Life as Art...

More than a few locals would not find Coatesville beautiful enough to inspire art - but someone did. There's an exhibition at a University of Pennsylvania gallery of artist John Moore. For everyone who can't afford to come up and see me, see the selections:
http://www.design.upenn.edu/people/moore_john
I discovered this in Sunday's Philly Inquirer. (you can google that too) The painting "A Fine Fall Day" has the most interest to me because the right-hand street is ours, and our house is lost in the forest of roofs at the top right before the 'field'.

The art reviewer in the Inquirer must have never been to Coatesville. What he calls 'fields' are cemeteries! My inlaws are buried in the foreground cemetery, and Bob's Grandpa Frantz (and a few old neighbors) are buried on the opposite hill. They have excellent views, far from the steel mills which used to control life in this town.

The large building at the left is the S. Horace Scott Middle School (was the high school when Bob graduated). The colorful building at center houses public health clinics on the 1st and 4th floors, and senior citizen apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors; each function has separate entrances and elevators. It wasn't there when we moved in two and a third years ago.

PS. The exhibit is entitled "Thirteen Miles from Paradise". Coatesville is, literally; Paradise is a farm community in Lancaster County, 13 miles west on US 30. Plus, working in a steel mill sure isn't 'paradise'. Coatesville has the distinction of being the only city incorporated in Chester County. The other 'cities' in this county , including the county seat of West Chester, are called boroughs.

I'm still here...

and life is a little better, just busy. It got warm enough to put up screens, and we've been at it the last 4 days. Fans, too. This old house doesn't have 220v wiring, and fans are it....and they get old by June, when the humidity hits.

Found one cousin on ClassMates. Found the son of another has a rap sheet in Florida and puts mud on our good name. Back in the old days, a guy like this would get the choice of the army or jail. One of my husband's cousins said at the funeral of an aunt, "Uncle Andy (her husband) was so good at raising hell at home, they sent him to raise hell with the Germans." Must have worked, he came back to be a responsible citizen.

Thank you, Lord, for what my kids are so far.

Duh, forgot

Memory Eternal, Walter James Genter (July 14, 1910 - April 22, 1986)
Mom's father and a very levelheaded man
The great-grandfather my kids didn't know because we lived in CA

A cupbearer to the Apostles in Paradise, I hope, and sharing the company of Chirpy with Grandma Lily, his wife, and Grandma Grace and Grandpa Adrian, my other grandparents

Christos Voskrese

Yes, I'm still here....
The girls are still plotting how to beautify Chirpy's grave. As it is, it receives all the palm crosses, church bread crumbs, red eggshells from church, and fake flowers they can shower upon it. They also ordered plush animals that bear a passing resemblance to her and put her collars and ID tag on them.

I managed to eat some spoiled leftovers last Saturday night, and what's worse, held them down until Sunday morning. THEN I 'tossed my cookies'. I recovered enough to drag myself to church, sit slumped in the choir, and belt out the tenor. We actually had 2 men to sing bass! Val works in Baltimore. His wife Sandy is first cousin to our choir director Nina. Michael, well..I'm not sure how he fits in, he's Russian and his wife is Greek. He appears frequently, but not steadily. As it is, his little son Constantine keeps attempting paratroop maneuvers off the choir loft rail. Boy, I'm glad I wasn't in the St. Nicholas San Diego choir, Thomas would have tried it.......

I slept most of the rest of the day. Didn't eat much, either. The Russian Paschka tradition is to pork out on all that meat and dairy denied during Lent, so I broke that. However, I had lost 3 pounds at my last diabetic checkup on the 15th, and my A1C (glycosolated hemoglobin) was a 5.5. That's within the normal range. Feelin' good!

Called Mom in her nursing home and my sister Grace at her home, which is a defacto nursing home with her son Aaron as caretaker since she fractured her lumbar spine and discombobulated her knees. Grace roasted my husband Bob for not allowing the cats in the house. In her opinion, he was responsible for Chirpy's death. I had to counter that the current setup is not my idea of responsible pet ownership, but a compromise with the Lord and Master that allowed the litter to even stay and not be carted off to the pound. Mom suggested that Bob misses Chirpy, but can't bring himself to admit it, having grown up with the constant propaganda of 'pets are destructive'. I think Mom's right.

Meanwhile, back to the job hunt, wondering how we'll handle going to DC for the tryouts, and filing for the nth time to get Maria on Medicaid. They accepted Anne and Rachel, but not her. HUH? The one who needs it worst? I dropped off a "Health-Sparing Medication" form at the county office on the 31st, and you think I'd have dropped off a fox in the henhouse. Tomorrow Maria and I go visit the office of a professional pit bull retained by Brandywine Hospital to expedite these matters. Let's go kick some ***!

And yes, Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

Good thing we're Orthodox

...Or it would be a really unhappy Easter. As it is, I hope Mom had a happy birthday today.

Our tiger cat Chirpy got hit by a car at the corner of Star Alley and Walnut Street, 1/2 block from our house. Looks like she took a hit to the head so she didn't suffer. We just finished burying her 15 minutes ago. Bob started the hole by our plum tree, Anne finished it, laid Chirpy in the hole, covered her in fallen petals from the blooming bush in the next yard, and some dried grass from our attempts at digging garden plots. Then Bob filled in the hole and replaced the sod.

In spite of being adults, Rachel and Anne are heartbroken. Maria seems to be taking it in stride. "Grandpa has another kitty to play with now."

The girls plan to buy flowers on Monday to place on the grave.

Me, I'll miss her.

Catchin' up on the ol' blog

I finished the Certified Medical Administrative Assistant course April 3 - got 99 out of 100 on the exam. The certificate is in the mail. (Technically, I still have to take the Basic MS Excel class I missed February 24 because I was running a 102° fever with the bug going around. I'm scheduled for May 22 - too far out - but I'm noted to be contacted for a cancellation. I've checked out a book on MS Office from the library.)

The young woman in our class who is turning her life around, and was so anxious over being able to pass at all, got a 96. Shrieks, tears, laughter, and pictures all around with the instructors. Which reminds me, I need to email her the Student Profile for Career Search, since I don't know if she got one. She left before I did on Friday.

I applied to a library-secreterial position at the Veterans Administration Medical Center, Coatesville. Its main building looks like a knockoff of Independence Hall sitting on the crest of the hill overlooking Coatesville on the north. I got a NIce Turn Down email sounding like the position was open to the public only to be fishing for any veterans out there who weren't IN the hospital. C'est la vie. I haven't heard from my Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor lately, so I think he's fuming over it. :)

Michigan State got to the finals, just to be stomped flat by University of North Carolina. Wait till next year, Nikki. People here in the Philly area aren't too happy either. UNC defeated Villanova before taking on State. Villanova is a Catholic university about 35 miles east on US 30 from where I live, and Bob's cousin Jerry is an alumnus. He must have gone there on his father's sweat at Lukens Steel, and ROTC, because after that he went to Nam...... and back, fortunately.

The Jeopardy tryouts will be held at the St. Regis Hotel in DC, at 9am. ZZZZZZ. Their cheapest room is $400/night, we can't afford to stay there. Separate beds in sex-segregated dormitories at the American Youth Hostel are about $30 each per night. Looks like we may not be able to avoid just driving down (115 miles) and/or staying at a Motel 6, 8, whatever, near the terminus of the Washington Metro and commuting in. Who wants to park in the capital of confusion?? It was a lot easier auditioning in Culver City on the Jeopardy soundstage. Stay tuned.

And ONE MORE TIME: Thomas, email your father or get a cheap phone card if you can't get your cellphone to hold a charge. I believe your sisters have no reason to lie to me when they say they've heard from you..... but your dad wants proof and he won't get off my back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!