That's All for Now

For now, I am concentrating my work on another blog Marianist Resources

My Home Page

I have joined a group called PulseWire - Connecting Women to Transform Our World. I needed a picture of my home page. If you click on this photo, you will get an idea of what a homepage looks like with RSS feeds from various sources. A Picture is worth 1000 words.

CalTrain Plans

A conceptual rendering of the Transbay Redevelopment Area

Yesterday morning Bro. Bob Wade came to my room to order a book. He often has me order books for him on Amazon.com. Bob has become interested in the Spanish Civil War and is seeking to find out what he can about Franco and the treatment of Catholics. He wants to learn more about conditions in Spain at the time of our Marianist Martyrs. I ended up ordering 2 books for him, one on the Spanish Civil War, and the other on Franco.

Yesterday afternoon, Bros. Stanley Murakami, Pat McMahon (who is visiting) and I went to a Japanese restaurant downtown. Pat drove the car because I dislike freeways and Pat knows the location of Japan Town in San Jose very well.

One of the topics of conversation brought up by Stanley was about CalTrain. Stanley often takes a bus to the San Antonio station of CalTrain. He takes the CalTrain bus to San Francisco. This is one of his favorite outings.

Stanley talked about the web site of CalTrain. He found articles about upgrade construction of the CalTrain stations to be of great interest. He told me to look at the animated post for the Burlingame Station Consruction. Take a look at this.

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What is the Transbay project?

The Transbay project is a visionary housing and transportation plan that will transform downtown San Francisco and regional transportation well into the next century. It consists of three interconnected elements:

(1) replacing the outmoded Transbay Terminal with the modern Transbay Transit Center;

(2) extending Caltrain 1.3 miles from Fourth and King Streets downtown into the new Transbay Transit Center at 1st and Mission, with accommodations for future High-Speed Rail; and

(3) creating a new transit-friendly neighborhood with 3,400 new homes (35% of which will be affordable), and mixed use commercial development.

Soap

Soap and Shampoo dispensers in my room

Even before we moved into the Marianist Center on May 17, 2007, these dispensers were fixed to the shower wall. I don't like to use these liquids. As you can see, I was able to balance a bar of Dove soap on top. The support is much more stable than in other showers where the soap slips and falls. I also don't use the liquid shampoo. It is very inconvenient to use these things from the hands. My shampoo can be seen resting in the corner on the safety bars.

This morning I took this picture. I also asked the staff to show me the liquid soap and shampoo supplies so I could get more information for this post. These liquid cleaners ARE used for bathing the "patients". I doubt that many of those who do "self care" use these liquids.

One of the staff members who helped attach the dispensers had doubts about them. One set fell off the wall. They are attached with Velcro.

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The dispensers come in a small box which states that they are "easy to install, "install in minutes", "everything included", and "Easy to Fill". The soaps can be used with "push button convenience". Maybe someday I will use them, but this is not likely.

Better Living Products International Inc. is a private corporation based in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, just north of Toronto. The company began business in 1994 and has focused solely on the manufacture and marketing of the world's finest assortment of Shower Organization products featuring its signature line, The Dispenser TM.

The Dispenser is the family name for a variety of Shower Dispensers which neatly and conveniently dispenser Shower Gel, Shampoo, Conditioner, Soap, Lotion and other Shower products from single or multi-chamber Dispensers

Sudoku for Idiots

Sudoku Idiot's Puzzle

It took quite a bit of work to make this Sudoku puzzle. Ordinarily I play Sudoku in bed before going to sleep. My little sudoku game bought from Kinko's uses the digits 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. The puzzle shown here uses only 1,2,3,4. The puzzle shown has 4 cells.

To solve the puzzle each cell must have the digits 1,2,3,4. Each column and each row must have all the digits 1,2,3,4 also.

Making this Post

It took some time to make this image. I used Microsoft Excel. The row heights were adjusted and the column widths were adjusted to make a good grid. I used a large typeface, I believe it was #22.

Print Screen

I used a trick I always use to turn what I see on my computer screen into an image. I took a "snapshot" of the screen using Shift-PrtScrn. I pasted the screen image into the free paint program which comes with Windows. Inside Paint, I cut the part of the screen shot then pasted the part into a new Paint image. Saving that, I had a JPG of the image you see above. I wanted the cells to stand out, so I used Adobe Photoshop Elements to outline the 2x2 cells. I also used a fill to get the cast of gray

Solution

The solution image was made using a process similar to the above. Total time to make this post was about 3 hours.

Legionaries of Christ

Logo from the "Who we Are" page of the Legionaries

Yesterday the purchase payment for the former San Juan and Villa St. Joseph buildings was sent to our Provincial Headquarters in St. Louis by the Legionaries of Christ. They are now the owners of these properties. The Legionaries are now our neighbors. It seems appropriate to write something about them today.

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Who are the Legionaries

The Legionaries of Christ founded in 1941, is a missionary congregation of Catholic priests committed to love Christ, serve people and build the Church.

With some 700 priests and 2,500 seminarians in more than 20 countries, the Legionaries' ministry ranges from service to the Third World poor Of Latin America to being "missionaries to an increasingly secularized world” in more prosperous countries.

Legionary priests work with tens of thousands of members of Regnum Christi and others to inspire laypersons who are deeply conscious of our baptismal commitment and ready to actively serve the needs of the universal Church, their own parishes and society. Legionaries strive to develop projects that may most effectively help spread the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ on earth.

What is Regnum Christi

Regnum Christi is an apostolic movement at the service of mankind and the Church. Founded by Fr. Marcial Maciel in 1959, the Regnum Christi Movement includes lay men and women, as well as deacons and priests. It contributes to spreading Christ´s message to humanity by undertaking personal, organized apostolic activity.

Regnum Christi is an association for the promotion of the Christian vocation (Cf. Code of Canon Law, 215) within the Church and at the service of the Church that has been praised and recommended by the Holy Father and a large number of bishops. Regnum Christi helps its members live their baptismal commitment - personal holiness and apostolic action - by following the charism received from God through the founder.

Final Cleaning

Staff member Roy in a dusty room

Roy's Big Job

Yesterday morning, Grace called me to ask that I take our staff member Roy to the former Pacfic Province Provincial Headquarters (Former San Juan Community). Roy spent the day cleaning the top two floors.

I picked up Roy for lunch. After lunch I returned Roy to the building and left with bags of refuse. Roy stayed to clean the basement. There is a cement stairway from the Provincial Headquarters to Villa St. Joseph. Roy negotiated the stairs to go to the Villa. He continued his cleaning. He walked from the Villa to the Marianist Center so I was saved another trip.

OnLine Course

This morning, I spent much of my time dealing with my online course on Social Justice. The first thing I looked at was a reply from the facilitator. Jim Vogt. Jim's message was very encouraging in that I am a 76 year old Marianist taking the course with much younger people.

Later in the morning I began to think about a post I could present on this blog. The highlight of life at the Marianist center for yesterday and today is the cleaning of our former buildings.

Roy Continues

This morning, Roy is continuing to work at the Villa. I decided to feature Roy for today's post. He was happy to pose for the picture.

After I returned to my room to work on the picture, I noticed all the white circles. Was my lens dirty? What had happened. I took a picture of the keyboard in my room. The keyboard picture was perfect. It took time to figure out what happened. I thought about the room Roy was cleaning which had not been thoroughly cleaned for at least a decade. Dust. Yes little dust particles reflecting back the camera flash.

Memorial Service

Bro. Leo Rausch, first deceased member of the Province of the United States from the former Pacific Province.

Memorial Service

Last evening at 5 PM, the Marianist Community at the Marianist Center gathered for a memorial service of those members of the Province of the United States who have gone to their eternal reward. The service began with a "Memorial Video".The "Memorial Video" had been featured at the recent Province Assembly.

With prayerful music in the background, we prayed silently as the portrait of each deceased Brother passed before us twice on our large television screen. The title on the portrait for the first showing gave years of profession in the Society of Mary. The second showing gave date of death and age at that time.

The Province of the United States began in June, 2002. All 72 of our heroes were shown in the "Memorial Video". This simple event was quite an experience.

After the Video, Fr. Steve Tutas described how this same video was presented at the 2007 Assembly. The portraits were large on our 62" TV but at the Assembly, the images were projected onto a wall-size screen. Many of the images were drawn by our artist Don Smith. While we were viewing the video, we all were impressed how Don was able to present each person so effectively that we recognized them at once.

Trip to Costco

Our Subdirector Bro. Stanley Murakami

Fish Food

Yesterday morning I prepared fish food since I have been taking care of the fish. I used a diagonal pliers to handle the flakes. When closed, the cutter has a little groove which is ideal to prepare the fish food. It acts like a little teaspoon. There are large flakes at the top of the fish food container which are way too large for the fish to eat. I have a little plastic cuplet for the food. The pliers can be used to crush the flakes especially the bigger ones. A trick I learned was to shake the cuplet a little and the larger flakes always come to the top for easy crushing.

911

The walk from my room in Mary Hall to St. Joseph Hall where the fish are located at the nurses' desk is a long one. Just before getting to the fish I heard a lot of commotion. There was a gurney in the hall as well as emergency personnel. One of our brothers had been in such pain that 911 was called. This morning, I asked Janet how the brother was getting along. He is still in the hospital undergoing some tests.

Costco

Bro. Pat McMahon who is stationed at Riordan High School is visiting with us these days. Yesterday he came to me with a message from Bro. Stanley. As often happens, Bro. Stanley, a non-driver, asked me to take him to Costco. The three of us left at noon and had lunch at a Japanese restaurant in downtown San Jose. It was great to have curry and rice. Stanley and Pat ordered box lunches.

At Costco, Stanley bought some supplies for the Center. Among the purchases was several 24-battery containers. Our Brothers use a lot of "AAA", "AA" and "C" Batteries.

Fighting Mouth Bacteria

Dental Floss, Toothpaste, Listerine, Rubber Tip, Flouride Rinse (Note, also shown is a thermostat for the bathroom heater and the light switch)

Care for my teeth takes the longest time in my morning personal hygiene. We have to floss and brush out teeth to avoid sore and bleeding gums and eventually loose teeth (gingivitis). I take about 20 minutes to complete my ritual because I want to have all of my own teeth when I am 90 years old. Right now the situation is totally under control. When I go to the dental hygienist once every three months he finds very little hardened plaque (tartar) and healthy, tough and pink gums.

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Dental Floss

Mouth bacteria look for dark places to make a sticky colony (plaque). This colony, when left alone, forms a hard substance which has to be scraped off by a dental hygienist. The purpose of the floss is to get at the bacteria when the colony is soft and vulnerable. Flossing disturbs and loosens the bacteria to make later cleaning more effective.

Tooth Paste

The toothpaste in the photo is not exactly the right kind. The kind to get is flouride toothpaste. I will discuss the need for flouride later. The key reason for using a tooth brush is to stimulate the gums and make them tough so the won't bleed. At least 2 minutes of stimulation is needed.

Rubber Tip

Take a half-capful of listerine, dip the rubber tip into the listerine then use the rubber tip to get into cracks between the teeth and under the gum ridges to further disturb the soft bacteria colonies.

Listerine

Swish a half-capful of listerine around in the mouth for 30 seconds. Bacteria HATE listerine. (Use this rinse for 30 seconds at night also). The listerine is expectorated into the sink. It is gratifying to see the little globs of bacteria appear in the expectorate.

Flouride Rinse

ACT, which can be purchased in any drug-store is a flouride rinse. Flouride gets into little holes which appear in the teeth because the hard covering of the tooth is worn away exposing the sensitive parts of the tooth. Because the flouride gets in the holes, the bacteria cannot get in to do further damage; besides that, the soft interior of the tooth causes pain when in contact with cold water. This rinse prevents this pain by sealing the tooth.