BS: Continuing in Guam

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 06:44 PM

I am very sorry to hear about your mother. She sounds like a wonderful, loving, and much-loved person.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 11:45 PM

What a wonderful woman! Sorry you had to lose her, Bret, but she gave you a lot to go on with.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 02:10 AM

Sorry to hear that, Brett - what a wonderful woman your mother was! From your lovely tribute I wish I had known her.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 05:31 AM

I wish I could say I had some input on the obit but my sisters did most of that. Then, after they got it into the Bangor Daily they realized they left someone out. Such is life.

I have always (at least in the last 10 years or so) referred to my mother as a "tough old bird" and she was. She loved living at the farm even in winter. When my father died she realized that she was alone for the first time in her life. Until she married she was in her parents' house then with my father for the 60-odd years of their marriage. She was always with him and/or kids for all that time.

Some time after Dad was gone she pointed this out and commented that she loved being on her own. She was never lonely. She had friends. Her kids were always calling her. Help was a quick call away.

And she was always an innocent. She didn't understand the ugly side of people and she didn't want to. She was one of the beautiful people.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 07:22 PM

Brett-

So sorry to hear this.

I'm glad I got a chance to meet both your mother and father.

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 07:29 PM

Brett-

Check your PMs with regard to a Roll & Go update.

We look forward to seeing you again the end of June.

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 11 Jun 15 - 08:09 AM

I am finally on summer vacation. I feel like someone shoveled a mountain of field fertilizer off my back. The school is buried in a bureaucracy that jams up everything. It is definitely NOT user friendly. It took days to check out.

But now I am done. I will head for Maine again around the end of June for my mother's memorial. I have two high priority needs on this trip. 1) I want to hear some music and B) I need to eat some lobster and (III I want to visit Bath at some point during the July 4th celebrations.

My flight leaves Guam on June 25 at 6:30 AM and arrives in Portland on June 25 at 3:59 PM. I head back to Guam on July 5 at 6::38 AM.

I will be in Houlton for Mom's memorial on June 27.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 09:17 PM

Welcome to vacation! It sounds like it will be a busy one. I wish your trip to ME was for a happier reason.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: maeve
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 05:54 AM

I hope things go well for you Brett, both in your mother's memorial and in the friends and activities you're hoping to see and do.
Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 10:57 AM

Hi, Naemanson. I've been thinking about your students, who you said don't listen to the words in their music. I don't think this means there is anything wrong with the students.

1. When have you heard rock music where you can understand the words? Not often, I bet. (I'm assuming that the kids listen to rock, since rock has such a stranglehold on our culture.)

If the kids are listening to some other kind of music, the same questions apply.   

2   When somebody writes the words down so we see what they are, do they make sense? Not often. Therefore, they are hard to remember and they are not interesting.

In contemporary music, the lyrics just don't matter much. The vocal line is there to give the elaborate electronic instruments and excuse to be played.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jul 15 - 01:07 AM

Two weeks in Maine. The memorial was a success both in the people who came out to The Farm and the fact that there was no obvious strife between us sibs. Mother would have been proud.

We also managed to agree on the future for The Farm. We will keep it in the family for the foreseeable future. It stays as is for about a year as we try to decide what to do with all the "heirlooms" that pack the place. It is full of antiques that were either out of my grandmother's house or my grandfather's workshop. We need to move them out, make some needed repairs, and then we'll rent the place out to a farmer who needs a place to build his future.

I spent the remainder of my time staying with Charlie. It was an interesting experience. I moved into his little one bedroom apartment after my life fell apart and it was from that place that I moved to Guam. It was my safety cave at a very difficult time. I have strong positive emotions connected with that apartment and it was a privilege to be able to stay there. Thanks, Charlie.

While I was in Maine I touched base with a lot of my old stomping grounds. I have only a few regrets for things I missed. I never did get to the Houlton Farms Dairy ice cream drive-in for an Awful-Awful. Imagine a milkshake so thick it is almost pure ice cream and so cold you could inject CO2 into it to make blocks of dry ice. On a hot July or August day there is nothing better. I didn't get down to see where they are building a replica of the pinnace Virginia in Bath.

But I DID get to the 4th of July used book sale in Bath where I bought a bunch of books including Swallows and Amazons which I have wanted for years. I bought Charlie a copy of The Oxford Dictionary of Ships and the Sea. I value mine and thought he'd like to have a copy.

I wandered around Bath and drove out of town for a ways. I visited what's left of the Brunswick Naval Air Station to see what happened to all the places I used write contracts for. The base is undergoing some serious changes since it was closed a few years after I left.

I got home on the afternoon of the 6th and Wakana headed out to Japan on the 7th for a visit with her family and to get some minor medical stuff taken care of. She needed to see her dentist and getting the work done here would have cost as much as the airfare. Plus she needed a quality physical and to consult with a couple of specialists. To contradict the Republicans, socialized medicine is the best.

Wakana arrived home this morning and life will soon be back to normal. He bought a ton of books while she was there and mailed them home. She bought several through Amazon Japan. And there is a big and lovely difference in the systems. She ordered them online and they gave her a choice of paying with her card or paying cash at the local convenience store. She walked up the street, paid cash, and NEXT DAY she returned to the convenience store to pick up the books. In Japan when they call something a convenience store they really mean it. You can go there to pay for your mail order, arrange to ship something large across Japan, and pick up lunch. (We once used a convenience store to send our suitcases home from Hiroshima because home was our next stop and we didn't want to carry them any more. And it was cheap.)

As contrast I ordered a couple of books from the American Amazon a week ago and I do not expect to see them for another week or so. And I had to expose my card to the risk of ID Theft.

In the meantime, and the island chain we live in, Saipan and Tinian are suffering through the second week since their undersea cable broke. They do not have home internet and only the most basic phone connection. Here in Guam our basic north-south road suffered a slow sinkhole that severed that line. There are three ways to make that connection. Marine Corps Drive which has now been reduced from 6 lanes to 1. The run past the airport which is a two lane track. and the run through Barrigada and back to Marine Corps Drive via Hamburger Road which is as much fun a driving through a WWI No-Man's Land for all the potholes and trenches. I tried to go north yesterday and ran into miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic on all three routes.

While Wakana was away I finally pulled the TV out away from the wall and hooked up the stereo, the big speakers, and a computer so now we can clearly hear the TV and we can access Netflix, Hulu, and other sources. I also tried to replace the kitchen sink faucet but I couldn't get under the cabinet far enough to get a good grip on the joints to pull it apart. The only thing I managed to do was disconnect the hot water side and not put it back together again. D'oh!

I will not be going back to JFK. I have quit my job. I will spend this next semester taking biology and chemistry at the university so I can qualify to teach science in high school and, hopefully, get a job closer to home. The students at JFK have really put me off teaching, at least teaching English.

Wow! This has gotten long. Time to take a break.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 23 Jul 15 - 03:51 PM

Sounds like a good strategy, Brett,shame you have to change subjects but better to be able to enjoy your work.
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Jul 15 - 07:25 PM

I look forward to the continuation of the story after your break, Brett.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 23 Jul 15 - 08:27 PM

You have been busy! It sounds like your time in Maine was well-spent. I hope the roads near your home are repaired soon. Congratulations on coming up with a plan for your future.

Subject: RE: BS: Continuing in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 31 Jan 17 - 06:19 AM

The new thread is BS: Unemployed, uh, retired in Guam.