Happy 2010

Aleene was chiding me this morning about not posting..."nothing to say?" she asked. "You usually have something to comment on that you are thinking about." My reaction was to grumble about nothing, but thinking about Margot and others who don't do FaceBook. The trouble with FB is that you come out with one sentence and that is it. So here are some thoughts:

>The weather has constrained our walking. It is either too wet or too cold when we want to walk. We are losing our identity as PNW folk...except for yesterday. We walked up to the Coffee Cottage, in the rain, at about ten in the morning and it was packed. There was a line, so we got our two coffees and had them turn on the outside heaters and sat under the awning, as it poured rain, and drank strong coffee. We still need to walk more.

>School starts again on Monday and with it will come several trips to Edwards Elementary each week. I am volunteering in the reading program twice a week and I walk there on Tuesday after school to meet Truman.

>We leave for Florida two weeks from Monday. We will be spending time with both of Aleene's brothers. If there is time, we may get together with one of our Penn State friends who lives near Orlando.

>I have read two great books about two splendid WWII leaders: Eisenhower and Nimitz. My review of WWII history has been based on stories of local events either first person or through movies and reading. But last year I set out to read what the leadership was thinking and doing starting with Roosevelt's perspective through Doris Kearns Goodwin's book. I read a couple of books about the U.S. vis-a-vis the Holocaust. I wanted to get IKE's perspective through his biographer. And as football coach Dennie Green once said, "He was who I thought he was." Or words to that effect. I was taken more by his childhood coming from Mennonite background, although his mother was a Jehovah's Witness.

I followed that with a book about Nimitz. I had to admit that even as a Navy Man, I did not know the details of the Fleet Admiral's life. Unlike Eisenhower who became a public person after The War, Nimitz became CNO for two years (at the same time Ike was Army Chief of Staff) then faded into the background. He did not write books about himself or The War and unlike his rival, McArthur, and Bull Halsey, who was also a glory hound, Nimitz chose to live out his life in a more private manner. He was on the board of the University of California (where he started the NROTC program) and did some work for the UN but did not come back into government...as Ike did as the leader of NATO. Truman asked him to come back as CNO again when the armed forces became a mess after the drastic downsizing, but he chose to recommend younger men he knew and served with.

>Aleene has been reading Twilight books...you know the ware-wolf stuff. Not me, I will stick to history. But I do watch the movies with her.

>The boys are here often, sometimes by themselves and sometimes together. They are a joy to have around. Truman is soaking up football right now. Since we are the only place he watches football, I get to spoon feed him on rules, strategy, and personalities. I try to balance out the good stuff with the bad stuff. I will not define those two...they are my biases, but suffice it to say that the showboating that kids seem to like I scoff at. I come from the Larry Morse school of athletics...play the game right or sit down. And I should also mention the Gary Frens school of refereeing: the refs are human too.

>Lastly, we are enjoying our church family more and more. We have been taken in by some really great people...singly through individual studies we do, and as a couple through the garden, FISH (food bank) and choir.