Ch-ch-ch-ch Changes

To all my peeps,

A couple of friends and folks in the know have written me publicly to see how I am doing and such, and so as to be open and up front I figured I would just give the basic skinny.

Our church (Covenant Fellowship ARP Church, Greensboro, NC) was very kind last month to grant me a 90 day medical leave to "get better" physically (and emotionally too perhaps). For 2-3 years I had had a kind of gradual cascading series of minor health issues that were adding up to larger health issues and which needed to be addressed, and which as a result had left me for some time generally less energetic and effective than I had been. This included some newer weird stuff that impacted me pretty significantly. After consulting with various folks and our elders, I (and we) decided that it would be best for me (and for Covenant Fellowship) after the medical leave not return to the rigors of full time pastoral ministry at this time, due to reasons/issues related to health, burn out, and family. I've been at CF 16 years (having founded it with Dwight and Susan Thomas), so it's going to be an adjustment for me and everyone. Thankfully I will continue to worship with my brethren there until other things possibly begin to take me away. I and we pray that CF will prosper and that God will direct me to the next thing, whatever that is. I'm looking forward to the opportunities ahead. 

This was all discussed in a sweet spirited congregational meeting this past Sunday. 

I am not 100% sure what I will do next. I will remain a "Reverend" and "Presbyter" in good standing and hope to pick up some "Supply" preaching this summer, expand the work of the Carolina Study Center-Greensboro (and my writing generally), try to find ways to "market" my photography, perhaps take on some work digitizing LP's, cassettes, and VHS tapes (and Beta), scanning slides, film, and restoring old photos, etc), tutor, and start networking for other possible work, maybe teaching again, not sure.

In the mean time I am trying to get fit again since that is the thing that would help the most - and a good friend bought me a three month membership in the City Health Club on Elm Street. I have been working out there,walking, and riding my bike. I hope to hit some serious trails in the next two months too. Uphill trails.

Anyway, that's my life!

Around the Corner - Red Bud Rising

As we head into a period of cool rain, I thought I'd post a picture of what awaits on the other side!

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis L.) Greensboro NC About this picture: well, it was early Spring here in NC, and many flowers were opening up, and I decided after two years I would start to learn how to use my new fangled camera, so I went outside and started trying to capture some shots. The Redbud in our front yard was in full bloom, and the big bumble bees were everywhere. The aroma was amazing. I wish I could capture that - maybe that's the next invention! I tried to focus in on one clump of bud/flowers - but I am still learning the camera settings and haven't got the DOF figured out! (How I miss the manual SLR!). At least I can still focus! This particular red bud took a direct lightning hit last summer. It took half the tree down, but the other half lived!  

About Redbuds in general  

Drive down any interstate highway in the piedmont of North Carolina in early March, and you will see splashes of light purple here and there along the tree line, giving the heart a sense of added hope that Spring is coming. This dash of purple is from one of our more humble native trees, the red bud. Why it’s not called the purple bud is a mystery. Not even the bud itself is red, but some see the color as reddish purple, and perhaps growing in different soils it looks more red than purple.

But around here both bud and flower are light purple, or at best purplish pink. The red bud is actually a member of the bean family. As early spring flower turns to fruit, and as the summer progresses, thick dark bean pods about 3 inches long hang heavily from the red bud limbs, and providing another source of food for a few birds such as bobwhites and cardinals, and some mammals such as deer and squirrels, though the red bud fruit is generally not a food favorite. Bees however love the nectar of the flowers. The bean pods persist often well into winter hanging and rattling in the winter wind well after the leaves have fallen. 

In our early forests, red buds, along with dogwoods and ironwoods and sourwoods, would have found their place under the great canopy trees of oak and chestnut and hickory and tulip poplar, taking what sun they could get, and offering another level of habitat for animals and visual beauty for human visitors. 

The red bud makes for an excellent garden tree. It’s leaf is sort of a rounded heart shape, about as wide as tall, three to five inches across. The tree tends toward a bushy appearance with multiple branches, though it can be pruned to one or two primary trunks. It’s a bit of a gangly tree, no two looking just alike, thus lending character to the suburban yard. It grows fairly slowly and reaches a maximum height of 20-30 feet at most. In the fall the large red bud leaves turn yellow and tend to fall from the tree all at once, making for easy care.

The Life Is in the Bud

Greetings to all in Greensboro on a cool March day, 2009. I hope your day is going well so far.

The other day I walked by The Perfect Tree (a Post Oak) on Elm Street I saw that its end-buds (buds tend to be clumped at the end of oak twigs) were starting to swell, soon to open and fill the air with oak pollen. Last evening I noticed that the birch tree catkins (from the white or paper birch trees by our patio) are just starting to swell and elongate. Soon, birch pollen will cover our patio. I pity my neighbors with allergies, but I love, in the truest sense of deep and abiding affection (and praise to God), the “miracle” of Spring. OK, so I am a biology geek, but tree buds are way cool. Their formation, dormancy, and opening is akin to conception, development, and birth in animals, and almost as fascinating.

Spring is here! Take a break. Go outside and walk around and look at the perfectly ordinary and common tree buds all around you. They are swelling. Many have opened already and we see leaves on their trees – maple trees for example. Others are just getting ready to open, such as dogwoods. Notice the covering of the buds. All winter long those bud scales, sometimes one big scale, sometimes two, sometimes more, have protected the life inside the bud from the cold and wetness outside. One freezing rain storm after another may coat the tree with ice, but the bud scales keep the life inside the bud safe and ready to grow when the time is right.

Inside are tiny leaves and/or flowers, either well-formed in miniature, or at least already differentiated as cells ready to take on full form. What energy the tree didn’t put into its seeds or store in its roots last summer and fall, it has packed into these buds. Indeed, as last summer wound down, and the buds which would lie dormant over the winter started to form, the tree “knew” to transfer important energy sources from the leaves and roots to the buds.

These buds are rich in energy which is why deer and other animals like to eat them. As the buds open they will attract the season’s very earliest insects, crawling and flying, to their moisture and sugars. Over the next few weeks Greensboro will be filled with budding coming-to-life trees, awash with flowers. Tree flowers aren’t all as bright and glorious like red buds and cherries. But each is beautiful and fascinating in its own way, if you have eyes to see. And the overall effect of abundant small flowers and young leaves can be quite beautiful as well. I think in particular of the beautiful earth tones of oak tree catkins and early leaves. This lends a feel of autumn to stands of budding/leaving/blooming oaks. Sometimes the most beautiful things are faint, and less showy. So keep your eyes peeled, and if you have a chance, go bud watching. It’s at least as fun as sitting at a computer all day!

Early Crocus, Fisher Park, Greensboro

The stamen anthers are particularly interesting - they kind of look like "antlers"

My photostream

Guilford Building and House of Prints

I like this picture - not sure why - hope you do too.

Downtown Greensboro

Pink Perfection, Old First Pres Cemetery, Greensboro Historical Musum

This was my favorite variety in Nanny's Garden, and I am always delighted when I find it somewhere.

Southern Gothic

This pic has a cool southern Gothic feel to it. 

My photostream

Pink Camelia, Rear View, Fisher Park

Took this last Tuesday, the 10th, in Fisher Park. Seems like a month ago. Look forward to sunny skies again.

My photostream.

Reaching For the Sun

Fisher Park, Greensboro, Early Spring 2009

My Photostream

Quality Turntable, Cassette Deck

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to buy/borrow/or rent a high quality turntable and a high quality cassette deck for digitizing some cassettes and LP's. I would like a turntable that has ability to have a new quality cartridge/needle if need be. Vintage equipment from the 70's would be fine.

Joel

Nanny's Garden, circa 1950ish

I found a small container of old slides in the bottom of an old box of pictures. They are of my grandmother's garden, in the early 1950's. I was born after this picture was taken, and grew up in a more matured version of Nanny's Garden, but I can say without hesitation that this was my favorite place in the whole world. I had the privilege of maintaining it for many years, and learned a lot about gardening from my grandmother. This was a special place. 

Nanny's Garden

Red Camelia - Behind Historical Museum

I have loved camellias all my life. My grandmother was a Camellia master. My first Camellias I grew from seed form her plants (yes, they do have seeds). I caught this one Saturday the 14th in the old First Pres graveyard behind the Greensboro Historical Museum.

See my photostream.

Does Anybody Know These Friends of Mine? (Part One)

Do you ever wonder where old childhood or college friends are? I do. So, I thought I'd put a shout out to the world. Does anybody know any of these people and where they are?

Billy Holmes

He was my best neighborhood bud through elementary school, before he moved to Chapin. He went to Satchel Ford and also Crayton I think before he moved. We later reconnected at Clemson. I have not seen him since. Many memories of football in the front yard with Billy.

Marshall Moore

Marshall went to Satchel Ford, and to Fairwold I think, and then Keenan. He lived on Meadowood Road I think. He also went to Clemson. He had the most awesome backyard - a big field for baseball and amazing climbing trees, especially an enormous sweet gum. He played for Sunshine Cleaners at Satchel Ford and hit the infamous groundball that went through my legs and won the "first half" playoff game for them. I was the goat.

Phil Owens

Phil was my best friend in 8th grade at Fairwold Junior High school in Columbia. His middle name was “Carroll.” He lived on Fox Hall Road. I hung out at his house all the time. He was on my pony league team, and was part of the great all star team that had a real shot at going the whole way until Bill Allen the pitcher broke his foot sliding into second. He ended up going to Keenan and I to Flora. Last time I saw him I think he visited my roommate Harry Lancaster and I at Clemson.

Gregg Busdicker

Gregg was a good friend over several years in Columbia. He was a pitcher on my pony league team at Trenholm Park. He had an amazing house on Sylvan Drive, with a second floor pool table recreation room. I have great memories of pool with Phil and Gregg, with Led Zeppelin playing very loudly. I saw Gregg in an airport 20 or so years ago – last time.

Bo Cox

Bo Cox was a friend at Clemson from Greer SC. He was part of the great bike ride all through SC four of us went on after our sophomore year. Bo was a trip. I have several great photos of Bo on my Flickr site.

Mary Linn Chapman

Mary Linn lived next door to me for most of grammar school and was my very best bud in my early childhood years. Her dad was a pastor at North Trenholm Baptist. She had a brother named Horace Chapman. They moved to Georgia. My sister Mary and I recently read some letters she wrote to us after she moved. We were all very sad.

Ricky Meyer

Ricky and I were friends at Clemson. He was Forestry major. The man could play guitar, and often played in venues at Clemson. He taught me guitar lessons. I have some cool pics of him at Clemson on my Flikr site.

David Hollis

David Hollis was my best friend in sixth grade at Satchel Ford Elemntary. He lived at the corner of Trenhold Road and Briarfield. We walked/rode to school almost every day. He was on my little league baseball team and Pop Warner football team, and became an outstanding running back at Spring Valley High School. Yes, as with most of my friends, he moved to a different school! Great memories.

Larry Smith

Larry Smith was my roommate for one semester at Clemson. He was from Greer SC. He was an English major, and an amazing guitar player. He loved Gordon Lightfoot. We saw Jackson Brown together in Athens GA in the fall of 76.

Levon Lee

Levon was living at Carolina Children's Home in Columbia SC when I knew him in 8th and 9th grade. He was on my pony league team at Trenholm Park and, along with Ray Derrick (they alternated at pitcher and short) was an amazing athlete. He was a quiet humble unassuming fellow. He has this annoying habit of retrieving grounders and holding the ball to the very last second before rifling the throw to first base. It drove Cleveland the coach crazy, but I loved it! I had the honor of playing at third base next to Levon at short, though I was a peon in comparison. He was adopted by a family up in Maryland I think, and I never saw or heard from him again.

Joel

The 25 Saddest Songs Ever

OK, so the other night I watched Pink Floyd performing Dark Side of the Moon on channel 76, and "Great Gig in the Sky" got me thinking - what are the 25 saddest songs - the songs that are saddest to me personally.

I don't know Country music very well so, sorry for the absence of much of that. And I know the content of many Blues songs is terribly sad, but The Blues makes me happy. I don't know Opera.

So, the criteria is that song has to have a saddening effect on me and it needs to be a sad song inherently (so not mere sadness by association with a memory).

Here is the list..I'll annotate it later...well, except to say that Bill Mallonee's "Locket Full of Moonlight: Casual Reprise" is the most brilliant and profound connection with the deep sadness that springs up from a fallen world that I have ever heard or could want to hear. The harmonica device produces an almost transcendent wail that reminds me of a whale actually, a sad whale cry coming up from the depths...This song is about his marriage dissolving as far as I can tell - I was worried about that at the time - and that made it sadder. But as an artist Bill has delved into the deepest grief of his own failure and alienation and unraveling in away that does not so much leave us there in his situation but takes us on a deep journey of our own soul. Out of his travail he gave us this saddest of brilliance - this song defines the artist's calling and craft to me.


25) Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

24) Walk on By - Dionne Warwick

23) My Life - Iris Dement

22) Honey - Bobby Goldsboro

21) The Circle Game - Joni Mitchell

20) Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright

19) Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy

18) Mr. Bojangles - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

17) Crying - Roy Orbison

16) Into the West - Annie Lennox

15) Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce

14) When You're Blinded By the Light - The Vigilantes of Love

13) Always On My Mind - Willie Nelson

12) These Days - Jackson Browne

11) So Far Away - Carole King

10) Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

9) Have You Ever Seen the Rain - CCR

8) Calling for You - Iris Dement

7) Blue - Lucinda Williams

6) I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams

5) You're Missing - Bruce Springsteen

4) Hurt - Johnny Cash

3) Great Gig in the sky - Pink Floyd (featuring Clare Torry)

2) Adiago for Strings - Samuel Barber ("Leonard Bernstein" version)

1) Locket Full of Moonlight (Casual Reprise) - Bill Mallonee

The Great Snow of '73

What if you were to read this headline - "24 inches of snow in 24 hours?" Would you think Erie, PA? Buffalo, NY? Denver, CO?

Actually this was Rimini SC, just north of Lake Marion in the low country between Columbia and Charleston, on February 10, 1973. I know, we couldn't believe it then either.

In Columbia where I lived we just got 17". Slightly different amounts fell in different parts of the city. It was far and away the greatest and most amazing weather event of my life. I can't believe it has been 37 years ago. It seems like yesterday.

Just a little SE of Columbia, in Manning, there was 21". Orangeburg got 21". Greenville - they got 1".

It happened on February 9 and 10, 1973. I was 15 years old, in tenth grade at A. C. Flora High School.

Back then in Columbia we got a pretty decent snowfall about every winter. Three years before, in January of 1970, it snowed so hard and fast that our bus from Crayton Junior High couldn't get us home, and believe it or not the driver let a group of us off in brutally cold windy snowy weather two miles from where we lived. We got lost on the golf course walking home. It was my first whiteout experience - or near whiteout. We weren't dressed for it. It was brutal.

Back to 1973. I believe that we did go to school that February Friday and when it was apparent later what was going to happen we were sent home. I distinctly remember that the the storm had not been forecast. They had called for rain. Even today with advanced tools these events are hard to see more than a few hours out. This was one of those many low pressure systems rising out of the gulf. The incoming cold front which met it was not expected.

The storm came up from the south and west. This was an enormous snow event for southern Alabama and Georgia too. You can get a good overview of the storm here.

The storm hit so fast that thousands of cars were stranded on I-95 and other highways in southern SC. National Guard troops were called out to rescue the people by helicopter. I remember watching the footage on the news at the time. There were multiple fatalities. People froze to death in their cars.

There were reports of drifts 6-8 feet deep, and strong winds. In Columbia where I was there was almost no wind. I remember the night of the 9th watching the snow fall onto our little back porch. We had one of those standard early 60's variety steel railings with a flat inch-wide top. The snow was coming down in enormously huge flakes, falling very very slowly, like little parachutes. The snow was piling straight up on the little rail. I can't remember if our power went out. I would imagine that it did.

So I went to bed that night and it was snowing like crazy. The amazing part is that when I got up the next morning it was STILL snowing like crazy. That had never happened, and has not come close to happening again in Columbia. It snowed 17 inches at my house in 24 hours.

The next morning the snow on those rails was standing up in thin white walls a foot high. I could not believe my eyes looking out side. It was deeply delightful. But even in my joy I couldn't begin to match the sheer gush of happiness that came over my 18 month old Irish Setter Clancey. When we finally went outside together he was running jumping and spinning around with an expression on his face of utter and pure animal happiness. We rolled around and around wrestling, chasing, playing. It was one of the happiest days of my life.

I remember standing straight up and falling backwards - straight back stiff-spined. Plop! The snow would poof out from the impact, and then I would be lying there in a canyon of snow with the snow wall to my right and left quite higher than my head. I did this fall-backwards thing over and over all day.

I tried doing snow angels but my arms and legs were just plowing under the snow!

A cold freeze followed the snow so we were out of school for at least a week. Snow isn't great for the dry cleaning business so my dad wasn't super excited after the first day or so. I remember my grandmother being stranded in her house. Not sure how I got over there but I remember a lot of pine tree limbs down.

Somewhere we have a few little black and white pictures but I can't find them. I do offer for your view amazing footage from that morning Feb 10th 1973 in Sumter SC, 45 minutes east of where I lived. Sumter had the same amount of snow we did. This footage is wonderful.

Train Songs

So, Issac and I had lunch at Fin Castles today. They have this a new New Orleans menu along with the normal stuff - the red beans and sausage on rice - so good. Well, they also have a jukebox, and while we were there our waiter put on the song "Love Train." Then he started singing and dancing for everyone - well, mainly for a table of ladies next to us. The man could sing and he had the moves - the old time moves - smooth, classy, tasteful.

Well, that song got Isaac and I thinking about songs with trains, so we came up with a list there at the table - deal was I would not add more later. So here is our list - these are also almost all songs we like too. Oh, and the waiter...he's in a band that bears his name - plays next door to Fin Castles Saturday night, but I can't find where I wrote down his name. Will add that later.

Here's our train song list - what can you add? Has to have the word "train" in it or be about a train - not just a station!

Love Train - The O'Jays
Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Night
Folsome Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams
Long Train Runnin' - Doobie Brothers
Tuesday's Gone - Lynnyrd Skynyrd
Nothing Like a Train - Vigilantes of Love
House of the Rising Sun - The Animals
City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie
Slow Train Coming - Bob Dylan
Last Train to Clarkesville - the Monkies
One After 909 - The Beatles
Hear My Train a Comin' - Jimi Hendrix
White Room - Cream
Like the 309 - Johnny Cash
Slow Dark Train - Vigilantes of Love
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osborne
When Love Came to Town - U2 and BB King

Help With Google Blogger

I wrote last week about having "upgraded" my Blogger site to the "new" Blogger, called now "Google Blogger." There are many advantages to Google Blogger for people like me who aren't very code savvy. Yet, even as limited as my skills are I had with old Blogger been able to drop snippets of code into the Blogger template and out comes a flickr badge for example, or a we101 badge, or whatever.

It's not quite so easy in Google Blogger. The template code is built around the architecture of the Blogger "gadgets" - little programs like WordPress widgets that can be added to the site and move around easily. This new functionality for Blogger requires code that looks very mysterious to guys like me, and which from all I have read makes it all but impossible to plop in other code for badges and such.

There is a new Blogger gadget called "HTML/JavaScript." supposedly this gadget allows the user to add code from third parties, but no code I have dropped in there has come out right. I am talking about code provided by various third parties to add to Blogger templates.

If any of you have transitioned to "new" Blogger I would love very much to know if you know how to insert things like the Flickr badge that Flickr provides, or the we101.com badge, or the like. You can comment here or e-mail me.

Thanks,

Joel

It Won't Be Long Now

Just thinking ahead...

Home and Garden

Where Are the Prophets When You Need Them?

I've been quiet on the goings on a half block down and across the street on S. Elm. And yeah, I have an opinion.

Parking downtown stinks. That's just a fact. If I didn't have a parking lot for my building I'd be mighty frustrated. I doubt I'd come down here very often because of the parking. The businesses up and down the 300 block of S Elm are doing their best to make it with poor parking options (and without city incentives).

It takes a lot of dough to renovate these old buildings. How come the city can't make that process easier? And for real, I walk around a lot down here. I think the city could do a lot more to help with the parking other than writing $25 tickets which is what the guys at the barber were talking about yesterday. There are a lot of empty lots here and there, and we could even build a architecturally appropriate parking deck if we wanted to.

Every building in this block is old, or, if it isn't, it was built to fit the rest of the architecture. The thing they plan to put up in that lot on S. Elm is going to butt ugly in context and stick out like a sore thumb. It will steal much of the charm away from the block and further diminish the "cool" factor for people wanting to come down here enough to put up with pathetic parking problem.

So after the new building and its proprietary parking lot takes away thirty some parking spaces that otherwise would be for patrons of local businesses, well, where are people visiting the other businesses supposed to park? I have a real problem as a taxpayer knowing my tax money is going to be given unjustly to the fancy-dancy new developer and at the same time further hinder the ability of the shop owners to survive. Maybe a tax revolt would be in order. It's enough to turn me off from downtown entirely.

Once again the monied interests win out, and the developers on our council sit on their hands and look the other way. It's a nice little racket they've got going here.

It reminds me of some things I have read in my Bible:

Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you are made to dwell alone
in the midst of the land (Isaiah 5:8).

Woe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance (Micah 2:1-2).

Basically Isaiah and Micah were talking about developers, monied influence-peddlers who "influenced judges" so as to take over the land of those less able to sway the foxes looking out for the hen house.

The city council is the judge in this scenario, and rather than doing what is right it succumbs the the influence peddling of the developer set. I just wonder what deals got cut in the country clubs or in the dark chambers hidden away from public view - and how did the council come to change it's mind so abruptly? Very strange if you ask me.

So, a guy is going to make a three and a half million "investment" in ruining a very nice block and discouraging hard working small business owners - wow, I'm all ga ga. Doing wrong by the people who have been working so hard to make a living and promote downtown isn't worth ten times that much.

Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, we need you guys here to kick some serious butt.

And while you're at it can you get the developer interests and their proxies to find a place for the homeless to stay during the day and night?

Joel Gillespie
301 South Elm

The Street, from Above

Taken from atop the Guilford Building - looking down at intersection of S Elm and Washington. Check out the headless rider (you have to look VERY close to figure that out).

My Flickr photostream.

Even the Gestapo Had to Start Somewhere

This should deeply worry anybody who has an affection for the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Help! New Blogger and Flickr

Due to the gradual build up of small coding problems on my Blogger site (which I am not smart enough to fix) I have taken the plunge into the world of "new" Blogger or as they now call it "Google Blogger." Seems it is trying very hard to be like Word Press without the Open Source aspect. ). I have set up a "new" Blogger site. Don't know if I will stay with template. As far as I can tell the new Google Blogger is trying to make it as hard as possible to access non Google sites - places like as Flickr, Pandora, Facebook, or Technorati. It looks like Google is turning into a proprietary monster. I do like the new Blogger widget thing - it's useful for code dorks like me.

But here is the problem. Their widgets for non Google sites are lame. For the life of me I can't figure out how to paste html code the old fashioned way (even in their html widget) and have things show up on the side bar - such as my Flickr badge. Flickr generates the code for a badge but it won't take inside the new Blogger. It does not work just dumping it into the "new Blogger" template code or into the html widget. Do any Blogger users out there know how to do this?

Thanks,

Joel

February - Buds, Birds, and Blooms

It's cold outside this morning. During the night it snowed a bit and the roads are too slick for the school buses, so school was canceled. I am at home with my daughter.

February is certainly an unpredictable month. There may be a week of 70 degree weather, or there may be a huge ice storm. The most amazing winter weather event of my entire life occurred in February - February 9-10, 1973 in Columbia SC. But that's another story.

Just like in late August and early September when there are often harbingers of fall - the cold front that brings air that is dry and cooler and seems to smell like fall, the Tulip Poplar leaves here or there that are starting to turn yellow, or the flock of birds that shows up in your yard already starting on its journey south.

February is similar - it is still winter but hints of Spring abound. It is a month pregnant with possibility. Despite the cold of January that has just past, the days continue to lengthen, and temperatures become just a little more mild.

Life begins to break out all over. There are three harbingers of Spring that make February delightful - buds, birds, and blooms.

The birds are busy and even have a different sound. They are claiming territory and building nests and mating. I've seen several blue birds this week flitting busily about. We have sparrows building a nest in a shrub. Crows are hyper. This can be a hard time for birds that gather seed and berries, as well as those who feed on insects. Food sources are in short supply. It's a good time to "feed the birds, tuppence a bag."

Tree buds are swelling already. It is fascinating to study and understand what it is exactly that triggers bud swelling and opening. Day length or night length may play a part, as may temperature. Either way, buds are really cool, containing in them tiny but recognizable precursors to leaves and flowers. It's only February 3rd today but already the silver maple buds have expanded.

February brings forth many beautiful and delicate little wildflowers in fields and lawns. Many consider these to be weeds. My favorite early wildflower is Lamium, that little purple flower that shoots up with a tuft of beautiful blue/purple flowers in a whorl around the stem. There are many others, mostly small. I hope to get pictures of them all this year.

Take a walk, take a break, and open you eyes and ears to all that is around you. Spring's a coming!

My Ten Favorite Albums

I've been thinking for some time about what are my favorite records. I don't know why, maybe it is a little nostalgia thing, maybe a desire to know myself, I'm not sure. In some ways it may be a desire to step back and identify with and know my own generation and culture. Maybe it's the many great memories associated with each record. Seeing an artist perform the record live is also a big connector.

For some reason I would only allow one record per artist on the list - kind of arbitrary I know but I didn't want it to be dominated by the Beatles.

I am thinking here only of studio albums, too, otherwise Allman Brothers at Fillmore East would be number 2 or 3, and Jackson Brown's Solo Live Acoustic would have been in the list.

To get on the list 1) I had to own the record, 2) I had to be currently listening to the record, and 3) I had to take a kickback. These artists are all so interested in making my list :-).

Of the hundreds of records I love, how do I narrow it to a top ten? How do I choose between five different great Bob Dylan albums, five Beatles albums and so forth? I think in the end it has to with affection. I tend to have more affection for records that seem to hold together and have a sense of unity. It doesn't mean they have to be concept albums, but I tend to think of a record as a whole.

There may other albums with more great songs, but for some reason there isn't the connection for me with the whole. Obviously I have left out way more great albums than I have included.

The list does not reflect any idea of what albums I think are the greatest, the most important, or the most significant, but the records that seem to speak to me most now.

I bought Layla and Other assorted Love Songs when it was first released and have loved it ever sense. It got burned into my psyche I guess. It is a rough record, sounding more "live" than your average studio recording. It is 2-3 songs too long, those 2-3 being real lemons, but the rest of the record flows well. Thankfully the guys managed to get Duane Allman on board by the fourth song. The twin guitars on "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" send me to guitar heaven, and knowing the context makes the song interesting as well. This is the record that hooked me on the blues.

I was not ever that big a fan of Bruce Springsteen, well, except for his mellow music. I bought The rising right when it came out. It does not get the critical acclaim as other of his records. it holds together extremely well, and even songs he wrote before 9/11 work in this collection of songs written about and in honor of 9/11 and its impact on people. The Rising speaks to me very powerfully and intimately. I never tire of it. I like every song, and I saw the concert.

I more or less stopped listening to Led Zeppelin by the time I was 14 after a brief obsession with stairway to Heaven." But I have been listening to them a lot over the last 2-3 years, and I love talking Zep if you're ever interested. Zep fans love to debate which is their greatest album. I like all of them but their album I seem to listen to he most all the way through is their first. It's raw and muddled in parts, yet so full of energy. This is a great driving album and of all their records the one that seems to flow the best in my view.

Some of my choices would befuddle critics. I love so many Bob Dylan records, but I LOVE Modern Times, his most recent, a record on absolutely nobody's top twenty list of his greatest records. But it gives me joy; it makes me smile. I was tempted to put Slow Train Coming, The Times They are a Changing, or Highway 61 Revisited, but the smile won out :-)

Few people even know Iris Dement. What can I say, put on the record and pass the tissues. Tracy Chapman's debut record was close to making the list. "My Life" is her best flowing and most personal record, haunting in places. I have seen her now a couple of times which always adds to the experience of listening to a record.

I was pretty much a rocker-only when my oldest brother Mike gave me Jackson Browne's first record for my 17th birthday in August 1974. I think it is the gift I most treasure from my siblings and family over all these years.

I think the greatest bliss I know listening to modern music comes about 2/3's the way through Question 67 and 68. I think of early Chicago as the pinnacle of creative energy. if you ever see me walking down the road air conducting like a escape from the asylum, I'm probably listening to Chicago.

It is very hard to decide which Beatles record to include. For a very long time the Beatles record I would have called my favorite was the record almost universally considered the Beatles worst - Let it Be! It was the first Beatles album I bought. They broke up when I was 13 and I bought Let it Be when I was in eighth grade! I have a deep affection for it all the way through. But Abbey Road gets the nod now. it is from the first to the last note the one Beatles record I like the most and listen through the most.

I did not discover Astral Weeks until a couple of years ago. I'd have Moondance at #2 if not for Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks is so layered and brilliant, though put together in a hurry, and without great diversity within the album. I think of it as a symphony and the songs as movements. It pierces me.

There has really not been a competitor for number one for quite a long time. Not only do I have deep life long affection for Dark Side of the Moon (I bought it right when it came out in March 1973, about a month after the greatest snowstorm in the history of the universe (well, in the history of Columbia SC). I was in tenth grade. As a studio recording it is as close to perfect as I can imagine. Dark Side of the Moon is a record whose content speaks to me no matter how many times I listen to it, sort of like my favorite poems by GM Hopkins, or my favorite Psalms. Obviously the message of Dark Side of the Moon is ultimately darker and more forlorn, but in some way God uses it to point me to Himself as an answer to the questions raised. And I can't even put into words how Great Gig in the Sky connects with me. It's primordial. But over the primordial and confused bent world the Spirit broods....

Here’s the list…

10.Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - Derek and the Dominos
9. The Rising - Bruce Springsteen
8. I - Led Zeppelin
7. Modern Times - Bob Dylan
6. My Life - Iris Dement
5. Jackson Browne --Jackson Browne
4. Chicago Transit Authority - Chicago Transit Authority
3. Abbey Road - The Beatles
2. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
1. Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

My Top Ten Led Zeppelin Songs (this week)

Can you narrow it down to ten? I know, some of you could narrow it down to zero!

Unlike many groups lyrics are all but irrelevant in much of Led Zeppelin's best music. For me it is almost as if Robert Plant's voice is more of an instrument in itself. Their lyrics are completely forgettable and sometimes really dumb.

I tend toward favoring their blues and harder driving stuff the most, but that's just me. Well, not exclusively - I like D'Yer Maker. And I know, I don't have Kashmir in my top ten. Silly me.

Memories of playing pool in Greg Busdicker's awesome house on Sylvan Drive, Columbia. Phil Owens, Greg, and me shooting pool and jammin' to LZ for summer days on end. Where O where are Phil and Greg?

Here's the list...

1. Since I've Been Loving You (I can't stop listening to this song - anthemic)
2. When the Levee Breaks (Those harmonicas! Great adaptation)
3. Stairway to Heaven (Is there a bustle in YOUR hedgerow?)
4. Heartbreaker (Unbeatable air guitar song)
5. I Can't Quit You Baby (Oh man, those slow blues!)
6. How Many More Times (What an opening!)
7. Bring It On Home (A little Memphis blues, and then watch out!)
8. Rock and Roll (Still a top ten ever driving song)
9. D'Yer Mak'er (OK, a softee, but I like it)
10. You Shook Me (Totally groovin' simmering slow blues song)

An End to the Abortion Wars? I Don't Think So.

Yesterday while walking through the lobby of my office building I heard a very short bit on the lobby TV about Obama's abortion legislation. I didn't catch the whole piece and am not sure what Obama has in mind. But I do know that our President needs to proceed with great caution on this issue.

Americans have come - out of necessity on both sides - to a kind of fragile truce and fragile balance on the issue of abortion. Those passionate for abortion rights have their rights in almost all cases, with only the ban on partial birth abortion and some parental consent or waiting period requirements in various states. Roe v. Wade stands firm. And a Democratic President is in there for 4-8 years to watch over any new Supreme Court nominees.

Those passionate about the right of the unborn to life have had to concede that Roe V. Wade is not going anywhere. Pro-life advocates did at least achieve the ban on partial birth abortions, a barbaric procedure that most Americans oppose. Apart from that ban there isn't very much to celebrate on the pro-life side.

These being the lines of a very fragile truce, energies have shifted to other tangential areas. No one is terribly happy with things as they stand; after all, this is a truce not a peace treaty. sometimes a truce is all you can hope for.

If Obama tries to break the truce by passing the Freedom of Choice Act, he will, in one wave of his hand, profoundly alienate a very large percentage of the American people and totally destroy any benefit of the doubt being extended to him by conservatives. He will have wrecked all hope of change in the way things are done in Washington.

If he thinks that passing FOCA will in some way end the abortion wars he is either not as smart as we think or he has plans to suppress dissent. For the voices of dissent will rise like a tsunami.

Instead of ending the abortion wars FOCA will fan a spark that has been simmering for a long time - and a new war will begin. There will be many many screams - and these won't be silent. Perhaps Obama does not know the depth of feeling and passion on the other side of this fragile truce.

I remember hearing Bill Clinton say during his wife's campaign that if pro-life people really thought abortion was murder they would be storming the clinics (or something like that). Well Mr. Clinton, many pro-life people do believe that abortion is a kind of murder, partial birth abortion being the most egregious expression of it. The reason we do not storm clinics and such is because we (most of us) adhere to the rule of law. We do not like anarchy or vigilantism.

It may not always be so. Legalizing again partial birth abortions will create a tidal wave of renewed passion on the issue of life. I worry that not everyone will submit to the rule of law and that bad things may happen. Maybe that is what the left wants...

But it will be war (morally and politically and culturally); and it will wage until a truce can be restored, if that would be possible.

Obama has a shooting war to wind down, major legislation to pass on the economy, and profound energy issues to address. Lift the ban on partial birth abortions and he will lose any good will that is now extended to him on the other side of the aisle. He will become - in a flash - a fearful specter - a heavy handed left leaning president who has a congressional majority. It will all but guarantee a Republican comeback in 2010.

And one more note about the fragile truce that exists now. I believe that it is in Obama's best political interest not to stir the nest and to keep that truce going if he can. But in the end this issue is much more significant than whether a mere country is divided. On this issue families divide, friends divide, workmates divide, and even churches divide.

If we have a fragile truce for a while it would be in our countries best interest to preserve it. Obama will find that out too late that he has exacerbated and not ended the abortion wars.

Clancy in the Kitchen

Clancy, 1971-1981, my buddy, my friend...

This is quite obviously not a great photo, nor was the photo in very good shape when I scanned it. I can say as regards this picture..."There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more But they didn't show your spirit quite as true." This picture captures the simple cheerfulness of my favorite pet growing up.

There is a "note" on the Flickr picture makes me think of how Clancy and I would often greet, well, after he got over the excitement. I would get down on all fours and we would nuzzle foreheads. It was a kind of "kiss." He very obviously understood it as a rite of affection.

I am one of those who thinks we have greatly underestimated the intelligence of animals, including their emotional intelligence. Though Irish Setters are normally high strung and less than brilliant, Clancy was a great friend, and we had a deep bond. I just wish our dogs lived as long as we do so we wouldn't have to go through so much grief at their departures.

OK, Does Anyone Know Where THIS ONE Is?

I had such success getting an ID on the other old picture I sent out that I thought I'd try this one. I found this picture in with a bunch of other pictures taken of my great great aunts back around 1910 or so. I had two great great aunts who had moved to Oakdale Tennessee where their husbands worked on the railroad, and their sisters in Kentucky would visit them. These are wonderful shots even if they are pocked up a bit. Based on other pictures it seems they took an outing along the railroad somewhere, so I think this is near Oakdale Tennessee, which is about an hour west of Knoxville. However, there is a note on the picture that could be taken to mean that the picture was taken in Virginia.

If you go to the photo on Flickr, click on "All Sizes" and you will get a larger view. I have never noticed until today that there is a person in the picture - lookin the top right quadrant! This is absolutely priceless. I just wish I knew where it was!

The Dream of America

I finally got to sit down last evening and see footage from the events of Tuesday January 20, 2009. A usual I have comments :-). Yes, I realize that my reflections are but a minuscule drop in a huge river...still...

As I await the unfolding of the Obama administration I do so as one with serious differences on several issues. I worry over the possible signing of the Freedom of Choice Act, the reversal of the the Defense of Marriage Act, and resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine.

Having said that, and being on record as having the opposite view than the Democratic Party on these and other issues, I offer some reflections upon the Inauguration of Barack Obama.

When I think of the idea of the the "American "Dream" I think not of bourgeois comfort and social values but of opportunity for all. Specifically I think of the opportunity that any person, of whatever race or socio-economic status or gender or creed - the opportunity that any person has to achieve great things. This is the hope that America offers. This is the hope embodied in Obama's election and inauguration.

Several recent events have given me a sense of peace in the moment, despite the passion I may have for the issues above.

First, there is the crash of US Airways Flight 1549 last week. It is nothing short of astounding to consider that a commercial airliner filled with 150 people could make an emergency landing on water with no serious casualties or fatalities. Yes, it is a dangerous thing to try to interpret Providence. But I had and have this sense that what happened with Flight 1549, coming as it did right at the end of the Bush administration and just before the Obama administration has significance, that it means something, and something good for our country. I cannot prove that and I may be wrong, but this is what is rolling around in my mind and heart.

Second, the fact that a million plus people could assemble in Washington DC and that there would be no arrests, no major injuries, and no attempts to do mischief also astounds me. Again, I ask, why?

Third, watching people all over the world watching and celebrating the inauguration of Barack Obama is incredible to me. I think these people, our neighbors in other countries, are celebrating with us the amazing significance of a black American rising to the office of the President. It is almost as if Obama were the president of the world the way so many are celebrating. And maybe in a sense he is. It just seems right to me that he be our leader at this time.

Fourth, the graciousness of George and Laura Bush is noteworthy to me. I have always felt that George Bush a decent human being in a way many people are not. We needed his graciousness. Obama needed it. Obama has had - and still has - enough to worry about given all the issues we face as a nation. It is worth noting how unusual in the world today it is to have such a peaceful transition especially from one party to another. Again, this peaceful transition of power also embodies the hope that is the United States of America.

Fifth and finally President Obama said things in his inaugural address that needed to be said, things which only he could say with credibility. He was not merely sailing past us on the empty clouds of rhetoric. He was calling us all, rich and poor, black and white, male and female, Democrat and Republican to action, to responsibility, to united effort. In such times that is the right thing to do, and he did it very well.

These things all give me hope. Yes, if I wake up tomorrow and the Freedom of Choice Act is signed into law, the reversal of the the Defense of Marriage Act has succeeded, and the Fairness Doctrine is making itself to the President's desk, I will despair. I hope Obama finds the middle ground on these issues. We'll see. Mean time I watch, hopefully.

So Far So Good

I did not get to watch the inauguration today, though I read the text of the speech. I will read it over several times. A friend of mine encapsulated my feelings almost exactly:

"I read the inaugural speech ... I did not hear it presented, but it must have been something else. Whoever drafted the speech (I hear Obama is an excellent writer and has much influence in these matters) did an excellent job. Here's hoping he can deliver on 10-20% of his intentions ... if so, I think he will have a good run. I just hope those who see him as political 'messiah' will open their eyes to the reality of all our problems and the reality of how government works. Lots of pressure on that man."

He has my prayers.

I am disappointed with the Drudge Report for running a headline entitled, I think, "Obama Flubs Oath." They have since taken that headline off - now it reads "Obama and Chief Justice flub oath of office...nerves as America swears in 44". It is a link to a clip of the little stumble in the second phrase of the oath. I thought the Chief Justice didn't do a very good job with it myself. But why does this have to be pointed out?

Anyway, I have no more stomach for the right doing this to Obama than I did with the left (and David Letterman) doing it to Bush.

Does Anybody Know Where This Is?

This is one of my favorite pictures of my dad as a child. The actual photo is tiny and streaked and pocked with damage. This is about as good a rendering as I can come up with.

In the picture are my grandmother Mary Sue Gillespie (nee Andrews, and known as "Nanny" to us grandkinds), Curtis Claunch Gillespie Sr (called "Brother in Extended Family and Pop to grandkids), and Curtis Claunch Gillespie Jr. (called "Sonny" in extended family, or for me, just "Daddy") .

I cannot figure out where this picture was taken. Behind and in the distance is a river. I wonder if this may be near Chattanooga, or maybe Chimney Rock. I really have no idea. I'll give ten bucks to anyone who can tell me with accuracy where this is.

OK - I want to thank Roch Smith for discovering the identity of this rock - it is "Umbrella Rock" on Lookout Mountain Tennessee. Roch sent a link to an awesome picture taken of the rock during the civil war. The rock doesn't look quite the same, but the identity is certain. Here is a vintage picture taken of the same rock, and another and another. Sometimes you just have to love the internet.

Check out my Flickr photostream.

I Hear the Train a Comin'

The "9007" crossing the tracks at S Elm and McGee. I caught this from my fifth floor fire escape.

Yes, I did hear the train a comin', and yes, it was rollin' round the bend. The bend would be the big 90 degree curve running behind The Depot as the train goes from heading south to heading west, or the other way as the train goes from heading east to heading north. When the trains are coming- either down from the north or from the west - they start blowing their whistles as they approach downtown. They do this before they cross the bridge southbound over Washington Street, or before they cross S. Elm eastbound. So I can hear them coming. I can't always tell from which direction, but if I look out my window I can see if a train is coming southbound approaching the bridge over Washington Street. If I don't see it I go to the fire esc....OK, for real I just this second heard a whistle....OK, I'm back. That whistle just now was from a train that was coming from the west just crossing S Elm Street going east. I stood there on the fire escape until the engine was on the bridge over Washington Street, and the train had still not cleared S Elm Street!

Anyway, I love trains. I will never tire of hearing a train whistle, feeling the slow rumble, watching the engine and caboose and the shaking. OK, a story about trains....coming soon.

Train Behind The Depot, from 5th Floor Fire Escape, Guilford Building

I am not inclined to offer praise to my own pictures since I am a mediocre amateur at best. However, the chances are fairly decent that I would snap a good one every now and again, and this may be the coolest picture I've taken of downtown Greensboro. It looks to me like a photo of a model railroad, like a toy train and toy station. I took the picture through the rusted looking fire escape steps, which, due to their not being in focus highlighted even more the sharply focused train and station, giving it that model railroad look. You can see many more recent pictures of downtown in my set of downtown pictures, scroll to the bottom.

This Is For Real - Former JP Building in Glow of Sunset

Digital cameras are known to manipulate images or interpret light wrongly. It is hard to judge a photo anymore in terms of trueness to the real object being photographed. But in this picture the old JP building was in fact this exact color. I did not color correct. I took this over by the jail, near the drive through Wachovia "branch" on Washington Street. The other picture - to the right of this one - was taken five minutes later.

Diet and Exercise - Back to the Grind

It hit me yesterday. I may have been overly caffeinated, but still, the heart palpitations were unambiguous. I can feel it when my heart kicks into a different rhythm. My size 36 pants, falling off me a year ago this time, are now uncomfortable again. I suspect my blood sugar is pushing upward again too. I got into the dietary regimen 18 months ago because of hearth health and fear of diabetes. I cut out sugar and simple starches of all kinds, even certain kinds of fructose. I started exercising - walking at first and then busting my butt on the elliptical machine at a local gym. In 8 months I went from 126 to 180 pounds. Then I got sick. Actually I had been sick and did not know it. The last two months of working out meant a daily migraine and extreme tiredness. What I didn’t know was that my hemoglobin had crashed, and my iron stores were about nothing. I woke up one morning with a migraine and I could not stand up. The doctors surrounded me with urgent calls to have my GI tract checked. I hardly had any tiem to process anything. So I did all that, and it seems the culprit was two small ulcers in my stomach - not bacterial related. 

It took me months to recover. I started eating like crazy - including lots of foods rich in iron. I took iron pills. Finally many months later my hemoglobin was normal, and then soon after my iron stores were replenished. And I was fat again - the kind of fat the afflicts my gender - stomach, beer gut with no beer. 

I have gained 36 of the 46 pounds back. My dietary regimen over that year was good - I could eat whole grain breads, vegetables, meat of any kind, milk and dairy products, lots and lots of yogurt, and lots and lots of high bran cereal - dry. 

It has nothing to do with the new Year, but as of today I start back. I won't be able to use a gyn. I'll have to let the world be my gym, and do dumbbells and core exercises at home and in my office.

I figured out how to run or walk briskly downtown. I just head off and at every light I go where the sings say walk - a different route every time.  If I get to the border of downtown I just turn around. It's kind of fun.

My biggest challenge (next to laziness) is sweat - I don't like getting wet and then having to do office work, so I need to figure that out. Someone suggested baby wipes.

I went to a movie last night and bought popcorn. I savored the stuff because I won't be having pop corn again for months.

I don't care really how much I weigh, but my cardiologist says that exercise will cause the body to produce the very same kinds of chemicals as taking medication. he also told me not to rejoice too much that my congenital  mitral valve prolapse had stopped prolapsing. He said that my heart muscle was a little overweight too, and that as I lost weight my prolapse might return.

I choose not to get diabetes II. It scares me more than cancer for some reason. There is only one way to avoid it - exercise and diet.

So, if anyone sees me downtown running or power walking, I am not showboating, except to show off how out of shape I am - I am trying to get healthy.

I guess we'll see how it goes.

New Lincoln Building Through Glass Corridor, Greensboro

Taken on Tuesday December 30, 2008, from the Lindsay (Marriott) Parking Deck 

See some more new downtown pictures here. 

The Greatest Gift - Page One

When I taught public high school in the early-mid 1980's I was the faculty adviser to a Bible Study Group that met once a week in the morning. One year the group wanted to share an invitation – not to the bible study so much, but to Christ. A couple of the students and I worked on the letter, and the last day of school before Christmas break students handed out the letter above to all the other students as they came into the building. It was kind of cool.

To view in a larger size go to my Flickr Photostream, click on the picture of the letter, and then "all sizes."

The Greatest Gift - Page Two

When I taught public high school in the early-mid 1980's I was the faculty adviser to a Bible Study Group that met once a week in the morning. One year the group wanted to share an invitation – not to the bible study per se, but to Christ. A couple of the students and I worked on the letter, and the last day of school before Christmas break students handed out the letter above to all the other students as they came into the building. It was kind of cool. This is the second page.

To view this scanned document in a larger size, like if you want to read it, please go to my Flickr Photostream, click on the document, and then click on "all sizes."

Greetings from Toyland, 1962

My mother's father, Maurice Sanders, owned a combination toy store and sporting good store in Sherman Texas in the 1940's until his death in the mid 1960's. This is the front cover of the 1962 Christmas catalog. 

You can see a photo of the actual store, well, in 1951 anyway, HERE. It's really cool. Above the picture click on "all sizes" and look at it in large - the detail is really cool. This is the only picture I have of my grandfather Maurice Sanders at his wonderful toy and sporting goods store in downtown Sherman. He died in 1967. He was cool.

I have scanned and posted the entire catalog. Click here for my Flickr Phostream and scroll down just a tad.

Go Tigers

Clemson orange rocks! I went to this game with my dad (my one and only foray into Florida my whole life), and there took my favorite picture of my dad -farm1.static.flickr.com/110/310764108_3b39bf94e2.jpg.

I just found this button in a box of stuff.  It is about 2 1/2 inches across. I could not keep the edges from being cut off in the scan. 

My Photostream

Mountain Laurel Blossom

Thinking of spring/summer today. This is Kalmia latifolia better known as Mountain Laurel, taken while hiking on Cook's Wall Trail, Hanging Rock State Park, Stokes County, NC.

This flower is the inspiration for my third daughter's name. I was always a sucker for "botanical" names!

My Photostream

Monkey Bar Portraits

Sarah, Madeline, Liam, Rebekah, and Bremely , Bur-Mil park playground,  November, 2008. I would have preferred a blue sky rather than a white cloud as background, but this is kind of cool in its own way. For a view of the sky that day look here.

Bur-Mil is a great multi purpose park, and the managers of grounds and buildings do a fantastic job.

If you're interested in knowing how much a Tonka truck or Cooties cost in 1962, look here.

Clouds, and Lone Crow

Taken at Bur-Mil park Greensboro, NC, November 2008.

For more pictures of or from Bur-Mil, and for my photostream, look HERE.

Night Falls Over Moore's Wall - A Pensive Moment

Here at the office early on a Friday evening I feel pensive. This picture captures how I feel right now. It was taken from Hanging Rock proper after the sun had set over Moore's Wall. It got dark very fast afterward. We are blessed to have such a beautiful place so close.

My Photostream

My Dad's Reflections, upon Turning Fifty

My dad - Curtis Claunch Gillespie, Jr. - wrote this out on sketch pad in 1980 when he was fifty years old.  Note the references to Chapel Hill and the Gator Bowl of 1949. 

Reflections 

As I approach my own half century the reflections are awesome, vivid, and lovely – Why the reflections at this age – maybe fear, joy, or what? Am I afraid to pass this milestone – King of my Grammar School – the Jewish girl who could beat me up but love me – The fights as a twelve year old – Columbia and Woodrow Street – Hand, Dreher – Pawley’s Island – Drinking White Doves Beer at Davis’s – Falling off the back of the pavilion – The cashmere sweaters and pegged pants – Knocking down the door at the girl’s house party – I was bad but I guess normal – The Dark Horsemen, my girls, Woody’s Band at the Jefferson – The Parkway ??? - The Green Derby – The Cotton Patch – the Citadel & that beautiful redhead – My roommate pissing in the middle of the quadrangle & getting kicked out of school – the wonderful years at UNC – The Frat House – My brothers, many of whom are dead now – the Bowl games – The Gator  Bowl in ’49 which will never be topped – The Air Force -  My love for Maurine - our marriage   Denver - St. Louis – Our beautiful children in the 50’s – The Little League teams – The troubles and trials of growing children – My careers mostly successful – My art which I loved – The rest seems to glide by to now – Why am I scared – These reflections make it passable (?) so maybe instead of fear I should look forward to The second half – It could be the best of all – But of all these reflections the thing that made me the happiest were my father, my mother, my wife, my children, all individuals with different personalities and goals – I am sensitive and meditative about these people who I love so much – I have not given enough – But I am me – maybe I can reflect again when I approach 75 – The only regrets I really have is that I have not been able to love enough for I have so much in me

CCG

My dad died suddenly in a freak accident in June of 1989. He was 59. He never got to have those reflections he wanted to have approaching 75. He would have been 75 in 2005. 

My Flickr Photostream 

My Dad

This a great picture of my dad taken two months before he died. 

Dad's Doodles

My dad (Curtis Claunch Gillespie, Jr.), who was an accomplished painter of flowers - mostly roses ansd camelias - also enjoyed doodling. He had pretty much stopped painting by the time I was old enough to be aware of things and we were always trying to get him painting again. Alas, we failed, but he would humor us occasionally with his doodles. I like this doodle page. I remember him doing it.

My Photostream.

I Don't Believe in the Trinity

No, not THAT Trinity silly (I certainly do believe in that one). I mean the unholy trinity, or perhaps better said, the unholy triumvirate that holds our public school hostage to mediocrity -- that is, the triumvirate of the teachers unions, the university programs that oversee teacher certification, and the legislature that keep reform from being possible.

I got to thinking about this while reading the Time Magazine cover story about Michelle Rhee, the federally appointed superintendent of the Washington DC schools.

I have heretofore figured that our public school system is beyond reform, irredeemable, and hopeless. Its mediocrity is felt worse in places that need excellence the most – in our inner cities and areas of socio-economic decline. Why we don’t offer the poorest people the opportunity to escape the system and attend charter, magnet, or private schools is beyond my understanding.

The sentence that most got my attention in the Time Magazine article was this:

“Rhee is convinced that the answer to the U.S.’s education disaster is talent, in the form of outstanding teachers and principals.”

I agree. Don’t misunderstand me. There are a lot of talented and superb teachers in the system, despite low pay, chronic discipline issues, and little regard or professional respect by the general public. As the saying goes, “Those who can, do, those who can’t do, teach, and those who can’t teach, teach others to teach."

It doesn’t help matters to have salaries printed every year in one of our local papers, as if to prove how overly paid our teachers are. This is just ridiculous. Putting it in perspective, the highest paid teacher in Guilford County has a Ph.D., thirty five years experience, and National Board certification, and she makes less money than my daughter will make coming out of PA school, and much less money than the average bright twenty five year old person makes coming out of a quality MBA program.

Michelle Rhee wants to make the teachers in Washington DC the highest paid teachers in the nation, and in the process get rid of the weakest teachers. I would like to see the same right here in Guilford County.

Until we offer financial incentives by way of higher starting salary and higher top salaries, teaching will continue to attract the less talented and less bright college students. We need to grease the wheels for lateral entry to enable talented people who have worked in other industries for 20 years not to have to take a 50 percent or more pay cut in order o be a teacher.

And we need a way to weed out the teachers who just don’t cut it, or who have quit caring. The problem in the current system is that whereas it is very hard work being a good teacher, it is all to easy to be a bad teacher. That is not an easy matter to fix because it is hard to objectify the evaluation process. Interestingly however, principles and fellow teachers tend to know who the poor teachers are. Unfortunately, the reality of local school politics makes it difficult to weed out the poorest teachers by subjective observation alone. Plus many of the best teachers are mavericks who aren’t terribly submissive, and who don’t always cooperate with the mountain of administrative work heaped upon them. And sometimes the best teachers are a threat to the worst teachers.

Somehow we have to find a formula that includes objective criteria (improvement in student competence), and subjective opinion, the views of principles, students, and even parents. I think I could come up with a workable system, but the union would never allow it.

Despite all the usual excuses for bad school performance, I believe that with well paid motivated teachers and principals we could turn things around and give the next generation a fighting chance. We don’t have to consign our poorest families to our poorest schools.

There are three things I would voluntarily pay higher taxes for - 1) hiring more policemen and firemen and EMS type workers, 2) maintaining our public spaces such as parks and greenways and such, and 3) paying our teachers more - a LOT more. I would gladly see my taxes DOUBLE for these purposes.

Let’s stop business a usual. As was said by someone in the recent campaign, let’s made education the Marshall Plan for the 21st century, or least for its first quarter century (the green revolution won’t happen unless we have enough people, taught and rained to carry it out).

Mr. Green, look to Michelle Rhee.

That’s where I’m coming from.

Joel Gillespie

Those Were The Days - Maurice Sanders Toyland

My mother's father, Maurice Sanders, owned a combination toy store and sporting goods store in Sherman Texas in the 1940's until his death in 1967. This is the front cover of the 1962 Christmas catalogue.

You can see a photograph of my granddad in the store, with two employees, and amazing detail of dolls and toys and sporting goods,  if you view it on large, here. To view it large click "all sizes" above the photo.

Look to the SE - Crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter

Dear Friend,

If you want to be awed at the beauty of this great solar system we're a part of - then go outside - right now. Whatever you’re doing is probably not as important at seeing this. Look to the SW sky – fairly low - see the crescent moon, only about 15% illuminated, with Venus and Jupiter just to the right. Really, you’ll be glad you saw this. It’s awesome!


Thanks to Betsy Clark for the Twitter tip!

It's 6:36 as I write.

Looking Up into Autumn

Taken on Cook's Wall Trail, Hanging Rock State Park, November 2, 2008

My Photostream

Putting Thor back into Thursday (Or Taking Him Out)

Every year a few weeks before Christmas I start getting those mass e-mails which I am supposed to then forward to every Christian I know, all regarding the great offense whereby the phrase “Merry Christmas” has been changed to “Happy Holidays.” I usually don’t participate.

I suspect that the “Christ” part of Christmas means little more to many people than the “Thor” part of Thursday does to us Christians. But regarding our Hindu and Jewish and Muslim and non Christian neighbor, well I understand the discomfort of the name of “Christ” being all over their celebration of a winter holiday. In a secular and diverse nation it is almost inevitable that this issue would erupt every year. I’m fine with "Happy Holidays" myself.

The change of names for the holiday season is of course deeply distressing to many believers in Jesus. The sands seem to have shifted and they are feeling more and more marginalized. Indeed, there has been a seismic cultural change and the influence of Christianity upon our culture and national psyche is in decline.

However, as much as this cultural shift may be upsetting to many Christians, I think Christians should be equally upset by the obscenity that our celebration of Christmas has become. I wish there were some way to separate Advent from Christmas so that our religious celebration of Advent would not be polluted by the grotesque commerciaiam of the Christmas season.

So, instead of trying to put Christ back into Christmas let’s do one better and take Christ out of Christmas altogether. Let’s give Christmas to the pagans and take our Advent elsewhere before we ourselves are crushed by the weight of the materialistic orgy it has become. Then we can celebrate the first Advent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in a way that pleases Him. We can keep many of the customs and songs, just pick a different time. Maybe July? Then our Southern Hemisphere neighbors can have their own snowy Advent for a while! We don’t know exactly when Jesus was born, so it really does not matter when we celebrate the day of his birth.

To my pagan neighbors who may wish to change the name of the official national holiday from "Christmas" to some other thing, like maybe "Winter Solstice Day," well, let’s make a deal. How about we take Christ out of Christmas and you can agree to take Thor out of Thursday and Woden out of Wednesday and Tyr out of Tuesday (and so forth), just to make it fair. OK?