River-Rat Reflections

2009-12-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

SIX DAYS, SIX MOVIES

I'm not sure if I've ever gone to 2 movies in 2 days, let alone 6 in a row. But there are a lot of good movies out there and we are fortunate to have a theater in town that keeps some movies around for a few months. We loved every one of them and find it hard to rate one above another.

Christmas Day: "Up in the Air"---went with our kids Laura and Bob and we all loved it.
Saturday: "It's Complicated"---Meryl Streep was great as ususal.
Sunday: "Invictus"---an inspiring perspective on Nelson Mandela
Monday: "The Serious Man"---Fantastic, if you appreciate the nuance of the Coen Brothers
Tuesday: "Julie and Julia"---great fun; see it before it leaves the theaters.
Wednesday: "The Education"---good period piece---1960s in the UK

2009-12-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

CARLTON GARDENS CHRISTMAS COFFIN SPECIAL!

For 2 years John has been promising he would make our coffins. We read the story of how Ruth Graham was buried in a plywood coffin and Billy will be buried the same way. John completed them 2 weeks ago and they are forsale at Carlton Gardens---serving now as shelving. (He will make new ones if they sell.) We have a Christmas special going ($149 down from $159). The every day specials offer a discount when a coffin is purchased with an Adirondack chair or a pair of stilts (both designed and constructed by John).Here are the coffins, mine and John's. What a deal!

2009-12-21T07:22:00.000-08:00

SPEAKING THE TRUTH

I should not begrudge anyone who is grieving for speaking in euphemisms but I do wish sometimes that we could just say it like it is. Yesterday John and I were ushered down the aisle to a pew at La Grave Avenue Christian Reformed Church by Larry. Then I noted in the bulletin that Larry, his siblings and parents were named for the floral arrangements: "The flowers on the chancel today are in loving memory of Sandra Anne Duyst, daughter, sister and aunt. Born December 29, 1959, the Lord blessed us with 40 years of joy with her in this life. She was called to our heavenly home on March 29, 2000." What if, instead of called to our heavenly home the bulletin note had read: "she was murdered by her husband, a Christian Reformed Church deacon who had taken out a $500,000 life insurance policy on her and was having an adulterous affair. May he remain incarcerated every advent season and every day of the year for the rest of his life."

I remember the incident so well. One of my seminary colleagues said "I have to wonder if she might have been contentious." WHAT, I screamed, are you suggesting that if she was contentious that could even remotely begin to explain it! Who knows, she may have been contentious, but if he could no longer endure her contentiousness he could simply divorce her and then run off with the other woman. O, that's right, he wouldn't get the insurance money. So I guess contention is a reason (though not justification) for murder.

He still claims his innocence---contending that she committed suicide. The only problem with that theory is that she took 2 bullets straight in the head. She could have shot herself in the head once but not twice with such good aim. PLUS, the crime-scene blood spattering showed the bullet wounds were not self-inflicted. Other evidence proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty.

This unspeakably awful crime split 2 CRC families and was a horrible ordeal for the 3 school-age children, not knowing who to believe and which side of the family to support. I don't know where the family situation stands now, though he is serving a life sentence in a federal facility in St. Louis.

2009-12-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

GOOGLE MY PHOTO

Carlton recently pointed out that when he'd googled my name pics showed up on the screen, including one of me that I posted, showing my hair looked so awful that I was compelled to stay home from church (See below, 4-27-08). Maybe the last entry I posted with me and a dead possum and rifle will get there as well. AND, if I'm lucky this one will soon appear.

Friend Sarah from London wrote this on her blog (4-4-08): "I was looking for something quick to draw before bedtime, and started giggling over my friend's March 1st blog entry about skiing topless. She got kicked out of her teaching job at an ultra-conservative Calvinist seminary awhile back, but I'm sure I have no idea why."

Sarah illustrated a recently-released children's book. From a reviewer: "must be the most revolting picture book of the year! Morris the Mankiest Monster just gets worse and worse as you read aloud the rhyming text, snot, ear wax, pustules...it's really hard to keep going. This book needs a warning to parents - they're going to have to read it over and over again - children will absolutely love it."

2009-12-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

ME----IN 20 YEARS!

My dear friend Sarah from London has me pegged. She's a prophetess.

This, she says, is me twenty years down the road. John says she's spot on.

Hey, I'll take the compliment------especially since he didn't say it looked like someone snapped the photo of me last week.

2009-11-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

MY BRAIN AGE IS GETTING YOUNGER!

This evening, thanks to my friend Darlene Cate, I have begun working on a brand new Nintendo DS with Brain Age-1 inserted. I started out on a little color test with a brain age of 80, but after giving my brain a real workout got down to a brain age of 30. My math skills are improving as well---got down to 33 seconds on one of the little tests. Darlene is 80 with a brain age less than half that. When we visited her and Kathy in Denver in September, they immediately recognized that we were good candidates for some serious brain exercise.

This afternoon Carlton and Kayla were with us for an early Thanksgiving dinner and nice hike in the woods. John and Carlton played pool---5 games; They are very competitive, but John manged to pull it off, winning the last 3.

Life is very good and VERY full these days. We've had wonderful October weather for the past 3 weeks which has allowed us to get a lot of work done outside---especially at Carlton Gardens. I've been out in the back cutting brush and love every minute of it. All 24 chapters of the church history text have been submitted to my Zondervan editor and I'm just waiting for him to reply; in the meantime I have been writing some encyclopedia articles that are due December 1.

Tomorrow we head up north to spend a couple of days at our little farm and do some hiking. Billie holds down the fort at Carlton Gardens when I'm gone.

2009-10-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Here is 13-year-old grand-daughter Kayla. She snapped this self portrait. Actually, she's a budding photographer---takes some very creative photos. She's a straight-A students and just an all-around super kid.

2009-10-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

The Pleasures of Ohio

We just got back from a quick 2-day trip to Ohio where I spoke Thursday night at a conference sponsored by University Bible Fellowship. What a wonderful welcoming group they are! We stayed downtown at the Hyatt Capitol where the conference was held. Friday morning we drove out in the country and went through Circleville where we came across this incredible mural on a building in town. It truly looked like you could walk right through the arch. The creator is a local artist who is known for his second to none life-like murals.

From there we headed down to Hocking Hills---a wonderful place to hike and to spend 2 or 3 days if we had the time. There are spectacular cliff and cave formations that an outsider would never imagine could be found in central Ohio. Here's a photo of Old Man's Cave. I'm pictured somewhere in the middle.

2009-10-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

NEWS FROM THE SEMINARY

I was out of town with no online access today and yesterday and got home to emails from Calvin Seminary sources. It seems that Neal Plantinga (who was installed as president in the fall of 2002, less than 3 months before I was given the boot) is on his way out. There's a story behind it, but he says publicly: "I have prayed earnestly about this decision and have made it freely and joyfully."

2009-09-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

BACK HOME IN MICHIGAN!

We arrived home this afternoon after 3 wonderful weeks on the road. Since the last post we had good days in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone, where we stayed at the historic log lodge, Old Faithful Inn, where my mother and father stayed on their honeymoon in 1938. Here is a snap of us at one of the geysers.

After Yellowstone we went to Montana where we toured my younger brother's 2 ranches. Here I am, flanked by brother Jonnie and sister-in-law Sooky at one of the wonderful rock formations at the Cherry Creek Ranch. We also hiked at his smaller ranch not far from the South Dakota border. Both offer incredible hiking and scenery.

Here is the house on the smaller ranch where they sometimes stay when they visit from their home in Minneapolis. It has incredible beauty against this stark Montana background.

After we left Montana we headed for my childhood home in Wisconsin, now owned by Jonnie. We wanted to spend some time at his picnic spot on the Yellow River that runs through our farm but we were stopped by this little guy---his mother no doubt close by. It's interesting that we were warned a hundred times in Yellowstone to watch out for bears but saw only one----at a great distance. Then we head to Spooner and are stopped dead in our tracks.

2009-09-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

On Tour Out West!

Tomorrow we begin our third week out West. Our first stop was in Denver, spending a wonderful 4-day Labor Day Weekend with our dear fiends Darlene and Kathy. We had wonderful mountain hikes with them---including a drive up a remote mountain road to the Pomeroy RR tunnel. I did my doctoral dissertation on Marcus M. Pomeroy, a 19th century newspaper publisher and general gad-about who was also the brains behind a railway tunnel through the Continental Divide---a tunnel that was later labeled "Pomeroy's Folly" because the tunnels coming in from the East and West didn't meet. Here's what is left of the opening. I walked in a ways, but we'd forgetton to bring flashlights so cut our excursion short after 90 feet---as John paced it. Kathy treated us to wonderful meals, thanks to her recent cooking lessons, and we joined them for worship on Sunday at Columbine United Church. What a preacher is Steve Poos-Benson; we'd drive every Sunday from Grand Rapids if we weren't so concerned about our carbon footprint!

In Salt Lake we spent a night and much talk-----and a fantastic meal with Chris and Bob Nelson. What fun to be back together again.

Then on to Oregon where we hiked all the falls beginning with Multnomah and then a drive down to Silver Falls State park, all combined to make 13 miles of hiking that day, staying in a wonderful inn in Silverton. From there to Camano Island, NW of Seattle for a wonderful evening meal with Rimmer and Ruth DeVries and then a couple of miles away to see family, David/Sharon/Barry/Margaret. My brother David has a wonderful 5-acre woodlot. What a wonderful spot to live. They took us to Mount Baker. Here they are hiking.

From there we went to the little western town of Winthrop, WA. We stayed in this wonderful Inn right down town.

Our next stop was Glacier National Park. Here I am at Virginia Falls.

2009-09-03T04:27:00.000-07:00

Grand Rapids has a big art contest going on through the end of September. Artists from around the world are bringing their outdoor art to display---hoping to win the big $250,000 ArtPrize award. I decided to enter my own outdoor art for the contest. It's displayed at my business, Carlton Gardens and titled "ArtPrize 2009." It's a quilt painted on wood. John framed it for me, and we just finished it yesterday--took most of three days to complete.

John has also been building outdoor structures for me at Carlton Gardens. He does a fantastic job. This is what you see when you drive by on Breton Road. He also built that absolutely wonderful orange Adirondack chair you seen in the photo.

2009-08-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

DEFINITION of FAILURE: You know you've failed (at least as a gardener) when morning glories start growing up your hoe handle. But now at least I have an excuse for not getting rid of the weeds. I just don't want to damage those lovely little morning glories and that's the only hoe I've got. (John claims there's another hoe in the shed, but you can't trust him.)

2009-08-02T16:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we will be making a journey to Texas that we have been dreading. Ann Kelsey died this morning. My beloved college roommate is gone---45 years of friendship. I'll never hear that incredible laughter again, but heaven is just bit more fun-loving as of today. Friends and relatives will be congregating in Longview from all over the country. Paul has asked me to say a few words at the funeral on Wednesday. O, how terribly I already miss her. It's been a wonderful ride, dear Annie. You will never be forgotten.

Here she is just a few short weeks ago with Connor, her youngest grandbaby.

2009-07-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Mom and her Kids

How would you like to have a "mother" like this? Isn't she georgeous! Kids are, left to right, Jim, Steve, John, and Mary.

2009-07-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Today I am 64. When I contemplate my age I realize time is running out for writing. I probably have only about 30 good years left in me. I draw this time frame from Mom---Franny Worst, John's mother. She was 94 ten days ago, and except for a little memory loss she's doing great. (And who made the rule you need memory for writing!) I also draw on my love and admiration for Mom and Dad Kraker (John's 2nd inlaws.) They've reached 90 as well and their minds are razor sharp. They are my heroes.

So if all goes as I see my future, I'm about midway through my writing career. Just hope John makes the 30 year journey with me. He has no plans to check out before then.

2009-06-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

MORE RIVER NEWS

The mighty Grand River just won't behave. We're doing fine, but up stream in Ionia the fair grounds parking lot was flooded a few days ago, with a FLASH flood, stranding---and ruining---hundreds of vehicles, front page news in GR PRESS.

2009-05-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

Plugging Along

The flood has long ago receded and I keep plugging away at the book still playing catch-up from last summer. I will be turning the manuscript into a church historian in July, having him search out errors. Then it will come back to me for corrections and on to my editor for a final line by line editing. In the meantime, John will be editing it again. With my long days of editing I still haven't gotten my garden in this year. But will have it planted, I have vowed, within two weeks. Last year everything was coming up nicely when I got the dog bit and from that point on it all went to weeds. This summer will be different.

2009-05-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

ANOTHER FLOOD ON THE GRAND RIVER

We've now set a record---6 floods in the space of 15 months. Part of the problem is that West Michigan had near record snow for 2 winters and near record rainfall for the past year or so. This morning John and I kayaked through the wooded wetland across the road from our house. We can kayak the whole 1 mile of Abrigador trail--have never done that before. Here's a photo of me in the woods and another of our house.

This one is taken from the road in front of our house. Our house is and island; the only dry land is part of our yard that faces the river. Our 2 vehicles are up on high ground.

2009-04-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

Radio in Black and White

This morning my partner at Carlton Gardens and I were interviewed for a local live radio program Radio in Black and White. We told about our business partnership across racial lines and about our website Business Black and White. It was a good time. I'm used to doing radio interviews. Billie isn't, but she come off as a real pro!

2009-04-26T08:12:00.000-07:00

Mountain Lion Lurking in my Woods

This morning when we opened our Grand Rapids PRESS, we saw this photo of a mountain lion west of Spooner, Wisconsin, my neck of the woods (where I spent the first 18 years of my life). My brother owns the farm now and from what I could find online it is hanging around within a mile or two of our farm, if not the property itself. My brother and his wife are planting trees there this week so they may spot it.

Someone asked me the other day why I hadn't posted for so long. I've been working virtually non-stop on the church history book, still playing catch-up from last summer. I was originally supposed to have it completed by now but it will be on into the summer before it's completed. John is a saint. He prepares wonderful meals, does my share of the yard and house work, AND edits chapters besides. We're planning a 2+ week trip out West in the fall, so the book's got to be done before then.

2009-03-12T05:55:00.000-07:00

SUNRISE OVER A FLOODED RIVER
We're in flood stage again, though less than a foot over the road---and that only in some places. The corner of our lawn is flooded and, of course, the basement where we store nothing anyway. This is a ho-hum flood that will be receding in a few days. What's scary is having such a high river going into the spring rains. We're now 5 years overdue for a 100-year flood. The last 50-year flood was 7 years late. Floods don't operate by a calendar. So we wait and let nature take her course.

2009-03-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

HATE THE SINNER BUT LOVE THE SIN

We have a saying in my circles that we should love the sinner and hate the sin. But this morning I thought of that in reverse. With apologies to Al Franken (and his book, Rush Limbaugh is A Big Fat Liar), I give Rush the label of Big Fat Glutton, thus my hating the sinner while loving the sin.

2009-03-08T17:57:00.000-07:00

CHICAGO, CHICAGO . . .

Here are the lyrics that Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and other celebrated singers belted out. I wasn't aware of the Billy Sunday line until just now.
Chicago, Chicago
That toddlin' town, the toddlin' town
Chicago, Chicago
I'll show you around, I love it
Bet your bottom dollar you lose the blues
In Chicago, Chicago
The town that Billy Sunday could not shut down.

John and I spent 2 days in Chicago, part business of picking up some boxes of books and mostly fun. We went to the Adler Planetarium, "The Jersey Boys" musical, featuring the life and music of Frankie Valli (and The Four Seasons), and the Art Institute. I don't think Billy Sunday would have approved. Too much big bang theory at the Adler, to many raunchy lines at the musical, and too many naked ladies (painted centuries ago) at the Institute. But, we had a fantastic time and will make that little trip again soon. Chicago really is an absolutely wonderful town and we just happened to pick the perfect entertainment.

2009-02-28T14:27:00.000-08:00

FLORIDA STATE PARKS

When we were in Florida last week we explored State Parks, and now that we have a taste of them we plan to do more exploring on future visits to the Sunshine state. Neither one of us are big-time beach people in part because so many of the beaches are crowded---might as well go to the Mall of America. We had time for day visits only except for the Edward Ball Wakulla State Park where we stayed at the lodge for 2 nights and took 2 boat trips, seeing all kinds of birds and alligators and Manitees close up.

Here is a photo of me hiking at Torreya in the midst of all the greenery and another one of me swimming at the "Fountain of Youth" at Ponce de Leon Springs. I came out of the clear cold water and felt at least a week or two younger!

Another great state park in northern Florida was Falling Waters. On the way home we stopped briefly at Oak Mountain State Park in Alabama and are hoping to get back there and stay in a cabin next month.