March Madness

UNC is doing well in the playoffs, so am keeping fingers crossed that they continue to win. So sorry that Duke fell by the wayside (not really!). Have gotten on bike only twice since Christmas. Either is has been too cold or on the warmer days I have had a hundred other pressing things to do. After today I have only 54 working days left until retirement!

Am spending inordinate amount of time on Marion County Library building project. Had four obligations two Thursdays ago in Marion and Mullins concerning the fund-raising and politics of the three projects and the $7 million we must find somehow. Met with Marion Mayor Gerald and acting city manager Alan Ammons; then with capital campaign finance committee and then with county manager Tim Harper and then that evening with Mullins City Council and Mayor McDonald. In between had a school district one strategic planning and accountability committee meeting. Long day! Then drove 120 miles to Columbia and left next morning for 400 mile trip to Birmingham, AL for the weekend.

Have also spent time in Columbia at SCLA and PASCAL meets. While whelmed over by such, still find these meetings to be useful and invigorating. Also get to see old friends there.

There are some plans being laid for a retirement celebration, but I would prefer a quiet, almost unnoticed exit. Any limelight will be embarrassing. After 33 years, one needs to just fade into the sunset.

Stevenson reunion is this Saturday March 29 at Lebanon Presbyterian Church. Should see bunches of kinfolks then. Food is always better than words can describe. And plenty of it. Should be fasting right now in preparation.

Watched an episode of "Law and Order" last night that portrayed crime committed by mercenary from Iraq war. Idea that independent contractors are using "lite torture" on suspected enemies is terrifying in itself. Program certainly placed such independent contractors in a bad light. Scary. I do feel that some of our more important freedoms are being eroded if not violated by super-fanatics. I know I am naive, but I cannot justify such treatment of other humans and continue to claim to be Christian. The program really opened my eyes to a part of the war that I do not support. Yes, I support our troops. It's just our political leaders that scare me with their calous disregard of human rights.

Did get to read some of latest issue of Christian Century, and that always helps reframe my religious beliefs, especially if I tend to drift away from a progressive stance, which is how I understand Christ, his life, his ministry, his death, and his resurrection. "What would Jesus do?" remains a hard question in so many of life's challenges. And maybe not what would he do, but can I do what I believe is right. Anybody that claims that Christianity is easy immediately loses my attention and respect. Too many places in the New Testament say just the converse.

Happy Easter, and Amen. And Shalom. And Praise Allah.

Welcome 2008

Christmas was busy, and the new year has not been much less so. Library staff did Christmas luncheon at my farm and had a nice day. Wylie Thomas Johnson was born December 12, 2007 and becomes by sixth grandchild. I spent some time with them the week he was born, taking care of Tucker, his then 27 month old bro. Went back upstate weekend or two ago to help them as Tim and Kevin was on assignment out of state. Had nice Saturday night supper with Tucker and Wylie and their mom Shannon, and Katelyn and her mom Christine, and Sally, ex-wife number one. Wish the kids were closer. It is a three-and-a-half-hour drive from where I work to where they live (but only about half that drive from farm to them).

Again I am teaching a university life class. Have 12 students this time, so classwork will be easier to manage than with the 45 I had in the fall in the two classes.

Am spending much time and energy on planning and fund-raising campaign planning for expanding and renovating the three country libraries in Marion, where I am board of trustees chair (at least until elections next week!). We will need to raise $5-6 million to meet facilities needs if we are to continue to provide the level of programs and services to which we aspire.

We have just about completed the work on the farm house. Still have some electrical work to do, but hopefully the electrician has not forgotten about me. With help from Mom and my sister Jeannie, niece Anna and a few others, we hosted over 80 folks at a Christmas "Open House" so that community could see what had been done at the 1912 farm house.

Winter cold hit me last week and is still holding on for all it is worth. Hope to be rid of it soon!

Best wishes for the New Year. ---pd

Fall Has Fell

The leaves are turning, the temperature is dropping, and we have turned the clocks back one more time. I wish we could just stay on DST. There must be a hundred clocks between the apartment, the farm, work, and the vehicles. At the least PC and the cell phone change the time without my intervention.

One of my students is still posting to her blog, so am a little disappointed that more are not posting. Still have stacks of assignments to enter into the grade book, and semester's end is less than four weeks away. Then exams, then holidays. Hooray!

Heard from Mads and Samy last week. Great to hear from them. Samy said it was already freezing in Switzerland (-2 Celsius, which I think in around 29 F). Mads sent some great photos of his family and home in Denmark. Maybe some day I can visit both of them. Went to a French luncheon here on campus last week, and it was not bad. Rusty as my French was, I could keep up with most of the talk. The teacher had prepared notecards with questions, so that helped a lot. Hard to believe it has been 39 years since I was in a French class!

Took Mom to the Roberts Reunion Sunday. These are my paternal grandmother's family---she was a Roberts, and there were a lot of folks there. Beautiful covered dish feast, complete with venison hash. Not bad. I ate too much of everything. But that is what reunions are for.

House at farm is about ready, all except for the HVAC system, and it is cool out there at nights now. Mike and I spent one night at my farm before we left for our three-day motorcycle tour late last month. Spent Friday night at this farm near Homer, Georgia, and then Saturday night at his in-laws place near East Flat Rock, N.C. Sunday we came back through Rock Hill and had nice meal with college friends Larry and Bea and their son Michael Paul (who is named for Mike and me) and his wife and teen-age son. Great to see these folks and visit with them. We were too late leaving and had to drive last 45 miles in the dark. Only saw one deer, and I saw him early enough to hit the brakes. It was cold too Sunday night, so we were happy to reach my farm and warm up some. Altogether we put in almost 600 miles over the three days. He headed back to Atlanta Monday pulling his bike on a trailer behind his truck. Called later to say he had arrived safely. He had taken Friday and Monday off and gotten a partner in the practice to cover rounds. Nancy was in Europe for two weeks, so he was "footloose and fancy free" for the weekend. Mike and I were roommates at Erskine for three years (before I got married as a college senior). He knew he was going to go to med school, so he studied and I had to also or get out of the room. Thanks to him, my grades did improve because I studied almost as much as he did.

Am counting down the days to retirement June 30. The farm is calling me to come on up there and vegetate. Am working almost as hard on campaign to expand public library where I am board of trustees chair as I am working here at my real/paying job. Am traveling too much, especially with increased fuel prices. And diesel fuel is now thirty cents a gallon more than regular gasoline, plus the truck only gets 17 or 18 mpg, while the Toyota SUV does at least 20. So, am driving the Dodge very little right now until diesel fuel goes down some.

Yeah I know I ought to post more often so I would not have so much to say. Well, maybe I can improve between now and Christmas. Maybe. Don't hold your breath.... Enjoyed chatting....pd

Al Fin Y Al Cabo

At long last I got to take a motorcycle trip, albeit a short one. Tuesday evening I left work at 5:30, went home, got the bike and headed for the beach. The weather was superb, and the ride down could not have been better. Well, yeah, if I had had a cute passenger riding with me, that might have been a nice addition to the evening.

Arrived at HOTO's (Harold's on the Ocean) at Cherry Grove shortly after seven and ordered a beer. While I was sitting out on the ocean front deck enjoying the view and appreciating the opportunity to relax, who should come strolling across the parking lot and onto HOTO's deck but my old buddy Jerry. He and his wife live a block away in a condo. We had a catch-up-on-old-times visit, and I even got to talk to Cyn, his better half, when she called his cell phone.

Later I drove over to K & W Cafeteria for a great meal---broiled king mackerel, veggies, slaw, and lemon chess pie. Yum.

Rode by the Elliots' place but they were not home. Or at least the house was dark at 8:30.

Suited up in the leathers leaving K & W as it was dark and temperature was dropping. Ride back to Florence was fine. Not much traffic, especially on that great connector between North Myrtle and 501. Glad I had the leathers with me and had suited up. Got home just after 10. Had had a good trip. Safe. Enjoyable. Relaxing. Scenic, especially through the Horry County wetlands, the Waccamaw valley, and the cypress swamps along Highways 22 and 31.

I want to ride the Harley to Winnsboro this weekend but may have to postpone that as I need to get bike and Toyota both there. So, may bring trailer back and haul Harley up there---yeah, I know it is a sin to trailer a Harley Electra Glide, but......I can't trailer the 4Runner behind the Harley, so...........If I could get someone to double-head me up there and drive the Toyota, then I would not have to trailer "B. C." He really looks dejected when he is trailered. Maybe I should use the tarp so he won't be so publicly humiliated?

More Updates

I omitted a lot from the last blog. In late July, the day after Katelyn's arrival, I went to Fripp Island for a couple of days and nights as Shannon, Tim, Tucker, Austin and Chelsey were there. First time for me to visit Fripp, and we had a great time, until the electric golf cart left us stranded more than a mile from the condo.

Two weeks ago I went to Sunset Beach for the evening to have dinner with cousins Andrea and Fitz and his wife Fugi, my aunt Marjorie, and Fugi's mom, Yuri. As usual they put on a super supper from their inlet overlook dining room. It was a great catching-up-on-family-news and old home week visit. As much as I wanted to visit longer, it was almost two hours back to Florence, so I had to head inland.

Mike called last evening to talk more about our plans for a motorcycle trip in late October. We are both excited about two or three days on the road.

Stevenson cousins Lee, Ruthie and her hubby Bo, and Wes Jr. showed up at different times over the last weekend at the Lebanon house, so their help was welcomed and appreciated. Lee cut grass and helped me move some heavy furniture. Mom painted some more. And I steam cleaned the back porch carpet. Got two gallons of really dirty water and sand up from the carpet.

Weatherman called for rain today, and we got it here. Hope it rained at Lebanon and in Winnsboro. It has been abnormally dry there.

Am still planning to retire June 30, 2008. It will take a lot of money to change my mind at this point. That is the only plus I can come up with for not hanging it up next summer.

Last night both classes went out for pizza. Only about fifteen students showed up, but we ate a lot of pizza, and they seemed to have enjoyed the fellowship and being off campus. Today I had another Wednesday meeting in Marion over lunch to work with County Library planning committee as we develop plans to create a foundation whose mission will be to raise four million dollars to renovate and expand the Marion headquarters library. We would also like to renovate and expand the Mullins and Nichols branches, if we can raise an additional two million. The county library was built in 1905 and added on to in 1975, although there were some modifications in the 1930s after a disastrous fire destroyed part of the original Carnegie building. The present facility is grossly undersized for the population we serve, the usage we receive, and the technology we have introduced.

I've got at least four sets of papers, quizzes, and exercises to grade tonight, plus a short Moliere play on campus, so there goes another evening......

If an idle mind is the devil's workshop, I should be safe for a long time to come.......

Catching Up for Being Behind

Yeah, it has been too long since my last post. Not sure I can remember ten percent of what has transpired in the interim.

Went to Columbia on August 3 for closing ceremony for LIONS Youth Exchange students. Got to see Mads and Samy, and they preferred to spend that night with us in Winnsboro, as did Maria from Italy and Aisling from Ireland. So, four of the youth exchange teens went home with me that night. We arose early Saturday morning as all had early flights home, beginning at 8:55 AM, meaning we had to be at the Columbia airport by 7 AM, which meant we had to leave Winnsboro by 6 AM for the drive. Got to see some of the other youth exchange teens at the airport and got to bid a fond farewell and "Godspeed" to our international visitors. I have missed Mads and Samy as they were very congenial young men and easy to entertain. Both emailed me that they had arrived home (Denmark and Switzerland) safely, which I was thankful to learn.

Katelyn Ann Dove was born July 25 at the Easley Baptist Hospital. She is the daughter of my son Kevin and his wife Christine. Katelyn had a rough entry into this world, with respiratory complications from the breech and C-section birth and spent three days in the Easley neonatal unit before she was moved to the neonatal intensive care unit at Greenville Memorial. Once the pneumonia was under control she improved, although she was on a PIC line for nourishment due to aspiration possibilities. She was finally released on August 4, and Christine and Kevin were happy to get her home! Katelyn is doing much better now, although she has had problems with formulas, so four or five different ones have been tried. She is tiny (6 lbs 9 ounces at birth and lost about a pound that first week) but slowly picking up an ounce or two.

September 2 was Tucker's second birthday, so Shannon and Tim had a big party for him. Mom and I went to Easley for the day and enjoyed the festivities. Austin and Chelsey had ridden from here to Winnsboro with me Friday night, and Kevin and Christine met us there and took them on the Easley for the weekend. They are Tim's children by his first marriage (my step-grandchildren). Chelsey was eleven in August, and Austin will be six this month. They rode back to Pee Dee with me Sunday night, where their mother met us. Kevin's mom had kept Katelyn Friday night so that Kev and Christine could get one night's sleep for a change.

Progress at the Lebanon house, my retirement home, has been slow. We have done a lot of painting ourselves and are now awaiting completion work by the plumber/electrician/HVAC crew. Hopefully they will finish up soon as a dozen or so of my high school classmates are coming to the farm for a semi-annual luncheon meeting on October 12, and we will need the kitchen and the new bathroom for that day. All the Stevenson clan is due in for Thanksgiving for the annual family gathering, so time is short. Also, I hope to have an "Open House" celebration in December at Lebanon. Shannon told me this week that their second child is to be delivered by C-section on December 12, so that preempts that day if not most of that week for that special event. She and Tim have been told that he is another little guy, so they have begun to think of names for him. Hope Tucker will be ready for a little brother by then!

I am teaching two sections of University Life 100 for pre-nursing students this fall, and that is keeping me hopping. Each class has 23 students, but I really enjoy being in the classroom with these FMU freshmen. Pre-nursing students are usually more focused, dedicated, and studious than the average freshman I have found, so working with them is an added pleasure.

Have had little time to ride the Harley this summer. It has been horrendously hot here and dry too but cooler and wetter weather is said to be headed our way later this week. I did not get to Sturgis this year but hope to atone for that next summer as I should be retired by then (HOORAY!). Just got some chromed visors installed on the front and rear lights this morning, so am getting ready for a trip somewhere sometime soon. College roomie Mike and I are to meet last weekend in October for some riding, either in the mountains were he and his wife have access to her family house, or in central SC, maybe even using Lebanon house as hub.

Am taking both classes to Pizza Hut tonight, so wish me luck. About half indicated they would attend.

Hopefully my next post will be shorter but with less time between posts. Until then, "Vaya con Dios."

European Guests

On July 6-8, eighteen young people arrived at the Columbia airport as the 2007 South Carolina Lions Club International's Youth Exchange Program participants. Two of these young men, Mads Lundsby from Denmark and Samy Baehler from Switzerland, have been my guests since then as I volunteered to be their American host family.

They have kept me busy. Mads is 18 and Samy is 17, so I have tried to introduce them to South Carolina teenagers and some of our international students at FMU. We spend an evening at North Myrtle Beach where they soundly beat me in a round of putt-putt golf. We have eaten out a lot but have cooked some at home. They have been to Winnsboro with me both weekends where we were also able to host a dinner with local teens. This worked out nicely as some of the teens invited them to go to a movie in Columbia. Mads and Samy had also been to a movie here in Florence with a couple, their daughter and a friend. While we have spent some time traveling to and from Winnsboro and the beach, they have checked email and surfed the web at my workplace, and they have shot pool in the campus center. A friend took them to some archaeological sites as part of the Francis Marion Trail Commission project. They paddled kayaks around Lake Oakdale, and they made multiple shopping trips, to Wal-Mart, Magnolia Mall, Food Lion, Doug's Harley-Davidson, Florence Toyota, etc. We have eaten Mexican food, Chinese food, Italian food, southern American cooking, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Subway, Mall Food Court, Stevens Seafood (North Myrtle), and a few other places.

We went bowling Tuesday night, and this old man had to show them up. We bowled four games, and I was the overall leader (428, with the fourth game at 156). But I paid for it. Next morning felt like my legs were made of concrete. Now my right arm is sore too. Samy injured a finger on his right hand and claimed that affected his game. Mads made some impressive strikes and spares.

The two things we have done that seemed most exciting to Mads and Samy were 1) looking at new and used cars in various car lots and 2) cutting grass on a large hillside in Winnsboro with our two Husqvarna lawn tractors. Got some great photos of them on the Huskies. They mowed a large field in short time and enjoyed every second of it. They are very interested in classic American autos, especially Mustangs, Camaros, and everything else out of the '60s and '70s. We saw a small lot in Ocean Drive that had '62 and '64 Chevy convertibles, an old Vette, a '66 Mustang, an old MG, and a '57 Chevy inside.

On Saturday we return to Columbia where they will join the other 16 Youth Exchange students for a two-week tour of the state, from Myrtle to Florence to Santee to Charleston to Aiken to Greenville to Spartanburg and then back to Columbia, leaving for home August 4. SC Lions has an exciting, fun-filled two weeks planned for them.

This has been a great experience for me, getting to know two very fine young men from Europe. Both are gracious, polite, and very friendly. I hope they leave with a favorable impression of my native state and its good people and of our fair land. I highly recommend volunteering to host international visitors. It is a learning experience for visitor and host, very rewarding and beneficial. As we talk about the global village, this is part of it. Thanks, Mads and Samy for allowing me to serve as your host and show you why I love my state and my country and its peoples and places. Maybe some day I can visit you in Denmark and Switzerland? Godspeed.