I have to say I am mightily impressed. Lorena made a few hand-thrown shot glasses in her pottery class and I got to be the first one to try one out! We have identified some places in Virginia where we hope she can take this back up again.
Year: 2025 Page 2 of 3
This article was taken from the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper from Feb. 27, 1963. It is about Charlie Whetham, Kelly’s and Christian’s great-great-uncle and my Grandma Chapman’s brother. You might not have guessed I came from such a classy family, but wait until you read this article! He pleaded innocent and told the judge the doctor told him take whiskey baths for his rheumatism (he said “rumatiz”). We heard he was convicted, but I am not sure what was his punishment. The best part is that he was born and raised in Nebraska and did not go out to Oregon until much later. He fought in WWI. My great aunts always said that he got gassed during the war and was pretty loopy ever since, but Grandma C (Grandpa Milo’s mom), as we called her, said he was like that before he left for the war.
I had several conversation today about the chaotic state of the world. These are people who do not necessarily have common world views with me or the others with whom I spoke. We were all in complete agreement that we loathe the values and methods of the side that we are on–very different sides in some cases, but that none of us are very excited about the people who are supposedly on our side. It was confirming that this dissonance was common to us all, irrespective of our world views. Of course, people like me look at the eschatological significance and how what is happening aligns with Christian morality. I am discomfited. But so are others who do not have my world view. At least we have a common context within which to discuss what is going on that is more closely aligned than I have seen in a long time, at least among the people of good will with whom I like to engage–my friends.
Our plans to buy a house in Virginia have moved forward. God willing, we will close the sale on March 3. Our stuff is all scheduled to arrive between March 4 and 6. The following things have been accomplished:
- Closing date scheduled
- Down payment set aside
- Loan finalized
- Truck scheduled to move our stuff
- Home insurance selected
- Tickets from Mexico to Texas purchase
- Drive from Texas to Virginia planned
We will have a lot to do when we arrive, but the first thing will be to get internet service and get my office set up so I do not miss too much work. Looking forward to the whole deal.
Even though Tío Lynn did not make it until we ate cake back at the apartment, Tío Lauro, Grandma Conchita, Lorena, and I all made it to Tacos Sinaloense for there normal incredible tacos. The weather cooperated magnificently with 75° weather on the most spectacular February 6 evening of my lifetime. Afterward, we made our way back to the apartment to have birthday mango cake and sing both Happy Birthday to You and Las Mañanitas.
Grandma Conchita turned 79 years old today and she is doing great. She came over to hang out with us today. A little later, Tíos Lauro and Lynn are coming over and we are heading out to Tacos Sinaloense for dinner!
I made passing acquaintance one day with a guy named Frank Evans in 1983 at Intelledex, an early machine vision and robotics company in Corvallis, Oregon. He was one of the principal engineers while I was a lowly technical writer and industrial trainer. We have both worked in this field ever since. We have not really worked at the same company together for over twenty years, but we have stayed in touch and I have used him as a contractor in three different companies over long periods of time.
In our current stint, we are coming up on seven years together. He is getting to the end now and continues to work with me, not because he needs the money, but because the work is interesting and the people are of good will. I am getting to that point myself. It has been a good reminder that I have many things for which to be thankful. Sometimes, I do not put my work in that list, but I have to say it has been a gift to be able to do work that I love with people of good will. I honestly believe that comes from God.
My buddy and fellow UNL student, John S. sent this image that he took from his place in Arizona, not too far from where Christian earned his PhD. I got to work with my UNL professor Troy and a University of PhD student with whom we have been working. It just feels good to have a day of collaboration with people of good will. I am looking forward to doing a lot more of this if I ever retire.
One of our real estate agents sent me this photo this morning of the view looking out of the living room toward our neighbor to the east for the house we are working on buying.. He told us the neighbor has sheep that graze on the other side of the trees from the house. Lorena and I are very much looking forward to that view in the mornings and the evenings. It can also be seen from the screen porch at the back of the house.
It has been a very interesting day. Lorena and I finished up the book of Numbers in our read through the Reina Valera 1960 Bible this morning in our little Sunday morning meeting, then went to Shake Shack at the Galería mall–what a surprising gift it is to have that available to us just a few minutes away from the apartment. When we got home, Tío Lynn told me to check the value of the Mexican Peso against the US Dollar. Amazing. It dropped an entire peso due to the tariffs Donald Trump is imposing on Mexico to try to stop the fentanyl from entering the US from Mexico.
He did the same thing with the Canadian Dollar. It dropped to its lowest value ever against the US Dollar, also to try to stop the movement of fentanyl from Canada to the US.
Who knows when this will end, but I cannot imagine it will last very long because it is in the best interests of all three countries to work this out. I am especially optimistic about the future of Mexico if this helps them get the cartel problem worked out.
Grandma Conchita came over last night and Tío Lynn grilled us up some steaks to celebrate the beginning of the purchase process for a new house in Virginia. The seller accepted our offer (we got the price down a little and they agreed to screen in the back porch) and we have paid the earnest money deposit and are in the process of getting the inspections done and getting the appraiser out to value the house. We found a house that is on the side of Richmond (not in Richmond, but outside) we want to live, but close to everything to which we want to be close.
We are very grateful that we were able to find the kind of house we wanted. It will be a perfect place for just the two of us to live on the bottom floor, but big enough that the kids can spread out and invite friends whenever they want. We are a short train ride up to where Kelly lives and a cheap flight to where Christian lives. The best part is that we will be close to the kids, but finding a house that works for us, does not have a ton of upkeep, and has lots of trees and potential garden space is worth gold. Hope there are no hiccups in the purchase. We do not anticipate any.
Tío Lynn continues to make progress on the house up the hill from the apartments in San Pedro. We have a new goal now. He is going full speed ahead to get the first floor ready so we can move all our things up there from the apartment as we get ready to move to Virginia. He already has a renter lined up to move into where we are living now, so that should help the flow of funds for the work on the hill.
We have a house identified we want to buy in Virginia. We thought it had some issues with surface water. I never thought my degree and connections to the hydrology would help me do anything other than volunteer to work with my friends, but it really paid off to have someone to call for advise and to understand a lot of it myself.
Tío Lynn has been working hard on the first floor of the house up the hill. It is starting to really look amazing. He has the mini-splits mostly in place and all the lighting, electrical, pluming, and sheet rock ready to go.
One of the things I find very interesting here in our neighborhood is the standard way to announce your presence when you arrive at someone’s doorstep is to yell out that you are there and/or the name of the person you are there to see. There are no knocking or doorbells anywhere that I have seen so far. Even UPS, DHL, and Amazon operate that way. Pretty cool actually.
Lorena brought home the objects she made in her pottery class today. I am extremely happy with the mug she made. Honestly, the instructor is not good at all, but Lorena gets a chance to get her hands in the mud and comes home happy every time she goes.
There are Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts programs at the local state university in the area where we hope to live in Virginia where Lorena can pursue a degree and get the level of instruction she wants to improve her skills. There are also many, many pottery studios available throughout the whole area. We are getting ready to take are trip, hoping we can find a place that we both like and can afford.
The mayor of the city where we live here in Mexico sent out blankets to the middle class and poor neighborhoods because of the below freezing temperature. Lorena and I both got one and they are pretty nice with the San Pedro city logo and all. They also sent out a television reporter and photographs and publicity people to make sure everyone knew about the great kindness of our mayor. We WERE appreciative.
We have finalized our house search plans for Virginia. The best part is that Kelly is going to come down on the train from Washington DC to join us and look at houses. We have a rental car and a hotel and a plan to visit the top three or four on our list. Also on the plan is to just go have some good food and explore to the extent the weather allows.
I spent the whole day watching Donald Trump’s second inauguration. I really like a lot of the things he plans to do, but have a level of discomfort with the cavalier attitude the whole movement has taken with respect to moral values and obligations. At the same time, he seems to be in the side of Israel and he wants to defeat a lot of bad things. The older I get the more I feel an acute sense of my need of forgiveness of sin and society’s willingness to both do and promote things that got Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed. God have mercy on us all.
Kelly was at an inauguration event a couple of nights ago and is scheduled to be at about three more events in Washington DC today and then another one or two again tomorrow. She is a little bit under the weather, but it surely seems like she is enjoying it quite a bit. She took this picture at the first event of Steve Bannon, political gadfly (in the middle), Nigel Farage, fake conservative (on the right–not a fan–he thinks he has the standing to disparage Tommy Robinson–he does not), and some other guy on the left. We are pretty excited to hear about what happens today. Mom and I listened to the pre-inauguration Trump speech at the rally he had the day before the inauguration. It was pretty fun.