"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

San Pedro Garza Garcia

Month: January 2017 Page 1 of 2

The continuing saga of the house in Washington state

The house we want to buyI am not sure how much I wrote about the struggle we were having getting to a close on the house we wanted to buy in Washington state, but just a few days before the funeral the whole deal fell through. What happened was that a lot of stuff showed up on the inspection that needed to be fixed. That was OK with us; there was nothing on the list that was not fixable for a very reasonable price. The house owner, a lawyer, decided he wanted to give us about a third of the money required to fix the problems, add a bunch of legalese to the contract and have us take it “as is” so we were saddled with all the issues. We decided to bail out.

So, three weeks later, our real estate guy calls us and tells us the owner is having everything fixed at his expense. I told him we were still interested. He recommended we make the same offer contingent on an inspection after all the repairs are complete. So we are still in the game to head back to the great Pacific Northwest and are truly excited about it. Who knows what will happen, but were are hopeful it will all work out.

An odd dream

12.0 of 60

All my life, I have had people tell me they dreamed about their parents after they died. I have heard it from people in both Mexico and here in the U.S., pretty much described in the same way. I had an odd dream about my parents last night. I do not know what to think about it. Some describe an über-reality that almost transcends the dream state. I cannot say that was true about my dream, but the content and immediate “in the present” nature of the dream gave me pause. I am not really sure how to process all this, but it has definitely given me food for thought.

Six more months in an apartment

Second Dallas apartment9.8 of 60

We change apartments tomorrow. We wanted to extend our lease in the old apartment, but had already given notice when we thought we had a house bought so we are having to make a move because they had already rented the apartment. The new apartment is nice, but we are really tired of apartment living and want to get into a house. We are back to looking everywhere for our next house.

Sometimes patience is required

Questions, questions, questions!Down 10.7 of 60

Just when I thought stuff would slow down again, everything seems to be speeding–in a good way. We have to figure out where we want to live. To give ourselves time to do the figuring and to accomplish some much need work at my day job, Lorena and I got a six month lease on an apartment closer to work. The really good news is that I will have the walks (one mile to/from work and one mile to/from restaurants from work for a total of four miles per day).

The problem is we are not sure where we want to buy a house, but we are sure we want to buy a house. We know we need to be close to a major airport. We also know we love the west and we love Mexico. Oregon and California are probably too liberal for comfort and have a lousy tax situation for the likes of us. Washington is borderline, but maybe OK. That is about all we know. So we have decided to look in as many places as possible. Even heading back to the deep South is not out of question, but probably a little bit of a stretch. The older I get though, the more confidence I have that something appropriate will open up–not necessarily even what we would pick for ourselves. So we are working on figuring it out and waiting until something becomes a little more apparent.

Sickle cell disease diagnosis project

HemexHealth sickle cell Anemia diagnosis deviceDown 7.4 of 60

After things started to settle down a little in our lives since the funeral, I had been trying to figure out what to do next. The folks were gone and the kids are on their own and are way too low maintenance for our taste (still going through withdrawal from their going off to college three years ago). Fortunately, I was recently selected to help a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University and a company named HemexHealth develop a product with an incredible social mission. I really do not know much about how it all works (after all, I type for a living), but the product is designed to rapidly and inexpensively diagnosis sickle cell disease. I DO know how to do my part of the product and am thankful for the opportunity to contribute to such a noble endeavor.

It is going to be a ton of work, but this is exactly the type of project I love. If this is not a good hobby project, I do not know what is. The other thing it will do is take up enough time that maybe Lorena will fill some modicum of guilt about browbeating me into exercising so much. “It’s for a good cause honey and you know I program better with a belly full of biscuits and gravy!”

Back to the salt mines

I noticed something from a recent family photoDown 7.4 of 60

I noticed something from one of the photos taken over the weekend of Grandpa Milo’s and Grandma Sarah’s funeral. I am WAY fat right now. There is really no excuse. So, at Lorena’s urging, I broke out the old fitbit and have set a goal again to lose 55 pounds (ouch). The good part of the whole deal is that we are moving this weekend to an apartment that is exactly one mile from work. There is a grocery store that is also one mile from work.Kiwi and I setting up my fitbit If I can walk to work and back every day and also walk to the grocery store for lunch every day (I am doing that now), I will have put in four miles and reduced my gas bill. No down side to that.

My hope is that I can get back down to my weight when I left Oregon in a couple of months then spend until August losing the additional thirty pounds. It might be too ambitious because I love to eat too much. Still, I would rather walk a little more than back off on the food, so there is a modicum of hope that I can do this. I will keep you posted.

Two beautiful funerals

Lorena and I went to the funeral of a man we really did not know yesterday. It was truly a wonderful funeral of a kind and wonderful man. In form, it was very different from the memorial service held for Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah. Yesterday’s funeral was more of a traditional funeral that followed a form to which we are accustomed although there were some wonderful personal accounts at the beginning of the funeral that were different than most we have attended. Grandpa Milo’s and Grandma Sarah’s broke that form significantly, partly to accommodate the varying needs and desires of the family and friends in attendance, but also to remember two fairly non-traditional people instead of one with a familiar, but significantly less than traditional ceremony.

All that being said, both events were beautifully done with Christ as the focus even in those elements of the celebration that addressed the secular elements of the departed. I think that is a testament to the way all of them led their lives, focused on helping others as driven by their devotion to Jesus. In the end, that is all good and that is the point. This morning I read I Corinthians 1 where Paul gave an admonishment to some who counted themselves as having been baptized by one or another of the apostles rather than counting themselves as followers of Christ. I think that reading was very timely and the precise reason why both of the funerals were celebrations of successfully lead lives; all of those lives were focused on Christ and none other. Let this be a reminder to me.

Grateful for friends

Kelly at Starbucks before Grandpa Milo's and Grandma Sarah's memorial serviceLorena, Kelly, Christian and I had time to spend together as a nuclear family while we were out in the Pacific Northwest for Grandpa Milo’s and Grandma Sarah’s funeral. We all agreed that in spite of all the hiccups that occurred (really bad weather, cancellation and change of venue at the last minute, etc.), it was the best service of its kind we ever attended. I am sure a lot of that has to do with the fact that it is our parents and grandparents who were the objects of the whole event, but that does not diminish the joy we experienced in celebrating their lives with dear, dear friends and family.

The photos with this post are of the kids when we had some time just to sit together and talk about life. Even though we are all at a different place now that the kids are off at college and working, we have decided we need toChristian at Gladys's house before Grandpa Milo's and Grandma Sarah's memorial service make more time for these kinds of getting together. We want to include our friends in that getting together, too. At these kinds of events it surely seems like all pettiness falls away. We will be contacting all the people who made all this possible over the next week or two to let them know how much they are appreciated.

One gift we received in all this is that we have the opportunity to attend another such event in Dallas this weekend. It is for a man not dissimilar to Grandpa Milo–bigger than life with a lot of love for “the least of these.” I think I learned a lot about how to be a friend at times like this from those who were there for us during these last days. I want to express a special thanks to my siblings who worked very, very hard to make things work well between all us siblings and with the larger, very diverse community. They and a group of close friends (you know who you are) really were the ones that made all this just work and I am grateful for you all.

A small weather window for Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah’s memorial service

Winter weather in Portland for Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah's funeralIt seemed appropriate to everyone that there should be at least a modicum of chaos surrounding Grandpa Milo’s and Grandma Sarah’s funeral. Sunday afternoon before the memorial service on Monday, Milwaukie High School called us to let us know that with only 19 hours notice, they decided to close the school and cancel our event. We briefly considered rescheduling because people had flown and drove in from all over the western U.S. Aunt Jean and Uncle Jerry came through with a beautiful venue in Oregon City, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Willamette Falls facility which turned out to be much more well suited for our purposes than the original venue: fabulous acoustics for congregational singing, a well tuned grand piano, a kitchen with an eating area for the potluck, easier parking, etc., etc., etc.

The weather was great, but the driving conditions were not exactly optimal. The picture at the top left shows the Sunset Freeway which was mostly clear, but many of the side streets were very much iced over and difficult to navigate. Nevertheless, the event went on and it was absolutely beautiful. I am more proud of my siblings and the community surrounding Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah than you can possibly imagine. In spite of all the challenges, probably about 250 showed up for the event and it went off without a hitch. It was exactly the send-off we all wanted and would have made them both proud. It was really stunning how everyone helped out, especially the ministers who preached, the piano player who played beautifully, the church members who handled all the setting up, tearing down and serving at the potluck and, of course, my siblings and their families who went to great pains to deal with a gazillion unforeseen obstacles and details. Just thank you to them all.

Lorena and I left Portland around midnight last night and arrived in Dallas just in time for me to go to work yesterday morning. The brief respite from the nasty weather/driving conditions ended today with a horrendous ice storm in the Portland area. I stayed awake long enough to get through the work day then crashed for the night as soon as I got home. I woke this morning with a feeling of gratitude for a loving community that helped us bury our parents in a dignified and respectful way, but with a celebration that would have made Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah proud.

The funeral location has changed!!!

NEW LOCATION!!! — The memorial service had to be changed to:

Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Willamette Falls
710 6th St
Oregon City, Oregon
Time: 11:00 AM

CURRENT STATUS: The memorial service is ON for January 16, at 11:00 AM.
The old place canceled on us at the last minute. We pushed out the time for a half an hour in case people go to the old location where we will have posted a notice.

Heading out to the funeral

Christian takes a picture at PHX with the good camera on his Pixel phoneThe weather is monumentally bad all over the Pacific Northwest. Kelly was scheduled to work in Oregon today for her job and just stay there after work today until the funeral. Lorena, Christian and I plan to fly to Seattle today, then drive down to Portland to start helping with all the upcoming events tomorrow. Since the weather did not cooperate and allow Kelly to go to Oregon yesterday, she will meet us in Seattle tonight and drive down to Portland with us. That is a very good thing. I will be nice to have a couple of meals and a night together as a family before we say good bye to Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah. Christian took the picture in this post through the window at his gate at the PHX airport with his new Google Pixel phone. To say the conditions were not optimal would be a wild understatement. So far the camera and optical system seem to be crazy good for a cell phone. I hope he remembered to pack his new Fuji camera, too.

Christian gets a Google Pixel phone

Christian gets a new Google Pixel cellphoneChristian uses his phone so much for the stuff he does at school that after two and a half years with his Samsung Note 4, he about wore it out. He wanted to get a new one, but the deals are so bad at Sprint these days for decent smart phones–about all they have available for a reasonable price are iphones, but who in their right mind would want one of those–that he decided to get the Google Pixel phone because he had heard good things about. The first thing he found was that, while the back camera is just awesome, the selfie camera is really pretty mediocre (see the picture below). The screen is great and the phone does everything he wants it toChristian's first (and probably only) selfie on his new Google Pixel phone do (which for him is a lot), but the main feature is that the phone is not so locked down you cannot do what you want. Christian says the phone is about the same size as our current Samsung Note 4’s and then he says the following:

It’s not as ‘impressive’ looking as some of the other phones because it has the bezels. It is also very bland, 0 features 0 bling, but that is the point. Its a good phone with no garbage.

I think that is the whole point. Most of the service and phone companies try to control what  you do with “their” phones so much that you cannot use it the way you want. At any rate, it is great he got the phone when he did because I, for the third time, got him an AM ticket when I thought I was getting a PM ticket so he is getting in to the airport WAY early and will have something with which to entertain himself while he is waiting. I think Kelly will probably show up early and take him to dinner.

Kelly gets her first business cards

Kelly's first business cards!Kelly got her first business cards today. She had some for her graduate degree, but it was just not the same. She has a very cool title, too! There is nothing like getting your new business cards when you get a new position.

Link to info on Milo and Sarah Chapman’s Memorial service with obituaries

Click here.

Milo and Sarah’s obituaries and weather postponement notice (if necessary)

Just thought I should put this here because the Memorial Service info is not a regular blog post and I wanted people to be able to get to it.

Getting ready for the memorial service with a finicky blog

The blog was down for a few days due to technical issues. I am kind of glad for that because so much has been going that if I would have written about it in real time I would certainly have just confused everyone and probably even myself. The good part is the plan for the memorial service for Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah is coming together nicely. Lots of people plan to travel to Oregon and there are lots of people within driving distance. The venue (Milwaukie High School Auditorium in Milwaukie, Oregon–yes I spelled Milwaukie correctly, it is the people in Wisconsin who spell it wrong!) has enough room for 600 people. I am sure there will not be remotely that many people there, but we have plenty of room for everyone to attend who so desires and a great place for a potluck afterward.

The complications have to do with just about everything else: work, houses, travel, etc., etc., but more about that later. I am glad to have my blog back. Those technical difficulties happened at the absolutely least convenient time ever. For the first time in history it was actually being used to get some useful information to people and then it goes down.

The world at war

There is a very interesting post on the state of war and violence in the world over at the Strategy Page site (h.t. Bayou Renaissance Man). The whole post was very educational for me because it describes the source of violence in a lot countries around the world with ancillary information you can view by clicking the country name. I cannot speak to what is happening in most of those countries, but the site built a lot of credibility because of their spot-on take on what is going on in Mexico. The drug cartels are a thing, but few understand the interplay between the cartels, a corrupt government culture and local militia that has formed to protect citizenry from the horrible violence. When the Mexican government legitimized those militia due to their success, a very important byproduct was the spotlight that got thrown on the culture of corruption that is winked at and/or perpetrated by the government itself. That section on Mexico is worth the price of admission (free), but the whole article is just stellar.

A kind gift from our home Bible study meeting

Flowers from our Wednesday night bible study groupLast night was the last scheduled Wednesday night Bible study we will have at our little apartment here in Lewisville. We had it there biweekly, but because we are moving at the end of the month and have the funeral to attend later in the month, it will move to another home for the next time when it would have been with us. It was a great privilege to meet with this little group, we enjoyed it immensely and will miss it very much. The beautiful flowers by the window were kindly sent by the other members of the meeting in condolences for Grandpa Milo and were very much appreciated.

Note to the person who sent the very unhelpful and graceless comment to this blog after Grandpa Milo’s death: Grandpa Milo, Grandma Sarah and all our little family believe now and have always believed that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and not by works. That is the common belief in our fellowship and what has always been preached in our hearing.

Grateful for a father who loved me

Grandp Milo eating oranges in EcuadorGrandpa Milo died January 1. Dad was one of those bigger than life guys who started his life in a migrant farm worker family picking hops, beans and strawberries around the state of Oregon as soon as he was old enough to contribute as a small child, but who went on to all kinds of unique success in business, the military and even in school. He worked physically hard his entire life, even when he no longer needed to. He, like Grandma Sarah, was always a champion of the underdog loving much and doing more than his part in every setting. I do not want to turn this into a eulogy, there will be time for that later, but I wanted to mark his passing with just a few memories and thoughts.

In spite of the fact that I have appeared to be more like my father both in appearance and personality than my other siblings, we were very different from each other in character. It was of great joy to all of us that Aunt Julia is the one who was most like Dad in character and she had a special bond with him because of it. She was the one who had Grandpa Milo’s blond hair and blue eyes, too. Still, each of us kids had a very special and unique bond with Dad. My relationship with him was very, very close. We spoke in person or on the phone several times per week for my entire life–lessening some once I got married and had kids, but never disappearing.

It was one of the great joys of my life to discover that it did not matter that I did not have the same entrepreneurial drive as Grandpa Milo nor great joy in physical labor although I learned to tolerate it a lot more for having been his son. A lot of superficial stuff got in the way of my discovery of that fact. I assumed my success in business, sports, finances and, to a lesser degree, education were important to Dad. My epiphany was that Dad was more interested in my relationship with Jesus, the fulfillment of my responsibilities as a husband, father and member of society and my happiness than any success in following his footsteps with respect to this temporal life–probably in that order.

The picture with this post is of Dad in his mid-70’s. Alzheimer’s disease must have already been working on Dad when this was taken, but no one could tell yet. We like to think it was because of his ever ebullient spirit. He and one of our ministers who had labored in Ecuador for many years stopped on a several mile hike at over 10,000 feet of altitude to eat some oranges that grow there ubiquitously. He did not talk at all about how onerous it must have been–it is hard to breath at 10,000 feet when you live close to sea level, especially when you are over 70 and on an uphill hike. Rather, he reveled in the amazing amount of juice in the oranges and the beauty of the scenery. That was so typical of him. He was not there because he wanted an adventure although he reveled in that, too. He was there to take a friend who could not have made the trip on his own to see his twin brother, one of our ministers who works in the Philippines and was on a trip to preach in South America.

Funeral details for Milo and Sarah (and request for stories)

 There funeral for Milo and Sarah Chapman is on January 16 at 10:30 AM at the Milwaukie High School Auditorium. Here are the details:

Date: MLK Day, Monday, January 16, 2017
Time: 10:30 AM
Location: Milwaukie High School Auditorium, Milwaukie, Oregon
Notes: Potluck to follow on location
  No graveside service

We would be grateful to any who would be willing to share a story or picture with us about/of Milo and/or Sarah. If you would, please send it in any format you would like via email to chapman55k@gmail.com. It can be just part of the email, a photograph, a PDF, Word document or anything you would like. Our plan is to put them all into folders people can read at the funeral with blank pages where people might like to add additional stories or pictures. After the funeral, we plan to accumulate the new material into a final version, then send it out to whomever might like a copy via email.

Photo for Grandpa Milo's and Grandma Sarah's funeral

Grandpa Milo is gone

Just a brief note to let everyone know that Grandpa Milo died peacefully tonight. The funeral is currently scheduled for both he and Grandma Sarah on January 16 in the Milwaukie, Oregon. I will post the exact timing and location here as soon as I have it.
Grandpa Milo dies the evening of January 1, 2017

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