Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas 2017

The bottom of our little Christmas tree - 2017

To say the least this year has been very interesting and challenging. Only God knows what lies ahead.

Melva enrolled in two classes at the Bowie, Maryland Senior Center.  She continued to enjoy attending quilting class on Friday.  In addition she attended a Wednesday Chair Yoga class.  All of the students of the quilting teacher took part in making items that were sold at the annual Christmas Bazaar. Proceeds go to a local charity. Melva made many items and helped at the sale table. Cyndi and Dick attended the sale to provide moral support, visit with others and take photos.

Melva attended the quilting class party at the Episcopal Church in Bowie on December 22nd.

Santas and candles on the dining room table - 2017

During the year Melva and Cyndi were able to use the Internet to hold several conversations with relatives in Panama, some with video and some just audio.

Cyndi has a two-day a week temporary job at AARP headquarters in Washington, DC. This job will end in April. She continues to actively seek full-time employment. Frankly, while there are job postings, many of the potential positions don't have much to offer.  It's a trying time.

Christmas Village - 2017

Dick continued membership in the Bowie Seniors Computer Club that meets twice a month at the Bowie, Maryland, Senior Center. He volunteers doing webmaster duties on the club website. There were two interesting challenges with the website during the year. First, management forgot to renew the website hosting subscription. That shut the website down for several days. Later, a new version of the FireFox browser was released.  The FireFox company dropped support for FireFTP which we used to upload the updates to the website.  It took Dick several days to find a way that allowed the continued use of FireFTP.  He installed another browser, WaterFox, which supports the FireFTP application.  On December 7th Dick and Melva attended the annual computer club Holiday Luncheon at the Osaka Grill & Buffet in Crofton, Maryland.

We decided to simplify Dick's Christmas Village display this year. We used one table and left the rest of the houses in the attic.  We couldn't find the Christmas light cord that we used last year.  Rather than spend time searching, Dick devised a way to use individual cords and two power strips to light the ten houses

Dick's interest in the genealogy hobby remains strong.  He enjoys following several county and family pages on Facebook.  He maintains his own private Henthorn Genealogy group page on Facebook. There he shares some of his genealogy projects with a select group of folks he knows personally.

Christmas Village - 2017

In early October, our across the street neighbor and friend of nearly forty years, James Michael, passed away at his other home in Gulfport, MS. Dick wrote a tribute message that he posted on Jim's Facebook timeline. Jim was retired from the Navy so he and Dick enjoyed telling each other the same war stories as the years passed.

Covered Bridge with barn in background - 2017

As we participate in the activities of the Senior Center and observe our own aging we are well aware of how much impact the aging process has on all of our lives. We are thankful for each day of good health we experience.

Thanks to everyone who took the time and trouble to stay in touch during the year.  We enjoyed the phone calls, cards, letters, Email and Facebook contact.

We Wish You A 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 

With 

Good Health and Prosperity 

In 

Abundance.

Dick and Melva Henthorn

A President Must

A President Must

A president "... must be willing to listen to his advisers and department heads; must encourage consideration of conflicting views; and must acknowledge errors and learn from them ... must be disciplined, control emotions, and act only after reflection and careful deliberation ... must maintain cordial relationships with leaders of countries of different backgrounds and must have their respect and trust," and must be able and willing "to separate truth from falsehood" ..
(Diane Jhueck, L.M.H.C.,D.M.H.P., chapter “A Clinical Case For The Dangerousness of Donald J. Trump,” in the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Brandy Lee, p. 191)

Dick Henthorn
18 Dec 2017

Trump & Violence

Trump & Violence

… one final clarification is in order. Trump is now the most powerful Head of State in the world, and one of the most impulsive, arrogant, ignorant, disorganized, chaotic, nihilistic, self-contradictory, self-important, and self-serving. He has his finger on the triggers of a thousand or more of the most powerful thermonuclear weapons in the world. That means he could kill more people in a few seconds than any dictator in past history has been able to kill during his entire years in power. Indeed by virtue of his office, Trump has the power to reduce the unprecedentedly destructive world wars and genocides of the twentieth century to minor footnotes in the history of human violence. To say merely that he is “dangerous” is debatable only in the sense that it may be too much of an understatement. If he even took a step in this direction, we will not be able to say that he did not warn us - loudly, clearly, and repeatedly. In that case, the fault will not be his alone it will also be ours.
(James Gilligan, M.D., chapter “The Issue is Dangerousness, Not Mental Illness,” in the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Brandy Lee, p. 178)

Dick Henthorn
17 Dec 2017

The Tyrant

The Tyrant

The tyrant shows up in a society that is already weakened by disorder, blind to it, and unable and/or unwilling to take corrective measures that would prevent a tyrannical takeover. Once he and his sycophantic cabal assume power, they deepen and widen the disorder, dismantling and changing the society's norms, institutions, and laws to fully reflect their own pathology. 

(From the chapter, Who Goes Trump? - Tyranny as a Triumph of Narcissism by Elizabeth Mika, M.A., L.C.P.C, in the book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Brandy Lee, p. 313)

Dick Henthorn

15 Dec 2017

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

Looking Out For Consumers

I'll give you a specific example. For the first time in history, the reforms that we passed put in place a consumer watchdog [the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)] who is charged with protecting everyday Americans from being taken advantage of by mortgage lenders or payday lenders or debt collectors. And the man we nominated for the post, Richard Cordray, is a former Attorney General of Ohio who has the support of most attorney-generals, both Democrat and Republican, throughout the country. Nobody claims he's not qualified.

But the Republicans in the Senate refused to confirm him for the job; they refuse to let him do his job. Why? Does anybody here think that the problem that led to our financial crisis was too much oversight of mortgage lenders or debt collectors?

Of course not. Every day we go without a consumer watchdog is another day when a student, or a senior citizen, or a member of our Armed Forces - because they are very vulnerable to some of this stuff - could be tricked into a loan but they can't afford - something that happens all the time. And the fact is that financial institutions have plenty of lobbyists looking out for their interests. Consumers deserve to have someone whose job it is to look out for them. And I intend to make sure they do. And I want you to hear me, Kansas: I will veto any effort to delay or defund or dismantle the new rules that we put in place.

We shouldn't be weakening oversight and accountability. We should be strengthening oversight and accountability. I'll give you another example. Too often, we’ve seen Wall Street firms violating major anti fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there's no price for being a repeat offender. No more. I'll be calling for legislation that makes those penalties count so that firms don't see punishment for breaking the law as just the price of doing business.

(Extracted from a speech given by President Barack Obama on 6 Dec 2011 at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas.

In 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here to Osawatomie and he laid out his vision for what he called a New Nationalism. “Our country,” he said,” ... means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy … of an economic system under which each man should be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him."

In November 2017, Richard Cordray, the head of the CFPB resigned. He attempted to name his own replacement. That didn't go over well with President Trump, who quickly named his own candidate for the job. In the days ahead the the future direction of this valuable agency which was championed by Senator Elizabeth Warren will be decided.)

Dick Henthorn

26 Nov 2017

Remembering - Dave Evans - From Life's Other Side

Remembering great Bluegrass singer Dave Evans who died on 25 Jun 2017.

I had the pleasure of seeing him in person at the Arcadia Bluegrass Festival, north of Baltimore, MD.

Dick Henthorn
26 Jun 2017

Truth

Truth

Emmitsburg, MD

We make ourselves real by telling the truth. Man can hardly forget that he needs to know the truth, for the instinct to know is too strong in us to be destroyed. But he can forget how badly he also needs to tell the truth. We cannot know truth unless we ourselves are conformed to it.

We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true inside by manifesting the truth as we see it.

(Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island, Chapter 10, Sincerity, p. 188)

Dick Henthorn

21 Jun 2017

Detachment

April 2017 

Backyard Azalea

I will not interfere with the working out of another's difficulties, however dear and close we may be to each other. Detachment is essential to any healthy relationship between people.
(From One Day At A Time in Al-Anon, found in The Color of Light by Perry Tilleraas, 6 December)

Dick Henthorn
25 Apr 2017

A Few Good Things

April 2017 Azaleas In Front Of Our House

Photo with SmartPhone

Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre.

(Leo Tolstoy, Calendar of Wisdom, 1 January)

Dick Henthorn

24 Apr 2017

Smart Phone

I'm trying to learn how my SmartPhone works. Melva and I use the AT&T GoPhone service. A while back they forced us to convert to their 4LG network, whatever that is.

As part of the transition we had to select new phones. There weren't any flip phones available by the time we arrived at the store. We decided to chose the ZTE Maven SmartPhone. This is a big change. The new devices aren't just phones. They are also computers that can be connected to the Internet, free of charge, if you have a WiFi connection.

They are also Android devices. Android is a Google operating system. Therefore, if you use Google applications such as: Chrome, Gmail, Music Play, etc. on you computer the phone adds another level of complexity to the technology learning curve.

Part of the fun is getting used to the fact that there is no mouse and that there is no keyboard. You type on the image of what serves as a keyboard with big fat fingers on little tiny letters.

I'm interested in using the device to listen to music. There is a Bluegrass station, WAMU, located in Washington, DC. The signal isn't strong enough to be picked up by any of the radios in our house. They stream live on the Internet as BluegrassCountry.org. You can listen to the music on the computer while you do something else. This has never worked very well for me.

Last night I downloaded the BluegrassCountry app to my phone. Within less than five minutes the installation was complete and I was listening to Bluegrass music on the phone.

Today I'm testing to see if I can listen to the live stream on the phone while I have the phone plugged in for charging. I'm pleased to report that it works. One of the first songs I heard was, Poison Love, from the latest Alison Krauss country album, Windy City.

Dick Henthorn
30 Mar 2017

Solving A Problem

College Park Airport Museum, College Park, MD

Photo my Mr. Dickie

Solving a problem starts with changing your viewpoint.

(The Christophers - Three Minutes A Day, Vol. 41, 19 October)

At 11:00 a.m. this morning some snow was falling.  Nothing sticking to the ground or roof yet.

I've downloaded the latest version of 7Zip to my computer.  I'm studying how the program works.  I learned that the F9 key toggles whether you see one panel or two panels on the screen.  I've learned that the program supports encryption that uses a password to open.

Dick Henthorn
10 Mar 2017

Expectations

Washington, DC Orchid Show

Most of our troubles come from expectations that are unrealistic and cannot be fulfilled.
Thomas Keating, Invitation To Love, p. 118

Dick Henthorn
9 Mar 2017