COLUMBUS OH

It's the day after Christmas, and I woke obsessed by an old carol:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
 Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
 The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
 The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!...

But this year did not feel at all like that -

I haven't heard any bells.

Bobbi had discarded all the artificial trees, and put up no other decorations.

She promised this year she would use up the surplus cards leftover from past Christmases. But to date, none have gone out. We also decided to donate gift money to a charity instead of sending redundant material gifts to people who didn't even have space to store them. None of those cards have gone out either.

Perhaps her mood has been darkened by the discovery that her email and phone calls are monitored - and have been for years.

Fortunately on Sunday the Wilson family did get together for lunch at the RED LOBSTER in Chillicothe.

...Then from each black, accursed mouth
 The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
 The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
 "There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Can governmental power be overcome? Can hope remain?

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
 "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Medical Report - Animals

Smokey: even though gone for more than a year, his material absence continues to wrench our hearts acutely. But we did learn something of interest: he was not a mixed breed. Rather, he seems to have been a purebred Tervuren!

Kitty-poo: at less than 7 pounds the smallest member of the pack, she nevertheless continues to dominate the other (both human and animals).

Audrey's Lucky: the big black cat remains the shyest of the pack. But Lew has trained him to sleep next to his head in return for occasional kibbles.

Mylo: he has calmed down immensely, sometimes even waits his turn, is very sensitive to the tone of one's voice - no need for formal commands.

Timmy (Tiny Tim):

Saphire:

COLUMBUS OH

 Ha!  At least this is sooner than our other recent posts.  Tried starting it twice before, but both times were interrupted before we got very far.  Let's see what happens this time. ...............................................................................

We were trying to increase the frequency of our notes, but as you can see, have not yet  succeeded.

Medical Report - People
No worse than before - Lew injured his back again on Saturday, but assumes this will heal after a few days, as it always has in the past.  He saw his cardiologist this week, and there has been no change there.

Since her weight remains the same, Bobbi's lower joints continue to pain her.  Her GI complaint continues, but nevertheless she gets on with her business.  Paul shares his GI complaint with her, but does not let it interfere with his schooling.

Rob is working much more frequently, but as yet still has not gotten off the dole.  Fortunately he has not brought us any more homeless dogs, since we have reached the city's limit.

Medical Report - Animals
Mylo (the Feist) is doing well - but that means he is hyper as all get-out.  Exactly like a five-year old: into everything, has to see what everyone is doing, annoying both men and beasts in turn.  But he is such a joy, we love him dearly.

Timmy (the loveable fat furry beagley little spanielish mutt who looks like Honey, Julius and Elizabeth's late companion) contines to recover easily and without complications from his knee surgery 7 weeks ago.

And Sapphire despite her age remains slowly active, not otherwise betraying her rather severe arthritis.  Unfortunately, age has not made her any wiser.

Activities - 

We both have continued to work on genealogy, but no remarkable discoveries this time.  Lew is in the process of merging the several different files (Lindner- Jennings - Franke-Wilson) - and translating them into a GEDCOM so we can share it with all of you - quite an undertaking, since there are perhaps 10,000 people involved.

It is no surpise that Bobbi gets more and more involved with our church.  During the present reporting period she has helped with the fund-raisers and currently is helping to tutor some of the school children.

Lew continues to try to travel, but this time he has had to help supervise Timmy's recovery from his surgery, so has had to stay close to Columbus.  Maybe next time?

Enough for now - if we do not quit, there will be another delay (which we are trying to avoid) before this is posted.  So go with God, we will try to update soon.

          Peace and Love.

COLUMBUS OH

Oh my God!  Went to add another post to this log and could not find my last post (September some time).  And could not find where it went (somewhere in outer cyberspace, beyond Neptune?).  Where did it go?  I have no idea.  Normally I check the blog after I post, to make sure I don't need to edit (usually I do).  And I could say that I checked that one per procedure; but I really don't remember.

Bobbi and Lew still have a great big hole where Smokey was.  However, the new dogs do help blunt the pain.  We have discovered that the second one actually is not a street dog, but full-bred, named a "fiest" though spelled did different ways.  A "mountain feist".  It's not recognized by the AKC because it is an old medieval breed, so not documented back to a single ancestor.  But apparently they are bred from a single select group of progenitors.  Henry VIII and George Washington both kept them, but now they are found in West Virginia (Robert picked this one up in Princeton WV).  First working dog we've had - a squirrel dog, believe it or not.  In the house he sits on the sill of the picture window - watching, watching for squirrels in the front yard.  And if he sees one, he goes all bananas, leaping and pounding against the glass (thank God he hasn't broken it yet).  Out in the backyard he bolts from the door to the first squirrel he can find, chases it up the big maple, and jumps repeatedly at the bottom, whining and yapping and barking up at his quarry.  Should rent him out, he really is good at it.

By contrast, the other two dogs are lazy louts, content to laze around all day and stay in the house.

Other than socializing with the dogs, Lew has little to do but sit around the house and internet.  He has been stocking up the Airstream.  However, even though it has been good enough to go for over a month now, Lew actually has not been able to do any camping because the first dog has slipped patellae and had surgery about a month ago to correct the left knee.  Of course being a dog he made a rapid recovery, was walking on the leg already in about a week, now is nearly normal.

Bobbi on the other hand has been very busy.  Every morning she is at church socializing with her friends who are intent on repainting the womens' bathroom.  Also she has become hooked on genealogy, so afternoons and evenings.  are spent on ancestry.com and other such sites.  Her father's family never discovered that they are descended (quite recently) from the Bruces, Stuarts, and Tudors (including Mary Boleyn).  Of course that means that farther back she is descended from the Irish chiefs.  On the other hand her mother's side is descended from some of the Salem witches!  So no wonder that she is so fascinated.

Lunch time.

COLUMBUS OH

Derelict again, and worse than ever! Apologies again. The problems remain the same - mostly that it is very dull to report simply on unchanging health and unchanging activites no matter how many people one covers, and we just are not very imaginative.

Bobbi and Lew still miss Smokey grievously. Perhaps that never will change.

But there really is some current news: most important, son Robert has gifted us with two new dogs. Both are much smaller than Smokey - 35 poundish. Of course both are adoptees - pound puppies - and both are more or less brown. The vet thinks one is a bit over a year old, and the second a bit under. The first is calm, even phlegmatic - and fat; behaviourally the second is still a puppy, so ADHD - into everything, chewing everything, and annoying everyone else in the house. The cats already have put him in his place, and he has the scar to prove it. They already are completely spoiled (though we do have to use some dietary disciplne with the fat one), slept with us since the first night (after they were cleared of fleas). Both are lovers, as pound puppies usually are.

Earlier in the Spring, Scott's step-sister discovered him, so now he finally has found out the story of his birth and his birth mother (who is still alive). However he is a big boy, so this is his private business. Therefore, contact him for particulars. Currently Scott is on sabbatical, so his family is on a cross-country trip - where Scott wants to go.

Rob in his turn made another trip to Thailand. This time he stayed two months and insisted he again had a wonderful time, would rather like to stay there. When he returned this time, he was a completely changed person - invariably polite, considerate, responsible, independent. So far as we are concerned, he can go there any time he wants.

Paul and grandson George, on the other hand, went to Lutherland with Scott. All 3 took many photos. I don't know how many they have posted to the web, but when I find out where, I'll pass along the URL's. Scott had a good time, but dragged the other 2 only to Luther monuments, which wasn't quite fair. Nevertheless, all three insisted they had a good time.

So we have decided to make some changes. We intend to add something to this blog: the results of our genealogic investigations. We intend for this to be presented as if it were a serialized book, chapters and all that sort of stuff. And because of its great bulk, we expect the presentation to take a long time, divided into many entries. We also warn any readers (and we recently discovered we had more than we knew) that the entries will not remain stagnant - we expect to revise them frequently, irregularly, and unpredictably.

Enough for now, will continue.

COLUMBUS OH

Oh-oh! We thought we had posted in January, but cousin Michael wrote and said there was nothing up for this year. So we checked, and sure enough! - Michael was right. We were very sure we had typed out a note in mid-January, but it is nowhere to be found. Sorry to one and all!

So here we go, trying to make up for last time, and hoping that at least a few people still look at this blog.

Last entry us dated 22 December - so from there:

Throughout this whole period Smokey has remained a tremendous hole for both of us - still brings tears to the eyes. We fear that that hole will remain forever and color the rest of our lives. On top of that, in February the vet told us Saphire's liver carcinoma has recurred. She is an old, old huskey and we have been expecting it, but that doesn't make it easy. To our tremendous surprise, she continues to trudge along as if nothing is happening, less hobbled by arthritis and the other inevitable consequences of aging than most other dogs her age. Of course we are grateful for that, and will enjoy her to the max as long as we have her. And as a corallary, of course that means that she will be spoiled unmercifully.

Christmas was kind of anticlimactic. Of course we did church, but our church really is not very celebratory. At home, Lew's gift was put off until after his birthday do everyone could combine and get him something he truly wanted (instead of socs and ties).

What we did have this year was snow. In recent years it rarely has snowed in Columbus with all the snow passing us by to the north - last year produced only one small dusting. But if anyone has been watching, this year we have been having the blizzard of the week. We had spent all autumn getting together all the documentation for our various insurances along with other documentation that one needs to travel. There also were a series of small material items that we had to repace or acquire. By Christmas we had everything, and were determined at least to make it down to Florida to visit with our grandchildren (and their parents). That really is a very easy trip, just down I71 to Cincinnati and then down I75 to Lutz and Wesley Chapel. But we do less than 200 miles a day, so it actually takes us 5 days - and since Christmas we have not had 5 promised days of safe weather. Columbus has seen a storm every week, with never enough promised clear for us to feel safe about going through the mountains.'

While we have waited we have continued to watch NHK and read exhaustively on the history of religion in the broadest sense. We continue to marvel at the beauty of Japan, with mountains everywhere, visible from any point in the archipeligo and covered (mostly) with conifers. Even more remarkable are the people, with the absence of violence, obsessive-compulsive cleanliness, obsessive-compulsive determination to do everything best, unprecedented artistic taste, and more that I just can't come up with right now. Totally different from China, which is grubby dirty and unsanitary. However is it possible that the Japanese culture is derived from the Chinese, or that the Japanese are able to work with the Chinese commercially? Since so many of Lew's ancestors, uncles, and cousins have clergy, the gleanings from our religious reading will be incorporated into the history of the family. (Did you know that Pope Adrian VI is on the family tree?)

Medical report (morbid but necessary): Distinctly lame, we nevertheless continue to hobble along. Lew's heart problem appears stable for the moment - how long, of course we do not know. So he has decided to go back to business as before - which is why he intends to visit the family in Florida. If he survives that, he will go on elsewhere - maybe see you all again.

Bobbi too remains status quo. But since that means she does not lose weight, further disability remains a tragic certainty.

Enough for now.