1996
It's time for the annual review of the past year and it's been an eventful one. The biggest event was my father's death. Two days before Thanksgiving he passed on; his last months were not easy, but at least he got to spend most of them at home with Thelma's loving care. On Thursday, Ed & Sandy flew down from D.C. & my Aunt Sis from Buffalo; Thelma's daughter Dana (& husband & son) and her son Jerry drove over from East Texas & the house was bulging; not wanting to sleep on the floor I drove down early Friday morning. Thelma asked me to tape some music for the service & I brought along a tape of the beautiful Barber "Adagio for Strings" (which all agreed was perfect).
When my brother Larry died, Ed & Sandy were with him the last few days, & he hung on 'till the loose ends were tied; his funeral was delayed 2 weeks 'till his organist could play the service. When my mom died I was so upset (I was very close to her) that I missed the service. Thus this was my first funeral. For the first time since the early '70's I donned a tie.
We went to the funeral home in a caravan of 3 cars, almost getting separated by mall traffic. It was an open casket & dad looked very good. The last few weeks Medicare had been paying for people to bathe him & give him PT & occasionally (for a little extra) to take over & give Thelma time to get into town. There were about 1 or 2 dozen of his friends who came plus Thelma's daughter Elaine (& family). Her daughter Krystal flew in from Germany but didn't arrive 'till that evening, missing the service.
He retired as a Lt. Col. in the AF, and had an Air Force honor guard as pallbearers. The service was beautiful & in very good taste. Burial was at Fort Sam Houston with a 21-gun salute. The honor guard immaculately folded the flag & after the salute presented it to Thelma, inserting 3 of the rifle cartridges in the flag, saying that they stood for duty, honor & country.
Aunt Sis & I had originally planned on visiting that week, but those plans had to be revised. Sis was going to come up to Austin to see me & visit a girl friend who just moved to McDade (30 mi east of Austin) next year she plans to make that visit and see some of Austin. All week the weather had been cold & rainy & Friday morn was cool & rainy; but by the time of the service the sun was out & the temp was in the 60s.
I flew to Washington in July and spent several days with Ed & Sandy, including my 50th birthday. One highlight in D.C. was getting to see John McCutcheon perform at George Washington University & meeting him afterward. He was the main reason for the timing of my trip.
I've attended several more Austin City Limits tapings this year, though I missed one to see one of my favorite composers (John Corigliano) who was visiting UT from NYC. I passed on another to see a live videoconference with the creative team for The Simpsons (it was great).
We have a new principal who is doing a great job & it appears this will be the last year (for a while at least) that I'll be teaching students directly. Next year plans are for me to help integrate the curriculum; I'll be working in the computer lab helping teachers with projects in math, English, social studies, and science & teaching the kids their required computer skills that way.
I now have 14 (or 15) straight years of perfect attendance. I taught my second student who is the child of a former student. This one is the first child of a Lamar student (who got pregnant while in high school). One of our new custodians is also a former Lamar student of mine and when the new teacher who was teaching one computer class in my room bailed out, he was replaced by another former Lamar student of mine who was doing his student teaching for one of our math teachers. He just graduated from UT this month & will be a fulltime replacement next semester! I had my first autistic student this semester & he was a real handful; luckily he was in a super class; his mom gave me a poinsettia last week. In a year our school will begin one year of renovations with $9 million worth of improvements.
I discovered a wonderful house concert series and have seen some wonderful music in a new friend's home with concerts starting at a decent time and ending earlier as a result. This fall my TV's sound died & when my repairman couldn't fix it, I got a new bigger one (32"). My CD player also pooped out & I got my first carousel player. I really enjoy it a lot more than the single player I had.
My hands continue to be a problem & the doctor says they will probably never be much better. I take daily anti-inflammatory meds & do exercises daily too. It's a real drag.
My autograph collection grows & is over 600 now (counting dupes) Highlights by mail this year are Anthony Quinn and Maureen O'Sullivan. In person I got both autographs & photos with Dick Smothers, Yo Yo Ma, Lawrence Kasdan, Willie Nelson, and Mandy Patinkin!!!
I met a lot of new friends on the net, some through a Shawn Phillips list. Hopefully next year will see the publication of the update of my master's thesis on Shawn.
I managed to read about 191 books this year and see hundreds of films.
Have a great 1997.
