January 1 - Happy New Year!

January 5 - john and joyce just received an email from Basso in Benin, West Africa, that they would like to share with you:

"Since November 2006 I did not go back to a CiberCafé to check my mail. It is only yesterday, Tuesday 2nd January 2007, that I went back to. The reason is that I have lost my father. He died on 5th December, 2006. He was more than 95 years old. During the time he was born all the children were not registered in the administration in Africa. It is why we dont know exactly his age. By cutting with some events he talked about we can assume that he was born by 1910 or 1911.
He went to World War II in France, and he was married and had a daughter before going to fight. After the war he entered in a kind of military police and worked for about 20 years before retiring on February 1st, 1964. He spent almost 43 years in his retirement and died on the day I mentionned upper.
We are running for his burring, we think it will be for February 3rd, 2006. Because he will be burried in 2 ways : the first way will be the traditional one, and the second will be the catholic manner.
I could be very free after that day, and I would be able to catch up with my mail.
Take care and bye, bye.

Basso"

January 6 - jerry, gail, joyce, and john drove to Chicago to attend the funeral services for their very close friend, Al Larson, on January 2nd and 3rd.

To learn more about what an amazing fellow Al was, please click on the following:

Biographical Info page

Daily Herald Article

"Courthouse March" Poem

emails

Travels with Al

Dr. David Solzman, Al's great friend and fellow professor, made this sage advice during the two days everyone was remembering Al:

"There is great energy departed to those attending a memorial service such as this one. That energy can be used in several ways. One, it can be used to mourn the loss of the one so loved. Or, two, it can be used in a more positive, constructive way. For example, it might be used to channel additional love to those still on this earth, or, perhaps, to be creative in someway you have never been before."

January 8 - Here is a photo of the painting Fred Broski, retired TV9 weather anchor and master of ceremonies, is painting and donating to the New Theatre Guild Valentine Fling Men's raffle, February 14th:

The original painting is about 3 feet wide.

January 13 - jerry and gail received a package from UPS today. The package contained Al's ashes. They have volunteered to take his ashes to Colorado to put into a stream as he requested. It was again a very heavy, sad day at their house.

January 15 - Overland Park is on the edge of a major winter snowstorm. Ninety percent of the homes in the Springfield, Missouri area are without power. Many homes in the St. Louis area are also without power. Chicago is getting hit hard too. It has been sleeting and snowing for the last two days here. john and joyce count themselves lucky, and are spending alot of time in front of the fireplace reading.

January 20 - here is a photo of the cascade today:

January 21 - here is a photo of the cascade after the snow which started yesterday afternoon:

January 21 - john and joyce are still enjoying the comforts of the fireplace. Please note that the photo below is actually a composite of two photos: 1) a photo showing the snow through the windows, and 2) the interior. There are slight mismatches between the two, but these combined are better than just either one. Here is the composite photo:

January 27 - a couple of days ago, john got up in the morning to find a duck standing on the ice in the small pond. Nothing too unusual about that until john walked around to the spa door and looked out. joyce and john had quietly gotten out of the spa the night before so as to not distrub the pair of ducks eating dinner at the cracked corn dish. Only john had forgotten to come back later and close the lid on the spa.

john can only imagine what happened: a duck flying overhead, looked down, and saw some "open water" (the spa) and came in straight down for a landing. When the duck landed in the 104 degree water, it thought that it had died and gone to heaven. Not only was it an open body of water, but it was quite warm! john wonders how long the duck stayed in the spa before it got too hot and had to fly out and cool it's webbed feet on the frozen pond.