Happy Earth Day!

A bit late as we just returned home from the first "Who's YourMama?" Environmental Film Festival in Kent, OH. One of the highlights for me was seeing Koyaanisqatsi again. Betsy got to see it for the first time. We left after 1900 and it was to run till 2100, but we wanted to be home a bit early . We got in about 2040 or so.
There was also a Native American artist/storyteller with some small reproductions of his paintings. We also saw thelarge mural on the wall of a building on Water St.
We had afun time and took some photos I will try to psot to Flickr a bit later-maybe tomorrow.

"We Are Virginia Tech" Nikki Giovanni

"We Are Virginia Tech"

One Spring Morning, With Tulips

Some friends of mine out for a spring morning in the Netherlands with Spencer.

Nikki Giovanni

We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.



Nikki Giovanni

Liviu Librescu

Liviu Librescu a true hero. I can say no more than this article.

Coincidence? Synchronicity? Bubbles!

In two places, similar bubbly events. I like that people were chasing and trying to catch them.

P.S.

And our camera has been missing for weeks.

Changes Good and Bad Life goes On Part 2

And now for the changes I don't care much for. Tomorrow would have been the sheriff's sale of our house, but for us filing bankruptcy. We worked with Roger Stearns, a local lawyer who will represent us. $1,200 and court costs spread over a couple of payments. We will meet him later today to pay a final hundred we owe. This saves the house, and we will not have to move. But it was too close for comfort. Both Betsy and I had bouts of insomnia due to this. And we still owe on all utilities. Our phone bill needs paid, or it will be shut off, as will be the electric and the gas. The car is mostly going on wishful thinking. We have major house repairs needed. And my job is a woeful mess. I am so behind on productivity. Michael quit. Rob has talked about it as have one or two others.
This week our offices moved, with mine being one of the last to go Friday.
We open for business tomorrow in the new location, with a change of name coming up soon.
One of my clients was murdered on a Monday last month, after I had seen her on that Friday. She was only 28 and looking forward to spring and summer coming.
My health has been ok, my INR at 2.00 is at the low end of good. Betsy is doing ok, with a thyroid adjustment, and some dental work needing to be done.
Spencer has two upcoming installations and it is unlikely we will be able to attend either of them.
But to put things in perspective, our lawyer told us on Thursday when we met that his son, aged 30, had died this summer of an asthma attack, with his inhaler in his hand.

Changes Good and Bad and Life Goes On Part 1

As you can see by looking over my blog for the last few months I have not been regularly blogging. I have been to tired and depressed over all the major and minor changes in my life. Only now am I coming out of it a bit though there is still a ton of pressure on us right now. Lets start with a few good things. I had 219 hits on my Geocities site last month-I'm sure for people looking for Spencer stuff.
Some of this will be backwards so bare with me. Pun intended.
Betsy and I went yesterday to see "The Peaceful Warrior" on free tickets offered in conjunction with Best Buy. Good, if somewhat predicitable. Should eventually make it to the spiritual movie night at Betsy's church. Last Sunday we saw "Premonition" at Marquee Club prices($5 each). Waste of $10. Do not see this movie if you value your peace of mind/sanity. Yuck!
It was made worse because the day befor we had seen our second screening at the 31st Cleveland Film Festival which ended last week. Betsy and I won four vouchers for the film festival way back on the 25 th of February when we attended a fantastic concert by Richard Thompson(opened by Eliza Gilkyson). We entered a drawing for the tickets and won. We got them in the mail in the first or second week of March. As they were vouchers that meant we had to exchnge them for tickets . We went downtown on the 10th to do so and we ran into Reece Walters, a young man that Betsy was a nanny to about 20 years ago. He was working for the festival. They had a nice, if brief, visit. We exchnged two of our vouchers for tickets to the "International Commercials" screening, on the 17th. We also stayed and saw the movie "Black Snake Moan"
As Sunday the 11th was our 18th anniversary we went out to see two movies "The Pursuit of Happyness" and "The Curse of The Golden Flower" both very well done and totally different.
We went downtown to see the "International Commercials" on St. Patrick's Day. They were terrific. Lots of imagination.We then went to view the parade. We were near the reviewing stand and stayed for an hour, but it was cold , if bright and clear, and it is hard for either of us to stand for very long now.
The next day was the 50th Buzzard Sunday at Hinckley Reservation of the Metroparks. We went over, saw many buzzards, had anniversary cake(twice!) a hamburger and Coke, took the tour of the park, which included an historic house and a mummified cat named "Bones". On our way home we had a buzzard fly so low over us in Hinckley, Betsy could see his red head. On the way home we took a long drive through Metroparks and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Wonderful day for it.
On one day this month(I know which, I just won't put it her) Rob and I saw "300". WOW!!!!
Back to last weekend the 24 th, when we took the boys in to be neutered by Dr. Stearns, our vet who has been taking care of our cats since 1986. We had breakfast at a nice resturant in Euclid, then went on downtown to see our second screening, a collection of 8 shorts, including a wonderful one called "West Bank Story". They were all really good. We then came back to the vets and picked up two sore little boys who are now neutered. I hate the term "fixed" btw. If they were working right we unfixed them. The whole neutering thing bothers me, and on more than just a male level. If the purpose of nature is to reproduce and Johnny and Difflewuz are excellent cat specimens, why not let them reproduce. Well, they would have been fighting with each other and other males, roaming far to stake out territory, and in fact one would have driven the other off. So they could not be left intact.
At some point we saw "Stomp The Yard" a good movie, similar to "Drumline". We also saw "The King of Hearts" one of my favorite movies at Betsy's church as a part of their spiritual cinema viewing. Oh yes, and on the 6th I turned 57, and Bety had a birthday later last month as well. And so did miss Thorissa who turned 9.

My Office Nearly Empty

My Office Nearly Empty, originally uploaded by rcoss2001.

Friday was moving day at the end of moving week. At the end of last year our agency had decided to move to a building down the same street, about half a mile away. After a few missed dates, finally they decided on the last week in March. Friday was the day everything in the offices of most of the nurses moved. Monday we start in the new building, and soon after with a new name for the agency