dual personalities

Tag: family

April 14, 2022

Glory! Glory! This I sing—

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of precious daughter #2!

We wish we could celebrate with her today, but we look forward to seeing her in May when she and Katiebelle are planning to visit. Daughter #2 did a fantastic job of filling in for me on the blog while I was traveling and I thank her. We managed, as usual, to keep our running text thread going throughout the week and she kept us up-to-date on Katie’s progress at daycare.

Be assured we will toast her tonight! (While we’re at it, we’ll toast Loretta Lynn who turns 90 today!)

This was a very interesting article. The author relates Saint Paul’s run-in with the mob in Ephesus to the screaming, wall-pounding, and chanting Yale students who shut down a scheduled speaker in March. “Free speech is not a virtue, because much of it is not virtuous. But free speech is necessary to a pluralistic society.” Amen.

I was happy to see that the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum taped the award ceremony at the gala event last Saturday night. I especially appreciated seeing Kurt Russell accept the award for his father Bing Russell who was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

There is a brief video about Bing where they talk about his life (He was from Vermont and went to Dartmouth!) and his career in baseball and the movies/television. However, they never mention that Bing was the guy that gets murdered at the beginning of Rio Bravo (1959) and gets the whole ball rolling. Neither do they mention that he’s there at the beginning of The Magnificent Seven (1960) or that he’s the poor dude who has his leg amputated without anesthesia in The Horse Soldiers (1959).

When I think of Bing Russell, I think of those great movies, not his recurring role on Bonanza!

Anyway, Kurt is very gracious and I love the end, where he gives this parting shot: “You guys are great. And if there’s ever a moment in your life–which I just feel some of the time and energy in this room–where you think that your values and your ways are not being listened to or in some way are forgotten, I promise you that’s not true.”

Finally, happy Easter. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Watch Ben-Hur (1959). Go to church!

Glory! Glory! This I sing—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
All my praise for this I bring—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

–Robert Lowry, 1876
3 Comments
April 11, 2022

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain

by chuckofish

Well, we made it to Oklahoma and I must say, I was impressed. It is a beautiful state and the two cities we visited–Oklahoma City and Tulsa–were super nice. Both cities are very modern and up-to-date with cool boutique hotels and good restaurants.

But, boy, it is windy! (💨💨💨)

Our reason for visiting was, of course, to see the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, which we did bright and early on Monday. We were the first people there (at the special “senior hour” of 9 a.m.) so we had the place to ourselves for awhile. We visited Prosperity Junction, which is a replica of an old western town, and then moved on to the exhibits, which unabashedly celebrate Western history, art and culture.

So much to see and read and do! I have to admit that a lot of museums leave me cold, but not this one! Absolutely wonderful. We were too engaged to take many pictures–mea culpa!

And look who followed us to the Cowboy to be inducted into the Hall of Fame:

(I hope Goldie went with him.)

After lunch we headed down to Fort Worth, about which I will blog tomorrow.

On our way home on Thursday we stopped overnight in Tulsa. I have always wanted to go to the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, but, of course, it is closed for a major reconstruction. Instead we ventured to the Philbrook Museum of Art which opened in 1939 and is located in a 1920s villa, “Villa Philbrook,” the home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve. The collection, which includes some good paintings by Oscar Berninghaus and other Santa Fe artists, is mostly a lot of whack-a-doo modern art. The house, however is fabulous and the gardens even better.

It made me think of the boy and how one of his favorite movie lines is when Cary Grant says sarcastically to Irene Dunne (in The Awful Truth) who is moving to OK with her oilman fiancé Ralph Bellamy, “Just think. If you get bored in Oklahoma City, you can go to TULSA.”

Haha. Well, I think Oklahoma City and Tulsa are pretty great!

Hats off to daughter #1 who drove the 1500 miles from St. Louis to Oklahoma City, to Fort Worth, to Waco, to Tulsa and home! Impetuous! Homeric!

Souvenirs

Of course, let us not forget that Holy Week is underway. At church yesterday our choir was three times its usual size and the wee laddie spontaneously applauded at the end of their hymn. I could not disagree.

Fling wide the portals of your heart;

Make it a temple, set apart

From earthly use for heavens employ,

Adorned with prayer,

God’s love and joy.

–George Weissel, tr. Catherine Winkworth

And how about Scottie Scheffler winning the Masters?

His victory was his fourth for the PGA Tour season, making him the first golfer since Arnold Palmer in 1960, and only the second ever, to win as many events including the Masters in that span of time to begin a season. It was his fourth win in his last 6 starts. Scottie is a fine young man and I salute him. What can I say? Watching golf is my new coping devise.

5 Comments
March 14, 2022

Come ye before him and rejoice*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was super cold and then super nice and sunny, so we covered the bases, weather-wise. On Saturday I got up early and went with my friend Becky and her sister to the Vintage Market Days in St. Charles, held at the giant St. Charles Convention Center. We had to stand outside in line in the bitter cold (16 degrees) for a good fifteen minutes, but it was worth it. We had fun perusing the aisles.

By the time we left it was very crowded. I bought a little cement rabbit for the yard.

I was worn out though, so when I got home I lay on the couch and watched three hours of PGA golf.

The boy and WRC jr. joined us at church on Sunday. (Lottie and her mother had a Mommy and Me day to mark the anniversary of the day Lottie came home from the NICU back in 2017…)

After church we ate bagels and then played outside. The wee laddie took the Raptor out for a spin…

…checked out the “moisture” in the grass…

(Nice plank)

…and blew some bubbles…

…in a nice sunny spot he chose for his chair. He (and I) are ready for some driveway sitting!

We missed the girls, but it was nice to have the boys all to ourselves. After they left to go work at the boy’s store, I gabbed on the phone with daughter #2 and heard all about her fun visit with daughter #1 who had moved on to her conference in D.C.

I watched some more PGA to round out the weekend and saw Shane Lowry hit a hole-in-one on the 17th hole which the day before had been giving everyone a super hard time because of insane headwinds. Crazy, man–made my day.

*All people that on earth do dwell,

sing to the Lord with cheerful voice;

him serve with fear, his praise forthtell,

come ye before him and rejoice.

Old One Hundredth
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March 8, 2022

“I will keep broken things”*

by chuckofish

Inspired by my DP’s post on Friday, I spent a good portion of the last few days trying to clear out the closet in my office by going through old letters, photos etc and deciding what can go down to the basement. Yes, I am throwing away relatively little and am just moving stuff around. But maybe in the process I am getting a bit more organized.

Yeah, I doubt it too. It is hopeless when we are unable to part with 20-year-old calendar pages that have a good quote…

…or clippings from the funny pages…

…those wonderful cards that accompanied every gift my mother ever gave me…

…much less classic HS photo proofs like this…

Yes, it’s hopeless. C’est la vie.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.

–William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30

*Alice Walker, I Will Keep Broken Things

7 Comments
March 7, 2022

What then shall we say to these things?

by chuckofish

This weekend I stepped out of my comfort zone and ventured to an estate sale in a part of town that is terra incognita to me. Daughter #2 was in Jeff City so I had no trusty co-pilot…but I found the house without a problem. It was in Affton, a tiny house that would usually never tempt me, but the pictures on the estate sale website had led me to believe that it might be worthwhile because there were lots of Ehrman needlepoint pillows, finished, unfinished and unopened kits. A veritable treasure trove of the best kits from the U.K.! Even though I arrived within an hour of opening, a lot of the best pillows and all the kits were already gone. However, upon investigation, I soon discovered that the woman who had made all the pillows and sewed all the kits was not a very accomplished needlepointer. They were all trapezoidal, not square, and nothing had been blocked. Her stitching was terrible. What a shame!

I bought one that had not yet been made into a pillow in memory of the devoted needlepointer, but I am uncertain pretty sure it can’t be salvaged.

I also bought a good book…

…which happened to have the woman’s name in it. It sounded vaguely familiar and I was curious, so I googled her. It turns out she went to my old Episcopal church! Zut alors–the world is so small.

We had another great sermon in church on Sunday. It was on Romans 8:31-39, one of the greatest passages in scripture.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As usual, I cried during every hymn. All these tears made me think of what Frederick Buechner wrote about tears…

Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention.  They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next. 

–Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark

Nevertheless, it is kind of embarrassing and I need to stop wearing mascara to church.

The boy and his wee family joined us at church and then came over for brunch. The sun wasn’t out, but it was warm enough to do a little exploring in the yard after our meal…

…and I put the wee babes to work picking up sticks after a very windy winter…

This is a game they enjoy. (Lottie made believe we were going to have a bonfire. Make-believe bonfires are the best.) I went out and bagged it up later.

How was your weekend?

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as now.

Elvina M. Hall, 1865
8 Comments
March 1, 2022

Crashing and burning with dignity

by chuckofish

A new month is starting and spring is on the horizon. Let us rejoice and sing! We still have a little ice and snow around, but Mother Nature is undeterred.

If you are in need of a mood lightener (and who isn’t?), I recommend this article. You also have to watch the embedded video which is pure gold. “You see, in a world plagued by sin and evil, in which churches increasingly have no room for church musicians without commercial appeal, Jon Daker represents hope, joy, and faith. Here is a regular guy who has managed to lift the spirits of millions thanks to his love of singing and a willingness to crash and burn with dignity.”

I also cannot express how much I love these daily updates that the daycare sends to daughter #2 and that she in turn sends to me from Maryland.

This is Life from the frontlines of daycare.

In case you forgot, today is the birthday of David Niven (1910-1983) so we’ll have to watch one of his movies tonight to celebrate! Maybe Separate Tables (1958) for which Niven won the Best Actor Oscar. Hard to believe, but it was the only time he was nominated and I can think of other roles for which he was more deserving. With 23 minutes and 39 seconds of screen time, his performance in this movie is the shortest ever to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Here he is winning his Oscar. (Note how tiny Jerry Lewis appears to be next to John Wayne.)

It’s nice to see someone win who is so clearly pleased but has no ax to grind beyond saying thank you. But then, he had some class.

And since you enjoyed yesterday’s video, here’s Iron Horse with another Metallica cover–bluegrass style. Personally, I can’t get enough of this.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; 
Praise Him, all creatures here below; 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host: 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

4 Comments
January 31, 2022

“If life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car”*

by chuckofish

Another quiet weekend passes by. I went to an estate sale where I picked up a few books, including They Were Expendable, which jumped out from a lower shelf in a packed basement. This is a book which has been out of print for some time, so I was thrilled to find it. My guardian angel was working with me then!

On Sunday we all went to church where the sermon was on 2 Timothy 1:8-14.

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.[a]13 Follow the pattern of the sound[b] words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

1:12-14

We then headed to our house to eat the shepherd’s pie the OM had made ahead of time. The temperature had reached 40 degrees so the wee twins got to run around outside and drive the Raptor around the cul de sac.

Lottie thought about driving, but then was a little too timid to do so. She also balked at rolling down the hill. She is of an age where she does not abandon herself so willingly to such activity. She reminds me a little of myself in that way.

The wee boy has no such restraint. He relishes getting so dizzy he falls down. Anyway, they had fun and it was good to breath the cold, fresh air.

I downloaded the TNT app on our Amazon Fire Stick and so now I am able to watch Supernatural (2005-2020) to my heart’s content. You remember Dean and Sam, “Two brothers [who] follow their father’s footsteps as hunters, fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds, including monsters, demons and gods that roam the earth.” It is pretty crazy, I admit, but Dean is dreamy and demons are real. They mostly live in Washington.

In other news, this is very cool:

Another good reason to visit the National Cowboy Museum before May 1 when the Santa Fe Trail 200th anniversary exhibit closes. We are starting to plan our trip for early April! (#Hashtag The Cowboy)

February starts tomorrow–spring is in sight. But don’t miss February looking forward to warmer temperatures! And guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

*“If life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car / and objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are.”–Meatloaf, RIP

6 Comments
January 24, 2022

Hey, baby. There ain’t no easy way out*

by chuckofish

Mood. Life just keeps getting weirder, right? But we try to persevere in our own small way. Chin chin.

Happily, daughter #1 came home on Friday and we spent a nice weekend doing what I like to think of as normal things. We went to our new favorite place for happy hour and then came home and listened to music. The OM provided dinner. On Saturday we went to two estate sales and bought a few books and a couple of other do-dads. We went out to lunch. On Saturday night we watched the first part of The Ten Commandments (1956) which, between Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and John Derek, features a lot of old fashioned male pulchritude.

As I’ve noted before, the film really holds up and we will watch the second half at a later date (we know how it ends.)

Sunday morning I made a tater tot casserole to serve for lunch after church. Then we all met up with the boy and his petite famille at church where we sang our Presbyterian hymns lustily and listened to a long sermon on Acts 20: 28-38 by the youth minister about being attentive to yourself (in respect to grace), to one another and to the Gospel. I am so happy to leave church feeling joyful and not annoyed as was previously always the the case. (The boy was annoyed because we sang Rock of Ages with the alternate tune, but this is a small price to pay for doctrinal satisfaction in my opinion.)

Lord, how delightful ’tis to see

A whole assembly worship thee!

At once they sing, at once they pray;

They hear of heaven, and learn the way.

With thoughts of Christ and things divine

Fill up this foolish heart of mine;

That, hoping pardon through his blood,

I may lie down, and wake with God.

(Isaac Watts)

After church we finally celebrated daughter #3’s birthday which was delayed from earlier in January because she was sick and then quarantined.

It had been almost a month since we had seen them! The wee laddie got a chance to drive the Raptor so he was a happy camper.

I suppose this may all sound extremely dull, but for me it was lovely and I am thankful. I am thankful that my husband went out in the cold and brought home a fast food dinner. I am thankful that my daughter spun records for me. I am even thankful that my grandson said he didn’t want to come over to my house after church because it is weird and ugly, but then he did and ate conversation hearts and a donut and was quite content. Life is weird and ugly, but there are also donuts.

Anyway, I am now a certified nerd because I actually understood these two Babylon Bee “stories” and they made me laugh out loud.

*Tom Petty

8 Comments
January 19, 2022

In him we live and move and have our being

by chuckofish

Yesterday I caught up on all the stuff I do to keep the home fires burning. However, I also caught up on a new puzzle I was working on before I left and that took up an alarming amount of time.

Zut alors!

Tonight we will toast per usual our January 19th birthday girls–our mother…

and Dolly Parton,

who share a birthday with the fictional character Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Our three favorite role models.

This was an interesting article about the problem with leaving the Church. “We can’t comprehend the love of Christ individually. There may be a time to leave the local congregation but never a time to leave the church.”

Genesis 1.21: like I always say about elephants, evolution cannot begin to explain whales.

This is wonderful. (Thank you, Anne.)

And I loved this scene from the book of Acts (17: 22-31) which I read in my daily reading:

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.  For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

When I was going through an old file, I found this New Yorker cartoon, torn out of a magazine in 1979.

Don’t forget to stop and look out the window today (but brush your hair first). There is a lot of Life going on out there: squirrels and birds and weather and the UPS man stopping by.

5 Comments
January 18, 2022

“If you listen very hard/The tune will come to you at last”*

by chuckofish

Well, I am back from my short sojourn back east in Maryland. It was, of course, super fun and great to spend time with my darling daughter #2, DN and baby Katie.

Here are a few pics–although I didn’t take many and the precious babe was not often a willing subject…

We went to one estate sale and picked up an antique mirror for the new house. Otherwise, we stayed home and yacked and yacked for hours on end. We had Henry Mancini happy hours and ate some delicious food. We took some snowy walks and said hello to the neighborhood dogs. Perfect.

My travels went without a hitch or delay, so I am grateful and relieved. The OM did not burn down the house in my absence and was waiting for me at the airport when I arrived, so I have no complaints.

Thanks be to God.

*Jimmy Page

8 Comments