Notes - local travel day / Jim P. / John J. /

         Mid-morning. Carol is almost ready and you are – to leave when Jill K. is here cleaning. You have some errands as well as lunch and perhaps a visit to the library before returning home mid-afternoon. – Amorella

         1012 hours. Been doing some last minute organization for today. I forgot the library cards for one thing. Amazing. We have cards for the Mason Public Library as well as the Middletown Public Branch at Union Centre – Westchester. We are out of the library habit mostly since retiring. Carol, her sisters and Kim share books – Carol is beginning The Girl on the Train (Kim’s book) today. I do need to read a fiction now and then. I have really gotten into the habit of reading the ‘Magazine’ section as well as the ‘Tech’, ‘Science’ and ‘Cultural’ sections of BBC. They are basically decorated with photo articles, which remind me of the old Life magazine, one of my favorites along with Look and the Saturday Evening Post from the early fifties up into the mid-sixties. I read them all most every week. I was hooked on Life when I was three as it had news pictures of the war in Europe and Asia – like every other kid I was looking at pictures before reading but I don’t ever remember when I was not interested in the shapes of the alphabet letters and numbers. Jill just arrived.

         You are at the Mason Community Center where Carol is presently doing her walking. You did your forty minutes worth of exercises earlier this morning. The weather is cool but your in the Avalon today which is much more comfortable to sit in. – Amorella

         1108 hours. We have twenty cents a gallon off at Kroger’s and have to use it today or tomorrow. I’ll fill it up today as the Accord still has a mostly full tank, otherwise this car would sit in the garage until we make another trip to Kim and Paul’s. The parking lot is full – amazing how many people use the facilities here.

         Nothing on your mind this morning, boy? – Amorella

         1113 hours. One of my long time friends husband died Christmas Eve and I only found out about it last night from Jean. Sandy Justice’s husband, John, is who died. They live in Surprise, Arizona. There will be a memorial service in Westerville in the Spring. He was high school principal at Westerville North when he retired (at least that’s what I remember from Mary Lou). I am sad for Sandy. He had cancer. Carol’s dad died of cancer on Christmas Eve in 1993. Her mother died of cancer on 13 January 1994. My dad died of heart failure on the same date in 2001 – all are buried in Otterbein Cemetery. I need to find an unused lot for Kim and Paul if possible. She has been asking.

         You ran errands and had lunch at Smashburgers and are about to drive to Union Centre in Westchester to stop at Barnes and Noble and then at the Middletown Branch Library before coming home. – Amorella

         1305 hours. The day is moving along.

         1335 hours. We are at Barnes and Noble off Union Centre Boulevard. This is called the Streets of Westchester but most of the stores are gone except a couple of restaurants and B&N. This is a bigger more diverse bookstore, particularly the music sections – they even have vinyl. Unbelievable.

         1402 hours. I checked email and received a note from Jim Powers (old friend and colleague from Indian Hill days). We are setting up a lunch sometime soon. He doesn’t drive much anymore but I can drive to his home in Hyde Park area of Cincinnati. I’m pumped and looking forward to it. In those days of the early seventies through the mid-eighties when I was there many of the students thought we were the two smartest teachers at the high school. No one was smarter than Jim Powers and I was/am honored to even be considered ‘up there’.

         These are not bragging comments, boy. They are observed facts from my perspective (of your memory). Even last year when the two of you were sitting on a bench at the high school reunion a former student came up to you both and said, “You two were the smartest teachers we had.” You take it as opinion not a fact at least as far as you are concerned. Fluff it off, orndorff. The point here is that you are not bragging. I would stop you (and you would know it) if I saw this was so. Post. - Amorella

         1530 hours. The last errand of the day, filling up the Avalon and we are home. The house smells freshly cleaned and looks it. This is one of the perks Carol is willing to pay for and I’m fine with it. I just discovered Sandy’s husband died Christmas Day not the night before. The family was with him and there was a full moon. A tip of the black beret to a man I never knew (a golfer and educator), but anyone Sandy loves is my friend in spirit; that’s how I see it.

         This last sentence is a strange declaration. – Amorella

         1608 hours. That’s how it runs through my head – this is something I feel not think.

         Orndorff’s metaphysics, huh? – Amorella

         1611 hours. Hardly. I don’t believe I ever thought this before but I don’t care, it makes sense. Why wouldn’t Sandy’s husband’s spirit be as a friend to me? I mean, if I were dead and John Justice was nearby and I knew it; certainly, if it were possible, I would walk up (as it were) and introduce myself and say I am an old friend of Sandy’s [inferring: I am willing to be your friend also if you like]. I don’t see any metaphysics in this – it is from-the-heart-communication not metaphysics. This is my response to your question mark above. – rho

         Post. - Amorella