attack and censor. I was only here a couple of days when another history teacher told me the classroom I am subbing in had a teacher but that teacher "was never on-board with the social-justice part of the job." They got rid of him. I know the same thing would happen to me. So there is no future for me as a history, government, and economics teacher in California.

But, maybe, you suggest, a private school would hire me. I've tried that but there are three problems I keep running into:
1. All the schools I have looked at require a state teaching credential and that puts me right back in the TPA problem. (See above.),
2. They are as woke as public schools, or
3. Or they require agreement with a non-Orthodox statement of faith.

But today I came across a school that is looking for a 3 month high school history substitute. I know a couple of the founders of the school, one since I was a little boy in the early 1970s. I know one of the teachers. They are all Fundamentalist Protestants but don't require adhearance to an Orthodox-excluding statement of faith, hmmm, at least, it is vague enough that I think I can sign it. It will pay less than I make working for the government schools but I will apply. Maybe, it will turn into something good.

Bright Week 2022

Well, Bright Week has been difficult this year. Monday we went to divine liturgy and had breakfas with Fr. Basil. He makes the best buscuits and gravy I've ever had and it is his annual tradition to make them for the parish. It was a lot of fun. And all day Monday was lots of fun. But at 3 on Tuesday morning I woke up in horrible pain. I thought about not going to work but I really need the money so I went in. By the time I got home that evening I had a fever and chills and my head felt like it was beig squeezed in a vice and my abdomen was swollen huge. I really thought I might die. I took a bunch pills and went to bed. I stayed there until Thursday (yesterday) at six p.m. when my fever finally broke. I was feeling well enough to eat something (first food since Monday) and this morning I felt fine. I am back at work and earning money.

One thing I've enjoyed this week, something I always enjoy, is praying the Paschal Hours instead of the usual morning and evening prayers. All the various changes to the services, both in our homes and at church throughout the year are, really, very fun. I doubt the Apostles and Fathers who wrote the services were thinking about fun when they were doing their work. Probably, they were thinking about theosis or something but they are fun. Especially to little kids.

This morning I encountered a 6th grade boy who cannot read. I talked with him for just a minute and discovered that he doesn't know phonics, all the sounds represented by letters and their various cobinations. So I wrote down the names of some phonics workbooks that I used to teach my kids to read, and where to buy them. I also wrote down my phone number so that the kids parents can call me if they have any questions. So, why is a boy in the sixth grade it he can't even read the word 'yellow"? Here is why: No school employees are penalized if he doesn't learn how to read. They are not rewarded if he does learn how to read. They are rewarded by his attendence. (The school gets money from the state based on average daily attendence.) So all they really care about is making sure he stays in school. Oh, Also, as long as he doesn't know how to read the school gets more money to hire more teachers, special English teachers called reading specialists. But they aren't rewarded if he learns how to read. Neither are they penalized if he doesn't learn how to read. But think about what happens if all the non-readers learn how to read: The reading specialists lose their jobs! Also, kids who are behind academically, especially non-readers are much more likely to become disciplinary problems. If those disciplinary problems disappear then school security officers, counselors, and administrators might lose their jobs! So you see, from the point of view of the people who work in California public schools there is no compelling reason to teach this boy to read.

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.

Independence Day

The first Independence Day I remember is 1973. I was four years old. We were in Yellowstone National Park and it snowed. I remember everyone talking about how unusual it was that snow was falling in July. That's all I remember.

The next Independence Day I remember is the Bicentennial in 1976. All the fire hydrants hand been painted red, white and blue. There were banners and flags everywhere. The money was changed. I gathered a small collection of bicentennial quarters, half-dollars, and even a dollar with the big Liberty Bell on the reverse side. (That was back when dollars were a lot of money, when a dollar was worth about 1/150 oz of gold. Now a dollar is only worth 1/1785 oz of gold.) I'm sure it was no more than a dozen coins. I kept them in a sock. I remember my mother and brother talking about his cnaces of living to see our countries 300th birthday. That was the first time I heard anyone say that God had limited our lifespans to 120 years.

The next Independence Day I remember was when I was 9 years old. My Mom, my Dad, my Uncle Harry and Aunt Carolyn, and my cousin Bryan were at Sonora. We went to see the fireworks at the Motherload Fair Grounds. I remember eating water mellon, too.

The next Independence Day I remember is 1986, when I was a seventeen year old private at Ft Dix, New Jersey. Our comapny commander gave us the afternoon off so we could attend an orchestra concert on the parade field (It was called Doughboy Field. It was the same parade field my grandfather marched across during the First World War.) Our company was kind or rowdy and the conductor of the orchestra, a chief warrant officer, stopped the concert, walked over to us and, gently for a Chief Warrant Officer, ordered us to be silent for the duration of the concert.

The next Independence Day I remember is 1989 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. It was the biggest fireworks show I have ever seen. I will never forget it. We were sitting on the hood of our car, a Dodge 600 ES, in a big gras field.

The next Independence Day I remember is 1990. THere were no fireworks but my mother and her six sisters organized a family renunion near Yosemite. It was fun to be with all my uncles and aunts, my cousins, and siblings, and nephews and nieces.

The next Independence Day I remember is 1993. My two oldest sons, my parents, and my Uncle Fred and Aunt Nettie all met at Pismo Beach. We had a picnic on the beach and watched people setting of fire works next to the ocean late into the night. The next Independence Day I remember has already been written about on this blog.

The next Indepencence Day I remember is 1997. I, my two oldest sons, my friend Jeff and a few other friends, went to visit my parents and Uncle Fred and Aunt Nettie where they were living in Visalia. We spent a few days there but on the 3rd of July we went to a minor league baseball game. On 4th of July we went out to the little town of Exeter to see the Lions Club's fireworks show. I remember my friend Zack being amazed at the tri-tip my Uncle Fred cooked. Zack was from Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations so he had never tasted tri-tip.

The next Independence Day I remember is 2002. Son #3 had just been born in March and his mother and I took him to see the fireworks over San Francisco Bay. We were on the hill behind the Officer's Club at Ft Mason but there was so much fog on the Bay that the fireworks show was just clouds changing colors. Then we took the bus back to out neighborhood in the Mission District. It took almost an hour and was super crowded with other people trying to get home after the fireworks show.

There were four Independence Days at Fort Ross. I don't remember the exact years. Bisop Tikhon was there for the first one. I remember it because of a thing that happened regarding confession and a young boy. I thought I wrote about it on this blog but I guess not. The next time Cyndi did not go and I rode with the former Treasuerer of the diocese and Anselm's godfather. I learned that God confounded the tasteful by making a postcard icon of the Theotokos weep. The next one was Bishop Benjamin's first time to go. He was the bisop of Berkely then when the park ranger asked him to fire the canon he said, "WOW! NEAT!" The last time I was with Kathleen. I barely remember it because I was a drunk then. I remember there were not many people there that year and we were able to squeeze into the little chapel.

The next Independence Day I remember is 2003. My two oldest sons were with me. We watched the fireworks over the Bay from the top of the hill at Doloros Park whil Cyndi stayed home with son #3.

The next Independence Day I remember is 2004. That was the year we saw the fire works in Cupertino and the little boy got so excited.

The Next Independence Day I remember is in 2008 but I already wrote about it on theis blog.

The next Independence Day I remember is 2014. The boys and I parked outside the the baseball park and watched the fireworks.

The next Independence Day I remember is 2015. I was living in my truck. Anselm was at summer camp. I was working at the YMCA but the YMCA was closed that day. So I picked up Basil and we had BBQ under a redwood tree on the YMCA grounds. We used the little sportmans grill I bought from Williams Sonoma back in 1993 or 1994. All my kids have eaten meat cooked on that grill. To this day, Basil says it was the best Independence Day ever.

The next Independence Day I remeember is 2016. Kathleen and the boys and I went and stayed at the Marriot Hotel in Santa Clara. We were on the side of the hotel facing the Great America park. We watched the fireworks from the balcony.

And now is today. Kathleen, Basil and I are going to the Marriot again. We'll swim in the pool, watch the fireworks from our balcony, and play board games all night long.

The Little Boy Left today.

It has been awhirlwind of activity since Lazarus Saturday. I attended more of the Holy Week Services than ever before. Cooked an unbelieveable amount of food, went crabbing in Pacifica, have been working (teaching math during the day and selling guns at night) every day but Sundays. Saturday we all went shooting, Sunday we went to church, And today my son Anselm Samuel went off to the Navy. I hope I did a good job.

Shooting with Son #3

Anselm Samuel (AKA the little boy) and I went shooting today. I bought a Stoeger Longfowler for myself because my Stevens side-by-side is almost a hundred years old and can't take the pressures of modern ammo. Today I broke in my new gun. It's not as pretty or high tech as the Mossberg Silver Reserve I bought for Kathleen but it is servicable, the price was right, and I don't have to wory about it breaking every time I pull the trigger, like I do with the old Stevens. So, Anselm and I went to Coyote Valley Sporting Clays today. He shot Kathleen's gun and I shot the new Longfowler. It was a lot of fun. He had a good day, hitting about 75% of his clays. I didn't have a very good day. I only hit about 50%. I'll blame it on getting used to a new gun.
I can hardly wait for next duck season.

Old Stomping Grounds

My son, Anslem and I went hunting up in the Mendocino National Forest. There is a population of Merriam's turkeys on Mount Hull we were going to hunt but the daybefore we got there the California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed the area to hunters. I don't know how they can do that in a U.S. Forest; maybe CDFW has some kind of agreement with the U.S. Forst Service. So, our hunting trip turned into a camping trip. It was fun even if we got no turkies or pigs. (Pigs were our secondary prey but we learned from a local that in the last 10 years a growing mountain lion population eats all the piglets and they never get a chance to reproduce, so no more pigs in the forest.) We saw a two large heards of elk, a bald eagle, Great blue herons, wood ducks, chipmunks, rabbits, geese, and lots more besides. We wee there during the super moon event so it was light all night.
On the way home I took Anslem by the place I lived from October 1979 to October 1981 when I was a boy of 10, 11, and 12. Ukiah. The population has increased 16,000 since I lived there when the population was 12,000. Lots of car dealerships and fast food and convenience stores are on State Street that were not there when I was a kid. Several indoor growing and hydroponic stores serve the marijuana industry. The strip mall that was named The Pear Tree Center is gone, as are all the pear trees. They've been replaced by vinyards. (I saw my first big marijuana farm in a little valley between the forest and Ukiah. I guess that explains all the new car dealerships and other businesses) In place of the Pear Tree center is a new shopping center with a Staples and a Wal-Mart. The Staples surprised me. The town only has 16,000 people. How much office furniture and printer paper can it buy? I saw The Forks Cafe where my Dad ate lunch almost every day. And the Forks Ranch Market. where I used to buy my National Lampoon's and Mad magazines.

Of Course, I took Anselm by the house I used to live in and showed him the church my Dad pastored. Strangly, they have changed the name of the church. When my Dad took the pulpit there in 1979 he asked the board to change the name from Calvary Temple to Calvary Way because of the recent mass suicide of the members of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple. (A lot of people do not remember that before Peoples Temple went to Guyana to die, but after they left San Francisco, they stopped in the Ukiah area for a few years.) The word temple was thought to be off-putting after the suicides. Now the church has changed its name to Legacy Church. I wonder what was the thinking behind that decision? Protestant church names are complicated; not nearly as straigforward as Orthodox parish names. The bishop picks a saint or a feast that doesn't already have a parish in the diocese assigned to it and that's all there is to it. It doesn't change.

The Forks Market, the Forks Cafe, and the Parducci Winery were all within walking distance of the church and the pasronage I lived in with my parents. The Parducci winery was one of my favorite places. I loved the smell of the crush in the fall. I spent many hours playing in the vinyards with farm workers kids. I ate a lot of grapes. Every year before Christmas the church kids would sell ceramic bells to raise money to go to summer camp, and I would take my box of bells up to the winery and Mrs. Parducci would have everyone in the place buy a bell. They were good neighbors. Sadly, they sold out to a big wine company. I don't think the Parducci family is there anymore. Just their name.

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. 

Saint Basil's Day (The other Basil)

Today is the feast of St. Basil of Moscow, the patron or my youngest son.  So, while praying the ninth hour today we got to sing the Troparion for St. Basil of Moscow.

Most of the beets, kale, and pumpkins - all the pumpkins, actually- we transplanted two weeks ago were destroyed by squirrels.  But we are still getting 5 or six big tomatoes, a dozen little cherry tomatoes, and three or four zucchini every day. (The squirrels, even though I shoot them, get more of the zucchini than we do.)  I've put up six quarts of pickles.  I really wanted more pickles but there have been very few bees in the garden this summer, so thought there have been many flowers there have not been many cucumbers.  I don't know what to think of that.  The carrots did not do well.  But the bell peppers are doing amazing.  The pumpkins we planted back in February were harvested and all but one given away.  I started more cantaloupe and pumpkin 2 weeks ago on the back balcony.  Tomorrow I'll transplant then into the garden. The turnips and radishes did really well but I'm really the only person in the house who likes them, so I won't plant any more, I think.

A word about the tomatoes:  The Cherokee purples did not do well.  We only got three or four off each vine.  The real star among the tomatoes this year is the Lemon Boy vine.  It is prolific and is the best tasting tomato I have ever had.  We might plant three or four of them next spring.

I ordered some short growing season watermelon seeds from Baker Creek.  They should be here in a couple of days.  I'll sew them directly into the ground and hope to harvest them in early October.

Kathleen and I have been doing a lot of fun stuff this summer.  We go shooting at Coyote Sporting Clays pretty often.  And, of course there are all the trips to Tahoe/Truckee/Reno.  (Basil and I went last Sunday and Monday.  He had a great time on the boat.)

Something kind of neat happened at dinner tonight.  Kathleen and I were talking about the reading list (Bastiat, Smith, Friedman etc.) for the economics class she teaches when Anselm, who graduated from high school two years early so did not take the economics course high school seniors take, asked Kathleen if he can take her class.  And since she, like all teachers in the county, is teaching online he can take it.  

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.