Closing The Books

For those of us who labor in the belly of the beast, The All Saints Hunger Booksale starts in late June and concludes in early August. This over thirty-year-old tradition started with a challenge from a pastor to his congregation to do something for the less fortunate. As it has ever since, the group accepts donations, sorts, prices, and displays them. The group of volunteers assembles in the basement of the church Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

I started volunteering two years ago at the invitation of my friend Michelle Mooney. I found that the skills I acquired working at the bookstore and my lifelong love of reading made me useful with this gang. I was hampered a little this year because of radiation treatments, but I was a full-timer for most of the trip.

We are on a route toward another record year and will contribute to Milwaukee's various food assistance programs, something north of twenty-five thousand dollars.

Silly Aside About The Booksale:

Jeanne ad I met working at the book sale. When asked how we met, we respond that we met in church.

On The Easel:

Dockside

Pastel 12 x 16

Good News on the Health Report:

With all of the hoo-hah about my Bladder, you may have forgotten the doctors thought they saw a suspicious mass on my pancreas.

The original image, a CT scan, showed what they thought was a mass. The doctor thought it might be a cyst. A subsequent MRI showed nothing.

Out of concern for error, we waited three months and took another MRI. It showed that there is no mass. They will scan me again in December, but it's doubtful it will change anything.

Time for me to take a breath.

I'm taking a little vacation next week. I might not be publishing a blog. (I find my vacation photos are kind of boring to other people.)

I'll leave you with this in-progress piece.

I haven't titled it yet. It needs a little futzing.

And This Version Of the "I'm With The Banned" T-Shirt.

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Ring The Bell

It appears there is a tradition in the radiology department at Ascension Hospital that patients, upon completing their course of treatment, ring a bell. ( We know not for whom this bell tolls.) Ring the Bell with My Sweetheart Jeanne. Jeanne drove me to all but two of the appointments. Pam Frautchi took me to the other two. Today, after being zapped thirty-two times, I rang the bell. This begins a roughly one-month recovery period where the effects of the radiation abate and, I'm assured, a return to normalcy occurs. In my case, I anticipate more energy and greater awareness. Books, Books, & More Books I am simultaneously celebrating the end of the third year of volunteering for the All Saints Hunger Book Sale. Next week, we will wrap up the preparation for the sale and open our doors on August 3 for the public. I ran into this humourous but quite accurate cartoon on a T-Shirt that shows most of the volunteer's sentiments at this point. If you think the printed and bound p...

One of my latest efforts. Sketch: The Lady Is Blue Gouache 9 X 12 Reporting: I enjoyed a pleasant evening with my friend Michelle Mooney. I took her out for dinner to celebrate her birthday and to thank her for the many first-rate haircuts she's given me. We were surprised at the number of people who dined alfresco in the balmy night air. Whatever we've done to please Mother Nature, she had deemed acceptable by giving us a shot of summer just when late fall weather was wrapping her fingers around our throat. If I have one complaint about the friendly confines of The County Claire, it's the noise level that makes it difficult to converse. The rumble is an acoustical problem with the customers speaking in normal conversational tones. This is without audible TV showing some game or background music selected by a dance DJ. I know! We should have eaten outside, where the only noise is the occasional 14 bus snorting by. Maybe It's Me Since my two soccer teams are not doing...

It's time again.

It started in 2004 when we moved to our condo off Downer in Milwaukee. Then we mover to the Westside of Milwaukee when we rented from Ken Karr, the former landlord, now a current friend on Highland and 29th St. Then we moved to Mandeville Louisiana for a little less than a year. Returning to The Fox River Valley, we rented a home in Fox Crossing, formerly The Town of Menasha. When the tree fell on the roof, and the landlord felt no urgency to fix it, we moved to W. Commercial in Appleton. Here is a shocker. Are you sitting down? We are moving. No, I don't mean off the couch and out to the patio. There are too many damn mosquitoes for that to happen. No, we are packing our stuff, or at least the stuff we unpacked from the last move and moving to a home Maria purchased on Mason and Glendale in Appleton. Let me unpack that last sentence (pun planned for). We are moving at approximately the end of September to a house. The house has been in t...

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