Retirement PhD candidate in Natural Resources at University of Nebraska Lincoln. Married Christian man with two children, homeschool graduates working as (hard) scientists at national labs of renown. Oregonian (family arrived in 1846 along the Applegate Trail). Living and working from home in Washington state. Lived in North Carolina for seven years, Texas several times and South Florida among other places--kids graduated from NCSU, LOVE North Carolina and NCSU, Texas and South Florida). Judo Shodan. Graduate of Oregon State University (B.S. Business Administration, Marketing), Oregon Institute of Technology (A.E. Computer Systems Engineering Technology), University of Texas at El Paso (M.S. Industrial Engineering). Computer Vision Research Consultant. Bilingual English/Spanish.
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.
We have been celebrating Lorena’s birthday for the last week or so and we only have about a week more to go! Here birthday was on a Tuesday and I had to work so all se really did on the actual day was to run down to Shake Shack to get a hamburger. We made up for it big time on Friday. Grandma Conchita and Tíos Lauro and Lynn came over and we went to our favorite taco place, Sonorense in the El Centrito neighborhood of San Pedro. Afterward, we all came back to the apartment to sing Las Mañanitas and eat mango cake from Pastelería Leti. I definitely did not adhere to my diet in any of this. Today, we ran down to the Chili’s at the mall where Lorena had chilaquiles and I had chicken fried chicken–a very nostalgic moment because that is one of the places we frequented when we were first married. Tomorrow, we are going to have our church meeting together, then probably have lunch with Lynn and Conchita. On Monday, we are going to watch the inauguration of President Trump and then head up to the hill to see the remodel progress on the house because, supposedly they will have hit a major milestone in the work on the first floor.
I am truly grateful to have spent more then thirty years with this beautiful woman. Each year just keeps getting better. We hope, God willing, that 2025 will be our final, big, cross-country move, close to the kids in a place that has easy access to a lot of infrastructure. We are looking forward to one more push to make that happen, but the good news is that we have done it so many times before that we do not get too stressed over all of the little things that go wrong because they WILL go wrong. Good thing we are just passing through in this life–it is great to have such a spectacular partner with him to take the journey.
Christian has gotten permission from his employer to help me in my work doing image processing algorithm development in bioscience (cell culture). He is doing very complicated signal processing work about which I know very little. The thing that is most amazing about working with him is that he is so structured in what he does. Without asking, he is preparing to document and deliver what we need at a level to which our little company is not accustomed. The thing that makes it even more complex and interesting is that it is a science project and we do not even know whether what we have asked him to do is possible so structured methods and documentation are essential. I am enjoying this very much.
This is the view from the terrace at the apartment tonight. It really is spectacular. Lynn made a guisado (stew) tonight in the ceramic pottery bowls on the grill. It was fabulous. A calm and fun evening.
This post is just a marker for the time Lorena and I decided not to build a house in Texas, but to move to Virginia so we can be closer to the kids and see them on weekends. More soon, God willing.
Our friend, Jill McDonald, sent us a couple of pictures that must have been taken around 1998 or 1999. Both of Jill and Lyle’s sons were very good with our kids, always paying attention to them when they were little. This is Mark, reading to both Kelly and Christian.
It really was kind of an amazing time because this was just about the time that Kelly learned how to really read on her own, but before she could read well enough to entertain Christian (which she did a ton, once she got the hang of it). We read and read and read a lot and they never got tired of it. It was nice to have these guys who were gentle and kind to the kids, talking to them seriously and answering endless questions (mostly from Christian) and showing them toys and just making it fun and interesting for them–something that did not always happen. We are grateful for those times.
Here is how I go shopping with Lorena. We go to HEB, she walks me to the coffee shop, buys me a coffee and a doughnut, sits me down, and then calls me when she gets through the cash register. Then when we get home she tells me what a great help I am and how much better it is if I go with her. I am glad to be so value added in this way. I wish I could say I did all the heavy-lifting, but that would be a lie.
We had one of the nicest Christmas/New Year holiday this year. It was quiet, but gave a chance for truly quality time with Kelly and Christian over Christmas in Washington, D.C. and with Grandma Conchita and Tío Lynn for the New Year in San Pedro. This picture is from pre-Christmas dinner at Pastis in D.C. We hope to be able to celebrate next year here in Mexico if the kids can come down. God willing, we hope to celebrate Thanksgiving in Texas next year.
2024 was a crazy year for Lorena and I. It seemed like I was running like crazy for the entirety of my PhD leading up to walking the graduation ceremony in December of 2023. We assumed that life would slow down some after that, but we decided, early in 2024 that we really did not want to be so far away from shopping and medical services as we got older. We also reaffirmed that we hated HOA’s and did not really need an acre of land (after downsizing from three acres). So we decided to put our Godley house on the market and build a house in Granbury.
We needed a place to live while our house was being built in Mexico so we decided to live in one of the apartments of our little apartment building in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Nuevo Leon. We believe God has his hand in virtually everything and this has been no exception. Grandma Conchita is not getting any younger and it has been a huge blessing to be close to her over these last few months. It appears we will be moving out of the apartment in a couple of months and into one floor of the house that is in the process of remodeling up the hill from the apartments. We don’t expect to be in the new house in Granbury until late in 2025–we are hoping to celebrate Thanksgiving there, but that might be too optimistic.
I was reminded today of a post I made back in 2016 about my (almost) brush with serial killer Ted Bundy. The post tells the story and references a series of comments I made to a ThinkingChristian blog post. I was a minor participant, but I am not unhappy with what I wrote even though I only vaguely remember doing it. You can find my comments in that blog post by searching on “chapman55k.”
Kelly got me this book for Christmas. I have read up to page 119 so far. I like it. At the same time, the book features what seem to be unsupported assertions that might not have stood the test of time. Maybe they are valid assertions, but we cannot know that from what was written as far as I can tell. The cited McCarthy example is a case in point. I would venture to guess that most are in agreement with the assertion, but I know that it is an ongoing discussion. It is irritating because I think I am learning a lot from the book, but I cannot be exactly sure because of these unsupported viewpoints. Browsing the citations in the end notes for the chapters did not mitigate my uneasiness.
McCarthy threatened the entire edifice of anticommunism by associating it with crackpot theories and embarrassing theatrics.
Maybe I should not have started this post with a diatribe on my reservations about this book because I am enjoying it immensely. It was a spectacular gift. At the same time, an analysis of conservatism associated with both the New York Times, National Review, and Bill Kristol with the bulk of the author’s life lived in the Northeast with twenty years in Washington, D.C. gives me great pause. It reinforces my decision to not characterize myself as conservative nor of the right, but as a follower of Jesus. It is hard for me to imagine that someone of this pedigree has any real sense of what people think in fly-over country which makes up the vast bulk of those who make up “the right.”
That the author is characterized as an intellectual in this podcast, also gives me pause.
Most know I am a native son from Oregon. I truly love Oregon. We currently live in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, but will move back to Texas, God willing, when our house there is built–probably toward the end of 2025. It is becoming increasingly evident that I will never again live in Oregon although I will always call it my home. The kids are on the east coast and Lorena’s family is in Mexico and Texas. While it remains, in my estimation, the most beautiful state in the nation, the politics of the state have made it almost unlivable. The schools are some of the worst in the nation, there are huge crime and drug problems, and Christian morality is actively mocked in law and culture. Still, I would love to be there. Our first relative arrived there in 1846 along the Applegate Trail. The latest any of the others arrived was in the last couple of decades of the 19th century.
We are grateful to Texas and Nuevo Leon with their beautiful cultures and acceptance of outsiders, but I will always be an outsider in those places even though their moral senses are more aligned with my own.
A good number of years ago–I am estimating about eight or nine years, our little family went to Denny’s in Arizona with our wonderful friends, Al and Michele Rizo and their family to have dinner. We had done that quite a few times over the years, but that might have been one of the last times before we lost Al to cancer. We miss him a lot. Michele found a picture of the event that she sent to Lorena a couple of days ago. I thought it was way to good to not put up here. Kelly is her usual magnificent self and Christian lent me the chain necklace his Grandpa Lauro had given him long enough for this picture.
Lorena’s OXO egg timer broke shortly before we moved to Mexico. It was not just any egg timer, but one that pokes a small hole in the egg and has an adjustable timer that seems to never miss. Lorena religiously makes a breakfast every morning that consists of a piece of 60 calorie Dave’s Killer Bread toast, an egg cooked so that the yoke is still a little bit liquid to spread on the toast, the homemade applesauce that Grandma Sarah taught her to make with 2½ teaspoons of chia and 2 teaspoons of cocoa nibs, and a cup of coffee. It just does not work together as it should unless the egg is cooked perfectly. We could not find one of these egg timers in Mexico, so she was VERY happy that Christian found her one for a Christmas present. He is, by far, her favorite son.
Lorena and I are spending the whole day traveling today. We had an absolutely incredible time with Christian and Kelly in Washington DC. I am reading the book that Kelly gave me title The Right. The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism by Matthew Continetti. I like it so far, and will report back when I’m done. The headset Christian gave me cuts out 99% of the airport noise. Amazing.
We took a picture of our family together for Christmas for the second year in a row in Washington, D.C. This year it was in Kelly’s apartment in front of her Christmas tree. We are having a truly amazing time–so grateful to God for all he has done for us and for those thing from which we have been saved.
We have been having a great time with Kelly here in Washington, D.C. We met two of her best friends who were both just amazing people and have had a low-key, restful time. It got even better last night when Christian arrives. Kelly made reservations for Pastis for lunch–a place everyone but me has been. Tonight we are going to just hang out as we get ready for our Christmas celebration tomorrow morning (early because we fly home to Mexico early Christmas morning.
