family, Genealogy, home improvements, miscellaneous

Grinding

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Dateline: Sunday, 12 Nov 2023

From time to time, life gets so busy that I fall back to a habit that served me well in my engineering career: making a to-do list. Not that my days are really so busy that I miss deadlines, doctor appointments, club meetings, etc. Those are relatively few in number, and easily remembered—at least those happening in the next month are.

But as I look around the house, I see lots of things that need doing. Some are small things, but they pile up. It is a needed task to clean up as much as I can before company comes Thanksgiving week. Here in The Dungeon, if I look over to the left, the worktable with our printer has piles of papers. The biggest pile is scrap paper, being kept for printing drafts of my writing for proofreading or critiques. It’s ugly, but it’s going to stay. Next to it is a notebook of genealogy files that I’m slowly scanning and saving to the cloud so that I can get rid of the paper. Also on that table are a few miscellaneous papers that I need to file. One is a charitable donation receipt I need to put with the 2021 tax returns. So far I haven’t felt like dedicating the two minutes needed to do that.

That work table also has two bank statements to file. That’s another two minute task I just haven’t felt like doing.

A little farther away are bookshelves lining the basement family room walls. At one time these were nice and neat, separated into fiction and nonfiction, and alphabetized. They may still be mostly that way, but years of reading and re-shelving, selling or donating, pulling other books from boxes, have resulted in some loose of organization. Fortunately, correcting that, while a big task, isn’t urgent.

What is urgent? Filing receipts! I suppose that’s number one. Many things I used to file have gone digital. Yet there’s still a big pile of them to file. Most of them are medical, the papers you get with each prescription. Some are medical info, others are receipts. Others are grocery store receipts, travel receipts, a few insurance statements, and a few brokerage papers that we haven’t yet switched over to digital. Once I set my mind to it, I can have these all sorted, ordered by date, and filed in about two hours. Maybe that will be a Monday task.

Then there are all the things involved with home repairs. We are inching forward with gutter and downspout replacement. My water damage restoration contractor bailed on me, so I’m having to go through it all again with a new one. I hope to hear something this week from him. And I still need to get the floor guy out here to figure out if I’ll be able to change out the ancient wall-to-wall carpet with modern flooring after all the other work is done. I guess I need to carve out a little time today to figure out which number I called was him and call to set up an inspection time.

Then there’s flu shots. We normally get them in early October, but couldn’t this year and I haven’t made appointments since then. That might be a today task as I can do that online. Oh, and the Silver Dragon need some routine servicing. I think Wednesday is free, if I can make an appointment on Monday. Oh, year, just remembered: I have some over the counter things to order as part of our Medicare Advantage Plan benefits. Better do that today as well.

Somewhere in there I need to work in some stock trading. The latter is mostly Monday through Friday, only 15 min to a half hour a day, plus an hour wrap-up on Saturday.

See why I need a to-do list? I have to grind through these things, trying to get everything done without letting something fall through the cracks.

I’m going to end this blog post here, and do those on-line things while I can. I hope on Friday I can post that I got lots done, and feel less stressed about everything.

books, miscellaneous, Writing

An Introvert and An Extrovert…

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Where the extrovert goes to talk, and the introvert goes to read.

An introvert and an extrovert walk into…let’s make it a coffee house rather than a bar. They are not together but arrive at the door at the same time. The extrovert pulls open the door and holds it for the introvert, who says thank you. They stand in line together, get their coffee at about the same time. The coffee shop is kind of crowded,  with almost all tables having someone at them, so the extrovert says, “Let’s sit together at that empty table.”

The introvert has a book under his arm, and was obviously hoping for a quiet time of reading and sipping his large house blend, but doesn’t want to be rude, and so says, “Sure.” They sit together and the extrovert keeps up a steady conversation between occasional sips of his latte. The introvert says little. He has placed his book on the table, hoping the extrovert sees it and recognizes what the introvert wants.

Fortunately, before their coffees get cold, the extrovert sees a friend enter the shop, excuses himself, and goes to the newly arrived friend. The introvert heaves a sigh of relief, picks up his book, and begins to read.

Is this a realistic scenario?  To me, who sits well out on the introverted side of the spectrum, it seems about right. I’m obviously not an unbiased observer.

But it seems to me that the introvert sees an extrovert and, rather than say, “Why can’t you be more like me, just keeps to himself and lets the extrovert do his thing.

Coffee, a book, and solitude when you want it or community when you want that. The introvert’s life.

But the extrovert, encountering the introvert, not only says, “Why can’t you be more like me,” and then sets out to convert the introvert to the extrovert’s ways, insisting he join a group of six other extroverts for community.

Am I right on this, or am I being too harsh on the extrovert, or perhaps not understanding the extrovert at all?

At a literary agency blog that I follow, the post this week had to do with ways and means of marketing our books, but slipped in this statement:

A high percentage of writers are introverts, yet even they crave community…just on their own terms.

And I thought ain’t that the truth?

You ask what’s the point of this post? Maybe nothing. Perhaps I’ll print it out on cardstock half-size sheets, carry them with me, and the next time an extrovert tries to draw me out in a coffee shop, hand him or her a copy.

family, memories, miscellaneous, Stars and Stripes

Not Quite A Reunion

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Three posts ago, I wrote about a reunion I helped facilitate between my wife and an old friend, who was also an old friend of mine. Along the same vein, but different, was something that happened over the next few days. Let me set this up.

The man on the left is my dad, Norman Todd, somewhere in Europe during World War 2. Who are the other three?

I found the photo at the right in a box of photos at Dad’s house when he died. Dad is on the left. The other three men were mysteries. The photo was taken someplace in Europe. Once Dad was assigned to the Stars and Stripes, he was in Algiers (briefly), then Anzio beachhead, then up the boot of Italy with the mobile publishing unit, then southern France in three different places. Readers of this blog have heard all this before, at posts at this link.

I wondered who the other three men in the photo were. Most likely they were Stars and Stripes staffers, but who? And was there any way to find out?

Perhaps the most famous part of the S&S staff was cartoonist Bill Mauldin. Dad was at the same location Bill was on V-E Day (May 8, 1945), but how long they served together and in what locations was a mystery. Dad told me that Bill sometimes had him model for some of the Willie & Joe “Up-Front” cartoons.

I wonder if Dad modeled for any of these Bill Mauldin cartoons.

Bill is so famous that from time to time a post about him shows up in my Facebook newsfeed. I always comment on them about Dad’s connection to Bill, hoping someone will respond. Not that I think any of the men in the photo are still alive (unlikely) but hoping that someone would say something to me that might help me either identify the men in the photo or hear something that might bear on Dad’s war service.

One of those posts came up this week. A post by Grand Comics Database, showing a Bill Mauldin cartoon of Willie and Joe, the two sad-sack soldiers featured in his “Up Front” cartoon series. A number of people posted to it, and I added this comment:

My dad was a typesetter for the “Stars and Stripes”, in N. Africa, Italy, and So. France. He knew Bill Mauldin and was friends with him. Dad told me Mauldin often had him pose for the cartoons.

One woman answered with the following comment:

Your dad must have been in the same group as my dad, same countries, same background. Bill Maudlin drew this picture of my Dad on an index card, in pencil.

She added the cartoon.

I then took this to Messenger and sent her four photos of Dad with other men, including the one above. There was a delay of some hours, when she messaged back:

The man on the right third pic…is my Dad! what a shock to see him in your pictures. It is a small world.

later adding:

just could not believe I was looking at my dad’s picture, when you sent that one. I only had a few of him during the service and unfortunately he passed when I was only 13, so not enough years to know too much about the war….

His name is Fred R. Unwin. Born in London, he made his way to America (part of the story I still need to learn) and was indeed with the S&S in Europe. After the war he stayed in printing (as Dad did), as a pressman and later a supervisor, in Chicago and Phoenix. I’ll get some more info about him as our conversations continue.

Robyn sent me some photos of her dad, and I said to Robyn:

So, shall we call ourselves Stars and Stripes cousins?

She, of course, said yes. Thus now we are cousins.

When I made that post, I had hopes but no expectations that anything would come of it. But two men in the photo are now identified, Norman Todd on the left, Fred Unwin on the right. Will the two men in the middle ever be identified? Possibly not, but I feel good about having one more known, against the likely odds.

goals

October Progress, November Goals

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It’s that time to report how I’m faring with my writing

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Got it done, with only one, I think it was, hasty post. 
  • Attend three writers group meetings. I attended only two. At the time of the third one I was exhausted and decided to skip it.
  • Attend the Ozark Writers League fall conference in Branson. Yes, I attended. See the report here.
  • Finish all editing on Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution, and schedule all episodes for publishing on Kindle Vella. I’m almost done with the editing, maybe two days left. Publishing them to Kindle Vella will likely take another three days.
  • Begin work on A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 1. I have this pretty well planned out. I began this and made major progress, being close to halfway through with the first draft.
  • Continue to document the writing idea, The Artwork Of God. I’m not sure how much time I’ll spend on this. I spent a little time on this, not a lot. On Monday-Tuesday this week I found some commentary that bears on this that I hadn’t expected. It makes me a little more sure that there’s a real project here.
  • Begin reading a book on colonial America, dealing with essays from a newspaper debate in Boston in 1774-1775. I read less on this than I expected, but did read some, thus fulfilling my goal but in a minor way.

So looking back, it was a busy and productive month. One thing I did that wasn’t part of my goals was to do some minor updates to my website. Now, time to set goals for November.

  • As always, blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
  • Attend three writers group meetings.
  • Finish editing Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution, and schedule all chapters to publish to Kindle Vella.
  • Finish the first draft of A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 1. This will be a stretch, but I should get close.
  • Get a little more done on the ideas for The Artwork of God. I’m still in the research stage on this project.
  • Begin writing down some plot ideas for the next volume in The Forest Throne series.

Enough. It’s Thanksgiving month, and we will have a houseful of guests for close to a week. These goals may be more than I can achieve.

 

writer's platform, Writing

A Writers’ Conference Weekend

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I joined a local Bella Vista writers’ group in early 2023 as a dues-paying member. Alas, the group decided to fold mid-year. Well, technically, we merged with a larger group, the Ozarks Writer’s League, O.W.L. That happened in June. Part of O.W.L. membership includes attending attendance at two conferences, a spring and a fall. Since the merger came after the spring conference, it included the fall conference this year. And, since we had timeshare points to use or lose, the only cost was getting from NW Arkansas to Branson.

The conference was good. It included a social time Friday evening, at which I met a few new people and got reacquainted with some I hadn’t seen for year or had only “met” at on-line meetings. The main conference was Saturday, a day of classes and meeting people and trying to sell a few books—emphasis on “few”.

The classes were good. One on screenwriting (which doesn’t interest me, but the class was good). One on point of view, which is something I can always know more about. One on marketing, which was of the most interest to me. And a panel discussion on alternative ways of earning money from writing.

About 45 people attended, so it’s a smallish conference. But the price was right, even for non-members. Members could reserve a table to set up books to sell, and I did that. As I said, sales were few, but that’s to be expected. Writers are not my target audience. I didn’t get to talk with most of the others who had books for sale, so I don’t know if anyone did better than I did.

I’m glad I went, and glad I could do so inexpensively. Will I do so? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on where I am in my writing endeavors in the next year.

memories, miscellaneous

47 Years Later…

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Juanelle and Lynda. First time they’ve seen each other in 47 years.

We came to Branson, Missouri for a combination of writer’s conference and time away from home. We’re staying in our timeshare. Internet has been spotty, which is why I didn’t write a post yesterday or today. I may have to find a Dunkin’ and use their internet. Right how, as I’m writing, we seem to have a strong signal. Just as well, because as a result I have a different post to make.

Another part of the trip was a meet up I arranged between my wife, Lynda, and a long-lost friend, Juanelle. They were best friends in Kansas City before I met either of them. Both RNs, they worked together as teachers in the Research Hospital school of nursing. They ate lunch together, hung out, and had much in common. Juanelle attended Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene at the time, Lynda attended Rainbow Blvd. Church of the Nazarene.

Lynda and Juanelle on our wedding day.

It was at First Church that I first met…Juanelle, not Lynda, in a singles Sunday School class. About eight months later, I met Lynda, at a national singles retreat held by our denomination. Image, we lived five miles from each other and we had to go to Glorieta NM to meet.  We hit it off, and were married in January 1976. Lynda asked Juanelle to be her maid of honor. Here’s a photo of them on our wedding day. It was not too long after that that Juanelle moved from KC to California, and we didn’t see her and somehow didn’t get her address.

Fast forward to the 1990s. Through one of Lynda’s cousins visiting Juanelle’s church, we reconnected. Then we moved and she moved and we lost connection. Then I did some internet sleuthing and found out her contact information. Juanelle’s husband had just died. I wrote her a letter on behalf of Lynda and me. Some time went by before we received a letter from Juanelle in the mail. She had just moved from California to Springfield, Missouri to be closer to family. Springfield, I thought. Why, that’s just a two-hour drive from us!

Lynda and Juanelle in deep conversation while the rest of us talked among ourselves.

To shorten this story, I finally arranged a meeting with Juanelle. She came to Branson with her brother and sister-in-law, and we had a long lunch and getting reacquainted time. Three hours went by very quickly. I figure it was just over 47 years since Juanelle moved, after which until today we never saw her.

Here’s to meet ups with long lost friends. May we meet up again at least a few times before the great reunion in heaven.

home improvements, miscellaneous

Turn Into The Storm

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Beneath the master bathroom floor. Significant damage, though it’s old.

Back when I was working at a job outside the house, I used to say life was a whirlwind. It seemed like that most of the time. Now, in my fifth year of retirement, life is still a whirlwind.

Oh, at times all is serene. I have time to do all that I must do, much that I want to do, and even things I hope to do. From that point, life is good. Take this year and yardwork. I was quite diligent with keeping up with yardwork almost daily, a half hour to an hour after breakfast or, during the hottest part of the summer, a half hour to hour first thing in the morning. That got me to the end of September with all routine work done and one huge special project complete. It really felt good.

The non-functioning gutters poured water on the deck, causing the rot on this door frame. Repairs are a few weeks away. Into the storm.

But sometimes it’s a whirlwind. I hit October with only one of the home improvement projects planned for the year done. That was replacing the ancient burner in our propane-fueled fireplace. That was done in early August. Item 2 was to have our old deck flooring/handrail removed and replaced with new, synthetic material. I was finally able to get this underway Oct. 5, and it was completed Oct 14. Good, huh?

The third project was to replace our ancient wall-to-wall carpet in our common areas and bathrooms with some kind of tile or synthetic flooring. I had planned on getting that done close behind the deck.

Well, not so fast. The deck demolition showed some water damage, stuff that needs to be remediated before we go with anything else. Scratch that. Before those repairs we need to replace some defective/worn out guttering, which had caused some of the damage. While we were looking at that, we found other places with water damage. So the priority of projects has become gutter replacement, followed by water damage repair, then finally new flooring.

All of this has been disconcerting, due to 1) I hate spending money, and 2) I hate dealing with contractors. I’d rather do almost anything but those two things. The budget has sure been blown for this year. But, on a 37-year-old house, you can expect to have capital maintenance projects every three or four decades.

But all of this is a whirlwind, having to find and deal with contractors. I just want to put it off and sit and write and do my other favorite things. I needed to overcome inertia.

[Photo by Elijah Pilchard]
An amazing creature, the bison.
Last week, on PBS, we watched a four hour show about the American bison, two hours on two consecutive nights. It was a great program, as all Ken Burns films are. They showed how the slaughter of the bison was as much to control the Indian population as for the sport of killing. The second night was mostly about preserving the bison after they were about wiped out.

As part of that, they showed how bison did in a snowstorm. They turn into the wind and pretty much stand pat. That’s as opposed to our domestic cattle, which turn away from the storm and allow themselves to be driven with the wind, often to disastrous results. The bison can survive even major blizzards by turning into the storm.

The day after that show aired, I was in The Dungeon, at the computer, thinking of what a whirlwind—a storm—I was in with these unexpected repairs. Not wanting to spend money, not wanting to find contractors and deal with their lowball estimates followed by price hikes. Not wanting to think about what repairs would be needed in a couple of water damaged areas. A whirlwind indeed.

Then I thought of the bison and how they dealt with a storm, and decided I needed to do the same. I had to turn into the storm and face it, rather than turn away from it and be driven to disaster by circumstances. I started calling contractors.

Our deck guys also do gutters, and they are tentatively scheduled. I found a recommended remediation contractor and they will come out today to assess the damaged places and prepare an estimate. And I called the flooring contractor I’m hoping to use, one I’ve dealt with in my engineering career. He can’t get out to us for estimating for two weeks due to some time off. I said that was perfect, as his work was likely more than a month out.

So all the major projects, both the planned ones and the unplanned ones, as in the works. I must admit that feels good. My bank balance won’t thank me, but perhaps the house will when it realizes it is back to a sound structural and cosmetic condition.

Turning into the storm, in this case by making the calls and doing the things that needed to be done, has at least had some early benefits. The storm continues. But just like the bison, at least I’m headed in the right direction.

Bible study, home improvements

Once Again Unsettled

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This was left behind in the house we bought in 1984. We kept it and stored it for all these years. I was unable to make contact with any relatives of the man whose it was, so now it is sold.

So here it is, another Friday indicating another “work” week is coming to an end. Actually, I’m writing this Thursday evening. I figure I will be busy tomorrow morning with my two “jobs”, writing and stock trading. Friday is my busiest day with the latter.

It has been a good week, yet I once again have an unsettled feeling. I wrote about this before., though I can’t find that post right now. What was good? For one thing, at the close of business on Thursday, I’m beating the stock market both on the week and the year. I put in an order to take profits on a certain trade today, since I was to be tied up and couldn’t watch it. That trade filled at exactly the best possible profit today. One penny different and it wouldn’t have filled. Since the trade went way down toward the end of the day, that was an unexpected success.

37 years old, not well maintained even before we bought the place, it was time for the old deck to go.

The deck work finished last Saturday. We had them pull off the old flooring and handrails and put in synthetic wood for both.  It looks good and feels good. The spacing on the support joists were irregular in one spot, and the contractor installed an extra joist. I’m quite pleased with how it came out.

I was also able to write some today. I reached my minimal daily goal but not my hoped-for goal. The Bible study I’m writing marches on, hopefully to be finished in November. Today I had a meeting with my new pastor to discuss a couple of things that have been bugging me (not things about her, for I have felt good about her leadership and preaching in her four months here). That meeting went well. It was the first time I got to speak with her other than salutations.

Yardwork is up to date. In fact, I’ve had almost nothing to do in the yard the last two weeks. That’s a good feeling, because until this year, I have always felt perpetually behind on yardwork. We had plenty of leftovers for supper so I didn’t have to fix anything tonight. And we have plenty for the next few days.

It’s a little hard to see in this photo, but the sagging under the sunroom floor is sagging, indicating some kind of water damage.

So what’s unsettling? It’s the problem of water damage at my home. The deck work revealed some water damage due to a gutter that was incorrectly attached, possibly due to the new roof put on back in 2020. They did temporary repairs, but the damage is done. Two door frames are rotted and will have to be replaced. This also seems to extend a few feet on the flooring in the sunroom. We looked around and saw two other places that need repair from water damage. One might require the removal of built-in book cases, the other removal of our master bathroom vanity and even a wall that creates a dead air space between the bathroom and the exterior walls.

Last week I had a mold inspector out, and it turns out we do not have much mold in the house—one bit of good news. I had the insurance adjustor out today, and it’s possible, no probable, that this is not insurable as it appears to be long-term in three of the four places. I hope to hear from insurance tomorrow, but I figure the worst will result and I’ll have to pay for all the repairs.

And I need to make the repairs. Some day we will downsize and sell this house. It won’t sell with that damage showing. But as of yet, I’m waiting for the names of the certified remediation companies so that I can get proposals and estimates. I’m also waiting for the gutter guys to get me on the schedule. I spent so many years working with contractors in my employment that I hate working with them.

Ah, but the new deck is lovely. Hopefully the synthetic materials will take less maintenance than the old wood did.

Until I have the water damage repairs under contract, I will feel unsettled. There’s no getting around that. We were planning on replacing the 37-year-old carpet in our bathrooms (why did the former owners do that?), the living room, entry, and dining room this month or next, but now that will be delayed until the other work is done.

I hate feeling unsettled, but it will have to be. I feel sort of good that I’ve been able to get to this point in getting things done. Two more months of this to go.

Meanwhile, in other news, today I sold the postcard collection we picked up years ago in North Carolina. One small dis-accumulation task accomplished.

Politics

Praying for those in the Latest War

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I am heartbroken at the war in Israel and, by all appearances, soon to be an Israeli ground war in the Gaza Strip. I understand the origin of this, that Palestinian terrorist group(s) found a weak spot in Israeli defenses and launch an invasion.

It’s difficult to understand the hate that prompts one people to attack another. From my years living in the Middle East, I believe I have a reasonably good understanding of the positions of the two peoples, Israel and Palestine. They were close to peace in the days of prime minister Ehud Barak, yet by all accounts the Palestinians under Yassir Arafat walked away at the last minute when all was finished but the signing. I wasn’t there, of course, but this is what was reported at the time and since.

I’m now at a loss for words. I simply pray for peace in the region, for Israel and Palestine, for Jews and Arabs/Palestinians. Oh God, move upon people to not hate each other.

 

home improvements

Household Work Takes Over

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Dateline: Thursday, October 12, 2023

Hopefully the synthetic materials will take less maintenance than the old wood did.

It is a time of home improvements at the Todd household. After years of delaying, I finally pulled the trigger on replacing the flooring on our upper deck. It was 36 or more years old, and had lots of deterioration. The men have been working on it since last Thursday, and will finish tonight—except for some final clean-up tomorrow. It will be nice to have a truly usable deck.

Just before the last railing sections were complete and final cleanup.

But, as they tore old boards away, at the edges of the house, the found water damage. A gutter wasn’t installed properly and was dropping most of its water on the deck. Two doorways are damaged. I called a mold inspector, who came out today. He tested those areas, did some air samples, and tested a dark spot on an outside wall that Lynda noticed just a few days ago. He’s pretty sure that has active mold, but we won’t get the report until tomorrow. If we do have to make repairs, it will mean removing built-in bookcases. I’m not looking forward to that.

Then, in the master bathroom, one interior wall is finished at an angle, creating a dead air space between it and the two exterior walls that come to a right angle. We’ve had water come in there, apparently, and in the basement beneath the dead air space we can see the floor boards up above, and they are rotten. The mold guy tested that area as well. Whether there’s mold there or not, for sure we’ll have to do some remediation work. I’m not looking forward to that either.

Also, I’ve decided to replace the old gutters and downspouts. They either weren’t attached properly years ago, or the roofers did something back in 2020 to slightly detach them from the house. I am looking forward to that, though not to the money it will cost me.

Consequently, I’m not sure how much writing I’ll get to do while I’m overseeing these projects, as well as getting ready for Thanksgiving at home. But who knows? Maybe I’ll find a way to adjust my writing schedule and still get things written.

Author | Engineer