First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Siegfried, at 6
    Siegfried’s sixth birthday was January 24. We commemorated the event with our cousins Duvall over lunch at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock [see André’s &Morris’s reports, below]. In the photo right, Siegfried, recently groomed, seemed unsure about being top dog. He's a modest companion, but demanding all the same. He has us well-trained, though, so it works out fine.

William Silveira, reunion planning

As you are aware, I am helping plan our 55th high school class reunion. The student yearbook students are going to scan photos we selected from the 1960 Argus onto a DVD. We also will have some photographs of the senior class play (Morris & Jim, there are some excellent ones of you) and some modern dance photos. We will have three DVD’s playing on monitors at the Visalia Country Club.
    We’re planning a luncheon between the hours of 11:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some of the planning group didn’t want loud, amplified music. I thought it would be nice to have some live music and suggested we look into a trio with a jazz pianist that I know here in town. He plays at 210 Connect on Saturday mornings. Different jazz and blues musicians go there to have a jam session sessions. We planners met there and had a wonderful time. In addition to our jazz pianist, there was a man on bass, a guitar player, a clarinetist, a mandolin player, a flutist, and a guy who could really make a harmonica wail. We thought it was wonderful.
    I’m starting to get excited about this now and hope everyone who attends will enjoy it.

Jim Rix, enjoying Tahoe

Thanks for Jingle Jangleing Sunday. A book did sell on Amazon since then, but is wasn’t through The Book Abides, so maybe it was a coincidence.
    The new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino opens this Wednesday [January 28] at the Lake. I’m going to attend the opening and send you something for “Characters.” [At least, that was his intention.]
    You might as well change my entry in the sidebar to:

Author of Jingle Jangle: The Perfect Crime Turned Inside Out and almost retired in Lake Tahoe enjoying “the fairest picture the whole earth affords,” as Mark Twain described it.

Kyle Garza, in full swing

McKenzie and I are in the full swing of wedding planning now. We’re playing it smart and keeping each other accountable for separating planning time and “us” time. The two inevitably start to blend, and we have to make a conscious effort to keep them separated! I guess that’s just what happens when two fastidious planners get engaged. We’re also continually re-realizing how much money we don’t have. California life is expensive...Good thing a teacher’s salary rakes it all in ;-).
    I’ve also started my new MA semester this last week. I’m taking just one course since this is such a busy time in my life. It’s a modern/postmodern culture class. Very interesting! We basically get to study contemporary culture, and you’ll be glad to know that we get to read the late Christopher Hitchens’s The Portable Atheist. We’ve actually started with Hamlet, which seemed odd to me at first, but apparently Hamlet as a character is right on the brink of a modern man and his typical struggles (struggles with alienation, autonomy, and uncertainty).
    Just have to press on and remember that no matter what, I’ll be married in June!

The Rogers, in water & wind

Not much going on around the Rogers’ Casa this month, but Janie & I did take a trip to the beach. We wanted to see how Del, our dog, would react, for she doesn’t like water – turn on a hose and she’s gone. I didn’t think she would react to a large body of water the same way.
    I was wrong; she didn’t like the beach. We had a blanket between our beach chairs for her and she kept her back to the water the whole time we were there. We had hoped to make some trips with her this dry season (summer here), but I guess not.

    I know people on the right will not admit the weather is changing, but here on the mountain in Costa Rica during the dry season we always get a cold wind. It is a blessing to us, as the sun shines all day every day, and it is hot. With the wind you could always step into the shade and be cool.
    So far this year, although we have not had much rain, we have had clouds blocking out the sun most of the day. This is unheard of in the past and not enjoyable. I guess we can spend more time on the beach – don’t know how the dog is going to feel about that.
    Some days later, the winds picked up:

Post by Ed Rogers.

                                                    –Pura Vida

The Midyetts, in celebration

Shirley & I moved into my sister's bigger house, with a pool, just in time for 100° weather to hit. There’s lots to still do, as the tenants left it a very large mess with much to clean and repair. The pool was green and too low for the pump to work, but after a lot of stabilizing chemicals and TLC it’s blue and inviting again.
    We went into the foreshore overlooking the estuary the other night to watch the Australia Day fireworks celebrations put to music. After grilling some mystery bags (link sausages), we sat back and enjoyed 20 minutes of solid colors and very fine entertainment. There was all manner of food vans and local bands playing. The music for the fireworks was broadcast over speakers. A very nice relaxing evening!

Paul Clark, aka motomynd, wide open

Belated happy new year! Gads, between my 60th birthday in December, Caelen’s first birthday in January, and record (for us) online sales the past two months, I have hardly checked email since late December.
    Caelen is now going wide open and monopolizes 65 hours/week of my time, so between that and business, all else sits way, way back on a barely visible and usually unreachable back burner. My apologies. At one year old Caelen is walking 1/4 to 1/2 mile at a time outside, and stays on his feet and romping 7-9 hours/day inside. We had hoped for a healthy and high-energy baby – be careful what you ask for. :) I already have him doing “baby" pushups, by the way.
    I was on pace to run a 6-minute mile on my 60th birthday, but injured my right Achilles six weeks before my birthday (over-training, no doubt). I managed to break 7 minutes, running basically on one leg the last 1/4 mile, but failed the quest. In 2014 I did manage 41,700 pushups, 850 miles, and 102,000 dumbbell reps, despite being exhausted much of the year due to Caelen’s schedule.
    I hope all is well with everyone and wish you all the best in 2015! And beyond!

Allen Crowder, in the swim of things

My event is shown in the top column, far right,
but my first name is misspelled

I have a kickboxing match this coming Friday [February 6] at Combat at the Capitale in New York City.
    On Saturday, February 28, I have another MMA fight in Greenville, North Carolina.
    I feel more ready then ever. I started swimming every morning before work and have built up to a mile [about 64 lengths of the pool].

Sharon Stoner, driving maturely

While looking for a moving company recently, I went beyond their driveway by a foot or two, so, driving slowly, I stopped, checked behind me – all was clear – and started to back up...right into a black car behind me.
    The lady was nice, and there was no damage to my truck, but the trailer hitch did go straight into the bumper of the unmarked police car! Guess I’m lucky she didn’t shoot me.
    Traffic school, here I come! The 3-hour class costs $40, cash, then downtown with the certificate and pay $171 fine plus processing fee. I will also be taking the “Mature Driver” course Feb. 24 and 25.
    I really did back into an unmarked police car.

André Duvall, in good times

This weekend, I served as the clinician for the Arkansas State Handbell Olympics, in which children’s handbell choirs from around the state all join forces to “mass ring” musical composition for handbells and chimes. The children have been preparing the musical scores for many weeks. I led the mass rehearsals, and we also introduced many musical games, including a relay race across the gym floor that had a giant musical staff positioned over it.
    A highlight of this month was a visit from our esteemed editor of Moristotle and Co. and his wife. We enjoyed delicious food, a visit to the Clinton Presidential Library, and the exchange of many stories.
    I’m now off to a concert for a rare opportunity to hear all six of the unaccompanied cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach on a Sunday afternoon...It can’t get much better than that.

Morris Dean, Arkansas traveler
    My wife and I traveled to Bentonville, Arkansas on January 19, for a few days to visit my sister Flo Elowee Story, her daughter, Dawn Stella Burke, and her family, and Flo's middle son, Brent, who has visited his mother every day since she was admitted in August. In the “memory wing” of a nursing home, Flo seemed comfortable and well-cared for.
    In the Ozark's Community Hospital in Gravette, a few miles west of Bentonville, we also attended the 79th birthday celebration of my cousin Clara Jean Duvall Robberson's husband, Roosevelt, who had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks suffering from dehydration. I'm not confident that Roosevelt enjoyed the party as much as everyone else did; he didn't feel like eating any of the chocolate cake or vanilla ice cream. But he did seem to enjoy my reading aloud the greetings that I brought from well-wishers who couldn't be there on the occasion.
    We couldn’t be in Bentonville and not visit Alice Walton’s breathtaking Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which in my opinion is a world destination for the glorious combination of art, architecture, and natural setting. My computer desktop image these days:

    The museum is within a charming walk’s distance of Bentonville’s Town Square, where Sam Walton’s first retail store, a five & dime, and the Walmart Museum are located. We were especially pleased to learn that Crystal Bridges’ architect, Moshe Safdie, also designed the Salt Lake City public library, which we had admired in September. We learned that from The Art of Crystal Bridges: From Vision to Reality DVD that I purchased in the museum store. Its back cover:

    If you want to check Crystal Bridges out, it has a website and an official YouTube channel.
    Back in Little Rock, where Delta had landed us, we visited my cousins Lisa Duvall Carter & Billy Charles Duvall and his family, including his son, André, who had driven over from Memphis to join us. We watched the Crystal Bridges DVD with them, and they took us for a tour of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, which is most impressive. It is located near a walking bridge across the Arkansas River, which divides Little Rock from North Little Rock (two separate municipalities). The bridge belonged originally to the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad, and its station house, a little beyond the opposite end of the library, now serves as the home of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
    Also impressive, on a walk in downtown Little Rock, was Billy’s painting, “Mujer Tropical,” on a staircase wall at the Arkansas Arts Center:

    I hope to feature more of Billy’s art on Moristotle & Co.

Copyright © 2015 by Morris Dean