Tomorrow

(Photo: Mr. Dickie - Smithsonian Postal Museum, Washington, DC, 30 Dec 2010)

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. (Matthew 6:34 (RSV) in Daily Guideposts -1990, 29 December)

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This morning I finished reading twelve books that I have been reading since the first of January. I read one page a day from each book. Three of the books were Daily Guidepost books. With the completion of these three I have read every Daily Guideposts book published except for the 2009 and 2010 volumes. I own a copy of the 2009 volume which I intend to read in 2011. I'll be on the lookout for a used copy of the 2010 volume. On my computer I maintained a little file (CSV format) of the books I was reading in 2010. I'll be posting the "date completed" to this file later on. I'll also be posting to my online weRead account that I finished these books. I already created a new reading list file on the computer for 2011 but I didn't post the titles to weRead yet.

Yesterday Cyndi and I took the Green and Red subway lines to Union Station. We went across the street to visit the Smithsonian Postal Museum for the first time. I purchased a sheet of twenty stamps, the Gulf Coast Lighthouses. I took quite a few photos. When I got home I used the camera to alter some of the pictures. I ended up with twenty-eight photos. Some are good and some not so good.

After we left the museum we walked up North Capitol Street for a block to the Government Printing Office. Cyndi went inside and asked them to contact our friend Keith O. who is on the police force. He came downstairs to meet us and then went with us to the food court at Union Station where we visited while Cyndi and I ate our lunch.

Mr. Dickie
31/Dec/2010 9:01

Year End

As you approach the end of the year, it's natural to look back and reflect on different events. Some memories bring smiles, but others bring regret. Now is a good time to clean house -- to confess your shortcomings to God, to apologize and make amends to those you have wronged, and then to leave the pain behind. Forget the failures of the past and move forward into the new year with expectation and excitement. (The One Year Mini For Men, 27 December)

It's almost scary when another year has slipped by. You wonder where it went and how it went by so quickly. That's why it is so important to do your best each day, in your work, in your relationships, in your walk with God, and yes, even in your rest. Be faithful to the responsibilities and the call that God has given you. Then, at year's end, you will have the satisfaction of finishing a job well done. And God will be pleased as well. (The One Year Mini For Men, 28 December)

"Let me first be sure what I intend and the reasons for my choices; this will guide my thoughts into constructive channels, and keep me from attempting the impractical or impossible." (Celebra Tueli in One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 28 December)

Happy New Year to Blogger and Facebook Followers

Mr. Dickie
30/Dec/2010 7:47

What Do I Care?

(Photo: Happy Hour in Nebraska - shared by my cousin, Fran)

If you want to spend an exhausting day, try to work out your circumstances leaning on your "human viewpoint." (Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom For The Way, p. 376)

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Yesterday we got lucky and only received a small amount of snow. This morning there are high winds. It feels like winter, but people should still be able to move about if they need to be out and about. What do I care? I've got my love to keep me warm.

Mr. Dickie
27/Dec/2010 9:02

Responsibility

(Photo: Mr. Dickie - December 2010 Card Wall)

You cannot give your responsibility for your efforts to anyone else. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Real Magic, p. 302)
26/Dec/2010 7:13

Remember the Days of Long Ago

(Photo: Mr. Dickie - One of our two Christmas poinsettias - 2010)

Merry Christmas to everyone who follows Mr. Dickie's Blog.

It's been a lot of fun staying in touch this year with Email, Facebook, Christmas cards and letters and phone calls.

This morning I'm remembering many wonderful Christmases spent at the home of Grandpa and Grandma Carlson in the tiny town of Mead, Nebraska, west of Omaha, with maternal aunts, uncles and cousins. Little did we realize, at the time, that someday we'd only have our memories. Those were the days!

Mr. Dickie
25/Dec/2010 8:48

Business As Usual

Devote a few minutes to offering thanks for particular blessings in your life. (The Upper Room Disciplines - 2008, 13 December)

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Tomorrow Christians all over the world will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The day is called Christmas which sets if off from all other days of the year. Last night, supposedly in remembrance of the day, many stores stayed open all night.

Was your church open for business all night too?


Mr. Dickie
24/Dec/2010 7:29

The Business of College Football

Happiness is a by-product of living the right kind of life, of doing the right thing. (Twenty-Four Hours A Day, 14 December)

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Let there be no mistake about it, college football is a business. It's a business in which the principles, the players, have little say about what happens and in which they are not paid for their efforts or for putting their bodies and future health on the line.

Big winners in this exploitation, up to a point, are the coaches who are paid outlandish salaries to win games and fill stadiums with money spending fans. However, as soon as the win / loss ratio takes a turn for the worse or seats in the stadium remain empty coaches heads are going to roll.

As a case in point let's look at what happened at the University of Maryland in the last few days. After a winning season, with seats for many of the home games empty, the team received a bid to play in the Military Bowl. The game will be played next Wednesday afternoon. Who cares and who will watch it? I believe this is one of those meaningless Bowl games, played to bring in more money to the colleges. In a move that clearly illustrates that business comes first the head coach of Maryland and an alum, Ralph Fridgen, was fired. Not only was he fired, his firing was announced by the press before the coach was told he was fired.

The University of Maryland and their Athletic Director ought to be ashamed of themselves for this no-class move. If college football wasn't a business this probably wouldn't have happened. In this case there's a "coach in waiting" that they think they "just have to hire" before someone else makes him an offer. It's business as usual.

Write it down, so we won't forget. The next coach will be lucky if he can hold his job for half as long as Coach Fridgen did.

Mr. Dickie
23/Dec/2010 8:17

Opps, They Did It Again!

(Photo: Mr. Dickie - Great Hall of The Library of Congress, December 2010)

Are you on guard against wrong thinking?
(Twenty-Four Hours a Day, 30 November)

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Opps, they did it again!

Here we are, the 22nd day of December and time for a Christmas Congressional break. Once again the Congress has failed to pass the budget legislation necessary to keep the government running this fiscal year, which started on October 1st. To keep the country operating they have resorted to passing continuing budget resolutions with funding levels therefore still at last year's levels. Perhaps the Republicans believe this delay will allow them to have more influence after the new Congress is sworn in. In my opinion it's just another glaring example that the people we elected to run the country for us aren't doing their jobs. If corporate management and their boards behaved in this manner the stock holders would soon throw out the entire lot. Think about it.

Mr. Dickie
22/Dec/2010 8:49

Condition

The only way to improve the conditions of one's life is to improve one's emotional condition. (One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, 29 November) 21/Dec/2010 8:18

Preparing a Christmas Letter

Words of wisdom inspire us, but they have value only if we can take them into our hearts and use them in our daily lives. (One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, 6 December)

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I used a number of different tools to create, print, and send our Christmas form letter this year. I typed the letter using my text editor, EditPad Lite; I formatted the letter (centering and bold facing) using Google Docs; I used my HP PhotoSmart camera to take the poinsettia photo and to add the oval vignette; I created a PDF version of the letter by telling Google Docs to download the letter to my computer in that format; I printed the two-sided letter on my HP LaserJet 1020 telling the print program to print on both sides of the paper; address labels were prepared by typing forty-five lines (for forty-five labels) with the EditPad Lite in the Comma Separated Value (CSV) format; the CSV file was uploaded to Labelmakr.com on the Internet where the file was converted into a PDF file suitable for printing on two sheets of Avery 5160 labels of thirty labels per sheet; the free PDF file was downloaded to my computer where Adobe Acrobat Reader was used to view and print the labels; I used stationery and envelopes that I had on hand; there was a picture of earth from outer space on the stationery and Christmas artwork on the business envelopes; stamps were purchased on Sunday from the bank ATM machine.

Mr. Dickie
20/Dec/2010 8:30

Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas
and
Happy New Year
19 December 2010

Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11)

Greetings to Friends and Relatives,

This year we are going to make even more use of technology to share our Christmas message. Some will receive this message via snail mail, some via Email, some via a blog posting to Mr. Dickie's Blog on Google and some via the Notes on Facebook. We hope no one will be too put off or offended by this approach. We enjoy keeping in touch with everyone and hope to hear from you again this year.

Melva continues to work three days a week at the Hair Cuttery in Crofton. She is thankful that many of her customers followed her from Bowie when the shop there closed. She attends quilting class at the Bowie Senior Center on Fridays. Quilting projects and other projects the teacher assigns keep her very busy.

Cyndi is the Marketing Manager for the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives of the National Rural Electrical Cooperative Assn (NRECA) in Arlington, VA. She moved out of her apartment in Bethesda at the end of October because the building was under extensive renovation. At the same time she sold her car after an attempt to purchase a new car fell through. She sold some of her furniture and put the rest in storage. She has been living with us since the beginning of November. She can use the Orange line of the subway for travel to and from work. The station near us is a mile from the house and the station near her office is two blocks away.

Dick enjoys attending the twice-monthly meetings of the Bowie Senior's Computer Club. He assists with website maintenance helping to upload the meeting schedules, links to the minutes of the meetings, and information about classes the club offers. He has four Google blogs. Two he tries to update on a daily basis and two are used for genealogy when the mood strikes. In recent months he has been posting some of his genealogy on Box.net. Access to Box.net is by invitation. During the year he converted several of his genealogy files to work with the RootsMagic genealogy program. This program easily creates reports in the PDF format which he can share with others.

In early September Dick and Melva took a short vacation First they went to Virginia Beach, VA where they visited with friends from Panama, the Heafners and the Haines. The highlight of the visit was attending the birthday party of Hannah Heafner. Next they went to Raliegh, NC to visit Rich and Joy Ruhmann and their daughter, Annie. Rich is a college classmate of Dick's. They hadn't seen each other in many years. The Ruhmanns took them to visit the butterfly exhibit in Durham.

This year, for the first time since he retired in 1993, Dick attended the Christmas concert and retiree luncheon at The Library of Congress. After he arrived at The Library he learned that the data processing folks were also holding their party. He attended two parties as well as the concert and lunch. He had a great time and says he will probably attend next year.

Dick enjoys participating in social networking on Facebook. He's in touch with Class of '57 classmates from both Bellevue, Nebraska and Wichita, Kansas. Other friends include relatives in this country and Panama, Library of Congress friends (both working and retired), friends from AOL, other Henthorns, and friends he met through genealogy.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to stay in touch this year with phone calls, cards, letters, Email, Facebook and Internet photo albums. It's a blessing to have all of you in our lives.

Dick and Melva Henthorn
5403 76th Avenue
Hyattsville, MD 20784-1705
Phone: 301-459-0535
Email: Dick.Henthorn@gmail.com

New Adventure

Each day is a new adventure...pointing the way to an ever-better way to live. (One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, 8 December)
18/Dec/2010 15:57

Philippians 4:11

I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. (Philippians 4:11 in Grace For The Moment by Max Lucado, 9 December)

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I didn't post to my blogs for the last two days. On Wednesday I attended four Christmas events at the Library of Congress. Yesterday I went to lunch with former co-worker, Bill Hamilton.

There is a rumor that Yahoo intends to drop support for their social bookmarking site, Delicious. I am a user of this application. I suppose that many other free Internet services will be shutting down in the months ahead. When there is a strong possibility of marked reductions in spending for advertising it is inevitable that any endeavor that relies on advertising for revenue is going to fail.

It snowed yesterday during the day. Melva and I were out driving in the snow going to luncheon engagements. Driving was tricky. We both managed to make our trips without incident. On our way to Bowie we noticed several accidents on the in-bound lanes of U.S. Route 50.

Mr. Dickie
17/Dec/2010 7:37

Compassion and Forgiveness

...remember that many people are simply lost and don't know what they are doing. Though they may not deserve it, they still need your compassion and forgiveness. (The One Year Mini For Men, 9 December) 14/Dec/2010 8:59

Integrity

Integrity means knowing what you believe and living as though you believe it. (The One Year Mini For Men, 10 December)
13/Dec/2010 20:10

Learning

I still have much to learn...
(One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, 8 December)
11/Dec/2010 9:18

Last night, from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. I watch a very nice program about The Library of Congress on History International. I discovered the show by accident about three minutes after it started. I grab a tape and put it in the VCR in case I want to watch the program again.

I'm working with a floppy disk that has many "text" files about members of the "other" Henthorn family. Each file needs minor updates before I upload it to My Box where I can share it with other people interested in their genealogy.

Yesterday we brought all of the Christmas decorations down from the attic. Today I'll see if I can get the permanently installed lights to work. That's always the critical moment.

Mr. Dickie
12/Dec/2010 8:13

Miracles

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. (Margaret Mead in Real Magic by Wayne Dyer, p. 301)

Miracles seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always. (Willa Cather in His Miracles, Day. 343)
10/Dec/2010 7:13

Your Life

...your life should be worthy of imitation... (John MacArthur, Truth For Today, 29 November)
9/Dec/2010 8:02

Wills and Other Court Documents

If you are determined to simplify your life, you will need to ask yourself some hard questions... (Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom For The Way, p. 342)

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I created a thirty-seven page document of thirty-two Wills and Other Court Documents and uploaded it to my Box where it can be viewed or downloaded by my collaborators. I used my MonkeyMerge program to merge the thirty-three files into one file I named, Wills.txt and stored on a floppy disk. It wasn't long after I'd finished the upload before one of my friends took a look. I know this because Box sent me an Email notification. Information I store on my Box is available by invitation only.

Mr. Dickie
8/Dec/2010 6:52

Pearl Harbor Day - 7 Dec 1941

Let us always remember that any society ...that cannot freely [admit and] correct its own faults must surely fall into decay if not into collapse. (As Bill Sees It, p. 65)

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The 69th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, 7 Dec 1941. If you are interested in reading a book about this event I recommend, "At Dawn We Slept." Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon compiled the book from the manuscripts of Gordon W. Prange. All were associated with the University of Maryland at College Park, MD.

The Army ROTC department at my alma mater, Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas is conducting a fund raising campaign to raise funds to build a new rappelling tower. I received a commission as a second lieutenant from this program. I wasn't exposed to rappelling until Ranger training at Fort Benning, GA.

Today we are experiencing a second day of very cold wind that is making the flags stand straight out. There is no sign of snow yet, but it's only a matter of time. Our planning is off, Melva's car needs gas. I'm ready for the task. I got my gloves, scarf and knit cap out of the dresser drawer. We also have a supply of new snow shovels to replace one that was stolen last year. I talked to two men from Riverdale who said they will come to do snow removal when the time comes.

Mr. Dickie
7/Dec/2010 7:57

A New Way Of Life

Some people don't know how badly they need a new way of life until disaster overtakes them. (One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 21 November)

New Photo Album

Constant dwelling on our troubles lessens our ability to see them clearly and make wise decisions. (after One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, 16 November)

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Yesterday I set the mower blade as low as I could in order to cut the grass one last time before winter arrives. We gathered seven bags of clippings. Before putting the mower away I ran the engine until all of the gas was burned. It's my intention to not touch the mower again until spring.

Last night I created a new photo album on Facebook and uploaded fifty-one photos. The album is named, December 4, 2010. Any Facebook friend can see it. Folks who aren't on Facebook can request access and I can send a link to the album.

This morning I finished reading the book, "As Bill Sees It," written by Bill, one of the co-founders of A.A. I started reading the book, a page at a time, on the first day of the year. There weren't quite enough pages to take me to the end of December.

Mr. Dickie
5/Dec/2010 8:55

Who Are We?

Could the very things that make us rage reflect who we have become? (The Upper Room Disciplines - 2008, 24 November)
4/Dec/2010 8:36

Who Are These People?

... right attitudes and thoughts must precede right practices. (John MacArthur, Truth For Today, 26 November)

Wisdom preserves our lives from human pitfalls, and provides our lives with divine perspective. (Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom For The Way, p. 335)

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Who are these people, these people we elected to govern us? If they aren't part of "We The People," just who are they and what made us think that they would represent our interests in the halls of Congress?

Mr. Dickie
3/Dec/2010 10:01

The Great Dictator

There are so many ways to show your thankfulness to others - a word of thanks, a smile, a note, a meal, a gift, a prayer, a recommendation. To whom can you say thank you today. (The One Year Mini For Men, 26 November)

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A couple of days ago I recorded the 1940 Charlie Chaplin movie, "The Great Dictator." This was the first movie in which Charlie Chaplin spoke. He played two roles, the Jewish barber and the dictator of Tomania, Adnoid Hynkle. Paulette Goddard was the barber's girlfriend and the Italian dictator was played by an actor named Oakie (his first name slips my mind this morning). The film was shot in black and white. I thought the ending was confusing. At the end of the movie the barber, who looked a lot like the dictator, was mistaken for the dictator and he made a speech as if he was the dictator. Earlier in the film the dictator had made several speeches in what sounded like German. In the final speech the barber made his speech in English. I enjoyed the movie and found some of it quite funny. The movie has a three-star rating. I was somewhat disappointed with the ending. Maybe the dictator should have been tried for his many crimes and someone else besides the barber should have made the speech.

Mr. Dickie
2/Dec/2010 8:21

Kiss and Ride

We exchange energy with other individuals as we interact with them, touch them, hear them, look at them, even by reading their words. (Betty J. Eadie, Embraced By The Light, 27 November)

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Last night Cyndi was able to get her laptop computer working with my FIOS WiFi for the first time. I'm glad she had the experience and patience to figure out how to get it working. The signal in the basement was quite strong.

Cyndi also copied the photos we took during our Sunday outing from the card in my camera. She uploaded them to an album she created on her Facebook.

This morning Cyndi had an appointment in Bethesda. The Red line of the subway runs to Bethesda. We decided that she should take the Green line from College Park to either Fort Totten or Gallery Place where she would transfer to the Red line. Because it was raining we decided to see if we could find the entrance to the Kiss and Ride area at the station. After they built a parking garage at the College Park station the Kiss and Ride was relocated on the ground level of the parking garage. When we arrived at the station it was still dark and raining heavily. I couldn't see any signs for the Kiss and Ride until Cyndi directed me into the garage and to the left. It's evident now why people are being dropped off and picked up out on the street. Now that I know how to get in and out of the drop-off spot it won't be a problem. Cyndi told me I should write them a letter about the poor signs instead of ranting about it.

Mr. Dickie
1/Dec/2010 8:31