3385 Deadline for passports

Just as it wouldn't occur to me to go to the public library for a very loud Playstation guitar game for middle schoolers, I didn't know I could apply for a passport at a public library.

There are 9,000 individual sites such as post offices and libraries accepting applications for passports. At present 27% of Americans have passports and next Tuesday is the deadline if you plan to enter or leave Canada, Mexico or the Caribbian. It used to be a driver's license or birth certificate would do.

Too bad, isn't it, that we're not as careful with illegals as we are with our own citizens. Currently, boarder guards who try to stop illegals, go to jail and the perps go free.

passports
public library
Playstation guitar hero

3384 How the left led

Dinesh D'Sousa writes in the LA Times OP ED:

"Pundits on the left say that 9/11 was the result of a "blowback" of resistance from the Islamic world against U.S. foreign policy. At first glance, this seems to make no sense. American colonialism in the Middle East? The U.S. has no history of colonialism there. Washington's support for unelected dictatorial regimes in the region? The Muslims can't be outraged about this, because there are no other kinds of regimes in the region. U.S. support for Israel and wars against the Muslims? Yes, but the U.S. has frequently fought on the side of the Muslims, as in Afghanistan in the 1980s or in the Persian Gulf War.

But in a sense the liberal pundits are right. The U.S. made two gigantic foreign policy blunders in recent decades that did sow the seeds of 9/11. What the liberals haven't recognized is that these blunders were the direct result of their policies and actions, and were carried out by Democratic presidents — Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton."

I don't know how useful it is to look back 10, 20, 30 years and point fingers, because hindsight is always 20/20. Even so, it is odd that Jimmy Carter still displays timidity, awe and even a strange respect for the Iranians even with the benefit of history and their role in bringing him down. And Clinton dawdled and dabbled, but didn't act. But it's a mess now, and we're part of it, which makes it our obligation to not abandon the people we pledged to help. Our left wing still has no plan to counter Bush's build up except maybe to withold money which will be pretty rough on our troops.

Muslims are blowing up each other; that won't improve if we leave. At least at this stage in their history--and Islam is a much younger religion than Judaism or Christianity--their wrath is for their co-religionists. If they have so little respect and love for a fellow Muslim and countryman, imagine what they'll do to one who converted to Christianity after years as a Muslim, like Barack Obama.

3383 Friday Family Photo

This is family in a larger sense. This is an unidentified photo of a Church of the Brethren congregation in 1917, celebrating some sort of a clean life meeting, perhaps a revival? "Our aim a new life and a clean life" says the sign on the right. The building's sign says "Church of the Brethren Preaching 11 a.m. 7 p.m., several lines I can't read, then "All Welcome." It appears to be summer time--or at least May or June--from the clothing, open windows and doors and trees.



This photo is in a collection of a 3rd cousin. We don't know what congregation or who might be a relative. I'm posting it in hopes that someone among the Brethren will recognize the people or the building. The cousin is a descendant of Daniel Weybright and Nancy Kinsey Weybright of Ohio, but so are several hundred other people, and doesn't know the origin of the photograph. But because it was saved and passed down (unidentified), we're assuming there is a family connection.

Note to self: label your photographs and date them.

Church of the Brethren
old photographs
genealogy

Which Children's Author Wrote You?

Laura Ingalls Wilder
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3381 Does this ever happen to you?

Eggs-actly! As I've mentioned here numerous times since the end of September, I needed to lose 20 lbs--gained since we got broadband and I started blogging. I've lost 18 pounds, the last one pound taking six weeks, and am eating healthier with more fruits and veggies than ever in my life. I don't have a physical until early March, so I figure I can do 2 more pounds before the blood pressure and cholesterol checks. I'm in size 8 slacks, and there's no cleavage hanging over the top of my necklines, so if it never happens, who cares? But I digress.

Eggs weren't on my list of food triggers to avoid, but everything I enjoy with them was--cheese, toast, butter, jelly, muffins, bagels, bacon and so forth. So I just hadn't eaten an egg since September. Tuesday I cooked a very nice ham. It was far more than we could safely eat in a few days, so I asked my daughter to stop by on her way home from work and pick up a generous package. Still too much ham; and our son didn't stop as he sometimes does on his day off so I couldn't give him any.

Brilliant idea! I'll make an omelet for dinner like I watched being prepared on the Good Morning America show. I grilled some onion and red pepper and chopped up a bunch of the ham. I found a skillet I hadn't used for awhile, sprayed it, dashed in some olive oil and put in 5 eggs mixed with a little milk (GMA said water). When it looked firmed up I gently placed my ham and veggies on one-half, just like I saw on TV. Then I carefully folded the other half over it. At this point, it diverged a wee bit from the chef's version on GMA. It didn't want to move; only went half way. Oh well. I put some bread in the toaster for my husband. Then after the omelet firmed up a little I cut it in half and moved the halves to our dinner plates. Ooops. My goodness. Sort of messy. Sure didn't look at all like the one on TV.

After grace, my husband look at his less than lovely omelet and said quietly, "I had eggs for breakfast."

Omelets
eggs
food triggers
healthy eating
dieting

Poetry Thursday #3

Today’s poetry challenge is to reuse a line from another blogger’s poem which has been posted at the site, and then leave one of mine for someone else to use. There were about 40 possibilities when I stopped by to look, and I chose the line “resting in a clean white bowl.” [Megan] I carried the sentence with me on a scrap of paper. At one point, I was going to fill the bowl with steaming ears of sweet corn, and then write a lament about ethanol--preferring not to see golden grain streaming out tail pipes. But it was truly an awful impulse and I squelch it.

When I was at the library yesterday I noticed there were 30 cookbook titles on the new book shelf and another 18 in the nearby nutrition classification. Certainly overkill in a society concerned with obesity. (The more variety, the more you eat.) I jotted down a few titles, on the same scrap with my line--i.e., "The Kitchen Diaries," and "Wrestling with gravy." Today when I got out my clean white bowl, it was filled to overflowing with gravy! Gravy has been on my list of foods to avoid for the last 3 months. I moved the word “resting” to another line.

The Kitchen Diaries

Wrestling with gravy
in a clean white bowl
my finger wipes a smudge
on resting lips.
I swoon.
My tongue is pleased
to hold a moment of
sensuous memories
from waiting hips.

3379 Is Ireland in our future?

I know it's in our past--I've been doing genealogy this week.

After meeting with his Cursillo group, my husband poked his head in my office and said, "How would you like to go to Ireland?" "Who's going?" I asked. "The priest at Jim's parish takes tour groups, and this would be the week of our anniversary," he said. "Well, why don't I look it up at the Alumni Association site and see if they are offering anything," I suggested. "I really like their format."

When the mail came today, guess what dropped through the slot? A brochure. University of Illinois Alumni Association sponsored tour to Ireland, 12 days covering both my birthday and our anniversary. And I hadn't even looked it up.

Seems like a sign, don't you think?

3378 A beautiful quilt story

Two weeks ago this Saturday the Visual Arts Ministry of UALC hung a quilt show at our Mill Run location. I'm looking forward to seeing the descriptions and stories that go with each quilt, prepared by the leader of the group. But nothing can match Daddy's Roses sensitive retelling of this lovely quilt from the 19th century.

3377 Even I was shocked by this

Recently, someone left a comment at one of my critiques of the direction of public libraries saying I wasn't a very good researcher [i.e. what liberals and humanists say when you don't cite their favorite pundits or sources]. But Tomeboy always digs deep and finds things I wouldn't even notice--like his analysis of the American Library Association's bibliography on homeschooling. I've been critical of ALA (I've never been a member), but even I was shocked. It's a fine report as always, Mr. Tomeboy.

In 2002 Midwinter in New Orleans, ALA's Association for Library Service for Children voted to establish a Home School Task Force to;

...investigate what action or activities, if any, ALSC needs to take to meet the needs of children's librarians serving home-schooled children and their families....

The product of this resolution? An exhaustive bibliography comprising of one internet resource, two books and two articles. The latter four published in the last century. Need I mention the breadth and timeliness of ALA's Task Force on the Environment page?

A middle school student probably couldn't get away with this! I'm almost afraid to check the Environment bibliography. I've seen homeschooling reports and resources at my public library, although for its size and focus on other topics (movies, cookbooks and scrapbooking) probably not as good as it could be based on local interest. Although this might explain why my PL's science fair reference shelf for children is so out of date (by 20-25 years in some cases).

Tomeboy speculates on why ALA would do such a poor job for an important topic. Might it be that about 70% of homeschoolers are evangelical Christians and ALA is hostile to religion?

homeschooling
libraries
bibliographies
American Library Association

3376 Looks like a crouching cat

This is a screen capture of my statistics for the past year for Collecting My Thoughts. Sort of looks like a crouching or sleeping cat outline. See the perky ears on the left, then the rounded back on the right. Oh, you don't see it? Well, I also like to paint when I'm not blogging, and am working on a poetry assignment which is much tougher than either painting or blogging. This week we're supposed to use a line from someone else's poem (at the Poetry Thursday site) and work with that.


I've been blogging since October 2003 and have written about 4,220 entries at this login (8 blogs), and about 30 at another blogger account (2), and about 450 at my LIS journal/weblog. I'm so over-blogged that blogger.com hasn't been able to move me to beta blogger. I've deleted perhaps 50 or so entries that after they were up for a bit, I didn't like. However, I don't know if they ever go away or are floating out there trying to connect. I changed the name of one of my blogs after it was up for about 3 months--that's a mess, try not to do that. I've blogged about what I blog about. I'm nearing 140,000 hits/visits to this site. I don't have site meters at all my blogs--and some I rarely look at. My Family Tree Maker stopped me in mid-19th century relative yesterday to tell me that I'd just hit 3400 entries in that. So I stopped and googled a 3rd cousin once removed and found she is a lawyer in DC who has argued cases before the Supreme Court. Don't we live in amazing times for information and communication?

Prayer Request

Not much blogging today. This is a photo of my brother's grandson and his daddy, who has been injured. About 10 days ago he was working on the ranch he manages in northern Illinois and got a small thorn in his palm, but being a hard worker continued with his chores. The hand became inflamed, and then dark streaks were running up his arm, so it was off to ER. He's had a week in the hospital with powerful antibiotics, but whatever pathogen is attacking him, they haven't been able to identify it or stop it completely. He's home now with my niece doing the IV drip and he daily goes back to have the open wound repacked.

But the nightmare continued.

While he was still hospitalized, some of the horses got out. Most stayed near the barn but two went out to the road where they were hit by a car with three people, all seriously injured about 4:30 in the morning. One horse, the ranch owner's, was killed on impact, and the other, my niece's horse, had to be put down from his serious injuries. She cradled its head and said good-bye. Tears are running down my cheeks as I think about her then rushing off to the hospital to tell her ill husband before he saw it on the news.

Please pray for my family and the injured family from Leaf River.

3374 How much does it cost?

to support a single adult who isn't going to college?

There was another scare story in USA Today last week about rising costs of college.

"For academic year 2006-07, the average cost of tuition, room and board at a public university was $12,796; for a private school, the total averaged $30,367."

Just two years ago the same paper reported the good news that rising costs were making more students eligible for government aid!

So, let's take the college experience out of the equation. How much does it cost you in real 2007 dollars if your young adult didn't go to college but you were shelling out for the apartment, utilities, transportation and parking, food, clothes, leisure activities, cable, computer, broad band, and insurance?

3373 Americans and health care

Something to consider when thinking about demands for government health care. This writer takes a slightly different direction.

"There’s ample evidence that Americans don’t care very much about their health. They grouse about copayments at the doctor’s office or pharmacy and may leave an office in high dudgeon if expected to pay a reasonable bill not "covered" by their insurance. They often refuse to buy medical insurance even if they can afford it. Aside from a subpopulation of health fanatics, many Americans constantly defy the grandmotherly advice* that is the proven basis for effective health maintenance. They smoke, drink, take drugs, engage in casual sex, and/or overeat. They do not exercise, eat their vegetables, or conscientiously wash their hands. They may be willing to take lots of pills, but appear to be allergic to anything that interferes with instant gratification or requires self-discipline."

*Like mine at this blog, which is--eat less, move more; eat all the colors; don't smoke.

from Your money and your life.

Monday Memories--What Shirley told Ann

It's hard for me to resist a used book sale at the public library, a used book store like the fabulous Acorn down on Fifth Avenue in Grandview, or a box of giveaways at the church library (picked up 4 after church yesterday). About a month ago I was paging through a $1.00 hard cover book at the Friends of the Library book sale that had the slight odor of basement storage. I don't recall the title, but it was an early 20th century imprint, nearly 100 years old. A fragile, yellowed 4" x 5" note from Shirley to Ann fell out. The handwriting reminded me of my grandfather's when he used pencil, although he had a beautiful calligraphic style when using pen. There were no misspelled words; the apostrophes, commas and hyphens were all correctly placed. I know I've heard this before--maybe in a sermon--or read it on the internet. But here's what Shirley told Ann.

Ann--Did you know about the minister that told a certain man that if he didn't stop flirting with another man's wife, he would tell who he was to the whole congregation.

The next Sunday he told the congregation that the man whom he mentioned should put a $5 bill in the collection and he wouldn't tell. Well, they took up the collection and found 15 $5 bills and two ones with a note attached that said he would pay the rest pay day.

Shirley

View More Monday Memories Participants
My visitors and those I'll visit this week are:Anna, Becki, Chelle, Chelle Y., Cozy Reader, Debbie, Friday's Child, Gracey, Irish Church Lady, Janene, Janene in Ohio, Jen, Katia, Lady Bug, Lazy Daisy, Ma, Mrs. Lifecruiser, Melli, Michelle, Paul, Susan, Viamarie.

The nice men in the ambulance

Can you imagine her horror as she listens to her voice mail from her aged mother who tells her she had a fall, but the nice men in the ambulance have transported her, and then doesn't say where? This nurse practitioner brings you into the story of eldercare. . . a public health nurse, a family nurse practitioner, and an academic who taught family and community theory but learned she was completely unprepared to be a caregiver.

"I finally located her and was told that no information could be given as she had not yet signed a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) form. This was the first of many frustrations with our healthcare system. I finally succeeded in reaching a nurse at that hospital who was known by a member of our family. She told me that radiology studies revealed a right hip fracture and 2 pelvic fractures: thus began our family's journey through the intricate web known as elder care in America, a journey with many peaks and valleys, and one that resulted in the reshaping of our family structure in ways I could never have foreseen."

And 5 months down the road and through the thicket of various mishaps,

"When discharge time came, there was no placement planned, and I found mother fully dressed and waiting for me with the IV still running. There were no wheelchairs available for transport, no person available to get her to the car, and no paperwork completed. I found a wheelchair and transported her myself. We made quite a picture -- mother in her wheelchair holding on to her overnight case and purse with me pushing from behind with her walker over one shoulder and my briefcase and purse over the other. Not one person offered to help us as we made our way to the hospital lobby."

She gives some rather gloomy statistics and predictions, given the age of the baby boomer generation. However, one thing bothered me a bit--although not as bad as the article I posted about the clueless doctor and his mother in December, this nurse puts her own patients above her mother's care at a critical time. She also had access to an amazing array of top notch services, yet says there needs to be more. Would a waitress or school teacher put her job ahead of her mother? But I digress. It is a very moving article and her mother is truly amazing, but if you have a frail or elderly parent, YOU NEED TO READ THIS, just to be prepared.

"The Cycle of Relocation: One Family's Experience With Elder Care" story at Medscape.com [free site, but may require registration--it's rather lengthy, so click on printer version even if you don't print, which will make scrolling much easier

eldercare

3370 Let's rethink baning DDT

It's not really worth killing all these people, is it? For you folks counting bodies in Iraq, I remind you that these mothers and children are just as dead.

Q. How many acute attacks of malaria are there each year?

A. There are up to 500 million estimated attacks of malaria and 1 million deaths due to malaria each year.

Science Trivia from Scientific American.

3369 Boxer's no champion for women

A commenter and story reported over at Amy's blog wrote:

"OK, Rice has no children serving in the military because she has no children. But Boxer also mentioned she has neither children nor grandchildren in the military. Therefore, why the hell does she get to serve Foreign Relations?"

Another news maven called Boxer's comment a giant step backward for feminists. It's the Kerry foot-in-mouth, garden variety, Democrat, double standard.

3368 The public library as lyceum

In the 19th century, before the era of a tax supported, public library there were lyceums--public lectures, concerts and entertainment. The content of the speeches and debates were often then republished in the local papers. When I was doing research on the writing of 19th century women in agricultural publications, it was interesting to follow their activities on the lyceum circuit. Then came the Chautauqua movement--both the permanent that still exist in places like Lakeside, OH, Bay View, MI, and Chautauqua, NY, and the traveling ones which used to stop for a week or so in towns as small as Franklin Grove, IL and perform plays, operas, and provide political debates. The Chautauqua movement also published material and offered home study courses, and award certificates of completion. The largest continuing education movement in the United States was provided by the federal government through agricultural and home extension.

Although towns had libraries as our population moved westward, they were private, usually maintained and paid for by the local women's clubs, which also offered their members educational events, debates, and social gatherings. Some cities had benevolent book collecting patrons who made their learning available to the general public, but they weren't "public libraries" as we know them. When my parents were children they lived on farms in two different counties, both close to Dixon, IL. People who lived outside Dixon could pay a fee and use the library. It is still that way in many townships today that don't have libraries. One of the wealthiest communities in Arizona has no library--they pay a fee to use the one in the next suburb because it is much cheaper that way and doesn't bring outsiders into their gated communities. It is pay-to-play because you aren't within the taxing district.

The public library I used as a child was established about 1931--my mother's library card was #14 because she was a college student in that town at the time. I worked there when I was in high school, and hung out there with my friends in elementary school because there was no place else to go.

My knowledge of the time line is fuzzy here (I didn't have a course in library history), but in the 20th century public libraries decided to revisit the lyceum concept so popular in the 19th century. (Some also provide day care for after school children and circulate garden tools and paintings and sculpture for your home--a bit far afield even for the lyceum concept.) Today's public librarians see themselves as educators and social workers on a mission to improve the lives of their patrons instead of "just" adjuncts to the educational system. I think this is wasteful overlap. Here's what I posted at a library discussion today:

"Those of you who work in public libraries think I don't understand the educational mission of the public library. Actually, I do. I just don't agree with it. Calling me uninformed or anti-library won't change my mind. I'm a big user and fan of my local public library, but I also depend on Ohiolink because much of my taste and research go beyond what is available, such as my pick-up yesterday from Ashland University, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist by Norman L. Geisler. It really belongs in our PL, but I'm so tired of fighting with them over their selection policies I just drive over to OSU and pick up my religious and political titles there. You wonder why you lose readers to Amazon or Barnes and Noble? My library's web site doesn't even have a slot to plug in a suggestion for purchase. But I digress.

Instead of teaching library patrons how to cook, quilt, dance, play guitar and scrapbook, I am a strong believer in libraries offering bibliographic instruction and user education both by genre, topic and format, be it digital or paper. I think libraries should teach about preservation, copyright, business sources and investment tools, how to find complex sources locally and statewide, tracking down local history sources, and assist the community businesses, churches, foundations and schools in developing their own archives. I think the meeting rooms in the building should be available to community groups who may or may not be using library materials.

I think there should be more staff (friendly and outgoing) on the floor to help patrons maneuver the increasingly complex on-line catalog and purchased packages from suppliers who know digitizing but diddly about how people learn and remember. Waiting for patrons to come to a desk of scowling or chatting staff just doesn't cut it in my book. I think library staff should be encouraged to go out into the community and give presentations, I think they should write book reviews for the local papers, and organize reading groups. I think they should ask the public if they are doing their job and what parts of the collection are not meeting community standards.

As I've said many times, if libraries don't do their job, who will?"

3367 Do you start your meetings on time?

The thought occurred to me this week I have probably wasted a month of my life waiting for meetings to start. If the meeting is at 10 a.m., I'm usually there at 9:55, hanging up my coat, picking out a chair, opening my notebook and settling in. Around 10:10, the chair says something like, "Well, we'll just wait another minute or two." I look around at the other 7 or 8 and think, "Don't we count?" One by one, the stragglers wander in, bustling, hustling and whispering. Finally, about 10:20, we're on our way.

YOU can put a stop to this by just starting on time. Enabling procrastinators does not cure them. They will be late the next time, too. Changing the start time to 10:15 just means they will arrive at 10:30. Changing the day won't work either. They will have as many conflicts for Tuesday as they had for Wednesday.

Starting on time may not change them either, but isn't it worth a try?

time management
meetings
procrastination

3366 Investing in real estate

David Crook who writes for the Wall Street Journal has a new book, Wall Street Journal Complete Real Estate Investing Guide Book, which came out in December. The WSJ has its own convoluted system on when to insert a hyphen, but I'm not playing along. Anyway, he had an article in the WSJ on Jan. 10 that really knocked my socks off (can't stop using cliches since it was the assignment for Poetry Thursday).

Using two columns to illustrate hypothetical investments in two houses both costing $200,000 in 1990 with a $160,000 mortgage, identical improvements (kitchen remodeling, new roof, and $150,000 addition) and both refinanced 3 times to lower rates, and both sold for $650,000 in 2006, he shows column one with a loss of $86,424 and column two with a gain of $403,397. Column one was the owner-occupied home with the usual deductions and expenses, and column two was a rental with the usual deductions, expenses and income.

It was eye opening to see that the fabulous gains people think they make on their homes probably aren't. Even if you play the devil's advocate and deduct what the owner of the rental would pay in rent for a place to live for 15 years while he rented out his own property, column 2 house is still ahead.

I don't know if this particular example is in the book, or if Crook wrote it specifically for the paper, but his writing is clear and well paced. This would be a good title to recommend to your library.