How do you meet new people at 80?

I'm finding that the gym is an easier place to meet people than church. Today I met a retired Army General while riding the exercycle. He was reading a magazine I'd never seen, "Veritas : journal of army special operations history," so I asked him about it. He'd entered the service  as a private right out of high school and retired 37 years later as a General. The military paid for his bachelor’s and two masters degrees. He looked like he was about 30, but I did a little math and figured he had to be at least 55, but was probably older.

Last Friday on the cycle I met a lovely young woman who lives in my old neighborhood and school district, and loves the library, park and pool where I used to hang out. She grew up in San Antonio, lived in New Jersey, and then moved to Columbus with her husband to raise their daughter. And it was a magazine that got us talking that time too, "Experience Life" which is a very nice quality monthly serial published by the owner of Lifetime Fitness. She organizes food tours of Columbus. I didn't know such a job existed and I'm not sure yet what it is.

Twenty minutes on the cycle or treadmill can get you a lot more information than 2 minutes at church coffee time, or a few minutes being introduced during Sunday School.

Why does the Squad fight against ICE?

ICE is the biggest fighter against sex slavery and pedophilia in the world. ICE removed enough opioids coming into the country the past year to kill our entire population twice over. But the "Squad" (all Democrats and supporters of Bernie Sanders for President) wants ICE dismantled. Now why would that be? Why would these four women support such evil crimes against women and children and families? We can't allow our elected officials to bad mouth and disrespect law enforcement. They didn't write the laws; they enforce them.

"HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] arrested 5,750 criminals associated with human smuggling in FY19, a 41 percent increase from FY18..

This increase is attributed in part to the Southwest border initiative to combat fraudulent families and the use of Rapid DNA testing. HSI has dedicated more than 400 personnel to combating this issue and protecting children from being smuggled. HSI is also focused on identifying and stopping TCOs from generating false documents and supporting child smuggling through the use of fraudulent family units."

"HSI seized a record high 12,466 pounds of opioids, a 2,538 pounds increase from FY18.

HSI seized a record high 3,688 pounds of fentanyl, a 950 pound increase from FY18.

HSI made more than 1,900 fentanyl-related arrests, an increase of 175 percent from FY18.

HSI seized 145,117 pounds of methamphetamine in FY19."

https://www.ice.gov/features/HSI-2019

There was a time when this was a bipartisan issue. Now due to the hate Democrats have for the President, only Republicans are protecting women and children of 140 different nationalities, including the unborn.

Coronavirus news in my mail today

Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Saturday approved Department of Defense (DoD) housing at four military bases for 1,000 people who may have to be quarantined as a result of the coronavirus, following the appearance of the eighth confirmed case of the disease in the U.S. Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Jonathan Rath Hoffman made the announcement and said the program is designed for those returning from overseas. Military installations in Colorado, California and Texas were selected to house the evacuees and will help to assist the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the operation, if needed. They are the 168th Regiment Regional Training Institute in Fort Carson, Colo.; Travis Air Force Base in California; Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3048518/coronavirus-case-load-and-death-toll-china-rise-epicentre-hubei-province

“As many as 75,815 people in Wuhan may have been infected with the new coronavirus , according to a study by University of Hong Kong scientists.

The research, published in The Lancet on Saturday, is based on the assumption that each infected person could have passed the virus on to 2.68 others. The estimated total was as of Tuesday, it said.”

A group of Brazilians stuck in the Chinese city at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak has sent President Jair Bolsonaro a video aired Sunday pleading for help to return home.

Reading from a letter dated January 30 from the sprawling eastern city of Wuhan, they told him they were willing to be quarantined when they get back.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3048639/coronavirus-brazilians-wuhan-ask-help-fleeing-wuhan-video

Wuhan has 11,000,000 people and most of us had never heard of it before this virus made it famous.  I looked through trip advisor, and it looks like a gorgeous place with interesting sites.  Who will go there now and how many in the tourism business are out of work?

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g297437-Activities-Wuhan_Hubei.html

Groundhog day, 2020

Buckeye Chuck and Punxsutawney Phil are both predicting an early spring, but it's sunny in Columbus, and if they were here they would see their shadows. According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, he has predicted six more weeks of winter-like weather. If Phil does not see his shadow, he has predicted an "early spring." The date of Phil's prognostication is known as Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada, and has been celebrated since 1887. I don't know how long Chuck has been doing it.

My library colleague from the 1980s never mentions one of her early library positions which was in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, so maybe it just doesn't seem too glamourous.  But I did check the internet and see she is still researching and writing, and here's a recent story about her mother who was a Code Girl in WWII. https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2019/03/herstory-crowded-wartime-washington-and-the-code-girls-reunion/

Twenty years plus

Earlier in January it occurred to me that I should write something on the 20th anniversary of my mother's death, but the 24th came and went and it wasn't until today when I was looking at my bunny coffee cup which was hers, that I recalled it had been twenty years. She died on the 24th of January 2000, her mother on the 25th of 1963 and her father on the 26th of 1968. The bunny cup has a mommy rabbit and eight little brown and white bunnies, and is my favorite cup.  I use it almost every morning.

Today when photos are a dime a dozen and people just whip out a phone to capture the moment, it seems odd that I don't have a photo of the three of them together, except in larger group pictures, like this one from 1949 in Wilmington, Ohio. Grandpa is between his older sister, Alice (b. 1870), and grandma, and then my mom.  My brother Stan and I are squinting in the sun. I'm wearing my most favorite dress of all time--it's yellow, but only I can tell when I look at the photo.  We were on our way to the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, but stopping along the way to visit and spend the night with relatives. As I found out years later from talking with Mother, this was not a happy trip--my grandparents were trying to find out information on the death of their son who died in 1944 in WWII. My mother who was doing the driving was suffering debilitating headaches and my brother got sick from the heat.  But, being only 10, it all went over my head and I remember the highpoints with relatives, the tourist spots and the ocean.

 Uncle Edwin Jay, who apparently took the photo, was president of Wilmington College from 1915-1927.  (I looked through the website for Wilmington College and found this about his 12 years there: "The so-called "period of expansion" occurred under the leadership of President J. Edwin Jay, under whose tenure Lebanon Normal University merged with Wilmington College and teacher training was introduced into the curriculum.")  I think he probably died in 1964 and may have been 95, but I have no idea what he did between 1927 and 1964. He and I corresponded, and we never discussed his life. If his writings and letters are archived where he taught, there will be a group from a teen-ager in Illinois.

 

Palindrome

Peter Kreeft’s simple thought on choice

"Nancy Reagan was criticized for her simple anti-drug slogan: "Just say no." But there was wisdom there: the wisdom that the heart of any successful program to stop anything must be the simple will to say no. ("Just say no" doesn't mean that nothing else was needed, but that without that simple decision nothing else would work. "Just say no" may not be sufficient but it is necessary.)

Similarly, no program, method, book, teacher, or technique will ever succeed in getting us to start doing anything unless there is first of all that simple, absolute choice to do it. "Just say yes." Peter Kreeft

January 31, on this day in history, 1865 and 1919

This day in history, "January 31, 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America. The amendment read, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” . . .

In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of states’ rights. The election of 1864 brought Lincoln back to the White House along with significant Republican majorities in both houses, so it appeared the amendment was headed for passage when the new Congress convened in March 1865. Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support–some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, seven votes above the necessary two-thirds majority. Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 6, 1865. With the passage of the amendment, the institution that had indelibly shaped American history was eradicated." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/today-in-history-january-31/ss-BBZjpd7?

Also on this day in history, January 31, 1919, Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia and he became the first black to break the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947. He was a Republican, and today the media will tell you everything bad about the RNC in those days, but the Democrats were still fighting "inclusion and diversity," and did so for many years. So let's leave it there that they are still rewriting their own poor history.

Slavery has existed from the earliest recorded history and is still a global scourge--estimates of the number of slaves globally today range from around 21 million to 46 million -- labor and sex and even children. This is larger than the 18th century Atlantic slave trade. https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/

We can all be proud that the U.S. opposition to slavery is today bi-partisan. The current legislation began under President Clinton in 2000 and has continued under Bush, Obama, and Trump. This is the 2019 Trafficking in Persons report. https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report/
However, reading that report is discouraging.  Less than .03% of the millions of slaves are identified and rescued. If a church spent a year studying the 2019 Trafficking in Persons report of our State Department, it would never run out of material, issues, causes, and places to put their money. And yet we have people trafficked across the border daily.

David and Putin. Giving credit where none is due

Can you explain that? I asked David on Facebook.  “Trump gave Russia codes?  What codes? Something in the KJV?”  All the spying was done during the Obama administration. Trump didn't have any power in 2015 and 2016--only Obama and his FBI had power.

Meanwhile all Trump was doing was listening to the people the Democrats had ignored for years and was filling auditoriums and sports palaces. Trump has the same uncanny gift that Bill Clinton had--he connects with people and makes them feel important.

The pollsters chased the media which said he had no chance of winning any states, meanwhile giving him billions in free publicity by talking about him all the time. Obama/Clinton (Obama 2.0) visited only the states they liked. Obama 2.0 had the support of media, all of academe, all of entertainment like TV and movies, a vast number of the churches, all of big Tech which supported her on the internet, and all the major lobbyists for rich corporations. Clinton was loved by the institutions that hated the little people. She called them deplorables and laughed at them. She still doesn't get it.

The Clinton clique put their arms around the race and sex groups and told everyone who would listen they were powerless victims and lived in a terrible country. Trump went around the country and told Americans they were great people, strong, best in the world. Now, maybe you didn't believe that, the Democrats obviously didn't, but people were hungry to hear some affirmation. And you fell into Clinton's trap and when it was all over you (who didn’t even vote) and millions of embarrassed Democrats looked around for an excuse and gave Russia the credit for Trump's hard work and smarts. You fell for the same lies from the media that millions of others did. And you're still doing it, 3 years later.

I might be over-Bibled

 

This morning I was looking at week 3 of Women of the Word study of Romans; Good News that changes everything by Melissa Spoelstra, Abingdon Women, 2019.  It comes with a DVD with teaching and discussion led by Spoelstra. That group meets on Saturday morning. There are 4 different times during the week this is offered, but I do Saturday 9:15 even though I'm retired because generally there is a core group. And I like the leader, Mary Jo.

On Sunday I'm in the adult Sunday School class at 10:15 at Lytham and we're studying the book of Hebrews using the book Hebrews by Richard E. Lauersdorf, Northwestern Publishing House, 1986. This group is led by a lawyer, Charlie, who is always well prepared. He's an excellent teacher who manages to be patient even with a group of well educated and studied adults, with some big talkers.

On Thursday morning I meet with the retirees and we've just started the book of Luke with Pastor Jeff Morlock.  Once a month this group has a lunch after the study and a guest speaker.  During Advent and Lent we also have a lunch after class and before mid-week worship, open to the whole church.

Our Sunday sermon schedule is a race through the Bible, called Open Book.  We began with Genesis in September and last Sunday the topic was Jesus Heals on the Sabbath and the Gospel reading was Mark 3:1-6.  The pastors rotate.

Our SALT group (Sharing and Learning Together) which is 9 people who are members of UALC (all 9 o'clock service at Lytham Road) who meet together has been reading Making sense of the Bible; rediscovering the power of scripture today, by Adam Hamilton, Harper One, 2014 we meet approximately once a month, but with holidays and illnesses, it's more like 7 times a year.

In the fall the senior pastor Steve Turnbull began an evening study of Ephesians at our Mill Run campus.  I attended that one evening, but it was dark and raining, and I decided I didn't want to attend under those conditions. It will start up again in the spring, but I just don't like going out at night.

About a week ago, someone who's in a group with my husband sent home with him, Finding Jesus in the Old Testament by David Limbaugh, Regnery Publishing, 2017 pb. In hardcover it was titled, The Emmaus Code, 2015. I've only looked at the table of contents, but I enjoy this type of research.

Several years ago I received as a Christmas gift Tried by Fire; the story of Christianiiy's first thousand years by William J. Bennett, Nelson Books, 2016. And I've recently been reading it while on the exercycle, however, it's a fat book and not conducive to cycling and I'm only on p. 19.

And then yesterday, two books arrived that I'd agreed to review and at the time it sounded like a good idea. The beautiful book by Steven Green, Zondervan, 2019, and one which isn't exactly Bible, but issues dealing with the election, God, Trump and the 2020 election, by Stephen E. Strange, Front Line (Charisma House), 2019.

During the week for my daily devotions I use the Catholic serial, Magnificat--just finished January 202, Vol. 21, no. 11. It follows the liturgical calendar for daily mass so there is a theme, a biography of a saint, a meditation on the observation of special days, Old Testament reading, Psalm, Gospel and Epistle, plus hymns and responsive readings.  Not being familiar with the tradition of saints, I read a lot of history. Saints featured in January were those who worked for unity in the church, and the February saints are saints who suffered serious illness, like Blessed Amadeus of Savoy, who suffered attacks of epilepsy (d. 1472).

Working out at Lifetime Fitness

If you’re very able, you can get a disability sticker

My friend Joan added this to her Facebook wall today.  It reminded me of the time years ago I took my librarian colleague Eleanor to get her disability sticker after getting out of rehab when she broke her leg.  It was quite a challenge, and everywhere we parked was almost inaccessible from crumbling concrete, stairs or poor marking. How would a disabled person ever do this without help from an extremely abled companion (usually a daughter).

“I proved NISA  (Nothing Is Simple Anymore) again over the last three weeks. After printing the form myself, delivering it to the doctor’s office for approval, having 4 telephone conversations with doctor’s office and three trips to doctor’s office, visit with the notary at the doctor’s office, and finally a hike to the courthouse (long waits at every stop), three weeks from start to finish, I finally have a disabilities parking permit for Mother. That’s one little job to mark off the list.”

Gun control in Seattle

"Last Wednesday night, right around rush hour, gunfire erupted on a busy Seattle street near a bus stop with numerous commuters and pedestrians nearby. One person was killed and seven were wounded, including a 9-year-old boy. This wasn’t the typical gang fight that erupted deep in a bad neighborhood; it placed numerous commuters in the crossfire. Two Amazon workers were shot."
The three suspects among them had nearly 70 priors. Yes, it was illegal for them to have guns. The very people who want gun control are the ones who think that a system that already fails to confine violent gun felons and gangsters is too punitive.

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/seattle-commuter-shooting-nearly-70-prior-arrests-among-three-suspects/

Reasons to not go to med school

About 2 years ago I signed up for an on-line class on the microbiome through Coursera.  After a few weeks of thinking about billions of microbiota on my skin, hair and in my gut, I was so grossed out, I dropped the course.  But occasionally, I do fall for a good looking blog on the topic, like NextGenMedicine written by a University of Illinois grad, Lucy Mailing.  Now the latest blog edition explains why she isn’t going to go on with her MD as she had originally planned, and has chosen a PostDoc.  What is interesting in today’s edition is she lists all the wrong reasons she originally thought were good reasons, but she’s changed in the gap year.  Most interesting reason not to go to medical school was she had a full ride scholarship and that was influencing her decision.
https://www.ngmedicine.com/why-im-foregoing-med-school-and-starting-a-postdoc/

Look through the slides of a 2019 presentation by Lucy.  “Modulating the gut microbiome for health: Evidence-based testing & therapeutic strategies”
https://www.ngmedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Modulating-the-microbiome_AHS19_slides.pdf

Biology in the 2020 campaign

There is one Democrat candidate (Mayor Pete) who has no claim to fame other than the way he has sex with his partner. Another (Warren) is trying to capitalize on the sex issue also by accusing  Christian schools "anti-LGBTQ" if they understand biology.

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/cnsnewscom-staff/warren-whacks-christian-schools-anti-lgbtq-policies-such-making-boys-use-boys

Diversity is more than appearances

Academe, media and some woke corporations believe that diversity is a matter of skin color or biology. Not so. Sitting next to a rich Nigerian at Yale graduation isn't diversity, and hiring an Asian female retired from the National Guard should not be a check mark for government regulations.
Here's my idea of inclusion, equity and diversity (IED).

• Spend a week or two at Walmart training a new employee who doesn't speak English and uses a wheelchair;
• stand on your feet for 8 hours at a register in a big box store--with any ethnic group;
• attend for a few months a Catholic mass or a Baptist revival with a colleague of that faith family if you're an atheist professor;
• learn to work with the crew and drive one of those huge street sweepers without hitting any cars;
• find someone on your board allergic to dogs and send her out to work at the pet rescue or pound;
• assign your president to the library reference room for weeks to teach the elderly how to use the computer;
• hand the CEO a set of earplugs and send him outside in the wind with the foreign workers to blow leaves for hours;
• drive, park and unload a semi at a dollar store;
• run on concrete floors and retrieve for immediate delivery for a full shift week at an Amazon warehouse;
• or any job that moves you out of your comfort zone and into the real world of work. And then do it over again, and again. That IED.

Finding an old letter—metastatic breast cancer

This is probably a re-run—at least I found it on Facebook and I often double post.  I looked for it because I’ve been cleaning out my desk and found a local’ friend’s letter written from Tennessee after her daughter’s death.  Her daughter was 61 and she was 90.  She didn’t expect to bury her daughter or have to move out of state to settle her estate.  The friend died a few months ago, and although I’m not a hoarder, I did tuck her letter back in the drawer. She was so lonely when she wrote it—had read everything in the house, and couldn’t get a library card because she wasn’t a resident.  She did start the first paragraph with advice I need today. . . “If onlys can ruin your sanity.”
So here’s what I wrote September 27, 2017 in part to warn women about metastatic cancer.

Monday night we had a 90 year old friend, a widow, here for dinner. We had such a nice evening, tinged with sadness. I've told this before, and I'm telling it again because it's so important for women. Metastatic breast cancer.

She's a member of my church, had been living out of state while she settled the estate of her deceased daughter--61--nothing a woman her age would expect to be doing. I remember about 5 years ago her daughter came to Columbus to help her mom recover from a stroke. My friend's daughter had had annual mammograms for years, and nothing was found--probably due to very dense breast tissue and the location of the cancer under her arm. But she did have a lot of pain the last 5 years and was being treated for arthritis. By the time she was properly diagnosed the cancer had metastasized to both hips, her spine, liver and lymph system. This cancer is not curable, and no one dies from cancer that stays in the breast, but if she'd been properly diagnosed 5 years ago, she could possibly be alive. That's not a given, however.  

All women have been educated about detecting breast cancer and screening--in fact, the lion's share of that money you donate and raise in walks, runs, and selling pink stuff, goes for education and not research that could actually save your life. I've looked at several websites about this and personal stories, and this one is pretty clear.

Read the comments https://participatorymedicine.org/journal/perspective/narratives/2013/04/10/metastatic-breast-cancer-lessons-learned-from-my-missed-diagnosis.
The author of this article provided a checklist:
Lessons Learned Checklist:

1. Expect mistakes from your health provider;
2. Ask critical questions at every visit. Take a written list of questions in order of priority. If you get home and realize something is not clear, contact your doctor again;
3. Get a friend or family member to serve as your advocate;
4. Communication between doctors is absolutely critical. If a Radiology report indicates possible metastatic disease or something equally alarming make sure you get a definitive diagnosis. Rule out the worst-case scenarios. Make sure the doctors involved have talked;
5. If you aren’t confident about the doctor’s diagnosis, ask your doctor to review your records with colleagues to see what might have been missed;
6. Get a second opinion;
7. Choose doctors who take time and listen. Ask for a copy of the doctor’s notes to ensure your issues are documented properly. This also ensures the doctor heard what you said;
8. Ask specialists to take a “fresh look” at your case;
9. Make use of hospital patient advocate resources without delay.

Update on our son

On October 1, 2019, our son had several seizures and was diagnosed with glioblastoma.  He has endured a lot in the last four months including side effects from the standard treatment for this disease, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and steroids to reduce brain swelling.  Thursday he had another MRI and today consulted with his doctor.  He posted the following on Facebook.

"Hi there. MRI shows tumor growth. Docs don’t know if this is actual tumor growth, or scan findings are related to swelling from treatment. I’ll continue current treatment plan for 2 months and re-evaluate. Pray my symptoms subside. Love you all.  .  ."

Post Office adventure

I went to the post office to buy stamps--only one employee, so I waited about 20 minutes. After I made my selection when I got to the counter, my credit card wouldn't work. I had just used it before I got there. The clerk rubbed it, we reinserted, and it still wouldn't work. Then the young woman behind me walked up with one package said she'd pay, and offered her credit card. I was stunned. Was this a TV show? I explained it was $27.50, not just a couple of stamps. She said, that's OK, I'll pay. Then I suggested she buy what she needed, and I'd step aside, and we'd see if the machine would take her card. She did that--for fifteen cents! She had taped the stamps to her package, so had to buy new stamps, but she had too many on the envelop so she only needed 15 cents. So then I tried my card, and the machine worked. Crazy day.

I've paid ahead at the grocery store if someone was short, but never $27.50.

One of the sheets I selected was the post office murals. . . Piggott, AR; Anadarko, OK; Florence, CO; Deming, NM; Rockville, MD. Mt. Morris, IL has a mural, but it didn't make the cut. http://www.wpamurals.com/mtmorris.htm

Another sheet was the Made of Hearts design.  According to the USPO website, “The art for this latest stamp in the LOVE series features horizontal rows of red and pink hearts on a white background.  Toward the center, red hearts in varying sizes replace pink hearts in a formation that creates one large red heart, the focal point of this graphic design.”

My third choice was the Lunar New Year—Year of the Rat.  It looks a lot like a blue cat with a gold crown and tassels on its ears.

The old play book of the Democrats

Sound familiar? Come in at the last minute with a "witness." Kavanaugh wasn't the first, and he won't be the last. It's the Democrat play book. Demand more witnesses. Now they are desperate--have to bring Trump down before the election because they can't win by voting.

"In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. His confirmation hearings would test his character and principles in the crucible of national controversy. Like the Bork hearings in 1987, the Democrats went after Thomas’ record and his jurisprudence, especially natural law theory, but also attacked his character. When that failed, and he was on the verge of being confirmed, a former employee, Anita Hill, came forth to accuse him of sexual harassment. The next few days of televised hearings riveted the nation. Finally, defending himself against relentless attacks by the Democratic Senators on the committee, Thomas accused them of running “a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas.” After wall-to-wall television coverage, according to the national polls, the American people believed Thomas by more than a 2-1 margin. Yet, Thomas was confirmed by the closest margin in history, 52-48."