Week 5 (June 11 - 18) Moving Right Along

The rendering of a daily account of activities following retirement has been an interesting exercise.  It has revealed patterns which have been subject to review.  Already last week I was aiming to simply take a rest day from exercise because of a growing concern of fatigue for no really good reason.  Also, friend John kindly loaned a set of Band of Brothers (HBO series from 2001 on Blu-Ray) which bedazzled both Jen and me, and took us out of commission for two days.  After "Saving Private Ryan" I didn't think a war narrative could get much more realistic, but this series surely did.  I couldn't get the Peloponnesian War out of my mind, comparing the fate of both sets of military men.  We've changed so little as a species.

I've gone my exercise routine one better -- I've started alternating days to do my situps/crunches and heavy weight work with the expanded time on the elliptical, but doing stretches and warm ups for both.  That certainly makes me feel better, and not nearly so tired.  I continue to lurk around 169, so changes haven't done me in quite yet!

Thursday and Friday last week (June 13 and 14) I spent in Lansing, attending a retreat for the Michigan Library Association Board of Directors, and the final board meeting, on Friday.  It was a bittersweet meeting, my three years' commitment (actually a little more like 3 1/2 since I filled an unexpired term of another director before I was elected), at an end.  The retreat gave us a chance to visit with the new MLA board members, and our new president-elect, Asante Cain.  At the conclusion of the retreat, a photo was snapped showing the four MLA presidents who were present:

Richard Cochran_Lance Werner _Kathy Wolford_Asante Cain -- June 12, 2013

I am the departing past-president, Lance assumes that role at the next board meeting; Kathy will lead the organization in 2013-2014, and newly elected Asante Cain ("president elect") will be head honcho in 2014-2015.

It was also good getting to talk with other new board meetings, including Kay Schwartz, director of the Flint district library, whom I was seated with for dinner on Thursday night.  She mentioned she and her family are "Trekkies" and her daughter was married in a true Star Trek wedding this year, which was held at the Flint Planetarium:

 

Kay said she and her daughter sewed all the costumes -- very complicated patterns -- which took them 6 months to finish.  I guess Scotty couldn't beam up a few for the wedding party!

Friday, following the board meeting I drove over to the Library of Michigan/Michigan State Archives complex in Lansing and conducted some research which was quite productive.  Afterwards, I had made arrangements with my old Wayne State University classmate, Mary Zimmeth, with whom I studied in 1978/79, and we went out to dinner.  Mary has been employed as an archivist with the Michigan State Archives for around 20 years.  She was, and remains a good colleague.

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This week I got back to the work of the Big Rapids Historic District Study Group which I've previously mentioned in this blog.  Spent all day Monday and Tuesday (June 17 and 18), tracing the changes in ownership of houses within the city boundaries I've been assigned.  Made great progress!

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Returning home this afternoon (June 18), I found it a wonderful Michigan (almost summer) day.

Backyard Greenery

Roses Rising

 
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I received several photos taken during the Paula McLain visit to CMU on June 8, including several taken while I spoke with her and she signed my copy of The Paris Wife: 

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Update on plantings.  Unfortunately some insects or other varmints chewed my freshly planted holly hocks down to the ground.  Plan b would be a good thing.  However, the seedlings for the 2nd floor deck are thriving:

 

The world still turns!

Until next week, with an update on Week 6...

 

I

Taking Stock - June 10

Sunday's lower energy level was not on this morning's horizon; exercises went well.  However, instead of projects, I took time to assess my four weeks of retirement; took time to email some of my CMU colleagues, and then to think about a direction for the next month or six weeks.

I walked around the house, inside and out, upstairs and down, and detailed 16 projects (apart from the regular yard work and ordinary clutter control and housekeeping).  I spent time writing a few words describing what I wanted to do, and when I wanted it done.  This sounds far too like the work of an administrator, but so be it!  I also derived a list of the projects to hang on our refrigerator, as a reminder.

Later in the afternoon I started one of the projects -- tidying up my basement tools and hardware.  It'll take some time, but just an hour and half began to yield visible results.

Friend John stopped by after work (his work)  to loan a Blu-Ray version of the HBO series Band of Brothers which I'd not seen before, and some workout music to keep me on track.  Looking forward to watching them. 

The 80% chance of rain that was forecast for Big Rapids never materialized, so after dinner I watered portions of the lawn that I reseeded this spring, hoping we do not have a typical season that leaves everything drying out and brown.

We shall see.

Quiet Day -- June 9

Rising on Sunday morning I was eager to delve into Jon Meacham's biography of Thomas Jefferson while sipping my coffee.  So eager, in fact, as to prolong the pleasure before moving off to exercise.  Intellectually I comprehend the mind-body dualism but when it comes to apportioning time for one over the other, I suppose it depends on nature of the experiences/values to be drawn therefrom.  Therefore, an interesting book is likely to have an attractive force above and beyond the voice within me saying: "Cochran, get your butt in gear and take care of those exercises!"  This day, I was just plain rebellious and cut short the time on the elliptical to a quarter of what I've been mostly doing for the past three weeks -- 200 calories instead of 800.

I tried rationalizing my general lethargy on whatever would stick, but ultimately nothing was very convincing -- so after breakfast I cut the front and side lawns and weeded flower beds.

It was another beautiful Michigan day and I took the occasion to enjoy some of our blooming plants in the backyard --

All of which made me glad we have perennials that greet us every year.

Later on in the afternoon I broke down, cleaned and lubed my small chainsaw and tackled a remaining few branches of a formerly humongous shrub that had gotten entirely out of control.  Eight dwarf English boxwood  plants now occupy the footprint of the departed shrub and so long as the deer or the rabbits do not eat them, we should have an acceptable replacement in a few years.

In exchange for time on the elliptical in the morning, after my chores and a good shower, I walked downtown to City Hall and dropped off utility bills.  It was a very quiet afternoon in Big Rapids, but I encountered a few people on foot, and chatted with them. That's the nice thing about a small town and a slower pace of life!

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Returning home I pruned back and repotted the 12-year old begonia plant which my former Ferris State colleague, Tom Oldfield (retired dean of the College of Technology) gave me on my 50th birthday.

My former colleague, Tom Oldfield

Originally it was exclusively an indoor plant, but as I kept putting it in larger pots, it became something of a monster, now in a large tub.  I've taken to leaving it outside during the warm weather months and then bring it inside over the winter (where it continues to bloom).  Two years ago I used a cutting to bring a second large planter along with a thriving version of the original.  These two wintered indoors successfully this year, but their leaves got a bit wilted in the lower light.  I separated the large tub plant today and now have three plants to work with.  Twelve years is a long time to keep a gift plant alive, but so long as they get some TLC, they should do just fine.

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I enjoyed a late afternoon and evening running through new material received for my genealogical collections. Online I perused several digital collections and located an advertisement placed by my great grandfather 99 years ago in Detroit Free Press:

Detroit Free Press, February 20, 1914, p. 6

Yes, the very fellow I am named for, the culprit who put chlorophyll in our veins!  Here he is, with my great grandmother, Sophia, around the late 1920's.

 

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Several years ago I prepared a photo montage showing my great grandparents (center) surrounded by their 11 children, all of whom were born in Detroit.  My grandmother, Sophia Mach Cochran is the woman on the left in the second row:

My great grandfather Richard Rudolph Mach died in 1937.  When his widow died in 1965 she was survived by 125 descendants; today the number of their descendants is well over twice that.  We have a very large extended family in Michigan.

The Paula McLain Lecture -- New Togs -- New Projects -- June 8

Since we needed to be up and out of the house enroute to Mount Pleasant no later than 10 a.m., I did not dawdle over the usual reading and coffee before getting into the full exercise routine.  Completed my 82,500th situp for the year and weighed in at 168.0.  Last time I went out to a more than casual event (Rick Christner's retirement reception) I had to scour my closet for a suit that still fit.  I found one in good condition that is probably 25 years old (hidden deep in our walk-in cedar closet).  I attired myself in the same garb, but the trousers still needed a tight belt!

Driving my car over the familiar "back way" route I devised from Big Rapids to Mount Pleasant it was interesting to note landmarks afresh -- since it's been almost four weeks since leaving CMU.  One thing that was particularly attractive -- all the greenery after a winter/spring while not severe, seemed to last a long time this year.

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 We arrived in plenty of time to greet and chat with former CMU Libraries colleagues and then moved into the Park Library auditorium to hear Paula McLain discuss writing, and more specifically, The Paris Wife.

  

Paula turned out to be a wonderful speaker--funny, interesting, and fascinating.

 Paula studied and graduated from Central Michigan University before moving on to the University of Michigan to earn a M.F.A. degree.  Her ambition was to be a poet and she was rather glib about the economic prospects of writing and publishing poetry (and she has published a couple of collections of poetry).  She detailed the evolution of her writing -- through a novel and a autobiographical account of her life as a foster child in California.  She claimed her inspiration to write The Paris Wife was her chance reading of Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, his last work, published posthumously three years after his 1961 suicide.  While Paula adjudged that Hemingway dealt tenderly with his first marriage, Hadley was not described in detail and it occurred to Paula to write an account of those Paris years from Hadley's point of view.

Paula credited three previous biographies of Hadley and Hemingway's four wives as essential background material for her fictionalized account she put together.  In the Q&A session after her lecture Paula explained that apart from a direct quote from Hemingway at the beginning of her work, she did not consult with the Hemingway family, nor did she seek their permission for what she wrote.  Paula clarified that in a work of fiction, such conventions are not required.  Regardless, she described herself as a human Hoover vacuum cleaner, reading through the extensive correspondence between Ernest and Hadley (love letters) that survive, as well as many accounts of the Paris expatriates.  As a result, although she did not quote directly from these sources, she suggested that as much as 80-90% of what she wrote in The Paris Wife actually did happen.

I was intrigued by Paula's rich description of the places Ernest and Hadley lived in the south of France, Switzerland, Spain, as well as Paris.  During the Q&A session I asked whether she had personally visited the places she described, to get the essence of the places.  As it turned out she did most of the writing as a Starbucks in Cleveland Heights and did not retrace the Hemingways' steps until after The Paris Wife was a success (it has now sold over a million copies), and she had money to do it!  I pursued my question a little further at the book signing after lunch and Paula stated that in addition to voluminous reading, she used Google Earth as a means to trace Hadley and Ernest's travels, to better visualize the places they stayed.

All in all it was a terrific afternoon.  Lunch was plentiful and tasty, but I left half the portion (chicken cordon bleu) as well as the dessert on the table.

Paula's son, Connor, was seated at our table and I snapped a picture of the two of them when Paula was making her way around the room.

Connor was a freshman at Central Michigan University this past year, studying ceramic art.

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After lunch, which was the largest Friends of the CMU Libraries event ever held (about 105 people were present), Paula signed copies of her book, including ours.

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But the day was not over, for a trip to the mighty metropolis of Mount Pleasant meant places to purchase goods unobtainable in Big Rapids, namely clothing.  With my diminishing frame, my wardrobe is looking like "clown clothes."  So, off we went, bargain hunting and ended up with a trove of togs that are a marked departure from my "suits every day" routine.

Dockers 'n jeans, and casual shirts -- and nary a silk tie to be seen!  Summer in Big Rapids, I'm ready!

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We also stopped by a hardware store and picked up supplies to launch my next house projects -- mortar to do tuck pointing around our foundation and concrete to anchor posts around a sagging portion of our wooden back fence (our student neighbors have backed into it a few too many times).  

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One place we did not stop on the way home, though we drove past, was the Mecosta Book Gallery, the proprietors of which (John and Alex Rau) are fabulous folk.  I have Jennifer's annual gift certificate from the MBG burning a hole in my pocket, but it was already after 4 p.m. and we were tired from a long day out and about.  A visit with John and/or Alex will have to wait for another day.

***

 

Gliding -- But Not Entirely -- June 7

My late night doings Thursday evening took their toll and for the first time in memory I awoke at 6:30 a.m. to the sun flowing into the bedroom window.  The felines had long before abandoned the end of the bed, fully engaged in their prowl mode somewhere in the house.  The 5 hours of sleep was still hanging on me when I padded downstairs to find a cup of coffee. 

Although I started Ursula Le Guin's book of short stories, there are no lack of possibilities in my accumulation of books throughout the house.  Among last year's Christmas presents from Jennifer was Jon Meacham's biography of Thomas Jefferson which I had skimmed, but really hadn't sat down to enjoy (ah retirement with so many possibilities for spending one's time!).

 So I spent about an hour getting into Meacham's quite engaging sketch of the great man from Monticello.  About three years ago I got on a "founding fathers" reading kick and managed to get through biographies of Washington (4 volumes), John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, as well as histories of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War.  Jefferson does not come off well in some of the biographies of the other "founders" or at least, in comparison with the chief object of the biography in question.  I think I have enough distance from those other biographies to give Jefferson a spin. Meacham's treatment got good reviews, so we'll see.

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My late rising might have dissuaded me entirely from hitting the exercise room, but it was a gorgeous day looking out into the back yard, which I survey when I'm on my elliptical.

Flowering shrub in our backyard, seen through the kitchen window, June 7

 

So, although I didn't actually finish my workout until 10:30 a.m., I got the whole routine in, once more.

After breakfast and a shower I was in a "gliding" mood and enjoyed an hour in the sun, again with the Meacham book.

The afternoon mail brought a package postmarked from San Francisco from my late brother-in-law's partner, Bob, with a belated birthday/retirement gift of three eclectic books, now that I have time to read them.  I'm familiar with Gavin Menzies, but haven't read this book (no, it's not about aliens and UFOs).

Whole Grains was published in 1973 and has shades of "counter culture" all over it, (Last Whole Earth Catalog, etc.) some of the quotations are profane but there are definitely some pithy ones, even for writers of blogs: "The laying bare of oneself is obscene." (Ad Reinhardt) and "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness." (Samuel Beckett).  Ouch!

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Although "gliding" was what I thought I might be sliding into on this beautiful Michigan day, I received a call from my retirement fund representative, necessitating pulling out files and making decisions about how my retirement will be funded.  Conversations like this remind me a little like medieval brain surgery:

 And at their conclusion, I'm not sure I feel a whole lot better than the poor lout who got the business end of this wicked mechanism.  But in fact, all's well; it turned out to be a minor point of clarification.  Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville is real!

A New Twist on Exercise -- Ursula Le Guin -- Paintin' and Plantin' - June 6

I've been a little more careful about stretching and unwinding after my workouts lately, but this morning, looking out on a sunny back yard, I was a little more deliberate and thoughtful.  Then I remembered some of the Zen-like exercises, involving deep breathing and concentration.  Remarkably, as I experimented with them, they worked.  I found myself quite carried away by a thrill of feeling as I reached my arms from my sides, high in a slow wide arc, finally joining my fingers as my two arms crossing above my head.  My eyes were closed and I concentrated only on the very slow movement of my arms.  It seemed as though my fingers would never find themselves, but when they did, it was like alien digits touching the opposite hand. 

Fascinating feeling.

I've seen some of these moves done on tv and YouTube, and I know there's a profound philosophy underpinning them.  I shall have to look into this in greater depth in the weeks ahead.  I did get so far into the meditation as to consider active and passive forces bearing down, or bearing away from a central core of existence.  Pretty heady stuff for the early morning!

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A morning decision I had to make is what book to read next.  I have several waiting, but chose Ursula Le Guin's Orsinian Tales.  Many years ago I read her Earthsea trilogy (never got into the later iterations of the cycle), and I recall enjoying them very much.  I was not disappointed with my choice.  These tales are unlike her science fiction and fantasy, but are richly woven tapestries from different times and places.  "The Barrow" was quite haunting and evoked my interest in genealogy that takes one back into the Middle Ages.

Reading, exercise and breakfast over, I was on the prowl to get things done.  Checked on the plants now safely corralled in their containers on our 2nd floor deck.  We shall see how the experiment works in the weeks ahead.  Unfortunately, the tree seeds I tried to start never emerged.  I shall have to collect new seed pods as they develop, and try again.

Seedlings Ahoy in Containers on 2nd Floor Deck

 I also picked up where I intended to on Wednesday and finished painting the front porch ceiling.  Weather was just right; hope this sticks for a while.

To round out the late afternoon I mowed the back yard and attended to some weeding and pruning. 

***

After dinner I spent time on email and correspondence.  Hit the pillow at 1:15 a.m. and enjoyed the sleep.

The Paris Wife Concluded -- Soup's On! -- Plantings - June 5

Tuesday's late evening's doings took their toll on Wednesday morning -- definitely an Espresso morning!  Read a few pages of The Paris Wife, but had to rush to exercise.  Skipped breakfast, since I've basically evolved into a two-meal a day routine.

Final preparations to host a basic soup and sandwich lunch for friend John, including getting the felines upstairs.  Mr. Frodo isn't so bad, but Samwise is a shameless moocher, and very persistent!  Arriving a little early he was impressed into service to get food to table, whereupon we launched into a wide-ranging conversation, including wilderness cabins (his aspiration; my faded fantasy from the Last Whole Earth Catalog era of my life), music, movies, family life, and shared recollections of work at Ferris).  In years past the rush of work and responsibilities provided the vocabulary John and I spoke, but it's good to put the high pressure and tension away and just have a friendly conversation.

After lunch I had in mind to complete the porch roof painting that I had begun on Tuesday but the sky looked iffy (it ultimately did rain briefly) and I postponed.  I did, however, change into my painting gear -- clothes that have seen me through several rounds of painting our house (I've tried to do something every year we've been here).  So, while at work I was kidded about wearing a suit, I'm really proud of my old paint jeans!

Ultimately I decided to wait a day to complete the painting -- too much humidity wouldn't help the paint dry properly anyway.  So I decided to complete The Paris Wife, an obligation that I had to complete before Saturday anyway, since we're going to see Paula McLain, speaking at CMU. 

I found the final phase of Hadley and Ernest Hemingway's marriage very sad.  To the degree that McLain's work is fiction, in her rendering Ernest proposed a ménage à trois with Pauline Pfeiffer, suggesting the three move to Piggott, Arkansas, where Pauline's parents resided.  I had to remind myself that, at 62, I have an entirely different world view from a man of 28, in terms of what works and what doesn't.  Suggesting that  your wife accept those terms seems mind-boggling to me.  The prolonged exposure of Hadley to this toxic situation (at least in McLain's telling of it) leads one to sympathize with her.

Although the subject matter of these last few pages of the book were disagreeable, Samwise curled up on my lap and purred through most of my time on the couch.  With the clouds darkening the daylight coming through the windows it was nonetheless a mellow reprieve from an otherwise active day.

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Toward the end of the afternoon the sun reappeared and I transplanted to seedlings I had growing in flats to my container garden on the second floor deck.  

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In the evening I took care of some email correspondence and completed a Jury Survey form which arrived in the mail -- I've served on four juries -- in Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey and Michigan -- wonder what a jury summons might bring!