I awaken at 4:05 to go to the bathroom. I lie awake for 30 minutes, praying for W who has Sarcoma to get well, for L who has Leukemia, and for T who just lost her 58-year old father to Leukemia a week ago, and for G who also has Leukemia. I think how blessed I am to not have any of those illnesses. I also pray for my brother F who is recovering from a heart oblation last Thursday, and who is older at 75 than I am at 73, and who has health issues and is tottery when he walks. I hope he has a good day. I think about our granddaughters who are at I.U. –Au who is a freshman and Ad who is a junior, who are doing well in school and who deserve to receive a “thank you” card from me to demonstrate how much we love them and to thank them for fitting us into their schedule. They will know that we are thinking of them, and that I am following up on their visits last Friday and Saturday, when Li and I travelled to Bloomington to visit with each of them over lunch and get their take on what is happening in their worlds, face to face. That is a special job that grandparents can do that keeps us in touch with what they are facing and what they think their world is like right now. That is very important to us. We have eight grandchildren now, and that can be a full-time job, if we choose to make it that, but it is also a joy and responsibility that we have time to take on,, and we love being with them. So now, I have to write the “thank you cards” and put the pictures from our Panama Canal cruise we just returned from, in with the cards, as I promised, and send them off in the mail today so that they will get them Friday, before they go home for Thanksgiving break, and Au, in particular, will get the “God Is Not Dead-2” DVD because she has a Philosophy Professor who is bullying his class like that movie where the professor doesn’t really believe in God, and is trying to talk the students out of believing in God also. So she doesn’t talk in class, because like us and her mom and dad, she does believe, and the professor berates those who speak out about their faith. She doesn’t like that, but she keeps her mouth closed in class so she doesn’t get criticized for what she believes. It’s 4:50 a.m., and I have to write these cards top my granddaughters.
Done! Checked my email quickly. Off to clean up and get ready for the day. 5:08 a.m. This morning, I weighed in at 180. I feel good about today. Much to do, but a fun day ahead.
Have to be at Renovaire at 7:00 a.m. at High Street Methodist Church. Renovaire is multicultural, ecumenical protestant Bible Study at High Street that has been meeting for 25 years. Has lay people and 5 retired pastors from Northwest, central, and Whitely areas with interracial mix of members ranging in age from 21 to 93. Voluntary attendance, no memberships, studying out of book by Will Davis Jr. “Enough” about what we do with our “wealth” as citizens of one of the richest countries on earth. By the world’s standards, we are indeed rich, especially when compared with countries like the ones we just visited on our Holland America Cruise through the Panama Canal this fall—Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Columbia. Poverty is everywhere, as is the economic yardstick, and the street vendors who all want to sell us something to maintain their lives and pay their bills. What a contrast with America and what we take for granted. The American poorest of our poor are wealthy compared to what we see there on the streets in those shore excursions.
Well, off to clean up and get ready for Bible Study. It’s 5:15 a.m.
Well, it’s 5:52. Time to check the news. I go on line and read Fox News Headlines—
Steve Bannon is still making news and fighting with the Las Vegas Billionaire Shel Adelstein… and Highs and lows of Trump’s Asia visit.
Then I read the headlines from the Star Press, then, CNN, Ball State is buying Northside Middle School from the Muncie Community Schools, and Murray Jewelers is still in business… our last major jeweler in town. BSU’s James Whitford gets contract extension during season altered by suicide of player last August. And Walmart has 3:00 a.m. cell-phone robbery. And CNN looks at DOJ and Special Counsel for Uranium One Deal with Russia under Clinton/Obama administration.
Time to head out to Bible Study. I take one last look at the online weather site: 32 degrees now. High of 51 and Sunny expected later. Looks like a great day to do yard work.
On my way out the door after 3 handfuls of fresh blueberries, courtesy of Argentina and COSTCO stop, last Saturday. It is 6:21 a.m.
Still too early to go to Bible Study. I input my changes in Health Care Premiums for deductions from checking to Ball State from which I am a retiree, and send them to First Merchants for e-payments each month through November 2018. That being scheduled, and now 6:46, I head to the car to get to church in time for Renovaire.
11:35 a.m. Just back from the dentist and getting teeth cleaned.
Earlier, from 7:00-8:15, at Bible Study. Then took a young man I mentor to breakfast at Mac’s and talked about his schedule and plans to register for next semester.
Then at 9:30, went to Estep/Doctor to drop off check and reservation for sponsorship for Secret Families that we are sharing with our son and his family for December 2nd support for the poor in our community who need help to celebrate Christmas. This is our fourth year to participate. I will be helping deliver a tree and do a set-up on December 2nd as a part of our separate Renovaire sponsorship of one family in addition to our family’s sponsorship. This year, there will be over 400 families who will receive about $550 worth of Christmas gifts, food, clothing, a Bible, a tree and ornaments, and surprises as a part of each package, all provided through donations and volunteers who shop for them, deliver the items, set up their trees, and donate the money for the enterprise.
Next, I went to the Post Office to mail pictures and video and thank you notes to Granddaughters at IU in Bloomington.
Next, went to bank to do some banking, and then on to Dentist’s office for cleaning and checkup. Listened to Fox News Channel there, and discovered that my blood pressure was elevated after listening for 30 minutes while my teeth were cleaned. I learned that I can’t think about politics and have my blood pressure taken because I react to political news and always show elevated blood pressure when I am listening to things that upset me or when I discuss politics. Have to remember NOT to do that when I’m having my blood pressure taken. I have labile hypertension—hypertension driven by events that I observe or that I am a part of that are stressful in some way. B/P was 158/85 : hypertensive level.
Came home at 11:20—visited with my wife, and planned our afternoon when the Irrigation Service Team from Pro-Green in New Castle comes to blow out our in-ground watering system and shut it down for the winter at 3:00 p.m.
I’m due at Rotary in 17 minutes at noon, so I am leaving now for Minnetrista Cultural Center. I have an appointment at the Bank to meet with Bank officers again today at 2:00.
Rotary was a blast. We had a nice lunch, and I sat with some old friends and some new friends. We began asking people to join us at our table for the Rotary Holiday Dance on December 9th, and also presented five different $400 awards to the Muncie Central Athletic teams who helped us take tickets for the Delaware County Fair along with Rotarians last August. Rotary receives $200, and we match that with $200 from our Foundation, and present checks to the Tennis team, the Golf team, the Women’s Basketball Team, the Soccer team, and the National Honor Society, all teams that typically have difficulty raising money because they do not have large paying audiences for their activities.
We arranged to meet with a couple of persons who want to see our video on the Panama Canal Transit, and we are getting together next Tuesday evening for dinner. They are going through the Canal in January. I wish we had known they were interested. We could have gone together.
I arranged to promote the Rotary Dance at the Sunrise Rotary Meeting this Friday morning so all Rotarians in Muncie will receive an in-person invitation and opportunity to plan to join us for the party.
I have a 2:00 Bank meeting, so must leave now. Will be back shortly. My wife is having problems with her eyes with “dry eye syndrome” following Cataract Surgery in August and September. But she met with our doctor this morning, and he said that was a likely corollary to the surgery and that it should ease up over time.
Showed Panama Canal time-lapse video to two bank officers, talked about Mortgage Fraud, Mortgage Lock, and came home and worked in the yard from 3:00-4:30, picking up leaves, dead plants, and talking with Workers from Pro-Green who came to blow out Irrigation System.
Showered and went to dinner with friends at 5:30 p.m. at Olive Garden prior to going to “Elf, the Musical” at Emens Auditorium as part of the Artist Series.
Just returned home at 10:45 p.m. Great dinner out, and wonderful Broadway quality show at Emens to a packed house. Lots of fun. $3. For parking. Can’t find that anywhere in New York or Chicago or Indy or any major city where you’d find this kind of entertainment. Saw lots of friends and had a few conversations about the Rotary Dance in December, a friend’s house which had a tree fall it during the recent F1 Tornado in Gatewood, on the near-east side of Muncie, and conversations during the Intermission. None of us had seen the film version of “Elf” but we all enjoyed the stage version, great voices, and live orchestra. What a wonderful evening. Great to be in Muncie and able to get home in 15 minutes to our own beds. “Good night all”.
Heading to bed. It’s been a good day and a long one. Time to get some sleep. It’s 11#0 when the house goes dark.