Today Elwood and I went to our local library. On Sunday J. and Melanie scoped it out. On the way, we said “Hi,” to the farmer’s market folks. If I had wanted something, I should have gotten it then because on our way back it was crowded. We had a misadventure, mistaking a driveway as a street and ending up amid housing and such. Elwood does not like retracing his steps so backtracking is difficult, but South park is a busy street so I can hear our general direction. We found our way to Villager Mall where the library is. We did pass the library and when we entered a clothing store, they urriedly told us we weren’t in the right place. “The library is next door,” they said. I had a helpful librarian. I am registered not only for the library but to vote and I brought home two CD books. In looking at the library site, I discovered I am reading a previous book from the library’s book discussion group. The month’s book is about September 11 and I don’t think I want to read that so I’ll wait for next month. It is disappointing. I also discovered the library has an RSS feed of its events. Right now they are starting a workshop on writing down your memories. They have story time, a knitting group and classes and help with writing–resumes, job applications, etc. My beach crocs arrived today. Boy were my old ones worn!

Sunday was cold and rainy in the morning. My ride was late. The rain drops got harder and more frequent. When my ride to church arrived, I said we needed an inclement weather policy. We have now agreed where I should wait in case I cannot be out at the curb. Our conversation around Elie Wiesel’s book is still very largely lecture, but I think that is more the desire of the leader to share info than a desire to squelch conversation. The holocaust and the history of the Jews is, after all, quite a large topic. Next week we are to share passages. ...

Yesterday our special music at church was an African Drum Choir. I gathered this is a special choir at the church. It was quite wonderful, very different from a marching band. It is clear to me how drums can be said to talk. Some people really didn’t like them because of the volume. I was sitting up close and it wasn’t too loud. Elwood got a little nervous, but he got through it all right. We had a good sermon, too. God is not a good idea. God is alive and relational. Again, a different version of the Lord’s Prayer and “sitting” Communion this time. I discovered I had to break off a piece of bread. That changes, too, from broken off for you or breaking it yourself. My guess is that people have opinions on this, too, and so some of the people are happy at any given time. ...

When I signed the lease, there was much emphasis on proper care of walls–no nails or tape. Picture hanging was offered. I decided, with the kids’ help, that the large pictures should hang in the dining room. I figured the clocks could hang theere, too, out of the way but available to be wound. Unfortunately, many suitable walls have circuit breakers, thermostats, door phone, light switches, phone jacks and the like where something could be hung. The builders had first dibs. The maintenance man and a different helper arrived today, measured, had opinions and got the job done. The maintenance man has made three grandfather clocks. We talked about the Amana Colony and their clocks and furniture-making. One of the chains had jumped off its gear and he fiddled for some time to get it back on. Now everything is ticking along well. He even tightened the hands on the chiming clock, though he’ll have to come back to adjust the hour hand. The clock is sounding one hour and reading another. Now I feel I am not living in a sterile environment.

The weather here has been hotter and cooler, humid and not. Overnight temps are going down. Elwood and I took a walk Friday, around 3. Elwood grumbled in a dog way when I turned around at South Park, but we walked to South and Fish Hatchery, down and back on Midland and then came down Appleton. I expected to cross there–it Ts into South. To get a crosswalk, we need to walk down to West Wingra and then walk back almost to Appleton. Well, Elwood has figured out where he is. So he J walked across South. I knew because now South was on my right and not on my left. He marched down the sidewalk and turned into our driveway and up to the door. It was dinner time and Elwood does not like his dinner to be late. He is a lot like Nero Wolf in this way. ...

Seeing Eye Dog We are delighted to have Rev. Merrill Woolnough, who recently moved to Madison from Jamestown New York, worshiping with us. Her Seeing Eye Dog named Elwood accompanies her. Parents and others have asked about how they should relate to the dog. Merrill has asked us to share the following in answer to this question: Elwood is a yellow Labrador Retriever. He is three years old. We met at the Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ in December, 2006 where we trained together for almost 3 weeks.Seeing Eye dogs are chosen for their intelligence and ability to guide a blind person safely. They are not guard dogs. Protectiveness is not a desired trait because it would limit the blind person’s ability to interact socially and professionally. As a result, Elwood is always glad to see people. However, interacting with him is dangerous, not for you, but for me. If he is distracted by a new friend, he may not be focused on his job, letting me know about obstacles such as stairs and walls. This is particularly important in an unfamiliar environment like the church building.Please do not touch Elwood or speak to him, especially by name. Using his name is how I get his attention to follow a command. Thank you.

I’m still having quite a time figuring out how much to buy through the coop. part of this is figuring out what I will need for the next ten days since I am trying to spread out my orders. I hope not to stockpile food this way, a bad habit I fall into. Food is not a problem. I will not starve. The other challenge is going by weight. Fairtrade jasmin tea, for example, is over $33 a pound. How much loose tea is that? How many ounces should I order? Well, I ordered some, I forget how much, and got quite a bit, more than I expected and make a cup of it with an infuser I bought back in 1981. It is quite good and fairly strong. ...

I’ve had a lot of pain in my left shoulder. It has made doing a lot of tasks painful including working with Elwood since I hold the harness in my left hand. I thought it was a lot of things, some quirky and some dire, but I think I’ve solved the mystery. Because we cannot get the router working, I’ve been sitting at the computer desk and the keyboard of the laptop is at the wrong height. My shoulder doesn’t get better because I use the keyboard every day. Having discovered this, I’m trying a work around: I plugged the keyboard from the desktop into the laptop and I’m sitting on a chair nearby with the keyboard in my lap. It’s a little large for this purpose, but it’s lighter than the whole laptop and I can deal with the USB cable. i was pleased that the laptop recognized the keyboard and transferred control to it. When I’m not using the keyboard I can set it on the keyboard shelf I bought for the desk and get it out when I need it. I also grabbed one of the dining room chairs to sit on which are comfortable. The only inconvenience so far is that I haven’t bothered to plug in external speakers and so I’m using the laptop speakers. When a truck goes by I can’t hear what the computer is saying, but then I could be sitting in front of it and have the same problem.

I’ve come to the conclusion that moving isn’t just about moving, as frustrating as that is. It isn’t even about stuff though that is continuing to be a frustration. It’s about getting life running smoothly again. Moving is one of the great stressers because everything gets disrupted. The kids came Saturday, all of them. It was really great to have them here. We just never have enough time to do anything but high level stuff. Anyway, we had fun at the coffee shop and checked out the neighborhood a little more. I may be able to access the light at the T intersection because it is across from an alleyway and Elwood recognized it. We also showed him how to cross a wider street. I learned that South Park and Fish hatchery cross each other. I wouldn’t have expected this as I think of them as paralleling each other, but in madison there are no straight lines. We also found more torn up places so South park is out for now. ...

We’ve been busy this weekend. Saturday morning we took a walk and traveled some new streets. We went to the grocery store. Elwood identified a helpful person and I had a nice chat with the customer service man who, when I asked for a roll of quarters, said, “laundry day, huh?” elwood wanted to tour afterwards, but I kept insisting he find the stairs to the medical center parking lot and he finally did that. ...