Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year's day

Hello family,

Goodbye to 2007. I hate that the year is already gone, because I hate that that much more time has elapsed, but I wish a difficult year "good riddance".

It was good to see all who were able to come to Alfred between Christmas and New Year's eve. We were glad to have a longer stretch with Sherm and Carol and Barb, but even that was too short to get to all the things I would have liked to do. We sure wish Cathy and Bert could have stayed longer, and we missed seeing nieces and nephews and Bruce, but wish you all well. I hope we can all get together this summer and have some leisure time, whether it's at our place or Keuka Lake or a southern beach or wherever. I think it would be nice to get some of the cousins together and make connections.

At 33 S. Main, I had worked to consolidate stuff from two downstairs closets into a third (the one off the downstairs bathroom) so those two closets were mostly emptied. Sending 6 or 8 boxes of fabric remnants home with Bert leaves room to put the boxes of photograph albums from all over the house in there so they can be worked on without taking up living space. It was great to spend time looking through the albums and identifying people and talking about how to proceed with them. I will place an order to Gaylord or someplace similar, for archival photograph album pages, soon. Then I can begin to transfer photographs to archival albums, and start captioning and organizing them. I'll also be able to scan the choicest images and post them on the web and/or print them on photographic paper for whoever wants them.

I had also gotten a bunch of the computer peripherals (which I'd scavenged from various places but most were proving unusable for us) out onto the porch, ready to hand off to a guy who re-builds computers for people who can't afford new ones. More can come out of the front room upstairs when the first load gets delivered or picked up.

I got the washing machine set up yesterday, so we'll get linens and towels washed and put up before we head home. Jeanette is working on that and on making turkey soup from the carcass. Ian and Rein are playing and I've been getting a few other things done. I'll have to write out checks for the bills for 33 and get stuff filed, and then call Guthrie Hospital about how to settle Dad's bill. Jeanette will be paying our bills, and she heads back to the routine tomorrow, and Ian on Thursday. I'll haul the old washer and some of the other junk out back, to the landfill later this week.

As soon as I can, I will clear our stuff from the middle room, but I also have to get Dad's files consolidated and figure out where to put them. If I get a de-humidifier then perhaps I can set up file cabinets in the basement. At least the Shedrick stuff is gone, but I know I can clear a bunch of other stuff out. Then there's the garage full of stuff for a yard sale, as soon as the weather breaks in the spring. And maybe we can sell the RV then. Anyway, I plan to convert the center room to a pleasant living and working space. I hope to organize the books and figure out which ones might be given away, although perhaps some can be sold. Some will go to family members, and I'm thinking the theological books might be donated to the denomination as a collection, as they would include A.J.C. Bond's and Dad's and perhaps others'.

My plan, and I think we are in concert about this, is to get Sherm's books and things moved downstairs and have the lower apartment available for family members or gatherings. This will leave the upstairs partially furnished, but rentable, so that will help pay expenses.

Carol, thank you for pledging to contribute to the house fund. And have fun transcribing and compiling all the old recipes (Mom's, Gram's, Aunt Dora's, and maybe Mary K.M. Babcock's?). I hope you can make them available on-line, somehow. As I said to you, it has crossed my mind that we could put together quite a cookbook if the three or four generations of recipes you took home, were put together in some interesting fashion.

Have you all seen the Alfred House History website? Here's a link: http://people.alfred.edu/~fmuller/VillageProject/AllParcels.html From here, click on the dark purple rectangle that represents 33 S. Main, and on the next page, click on "History File", to see what I submitted for the project, which is tied loosely in with Alfred's bicentennial celebrations. Speaking of that, I (with Pat Bancroft) will be giving a Bergren Forum talk on April 24th (if that's a Thursday) on the history of Alfred Seventh Day Baptists. I will share the text of that with you.

I called Alfred State yesterday and learned that someone with a Master's degree was chosen for the adjunct position for the spring semester. I could wish I had a Master's, but haven't finished paying for my Bachelor's. Adjunct pay would seem an insult if I had a Master's, but more opportunities might be available if I did. I have inquired about University of Arizona Online and Goddard College, and just found that Empire State College DOES have Master's programs. Anyway, I'm going to take Sherm's advice and prepare some presentations and send out inquiries, offering to give them at various places. I need to finally get serious about selling books on-line, as well, but I despair of finding a "real job" after the past two years. I do keep looking and applying, though.

In any case, Happy New Year.

Doug