ok, so my wayward menfolk have finally called.....they landed last night in eugene, oregon, took a shuttle to florence, on the coast, slept the night at the ocean breeze hotel, walked nearly 2 miles carrying their sadlebags to the bikeshop where they had shipped the tandem.....spent half the day putting it together...rode back 8 miles to the dunes so they could say they started at the ocean...then rode 60 miles back to eugene before they stopped for the night..........they just called....and they are whipped.......and jet-lagged.......and disappointed with the peeps in eugene....many 18-24 year-olds yelled at them from suv's pulling 4-wheelers.......they plan to get up early and ride out of eugene before the young punks get over their hangovers......(their words, not mine.....)...so they started with a 60 mile day.........they promised to call tomorrow with an update..........

finished the extended lotr after i got home from work tonight.....many neat scenes at lothlorian with galadriel.......now i am so tired, and thinking about skipping church....these are dark thoughts......but i really could use a day without having to be anywhere..........

ok, so mm has invested in the extended cut of lotr.......well worth the extra bucks.......i watched about 45 minutes worth last night......many extra scenes that add to the understanding of the story for those who did not read the book....alas, the extnded cut takes up 2 dvd's not including the dvd's that have cast info, special sesctions. etc.......

in more frightening news. our crazy greeter/cashier, that we hired through a mature worker 'back to work' program quit on friday to take a job......as a prison guard at northpoint........we must be afraid, very afraid about security, as this woman is a nitwhit of the first order........she would forget most aspects of her job from the time she left on friday til she came back on monday.....a flat learning curve.........oh my...on to be a prison guard..........

ok, so mm slept til 7:30, then breakfasted on a french roll and goat cheese on the deck, with newspaper and coffee............for awhile, until the breeze and the chill got the better of me.......i do not sleep well when ecw is away.....the phone rang sometime after midnight.......i answered, thinking it was ecw checking in from somewhere en route.....but, no, it was someone for acw..............who calls after 10:00, i ask you.........i woke up about 3:00 am freezing, and forced myself to get up and close the window, and find an extra blanket..........i am mustering the incentive (sp?) to get dressed and go to work......i will be working for chef rob tonight, as his son graduates this evening.......scw expressed relief that project secession will wait for his presence.......it may be quite a wait, with his return from the west on june 21, and his departure for belgium june 24.........maybe the exchange-student jon is a secret belgian secession expert of some sort......you just never know.......

mm is just livid over gwbush's stop at auschwitz (sp?) to make a speech reinforcing his decision to go to war......what a piece of work......

ok, so they are off, with only a few glitches before leaving the house for the airport.....scw wanted to take a hat, for obvious reasons, and ecw was not in the mood to indulge what he calls scw's idiosyncracies...........he forbade scw to take the orange wool cap, so scw snuck the black nike cap into his pocket on the way out the door...........i wish i could have been there when scw put on the hat at take-off..............after letting them off, i free-formed in lex......down the aisles at l.barn, to my fav. goodwills, then back home.........ras we speak, i am making thai hot and sour soup from a mix, with added tofu....i am in the mood.......

ok, so my baby boy is leaving for the coast today, and will ride back east for the next 21 or so days............i may not sleep while he and ecw are gone......i don't know who i worry about more, the rider on the front or the rider in back.........happily, i will join them on june 16 somewhere near yellowstone.......lots to do before then, though............

ok, so after 3 calls to angela johnson, messages, rather........because she always called back to the bike shop rather than the restaurant...........i emailed my next issue to the danville school bureacracy.........our exchange student jonathan will be with us during danville's first 2 weeks of school, which means we will need a papal bull to allow him to attend classes with scw...........cynically, i believe that the pope probably grants absolution easier than danville grants exceptions for summer reading testing.........anyway, i have spoken by phone to bob rowland, and have heard back from a. johnson by email, and each had a different story to tell........in fact, a. johnson adressed her email to mr. c-w.......even though the email was sent from kathycw52@hotmail.com.........quite clearly my email........after all of the calls i made to her she has yet to actually call me back......like i am beneath her contempt, i suppose............our poor student may either be a 2 week visitor or an enrolled student, depending on whom you ask........


enough of this danville h.s. stuff.....i have other dirt to dish.........restaurant rumors.........word is that the abc agent, who lives locally, was eating at freddies the other evening.....the owner, denise, approached him without understanding where he works, and commented....' you really must come back on the weekends when we are really hopping...just bring a bottle of wine with you.......' now, the abc takes this sort of thing seriously, and they have reportedly served her with a warning for breaking the law re: alcohol in a dry county........the law, as stated does not allow for people to drink any alcohol in this county, even in their own homes, let alone in restaurants.........whooops.........

ok, so the c-w's fought the good fight, and they have conceded defeat........a combined 7 phonecalls/phonemessages and 1 actual school visit was not enough to convince the danville high school bureacracy that it made more sense for scw to take his last 2 summer reading tests this wee, before his bike trip, than to wait until the next and only scheduled test date when he would be in town, june 24, on his way to the airport to belgium........i guess after disqualifiying myra away from sophomore honors english because she was in mexico, they couldn;t do much else.......the whole affair has left a bad taste in my mouth......espcially after the rotary liason, rachel white, told me that boyle schools bend over backwards to make sure that their exchange students have every chance to do the exchange without impacting their school requirements..........and.. rachel added that bob rowland belongs to rotary and should have been more supportive.........

ok, so this week's time has a great quote from woody allen, circa1967......' i am not as normal as i look'.............

ok, so memorial day is a made-up holiday, an add-on to all-soul's day specific to war dead.....i do not care about the details...i just needed a day to sit and read on the deck and drink wine and do nothing.......................i have finished the red tent......i did not like the ending, as i knew how it would end..........so bibilical...........but moving as a whole............a curious read for a feminist...so many conflicting issues...............

ok, so i had planned to sleep in this morning......my sole day off this week, but alas, i was up bright-eyed and reading the paper by 7:15 am........ah well. the lex-herald leader ran the poem bivowac of the dead, along with pics of the iraqi war dead..........i have read the sign by the courthouse, but hadn't truly read the whole thing until this morning....well...i didn't really read all of it........i am not much into war-dead poetry, but it was moving, the parts that i did read.........we had a lively discussion about tatoos in sunday school yesterday......the topic ws on qualifications for deacons, as set forth by paul.........i mentioned that these qualifications were contextual, relating to the culture in paul's time, and that we must consider our culture in determining who is 'qualified' to be a church leader......case-in-point tatoos.........paul never mentioned them directly, only indirectly spoke of dress and demeanor and reputation..........but the discusion led into the question.......would having a tatoo disqualify someone from being a deacon in our church? right now, at least 5 of my staff have one or more tatoos (most have 5 or more) , which makes me glad that i do not see them in states of undress........but having tatoos says nothing about character......even kathy clark's daughter caitlin has a tatoo, on her foot, of a flower.......anyway, i have no plans to get a tatoo, because they tend to look foolish when a person's skin loses its firmness, a sagging tatoo would be just horrid.........

ok, so mm is reading the red tent, a novel by anita diamant, whose other books include the new jewish wedding, and choosing a jewish life.......this book is about dinah, sole daughter of jacob, whose 12 sons became the tribes of israel..........i was familiar with the story of jacob, who was forced to mary the elder daughter of laban, leah, before he could marry rachel, his beloved........he ends up also having children with the handmaidens of both leah and rachel.......at the point i laid down the book, jacob had just wrestled with god, and was recovering beside the river.........the wrestling with god thing is a passage we have covered several times in the 15 years that i have taught sunday school.........it was just never covered like this book covers it....pure fiction makes it leap from the page.............the book has been suggested by many of my favorite danville 'readers', and i am just now getting around to it...............quite earthy and evocative.........especially the parts about the wives suckling each others babies..........i know that this was custom, but this is a custom we have gotten so far away from as to shock and cause minor dismay............

ok, so it is spring, and some yards are already awash in flowers. others, like one on my way to work, are awash in all-weather plastic flowers......there is something fundmentally wrong with sticking walmart-grade blooms in the ground in front of your house, and pretending that you have landscaped.....

ok, so mm was on a mission yesterday......with phone calls to the school librarian, principal, and finally the superintendent....the super. told me that he would do what he could...we'll find out early next week.......

ok, so i came across the biography of liz taylor this week on a shelf at home, and read it thoroughly with great relish....alas, no mention of michael jackson's fascination with her...but many interesting tidbits nevertheless..........she has at least 2 quirks that she shares with my own mother............i will not reveal them here, because i would not want the world to know that these quirks may swim in my personal gene pool........however, it was truly comforting to know that mother is not the only person on this planet to do these things...........

ok, so we may be taking on more business for band festival than we can physically do......

ok, so i need a little break from spirited away........cayle ahs adopted it as her video/dvd of the moment, and it is on nonstop.........i am starting to feel like the radish spirit...........

ok, so mm is in heaven over her newly recovered furniture.........as scw described it......it was a whooooo moment.......my bedroom loveseat actually matches the comforter cover.......just like in the magazines!!!!!!!!!!!!!my living room chair and hassock match the walls!!!!!!!!!!!!!the yellow chair in the back room no longer looks like a maniac amateur tried to cover it !!!!!!!( she did try to cover it, but that is not the point.........)i am so excited about how wonderful each piece looks...............

ok,so my last blog was just too full of what's wrong with the minor details of my life......let's focus on what right in the big picture.........i have no credit card debt, no mortgage, good health, exceptional spouse and children, a lovely home, a talented business partner, a compelling sunday school class, and a business situation whereupon wine sales people bring me product to taste-test. who could complain about a life such as this.........so then, why cannot i sleep through the night?

ok, so mm is lapsing into obsession.........i wake up at night and begin to worry about books not finished, about childcare arrangements incomplete, about the will i have not yet signed, about financial aid for college, you name it........i have even worried about how i will get the yard mowed while ecw is gone for 3 weeks.........even though there is a riding mower in the family...........i cannot do much about any of these things.....yet i cannot get them off of the mindwarp that replays in my head.........a mind is a terrible thing to waste........

ok, so these lyrics have been in my head all day.....


May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.


bob dylan