A Conversation With Jean – August 8, 2016

“Guess what? Bill Fleming had his 100th Birthday party last Friday the 5th.”

“Tell me about it. “

“Yeah, but first I got a lot of stuff to fill you in, before I get to that. So, here goes.

Our last summer outdoor concert took place at the Brickstone Manor retirement compound. We have six members who actually live there. You would remember it as the location where we bought some nice jewelry from a Jack Greco auction. That was it for 2015-2016. Two nights later, I went to another Dady Brothers concert. This time at Ontario Beach Park. Remember when we would go to concerts there when we lived at the lake. Steve McAlpin brought his therapy dog Reagan and took my picture holding her. I wrote a story about her and posted it on Relighting Us.

Colleen had Patty, Jim, and me over for a nice lunch and get together. No special occasion, just a nice afternoon. St. Louis remembered our anniversary Mass this year. No problem. Spent the July 4th (actually the 3rd) at Jud Prozeller’s party. He’s Michael’s neighbor at the lake.

Mike had rented his house for the whole month of July. Annie came with me and we had a good time.
Went to the East Bloomfield show with Phil. Ran into the Brady bunch from Long Island. Seemed like old times. I saw and visited with lots of our old friends, including the cute little perky girl who always bought something from us at Geneseo. It was a perfect weather day, and so enjoyable. My “piece de resistance” was a plastic cow I bought from Louise Creatura. I will attach a picture. It came with a box and all the extras. A perfect symbol for the messages I am developing for my website stories. It is the symbolic cow to which I am delivering the hay. The core task of all my story writing and internet sharing. Her name is “Milky.”

Didn’t donate or contribute to the Saint’s Place Super Sale this year, but I did get two of Jim McAvinney’s jewelry cases for them to use. They took in around $85.000 this year. A great sale I also bought a lot of “Kitschy “stuff to use to put the Christmas checks to the kids in. When I checked out Colleen Knauf cashiered my purchases. Lastly, Michele Quinn announced her retirement to take place at the end of the sale. It’s a whole new world there now, but doing God’s work in ways we could understand and support. My New Horizons friend Harvey Steron’s wife heads up the jewelry sales. She has come a long way and she is good. What is even better is that she is Lutheran, and Harvey is Jewish. He helps out on cashiering, as does Father Bob.

Started a new class at RIT on July 20th. Memoirs, run by Carol Samuel. She will be going on the Dady Bros. Ireland tour. I am preparing a small introductory series of instructions that pretty much describe who Skibootch O’Faolain is, and what he is about. My underlying motive is to influence my fellow Osher participants to join in posting their memoirs and stories on the websites Patty and I have developed for just that purpose. You certainly had a large part of their

creation, and I am trying as best I can, to insert your brand of humor into their implementation. Your life is thus involved in those efforts and you live on through our continuations.

I feel very deeply about that, and it keeps me going. I want to keep you going so bad that I have finally gotten around to realizing that there is a lot to that idea of sharing and helping each other. It really does make one feel better. Likewise habits get better. Eating, sleeping, drinking, exercising, communicating, on and on, it all gets better. Even more important, attitude gets better. I personally believe that attitude and heart health have a strong relationship. Anger, unrecognized and unacknowledged, can be hard on the heart. The weight that was lifted from me at Medjugorje was a true miracle of the heart. It’s still happening. I still feel it. Miracles don’t always happen with flashes of lightning and loud rumbles of thunder. They can be as silent as a floating feather, but they happen…

Speaking of hearts, Bob Keller suddenly had to undergo a triple bypass surgery. Happily its need was detected in sufficient time to maximize his recovery. Which he did. I visited him at the Jewish Home a few days after his rehabilitation began and he told me he would have to be there for three weeks. So when I went back again about a week later he had gone home. A speedy recovery – good news.

Kathy spent a few days with us. First at Patty’s and then here. Her 40th Pittsford Sutherland Class Reunion. As far as is discernable, her breast cancer has retreated to being instrumentally undetectable. Another miracle. We all pray that it has indeed been removed. She has lost weight, but is now in the process of regaining it. She has a lot to say about a lot of controversial issues, and my understanding is that she will be doing some of it for a living. More to come on that…
Took Annie to a hot dog stand in Spencerport where we had a hot dog with Bev and Marty. We have been dying to have a hot dog at an outdoors stand, but times have changed. They are few and far between today. We both miss them and were delighted to spend a long and pleasant lunch with the Cunningham’s. We’ll do more. Marty had a bad winter, but seems better now.
I am at the age where a lot are either having their problems, or leaving them behind, and it is getting more frequent. But Willie Fleming just keeps on going. As I said earlier, we went to his 100th Birthday Party on August 5th. It was in a nice club house located in their town house complex, and weather was perfect. There were a lot of absentees. No Repp’s, and Greg and Paul. Sadly, Paul’s circumstance prevented him. Greg I don’t know, nor did I question any of it. It didn’t seem as happy as it might have been – to me anyway.

My final adventure took place yesterday (August 7th). On a whim, I took in an event at the Ganondagan Friendship Center in Victor. I saw a very thoughtful essay in the August 6th D&C. It was titled: “Planting the seed of the uncomfortable.” It struck me. It was so like what Patty and I have been doing, only in a different way. More direct. So, I decided to take it in. Three people were to speak detailing their “discomfort.” One was a Muslim, one a transgender person, and one a recovered alcoholic. The theme was “Living Authentically.” Their stories were moving. They did their best to display their struggles and discomfort. They did it well. They went right at reality. Something few people dare to do today.

We live in a world of denial. Much of it understandable. Truth is difficult to share with those unable or unwilling to comprehend. These people put it on the line. It was refreshing to hear and so much like what I had in mind as I created my Skibootch character in the websites that Patty and I are developing.

I took the liberty of introducing myself to a very well composed woman by the name of Meg Joseph. She was coordinating that event, and is the Executive Director of Friends of Ganondagan, a Native American cultural experience and center located just off Rt. 444, south of Victor. I left a set of brief descriptions of our websites. I told her that I would like to meet with her in a few days. We seem to have similar objectives and I suggested we meet and discuss how we might be able to share and help each other. I will keep you posted on how that proceeded.

Hey, I almost left out the big news. Theresa and John Kennedy are engaged. As of now the wedding is scheduled for May 27, 2017. Who knows, I might even live to see a great grandchild. Maybe even more, who knows? I will have more on all of that later.

That’s all for now. Will have more to say after the 13th Armored Division reunion in September.
Here’s the picture of Milky:”

Milky the Cow
(She is up on the shelf over the cupboards with the other toys)