It was a curious weekend.  Tripod still did not fix the problem of limited capacity on my site.

On Saturday I placed a birthday message at Matthew's Place before heading to Block.  We left early, and I spent much of the rest of the weekend on the Block website.  I picked up four credits toward the thirty I need to advance another rank.   I put up the traditional tree and the replacement bulbs looked better than the ones I already had had.

This is the only weekend without an agenda, which follows a week without an agenda.  Purple Heart is due tomorrow.

 

Tue 4 Dec  15:40

I awoke at 4:30, lay awake, then arose at 5:10.  Mom was up and dressed my brother.  I was able to spend time at the computer, to take out the chair/footstool combination, and to walk to work.  Despite the wind, I felt good when I arrived at work.

Meanwhile I found the site for WLW in Cincinnati.  I was unaware that Joe Nuxhall had died.  It reminded me of the winter of 1972-73, when I listened to that station before going to deliver newspapers.
On this date in 1972, the gym was ready for us.  However, the teacher told only he group on Thursday, neglecting us who came only on Monday.  I hated that subject anyway.

 

Wed 5 Dec 14:59

This time I was up at 4 AM, and I struggled with Tripod again.  It won't upgrade my site, constantly crashing the internet explorer.  When I used a different domain, it wiped out my site!

Despite all, I had to drive this morning.  Once again, it is trying to snow like Sunday. 

I had to clean and dress my brother.  However, I also sent out the forms for Pennsylvania Head Injury Program.

 

Thu 6 Dec   Saint Nicholas  14:45

I should remind myself of the wine-and-cheese party (to which) I went some thirtyone years ago.  My first sophomore year at Penn State was so critical in changing my path. 

The sloppy snow from last night continued.  Although I was up early enough to walk, I spent time sweeping snow.

 

Fri 7 Dec  Pearl Harbor, 1941 

I awoke at 1 AM, and didn't get back to sleep until 3 AM.   Tripod still hasn't fixed mysite.  Someone called for me to pick up some bookcases tomorrow night, so I have a stop before I go to PathMark.

 

Sat 8 Dec 17:52

I awoke from a dream in which I traveled back forty years.  I was in Newton in 1967 again!  Miss Cross was teaching fifth grade.

I had no bullies -- a brief respite.  What brought it on?  The Benson and Hedges commercial from 1967 I saw at TV Party?  My trying to get the lyrics to "Incense and Peppermints" finally correct after forty years?  This morning Lyndon Johnson and the war in Vietnam ran, and it was a very favorable comparison to Schrub and Iraq.

I upgraded the site -- finally -- and the editor was finally working.  I uploaded more tunes, especially on this site.

 

Mon 10 Dec  15:15

When I arose this morning, Tim was almost ready to get out of bed.  Therefore, I walked to work in slightly wet conditions.  I also had a ride the last fourth of the walk. 

The History Channel has "1968" -- which I also taped -- last night.  They mentioned neither of the names of the assassins.  Unfortunately Sirhan Bishra Sirhan still breathes!  After forty years, it still hurts.

I went grocery shopping for others yesterday, and then picked up some things around noon.  I took a large bookcase, a dust buster, and a spray painter home.

I finished my first course on trusts and estates.  Those seven credits added to the four toward the thirty more I need to move up another level.  I can see how I'll get it done over the next few weeks.

 

Tue 11 Dec  15:04

I've been rolling around in my mind some schemes to initiate not only an autobiography, but also a comic from my dream of returning to my life forty years ago.

Meanwhile, I've also run into ideas from other sources expressed on Red Dog Saloon some twentysix years ago.  I must retape 19 December to preserve it.

 

 

I spent the entire day home yesterday.  I began with some surfing through TV Party, after I discovered the hilarious page of bloopers.  I uncovered Paul Winchell, and then Sandy Becker.  Appparently the show I used to watch in the afternoon was Sandy's Street.  I could not find anything on Tim Moriarty Jr, who'd be just a little older than I am.

Later I realized that it was forty years ago when I used to watch Sandy's Street and Winchell/Mahoney Time -- not to mention Wonderama, I went to a special piece of Great Society.  I was eligible for a meal of macaroni and cheese and a shopping spree of $5.  It was little which meant much.  I suppose the cuts in the budget dropped it in 1968.  Lyndon Johnson comes off well in the incident.

I remember at school I was one of eight boys who decorated the window in the classroom.  We took them all down on the last day of school before Christmas.  Meanwhile, I remember the gifts I purchased with that $5 -- a candle and wreath for Mom, jacks for Lori, a Romper Room ball for Tim, and a leash for the dog.  It goes along with the memory of the last quarter moon as it shone into my bedroom on Christmas morning.  Any other reference to astronomy do the same.

I am progressing on my attempt to move up two levels at Block.  I need seven more credits in seven days.  It all begins tonight with amortization, which I've already started!

 

Tue 18 Dec  14:50

I came home from the post office last night.  Then I finished another course -- the one on amortization -- to get to 55 credits.  I need five credits in seven days.  I should finish the amended returns, rather than go after a course of five credits.

We should get the second dog right after Christmas.  Also Herman from Liberty Resources called with help in January.  it will allow my going to Block much more easily.

We're out of bread and cereal, so I'm stopping at Aldi's in between when i quit and we go eat -- 5 to 6 PM.  Also I will pick up six bottles of soda for the party ay Credit and Collections tomorrow.

I just went through the Bishop Hoban Alumnic Directory.  I didn't even check my own entry.  i won't have many cards to sent out on that list!

 

Wed 19 Dec  15:12

I was thirtyseven years agone when we went to Arlan's, and I bought the tree I use every Christmas -- along with the lightstring and balls -- since the event.  Tonight I must get some items for my mother's colonoscopy.

 

Tue 25 Dec

Christmas has become just another day here.  This year I sent out cards, including a list from Bishop Hoban.  Even though I'd received the book of alums months ago, only recently have I actually looked through it.  The number of dead in my class has jumped from three to eleven in seventeen years.  Two of the deceased I knew well.  Despite my early encounter with death, I still find it hard to bear when the deceased are my age.

I tried to see the moon and Mars last night.  Mars didn't look like much through binoculars.  This morning at four, I had a good look at both again in the west.

 

Wed 26 Dec  14:55

It seems the death of former classmates has placed me in another kind of existential nausea.  It starts with the realization of how much time has passed with nothing to show for it.  The hindsight doesn't help either, along with a wish to see the present with the hindsight I will have.  My mortality figures in the least, and I find myself regressing to Catholicism and wanting to pray for souls!  Ultimately, I can not change the past, only the present.

18:50

Given that the director of the MBA Program at Penn State when I was there died almost two years ago, and I am nearing his age, I now wonder if anyone from my MBA class is dead.

It was fortyone years ago tonight I saw myt last "Run, Buddy, Run" until 2004 when I bought seven episodes on tape.

 

Thu 27 Dec  14:50

The concept I thought would be a cross of Sartrean existentialism and Buddhism, a kind of existential impermanence.  Not only are we condemned to be free, but our decisions don't last.  So what is the answer?  I propose to continue having new experiences in life.  Rather than trying to avoid suffering with the extinction of desire, to experience the joy of life through doing what one desires.