Emily, David and Otis

Emily David and Otis came to visit as part of their whirl-wind weekend of wedding of David's sister, visit of grandparents/ great-grandparents and dinner at the Sage Hill Bistro. It was good to see them and they are doing well.

Late September Saturday

Right now I am sipping coffee and looking at a fiery golden tree in the back covered with ice. By noon or sooner it will melt and I will be walking around barefoot riding a bike and maybe watching some football or driving to a hot spring.

Something is changing this week in my attitude up here as we had a great teaching week and very few new H1N1 cases.
Perhaps it s because I have a real strong nibble on my house right now and have a win-win-win situation developing with my renters, me and the potential buyer.
When the imagination meets the realities, you really know where you stand. I am definitely ready to sell as the house and the post hurricane insurance culture there have really whipped me over the last few years.

Oh that ice came from the automatic sprinkler system that comes on at 5 a.m. no matter what.. The control guy s probably n Taos enjoying the end of summer.

Oh Jeff says hello and thanks Kelly for his thoughtfulness. He has the 'traditional ' cold now.

Next week - San Antonio

Yeah, I know that's not very far away, but believe me, it will be like a different country once I get there. Somehow I thought was a good idea to do two presentations and I take the reins of our Graduate Student Advising Commission - the out going chair won't be there because of budget cuts and so I will go to the meetings she was suppose to go to, go to the meetings I am suppose to go to, do my two presentations, and be cheerful to everyone I meet. It will be a busy 5 days. So if you don't hear from me for a week, carry on :-).

Bust

I said yesterday Honduras or Bust. Well, the deposed President returned and is at the Brazilian Embassy. Street protests and roadblocks and closed airports make it difficult to do what we were going to do. So I will be here instead. Emily and David and Otis are coming this weekend for his sister's wedding in Covington so that will be a good reason to be here. Listening to a Beatles Album at the Birdman. Great Songs. Phil-remember the Ed Sullivan Show broadcast in the Parish Hall at St. James? Later.

Honduras or bust

Off to Honduras Wednesday. We are going to check out a possible building project in a small village as a follow-up to a school we helped build last year. We fly into San Pedro Sulu and travel around the area. Our new priest, who is from Columbia and speaks fluent Spanish, and I are going with some folks from St. James and St. Luke's. It will be good to travel with a native speaker as I try to absorb some of the language. Adios!

earphones and ipods

Every once in a while I try to use headphones and an ipod like device and just don't stay with it. I think it may be because I always have so many songs going through my head anyway. Sometimes when I am listening to music, I find myself turning it off because another song just came into my head and I want to listen to it instead. I know for a fact that it is very hard for me to have music on when I am doing something that takes concentration. I can have music on if I am working on my room - tiling, painting, hammering - but if I am reading, working on a paper, or something like that, I can't have music on. I don't know if it's because when I listen to music, I listen to music - it is not just background music. So when I am painting or tiling, I can listen to the music and be painting at the same time - but I stop the music if I leave the room so I don't miss anything, even if I have played the album a hundred times before. If I ran, I imagine that I could listen to headphones, but if I am walking, I am usually too engaged with the walk to want to have headphones on.

Just curious is all.

Mary Travers

Just heard on the radio that Mary Travers died yesterday. I feel sad that she is gone, but also joy that she added so much to my life. Always a gentle voice, but strong and just. Her songs always stay with me.

Just want to say thank you, Mary.