• Awoke this morning at 5:00 a.m. before alarm set for 5:30. Got up, made coffee for my spouse, took a shower, and got dressed.
• Our son and grandson are visiting from out of state and still sleeping. I will stay around this morning and help my grandson set up the new DVD player that arrived yesterday via UPS from Amazon because the old DVD player/recorder/VHS machine doesn’t work after 21 years of service. We discovered that three days ago because we rarely use that player/recorder, and when we put a DVD in it, the old machine wouldn’t even allow us to play it. So we are recycling that and we ordered a new one online from Amazon Prime. It was delivered yesterday, and instead of weighing in at 10 pounds, the new Blu-Ray DVD player weighs in at 2 pounds and is less than half the size. Of course it doesn’t play VHS tapes, but neither can you rent those anymore.
• When my grandson woke up about 7:00 p.m., we started setting up the DVD player. It took about 15 minutes, and then we checked it out. We watched a video on Netflix about photography for about half an hour, and we had breakfast. He had cereal and fruit, and I had the oatmeal and fruit. Then his father, who left the house at 7 a.m. to meet with a high school friend, came home. He made eggs and toast, and my grandson had some toast also.
• We watched part of another video from the BBC “Ocean Deep” and then they left to go to a movie at 9:45 a.m.
• Meanwhile, just before they left, I took my wife to volunteer at the local Bargain Box philanthropy used clothing center, and dropper her off.
• I stopped at the Courthouse to vote in the Primary by absentee ballot because we will not be home on primary election day.
• then I came home and watched the DVD I am giving my grandson as a present about magic and watched all 8 magic tricks that were explained by the magician/comic who was appearing in Las Vegas. We actually saw him in Hawaii a few years ago, but last night, we saw a magician at the Bridge Dinner that was held on the Washington Street Bridge here in Muncie from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, 4/26, and my grandson was fascinated by the magician. I decided then to give the DVD to him to take home and learn the tricks and amaze everyone.
• They leave after a visit of one week, on Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m. to fly back to Vermont. We haven’t seen them since September. However, this being the opening day and release date for the movie: “Avengers: Infinity War” and my grandson being 12 years old, my son and grandson went to the 9:45 Opening day salvo of that (sure-to-be-a-box-office-knockout) Movie at the AMC Showplace Muncie 12) North of the Muncie Mall. They said it was great. We’ll find out next week whether it was worth the hundreds of millions of dollars spent to produce the film. There 2 tickets were ordered online last night for $10/person.
• Now I’m dressing to go to the YMCA for my daily workout (well, almost daily). This week, today’s workout will be my third workout, but then again, with family visiting, I didn’t get to the gym every day like I usually do. Usually, I’m there 5 days a week for about an hour and a half.
• Well, 90 minutes later and 40 minutes and 282 calories later, it’s time for another shower and lunch. My grandson and son have come and gone again–off to see other friends at MCL for lunch. Then, home for an hour or so and off to dinner tonight with family of my other son who lives here in Muncie their French exchange student and his sister who is here for her spring break, and my daughter-in-law’s parents. It’s a “carry-in” and we’re bringing a huge salad. We’ve exchanged our meat and dairy for a whole-foods plant-based diet now following a 10-day Vegan Cruise where we listened to a lot of M.D.s, Ph.D.s in Nutrition, and Nutritionists and Exercise experts tell us what the SAD (Standard American Diet) is doing to our bodies, mind, and longevity) and we decided to skip the Dairy, skip the meat, skip the fish, and focus on fresh frugts and vegetables with lots of green vegetables, beats, cruciferous veggies, and water, and maybe a little bit of red wine, and enough sleep each night to keep us healthy. We also know we need a bout of exercise each day ( I say “bout” because it’s a fight to get the body on the treadmill and/or stationary bike for 40 minutes or more, but afterwards, I always have more energy and my endurance and weight are moving in opposite directions: more endurance and less weight. My BMI is now about 22… best it’s been in 30 years since I stopped running marathons. And I feel more alive. So we’re going after good health and greater longevity. As one of the doctors said: I don’t mind dying: I just don’t want it to be my fault.
• So my 12-year old grandson dropper his iPhone in the toilet at the show. So I’ve been surveying the offerings of “desiccant” that removes moisture from packaging and found that the best available here locally is Damp Rid from Lowe’s. So we got a bag and put it in a sealed food container and are hoping it will work again after drying out.
• That done, I had lunch at 2:00 at Subway, and bought more blueberries and foaming hand-soap from Walmart and headed home. The boys are now playing football in the back yard, and I’m doing my diary. It’s been warm and sunny today, much like Spring is supposed to be but hasn’t been very often this year. Although last Friday, it reached 70, right before 3 or 4 days in the low 30’s each morning. So it’s getting better. Last night’s Bridge Dinner had temps of 66 degrees at 5:30 which was really great compared to what we had 2 days earlier with frost warnings across east central Indiana.
• So right this minute, we’re hoping for a miracle for my grandson’s iPhone to dry out and work again, and we’re getting ready to go to my son’s house for a dinner party for family including our daughter, future son-in-law, granddaughter, 3 grandsons, our son, daughter-in-law, parents of our daughter-in-law, and whoever else shows up. That will probably happen as it usually does at their house…it’s not unusual for several others to show up too, either invited without our knowledge or that just show up and are welcomed to the party. So it will be fun. There will be plenty of food. I just bought more blueberries and spinach. My wife is making a huge salad with lots of fruit and spinach. It’s great to be able to pick that up locally almost any time of year for a reasonable price.
• Looking forward to tonight and seeing everyone and catching up with what they are doing. Our oldest grandson is finishing his first year of IVY Tech college–studying to be a Chef, and our granddaughter (daughter of my daughter) is finishing up her first year at I.U. in Bloomington, studying Graphic Design. The French exchange student living with my Muncie son is taking this year to perfect his English, and his sister, (here only this week), speaks little English, but is delightful and friendly. It looks like 14 or more coming. My son has a home that has lots of space on one floor with a place for the teens to gather and mingle with it’s own TV, away from the adults, and outside and inside seating, if it’s comfortable out there on the patio tonight under the trees.
• Meanwhile, earlier today, my youngest son from Vermont, spent lunch today with my grandson with my son’s mentor while he was in college earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ball State and helping his mentor run his business. They ate at their favorite place: MCL Cafeteria at the Mall.
• It’s now 4:55. Time to get ready for the party. We’ll also be celebrating my Vermont son’s birthday which is in mid-May, and Father’s Day for him since we won’t be seeing him again until after that. We’re hoping to see our Vermont grandson again before his birthday in mid-July, but only time will tell. We don’t have any travel plans to Vermont yet down in writing, so I don’t know as I write this. We only hope to get up there sometime in June.
• Well, the party was spectacular. We had 15 guests and one surprise as we anticipated. We all had more to eat than we needed, and just got home at 10:00 p.m. in time to watch “Blue Bloods” on CBS. It’s our favorite show because it actually celebrate what we believe are traditional family values like love, personal responsibility, love of God, willingness to apologize, persistence, hard work, self-reliance, honesty and so many other American values that we treasure in our own family.
• We caught up with family, got to meet our French exchange student’s sister and talk with her, listened to stories of miraculous events in some of the younger person’s lives, and told a few stories of our own about how God is faithful and always honors trusting Him in the most difficult of circumstances. Like all families, we have tough times, and some of us have very difficult bumps in the road which reliving with family, helps us negotiate and live with and grow through and grow from. And we have some of these too. And being together, talking, listening to the stories, laughing and crying a little, all help to melt away so we can all go forward together, recognizing that we are TOGETHER and love each other, and that’s more important than any bumps in the road that any of us individually encounter, and that we are NOT alone, ever.God is with us, and our family is with us. So it was a VERY good party.
• The funniest story was about a spring vacation trip where there were a number of surprises, not all of them particularly fun to experience, but hilarious to re-live as stories from the road. We all laughed until we almost cried. It was very funny and poignant in many ways. But we’ve all made mistakes in planning vacations and been duped by promoters to think we were getting one thing and actually finding out that what we had bargained for was NO bargain. And so it was with one of these stories about a vacation in Utah. None-the-less, everyone survived and had a good time. And we all benefited from the telling and the laughter. Though it really wasn’t easy for anyone who lived through it. It was almost like a Chevy Chase vacation movie… almost.
• Well, we are well fed and tired and happy and exhausted, and pleasantly pleased that we had a great time with 13 other people that we love and call family. It doesn’t get too much better than this. We appreciate being able to share our story and say that in truth, we are living a dream. It is far from perfect. My back hurts from working in the yard and from helping dig post holes for the fence repair for our pastor’s house, and shoveling dirt for Rotary Park last Saturday for 3 1/2 hours to prepare the Rotary Park over off Burlington on Muncie’s East Side so mulch can be put down later next week, and my wife’s knee that hurts from pulling weeds in preparation for putting down our spring mulch next Tuesday. But all in all, we are blessed to live in Muncie, and to be a part of Ball State and Rotary and the Washington Street Bridge Dinner and all the other events and things that make Muncie a very special place. It is a great place to raise our kids, for them to come back to and enjoy family and camaraderie, and to come home again and again to share in the magic that made Muncie the “Magic City.” That’s why our men’s quarter organization is called “The Magic City Music Men.” So thank you for asking us to file our remembrances and our celebrations and frustrations for all to see. It’s really better than it looks from the outside, especially if you get involved with what’s going on in the inside, and take the time to invest some of our time and energy in celebrating being in this American experiment with lots of others who are also trying to make the best of a reasonably good situation. No place is perfect. I’ve moved 31 times in my lifetime, and lived in 11 different communities in Indiana, Illinois, Ontario,Canada, Kentucky, and Indiana again, and I know for certain, none of the places I have lived have been perfect. But this place is pretty darn good. I’m proud to be from Delaware County and Indiana, and from the Muncie Community, and I like the fact that I can call it home without apologizing. Ball State is a great university with a number of outstanding qualities that make it a destination for many students from all over America and in fact, from around the world. We have signature elements that are known far and wide, and for which we need not apologize, nor do we need to gloat. But we do have pride in them, and knowledge that we are capable of competing on the world stage in many ways, and of contributing to the strong fabric of America. And of this, we are very proud and humble, to be called Americans, Hoosiers, and Munsonians. God has blessed us real good in all of that. And we still have much to do. So it’s not like we can rest on our laurels. But we can be satisfied that we are doing our best, and that we have others working beside us, shoulder to shoulder, to make this a better place next year than it is this year. And for that and for the Good Lord’s blessings, we give many thanks.
• This was a “typical” Friday in Spring for us as Ball State’s semester comes to a close and finals begin next week. Our flowers are blooming, the trees are budding, it will be 70 by next week, and the birds are chirping everywhere, even the “Ball State University” Cardinals.
