From Wit’s End

“…That will turn my life around
Change that will put my feet on the ground
Change that will make everything okay.“

…but meanwhile, here’s the latest Facebook archive.

I got an unusual call this morning on my cellphone for Rachel’s Dad, who was visiting Baby Nora for the first time with Rachel’s Mom and little brother Nik. I handed the phone off to my father-in-law with nary a second thought.

A minute later, he was freaking out. Their house burned down last night. That’s the sort of sentence that you can’t help but read at least twice, but it is true. The rest of the morning was spent trying to get as much information from a distance as possible. Rachel’s sister Beka was on the scene fairly quickly, and they also got a good bit of support from their church and neighbors. Over time, we found out that the fire started with some creosote in the chimney, even though they hadn’t had a fire in their wood stove for about three days. Also, both dogs survived and were found, though both are shaken and one got burned on his face pretty badly.

We were thankful that we could love them through the worst of the shock today. We were in the middle of making Rachel’s Family’s traditional Valentine’s day breakfast when the news came in: Peanut butter french toast in the shape of hearts, pineapple rings, bacon, and parfaits made with frosted flakes, cherry pie filling, and vanilla ice cream. Rachel and I roused ourselves from our melancholy after a while and finished preparing these things, and we sat down to “breakfast” at around 11:30am. By the end of the meal, Rachel’s folks were beginning to make wry comments about the situation, and everyone was feeling a little better with food in their stomachs. Rachel’s sister Jennifer took them clothes shopping, and we had dinner at her house this evening with a few mutual friends from church.

All in all, it was a very surreal day but it ended tolerably well. Indeed, the whole situation could have been a lot worse. In their house, the wood stove had been at the foot of the stairs to the second floor, where Rachel’s little brother Nik usually slept. If they had been home when this happened, it would have been highly likely that someone would gotten seriously hurt or even killed. As it is now, we all have a lot to be thankful for. Rachel’s family got many offers for a place to stay from families in their church, and her dad’s work associates will be putting together a collection for them. They’ve often talked about building a house on a more scenic part of their property, and now Rachel’s Mom can get the new kitchen that she wanted but couldn’t do without the old kitchen long enough to get. You never want something like this to happen, but the love that can flow in the aftermath of such a tragedy is truly a wonderful sight to behold.

Rachel is sitting up and taking nourishment, and generally enjoying being lucid after childbirth (a distinct improvement from last time).

If you’d like to come over for a visit, we would love to see you. We are in room #223 at LMC. I’m told that we will probably be discharged on Thursday, so you are welcome to see us anytime before then.

We had lots of fun this evening at the Davis’s house on the lake, along with a fair contingent from our Sunday School class. For the rest of the pictures, click here.

Pretty cool, don’t you think? This is a column written to showcase the brand new open air Farmers Market building in my parent’s town.

Business Blooming

By CAROLYN R. WILSON/Correspondent

Business is blooming for Beka McCune.

At the end of each week, McCune harvests dozens of her homegrown field flowers to sell to the early morning customers at the Abingdon Farmers Market on Saturdays. The avid gardener is not only turning a lifelong interest into a source of income, she also enjoys sharing her love for the outdoors with people in the community.

The Abingdon Farmers Market will open Saturday, Aug. 11, at its new location on the corner of Cummings Street and Remsburg Drive behind the Fields-Penn House. The market is open Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon and Tuesdays from 3-7 p.m.

“Flowers make people happy,” said McCune, who said it’s scientifically proven that the presence of flowers improves emotional health. Flowers, which have been described as messengers of love, help people to share their feelings. McCune said people often do not think about displaying fresh flowers in their homes. “Flowers are known as something to give when a person is sick, but why should we only have them when sick?”

She said that in England and other parts of Europe, flowers are a normal part of a person’s shopping. “You don’t go to the market without bringing home flowers with your produce.”

The Meadowview resident has spent the past few months planning a flower business, coping with the recent drought and spending a multitude of labor intensive hours nurturing a variety of plants. Overall, McCune is pleased with her first business venture. She named her business Blaithin Blair (pronounced blah-heen blare) which is Gaelic for “flower field.” Her goal is to offer fresh cut flowers that have not been stressed from shipping. “I don’t plan to go statewide or nationwide, just offer local flowers for local people.”

McCune takes a variety of old-fashioned favorites with her to the market, such as zinnias, cosmos, gladiolus, bachelor’s buttons, baby’s breath, dahlias, corn cockle, daisies, purple coneflower and one of her favorites, sunflowers. She prefers to grow varieties with strong stems, striking colors and good vase life.

“I make different sizes of bouquets for different households. Some people want a small bouquet to brighten up a corner, while others ask for a larger one for tabletops.”

McCune takes orders for large flower arrangement upon request. She also sells flowers by the stem for the customers who like to create their own bouquets. Surprisingly, her best customers at the farmers market are men, even boys as young as 7, who want to buy the bouquets.

McCune has enjoyed farming since she was a child. Her first love was raising cattle, but because producing crops is more feasible, she directed her attention to a flower business.

“I have always liked to arrange flowers, branches and other pieces of nature to bring the outdoors inside. I love the outdoors. My house seems gloomy and sad without something from the outside.”

She is neither a stranger to the outdoors, nor to hard work. A 2005 graduate of Virginia Tech, McCune graduated with a forestry degree with a concentration in environmental resource management. Planting seeds and watching them grow is one of her greatest rewards living on a farm.

For about six months, two friends and I have been helping each other fill their freezers with meals. Our system has been working so well I can’t help but want to share it. Meals in the freezer can make evenings so much easier, can save a little money and make menu planning really easy! Here is what we do:

Each of the three of us pick two freezer friendly recipes, make 12 servings of each and package the dinners in two-serving packets. This makes six dinners worth of each of six recipes. When we get together to swap, each of us gets two dinners worth of each recipe, for a total of twelve dinners in the freezer.

We are going on hiatus with the dinner swaps for a little while. Our friend Ellie is pregnant, and so her appetite is really unpredictable! I thought now would be a good time to think about what dinners we really liked and to start looking for some new recipes. Here are some of the hits:

• Turkey Burgers – wonderful with a little mozzarella melted on the top and served in a bun with fresh spinach leaves
• Shepherds Pie – with filling and mashed potato topping in separate freezer bags, you can assemble it in any dish you want
• Calzones – Italian sausage, pizza sauce, mozzarella and anything else you like
• Cabbage Rolls – humble but impressive
• Italian Stuffed Chicken Breasts – flattened chicken breasts rolled up with mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and prosciutto in the center; served with creamy tomato sauce
• Pirogi casserole – made like lasagna, tastes like a pirogi
• Soups and Stews – lentil and bean soups, chicken and beef stews
• Marinated meats for the grill or broiler – no need to wait! by the time the meat is thawed, it’s marinated

Based on some good advice from a book on the subject, we found that it is best to put our dinners in freezer bags rather than containers for space efficiency, flash freezing them first when necessary. I’ve learned to love my little individual ceramic pie dishes to spoon thawed casserole filling into, top with bread crumbs and bake only as much casserole as I need.

I want to encourage you to try this. Three cooks seems to be ideal (we found that more make things confusing). This can work for any size family as long as the three families are the same size so that all dinner packets will contain the same number of servings.

Ben just put up a blog for a mission school called Jubilee Academy here in town. This is a school for inner city children of all ages, done in a sort of a homeschool/one-room schoolhouse atmosphere. These children are in a really bad school district with not much hope for improvement. Sandee, the “headmistress,” was a teacher in these schools but later came to the realization she could do it better herself. She needs to be encouraged in this effort!

Ben has spent some time tutoring, helping arrange a field trip at his employer’s factory and is now working on this blog. The more time he volunteers here, the more exited he gets! What a great bottom up way to improve our educational system for those who are really at its mercy. Be sure to check out “Jubilee in the News” on the right hand menu.

Running Errands: Meeting a contractor at the house, A dentist or doctor appointment, or dropping something off for repair somewhere in town. About once every one or two months.

Out to lunch: Either Stevie B’s Pizza, China Buffet or a local Mexican Restaurant (under duress from manager) with my associates, or No Name Deli downtown with one or two guys from church. About once every two or three weeks.

Allergy Shot: Leave at 11:45am, go downtown, read a few pages of Entertainment Weekly, get stuck once in each arm, stop at Andy & Ellie’s to pick up Jack, drop Jack off at home with Rachel, get back to work around 12:45pm. About once every ten days.

Rachel at the Pool: Rachel leaves to go swimming at the gym around 12:00pm. I leave work at 12:30pm, pick up Jack from Andy & Ellie’s, come home with Jack and have some lunch. Rachel comes home with wet hair and smelling of chlorine, and I go back to work, arriving at about 1:30pm. About once a week.

Staying in: Sandwich, cookies, chips and applesauce, with a healthy sprinkling of internet browsing and blogging. Two or three times a week.

This picture was taken at Andy and Ellie’s house from their MacBook.

Well, I’m not quite as bad as James Lileks is (click here and scroll down about halfway to see what I mean), but I do have a certain neurosis about preserving my own personal history on digital media. This is why I blog. Before I blogged, I had a newsletter. While I was was porting old blog entries over to this space, I decided to see if I couldn’t put my old newsletters here too, even if only as scanned JPG files. So I took an inventory of the old hard copies, and I found good news and what I thought was bad news. The good news was that I had translated three of my old newsletters (1996, 1997, and 1998) into HTML already and backed them up on CD. The bad news was that I couldn’t find a single copy of one of my other newsletters in the office (this is not a big surprise, considering the current state of our office), and I thought that it was totally lost. This seriously bummed me out.

A few nights ago, I couldn’t get to sleep, despite the weariness caused by Jack’s infliction of a new sleep pattern on us. I got back up and looked more carefully through the filing cabinet one more time. Bingo!! I have them all now, so watch for the links at the bottom of the sidebar of this page to go live one at a time over the next few weeks. And if you happen to be a former Kindergarten teacher who just recently found an old student on the internet, you can now catch up on the last ten years of my life one page at a time, if you’d like.

UPDATE 06/07/06: 1999 Newsletter is up. Four down and four to go.

UPDATE 06/08/06: The 2000 newsletters are up, both for Winter and for Summer. Two more down and two to go.

UPDATE 06/09/06: The 2001 Newsletter is up. This one is in HTML format, instead of just JPEG [Ideally, I'd like to put all the newsletters in HTML format, but I'll have to finish that little project up another time]. The 2002 Newsletter is actually up in HTML format also, but since it was the transition to my presence on the web, I have to fix the links in it before I make the link to it live. So only one more little piece of personal history to go, and then I can get back to posting present things…

UPDATE 06/10/06: There, the 2002 newsletter is posted and properly linked into the pertinent blog posts. Now we’re all filled in from 1996 to 2001. From 2002 to the present will happen a little more gradually, I think, since those archive links are already live, and you can go see them whenever you like already. Enjoy.

Wow, what a month! As all of you should know by now, My son was born on May 9th, and his appearance on the world scene definitely made waves on this little corner of the internet. Behold, the Jack-alanche!

For the day…

…for the month…

…and for the year…

As you can see, we had about 850 hits for the month of May. It’s a great tribute to all of you who cared for us and prayed for us through this past month as we came through the real Jack-alanche with colors flying high, a “promotion” for each member of the family (“Hey Mom, have I ever told you how Grand a Mother you are?”), and our numbers increased by one sweet little boy. Thanks again for all your support, and thanks for helping to welcome my son into the Wide World (Web).

Rachel went into surgery one more time this morning – hopefully for the last time — to get her stitches replaced because the old ones weren’t doing the job. Ellie Stager came over early in the morning to take care of Jack while we were at the outpatient surgery clinic. Jack didn’t sleep very consistently or happily at all last night, so when he finally settled at 5 o’clock this morning, we knew he would mostly sleep while Ellie was taking care of him.

The morning went by quickly in a haze of daze and medical advice for both Rachel and I, but it ended well, because we each got a smoothie for lunch: hers was chocolate, banana, and yogurt; mine was chocolate, banana, & peanut butter. When we got home, Ellie said that her Deacon & our Jack pretty much took turns sleeping, so the morning went by really smoothly.

The afternoon was so quiet and wonderful! Rachel and I each figured out semi-independently that in order for tonight to go better, we should try changing our approach to Jack during the day. So we woke Jack up every two hours to change him and feed him. In between feedings, Rachel mostly rested and slept, and I mostly puttered around the house taking care of things and working on this new version of our personal website. At one point, though, I wandered into the guest room and took one of the deepest naps I have taken in a very long time for about an hour and a half.

Later…

A more structured schedule for Jack during the day seems to be working: as of this writing, he is sleeping through what for the past few days has been his cranky “witching hour” from 9:30-ish to 10:30-ish, and that is a good thing. The other thing that may be helping is what Ellie showed us about how she swaddles Deacon. She uses something called a Miracle Blanket, which seems to work really well to keep her son calm and feeling secure. I took note of the design and function of the thing, and we improvised our own with the materials we had on hand. This also made a big difference today, I think. Jack’s hands have been making like Houdini out of his wrapping and oppressing his poor little face, but this new wrapping style prevented that and helped all of us to be a little more at ease.

The proof of these new approaches remains to be seen through this coming night. Meanwhile, enjoy a small token of this wonderful afternoon with us:

I’m pretty proud of this picture. To see what it is a picture of, click on the thumbnail, download the picture, and zoom in on the very center of the picture.	Kat watching over Jack.

I’m now 29 years old. Today is my birthday, and it was a good day. We didn’t make any particular plans for the day, except for having some good friends over for lunch. Understated though it was, the day was all the more vivid and sweet because it was understated.

We slept in, and had a nice leisurely breakfast, with Sarah McLachlan playing in the background. We went to Sunday school, and then went to the second worship service, because some good friends of our were getting their newborn son baptized. [I actually zipped out of the choir loft, jumped out of my choir robe and sat near the front of the sanctuary to see the deed done first-hand, then zipped back behind the choir loft, re-robed, and slid into place in time for the choir anthem, slightly breathless but happy to have pulled it off and then back on again with such good timing.]

The friends we had over for lunch live about two miles from us, but we hadn’t made time to visit with them for over two years, and we had a grand time over lunch.

Overall, this day was restful, quiet, and contemplative. I had time to read a very interesting book and think about the past year and all the good gifts that the Lord has given to me, even though I don’t deserve any of them. With God’s gifts made so obviously manifest to me, I had no need or even any desire for any gifts from my fellow humans.

This marks I think a significant change of attitude for me. I have been wondering when it would come around, and now I think that it has. Before I was married, I somewhat subscribed to what’s called the via negativa, or the “way of denial” in matters of liberty and conscience. Leading up to and after my wedding day, I had all the reasons in the world to “change lanes” into the via positiva, or the “way of affirmation”, in which one says of the goods things in life to God: “These are like You”, and enjoy all the fruits of this world as gifts and shadows of my Creator. With the pending birth of my firstborn son, I am ready once again to walk the way of denial and say to God of the things around me, “Neither are these things Thou”, and renew my dedication to the fact that nothing on this earth can significantly compare to what awaits those who God loves in His Presence.

The ramifications of this change will work themselves out slowly in the near future, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they are.

Last night, I had a very vivid dream about a family whose websites I know pretty well, but whom I have never actually met.

Tulipgirl & Discoshaman and their kids came over to visit. I looked out the window to see them walking around out in the field and garden in front of the house (Note: the house in this dream was nothing like my real house). I’m looking forward to meeting them. I have a big family gathering going on at the house, but I go out and meet them anyway. They suggest that we go out to lunch, and I agree, hoping that I can get back in time for dinner at my house.

We go to a very nice restaurant in a very nice hotel. Our table is near the edge of a big room with a high ceiling and there are many other big round tables in the room, all with people at them having elegant dinners. We are also having a nice dinner and a nice conversation. All the time we have been talking, I have been trying to catch their real names when they happen to use them in conversation, but whenever they do use their real names, they mumble them so that I can’t really make it out. Some time during this dinner conversation, it occurs to me to turn around to see what is behind me: a very elegant parlor type room that is brightly lit and completely open to the grand dining room. Sometime during dinner, Tulipgirl gets up and says she has to leave. Then it’s time for dessert. Dessert is deep-fried whole almonds, each wrapped in locks differently-colored hair — there are blond ones, brunette ones, and red-haired ones. I carefully take the almonds out of the locks of hair to eat them.

After dessert, Discoshaman tells the kids its time to go. I ask him if I can catch a ride back to house, and he says, sure. We go out to the parking lot and he uses a remote control on his keys to start the engine of a huge, clean, very-modern-looking dump truck. I get to ride in the back. After I’ve climbed in, my cell phone goes off for just a second or two, and then stops. I read the text on the screen which states that I am out of range to receive a signal, but all I have to do is go 6 blocks north to get a signal. I try to call to Disco in the cabin to tell him this…

…and then I wake up. That was a weird dream, but it was pretty cool.

My parents also were staying in town this past weekend, though they stayed on post and then with family friends when they first arrived on Thursday. Rachel’s folks left on Sunday afternoon, and my folks moved into our guest room tonight and will stay until Tuesday morning.

My parents are the fourth straight set of guests here at Wit’s End in the span of about 15 days. It started two weeks ago, with a missionary care specialist from OMS International, and then a week ago, there was a missionary couple dedicated to missionary pastoral care from OM (Operation Mobilization). Then Rachel’s parents, brother & sister for Friday and Saturday nights, and then my folks for Sunday and Monday nights. It has been great fun, but after so much activity, it’s good to have the promise of a quiet house this week.

Everybody worked together to get the house ready for the Birthday party, the new kitchen’s maiden voyage!

…Then, with only minutes to spare, everybody kicks back and has another cup of coffee.
Happy 30th Birthday, Jennifer!

It was lot of fun to come home from work on Friday night, because the house was alive with activity:

Mom and Dad were speaking with a young architect about theirs idea for the house that they want to build eventually on their housing plot in Arcadia Lakes…

Dave H. was putting little finishing touches on the trim of the kitchen/den room…

…and Rachel’s Mom, sister, and little brother were hanging out in said new kitchen, working and coloring.

It was so neat to come into a home that was so alive. How comfortable can you get?

				Emily: “So, how’s Jack?”
I caught dad right in the middle of saying, “What, are you kiddin’ me?” with his best New Joisey accent.

I found this web-quiz by way of TulipGirl. It worked out about right. I am a Mechanical Engineer by trade, I got a minor in Mathematics in college, and my current main avocation is this blog and my other one, which is definitely philosophical in nature. Check it out:

What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3)
created with QuizFarm.com

…there are others. Peruse some of them over on the left side of this page (for the first time today!).

This week i saw another instance of an acquaintance making it into the news. This time it was under less happy circumstances, though perhaps more joyous.

Christopher Seeling was driving a train as it went off on the wrong track, due to the negligence of another. His train ran into another train parked on this side track, tanker cars derailed, and the lethal chlorine gas within them leaked out. Nine people nearby including Chris, succumbed to the gas and went to meet their Maker.

Though I didn’t know him very well, I do have a vivid memory of him. Rachel’s family was in town and we were all at a fellowship lunch at church. Rachel’s five-year-old brother Nik was told that the stocky fellow sitting over there at the other table drove trains. We were all taken aback and very amused at how quickly Nik — who is usually quite shy — went over to ask him question upon question about his profession.

I mourn his passing, but i hope to speak with him again. Though we are sad that he has left us, those that knew him best knew that he was a believer, so I am entirely confident that the music that he heard when he slipped behind the scenery was much better than this [Expired Link]. [5.3 MB MPEG-4 file of "Train Wreck" by Sarah McLachlan] Rest him well, Lord Jesus.

New Artist in the links box! Keb’ Mo”s new CD just came out, and I enjoyed it so much driving in the car that I went to Manifest and bought up as much of his back catalog that I could find that I didn’t already have. He sings the happy blues, which is what I’m likin’ right now.

Last night and tonight Rachel’s sister Jennifer, her housemate Susan and her housemate’s dog Jessie are staying over due to hardwood floor refinishing going on at her housemate’s house.  I am currently the only male in the house out of seven living beings (one man, three women and three dogs).  Some notes on the experience:

As we were getting ready for bed in our room last night, Rachel listened to all the activity going on outside and commented that it was like living in a girl’s dorm.  This gave me a small but not unpleasant artificial feeling that I was getting away with something…

When we woke up this morning Rachel told me that she had an unpleasant dream last night that she was only one of my many concubines.  The irreverent part of my mind recalled our hospitality situation of these two days, and i laughed and told her, “Don’t worry, you’ll always be my favorite concubine!”  She only partially appreciated that…

Everybody had a bad day today.  Rachel had her annual performance review at work today, harrowing under any circumstances; Susan’s loaner car broke down downtown (her actual car having broken down in the middle of a cross-country July4th vacation), my day at work was a little empty and boring, and Jennifer, being empathetic, was having a bad day because everyone else was having a bad day.

For my wife’s sake primarily, I was on my best behavior.  I made dinner, did the dishes, delivered the tissue box, and tried to help everyone feel at home.  At one moment, when everyone was at the diningroom table commiserating, I walked in with the glass snack-cube, saying: “It is my decree as head of the house that everyone who had a bad day today must eat at least one chocolate-covered nut.”  This was met with general approval and kudos for Rachel from our guests for training me so well.

I had resolved to go to the coin show in Baltimore on Thursday while we were staying hear in nearby DC. When I googled it to look up the opening time it was a good thing I looked at the fine print, or the trip might have been for naught. The first day of the coin show was for dealers only, so instead of going on Thursday and returning to Columbia on Friday like we thought we were going to do, we delayed our return by a day, so that I could go to the show on Friday. This proved to be providential.

I left in my parents’ condo in the morning, and made it to Union Station 10-15 minutes before the train I wanted to take was to leave. I purchased a ticket to Baltimore’s Penn Station at an electronic ticket kiosk. The ticket price was more than I thought it would be, and the departure time was 10 minutes off, but I was in a hurry and grabbed the ticket from the printer.

I got on the train, and after it departed the station, the attendant came through the car to collect the tickets. When he took mine he raised his eyebrows. I asked if I was on the wrong car, and he told me that my ticket was an Amtrak ticket and I was on a MARC train. “Well, you’re here now,” he said, and continued through the car. The discrepancies of price and departure time now explained, I shrugged my shoulders, wrote off the $8 difference, and contemplated how the two transit systems resolved such passenger errors between them.

Penn Station is about two miles from the Baltimore Conference Center, but I had a map from MSN directions, and I walked the distance, taking pictures along the way…

…and arriving about 15 minutes after the show opened to the public at 10am.

I encountered that heady feeling of discovery so much that i neglected food and water until about 1:30pm, with a tight feeling in my head that wasn’t quite a headache. I had a very good, very over-priced freshly-sliced turkey sandwich and chocolate popsicle from the Conference Center concession stand, and I took the time to organize all the possible purchases i’d found, writing them in my notebook. In case you didn’t know, I am collecting all the coins minted in the year 1899, and I assure you that this fixation is entirely random.

At quarter till 6pm, I was extremely weary and ready to go home. I consulted the train schedule, and realized that the last train out of Baltimore to DC was leaving Camden Station at 6:10pm. Thankfully, Camden station was less than two blocks away, and not only did I purchase the correct kind of ticket, but I also got on the train. During the 70-80 minute train ride, I read my escapist summer vacation reading, contemplated my recent purchases, and wondered with small twinges of regret if the coins I had traded away were worth more than I sold them for. Somewhere along the line, the train slowed down and stopped, and a freight train whizzed by going in the opposite direction. The conductor came on the PA system and told us all that the commuter train had to wait for the freight train to pass before it could continue, I assume for safety reasons. I silently lamented the delay, because I really wanted to get back and rest, but even this happened for a reason.

I disembarked from the MARC line, and smiled to myself when the car attendant said “Have a good weekend”, because I had been on vacation all week and had forgotten that it was Friday. I bought a Metro pass, and got on the escalator to go down into the subway station.

For the past few months, I have consciously and unconsciously been missing the friends that I made in College quite terribly. This may be because I never got to properly say goodbye to any of them at graduation. The last I physically heard from any of them was their shouts of approval from the audience as I was handed my diploma. The year after that, I occasionally received an e-mail from one or two of them, but those naturally petered out. Since I’ve been out of school, I’ve had a recurring dream of a reunion with the old posse about once or twice a year. Since i determined around the beginning of this year to go to my 5th Homecoming at Grove City College, the dreams have been coming more and more frequently, increasing from once a month to once or twice a week. The internal conflict made worse by my inclination to think that none of them would actually be there at homecoming, and the temptation to try the old e-mail addresses, always hesitating for fear of being disappointed by bounced e-mail messages.

So when I picked a face out of the crowd waited for the Metro train…

…my first inclination was to think that the nostalgia had become so strong that I was now hallucinating. My second feeling was that old sensation familiar to military kids the world over that my mind was force-fitting the face of a complete stranger to that of one that I knew from a memory long past. But hopefully, the last name sprang from my lips unbidden, louder than intended: “Sawka!” Some young black kids on the steps in front of me laughed at me as if they thought I was crazy, but I persisted: “Andy!” The face didn’t respond, but persisted in reading his book, standing on the platform. Well, if it’s not him, he’ll indicate as much eventually, I thought, so walked toward him, repeatedly calling his first name. I walked right up to him and said, “Andy.” The face looked up from his book and broke into a smile of recognition.

We were taking the same train for a certain stretch, so we caught up with ourselves and our mutual friends. He mentioned hanging out recently with Mike, “Bobo” & Lingle. Prairie Home Companion came up (which Mike and Bobo and I would listen to on Saturday nights in school), and then they were wondering what had become of me. There had been quite a few marriages since graduation, and we are all over the eastern half of the country (Kentucky, South Carolina, D.C., Philadelphia), doing all sorts of things (Selling Insurance, TV Producer, Mechanical Engineer, Ph.D. candidates). He gave me his card, and Mike’s cell phone number (who also lives in D.C.), to further restore contact. We shook hands, I got off at my stop, tired but no longer weary.

Way back in October, Mrs. Jenkins was wearing a “Strong Sad” t-shirt, when their family came down to visit us and watch our wedding video. I asked about it, and she wondered at how I couldn’t have yet heard of Home Star Runner. Well, it took me this long to remember the name and then actually look it up on the internet. I have deemed it so nifty that I am giving it a permanent place in the links section of this page. Enjoy!

Speaking of Mrs. Jenkins, some time this week, Rachel mentioned that she had been in a dream of hers: Mrs. Jenkins had been driving a huge SUV, and took Rachel out to lunch, right before Rachel went to the airport. When she arrived at the airport, she realized she had forgotten her suitcase and her laptop computer. Pretty good for having only met her once about seven months ago.

If you’d like to hear about other people’s dreams, try that other online comic Slow Wave.