GoodBlogs

I am trying something new, called GoodBlogs.
http://www.goodblogs.com/bloggers/6565
I don't know whether this "get votes and be paid money" thing really works, but I am willing to give it a try.
Also, it's been years since I wrote reviews of the things I read, but I find I still enjoy it.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Try it and see."\\

Zoe Cook Continues to Improve

See?

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Seeing is believing."\\

Buy My Massage Book

If you haven't been to my new massage blog, go take a look:

http://johnmburtlmt.blogspot.com/2011/07/buy-my-book.html

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Nice book you have there."\\

The Salmon Cage

I have just published a story of mine on Amazon.com for the first time:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Salmon-Cage-ebook/dp/B005BCP7L4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310151380&sr=8-2

I am hopeful for the story. I think it's a good one. Of course, that is no guarantee that anyone will be interested in it, or even know that it exists.

But, as I say, I am hopeful.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Your only choices are to live in hope, or to live without hope."\\

Yes, Riverbend

http://www.peacehealth.org/shmc

patient tracking 370551

Mom and Pat are at her side.

She has had corrective surgery and is reported to be comfortable at the moment.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Hold on."\\

Grandma's In The Hospital*

*Probably Riverbend, but I'll let people know when I know for certain.

She fell and broke her hip last night.

Mom (Dorothy) is rushing to her side.

I'll let you know more when I know more.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Keep calm and carry on."\\

Kill Your Darlings

Peni R. Griffin recently posted a deleted scene from her latest story on her blog. That sounded like a good way of assuaging the pain of doing so, so I will now try it myself:

A two-lane paved road, the Niemandslandbahn, connected a row of towns from the Alps to the North Sea. Some had already existed, like Armentieres, while others grew out of the temporary shelters built in No-Man's Land, and had names like Pax Romana, Réconciliation and "Wir Sagen So". Thousand of French Citroens, British Wolesleys and German Autopopuli drove along it every day, except on December 25th, when all traffic ceased for 24 hours, and much of its length was used for festivals and parades.

Heh, that does feel better.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Learn from the experience of others."\\

Out With The Old, In With The Stored

Big events taking place around here -- big by our standards, anyway.

* We got rid of the two worst mattresses in our bed and replaced them with a mattress and box spring from the majestic bed, formerly belonging to my parents and given to me about 30 years ago, in which I slept for oh, a couple of years in the 1980s. The bed, stored in our shed for a number of years and eventually borrowed back by my parents, has now been rescued from my mother's Corvallis mobile home and stored in our storage locker. So, still not actually sleeping in the bed, but it is my hope to have it assembled in some room of the house eventually.

And meanwhile, the bed we're actually sleeping in is more comfortable. And taller.

* We finally pulled some of the old stuff out of the garage and placed it where it will do some good. The hardwood chunks left behind by Corky the woodcarver who used to have his workshop in our shed have gone to a woodcarver in Albany, and the organic gardening magazines have been claimed by someone else. Thank you, Freecycle groups!

* We are finally cleaning out "the boys' room" (where several young boys and teenagers have lived for most of the time Kathe has owned the house) and are turning it back into a habitable bedroom.

Not a lot of progress, but some.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "A little and a little and a little...."\\

My father left very few things undone. One that comes to mind is that he never published or wrote (so far as I know) a science fiction novel like the ones he so liked to read.

One story that he mentioned he would enjoy writing is one in which the Central powers were victorious in the First World War.

I'm not writing that story either, but I am right now engaged in a project inspired by the Christmas Truce of December, 1914, and it does involve an alternate history and a different outcome for the war that his own father fought in. And I do think of my father and his father often as I write.

I feel another affinity for my father as I work: I am doing it in no small part because I have a family to support.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Filius est pars patris, for better or worse, like it or not."\\

Goodbye to the Stink Factory

One of my first memories of the Greater Corvallis Co-Prosperity Sphere was of the incredible wet-dog stench of the papermill we always called "the Stink Factory".

Today we drove past it and saw that the walls are being removed. We could see daylight through it.

Kathe wrote to the family: They are taking it apart! I can't remember before it was there, and soon it will be gone! Of course, it hasn't operated since a year ago last Christmas. Is that right? Or was it two years? Great time to close Millersburg's main business. Oh, about that Christmas break . . . take all the time you want . . .

Apparently the world needs a lot less kraft paper, now that so many of us bring our own bags to the grocery store.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "I'm glad I'm not a paper-dependent fortune cookie."\\

Walden and Mary Got Married

Wow.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Amazing."\\

'Bye, Bellfountain

Kathe and I went to Bellfountain one last time today, to retrieve a few more items and for one last walk-through.

That's it. We have given up the keys and will have no more reason to go out there.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "To everything there is a season."\\

Plan For Armageddon, But....

My father once told me a story about a congregation which had been thrown into great anxiety by their pastor's lurid sermons about the imminence of Armageddon, until someone passed the word that the pastor, although doubtless quite sincere in his belief that the end could come at any moment, had been seen in his yard, planting fruit trees.

I thought of that the other day, while collecting more of Dad's things from the barn, walking past the small grove that lay between the house and the creek.

He planted those trees. I have eaten fruit from them. Now he is dead, and his ashes are nourishing their roots. The trees and the house and the land are all going to be sold soon. The people who eat the fruit from those trees are unlikely to know the name or the life of the man who planted the trees. But the trees are still there, and will be for years to come.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Be prepared for the end to come at any moment -- but plant fruit trees."\\

A Flag

Out driving around with Kathe today, I saw a flag I'd never seen before (the one with trees). I was interested enough that we went around and stopped at the house. The woman there said her husband had bought it, and she thought it was the flag of the province of Prince Edward Island, or maybe the personal banner of King Richard the Lionhearted.

I have no idea what either of those things might mean to her husband, but it was an interesting experience.

Oh, and for the record, it is PEI. Richard's banner is the one with three lions.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "A flag can mean many things."\\

My Father's Funeral Is Today

He died not long after my last post. Services will be held at the First United Methodist Church in Monroe, which he and my mother attended for some years. Afterward, my brothers and I will scatter his ashes at the land at Bellfountain where he and Mom lived for the last 20 years (but which Mom has just sold).

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Keep it together."\\

What a Good Boy

I'm not getting up at 4:00 to go help with my father anymore. Instead, I'm getting up at 3:45 to ride with Kathe on her paper route.
Among other things, I'm trying to learn the route so I can cover for her if need be.
I am learning things about how I learn things. I notice that I still fail to integrate verbal or written instruction with practice -- even when I have both read and done the task before. A significant difficulty if I want to go back to nursing school.
I also noticed something else that might be even more useful: I got quite upset over a series of mistakes, and noticed that I wasn't successfully calming myself. Quite the contrary, I was reinforcing it. Was I enjoying the rush of emotion?
I don't think that was quite it. I think it was that I was saying to myself, "I made a mistake. That's bad. But I am a good boy. I have to be. I am quite upset over that mistake, so clearly I know how bad it is. I had better make myself even more upset, so I can be sure I was upset enough, or else I won't be good enough."
Got to stop thinking that way. Ummm, make that, I've got to stop responding that way.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Or perhaps, 'I have to start responding differently'."

George Sherwin Burt, 1930-2011

My brother David has written this obituary for our father:
George Sherwin Burt
July 4, 1930 — March 6, 2011
George Sherwin Burt died peacefully at home in Corvallis, Oregon in the presence of his family on March 6, 2011. Despite health problems during his final years, he remained spirited and engaged with life until the end. His family and friends benefited from his presence and will miss him greatly.
George was born in San Francisco to John and Velma Burt. After graduating from high school George served in the Air Force during the Korean War, where he instructed South Korean servicemen in radio operations. George’s experiences in Korea were the beginning of a life-long love of teaching and helping others. After being honorably discharged from the Air Force, George earned a Master’s in Psychology from San Jose State University, and eventually his PhD from Arizona State University.
In 1959, George married Dorothy Cook, who remained at his side through many adventures and until the end of his life. George and Dorothy moved to Corvallis, where they would raise their three sons in 1966, when George began his 24 year employment with Oregon State University as a professor of psychology. A very engaging teacher, he involved himself in the well being of those who studied with him. He read voraciously and always viewed the world with wonder. The love of science that he encouraged in his students was more than academic and spilled over into all aspects of his life. At the same time, he never let his dedication to intellectual pursuits supersede his concern for what was going on in the world. He conveyed this profound enjoyment of life to those around him, including the many friends he made in Africa and South America.
When George retired from OSU in 1990, he and Dorothy began a new adventure when they enrolled in the Peace Corps, where they would complete two tours instructing local people in agriculture in Tunisia, 1990-1992 and in Paraguay in 1994-1996.
Upon the couple’s return from the Peace Corps, George continued to work for social, political and environmental causes in many roles and took the welfare of all those he met to heart—especially the rural poor of Benton County. He continued to assist with community food banks and other charitable endeavors until his health rendered him unable to do so.
Until the end, George possessed a love of science, the world, and other human beings that filled himself and those around him with joy and the drive to do good works.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Dorothy Cook Burt; his sons John, David, and Thomas; his grandchildren Walden, Mestowet, Ashnakech, Tesfaye, Sierra, Darius, Cuba, Linda, and Andrea; and his Sister Anne Hiler.
A service will be held at the Monroe United Methodist Church at 11 A.M. on Saturday, April 2, 2011
George asked that you give of yourself to some cause that is important to him or to you. He wouldn’t want to dictate to your conscience. If you have to give money instead, make it a gift to something important---by the way, there was nothing more important to George than children. They are our future.

Thank you for writing this, David, and thank you for being with Dad when he passed.

//The Magic Eight Ball says, "Everything changes and ends."\\

The Mysterious Island

Kathe and I have been watching a lot of videos from the library lately. We saw a Ray Harryhausen film awhile back, and she mentioned that she hadn't seen most of them, so I reserved all of them that the library had.

The most recent one was The Mysterious Island, and that reminded me of just how many film versions of it there have been, and how many extraneous elements each of them have had: giant crabs, a feral child, cultures of aquatic humanoids, Caribbean pirates of the 1600s in the western Pacific of the 1860s, a rival in his own submarine, an oddball tie-in with a totally different Verne novel and so on.

I suppose it's the result of the book's being a sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, one of the most famous books of all time (even in English, where it has suffered from some very poor translations), but isn't anywhere like as colorful or bombastic.

Still, invaders from Mercury...?

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "The book remains unharmed, on the shelf over there."\\

Who Said That?

I don't recall who said it -- not one of those famously thoughtful or witty persons, but someone famous -- and for that matter, I can't recall exactly what it was he said, but it was something like,
If I had my way, I would start life as a little boy, following which I would be a young girl, after which I would be a young man, then a mature lady, and end my life as an old gentleman.
Something along those lines, anyway.
The other day something reminded me of that thought, and I turned it over in my mind and saw the sense in it. But my next thought was that this is rather like the way we do live today:
Pretty much everyone, regardless of gender or race or social class, has a childhood that includes riding bicycles and playing soccer and collecting cards.
Pretty much everyone spends their adolescence deeply concerned about clothing and grooming and social events.
Pretty much everyone leaves school as an adventurer: going to college or starting a business or joining the Army or doing something else reckless and glorious.
Pretty much everyone tries to arrive at "a certain age" with some measure of gravitas and respectability and if at all possible, some degree of financial security.
And pretty much everyone would like to end their lives with a few good stories to tell.
It's not a perfect model, but I do think we live closer to that now than we ever have.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Find the good in being who you are, and welcome whom you are becoming."\\

Second Breakfast

Greatly though I have always admired the lifestyle of the Hobbits of the Shire, I have never gone so far as to indulge in the practice of "second breakfast" until just now.

I get up at 0400 (I used to get up along with Kathe at 0345, but that tended to interfere with her getting ready for her paper route), eat a half-sandwich and drink coffee, and cross town to my parents' new place. I assist my father as best I am able (the last few days, I have just been giving him a bed bath and putting socks on him, because he hasn't been up for getting out of bed), and go home to get in bed with Kathe (who is usually home by then) at about 0630. We get up about 0830 or so and have (second) breakfast together -- usually for me, another half-sandwich.

Small as they are, that does still mean adding another meal to the day. My weight is probably going up. I haven't been checking lately. Too much else to worry about.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Too much to do is not an excuse for neglecting your health."