It’s December 17 and I am very late – just getting started on my Christmas letter & cards – while enjoying reading all the news from you ‘early birds.’ I know many of you won’t get this til after Xmas, but there is a good reason.
I wanted to start my Christmas letter right after Thanksgiving, but finishing out an overcommitted, super busy Oct/Nov. just kept delaying me. Then the first week in Dec. I started to get heart/chest pains. Symptoms persisted, so yesterday (12/16) I went in for an angiogram and, for all they could tell ahead of time, maybe an angioplasty. It took me a week just to get my U.C. grades in, close out several other commitments and, with no family around, line up ‘support personnel’ for this hospital/home care procedure. I offer many, many thanks to Bill Giles who came down for 2 days to take over care of my house, Brandy, and me when I came home; to Tom Grooms, Annette Roth, and Barbara Sorensen for active and moral support at the hospital; and to so many other concerned and caring friends in my time of need.
The good news is the angiogram showed my heart is strong and healthy — Dr. could not even find residual evidence of my 1989 mild heart attack — and my arteries are completely open, clear & flowing! Great!!?? So the ‘bad news’ is: “Now what is causing my fatigue, occasional dizziness, and especially the heart pains?” I am sure stress from a plate too full of things to do and responsibilities (and maybe age?) has a lot to do with it. Anyway, I guess this will have to be a ‘Perils of Pauline’ cliffhanger. Answers next year!
I guess I do do too much, but I thoroughly enjoy all of it. Last year I started thinking about retiring from teaching my UC speech class. This year it is a certainty – on June 7, 1999 with 34 years at UC and 43 years in teaching, I will finally fully retire. That will then only leave moderating my Play Reading class for the ILR (Institute for Learning in Retirement) in Spring (Apr/May) and Fall (Oct/Nov). And I just got a second person to Co-moderate with me, cutting that work load in half.
I continue to do weekly vocal coaching lessons and sing in the Westwood Presby Church and other special performance choirs. I sang Elijah with the Dayton Philharmonic chorus last March, Brahms’ Requiem and Poulenc Gloria at church, and Mozart Requiem again in Oct.; as well as a number of solo/program gigs throughout the year. One especially interesting activity this fall was being a ‘standardized patient’ for a Freshman Univ of Cin. Medical School Clinical Practice class. We are given scenarios to follow and must do improvi- zational acting based on the scenarios as the students practice asking us questions in mock patient inter- views. Its fun, medically educational, and pays $20 an hour (as opposed to ILR being completely volunteer)!
Finally, I am again secretary of Phi Beta professional performance arts fraternity, on Drama Workshop Board, and still take history photo shots of TDW plays. I am doing a big project for TDW reassembling their awards history with photos and computer generated season and show pages. Have also been working on the Brown Family History.
A special joy this past year has been my special visits with Rasor (Dad’s side) and Brown (Mother’s) family members. I flew to Las Vegas in March to visit my Munier family. Then they drove to Cincy in June. What wonderful visits! I treated the Muniers to a B&B Riverboat dinner cruise for Joseph’s 15th birthday. Then while Robin drove to Nashville for a PTA convention, Joseph, Suzanne (12), Fred and I went to Cincinnati Pops Riverbend concert, Zoo, and (best of all) visited with Brown family members around Dayton. (I audio-taped our visits filled with family stories with hopes of transcribing them into a written family history.) Then I drove J, S, & F down to Nashville where we met Robin and enjoyed 3 days of sightseeing. When I got back to Cincy late Thurs nite July 3, a phone message from my broker said “Call me about Capstead!” — a stock I had insisted he sell in April, but unfortunately he as insistently talked me out of selling. As an early precursor to the general market drop, this stock plunged on 6/30 — It had risen 2 points by the time I got to Bob after ‘the Fourth’ weekend, but he still sold it – and I lost $11,000!!! To make a long story short, I was furious he did not accede to my April sell request, I fired him, and my new broker is Fred’s broker in LAS VEGAS!!! Joseph (at 15) is very much into stocks, etc. He is attending the ‘financial school program’ at Clark Academy High School in LV; has been school representative to financial business luncheon meetings, and was the chosen ‘student subject’ of a 3 min TV news special report on the Clark ‘financial program.’ Instead of watching MTV, like many teenagers, Joseph plops himself in front of CNBC and watches the tape scroll of market quotations at the bottom of the screen!! (Not to be outdone, Suzanne is carving her own niche by taking piano lessons.) Anyway, in addition to good investment advice from Joseph, Steve, my new broker, has diversified my portfolio, got me into some good growth stocks and mutual funds, and converted 1/3 of my IRA money into a Roth. So, in addition to everything else these last 5 months, I have also been playing ‘money games.’
Last summer I remodeled my kitchen. It all started May 1st when the wall vent fan died. Then 3 days later my 35 year old electric range died (it was due). In addition, being sick from an infection and bronchitis from March to mid-May, and very pooped, convinced me it was time to finally join the 20th century and get a dishwasher. (I love it!! Why didn’t I do this sooner??) All that triggered the necessity for new wiring, plumbing, kitchen and hall flooring, etc, etc. So a broken $20.00 vent fan grew into a major several thousand dollar redo project.
At the beginning of June, I got a new white toy poodle, almost a ‘Tootsie clone.’ As another rescue venture, Cookie was 6 1/2 years old, had been a ‘puppy factory’ her whole life and had just weaned her last litter. Tho greatly loved by her owner, she had spent most of her life in a 4’x 5’ pen, not fully housebroken — trained to paper only. It took her all summer including 8 weeks of obedience training to adjust. Brandy went back to intermediate training, too. Taking ‘dog school’ together helped the 2 dogs bond and they are ‘real buddies’ now. Brandy has trained Cookie to play ‘tug’, wrestle and chase games. But this is my best story: One day in Sept., the dogs were outside in the back yard while I was busy working at the computer. Brandy started barking – not unusual; but 10 minutes of insistent distress barking finally drew me to the door. The driveway gate was open and Cookie was gone! A visual survey of backyards to the south revealed nothing, so Brandy and I went to the front yard with me loudly calling ‘Coooookieeeee’. Here came Cookie running around the north corner of the house. Brandy bolted and met her at the front steps. Then, body to body, nipping at her ear and emitting a scolding bark the whole way, Brandy quickly herded Cookie right back into the backyard where she belonged. I just stood there stunned in amazement. I didn’t have to scold. I didn’t have to do anything. Brandy had done it all.
I spent many weekends at my cabin at camp this summer. This fall the dogs loved walking the paths with me on my former farm, free and off lead. Finally, in October, I drove to Charleston, W. Va. to attend my 50th Stonewall Jackson High School reunion. It was the first time I had been back in 50 yrs. It was wonderful to remember and be remembered by old friends. Memories and incidents came flooding back. I took along my photo album with 12 pages of pictures from 1948. (Yes, I was a photographer way back then, too.) It became such a hit, they want to reproduce the photos in a special display for the next reunion. My high school is now a junior hi in a crime/drug area; my Lincoln Jr. Hi is now a Kroger grocery, and my Fernbank elementary school is now a Revco drug store!! I also got to have a wonderful visit staying with John & Bonnie Bowyer, renewing my W.Va. church group memories. I ended the trip Sunday being treated to a delicious lunch at Margaret and Dorsey Taylor’s while we reminisced about our wonderful halcyon days at Marshall College.
A Final Story: I drove over 1000 miles that weekend, including 200 miles to board each dog with its former owner. By Monday, I was dead tired and still had to teach speech class at UC till 9:10pm. Then 2 students stayed over for needed one-on-one work. Finally finished at 10:10pm., I offered to drive my student, Joe, to his car 1/2 mile away. As we walked out to my car in front of the building, I asked Joe if he could see any UC Campus Cop cars. I was just too tired to drive through UC on the ONE WAY campus drive, then over a mile around the campus, when I could reach the same place by backing up (the wrong way!) about 500 feet (very illegal), and then dropping down to Clifton Ave. on a short driveway. I backed up very slowly and carefully, and as I swung my back end around, there was the cop car sitting on my left at the stop sign! Oops! Busted! He followed me down the drive and did not turn on his lights to stop me until I got clear out on Clifton Ave. (a main 7 lane street).
Fortunately, he sympathized with my story — older, dead tired professor doing a good deed taking student to his car late at night. —-But he still had to give me a warning. He called in to HQ as I gave him my license, then went back to his cruiser. About 2 or 3 min later, another cop car drove up and stopped — lights blazing –and another! —and another—AND ANOTHER!!!! So there I was, 10:30 at night, sitting on Clifton Ave surrounded by FIVE cop cars — all their bright red, white and blue lights flashing away. Finally, after a few minutes, they began, one by one to peal away down the street. Only one was left as ‘my’ cop approached with the ticket. “I told those guys they had better leave before they scared you to death.” he said. I didn’t let him know Joe and I were in stitches, roaring with laughter at this crazy event. “Why?” I asked. He said they were required to call in for a backup on every stop for safely because there had been some assaults. “But the other 3??” “Well, it’s a slow night; no one had anything else to do,—-and it was shift change!!!”
I know I started out this letter revealing a serious health scare, & battled infections last spring, but really these are just blips in an otherwise happy, positive year filled with interesting & fulfilling activities and adventures — enhanced by being touched by warm and caring friends in so many different and wonderful ways.