Washington Monument

This is the first Washington Monument.  It's located near Boonesboro, Maryland.  Joseph and I saw it during BSA Troop 224's monthly camping trip in October.

More Skiing at Hachimantai

We went back to Hachimantai Ski Resort (it's on the north slope of Mt. Iwate) today, so Patrick could have one more outing before heading back to school.  The snow conditions were much improved over last time and we had a blast!  Here's some pictures of everyone in action.  Meghan had her first lesson and Matthew his second and third.  In the afternoon, he was skiing the main slope the rest of us were on!

Patrick

Joseph

Meghan

Katie

John

Matthew - Before Lunch

Matthew - After Lunch

Survivor Journal - Chapter 8

About to call an end to a gratifying weekend: Stations of the Cross and dinner with a couple other geographic bachelors; another tsunami cleanup trip and a soak in a hot bath afterward; and Sunday Mass, Adult RE and a quiet day at home.  Still feeling the effects of Saturday's exertion, but the aches are more than outweighed by the satisfaction of helping out some of those in need here.

Tsunami Cleanup - Trip #2
Well, here's the before and after.  Not quite as stark as last weekend...

Before

After

Here you can see how much sand we had to move to unbury the pile of ropes in the foreground.

And here's a glimpse at what a "little" tsunami can do...

Finally, here's a short video of some of the work we did.


Here's how the Misawa Helps crew recovers a fishing net from the sand piled on it by the 11 March 2011 tsunami. The location is Momoishi Beach just south of Misawa, Japan. The noise you hear is from the wind.

Sunday Brunch
The conversation still wasn't very lively, but I enjoyed the omelet a great deal more than the one I made two weeks ago.

Survivor Journal - Chapter 7

Yesterday
There was something especially interesting about the sky yesterday evening.  It must have been a precursor of the perfect, spring weather we had today.

Without too much planning, I found all the ingredients for spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans and garlic bread.

Signs of Spring
When I arrived home from work today, I found the changing of the seasons in our front garden.  The very last pile of snow is just a couple feet from the very first blossoms.  The late afternoon light shed an unusual perspective on the crocuses.

Dinner

It had to happen sooner or later...  I had ramen for dinner.  Of course, Wednesday is always a challenge, culinarily-speaking.  This time it was my own fault for not planning ahead.  I supplemented the shrimp ramen with salad and buttered bread.  My dear wife is shaking her head at the combination of noodles and bread.  She's right, of course, but it was the end of the loaf, it was getting stale, and it either needed to be eaten or thrown out.  I ate most of it...



What we were really doing that day...
Everyone else will remember 3/11 because of the earthquake and tsunami, but I'm choosing to remember it for what we were doing before the disaster struck.  We had the best day of skiing ever!  Maybe that's not saying much--it was only my fourth time.  Still, it was waaay better than the last time I really skied and ended up with a concussion!  Here we are at the top of a run at Hachimantai Ski Resort, which is at the base of Iwate-san (Mt Iwate).

I took this last picture of Matthew just a couple minutes before the ground started shaking...

Survivor Journal - Chapter 6

Today, I helped transport donations of food, clothing, blankets and toys to the Sisters in Hachinohe.  From there, the items will be distributed for disaster relief.  This effort is made possible by the strong ties between the Filipino communities in Misawa and Hachinohe.

All eight cars lined up at the toll plaza

Rich passing along a tricycle

The "load" from one angle

The "load" from the other angle

Father pointing out the location of the church

Survivor Journal - Chapter 5

Tsunami Cleanup
Volunteered to help with a tsunami cleanup project today.  We didn't have to drive very far, less than 45 minutes, to find some pretty serious wreckage.  We ended up at farm on the border of Oirase and Hachinohe.

Here you can see the result of our work.

Before

After

There were about 40 of us all together.

At least one of the greenhouses contained strawberry plants. Much of the fruit had been ready to pick.

One section of the greenhouses was buried under a foot of sand that washed in from the ocean.

Most of the debris in the foreground came from those trees in the background.

The first floors of all these houses were inundated.  If they're like the house of the farmer we were helping, they'll have to replace everything, including wall and floor boards.

Not sure where this hat came from, but it's another reminder of the human suffering caused by the disaster.  May the souls of all those who died rest in peace!

Survivor Journal - Chapter 3

After a long day at work, it was a pleasure not to have to cook.  Stacey invited me to her home for dinner.  I met her husband Dan and their children Allison, Ben, and Cameron.  The ribs were great and it was exciting to have some kids around.  They're 4, 4 (twins) and 1 and, like our younger children, liven up when guests arrive.  Or maybe they're always like that.  Anyway, it was a great distraction from the very quiet house I now come back to in the evening.

Tomato Soup Surprise
That's my contribution to the potluck tomorrow evening after Stations of the Cross.  I have the honor of being the only male name in the list of people signed up to bring food to the event.  The group "in charge" is Caring Kitchen, so I'm taking Judy's place, at least this one time.

I found these ingredients in the house this evening, which I think will go together well enough to be palatable.

2 containers of organic creamy tomato soup
2 cans of Campbells Tomato Soup
2 cans of Ro-Tel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies
Basil
Chipotle Chili Pepper
Paprika

I think it'll work if I add milk instead of water to the Campbell's soup and don't overdo the chili powder.  The basil and paprika are really just for decoration.  The key is it has to be quick enough for me to put together when I get home from work as late as 5:00, so I can go back to the chapel before 6:00.

Survivor Journal - Chapter 2

* I made a point of signing up to help with the volunteer work this Saturday.
* Finished repairing the server last night.  Now to see about Outlook, Quicken, etc.
 
Tuesday Dinner
As I used to do a looooong time ago, I invented something for dinner.  My little paper says Beef/Onion/Pepper Sandwich.  Maybe BOP Sandwich would be catchier...  I stir fried some beef, onions and peppers and mixed in this sauce:

3 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp hot sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp Worcestershire
1 tbsp vinegar & oil dressing
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Korean chili paste

It came out pretty dry, so it could definitely work on a sandwich.  I put it in some pita bread and ate it with a knife and fork (the pita is too crumbly to eat with fingers).  It was good.  I'll have to play around with the sauce a little.  It had too much Worcestershire and maybe not enough Montreal Steak Seasoning (salt!).  Oh, I should have put in some soy sauce!  That was in the fridge too...

Earthquakes
There's a lot of interesting information on the Japanese Meteorological Agency web site. For instance, in the 18 days since March 11, there have been 372 aftershocks with a magnitude of 5 or greater.  Sixty-three of those measured 6 or greater and three of them were 7 or more.  The largest aftershock (7.7) occurred a half hour after the main quake.


One of the 6's rolled through here at 8:03 this evening.  It was a 6.4 and it's center was, you guessed it, right off the coast of Fukushima.  Those poor people...  It had been a relatively quiet day until then.  I only counted 8 other tremors during the last 24 hours and they were all less than 5.

It seems like this will never end.  May God have mercy on us all!

Survivor Journal - Chapter 1

The biggest problem of being the only one here is the incredible lack of structure to my evenings and weekends. I have to work really hard to figure out what to do next. There are no little (or big) people asking me to: play a game, read a book, give a bath, brush teeth, floss teeth, comb hair, fix this, find that...you get the idea.  I'm not used to thinking about what to do next.  The activity or job just came to me.  Now I have to go find it.

To Do list
My first attempt to alleviate the "what to do next" problem was to make a list. Here it is:

√ Adjust water heater
√ Clean kitchen
√ Vacuum bedroom/bathroom
√ Recycle milk cartons
√ Water plants
√ Fix RAID array in server
√ Blog about day
√ Make grocery list
_ Fold laundry & put away
√ Do laundry
√ Grocery shopping
√ Confession
√ Pickup mail
X Work?
√ Glue broken pottery
_ Fix Judy's watch
_ Trim tree branch
_ Check out Steve Stone's bike
√ Wash diapers
_ Fix bicycle pump

√ means I finished it; X means I decided not to do it; and _ means I haven't done it yet.

I made the list Saturday morning.  I didn't think I'd finish it all that day and I was right.  Here it is Monday and I've completed about half of it.  Some things I didn't put on the list until Monday.

Too be fair, some of the tasks were going to take a long time.  "Fix RAID array" is one of them.  I started Saturday, but kept running into one problem after another.  Today, I finally realized one of the disks is just plain bad and I needed to swap it for a new one.  It looks like the RAID will  be rebuilt in another 15 minutes.  Then, I have to copy the data back onto it from the backup disk, which will take a few more hours.

Some of the tasks aren't that appealing or important (to me).  "Wash diapers" definitely falls in the first category.  "Fold laundry & put away" falls into the second.  What do I care if the laundry is taking up space in the living room?  I don't spend any time there anyway--it's too cold (that's probably ammunition for another chapter).

Some of the tasks require better weather, like "Trim tree branch" and "Check out Steve Stone's bike".  The eight inches of snow from Saturday is only half melted and most of the dirt roads around here are a quagmire.  So is the yard, for that matter.  I'm sure it's not yet up to the job of supporting the ladder I need to get to the tree branch.


When I'm done with this post, I can check off "Blog about day"!

Menu for the week
The only logical way to make a grocery list is to start with a menu.  Breakfast is the easiest to plan--it's always cereal and milk.  Maybe juice.  Probably coffee.  Lunch is pretty easy too.  It's either a sandwich or leftovers.  Either one might be accompanied by carrots, a fruit and yogurt.  I should also take some pumpkin bread either to have with coffee in the morning or as a snack in the afternoon.

Here's the simple dinner menu I came up with for this week trying to use up stuff that's in the refrigerator before it goes bad:


Saturday - Pizza, salad
Sunday - Grilled chicken w/gravy, brown rice, broccoli, carrots
Monday - Hot dogs, sweet potato fries, salad
Tuesday - Beef/onion/pepper sandwich, green beans, mandarins
Wednesday - Grilled fish, brown rice, broccoli, salad
Thursday - Turkey burger, sweet potato fries, green beans
Friday - Soup, bread, salad

Saturday, I was torn between Mokuteki or frozen pizza.  I didn't write pizza on the grocery list, so I ended up with neither.  I had a chef salad and whole wheat bread instead.  Sunday, I wasn't that hungry at dinner time, since brunch was so late (~3:00 pm).  I had a sandwich.  Monday was the first night I ate what was on the menu!

Other things to write about
_ Observations about life in Japan before, during and after the crisis
_ What happens as I work on the To Do list
_ Anything unusual I do or try during my time alone

This solitude is not any entirely bad thing. It's just different.

* Checked off three more To Do list items on Tuesday.
* Washed the diapers on Wednesday, checking off one more item.

Words, words, words

The little entry somewhere down to the right of here is hardly doing justice to the question of what reading material is currently taking up space on my night stand!  Here's what it looked like:

I doubt it's the most esoteric collection of books ever assembled, but I think it'll do me some good to go through them and remember why they're there.  This is a slightly more organized view of them:

And here's their "status", one at a time:

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville - The "classic treatise on the American way of life".  It's quoted in several other books in this list.  I haven't started it yet...

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon - A novel about a Protestant minister living in a cozy, southern town.  Judy recommended it.  I'm about 60 pages in...

The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek - A "passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production."  I'm learning a lot about the differences between socialism and capitalism, but it's not easy to read.  I'm in the third chapter of sixteen...

Victory over Vice by Archbishop Fulton Sheen - A commentary on each of the seven deadly sins with a look at how to embrace the corresponding virtues.  If you only read one page, make sure it is 108.  I finished this book, but it's worth reading over and over again...

Surrender by Carmen Marcoux - It's a Catholic novel Judy read.  I started it, but I guess it wasn't that engaging.  Maybe I'll get back to it when I finish At Home in Mitford...

The Lies About Money by Ric Edelman - A book on personal finance, it's a well presented argument against the mutual fund industry with suggestions for creating an investment portfolio without mutual funds.

The Death of a Pope by Piers Paul Read - I remember starting this, but I don't remember finishing.  Not sure what that says about it.  Maybe I should try again...

Economics for Dummies by Sean Masaki Flynn, PhD -I got this more for the kids than myself, in case they wanted to learn a little about economics.  It's an easy-to-understand overview of of the basic concepts, as you'd expect from a Dummies book.  I did finish it...

Pensees by Blaise Pascal -A 400-year old defense of Christian beliefs.  I'm only a few pages into it...

The Fatal Conceit--The Errors of Socialism by F.A. Hayek - This it to read after The Road to Serfdom.  It's one of several books I purchased so that I can better enunciate why I disagree with the policies of the current administration...

The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton - An epic poem about "King Alfred's heroic battle against the Danes in 878."  I've read a chapter or so.  Probably stopped when the book was buried...

The Travels by Marco Polo - You know it's time to clean when you have two different versions of the same book on your nightstand (see below).  It appears I've only read the introduction and the prologue...

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury - A classic story about life in rural Illinois during the summer of 1928.  I'm about 2/3 of the way through it.  Not sure why I stopped...

Frequent Confession--It's Place in the Spiritual Life by Benedict Baur - "Instructions and considerations for the frequent reception of the sacrament of Penance."  I haven't started it yet.  It looks like good material to have on hand during Eucharistic Adoration...

Fatherless by Brian J. Gail - I just received it on Epiphany and I haven't started reading it.  It's a novel about the "Catholic experience in America in the late 20th and early 21st centuries."   It's pretty likely the next book I'll actually finish...

Every Man's Battle by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker with Mike Yorkey - A "resource for overcoming the struggle and remaining strong in the face of temptation."  I've read more than half of it, but it's best taken in small doses...

The Gargoyle Code by Dwight Longenecker - This is a book on spiritual warfare written in the style of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  It's an easy, but enlightening, read, designed to be digested slowly over the seven weeks of Lent.  Since Lent does come to an end, I finished this book...

The Discernment of Spirits--An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living by Timothy M. Gallagher, OMV -This must have been a gift from Judy.  I haven't yet begun to read it...

The Heart--An Analysis of Human and Divine Affectivity by Dietrich von Hildebrand - Another gift and still not started...

The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo - I've barely begun it.  I suppose if I were to keep a travelogue, it would turn out something like this...

Listen, My Son--St Benedict for Fathers by Dwight Longenecker - It's the Rule of St Benedict divided into 120 pieces with the author's commentary on each.  It could be read daily over four months.  It took me longer, but I did finish it.  I had thought I would continue to re-read it, but I haven't so far.  Going through it once a year would be fruitful...

Love & Responsibility by Karol Wojtyla - A "remarkably eloquent and resourceful defense of Catholic tradition in the sphere of family life and sexual morality."  I hear it's dense reading.  I haven't yet worked up the energy to begin...






The Classic Fairy Tales by Iona & Peter Opie - I have no idea how this ended up on my nightstand, at the bottom of one pile, no less.  Judy Gibbons inscribed her name at the top of the first page and the price was only $9.95.  It must be hers from college...