20 years a spy

"Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reportedly had a Chinese spy infiltrate her office for some 20 years. "According to reports from Politico and The San Francisco Chronicle, the mole from the communist government served as Feinstein’s driver, an office gofer, a liaison to the Asian-American community, and even attended Chinese consulate functions on behalf of the senator."
And when she was advised of this, she fired him. Good. Close the door after the horse has escaped. And that's usually enough on that team, but if it happens to a Republican, it is hell to pay. And God forbid someone who knew someone from the Trump team should have played golf with or attended an event where there was a Russian.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/34030/report-feinsteins-personal-driver-20-years-was-amanda-prestigiacomo

Out and about on the peninsula

Shopped at Walmart this morning. Noticed the hiring banner at the door. $11.50 starting wage. I've also noticed at various Walmarts that their employees resemble all God's people-- black, white, brown, tattoos, nose rings, obese, anorexic, burka, autistic, disabled, well spoken or not so much, and most are helpful and well informed in their department or will find help if they don't know. I’ve never understood why people want to ridicule.
I read at a trombone website that some people use WD40 for slide lubrication.  So I bought a small container.

Neighborhood block party, August 3

In August the home owners on our Lakeside street will get together for a pitch in dinner and games, and this year it was our turn.  We had everything set up (top 2 photos), and then it started to rain about 4:30, so we moved a few things inside.  By 5 the rain had stopped, but it was pretty hot, and many chose to stay in the air conditioning.  We had 20 people in our little house/yard/deck counting us (one neighbor brought their friends from Indianapolis who were visiting), and I served sweet/sour (meatball recipe) sloppy joes on buns, and the guests brought fruit plate, vegetable plate, chips, cookies and brownies—all finger food so we’d have minimal clean up. We broke up about 7:15 so everyone had time to get to Hoover to see Point of Grace, a trio of Christian women who had replaced the original program, Sandi Patty. https://www.thoughtco.com/point-of-grace-biography-709697

Protected speech

Here’s what Todd Thorton who works for the airlines said about this:
“So I post [on Facebook] about flight attendants and get 281 reactions, 11 comments, and 182 shares among 1,100 friends. I post something about Trump and the same 25 or so friends see it. Tell me Zuckerberg and his thought police aren’t actively engaged in throttling back anything conservative. Apparently such views are against their community standards.”

The porch mysteries

Bob is starting his 9th mystery of porch reading of the summer. So when he announced at 8:30 a.m. that Andrea had been murdered (in chapter 1) I was a little startled. Although I was the librarian, I don't read mysteries or even much fiction. Our daughter supplies them by the sacksful. He's been through all the Maisie Dobbs, and Charles Todd, now roaring through Mary Higgins Clark, and has sampled a few Agatha Christie.
Titles by Higgins Clark read this summer:
No place like home
I’ll walk alone
The last years
Pretend you don’t see her
Daddy’s little girl
Before I say good-bye

Today’s smoothie

Eggnog made with honey

watercress

one orange

one frozen banana

frozen peaches

Free college tools and courses 2018-2019

There are many free courses on the internet, and I’ve taken 2 from Coursera, one of which I completed (Medical Statistics) and one I didn’t (Gut microbiota).  Today I came across a listing of free courses at Ivy League colleges https://qz.com/1263050/here-are-300-free-ivy-league-university-courses-you-can-take-online-right-now/   at Awareness Watch http://awarenesswatch.virtualprivatelibrary.net/V16N8.pdf and looked through the Harvard listing for the Book in medieval liturgies.

“When we think of liturgy today, we imagine short, formal, congregational events happening periodically within the confines of churches. Medieval liturgy, however, took up many hours of every day, filled the city's largest meeting halls, and even spilled onto the streets. At the center of the medieval liturgy were the books we will study in this course.

In this module of The Book: Histories Across Time and Space, we’ll explore and explain the beautiful service books of the medieval church. No prior knowledge of liturgy or Latin is required, but there will be a lot of both, along with music.”

This course is part of a group of courses called The Book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=LwHbfJAYqJw

Sounds very interesting—the big question, do I want to work that hard.  You can go at your own pace in a free course, but when I enroll I want to do well.  Sometimes stretching the mind is painful!

Lakeside Symphony Orchestra 2018 season

The Lakeside Symphony orchestra was established in 1963 and after 40+ years the conductor has retired and they are featuring guest conductors, whom I assume are applying for the job. Tonight is Matthew Kraemer and the theme is musical postcards. Guest soloist is Jinjoo Cho on violin. She was here a few weeks ago with a group of very talented students from the Cleveland area.

http://matthewkraemer.com/bio/

Bob’s lunch date with the guys

Have you seen them?

It makes no sense to put a virtue signaling sign in your yard about "in this household we accept everyone" when you live in a gated community and even the cheapest homes are north of $200,000.

Lakeside changes in 40 years

After I left the Wellness Center this morning, I saw something on my walk back to the cottage that caused me to reflect back 40 years when things at Lakeside were so much more simple. I passed a couple carrying backpacks as I made my way to the old rail tracks which are now a walking trail. Thinking maybe they were getting ready to do the Appalachian Trail or El Camino in Spain, I paused. They unloaded their packs, put down yoga mats and opened their laptop computer which was playing an exercise routine. You've come a long way Lakeside.

Straw vote

Trombone review

We have an arts center here at Lakeside, the Rhein Center, dedicated to the memory of a son/Lakesider who was killed in a terrorist attack. It’s extremely popular and the offerings expand every year.   My husband teaches perspective drawing/watercolor there. Today I'm going up to see if there are openings in the trombone class. I've never seen that offered, and 60 years is a long time, but thought I'd see what I remember.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

I have  a new shirt—it’s gray and white blocks with gold flowers embellished with gold sparkles on the white. That’s my reflection in a mirror on the closet door.  There is old style writing on it, and my friend Nancy Long asked what it said.  I didn’t know because the writing was rather loose and slanted and I had assumed it was in a foreign language and hadn’t really examined it.  But I could make out one line “Her hardest hue to hold,” so I looked it up on the internet.

Robert Frost. “Nothing gold can stay.” Whether he’s saying the first green you see in spring is the most desirable, or that the flowers that bloom as the leaves unfold have a gold hue, I don’t know. But they only last briefly, as the dawn becomes day, and nothing precious lasts forever. “So Eden sank to grief.”


I attended a program with Robert Frost reading his own poetry when I was in college, probably 1959 or 1960.  His simple poems were elegant and yet complex.  My date was Chinese.  He seemed a little puzzled.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hha8E2whFkk


Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Nature’s first green is gold, 
Her hardest hue to hold. 
Her early leaf’s a flower; 
But only so an hour. 
Then leaf subsides to leaf. 
So Eden sank to grief, 
So dawn goes down to day. 
Nothing gold can stay. 

Something’s gotta give movie for Saturday

It’s a gorgeous day at Lakeside, one of the prettiest we’ve had, and after a stroll through the craft show I sat down and watched a throw away movie, “Something’s gotta give” with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Kind of predictable—the movie begins with him dating her (Keaton’s character) daughter, but in the end the two who are closer in age end up together. Lots of sex scenes and innuendo and jokes about heart attacks, eye glasses,  age and aging.  I wandered away a lot, looking for something crunchy to munch, but there was nothing but healthy stuff in the house.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337741/

What I found surprising was how up to date everything looked—from the fashion, to the phones to the kitchen counter tops.  For a movie that is 15+ years old, it has aged well.  If this were 1958 or 1968 and the movie was 15 years old we’d be giggling at the fashion and hair styles.

Around town

Dinner tonight: roast chicken, coleslaw, baked potato, grapes and cherries, and carrot cake.  The place is crawling with people.  The program tonight, Home Free, was the biggest draw in 2017, so they’re expecting a big crowd.  I think we’ll have to be at Hoover when the doors open at 7:30 if we want a good seat.

Here’s what I wrote last year. “Home Free, a "vocal band" put on a fabulous show Friday night at the Hoover in Lakeside. Pretty much a packed house--lots of covers of Oak Ridge Boys, Statler Brothers, Alabama, etc. Loved Elvira. Nice Johnny Cash Ring of Fire, too. A few of the hip hop genre I thought were inappropriate for our regular audience, but they are a quality, fabulous group. Don't miss them if they are performing near you. Amazing sound--all vocal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXQpDDcrN-w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W9ue85L9PA

Today’s smoothie

It was sort of clean out the tired and lonely fruit from the frig day. Heading back to Lakeside after a week at home so I needed to make some room in the cooler.

Carrot juice

Baby spinach

strawberries

1 orange

1 peach

This had a lot of fiber.

Christian community—a how to do list

“A good way to start loving God divinely is by generously loving your spouse, children, parents, siblings, and friends. It is doubtful that we will love anyone else if we fail to love the ones closest to us.

Love is the key, love is the secret weapon. Forget about how you feel. Love is not a feeling; it’s a decision to prefer the good of others. Make a habit of this and you will start changing things around you and your work will be amplified.”  Douglas Dewey

And then the author provides 10.5 rules for accomplishing the commandment to love God and others—forming Christian community.  Some may surprise you. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/07/28/10½-rules-for-forming-Christian-community/

Exercising at Life Time

I enjoy working out at Life Time Fitness (117 centers in 26 states and 34 major markets under the LIFE TIME FITNESS® and LIFE TIME ATHLETIC® brands in the United States and Canada) on Henderson Rd., near our home.  I really do. I’ve been going about 5-6 times a week since January—treadmill and resistance machines.  I think it’s helping my balance and the strength in my hands.   However, as I read through its magazine, "Experience Life," I do sense that focusing totally on oneself--personal empowerment--body, nutrition, well-being, fitness, breathing (mindfulness and other eastern quasi-religious exercises are big), and "connectedness"--is a tad shallow even if it is a billion dollar business. "Small acts of kindness. . . offer great health benefits and make us feel more secure" and so forth.

The Founder, Chairman, and CEO is Bahram Akradi, who immigrated to the U.S. from Iran as a teen-ager. His father was in the Iranian Air Force and sensed a revolution was coming so sent his son to the U.S. to live with his brother. He's positive that embracing respect as our guiding principle is good for our health and the country. See what you think and whether something is missing.

https://experiencelife.com/article/a-healthy-dose-of-respect/

https://gym.lifetimefitness.com/upper-arlington/gym-columbus

The most useful course in high school—Latin

Three socialists. . .