At last - good German food.

Last night the 'good wife' and I ate at a new restaurant in a little town only about 15minutes from where we live. It was an entirely German restaurant; and I say entirely because all its menu items were German, they didn't have goulash or any of those other 'quasi-Germanic' foods I love so much, but that's okay. The good wife had a 'German Dip' sandwich. Sliced pork roast topped with crispy haystack onions and mustard aioli on a grilled pretzel bun served with Au Jus. Sometimes I think my good wife will eat anything related to a pretzel ... it was a very good sandwich, and she was totally blown away with the homemade Root Chips! Being much more globally minded I decided to go for the 'Tour of Germany' plate - bratwurst, wiener schnitzel, and sauerbraten. The sides dishes I chose were saurkraut [YES, YES]and a German potato pancake ... and had to bring some of the bratwurst and saurkraut home. The house salad was a great appetizer ... Mixed greens served bacon, mild bleu cheese and radishes tossed in a lemon dill vinaigrette. I wasn't going to get the lemon dill vinaigrette, but two things convinced me: the good wife said that since the restaurant's name was DILL, and everything is seasoned with dill, she would like to taste the 'dill' vinaigrette ...so there you go, I guess I really didn't need a second opinion. The second reason was because of the name. And of course even though I'm taking some food home, we had to have the dessert - Apple Strudel. My next trip back I will be having their version of my favorite sandwich in the world - Reuben!??!

The way it should be!

Today I went to a funeral where the family in our church had lost the grandfather ... he was the first one in the entire family to die. As I sat there during the message I thought 'this is the way its suppose to be.' No kids or grand kids dying first, but first the patriarch of the family. And that's the way I wish for it to be in my family, may I be the first to go - heaven help the family if its not me .. there will be late birthday cards and forgotten birthday gifts, missed anniversaries, lot less fewer phone calls to check on the families ... it would utter misery; and I don't say that proudly simply truthfully.

Further down the rabbit trail....

This is just a short addendum to the naming article I wrote the other day. In continuing to review the material I've found that where my grandpa/grandma's generation continued to give their kids 'family' and 'biblical' names [which most often went together in their Amish-Mennonite cultures] the rate was 90%; in the following generation [my fathers] the rate dropped to under 50%; and I don't even relish thinking about my generation. I don't believe its any coincidence that a number of cultural and liberal religious factors played into those statistics. Am I proposing that we go back to the standards of yesterday - certainly not - but I do believe there are some spiritual and healthy lessons we might wish to incorporate both corporately and personally in our lives today. Only those who are foolish refuse to listen and learn from the past.
~timm

The 'NAMING' traditions

While reviewing the notes from my sabbatical and writing a manuscript I came across the idea of why my aunts/uncle's were given their names, so I'm doing some research. It is interesting to say the least as I hunt down family namesakes. Of course I will never know why or who they received their names from but its interesting to see the links between them and those named like them earlier. My oldest uncle, on my father's side, has the first name of his father and the middle name of his grandpa ... how's that for passing on the names of two prior generations; my only uncle that was a minister could have been named for maternal great grandpa who was himself a preacher/bishop of some reputation in the amish-mennonite society. Then there was the possibility my next to oldest aunt was named after a cousin who lived only one day. I'm finding links from favorite, close relatives to carrying on the name of an infant who died. My own father carries the first name of his brother who lived less than a year.

Then I made a list of my father's dad and mom and all their siblings - this list gets even more interesting and more family related. On both the men's and women's side there are names that just keep popping up; and the further back I go the more often a father's name is passed down to his son, likewise with mom and daughter; sometimes three consecutive generations this will happen. That's why its so important to have accurate dates, it doesn't take long to get off on a rabbit trail ..and you can almost take that literally. Every now and then a 'new' name will pop up, but then for a couple generations it passes on to someone else almost has though making sure it won't be forgotten. The major frustration as I said before is that all of this is pure conjecture because those who have passed on the name are gone.

Regretfully I'm not named after anyone that I'm aware of. If I ever find my name[s] carried by someone else that will indeed be a 'red letter' day! Sadly my children have done a much much better job of naming their children after family members; maybe if my kids agreed I could go back and rename them??! - probably not.

Same Ole Book

Last Thursday the 'good wife' took a vacation day off of work and went with me to visit and accompany my mother to two of her appointments. We had finished the first visit with her neurologist and had a couple of hours before she went to the oral surgeon so we stopped and had lunch then went to a mall across the street so mom/good wife could do some shopping.

As they went into J.C.Penny's I told them I was going to the bookstore - no surprise there - and I left with my good wife's charge sounding in my ears, 'you have enough books, don't buy any .... a futile charge which I'm sure she realized but felt she'd done her duty by reminding me there was no need to add to the unread stack of books on my bedside light table.

Keeping close watch of the time for when I was suppose to meet them to leave the mall I ended up at the $1-$3 tables .... it would be a really cheap buy if I could find a book there. Rummaging behind the first row of books I came upon an interesting book titled, 'The Lost Hours'. Something about the title drew me to read the back cover ..... and I was hooked; and there was something about the name of the author, who although I had never read any of her books seemed familiar. You
know where this is going don't ya?!

Yeepers I bought the book, and upon meeting up with me and seeing the bag the 'good wife' turned to my mother and said, 'didn't I tell you he couldn't resist.' While I waited in the dentist office I was able to read the first five chapters, so it was a good thing I had a book .... and now I was really getting into it. The next day I mentioned the book to my office manager [who is also a librarian and we often exchange books and book reviews]. As I was explaining what I'd read and how the name of the author had a strange familiarity I noted she had started smiling ... 'why are you smiling' I asked, because she said, that's the very same book you gave to me a couple months ago. You were upset because it wasn't the book you had planned on ordering from Amazon.com and when you got it you gave it to me ... then the whole story came flooding back. The author whose book I had intended to purchase was Karen Morton, this book 'Lost Hours' was by Karen White.

This is a very good book. It tells the story of a young lady, raised by her grandparents because her parents die in an accident, and the young lady - a champion
horse rider - has a fall and her horse lands on her nearly killing her. Through a family heirloom left to her she comes to realize that there is a much larger untold story about her grandma that presents a completely different picture than the gardening gracious, somewhat depressed grandma she ever knew .......... and so she goes on a search, only to find that there are others who are handicapped that are refusing to move on with their lives, just like in many ways she is. In helping them to get their lives turned around hers is also. Its a good story about how even dark family secrets can be positively instrumental in restoring life in the survivors. It would be a great bedtime story to read incrementally to a child.
'The Lost Hours.' WHITE,Karen, Harley House Books, Penguin Group. New York, N.Y.
2009 ISBN: 9780451226495

The Sacred Journey

This book begins slow, like a jeweler carefully cutting a diamond into a brilliant beautiful gem. The book gains momentum almost unnoticeably, drawing you in. The author is quick to point out that 'God makes no secret of his clear bias for the wanderer'[p.2]. The story of Christianty, beginning with Abraham, is filled with wanderings both positive and negative. Scripture reinforces this concept of pilgrimage telling us we're just pilgrims passing though this world. The author reminds us there is a spiritual danger in settling, and well meaning Christians can try to force us to settle as the misguided Reformers did. But we are born journey, we're the only creatures God created to specifically go about upright; also the Reformers failed to realize that a complete Christian pilgrimage often involves 'laughing, mourning, caring, walking along roads and making love as sacramental activities'[p.20]and are not fleshly roadblocks.

Sacred journeys are also meant to have lasting spiritual benefits that don't end with reaching a certain destination, matter of fact a major difference between a Christian pilgrimage and other religions is that Christians are more concerned about the journey than the destination. The author reminds us that our attitude in beginning the journey is of utmost importance, and many take spiritual journeys today for much the same reasons as the ancient. Having just completed a sabbatical journey I found much in the book that was affirming, and through my experiences on the 'road' some of the challenges of the book I too had experienced. This book is great read and I find the author quite right when he says the journey begun never ends just because we're back home.

The Publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book through BookSneeze.
THE SACRED JOURNEY by Charles Foster. Nashville, Tennessee. Thomas Nelson Publishers Inc. 2010

'What Did You Say?'

In this afternoon's mail I received two free tickets [valued at $100 the tickets said] to hear a nationally known hearing aid expert and trained specialist .... WOW. This individual would be live [I'm certainly glad they aren't planning on propping up a corpse] and you could even hang around after the conference and get a 'personal' checkup.

Now I'm trying to figure out if this is just one of those random things or if a friend is playing a joke on me. If its just a random choosing then a lot of money is being needlessly wasted .. or is there something about once you pass the 60age mark you automatically qualify for such loving consideration?

Here are some of the FREEBIES!
~an Otoscope Inspection, it may just be wax blockage? what if its merely selective hearing, can this free inspection determine that?
~a Hearing Assessment to see what you hear and what you don't ... that not their business
~Hearing Aid Inspection, all makes and models [made by the sponsoring company of course]
~Trade-in Appraisel of your old hearing aids .... I don't have one so is there a special discount for not having to bother with disposing an old one?
~Package of Hearing Aid Batteries. One free package Per family ... sounds like the EverReady Bunny's been busy
~Free Financing - now there's an oxymoron!

If you'd like me to send all this enticing information, just leave your snail mail address and when I get around to it you just might ... is this about hearing or remembering ... excuse me, I've forgotten where I put those cards!

A foot or so less than 10 yards outside my good wife's window in the corner of our house are a couple rows of pine trees ... there is about two feet between them so in the winter it makes a perfect shelter. This morning I walked into her study as I often do to see if anything outside was moving around - and nothing was, but inside those pines were 12 deer laying down - really. I had never seen that before, and they were all facing away from out house to the neighbors ... so I got my cereal and banana and went in to watch them. It seemed a little strange that all their attention was centered on our neighbor's house, so I knew something was up, but just what remained a mystery to me ... then a couple of deer got up and bravely approached my neighbors screened in porch - ever vigilant.

With the speed of light they all stood up, never losing their focus, then they took flight ... and out the back door of his screened in porch my neighbor appeared - he was refilling a huge bird feeder near the door. Then I realized the deer were eating the husks of the seeds the birds had dropped. Though this episode failed to inspire the good wife, it was a great start to my day. I have about 20 pounds of cracked corn just sitting in the garage, so tonight before I retire I will spread it
out in my footprints between the window and the pines .... and the first window I peer through in the morning will in the good wife's study.

footnote: This morning on the internet I received my first 'monthly newsletter from the Abraham Lincoln Museum' since I've become a member! Even made a special folder for it Sherm.