(Feb – Mar 2007)

Hi Mike,

Thought you and the blog would like to hear about daughter Katie’s amazing experiences in Americorps. I’ve put together a slide show using a bunch of Katie’s photos. (It was done with jalbum, which we all have come to know and love.)

Americorps has paired up with Habitat for Humanity in doing their re-building projects on the gulf coast, which explains the first slide.

Katie started Americorps training in Denver (first 13 slides), where Americorps has taken over part of Loretta College, formerly a women’s college, and now owned by a Japanese corporation. She and her team members took buses to downtown, so some of the shots are of downtown sights.

After training, her team drove down in vans to NM, then TX, and finally LA, where they were to work. Along the way they saw the ruined homes of New Orleans (5 shots). Then they went further south to Thibodaux, which wasn’t quite as damaged as New Orleans. At least the homes are on higher ground. (7 shots show her new digs, and 8 show food that was provided them by a local church congregation).

The last 14 shots show the actual reason they went down to Thibodaux. They built a house from the foundation on up. Katie specialized in hammering studs and putting roof trusses together.

Now that they’ve finished roughing out one house, they’ll go on to another, and maybe a third, before Katie’s team returns to Denver.

–rakkity

(Feb – Mar 2007)

Hi Mike,

Thought you and the blog would like to hear about daughter Katie’s amazing experiences in Americorps. I’ve put together a slide show using a bunch of Katie’s photos. (It was done with jalbum, which we all have come to know and love.)

Americorps has paired up with Habitat for Humanity in doing their re-building projects on the gulf coast, which explains the first slide.

Katie started Americorps training in Denver (first 13 slides), where Americorps has taken over part of Loretta College, formerly a women’s college, and now owned by a Japanese corporation. She and her team members took buses to downtown, so some of the shots are of downtown sights.

After training, her team drove down in vans to NM, then TX, and finally LA, where they were to work. Along the way they saw the ruined homes of New Orleans (5 shots). Then they went further south to Thibodaux, which wasn’t quite as damaged as New Orleans. At least the homes are on higher ground. (7 shots show her new digs, and 8 show food that was provided them by a local church congregation).

The last 14 shots show the actual reason they went down to Thibodaux. They built a house from the foundation on up. Katie specialized in hammering studs and putting roof trusses together.

Now that they’ve finished roughing out one house, they’ll go on to another, and maybe a third, before Katie’s team returns to Denver.

–rakkity

Our backyard

Adam,

I know you don’t normally relax in front of movies like the Zodiac , but wouldn’t you agree with me that you and Fincher have much in common?

“Just the facts: two homicide detectives, a crime reporter and a political cartoonist spend decades knocking themselves out to catch a serial killer who never (officially) gets caught. Careers, marriages, even sanity fall victim to obsession. That’s Zodiac, a meticulous, mind-bending, nonstop mesmerizer of a movie that needed another die-hard fanatic to make it pop onscreen.

And who better for the job than the brilliant, driven David Fincher, a director known to put his actors through more than 100 takes to get the nuances he wants.”

How about your review of the DVD version?

Michael

Adam,

I know you don’t normally relax in front of movies like the Zodiac , but wouldn’t you agree with me that you and Fincher have much in common?

“Just the facts: two homicide detectives, a crime reporter and a political cartoonist spend decades knocking themselves out to catch a serial killer who never (officially) gets caught. Careers, marriages, even sanity fall victim to obsession. That’s Zodiac, a meticulous, mind-bending, nonstop mesmerizer of a movie that needed another die-hard fanatic to make it pop onscreen.

And who better for the job than the brilliant, driven David Fincher, a director known to put his actors through more than 100 takes to get the nuances he wants.”

How about your review of the DVD version?

Michael

Most of these have already been posted individually.

This was a poem that was recited at the end of the movie Smoke Signals, a movie about two Native American friends who go on a journey to find and forgive absent fathers. Their smoke signals are cries for help. The movie was just fair but the ending was wonderful, with this poem being recited over beautiful cinematography. (I put the poets name in lower case in keeping with how I like my poets…)

forgiving our fathers
by dick lourie

how do we forgive our fathers?
maybe in a dream
do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often or forever
when we were little?

maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage
or making us nervous
because there never seemed to be any rage there at all.

do we forgive our fathers for marrying or not marrying our mothers?
for divorcing or not divorcing our mothers?

and shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness?
shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning
for shutting doors
for speaking through walls
or never speaking
or never being silent?

do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs
or their deaths
saying it to them or not saying it?

if we forgive our fathers what is left?

* This poem was originally published in a longer version titled “Forgiving Our Fathers” in a book of poems titled Ghost Radio.

Smashing Pumpkins : “Tonight.”

Michael,

This Monday, Mar 12 at 2:00 pm, Boulder North Gym, everyone is invited to watch the slaughter of the century. Joe Ajello will be pounding me into the walls of a racquetball court. In the old days, 1965-1970 at CU, Joe used to spot me 20 points in handball (21-point game) and beat me every single time. So, if Joe’s handball skills translate into racquetball, this game should test my treachery and trickiness to the ultimate.

Tune in on Tuesday, and I’ll tell you (possibly from the hospital) if I scored any points against Joe.

–rakkity

Tuesday

Hi Patrick,

Yesterday I had my first racquetball games since January. Joe Ajello & I played. He used to be a champion handball player, then switched to racquetball in the 80’s, but this was the first time he’s played since 1985. He’s a lefty, so I served to his backhand on the right side, but his backhand is really good. Then I tried serving to his forehand on the left, and he wasn’t as good with his forehand. He tried to kil the ball a lot and missed, so I beat him in 2 games. My z shots, learned from Dominic, helped a lot. After the 1st 2 games we had only 10 minutes left in our hour, so we played to 9, and he beat me 9-5. But no one was coming to play after us, and he suggested we continue to 15. I managed to catch up to him and beat him 15-10. We were both exhausted afterwards.

Looking forward to our games at Maryland. Do you have any particular times that would be good? Most any afternoon from Mon the 26th to the 29th would be fine.

Love, Dad