When Dad set type for the “Stars and Stripes” newspaper in Europe during World War 2, he suggested this for the headline of the VE Day special edition, and the editor agreed. A typesetter chose the headline, 75 yeas ago today. Well, the type was probably set 75 years ago yesterday, but let’s not quibble.
I have been trying to find something to write about today. In recent posts I’ve covered decluttering, which I could write more on but is actually boring if covered too much. Who wants to know about what I’ve thrown out today?
I could write about helping a fellow writer with a used computer, allowing her to write more efficiently during these times when she can’t get to the places where she used to use a computer. That wouldn’t be bad, and perhaps I’ll cover that in a future post.
I could write about The Teachings and how I’m doing with it. Again, I’ve written about that several times. While I’m making progress, I don’t really have much new to report.
Dad at the mobile Linotype unit in Italy in 1943. He was within sound of the guns, subject to enemy bombers if they ever came over. Note the pin-up girl on the machine!
None of those sounded good, so yesterday and earlier this morning I didn’t write anything. Then I realized what day this is. May 8. VE Day. Victory in Europe in World War 2. This was the day that the Stars and Stripes newspaper used the headline Dad suggested. He was setting type for the S&S in Marseilles, France. On May 7 the news came that the Germans were surrendering. The next day would be the end of the war in Europe. A special edition of the paper was called for. Dad suggested this for the momentous headline, and the editor agreed.
The S&S were put out in several places in Europe. Each place had its own editor, and each place put out a different newspaper, the stories being what the editor chose as being applicable to that area. So this was the headline from Marseilles, not from Paris, London, or Rome.
So, 75 years ago today, a Linotype operator chose the headline for the newspaper that marked the end of fighting in the European theater.
I won’t write much at the moment. I’m a day late with this post. While my wife is in the hospital and I’m unable to see her due to the corona virus outbreak, I’m keeping myself very busy so as not to go crazy. On Thursday, between the elliptical and the trails in our area I walked almost four miles. Yesterday I took a new trail near the house and walked three hard miles. That was after an hour and a half of yard work.
I was quite tired after that and didn’t accomplish much the rest of the day. I read and re-read portions of the genealogy book I’m writing, still not able to let it go and get back to my novel. I’m decluttering, but that means I have more clutter than ever. It will all come together when I finish deciding what to get rid of, but not yet. Actually, I can see some progress. Things are better organized if not eliminated.
Lynda is doing better. She had at least five or six complications from the surgery and general health issues and has slowly, with the help of an excellent medical team, worked through them. Right now the remaining problem is her stomach not draining. Some kind of blockage, perhaps in the small intestine, is preventing that. She’s had to have an n-g tube in for days now to drain her stomach otherwise she has extreme nausea from gastric fluids building up. Today they are supposed to do a test to see where the blockage is so they can do a treatment for it.
Keeping busy prevents me from going crazy with worry. I have prayed much, read much, worked much. I think it was Monday evening that, after an extensive time in prayer, I had a wave of peace come over me. I knew in that moment that Lynda wasn’t going to die in the hospital, that she would be coming home to me.
I must now get back to my work. I found on the table in my office a book I read but didn’t review on this blog. It’s a book I’m not going to keep, so I need to review it and take it to the donation/sale pile. Look for it on Monday.
Well, the title of this blog post is sure a true statement. I never expected something like this corona virus that would send the world reeling. I never would have expected a stock market meltdown such as we’ve had. And I never would have expected…
…my wife to be in the hospital. On Thursday she woke up to a painful abdomen. It wasn’t long before she realized it wasn’t just gas, that something was wrong. We monitored it, but the pain was tolerable so we went about our normal routine. That is, normal for being socially distant and close to sheltering in place.
Friday morning the pain remained. It had also hit her hard during the night. After a couple of hours we called her primary care physician and arranged a video appointment. That happened but with much trial and error. The doc decided she needed to come in for an office visit. They aren’t doing many of those due to the pandemic, but she said come in before 4. This was around 11:00 a.m. The lab called us back and said we should come in before 3 because they would leave early on a Friday with not a lot to do.
The doc decided she needed a cat scan, so they scheduled it for the Mercy urgent care facility closest to our house, at our request, because we figured we’d be going home afterward. The thing took almost four hours, at which time they said we needed to head straight to the hospital operating room. The problem was most likely a ruptured appendix. We did so, getting there at 6:00 p.m.
Of course, I couldn’t go into any of these places with her. I read in the car. We left so quickly in the morning that neither of us brought chargers and Lynda didn’t remember her new cell phone. Thinking there would be surgery that night (as we were told), I waited in the parking lot, thinking if something went wrong they would call me and let me see her. But Lynda called around 8:00 p.m. and said the surgery would be at 10 Saturday morning.
The surgeon then called me around 10 a.m. on Saturday. They took her early to surgery, got out the appendix laparoscopically, She would be in the hospital a few days due to antibiotics due to the rupture, all of which time I wouldn’t be able to see her because of the corona virus.
In video calls since then, I’ve learned that her heart went into a-fib, she’s quite nauseous, she has an air bubble in her stomach, and water on her lungs. During which time I can’t see her due to the pandemic.
So, today, Sunday, I kept myself busy. I studied for Life Group in case I had to teach (which I didn’t), I had quite a few phone calls and many messages about Lynda. I did some more genealogy research, and I accelerated a de-cluttering effort in the storeroom that I began about five days ago. I actually saw some progress on both research and decluttering today.
And, of course I prayed—much, even almost without ceasing. God has this under control, all of it. He has Lynda’s health, he had the world’s health, and he has my peace of mind.
The nurses told me today that Lynda isn’t in any danger. What she’s going through (except the a-fib) is normal after an operation. Her body just needs time to work through it.
So I will rest easy knowing the Great Physician has this. Amen.
The scene at the Dodge dealership in Snyder. Ezra is in the middle of the photo.
I stated in my last post that I wasn’t getting much writing done, due mainly to the snow days and the grandchildren being home. And I was okay with that. But, in the three days after the snow days, I have’t done much.
I had sent the first five pages of The Teachings to my critique group, Scribblers & Scribes of Bella Vista. I received one review back, and went over that carefully, incorporating many of the comments. Alas, I didn’t add any new material. I found a little time (maybe 30 minutes) to re-read some of the source material, which will help me down the road.
Leaders and boy scouts ran a good show on Saturday. Ezra’s car is the bright blue one.
Saturday I took #2 grandson, Ezra, to his Pinewood Derby competition in Snyder, about 50 miles away. That was a fun time. We had lunch afterwards, and Ezra commented it was lunch for second childs. Yes, it was.
This was a snazzy set-up. The display shows the result from one heat.
We walked around the neighborhood a couple of days. Yesterday, after church, Ephraim had a friend over for a visit. I found some time to sit on the front porch and read—not in the source book, but in other things I brought along on our trip. Enjoyable, but not necessarily productive for writing.
A good number from Ezra’s pack participated. All seemed to have a good time.
Yesterday, Sunday, was mainly for reading. But, as I read in the book we are currently studying in Life Group, and as I read some in a short book from 1886 about Thomas Carlyle, ideas started to come to mind. These were ideas for Bible studies to develop and write. One had been there for a while, but another came out of the blue. Actually, the thought came to me in the men’s Sunday school class yesterday, from a Bible passage we read and studied.
Ezra didn’t seem to be disappointed at not winning anything. He enjoyed being with his friends, and maybe with his grandpa.
Yesterday evening I took a few moments to write the ideas down. I didn’t take time to flesh them out. That may be an activity for later today or tomorrow. I also listed other Bible studies I’m thinking of. I have about six I’ve developed and taught but never written out in book form, and, in addition to the two added yesterday, I have six others I want to develop. I won’t give any of those here. That will wait on a future post.
So, in a way, this was writing productivity. One of my goals for this month is to decide on the next Bible study to write. Last night’s exercise will help me achieve that goal.
When we drove from NW Arkansas to SW Texas, I had been checking the weather for days so that we would know how to pack. Temperatures in Big Spring could be expected to be somewhat warmer than in Bella Vista. Not always, however, as air masses move easily north and south on the Great Plains and sometimes it is colder in the more southerly city. Advanced forecasts showed some cold weather, but not too bad.
A winter wonderland greeted us in the morning.
We arrived on Friday a week ago. Advanced forecasts were showing chances of a winter storm on Wednesday. This was new, and had not been in the forecast while I was checking. Cold we were ready for, but snow? Or ice?
Eventually we went outside.
As the days went on, the forecast became more in focus. Snow would arrive Tuesday night and continue into Wednesday. Accumulations of 1-3 inches expected. Then it changes to 2-4, then to 3-6. Finally, on Tuesday morning,
What mischief were they planning?
the winter storm warning showed 3-8 inches.
The storm indeed arrived, and right on “time” according to forecasts. At 11 p.m. on Tuesday, a check outside revealed snow coming down—not just a little.
Ezra, right before he destroyed his brother’s snow man.
Schools quickly cancelled. Actually, they may have done that an hour before the snow started, when weather radar showed it couldn’t miss us. By morning we had 3 inches on the ground and it was still snowing.
Snow continued off and on through the day, eventually accumulating to between 7 and 8 inches, the second largest storm in the city’s history. Needless to say, the four grandchildren bundled up and went outside to play in it. Also needless to say, I had to go with them. But, I had brought only light jackets.
Elijah loved it.
No problem. A tee shirt, two flannel shirts, and two jackets with light lining and I was all set. I went outside and had a blast with the kids. Two of them walked around the block with me, 4 or 5 inches on the ground and snow coming down. Then one went in and another came out, then that happened again. I don’t think all four were out at the same time.
That evening our daughter made snow ice cream, a tradition at their house for snow days.
Elise, like all the others, spent plenty of time on the ground.
The temperature dropped as the day went on. We went inside to warm up, then outside again for another snow session. We drank hot drinks. The temperature would drop to 7 degrees overnight, and school was closed again on Thursday. More play outside, more hot drinks, and some bored kids were the results. A trip to Wal-Mart on improving roads cured that.
So here it is Friday. School is delayed an hour and a half but will open. The last two days I got zero done on writing. No, that’s not quite true. I did some non-writing writing things. I kept up on blogs, did a little reading for research, checked out a couple of conferences I may want to go to, and answered writing group e-mails. But no new writing on my just-started novel. I hope today to add 500 to 1,000 words on it.
Grandpa gets back to writing today.
But I declare the last two days a triumph, and would be willing to see it extended.
The day I’m supposed to begin writing The Teachings. Alas, I’m still in Texas, doing the grandparent thing. There’s also stock trading to work on.
This morning I baked two loaves of banana bread (out of the over now and very good); got a roast on (veggies still to be done); made three stock trades—or maybe it’s four; loaded and started the dishwasher; and washed dishes by hand.
I still have a mountain of paperwork to go through—the stuff the kids never seem to get to. And I need to run by the hardware store and pick up something for the house, something I will then have to work on.
So I don’t think I’ll get to The Teachings today, not unless it’s in the evening after the kids have gone to bed. I may do a little then, just to say I started today. Wednesday, however, January 15, will be my real start day.
Unlike my parents, we don’t have a dedicated space for stashing reused paper for future use.
I don’t know how many families made this a practice. Possibly every family who had parents who came of age in the Great Depression did this. I’m talking about re-using wrapping paper from one year in future years.
Yes, wrapping paper used to wrap gifts. For children.
Our storeroom shelves have many Christmas decorations, but not re-used wrapping paper.
As far back as my memories go, which might be to 5 or 6 years old, we always unwrapped our gifts in a way that minimized damage to the wrapping paper so that it could be used again. We gently slid a finger under the Scotch tape, removing it with the hopes of not damaging the surface it had been attached to, then folded it underneath the paper so the loose end wouldn’t do more damage. Do this with every piece of tape on the package. Remove the paper. Set it aside. Take some time with the gift. Go on to the next one. Repeat.
By the end of the day, the papers were all stacked and brought to the basement and put on a shelf.
On the other hand, we have plenty of Christmas decorations we no longer use. Will have to clear them out someday.
The next year, whenever anyone, parent of child, wrapped a present, they went first to that shelf in the basement and looked for a used piece of paper. Try to get one that’s not bigger than you need, and of course not smaller. Use it again. Go on to the next present.
The new tradition. Who put a wooly mammoth in my Christmas village?
Year after year this was our practice. I imagine each year our parents bought at least one new roll, but mostly we used the old paper. Sometimes you would be given a gift on Christmas day and recognize the paper. “Oh, I remember last year I used this paper to wrap….” Each year some papers would get smaller and smaller as you trimmed away damaged places or—heaven forbit—you couldn’t find a piece the right size and used one way too big and cut it in two.
Even ribbon and bows were reused in my childhood. We still do that with bows, but not ribbon.
This was actually a fun part of our Christmas traditions.
Of course, I wasn’t able to continue that into adult life. Oh, I still unwrap gifts in that manner, but I never forced my children to do the same. I tried, and to some extent they did it. But we didn’t have a whole shelf in the basement or storeroom dedicated to used Christmas paper.
Time marches on. We have new traditions now when the kids come home. There’s the hidden Chex Mix that they have to find somewhere in the house if they want to have any. The last few years there’s been the Christmas village that has all sorts of toys added to it. Grandpa protests, but not too hard. It started years ago when our oldest grandchild added a toy rock to the village, and it’s expanded from there. The last year or two I hid that toy rock, but not too much hidden. They found it and added it to the village.
Christmases past, present, and future. Memories were and are being made, and recalled and enjoyed over and over.
Yesterday we began the big clean-up. Not just of clutter. We’ve actually been doing a relatively good job the last few months of not letting the clutter get away from us. No, this is the Big Clean-up, the kind that requires hours and takes a lot of concentration and effort.
Maybe I should say the Big Preparation, because after the clean-up comes decorating for Christmas. I’m not one to decorate early for Christmas, but this year everyone is coming for Thanksgiving. We want to be decorated for Christmas, so that’s a big amount of work.
Yesterday we began this all. The main concern is the carpet in the public places of the house, which is in much need of shampooing. But first, of course, we had to dust and vacuum. We did the dusting in the main public areas, and vacuumed the dining room, hall bathroom, and main traffic ways between rooms. I then did the shampooing in the rooms that I vacuumed. I figure on doing this in three or four segments, allowing us to move about the house with minimal restrictions while the carpet is drying.
This morning I checked, and the carpet looks good where I worked yesterday. I see one spot I may need to re-do; I’ll have to wait until the sun is more fully on it. But, at first look I’m pleased.
Today, the living room. Tomorrow the entryway. After that, Christmas decorations commence. Writing takes a back seat for a little while.
The view from my ladder, five steps up. The limb looks large in this photo, but that’s deceiving. It was only 3 to 4 inches diameter.
After writing about a difficult weekend last weekend, I had a good week. That blah Monday turned out to be restful, and I recovered. It was almost as if my day of rest was Monday instead of Sunday. I hope they all won’t be like that as I teach this lesson series. I teach again this Sunday, so we’ll see how it goes.
I did some good work on the Leader’s Guide for Acts Or Faith. It’s far from finished, but I feel much better about it than I did even five days ago. I took my notes prepared for teaching last Sunday—the Introduction to the book—and worked them into that chapter of the Leader’s Guide. I went on to two more chapters, and am now well-along on Chapter 11.
I attended critique group Wednesday evening. We had five writers present, no visitors. Four of us shared, and we had good discussions. I shared the first four pages of “Tango Delta Foxtrot”, the next short story in my Sharon Williams Fonsesca series. I’m 2,000 words into it, heading to somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000. I hope to work a little on that in the days ahead.
I began a new activity in my daily routine: an hour or so of yard work in the late morning. Perhaps I should say I resumed that activity, for I was doing that last spring. After the late-August storm, I worked on the wood lot north of our house, clearing away the debris left after two large trees fell. Now it looks almost like a wooded, leaf-covered park. I’m now doing the same with the woodlot on the south side. This had two smaller trees down, and much deadfall from normal tree life. This is actually a much bigger job. I’ve spent four mornings on it.
On Wednesday, with all the large limbs removed, I decided to get up on a ladder and cut away a broken limb on a tree close to the house. I’m sure certain family members would be aghast at my leaning a ladder against a tree I was cutting on and then getting five steps up on that ladder. But, it was just a 3 to 4 inch limb, nothing major Having only a small, folding pruning saw that would fit the place where I wanted to cut. I got it done, taking frequent rests. It was a task accomplished that make me feel good about my work.
Speaking of tasks accomplished, on Wednesday I had this comment on my Facebook author’s page.
“Preserve The Revelation” is terrific! Each book in the series stands alone. So many authors constantly “explain” what happened in the previous book or you won’t understand the story, which I find irritating. Watching for #3 publication!”
Good feedback on this. Though fourth in the series chronologically, it is the second published, in March 2017.
It’s great to get positive feedback, especially from one who’s now reading a third book of mine. This spurred me on to work a little on the third book in the series (numbers 1, 2, and 4 currently published; she’s reading #4). For over a week I’ve been reading for research and making good progress, learning a lot. Wednesday, after reading that comment, I spent an hour making an outline of book #3, tentatively titled The Teachings. It stands at just a notebook page in length, but it’s a start.
I don’t intend on writing this book until I finish “TDF”, and perhaps one more short story in the Danny Tompkins series. Perhaps a December start is most likely. Between now and then I’ll search my various paper piles for two or three pages of notes I made earlier this year on the book, each time starting from scratch. I’ll see what my earlier thoughts were and whether I remembered them and worked them into my outline.
Speaking of various paper piles, we have company coming today for an overnight stay, one of Lynda’s cousins and her husband. The clean-up of the house and yard started yesterday, and will consume much of today before they arrive. The paper piles have to go, along with other clutter.
So, I end this. I hope all who read this had a good, productive, satisfying week, and will experience the same in the weekend ahead. See you in my post on Monday.
Here’s what I looked out on from my chair on the porch.
Or, rather, back in my chair, at my computer, with my books and tools around me, ready to write—or in the week, mainly edit.
My wife and I were away for a little over a week. This was scheduled, then changed. Our son-in-law was to go on a mission trip to Mexico and we were to go to Big Spring, Texas, and help our daughter with the kids. The mission trip was canceled, a fairly last minute thing, due to not having the minimum number of people necessary to make it happen. They decided to get away for a few days instead and asked us to join them. We agreed, with the time commitment being a little shorter than the mission trip would have been.
Fishing wasn’t what I most wanted to do.
The trip was to Ruidoso area in New Mexico. I had never heard of this resort area, up in the mountains. South of Albuquerque, west of Roswell, it’s pretty high up. We had a rental house at elevation 6950 feet. It’s monsoon season, and we had rains all but one day. It didn’t really slow us down at all. Daytime temperatures were 75 to 85 when it wasn’t raining, nighttime lows were 57 to 62. Very pleasant.
We had fun at the Flying J Ranch.
The wife and I did very little planning for this trip. We were supposed to drive to Texas on Friday August 2 then drive with them to New Mexico, a five hour drive, on Saturday August 3. But at the last minute we left the afternoon of Thursday Aug 1, intending to pull up at their door after midnight. A wrong turn in Wichita Falls means we didn’t get in until 3 in the morning. Alas.
Ah, yes, jail the outsiders.
The trip was nice and relaxing. Our rental house was just the right size for us. Richard took his older boys fishing a couple of days. I’m not into fishing so didn’t join them. I wanted to hike. I went on four of them all together. One on Sunday in the neighborhood with grandson Ezra, 1.57 miles. One Monday at Grindstone Lake with my daughter, her two youngest, and my wife, 2.45 miles. One Tuesday at a Federal recreation area, with most of the family, 1.56 miles. One Wednesday (the day we were leaving to
Elijah panning for gold at the Flying J Ranch.
come home), up a hill near our house with the two oldest grandsons, 1.25 miles without a trail. And a different one back at that recreation area, 1.61 miles. None of them were overly strenuous, but had uphill segments where I had to stop on occasion.
The house with the red roof is the one we rented, as seen from the nearby hill we hiked up on Wednesday.
On Sunday we went to a church, not knowing it was next to one of our denominational campgrounds and that they were just finishing a week of family camp. So we attended a camp meeting type service. We then drove up to a ski area to ride the gondolas, but they had closed due to rain. I’m not a fan of mountain roads, but we did okay.
Plenty of deer came by our cabin, this one right up to be fed.
When not engaged with grandkids, I did a little editing in my completed books, did some reading (as described in my last post), though I found the reading hard going, too intellectual, I suppose, for reading in somewhat distracted conditions. Still, I enjoyed cool mornings or evenings on the porch, coffee and book or e-reader at hand, soaking in both knowledge and clean, mountain air.
I was on the hike too, but took the photo.
Ruidoso is a place I would like to go back to. We found out what was available in the Smokey Bear Ranger District, specifically the Cedar Creek Recreational Area, which included camping, picnicking, biking, and hiking. Several longer trails are available which I would like to hike. Perhaps we’ll go back some day, and make some more memories.
