pilot's logbook

AM: Barry sent me a volunteer opportunity. Go help out at the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation booth for Day-Before-Thunder-Over-Louisville. I met Carol & Mike Brady, Bonnie, Annette (works at Air National Guard), Laura (from Ohio), Lee (pilots the big green plane that they all came in), J___, piloted the Huey I rode in, Leia (works for nursing homes, Jim Shaeffer (part owner of planes and/or other at Air Center One), and a lot of other people whose names have already slipped out of my head.

We had a great spot to watch the air show (probably a complete rehearsal for Thunder). F-16, A-10 Warthog/Thunderbird?, P-38? Thunderbird?, Navy Seals. The AAHF had Hueys, Cobras and Apaches. Riding in the Huey was amazingly smooth.

Lesson with Mike:
Taxiing, climbs, descents, steep turns, stalls, slow flight, landing.

When I came in, Mike was upstairs with a student, and Dane asked me whether I wanted to go ahead and preflight the C152. OK. I had plenty of time to do it, because Dane forgot to tell Mike that I was there, and he was waiting inside for me. oops.

I'm glad it worked out that way. I felt like I knew what I was doing for the most part, and the things I didn't know were:
Fuel strainer (pull the white gizmo beside the oil checker, while reaching underneath to check the gas that comes out.)
Carborator air filter (down under the nose, check it for debris)
Avionics cooling fan (still don't know about that one)
Avionics off. Switch (down or up? It's the silver toggle switch that's not marked)

So, that's one section of this stuff that I feel confident about. It's not this big confusing list anymore.

Flying was more difficult than it should have been. I wasn't "multitasking" well at all. Half the time the flight instruments seem like they work backwards of what I expect (direction-wise). And while I don't have any problem with nose up=pull back, nosedown=push forward, adding one more step, ie. "hold airspeed at 70 knots" means I'm watching the airspeed indicator and forgetting how this chain of thought works to keep it correct. (Figuring this out, to bring the needle down, take the nose down. This only works on the right side of the dial, but if I get the moves there, I'll have it. ). Now, if I could just do the same for the altimeter. It doesn't speak to me yet. Maybe some altimeter flash cards. If it works to teach 6-year-olds how to tell time, it might work for me.

I kept losing altitude on my turns, and coming out of them late. Think about how far 100 feet is from the ground, and then think how easily you lose that much in the air. Mind-boggling. I hadn't thought of that until Mike mentioned it.

At one point, Mike asked me whether I was scared of what might happen so he showed me a little more what the plane will or won't do. I don't think I'm scared. I just don't feel it yet, and I'm used to doing things by feel. Also being good at whatever I do. Talk about being out of your comfort zone!

Even though I was using Barry's headset, I was still having problems hearing thru it. We ended up ditching the headsets and just shouting. I'm going to check prices on the David Clark headsets and the AvComm200.

I asked about when you decide to use the throttle to make a difference in altitude, and when you use pitch. Ans: big changes (more than a couple of hundred feet) probably raise or lower the RPM. We did a sideslip. That's cool.

Looking back at this, it almost looks like it wasn't a good lesson. But actually, it was. Even though it took me most of the evening to get in the groove at all, I felt a lot less uptight. (I give Mike a lot of credit --he handles that well.) I scheduled three lessons next week. Mon Wed & Fri, all in the morning. Maybe that will be enough to get us over this particular hump. After that, it will just be fun.

Frank and I talked about all this. He was being really convincing that he not only doesn't mind me doing all this, but really, really, wants me to do it and do it well.

pilot's logbook

I spent this morning with Carmel and her friend, Steve, who is a tree farmer in Henry County. Carmel wants to know more about managing the timber at the farm. Sounds good to me.

Flying lesson # 4.
Taxiing, climbs, descents, XW, T/O, landing, steep turns, wind correction, pilotage.

First we talked about landing. Mike gave me the V airspeed info for our C152. I went out to do the exterior check. There actually was something in the gas--it looked like worms in the tester. Mike says oil. I also had a hard time seeing the gas level in the wing tanks, and that's because there wasn't much in there.

"Bowman Ground, Cessna 69011 at Air Central One information Victor to depart runway 32. " Something like that. What?

Takeoff with a cross-wind: hold ailerons all the way into the wind on the runway. Let them level gradually on (before?) rotation. More attempts at straight-and-level, climbing and descending, medium turns and steep turns, setting the trim correctly. It was a beautiful day. Mike had me glide, and we made an attempt at a run-through for an emergency landing in a field. I practiced following a road, having to crab the plane into the wind to do it. Coming back, he had me figure out how to get home, and it's really hard to see the airports. But there are two breaks in the trees, and one was Bowman and one was Standiford.

As we were coming in, there was another plane near us, and I understood the radio telling us that, but I never saw him. Mike did, eventually, and he was right under us. Gotta work on that!

Good session. I was bushed at the end of it. Mike did say one thing that made sense. What if he were trying to learn the flute, and had spent 5 hours at it? How far along would he be? That's telling.

I want to remember to print off the info for that pilot kit and take it to Mike.
Also it occurs to me that all the time we were practicing using headings, I guess with the wind, we weren't actually moving in the direction of the compass. I'll ask Mike about that. Also, I want to spend a little more time just watching Mike fly. He's good.I know how my brain works. I'll soak it up more smoothly if I do that.

During the night the Standiford Field traffic woke me up. They must have been flying base right over our house, one jet every two minutes, for at least a half-hour. Then it stopped.

Southern Indiana Airports

Barry invited me to go flying. He has a beautiful plane, a blue and white 1972 Piper Cherokee 140E.

I met him behind Hap's at Clark County Airport on one of the first nice sunny warmish days we've had for a while. Lots of people had the same idea. We flew to Seymour Airport where he was checking on some Civil Air Patrol planes that are in for maintenance.

Next we flew to Madison Airport. I didn't know these neat places existed. Barry introduced me to at least a dozen interesting people. There was lots to watch, listen to, and talk about.

Jericho

A storm came through and knocked out the internet and cable just about the time Jericho was supposed to come on. Rats!

Medical exam

I got my second class medical certificate today. Dr. Glen Stoutt was great fun to talk to. He must love flying, and he sure likes talking to people.

My blood pressure has never been high until the last couple months, when it's crept up a little bit. (Why now?) The second time he took it it was within limits, but I'll have to work on that. Too close for comfort.

I'll have to stop taking phentermine. Hopefully it got me started on the weight loss, and I'll be able to continue.

The eye test was close, too, but it's past time to have my glasses checked. While I'm at it, I probably need to make my current pair into sunglasses, since I don't have any bifocal sunglasses. Or maybe I should get the automatic tint glasses. If I'm wearing sunglasses and need to read something on a chart, will I be able to see it with the tint? Gotta think this one thru, too.

I'm reviewing and reading.

Next lesson I plan to:
Spend as much time as it takes to get the headset right. I'll get with Barry before Monday and take the one he offered to lend me.
Start echoing back to Mike what he has me doing. That way maybe I'll remember more of the details and also get more used to the terminology.
Use better rudder & trim.

Questions:
The handbook goes into a lot of detail for different degrees of turn. It says that for a 30-degree (medium) turn you should use ailerons, elevator and rudder to set the turn, then relax the ailerons and rudder, but hold the elevators. The plane is supposed to hold its bank. Then to get out of the turn, you apply the controls in the opposite direction. I don't think that ever happened when I was doing those 360degree turns. I had to hold the controls the whole time. I think.

Check some of my flash card answers with Mike. Landing procedures, optimum speeds,

Since I only had one lesson this week, maybe I can get in three next week. Debbie just called and said they had made a mistake and underpaid me by $50 a month all year. It's a sign--more practice. I'll have to thank Sherry for the windfall.

pilot's logbook

C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Preflight, Taxiing, climbs, descents, straight & level, T/O & landing, steep turns. 1-1/2 hr.

All right! This is possible. Without all the wind of the last two flights, we had an entirely different experience. I was worried. Now I'm not.

Preflight is starting to make sense.
I pretty much followed the yellow line when taxiing, which is a HUGE improvement over last time.
Takeoff makes sense. Mike was telling me what to do, but it doesn't feel difficult. The plane does all the work.
We flew over Indiana today. Lots of practice trying to hold a 30-degree bank and keep level, also practice climbing steadily. It's not steady yet, but at least I'm starting to feel it and to know what it all looks like when it's right. This time I was looking outside for most of the verification, and checking with the instruments. The amount of bank you have to do to show 30 degrees on instruments looks a whole lot more like 45 degrees out the window.
We worked on maintaining airspeed by changing the pitch.
I learned how to set the trim.
At one point, Mike had me take the plane up to 5,000 ft and head back S toward the river, about 15 miles. We pulled the engine back to just idle, so essentially we were gliding. Now THAT was interesting. The plane just hangs there, moving along, doing its thing. Coming back in, Mike had me take the river to 6-Mile Island, then hang a left toward Kaden Tower. Bowman Field is on the right. Now I can't remember how the last turn(s) were. Did I just hang a right and go in? I don't remember.

Looking forward to next Monday!

Pilot's logbook

4/6 C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Taxiing, Preflight, straight & level, climbs, descents, XW T/O, Landing. 1 hr.

I went up, and it was a beautiful day.  Gusty winds, again, but a cloud of snow that Mike had me go into just a little, which was beautiful.  But I barely noticed that, because I was so busy torturing that little airplane trying to keep it steady and such.  

A number of useful things happened.  At one point, Mike complimented me on how I handled a big bump of wind.  I told him I didn't do it, the plane did it herself, which was worth noticing.

He had me flying straight-and-level and making turns.  At one point he told me it was like we were in a "big parking lot." 

That helped.  And MIke ran the throttle the whole time, which was better than me doing it.  I think I need to get a better sense of what is normal, how the plane sounds and feels when it is right instead of all the individual details and instruments and stuff inside the cockpit being separate and confusing input.

After the lesson, I asked for homework and Mike assigned me to read the FAA chapter on straight-and-level flight and turns, and as soon as I turned to the page, I saw the piece that I've been missing.  It's  under "Integrated Flight Instruction" on pg. 3-3. 

This means the use of outside references and flight instruments to establish and maintain desired flight attitudes and airplane performance...

The airplane's attitude is established and maintained by positioning the airplane in relation to the natural horizon. At least 90 percent of the pilot's attention should be devoted to this end, along with scanning for other airplanes.
90% of the time, the pilot's attention should be outside the cockpit.  No more than 10% of the pilot's attention should be inside the cockpit...

If the airplane's performance, as indicated by flight instruments, indicates a need for correction, a specific amount of correction must be determined, then applied WITH REFERENCE TO THE NATURAL HORIZON. The airplane's attitude and performance are then rechecked by referring to the flight instruments. THE PILOT THEN MAINTAINS THE CORRECTED ATTITUDE BY REFERENCE TO THE NATURAL HORIZON.

The pilot should monitor the airplane's performance by making numerous quick glances at the flight instruments. No more than 10 percent of the pilot's attention should be inside the cockpit. The pilot must develop the skill to instantly focus on the appropriate flight instrument, and then immediately return to outside reference to control the airplane's attitude.

Level flight, at first, is a matter of consciously fixing the relationship of the positions of some portion of the airplane, used as a reference point, with the horizon ... maintain a light grip on the flight controls ... learn to associate the apparent movement of the references with the forces which produce it. ... develop the ability to regulate the change desired in the plane's attitude by the amount and direction of forces applied to the controls without the necessity of 

To establish the desired angle of bank,the pilot should use outside visual reference points, as well as the bank indicator on the attitude indicator.

The best outside reference for establishing the degree of bank is the angle formed by ... the lowered wing of high-wing airplanes.

This sounds like what I WANT to be doing, anyway.   I'll read and visualize this chapter as much as possible, and then show it to Mike and ask if he'll work on it with me Monday.

I 'm going to go to Google Earth and look at Bowman Field and at the area between there and Shelbyville.  I think I'll print a copy and ask Mike to help me mark on it where it is we fly.  He told me, but I want to be a lot more clear and set myself things to look for.

Barry sent me an article on how to taxi.  I'll read it next. I'm not even going to go into how badly I move that airplane on the ground.  It's really humbling. 

It's probably good for me as a teacher.  We have a story that we sometimes snicker about--when Beth was driving, but hadn't been doing it very long, and she got into the car and said "Gas on the right, brake on the left."  Whoever was riding with her about had a cow.  Well, that's where I am with these controls.  I'm saying aloud: Push in, go forward.  Pull back, stop. I'm looking at a directional indicator and asking myself, do I go right or left to get to (whatever heading)? I might see all my piano students in a different light when we start up after spring break.  

I'm also determined that if I can make a cranky old pipe organ behave with finesse and class, I can do this, too.  Ha!

Jericho--"One Man's Terrorist"

I didn't get to watch Jericho at its regular time, so I got the next edition from iTunes on Thursday. "One Man's Terrorist" was pretty powerful. It came together with the Holy Thursday mass, how it plays out the idea of service, loyalty, conviction, and the conflicts that develop from those values. The other thing that you noticed with this episode was the tension caused by the availablity of weapons and acceptance of violent methods in service of those values. Simply because weapons were available, the situations could, and did, veer into catastrophe at any point.

Very American.

Holy Thursday Morning Prayer St. Joe 6:30 AM

This morning Fr. Bill presided at morning prayer. He introduced it beautifully as the beginning of the Triduum. There were about 35 people who came. Sharon and I were doing the song leading. I could tell Sharon was a little nervous about being by herself on the other side of the church, but she did a fine job of starting everyone on that side and keeping them together when we sang antiphonally. I did record, so maybe I'll have something worth keeping.

Practical stuff: We needed more choir. We defaulted to me singing solo and the people in church singing the alternating verses, which is actually ok, but not what we had intended. I recruited Pat and her husband to come on my side and sing tomorrow, and Bill will be there with Sharon, so that should fix it for tomorrow.

Also, I ran over Fr. Bill's reflection by starting the Gospel Canticle. Habit, I guess. How often do I ever attend MP with a priest as the presider? Almost never.

This is just nit-picky stuff to remember in facilitating next year. It was a beautiful service. Someday hopefully someone will want to do it more often than two days of the year. We sing again tomorrow--Good Friday.

Pilot's logbook

4/4 C-152 LOU LOU Taxiing, Preflight, Straight& Level, Turns (30 degree), T/O & landing, XW
I had my first lesson today. AirCenterOne is located at Bowman Field (KLOU). My instructor is Michael Bingham, CFI.

At first we were going to cancel because the weather was "marginal"-- clouds and gusty winds. I suggested we spend the hour doing Q&A and informational stuff. After I got there, we decided to go up anyway.

Mike walked me thru the pre-flight inspection. Then we got in and I was introduced to the rest of the procedures. Most of it made sense, but there was an awful lot of it. Sensory overload. The Cessna C152 is going to be fun, but actually I didn't feel too much fun today. There's a huge difference between riding and trying to be in a position of understanding and responsibility for what goes on. Also, by the end I was feeling a little green around the gills.

So far, I suck at taxiing. Were we ever on the yellow line? I guess I crossed it several times.

All the moves are things I am not at all used to. To taxi, you drive with your feet (for direction) and one hand on the throttle for speed. Brakes are at the top of the rudder pedals. At first you basically run the machine with one hand on the throttle. That's seemed to be the operative issue from ground to some kind of cruising state, and it gets adjusted a lot during that time. The other hand is on the wheel in charge of ailerons and elevators. I never got any feel for that, either. I'll blame it on the winds. Mike was basically flying and I was messing him up, I think.

I'm learning a lot from Mike, and not just the aviation stuff. He's a real go-getter about the flight instructor business, and that's useful in itself. I should apply his example to my music lessons. I'll have to if I'm going to pay for all this. $176 today.

Some things he does:
* talk it through, talk it through, and keep on talking. What we're doing, why, how it works. I don't know how many times I'll have to hear it all before it clicks, so I'm glad he doesn't just leave it at short explanations.
* he's assertive about getting my business.

Takeoff was about like I expected, but landing surprised me. First of all, how you can ever get in line for that runway (but everyone learns how, right?) Interesting was how slow it felt when we were coming in for final approach. It's like the plane stops and hovers and hangs and then sinks. (I doubt it will seem slow when I have to do it, but that's how it felt today).

We're going up again on Friday.

The owner of Air Center One is Tony, and I met about 8 other pilots and instructors. Do I remember any names? No.

I talked to the people at Bardstown Airfield (Honaker Aviation), also, but I think I'll wait 'til down the road to get in any contact with them. Eventually I'll want to, for proximity and networking, at least.

I also sent an email to (and heard back from) a local person who is willing to be a mentor. His name is Barry, and he looks to be interested and interesting. He flies his plane out of the Clark County Airport, but I think he actually lives in Shepherdsville.

So I'll have local advice to add to Amy's friends Alex and Julie.

Alaska Wednesday

This morning we got up a little late.  We called Alex Roesch, who is Amy's friend who flies cargo planes.  (Today he goes to Nome and somewhere else, I forget).  We met him for breakfast before he heads out. Alex flies old cargo planes, like from the 40's.  He loves it.  He's also serious about learning guitar.  And he's an artist.  We talked about flying and music and the coffee delivery business he's trying to get started.

After breakfast we walked around downtown, bought some wool (kiviat) made by a cooperative of native villages from musk ox hair. It's supposed to be 5 times as warm as other wool.  I'm taking it to Mom to see what she wants to do with it.

We went to REI to look for socks and gloves for Amy, but she didn't find what she wanted.  We came on home to check whether Gmail Chat works on Macintosh, and once we were sure it would, we went back out:   to the Mall, which is six stories tall around an ice-skating rink, and then to CompUSA to buy a computer, which we didn't buy but instead came home and ordered online.   Wheeee!!

Supper of more asparagus & noodles, then over to Jenny's house for a piano lesson. She's a really nice, comfortable person, and I would have liked to get to know her, but if we started talking there wouldn't have been any piano lesson.  While they played piano, I walked in her "back yard," a long path around a frozen lake, which I could only go about a fourth of the way around.  Then I went with Amy to choir practice at St. Patrick's church.  She works with the children's choir, which is preparing for Easter.

Home again, Amy is knitting while I write.  We might watch a movie or something.  maybe.

blog  http://randomlight.blogspot.com

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"It is necessary for us to realize that we have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights. When you deal with human rights you are not dealing with something clearly defined in the Constitution. They are rights that are clearly defined by the mandates of a humanitarian concern."

 - Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated April 4, 1968.

Alaska Tuesday

Tuesday already!  Time flies when you're having fun!

Yesterday, after that long day on the water, we decided to skip eating out and just do the peanut-butter bagel & apples and cheese thing. We had time to sit around and talk and chill.  After dark, Amy went up and spent about an hour in the hot tub (outside, surrounded by tall fir trees and mounds of snow). She said it was really quiet.

 This morning we ate another great breakfast with Sheila and Al, played their piano and sang a little, then left before 10:00.  We checked out the Resurrection Cafe (a converted church), where Amy bought a print by Rockwell Kent.  We went to the library for a while, and while I finished downloading my flight simulator, Amy walked around.

Lunch was fresh fish sandwich and barley beef soup. 

The Seward Sea Life Center is a real jewel.  It's a research facility and museum that was set up by the money collected after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and it's a beautiful place.  It's not crowded with stuff, and the displays all make sense.  The first amazement was a tank of jellyfish that had to be just about the most beautiful creatures you could imagine, floating and swirling thru the water.  The best "displays" are the two-story tanks of seals, ducks, and sea-birds.  You could sit all day watching them swim, which you can do from below or above, indoors or out. There were very few people there, so we had the museum staff pretty much to ourselves, and the interpreters went out of their way to teach us what we were really looking at.  There were hands-on tanks of starfish and sea anemones, who didn't mind being touched ("gently, with two fingers"), and we got to watch a crab being fed to an octopus.  

The drive back to Anchorage was just great for listening to music and watching the scenery.  It doesn't get any better. Supper was noodles & asparagus & mushrooms, and then we went to Flattop to watch the sun go down.  We went after that to two places Amy likes to hang out:  hot chocolate & chai at the TapRoot Cafe, and then hung out at Open Mike at the Golden Lion.  I met Justin, Erin, Lisa, Ian, Gary, Scott and Angela.  Amy talked to everybody, and arranged a pot-luck supper at her house on Friday. It sounds like it will be a full house.

Tomorrow I get to meet Alex.

blog  http://randomlight.blogspot.com

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RESPECT RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SPIRIT AND MATTER.

Consider all aspects of human settlement, including community, dwelling, industry and trade, in terms of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness.

--Hannover Principle #3

Alaska Sunday

On a Wonderful Day like today....!!!!!!!!!

Amy wishes I'd quit singing that song,  but it keeps coming back.  We're at the Treehouse Bed & Breakfast near Seward, Alaska.  It's a beautiful two-room suite in a house in a subdivision (kindof like our subdivision at home), but with a black-rock creek in back and steep mountains behind the creek and 5 to 10 feet of snow everywhere.  We just got back from a snowshoe walk back the creek.  The sun is shining and we were in our own Sierra Club Calendar.   In a little while we'll go into town for supper, and then maybe come back here to use the hot tub.  I hope the stars are visible.  We're pretty far from any city. Somebody saw Northern Lights night before last.

Catching up....

Amy's interview was interesting.  She thought it was for radio voiceovers, but it was probably for TV.  You'll have to get the description from her.  I piddled around most of the day. Upgraded the RAM in my Mac.  We ended up going for a walk with the dogs in a frozen bog behind a middle school.  Crooka was my lead sled dog a few times when we had to take steep hills or get thru drifts.   There' s a pathway where people have walked, and as long as you're on it, you're ok.  But if you stray just a hair to the side, down you go into the snow, and it's knee deep or more. We ended up standing on the score board at a ball field on the top of a hill overlooking Anchorage.  I think the ground is a lot lower in the summer.

When we got back, we got with Jane and went to Chili's (St. Joe's treat), since the people in Jane's favorite TV show hang out there.  It was interesting, but not great food choices if you're vegetarian, especially since they were all out of salmon, halibut or tilapia.  Which left shrimp.  I had a mushroom swiss cheese burger which was good but overwhelming.

This morning we packed our stuff and headed down the southern highway toward Seward.  The entire drive was sunshiny and stunning.  Mountains on all sides--360 degrees, with the icy water to our immediate right.   Majestic, snowy.  Think of the Tetons and then raise it a power or two.  We spent $7 ea. to go in a wildlife animal rescue area and walk around and see caribou, buffalo, elk, moose &  bears.  Kindof like the Wolf Park.  These are animals that are rescued from some kind of situation, then rehabilitated and relocated.

Driving on, the road was lined with trucks and trailers of snowmobilers.  The snowmobile tracks were interesting--looping up the mountainside as far as they dare, then back down.  Kids are pulled behind the snowmobile in a plastic boat.

 We stopped in a little store in Moose Pass for ice cream.  We plan to go to Hope on the way back.  We're looking for handmade knives and Beluga whales.

The whole drive was like being in National Geographic. It called for a little helicopter-ride-style music, but Amy's CD player and radio conked out, and my laptop speakers aren't loud enough to do the job.   I tried singing John Denver, but I don't think it had the same effect.

See y'all!   Keep warm!

maggiemom

blog  http://randomlight.blogspot.com

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SEEK CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT BY THE SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE.

Encourage direct and open communication between colleagues, patrons, manufacturers and users to link long-term sustainable considerations with ethical responsibility and to reestablish the integral relationship between natural processes and human activity.

--Hannover Principle #9

Alaska Monday

I hear it's in the 80's at home.  Here, we're surrounded by chin-high snow piles wherever we go. We're having a hard time getting to internet connections, so you guys may just get all these messages all at once.  It might be a little better than getting postcards, which always arrive after we get home.

Today is Seward's Day, and we're in Seward, so we hoped there might be some special festivities going on, but there aren't. The most notable effect of Seward's Day is that the library is closed, so we can't get to the internet.

Last night we borrowed our host's snowshoes and went plowing along the top of drifted snow that covers a running creek.  We barely saw the creek, and the snow we were walking on covered the tops of small trees.  Snowshoes are easy to get tangled with each other, but they do work well as long as you think a little pigeon-toed. A gorgeous walk!

This morning we  had a beautiful breakfast of yogurt & sourdough pancakes with berry jelly, which was our main meal of the day.   At noon we were on a boat (the Chugach) heading out Resurrection Bay.   Steep mountains jut straight out of the water on all sides, which makes it a fjord.  We weren't even out of the harbor when we saw two humpback whales swimming together.  At one point they were right next to us.  We watched them for about 15 minutes.  We saw bald eagles nesting, a colony of sea lions, choppy waters and a snowstorm coming in from the Pacific, sea otters and glacier ice.     The glacier ice is a blue (aquamarine) jewel color, which comes from the density of the ice. It kindof  glows. People are friendly, and we're finding plenty to look at and do.  

We would have stayed in town for supper if an internet place was open, but since we couldn't find one, we came on back.  Amy's reading a journal by Rockwell Kent, an artist who spent a stretch of time in a cabin on this shore with his 9-year-old son. She knows his artwork from the museum she volunteers at.   I'm reading my aviation books, so we're happy even when we're not out in the snow or the wind. 

Supper was peanutbutter bagel, cheese, bananas, pistachios& salt-water taffy.    Tomorrow we have tickets to the SeaLife Center, then we'll head back to Anchorage.

love y'all!

Maggie Hettinger

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle, maybe worse than your own."

Alaska Friday

What a great day!

Yesterday I spent the middle of the day at Borders' Books. I ordered a chai and sat down to use the internet.  One thing following another, I started looking up "Learn to Fly"   and Pilot and such.  I clicked on a flight simulator to download it, not realizing that it was about a gigabyte of program.  While it was downloading (a couple of hours,and not finished yet), I looked in the flight section, and found a couple of really interesting books on piloting:   "Taking the Short Approach" and "FAA Airplane Flying Handbook."  I couldn't choose between them, so I got them both, and lucked into a 25% educator discount this weekend. Then I went outside in the snow, hit the button to heat up the back window of the car, realized I'd hit the flasher button instead of rear defrost.  Guess what? The flashers wouldn't turn off.  Pried and poked for a while, then called AAA for the nice young man to jimmy it out with his pocketknife (which took a while, even for him) and then disconnect the wires.  While I was waiting I sat in the parking lot and downloaded more flight simulator from there.  Sweet.

(maybe I could have done it myself if I was carrying my pocketknife, but I don't carry it on trips anymore just so I don't risk losing it at the airport.  How bizarre.   It's like the opposites I used to look for when I was doing the philosophy thing.  Opposites are the pointers to the key important points)

Drove downtown, wandered past the museums and other interesting places, but ended up looking for more of the coastal trail, and found it in a neat (and probably very expensive) neighborhood that's within 5 minutes walk of downtown and 3 minutes walk of the trail and the coast.  I walked for about an hour, turning around at a lagoon where people were ice skating.  (It's the place where Amy skates.).  

When I got back, I saw Amy's florist shop--very pretty, lots of classy arrangements and stuff, met Annie and the lady at the desk whose name I didn't catch.   We went to the computer store, then home to snack on apples & cheese with Jane's friend Jenny (?) and looked for places to stay in Seward. 

Today (Saturday), Amy has an interview at the radio station (voiceovers and such), so that's the big item for the day.  Tomorrow we hope to go to Seward and spend a couple of nights.   

Love youall!

Mom

Maggie Hettinger

CIA Veteran Michael Scheuer: "Every time we interfere in Muslim countries, they get more support. In the long run, we're not safer, because we're still operating on the assumption that we're hated because of our freedoms, when in fact we're hated because of our actions in the Islamic world."

good morning! ALASKA!!!

I'm sitting at Amy's countertop. The snow is outside, and at 8:00 it's been light for a while.  Grey light, so I don't know if it's overcast or just the sun comes up slowly.

Last night we went walking on the Coastal Trail.  The snow is packed there, and lots of people were cross-country skiing. There are two continuous ruts for the Nordic skiers, and a wider path for walkers and skate-skiers. We passed lots of happy people and happy dogs.  It's a path thru birch and fir trees, just beyond the airport (under the flight path), following along the water, which is rushing by full of ice.  It seems so purposeful, all that ice, going somewhere.  The sun, on the other hand, doesn't seem like it's going anywhere. When we got there, it was low in the sky.  We walked a pretty good clip, then turned around and came back, but the sun seemed as if it was in the same place.  I think it moves sideways instead of down.  Eventually it did go down, and we had lots of time to watch the purples and greens come up in the water, and the reds and pinks hit the sky.

Amy made a great squash pie while we listened to piano music, and we ate it with Jane, then hit the hay. I slept really well, warm and comfy.

------------

What have I done this morning?    I had a nice breakfast in Amy's kitchen, then dropped her off at work. 

I drove around the corner and saw CompUSA, so I went in there to see if they have Macintosh stuff. They do. I bought a RAM upgrade for my computer, since I really like having lots of cool programs running all the time. At the checkout the RAM scanned at about half the price I expected, which was already a good price, so now I'm going to decide whether I can replace it myself, or if I should have them do it for $45. I'll take Amy there to shop.

I went across the street to the Salvation Army store.  Found a $5 pair of boots size 9 and a $2 pr. of long underwear and a $1.50 sipper cup.   I had  a bit of a first when I was leaving and asked someone looking at wedding dresses if she knew how to get to K. Brothers (for wireless internet).   She/he was a surprising person under all that long red hair, but nice enough. Then I had another first when I turned the corner out of the parking lot and drove in front of a really big moose picking his way around the snow heaps, deciding if he/she was going to cross the road, I think.  My only other adventure was helping some 4-year olds pull up pants and wash hands in the restroom in John Myers, or whatever.

On to the next!   I'm heading to the Coastal Trail for a long walk.

blog  http://randomlight.blogspot.com

========================================================

ELIMINATE THE CONCEPT OF WASTE.

Evaluate and optimize the full life cycle of products and processes to approach the state of natural systems, in which there is no waste.

--Hannover Principle #6

War Ethics

Funny how easily we confuse "The Military" with "the troops." As a Catholic Christian, should I support the United States Global Military Complex, that gargantuan, weapon-spewing, violence-dispensing machine that all too often negates the humanity of its enemies and its members alike?
Or should I support those Americans whose patriotism, youth, and/or economic need are being taken advantage of by violence profiteering?
Jesus gave a direct answer to his followers. When confronted with a violent situation, he healed the attacker whose ear was cut off by a disciple, even though his own existence and the existence of his fellowship was threatened by a crowd with swords and clubs. Jesus stopped the disciples from violent retribution. Jesus actually protected the "enemy" with his Word.
If Jesus says "No violence" even to protect himself (Son of God), what values should we be presumptuous enough to say are worth "protecting" by violence?
Support the troops. Bring them home.
Support God's children. Put away the sword.

CLIMATE SCIENCE: Overturning Ocean Circulation

RESEARCH ABSTRACT:
CLIMATE SCIENCE: Overturning Ocean Circulation
H. Jesse Smith
It has been suggested that Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC; the northward flow of water in the upper kilometer of the north Atlantic Ocean and southward flow below) could be affected by global warming, in turn substantially affecting the climate of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Europe. Observations of the strength of the circulation, taken over ~1-month periods in different seasons of each of the years 1957, 1981, 1992, 1998, and 2004, have been used to argue that the MOC has slowed by about 30% over that interval. Searl et al. have now analyzed simulations of the MOC from the HadCM3 climate model and found no significant trend in the strength of the MOC over the period in question. Furthermore, variations in the MOC as large as 30% were very unusual.

The discrepancy between the model and measurements may be due not to inherent limitations of the model, but rather to the small number of observations, short-term variability of the MOC, and measurement errors, which together inhibit accurate estimates of multidecadal trends from the data. Indeed, after taking all such factors into account, the HadCM3 results are fully consistent with the observations. To determine with confidence how the MOC may be changing on interannual and seasonal time scales in the warming world, continuous monitoring of water transport appears to be needed. -- HJS

Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L03610 (2007).

St Joe Gregorian chant index

For those of you working with Gregorian Chant, I've posted some materials at:

http://homepage.mac.com/mhettinger/StJoeGregorian/index.html

umm...it's not the same format as I see in other places, but I'm swimming in the ocean of the people around me. There's a reason for everything, and my goals for rendering chant are always authenticity and meaning.

I'm very interested in your reactions.

pax,
maggie

The Vow of Nonviolence

Recognizing the violence in my own heart, yet trusting the goodness and mercy of God and the universe, I vow or solemnly affirm that I will strive to live a life of nonviolence:

*striving for peace within myself and seeking to be a peacemaker in my daily life;
* showing love, compassion and forgiveness to everyone I meet;
* accepting suffering in the struggle for peace and justice rather than inflicting it;
* persevering in nonviolence of tongue and heart;
* living conscientiously and simply so that I do not deprive others of the means to live;
* striving to treat the natural world not as a resource but as a beloved member of my family, and
* working nonviolently to abolish war and the causes of war from my own heart and from the face of the earth.

Lord, I trust in your sustaining love and believe that just as you gave me the grace and desire to offer this, so you will also bestow abundant grace to fulfill it.

PSYCHOLOGY: Close Encounters

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PSYCHOLOGY: Close Encounters
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Gilbert
J. Chin

The effect of contact between groups on prejudice has been a topic of
research at least as far back as the middle of the 20th century. Since
then, there have been a very large number of studies and many reviews of
this literature. Pettigrew and Tropp have conducted a meta-analysis of what
has become known as intergroup contact theory. They (and their dedicated
research assistants) have combed through published papers and unpublished
dissertations, using a methodological (rather than topical) basis for
inclusion; the final data set covers 515 studies, containing over 700
independent samples representing a quarter million individuals spread over
38 countries. The summary finding is that intergroup contact reduces
prejudice.

Their statistical analyses reveal that this cannot be ascribed to
self-selection by the participants, or to a publication bias toward
positive results, or to the rigor of the research (methodologically
stronger studies yielded larger effect sizes). Roughly half of the studies
focused on nonracial and nonethnic groups (as described by sexual
orientation or physical or mental disability, for example), and the effect
sizes seen within this subset were the same as that for the racial/ethnic
targets that stimulated the historical development of intergroup contact
theory. Furthermore, it appears that the effects on individual attitudes
can generalize to other members of the outgroup and even to other
outgroups.

How is this mediated? They find that Allport's four features (common goals,
intergroup cooperation, equal status, and official sanction) contribute
significantly to the reduction of prejudice but are not essential, and that
the last of the four conditions may be the most important one. Greater
contact may reduce feelings of uncertainty or discomfort that might
otherwise coalesce into anxiety or perceived threat, which might in turn
harden into prejudice. Yet these ameliorative shifts may not survive in the
absence of normative or authoritarian support, and studies of why contact
fails to curb prejudice are needed. -- GJC

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 90, 751 (2006).

Free Sheet Music Downloads | Musicnotes.com

Free Sheet Music Downloads | Musicnotes.com

Free Blank Music Paper here.

Blogger Help : What is BlogThis! ?

Blogger Help : What is BlogThis! ?

Apricot:Almond

Apricot:Almond
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

Five essential elements of leadership "as leadership":

Leadership

Guides the way
Speaks truth
Creates, nurtures, or protects group identity,
perhaps by naming and eliminating the enemy
Acts decisively
"and it's got to make you glad to be alive."

weather or not

So, is it the weather? I've just had two phone calls in a row that really stretched my tolerance. (My tolerance is pretty low, anyway.)

I'm stuck in a horrible situation right now, so I don't have much to give to anybody except a resolve not to pass on any bad karma.

One conversation about drawing the line about church and liturgy. I draw lines, too, but when I find myself at that point, it feels like total failure.

Another from someone whose life is so incredibly messed up he'll never pull it together, and I'm stuck listening to him telling me why someone else is impossible to live with.

I don't want to argue about anything. Just live and let live.

It would be nice to get some constructive work done, too.

Special effects take the light from Harry Potter

If you've been to see the Goblet of Fire, you know that it has some of the most believable, seamless special effects of any fantasy movie. The dragon is the best I've seen. The underwater scene, in which Harry turns into a fish-person, is eerie and convincing. Merpeople and grindylows are believable.

Unfortunately, these beautiful, stunning, entertaining effects diminish the main line of the story of Goblet of Fire, take away the tension. Rowling's Goblet of Fire is a two-layered thriller. The background line is the extreme threat of Voldemort in Harry's life. The foreground school story features everyday challenges that are not evil, but extremely difficult, and this is the sense that is missing from the movie.

In the books, the TriWizard Tournament is a somewhat-over-the-top school event. It reminds me of the Wide Games we used to hold at Girl Scout camp, where everyone went all-out for some kind of theme adventure in which we immersed ourselves for a few hours or a few days. If it's a little overenthusiastic, well, so are our state football championships. People get hurt in them, too.

In the book, the dragon challenge is plenty real to Harry and the contestants, but the dragons are tethered, and a dozen wizards are standing by to stun the beasts if they get out of hand. It's a challenge of nerve, preparation and courage. We are priveleged to Harry's feelings of inadequacy and dread, and his huge relief when he finds himself able to use his Quiddich skill to meet the challenge well.

Harry's preparation for the second task is mostly avoidance. Rowling makes exquisite use of his awareness of time passing without this huge problem being solved. He does eventually start to prepare, but not soon enough were it not for luck (Dobby's help). When the task happens, the merpeople are there to see to the contestants' safety. Harry's near-drowning in the movie, while entertaining, would not have happened in the book-story. And for this reason, the book gives us the emotional tension of Harry's accomplishing the task, followed by acute embarrassment at coming in last because of taking it too seriously. He conquered the physical challenge, but missed the boat on the social challenge, he thinks, and THEN is exonerated by the judge's award of second place for "moral fibre." To me, this is more emotionally satisfying than a pretty rescue and escape scene.

The third task is very different for Harry. The second task has taught him how to prepare, and he, Hermione, and Ron spend a very large amount of time cramming and preparing. They research magical techniques, practice and perfect them. For the third task, Harry is nervous, but not afraid. He is ready. It's a real challenge, and the true challenge, as we see, is not one of skill, but of his sense of fairness.

THEN, the evil of Voldemort breaks in. And it is really evil. But Harry has grown, and his escape is not just luck or protection. His own growth is a very real part of what saves him.

So you see, the over-the-top movie effects cheat Harry of the very real accomplishments and growth. They also cheat the story line, for when the true beyond-his-skill challenge of Voldemort comes, we've long since suspended our disbelief, so there's no real shock or surprise. It's just another fantasy story.

Reading between the lines, director Mike Newell has said he was frustrated that the special effects had such a life of their own. I agree. Stunning as they are, they took away from the chance to tell the human story--a story of a person faced with difficulties who learns to overcome them, later finding himself able to prevail against unexpected difficulty.

I read somewhere that the special-effects people are salivating at their chance to portray Grawp in the next story. Well, I'd like to see Grawp well-done, but even more, I'd like to see the character interplay of the human side of the story. Order of the Phoenix is very much about people, their misconceptions in time of danger, their blindness and meanness. Ultimately it becomes the story of their ability (esp. Dumbledore's Army) to take charge of their own lives cooperatively. I'd hate to let this human story be swamped by special effects.

Kelpie Wilson | Thanksgiving Day 2005

t r u t h o u t - Kelpie Wilson | Thanksgiving Day 2005: "We are like the addict who would have died of an overdose if he hadn't run out of smack first, so let's be thankful that our supply is being cut off."

November 2005 Newsletter

How Many More?.jpg

How Many More?.jpg
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

life, the universe, and everything in two sentences

"The difference between one and more-than-one
is all the difference in the world.

Indeed, that difference is the world."


--Ursula LeGuin, The New Atlantis, The Compass Rose, p. 17

Cindy's questions and mine

WHY are they dying?
WHEN will it end???
It's about Oil.
It's about Domination.
It's about Money
& Freedom to exploit.
It's NOT about Democracy.

Whose children will be sacrificed today?

Research and "science" in education

http://susanohanian.org/show_research.html?id=71

Cindy Sheehan

We held vigil last night with Cindy Sheehan.

We, too, believe that our government is NOT answering the following questions:

Why did we go to war?
How many have died because of this?
When will our military come home?

What's wrong with this picture?

I just got cable television. We were privileged to see the President's press conference in Crawford, Texas, where he answered questions about, among other things, Cindy Sheehan.

The staging was interesting. President Bush is standing in his blue shirt-sleeves, talking earnestly like a good-ole-boy. Mr. Cheney is wearing some kind of windbreaker jacket outfit, and Dr. Rice is wearing a pantsuit outfit and low heels.

The dirt road is in the background, and the President, at least, is made up to look as if he belongs there, unless you realize that the whole country is experiencing a heat wave and these people are all all standing out in the sun.

What good ole country boy wouldn't have the sense to stand in the shade?

All hat, no cattle.

Brings to mind the 30,000 Boy Scouts who were forced to stand in the sun and heat for many hours so that the President could console them on their losses recently.

What kind of judgment is going on here?

Dear Representative Ron Lewis,

I’m writing to express my extreme disappointment in learning that you voted for the 2005 energy bill and its billions of dollars in giveaways to coal, oil, and nuclear companies.

Nuclear power is not a safe option, although its construction will generate lots of money to big business entities. Any resulting catastrophes, which are bound to happen sooner or later, will generate cash flow as well, I suppose. Maybe that's the reasoning behind support of nuclear power?

I have spent time in Heidelberg, Germany, and have noticed that a more "green" lifestyle is not only a long-term benefit for the future of the people, but generates short-term, immediate well-being in a better lifestyle. Everyday life is much better. People enjoy themselves more, and are not caught up in the ratrace of "consume, consume, consume, work, work, work" that we are saddled with here in the US.

I hope you will go back to the drawing board before the next election and craft a truly forward-thinking national energy policy that includes the following: 1) An end, not an increase, to coal and oil subsidies; 2) A significant increase in funding for energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy programs – the quickest way to reduce our oil dependence; 3) An immediate and significant upgrade of the CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) on new cars and light trucks; 4) A comprehensive set of tax incentives for energy-efficient technologies and appliances; 5) Adoption of the Hannover Principles as guidelines for planning.

Please show that you care more about the well being of the people of our state than you do about increasing the already huge profits of coal and oil companies. Please lead the way back to the drawing board and immediately set to work on a national energy plan based on efficiency, conservation and renewable energy. We need a forward-thinking plan with real goals, real benchmarks, real dates for reaching energy sustainability.

I look forward to hearing from you on what you plan to do.

Karl Rove

Karl Rove is being quoted as saying: "Perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

This statement makes a lot of people angry, but Karl's famous for being perceptive. Let's use hindsight to look at what he said.

"War." Those who prepared for war certainly got what they prepared for. War. We don't see signs of increased national security as a result. Instead we see exponential increase in desperate people who are prone to become terrorists, increased terrorist organizations, and a highly efficient training ground (Iraq urban battlefields).

"Understanding." One of the clearest bits of hindsight for all of us is the fact that our understanding of the Middle East was lacking. Our leadership's understanding, especally of Iraq, has proved to have been tragically, disastrously wrong. Can anyone argue against the need for more understanding?

"Prepare indictments." According to news reports, indictments and legal proceedings by world police and governments have brought many terrorists and their organizations to justice, far more than those apprehended by military means.

And "therapy." Therapy. Interesting concept. In Iraq, pouring money into military strength, though it has cost over $170,000,000,000 and used many, many thousands of people (including 1734 Americans who gave their lives), has not been able to prevail.

Suppose we had used "therapy?" Suppose our response to 9/11 had been to spend $170,000,000,000 dollars and set many thousands of people to use our knowledge of healing, peacemaking, community improvement, education, economics, global interaction to eliminate or reduce the indignities that have produced the last 30 years of tragedy and suffering on both sides?

Nothing like that has ever been attempted in the history of the world. But we, in the USA, do have the power.

When will we humans learn to put our strength behind our true strengths?

bottom

bottom
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

header

header
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

filibuster for life

And at least one opponent of the measure [to extend federal funding for stem-cell research], Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, has indicated that if Dr. Frist puts the bill on the agenda, he may try to block it by filibuster.

"I have conveyed to Senate leadership that we must do everything we can procedurally to stop unethical embryonic stem cell research in the Senate, and I will work to do just that," Mr. Brownback said in a statement released Tuesday night. "We simply should not go down the road of using taxpayer dollars to kill young humans."

Well, I'll drink to that! YES!
Do you suppose Senator Brownback will filibuster anything that doesn't meet these inspiring criteria?

Knife cleaning 101

Thank you, Michael!

Chant at St. Joe

Pentecost 7 am
Entrance: Come Holy Ghost (with organ)
Responsorial Psalm from missalette
Sequence: Holy Spirit, Lord Divine alternating lines: cantor/ choir
Gospel Acclamation: Easter Alleluia
Prep. of Gifts: Spiritus Domini
Sanctus Mass XVIII
Memorial Acclamation: Christ Has Died, Alleluia (Wise)
Great Amen
Agnus Dei Mass XVIII
Communion Psalm: Psalm 63 O God, You Are My God. English verses.
Sending: organ voluntary

Evolution, Creationism, Randomness

"Can you tell us, sir, how old you believe the Earth is?" the lawyer, Pedro Irigonegaray, asked William S. Harris, a chemist, who helped write the proposed changes to the state standards.

"I don't know," Dr. Harris replied. "I think it's probably really old."

If the state board adopts the new standards, as expected, Kansas will join Ohio, which took a similar step in 2002, in requiring that students be taught that there is controversy about evolution. Legislators in Alabama and Georgia have introduced bills this season to allow teachers to challenge Darwin in class.

Do these people who "challenge Darwin" actually know Darwin? What are they really trying to challenge? I think it's their own perception of Darwin that contains the evil they are trying to eliminate, not Darwin.

When I was little, one of the questions in the little blue book was, "Where is God?"

The answer, as I remember it, is: "God is everywhere."

"God is everywhere." and "Where your heart is, there your treasure is."

We find God in that which we know, love, and pursue our greatest interest. People who embrace family and responsibility find God in that pursuit, and will probably define God with words from their personal experience. People who embrace Church, in its depth and fullness of potential, will certainly own a rich vocabulary to speak of God. People who find God, as Kepler did, in the harmony of the heavenly bodies, define God's goodness in the vocabulary of their love: science. People who find God in reason can speak of God in reasonable ways.

The problem only becomes a problem when someone of one branch of God-experience looks at the other's words and says, "They must be wrong. They have faith in empty words, or empty deeds, or meaningless images," mistakenly ascribing their own emptiness of that particular God-experience to the other person.

From their own point of view, the Creationists are correct to say that Science is wrong to teach that randomness drives the universe, with no love, no personal direction, no caring, no afterlife.

They are "correct" because they equate "randomness" with "meaninglessness." They don't understand that randomness is the key point at which all life and all value is generated. Randomness is that cherished point at which love functions most fully.

Science & reason are not opposed to creation. They are merely a bigger vocabulary. A different image.

Where is God? God is everywhere.

If you truly believe in God, you should be able to stop fighting about things you don't understand, and go about your own life, walking with God wherever God is found.

Baghdad

Faiza writes:

Now I began to understand why some Iraqis objected to the elections, considering it illegal, with the presence of an occupying force… I used to see them as silly extremists, while I supported the theory of "try, work, and push towards achieving your national goals", and by your intelligence, you could achieve the demands of your people, bringing honest, nationalist men to rule, men who want to achieve much for the welfare of Iraqis, and push the occupation outside Iraq…
But I discovered that these were naïve dreams, and an un-achievable equation within the present circumstances of Iraq.
As long as there is an occupation… it means you are weak, and do not posses enough pressure cards to win against the occupation force…and push it out of the country.
And day after day, they confirm the theory that they didn't come for the eyes of the Iraqis, and that they wouldn't pull out, not even if some 20 million Iraqis walk in a demonstration demanding they leave Iraq, ( that is, assuming some 5 millions are supporting them).
"We are here to stay"… it looks like this is their undeclared slogan, which is slapping all our faces, and that is something that the whole world will know, after the Iraqis.
Time is the only wager…
And we shall see…

Why are we all so helpless to stop this carnage that we started?

Chant at St. Joe

Holy Hour and Benediction
Sunday, May 1, 3:00 PM
13th Anniversary of Eucharistic Adoration at St. Joseph

Opening Song: O Salutaris Hostia
Praying of the Rosary
Silent Prayer and Adoration
Liturgy of the Word
Tantum Ergo
Divine Praises
Blessing, Benediction
Holy God We Praise Thy Name
Thank you to volunteers
Reception

Father Bill Medley, Presider
Eucharistic Adorers
Gregorian Choir

Chant at St. Joe

In honor of Pope John Paul II
Maggie Hettinger
will sing
Vespers in Latin
for
Eucharistic Adoration
on
Tuesday, April 12th
and
Thursday, April 14th
in the
West Sacristy Chapel
at 5:00 PM

--Flaget Nalley, organizer

The Blessing and Recital of the Pilcher Pipe Organ--St. Catherine Church, New Haven, KY

The Blessing and Recital of the Pilcher Pipe Organ
St. Catherine Church, New Haven, KY
Sunday, April 10, 2005

BRIEF HISTORY OF ST. CATHERINE PARISH

St. Catherine's rich heritage goes back to 1844 wenn this parish was first established.

The first church erected on this site in 1844 was destroyed by fire in 1928. This church was described as being the finest church in the United States for a small town. Lost in this devastating fire was the Van Dinter organ, made in Mishawaka, Indiana. This organ was possibly the first instrument made in the state designed so the organist would sit with his/her back to the instrument while playing it.

The present church of Romanesque architecture, designed by Carl J. Epping, was dedicated on Sunday, March 30, 1930.

These words were taken from the dedication brochure:
"Today, all obstacles surmounted, this new church stands, a monument to the zeal and energy of this parish..." (This same zeal and energy still exists in our parish today.)

The main altar and two side altars are of the finest statuary and Poanazzo marble, inlaid with Venetian Mosaics. The Stations of the Cross, by Feuerstein, were imported from Munich, Germany, a gift from the Rt. Rev. Obrecht, at that time, Abbot of the Abbey of Gethsemani.

The stained glass windows in St. Catherine's Church were researched in 1993 by Father Fred W. Klotter, who was then a seminarian assigned to St. Catherine. Father Klotter found a name on one of the windows "signed" Emil Frei, Inc. of St. Louis and Munich, a company still in operation, but their company experienced a fire and lost all the records of their work done during 1930.

The pipe organ was installed in this church in Many 1931 at a cost of $1,350. This modest jewel of an organ was built in the 1890's by the firm of Henry Pilcher's Sons of Louisville, their Opus 83. Mr. John Gunther and Mr. Roy Heimerdinger, employees of the Pilcher Co., installed this organ. The organ was played for the first time on Sunday, May 17, 1931.

This historic organ is one of the last few remaining unaltered organs built by the prestigious firm of Henry Pilcher's Sons, Louisville, Kentucky. Where this instrument was originally installed is a mystery.

---

ORGAN RESTORATION

This fine example of late 19th century organ building has two manual deyboards and a pedal keyboard which access 10 ranks (or sets) of pipes totaling 514 pipes in all. This is a "tracker" organ. It has mechanical action where the organist, through a series of verious levers, trackers, squares, rollers, backfalls and pulldowns, actually opens the valves which let air into the pipes. The organ was in very good original condition. Prior to 2002, this organ was not played for about 10 years, but with periodic repairs, it has been in regular use since January 2002.

Major renovation of the organ began in February 2004. Work was carried out following guidelines set up by the Organ Historical Society which is dedicated to preserving these fine old instruments.

The renovation included replacing all leather parts, a thorough cleaning, replacing some missing and damaged pipes and a final regulation of voicing and turning to maintain the original tonal levels and balances of the organ.

Te single largest part of the project was releathering the four by seven foot reservoir including the feeder pumping bellows. Also, another significant part of the project was turning the organ 90 degrees out of the balcony alcove where it had been installed so that it now speaks directly out into the church.

New case sides were also added.

With the renovation of this instrument completed, we expect another 110 year of organ music for St. Cathering and the community.

We would like to thank everyone in St. Catherine Parish and the New Haven community for the courtesy shown to us during our time here at St. Catherine.

Pete Webber,
Webber and Borne Organ Builders
Louisville, KY

---

SPECIFICATIONS OF THE ORGAN

Great Swell Pedal

8' Open Diapason
8' Violin Diapason
16' Bourdon
8' Melodia
8' Stopped Diapason
8' Common Bass
8' Common Bass Couplers
8' Dulciana
4' Harmonic Flute Swell to Great
4' Octave
8' Oboe
2' Super Octave
(Reed pipes t.c.) Swell to Great Octaves
Tremolo Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal

---

BLESSING OF THE ORGAN

Opening Hymn Gather and Remember (Finlandia)
...accompanist, Roberta Tannahill

Greeting and Welcome
...Father Clarence Howard, pastor

Psalm 98: All the Ends of the Earth (David Haas, Marty Haugen)
...Cantor: Randy Stephens
...Accompanist: Roberta Tannahill

Blessing Prayer
"We dedicate this organ for your glory and your praise!"

The deacon sprinkles and incenses the instrument.
Psalm 47: Ascendit Deus,
"God mounts his throne to shouts of joy, a blare of trumpets for the Lord."
...Amy Hettinger, vocalist
...Gregorian Choir, Director, Maggie Hettinger

Song of Mary (Magnificat) Schola and assembly
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, organist
...Gregorian Choir, Director, Maggie Hettinger
...Carmel Bowman, cantor

The Lord's Prayer

Final Prayer

Hymn: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (Beethoven)
...Choir made up of members of many, many, local choirs.

---

RECITAL
Fubue in C Major ("the Great") Johann Sebastian Bach
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Canon in D Pachelbel
...Maggie Hettinger, Flutist
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Voluntary VI, Set II, Opus 6 John Stanley (1713-1786)
...John Marcum, organist

Meditation Richard Lloyd
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Finale (Organ Sonata, Six, Opus 65) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
...John Marcum, organist

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock Johann Sebastian Bach
...Maggie Hettinger, Flutist
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Two Hymns:
Chorale Prelude on Praise to the Lord, the Almighty Johann Gottfried Walter (1684-1748)
Lobe den Herren
Exaltation on Christ the Lord is Risen Today Alice Jordan (b. 1916)
Easter Hymn
...John Marcum, Organist

After the recital, you are invited to the balcony to greet Mrs. Maggie Hettinger, Ms. Amy Hettinger, Bro Luke Armour, OCSO, and Mr. John Marcum.

Mr Pete Webber, of Webber & Borne Organ Builders, will also be in the balcony to greet you and answer any questions about the organ restoration.

---

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For their invaluable assistance, we wish to express our thanks and gratitude to Bro Luke Armour, OCSO, Mrs. Thelma Ford, Mrs. Carol Ann Haynes, Ms. Amy Hettinger, Mrs. Maggie Hettinger, Mr. Philip Hines, Mr. John Marcum, Mrs Joan O'Bryan and Pete Webber and staff.

We would like also to thank those in news media, expecailly, Mr. Mike Grosso, Mr. Barry Bernson, The LaRue County Herald News, The Kentucky Standard, PLG TV-13, and WAVE-TV News.

A special note of appreciation to all our benefactors, the Sa. Catherine parishioners and our pastor , Father Clarence J. Howard. Without your generosity, support and encouragement, this organ restoration would not have been possible.

Organ Restoration Committee:
Billie J. Alvey
Fred Boone
Totsie Boone
Sissie Clark
Julia Sims
Randy Stephens
Betty Vittitow
Martha Vittitow
Leigh Ann Wimsett

Notes:
The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm. Attendance was good, the church was full. An exceptional meal was served by the parish, and a great time was had by all.
Prelude music by a flutist and violinist is not listed on the program.
Thanks Martha!!!

Air in tires would = ANWR oil

excerpts from an Earth Day observation by syndicated columnist Edward Flattau:

By simply pumping up their tires to the proper pressure, Americans would free up as much oil as is expected to be derived from the unique ANWR wilderness.

Benedict XVI on war

"There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a 'just war.'"

- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, May 2, 2003.

I wasn't paying a bit of attention to politics until our country's horribly misguided, mistaken, WRONG, response to 9/11. I agree wholeheartedly with this positon of our new pope. If the new "young priests" were to take some active attention to THIS bit of the Holy Father's wisdom, I would buy them all the fancy dishes and frilly clothes they want.

But, I suspect they only want to follow him in as much as he appears to give them power & control.

My wonderful pastor was treating us Sunday with his insight that the last 40 years in the Catholic Church have been a "wasteland" from which he and our newly Confirmed are going to rescue all of us. He says "that's why we got the Pope we got." He crowed about that a little, then did some name-dropping about his connection with "Uncle Joe" Ratzinger.

All this from a newly-ordained convert to the Catholic Church who never lived through the last 40 years with us. What an ass. Every Sunday, from the ambo and the altar, we get put-downs--who we are, what we've learned, the people who taught us (priests, sisters, laypeople in the church, Archdiocese, the American Bishops, liberals), the things we do. And there is almost always a good statement about how educated or how ordained he is, or just plain name-dropping. He is "instructing" us now, from the ambo and in our Sunday bulletin.

It's a unique experience. Certainly not a performance I've ever seen from a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

I will say one thing. Sunday, he mentioned the word "Christ" 4 or 5 times. That's a record. I think that's more often than he's said the word during the whole 10 months of Sunday sermons.

Abu Ghraib

As the courts-martial and the Armed Services Committee hearings over Abu Ghraib clear senior Army officers (except Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who was in charge of U.S. prison facilities in Iraq) and find low-level soldiers guilty, we Americans can observe a government administration that barges confidently and controllingly into all situations, but takes no responsibility for its actions.

I suspect that, when we look back at the ongoing grief, death, and humiliation in Iraq, we will realize that the Iraqi "insurgents" won the last battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people when they launched their concerted attack on Abu Ghraib last month.

Standing during Communion

Hey, David,

I had some insight last night as I thought about what you'd said about communion. It doesn't change anything, but it helped me understand why I feel differently about it than you (& many others) do.

I realized that since I'm a church musician (since the sixth grade), my concern during communion time has ALWAYS been with the whole assembly. I am part of that whole procession. I am always aware of everyone in the church. My job is to make the singing work well for all of them, for all of us. It's not private at all. When I'm not playing the keyboard, I'm standing, as choir, right there near the altar. It's powerful. I love it. When I participate from the pew, I keep that perspective--being one of many people, centered together around the altar (close and active). I wouldn't trade that for anything. I see the Vatican II renewal's idea of bringing that to everyone as a gift. It was a gift to me.

But, if your formation was different, as yours seems to have been, you don't have as much of a "communal" connection with Christ at Communion time. I can see that it's private, and of course no one would want to give that up, either.

It's funny, because the liturgy renewal started by first paying attention to the more personal (though still communal), more prayerful liturgy. The first step was the translation of the Liturgy of the Hours (The Divine Office) into English. When you read the hopes of people who worked on that, they were thrilled to be bringing that to lay people as well as religious. The Office contains more, much more, of that sense of prayerful connection with Christ (that I sense you get from communion at mass and rightly don't want to lose).

So, IF we had all joined, as parishes, into the Office (the great Prayer of the Church) then we wouldn't be fighting over bits of the Sunday Eucharist, trying to make it be all things for all people, unable to gather for prayer at all unless we "have" a priest.

And that was the plan. But people rejected it. They still do. Go figure.

love you,
maggie

American TV--Another gift to Iraq

Baghdad Burning:

Riverbend reacts to the inundation of American TV on Iraqi stations:

"We sat there watching like we were a part of another world, in another galaxy. I’ve always sensed from the various websites that American mainstream news is far-removed from reality- I just didn’t know how far. Everything is so tame and simplified. Everyone is so sincere.

Furthermore, I don’t understand the worlds fascination with reality shows. Survivor, The Bachelor, Murder in Small Town X, Faking It, The Contender… it’s endless. Is life so boring that people need to watch the conjured up lives of others?

I have a suggestion of my own for a reality show. Take 15 Bush supporters and throw them in a house in the suburbs of, say, Falloojeh for at least 14 days. We could watch them cope with the water problems, the lack of electricity, the check points, the raids, the Iraqi National Guard, the bombings, and- oh yeah- the ‘insurgents’. We could watch their house bombed to the ground and their few belongings crushed under the weight of cement and brick or simply burned or riddled with bullets. We could see them try to rebuild their life with their bare hands (and the equivalent of $150)…

I’d not only watch *that* reality show, I’d tape every episode.
"

Chant at St. Joe

Musicians' Dinner

Talent Show offering:
Pigorian Chant, sung by Gregorian Choir, with Amy Hettinger as Chicken, Bill Fell as Farmer

"orsnay....orsnay..."

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II was a gift to all of us.
I think most of his untiring efforts to empower the Vatican II liturgy renewal
* working tirelessly to bring ALL of us into the full liturgy of the Catholic heritage
* personally and politically championing peace, justice, dignity and love
* showing us by example, how to live our lives while enjoying that greater communion with God and the People of God
Pax Domini

Tickle: Tests, Matchmaking and Social Networking

Tickle: Tests, Matchmaking and Social Networking: "maggie, your secret to success is to be Proactive

Maggie,

You are a born leader with a take-charge attitude. Unlike many people who believe problems will simply go away if you give them enough time, you're one to tackle the obstacles in your path head-on.

Part of being proactive means you can aggressively anticipate the future and work to shape it according to your desires. You don't wait for things to happen; you make things happen, which is why you also tend to find yourself in a position of responsibility.

Also, because of your quick mind and ability to strategize, you can keep yourself two steps ahead of everyone else when it comes to executing plans or anticipating future actions. These characteristics help you rise to positions of authority where others can more fully appreciate your drive and direction.
"

t r u t h o u t || George W. Bush, the Frightened Man

t r u t h o u t || George W. Bush, the Frightened Man: "They are not protecting us against terrorism; they are protecting themselves against democracy."

iraqi_hospital_7apr2003

iraqi_hospital_7apr2003
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

I was reading Raed's blog, and pulled this photo from it. His family is my window on Iraq, although I do check other blogs as well.

This picture says it all. It's the price that's paid for our so-called "prosperity" here in this country.

'Historic agreement'

'Historic agreement':

A letter to the editor of the Courier-Journal

"Your March 9 coverage of the historic agreement between Yum Brands/Taco Bell and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) was thorough, but emphasis is needed on the 'teeth' of this agreement.

The key significance of this agreement is that the farm workers, through the CIW, have won the status of monitor and enforcer of labor standards for any tomato grower that sells to Taco Bell. All of Taco Bell's 10 million to 11 million pounds of tomato purchases in Florida are now transparent for the coalition. The books are open, the growers identified. CIW and Yum have become the enforcers. That is the stunning, beating heart of this groundbreaking agreement.

And since any grower who supplies Taco Bell also supplies others in the restaurant and grocery industry, the impact on labor relations is likely to be generalized to all tomato-harvesting activities of those growers.

Meanwhile, Yum pledged to work with CIW to persuade the other big growers to pass through the penny-per-pound income increase to farm workers and to enforce a strict labor code that explicitly prohibits 'involuntary servitude' or modern-day slavery, a condition that has afflicted thousands of farm workers in recent years.

Unlike fast-food tomatoes harvested green and gassed to ripen, this agreement is as sweet and homegrown as a vine-ripened tomato.

STEPHEN BARTLETT

Louisville 40206

Thank you, Stephen. Thank you, Yum. Thank you, CIW!

Cantus Sanctus: The Mystery of Gregorian Chant

Cantus Sanctus: The Mystery of Gregorian Chant: "Chant heard day in and day out, then, would not have become boring or tedious because the four different styles of chant would require the use of four different modes of thought. Also, many chants contain a mixture of word-music relationships, and some are performed in cantor/response style, which offers further variety. Perhaps the different styles of chant correspond to different areas of the brain, so that the change from one style to another stimulates a different brain function. The result is that chant continues to be refreshing, even stimulating, to the listener"

Ward Accent and rhythm

Ward Accent and rhythm
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

Ward Accent and rhythm

Ward Accent and rhythm
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

Ward Puer Natus

Ward Puer Natus
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

Ps 22 Palm Sunday English

Ps 22 Palm Sunday English
Originally uploaded by hettingr.

Chant at St. Joe

Palm Sunday is a beautiful day to be in Gregorian mode. Opening the mass with "Hosanna to the Son of David," is very direct. At both St. Joe and St. Aloysius, I taught the chant before mass as a call and response between cantor and assembly. It should be really effective if we use the same one year after year.

The best part, for me, was singing the responsorial psalm. I went to the ambo this time, because the choir is now ok with leading Gospel acclamation without me. I sang the antiphon from Today's Missal, and for the verses, I adapted the Gregorian melody of Deus, Deus Meus respice to the English texts. Wow. What an incredible experience that is!!!

I'll post those notes here, just so they don't get lost, and perhaps someday I'll look at it seriously and transcribe it to decent notation.

We sang "All Glory, Laud and Honor" for entrance, Pater, si non potest at Prep of Gifts, and for Communion: "Were You There" and "Jesus, Remember Me." Sending was organ instrumental: "O Sacred Head Surrounded." Father Tuon led us in "Jesus, Remember Me" as we knelt during the Passion, as well.

Today we also had our new worship aid booklet with the regular chant mass parts that we sing and the two psalms we usually use for communion.

I don't get any complaints about what we're doing. We DO get compliments, and Fr. Bill says St. Joe is glad to have us as.

OK.

t r u t h o u t - Tom Engelhardt | Are We in World War IV?

t r u t h o u t - Tom Engelhardt | Are We in World War IV?:



Here's a good article that calls us back to the original problem: we totally miscalled our "response" to 9/11. People picked up flags and started waving them around, and our Government picked some wars to fight. Remember? "Kick Ass." And only stupid "liberals" thought we were doing the wrong thing. Had we responded to the attacks as if they were want they were, a small, but effective, demonstration of unrest from a small group, enforceable by law, what a different world we'd be in now.

"As the Bush administration and its neocon allies called for a global response that rose to the level of apocalyptic battle, small groups of legal types and liberals called for a response keyed to those 19 men and the dangerous but modest-sized organization behind them. They claimed 'terrorism' was a method of asymmetric warfare, not an enemy; that our actual enemy, while determined, fanatical, and murderous was not the equivalent of a state and that what was at stake was not 'war' at all; so they called, in one fashion or another, for internationally cooperative police work to bring the criminals and murderers to justice and to dismantle their organization or organizations. This approach was instantly and roundly dismissed - trashed, you might say - by the administration and its various acolytes and has now largely fled the national mind."