Live for today rings pretty true…

Health and other of life’s pitfalls shove their way into my consciousness. I’m thinking the idea of living for the here and now is not such a bad mantra, as Ellen and Reid found out in last week’s letter.

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March 18, 2013

Ellen/Reid: There is distressing news this morning in that my friend and fellow hiker Tom Bohr had a significant heart attack yesterday while running. He had to be revived by a runner who by sheer good fortune was passing by, and at this point we really don’t know the extent of things other than that Tom is in the hospital. My friend and pastor John Cleghorn called last night but I didn’t see or hear the call come in which irritates me to no end. Tom would be the last person you would ever suspect to have a heart attack. He was fit and trim, seemed to eat right, and was of low-key and low stress temperament. Reid, you never met Tom, but Ellen, you saw him hike like a monster in

Cook Lake in the Bridger Wilderness, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming, U.S. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

the Bridger Wilderness a couple of years ago, and now this. Tom was a good friend of mine and he was tireless in his 20-30 hours of work each week at Caldwell Presbyterian. I’m just glad he’s alive right now. I talked briefly to John this morning and his encouragement is to keep Tom in our prayers. Tom and I were to head out to the

Holiday decorations in August…

November 13, 2012

Ellen/Reid: This time next week we will all be gathered under one roof, and I will be that much further away from the ice cream aisle at the local market.  Curses to ice cream.  Trying to kick the vile habit but not doing very well.  My waistline is the worse for it.

But, I cannot wait to board the plan and land in the Twin Cities.  Reid, you and I will do virtually all the cooking, and Ellen, consider this not as acknowledgment of your request for me to be a stay-at-home gramps to sit up with Emma on Black Friday.  It will be a race to see who goes to sleep first, her or me.  The odds are that gramps will be the first to wilt by nodding off.  Emma is too young to say ‘stay with me, gramps’ but we will have a good time.  Baby sitting will be a first for me.  Can’t wait although the diaper thing makes me shudder.  You’ll have to leave good instructions or a pictorial revue of how to do it.

The seasonal thing is already out of hand.  How is it that Santa sets up shop in the mall the first week of November?  Whatever happened to waiting for a few days after Thanksgiving?  If merchants have their way and at this rate, they would begin to put out holiday decorations in August.  That would be one way to gauge that gifts have outpaced the truer meanings of Christmas.  Nordstrom’s is putting out a welcome message that they will not join the commercial crowd and will instead not be adorning the store until after T-Day.  That’s where we should all do our shopping although the store here might be a budget-buster for me.  Speaking of that, you would make things a hell of a lot easier for me if you assembled your wish lists in priority order.  Also, I have no earthly idea what to give Emma other than a kiss on the forehead.  Totally clueless about what babies need or want.  Maybe that is a good thing.  As for me, the list is similar to last year: nothing.  There is nothing I need or want other than to curb my ice cream habit.

This weekend we head to Hilton Head for a couple of days.  The weather will be similar to what we had in Myrtle Beach when Sandy blew through: cool and rainy.  Our cool, however, is not as cold as your cool.  A light fleece and a rain jacket will all that is needed.  It might cause a zip line adventure for Felicia and her daughter to be curtailed.  My plan was to hit the golf course while they slid down the wire.  We also hope to kayak the backwaters which would be an interesting bit of the outdoors that I have never done.  But mostly it will be walking on the beach and finding a decent place to eat.

My Caldwell newsletter is nearly in the can.  By my count, this is about 48 straight months of a church newsletter.  This better buy me some clout when the time comes although I continue to burn the edges, if you know what I mean.

A mouse has taken up residence in the garage.  When I pull in, he is usually illuminated in the headlamp of the car.  This means war.  With peanut butter as bait, there is hope the vile vermin will be exterminated in a few hours, but as of this morning nothing had happened overnight.  Perhaps the rodent prefers smooth over chunky peanut butter.  A web site says when you see one, there are usually others.  But I am in this for the long haul.  Where’s a feral cat when you need one?

Okay, I am set to make pie(s) next weekend, and this time, Ellen, I assure you that sugar will be included in the apple pie.  I will buy all the fixin’s while there.  Rest assured ice cream will not be on the dessert list.  Heaven forbid.

The 24 hour all Emma news channel

The 24 hour all-Emma news channel is still going full bore.  The channel is dependent on fresh content from our typical insider sources – Ellen and papa Tim sending iPad photos and updates – but the news feed has slowed in the last few days.

This past weekend Reid made an appearance in St. Paul, in part to see his new niece.  As the photo shows, Reid has apparently not found his comfort zone when it comes to holding babies.  He’ll need to master that if he’s ever to be a politician.  Hopefully, his career won’t come to that.

Our weekend was spent camping and trout fishing along the North Mill River near Asheville.  An unwitting and apparently food starved 2.5 lb. brown trout somehow found my poorly cast caddis.  More on that next week.

Reid experiences two firsts in St. Paul: an up-close experience with his niece, Emma, and no doubt receiving off-camera assistance with the fine points of holding a baby. Reid’s dad didn’t fare much better when he first held the little wonder.

But for now all things Emma remains the dominant news in the weekly letters.  It’s amazing, at least to me, to think how the letters have morphed from the the original purpose 11+ years ago (a moment’s worth of light reading when the kids were in college) to today’s more family oriented tinge.  Not to worry, the pendulum will swing to other issues.  But not right now.

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May 21, 2012

Ellen/Reid: The calendar shows a 3 day weekend coming up, but who’s noticing?  There seems to be a long stretch between the faux-holidays like President’s Day and now, but it will be good to have a Monday off.  The plan down here is to head to the western side of North Carolina and maybe camp or do a bit of fishing.  The last time we were up there, Felicia saw a fat, shirtless Bubba-type nutcase spying on us from the bank as we were fly fishing.  He was trying to stay low in the underbrush, but we skedaddled out of there in a hurry.  We won’t go to the same spot but there are yahoos like that traipsing through the woods.  We’ll take the car rather than the bike.

Emma is just more adorable by the day.  That iPad is going to come into some good use, Ellen.  The video was just incredible.  She does seem to be filling out her newborn outfits and it’s good to hear that you are getting around better.  It will just take some time.  We still plan to get up that way sometime in July once all the hubbub has gone away a bit.  We will be good visitors and come in Friday and leave on Sunday.  I’m excited to get back up there to see how the little wonder has grown.  I laughed out loud when Tim sent a picture early, early, early Saturday morning of wide-eyed Emma wishing us a good morning.  Momma obviously was still in the sack.  Tim’s a good dad.  I’ve heard a lot of ‘congratulations, grandpa’ from folks in Des Moines; the Fisher-Freeds, Kenyons, Willits, Allens, et all.  The news seems to have spread quickly.

As you may have heard, North Carolina, in the infinite wisdom of our elective, scared-stiff populace, voted in an amendment to our constitution that bars same-sex couples from tying the knot and denies them couple’s benefits.  It’s unfortunate that a state like this, which will defend gun owner and polluter rights to the teeth, even bothers to vote on such a minor issues because it only demonstrates our widespread, pervasive stupidity.  For all its natural beauty, this is a state that time forgot.  I mean, honestly, what does homosexuality have to do with jobs or anti-terrorism or health care or an educated populace?  If I won the lottery, which no doubt I won’t, I would announce an immediate plan to ship my winnings out of state because the state doesn’t deserve to benefit from whatever money I would spend here.  My guess is that the prejudicial vote will hinder economic growth a little, too.  What employer would want to come here only for nice weather and the proximity of the ocean or mountains?  One step forward, three-four steps back.  Maybe more.

Published the 42^nd edition of my church newsletter out over the weekend.  It’s online at caldwellpresby.org.  The production schedule was hampered this issue by a severe case of writers block.  I mean really severe.  If it weren’t for photos that take up lots of space, you could put the entire written contents on one 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper.  It’s pretty much an under-the-radar effort and literally it comes together at the 11^th hour.

Got my ticket for the Bridger last Thursday.  The connections will be uber-tight and since I have two stops on the way out, I may ask FedEx to ship my backpack for me to Jackson Hole.  That way I won’t have to mess with it.  If FedEx will ship golf clubs, they’ll ship a backpack, too.  The attendee totals for the trip are still in a small state of flux, but 4-5 seems pretty reasonable at this stage of the game.  That’s enough to still be fun.  Felicia won’t go for fear of the mosquitoes.

Okay, I’m outta here.  This will be a big week of work and I don’t want to wear out my welcome.  You guys have a good, restful Memorial Day weekend, and I wouldn’t mind it if you reported in to me now and again.