Seven Days of Visitation

He has come home! My son, Daniel is home from the hospital. It has been seven days of going to the hospital in the morning and back in the evening to sit with my poorly son, and then all day on the weekend. But he is now good enough to come home.

I 'm not sure he understand how to take care of himeself yet! Still the boy has to be reminded to drink enough, get enough rest, eat enough, wash regularly, and get reasonable exercise.

Join me in warning the young man to not wear himself out doing silly things, but to build his strength back steadily so he can start looking for a job!

I'm thankful for the doctors and nurses of the Royal Hallamshire hospital here in Sheffield for taking care of Daniel and when it is all said and done we don't have to worry about crippling bills.

As many of you know far better than I do when someone you love falls ill your whole life is put into an upheavel. And to have all the financial concerns on top of that would be too much.

Educate me Mr. Mozart!

Do you know in what order the famous classical composers lived? Do you know who was contemporary of Mozart? Who was the first big name that everyone knows and who was really in the Classical period and who was in the Baroque or Romantic?

I must confess I did not know and I wanted to. I felt as if my enjoyment of the music would be enhanced if I could hear which composer might have influenced another. Iwanted to know the names of the pioneers and the copycats who improved on a theme.

If you know of any resources which would help me in this quest for knowledge and understanding please feel free to pass on your suggestions.

To set the record straight though I really like Vivaldi and it turns out he was one of the first big names living from 1678-1741, so when young Mr. Mozart came on the scene in 1756 and before he died in 1791 George Friedrich Handel was already mostly done seeing he died in 1759 seventy-four years after he was born in 1685.

40 years to learn the basics

Well I was 40 this year and although I have spent the past two and a half years growing my hair out there is less of it per square centimeter of scalp.

But even more exciting is I have seemed to finally learn a routine. For some of you who know me this is more of a feat than most may think.

So here is a window on the day on the life of William:

(somewhere between) 5:30 - 6:00

• Wake up without alarm usually and roll over in bed and turn on light and open lap top.
• Clear mind while laptop find home wireless network and I open www.xanga.com/williambode and http://bible.crosswalk.com
• Think about what I have been reading and go to the days passage (recently in Isaiah) in the New Living Translation of the Bible and listen to the familiar voice of Mike Kellogg read while I follow along. I may read and/or listen a number of times. Try to respond to God and others about what I have read and how it hits me.

(somewhere between) 6:45 - 7:15

• check emails in wkbode@gmail.com respond to some and mostly wish I would take more time to respond.
• Possibly check work schedule and emails w.bode@shu.ac.uk to prepare my mind for work.

(somewhere around) 7:00

• Go downstairs make a bowl of porridge oats (2 packets Quaker instant golden syrup) with water boiled from the kettle and add in a bit of Soya milk (I discovered I was lactose intolerant and have avoid all products containing any dairy for nearly a year now, that alone is a big change. Oh I how I miss cheese cake, cheese, milk and cookies, and nearly everything you can think of has milk, whey, milk proteins, or cheese in it. You would be amazed!) and sometimes I will add honey or bananas to the porridge.
• Get out the vitamins and supplements. I normally take a fish oil, a gingko biloba, a multi vitamin and a calcium. I was taking ecchinatia but ran out.
• I make a cup of coffee and get a large glass of water from the tap, about a pint.
• I often will listen to radio four or a uplifting Christian CD while I eat.
• Say good morning to one of my three daughters who will also be getting up.

(approximately) 7:30

• Get in shower listen tot shower radio I usually am in there shaving, cleaning, washing my hair, and conditioning my hair till about 7:45 when I hear Thought for the Day on BBC Radio four and know I better be getting out.
• Dry hair, put aloe vera gel on face and hair

(not coping with panic) 7:45 (I really need to be out the door in like no less than 30 min now!!!!

• get trousers on gather wallet, keys, id card pass for work, switch things in bag/briefcase
• take down white shirt to iron it. (yes I iron my own white shirt every work day! And usually since the iron is still hot I feel bad that I am leaving the iron and ironing board out for Meredith or someone to put away.
• Come back upstairs and put on shirt and tie and tie my hair back.
• Shine my shoes a bit, might have done this before going down to iron shirt.
• Say goodbye to girls and Lyssa as they head off to school and work.

(My sort of goal was 8:00 AM)8:10 to 8:15

• walk out the door and decide if I'm taking the bus or walking depending on time, money and weather. The Bus is not quite a 40% option recently even less.
• Walk about a mile and a half to work along very busy streets thinking why do all these people have to drive to work in long cues with only one person per car. Saying things like wow that car cost a lot. And why are all the really hot sports cars now owned or at least driven by single women?
• Walk past all the construction sights, which are many, and think about my dad every morning and know he would like to stop and watch.

8:20 - 8:40 arrive at the Stoddart building car park under the building and take the lift to the 4th floor

Approximately 8:30

• start up computer and check emails
• speak to cleaning ladies
• turn on lights in the LLRC open access, unlock door to the LLRC office
• start replies to emails
• Open Staff intranet to begin tweaking things.
• Check schedule
• Turn on the satilite TV's in various languages

Work till 1:00 responding to requests for assitance, fixing broken computers, arranging for more information to be provided for the Staff Intranet, creating more web pages or menu structures, editing distance learning packages, meeting with people about one of the for amentioned, make sure Resource Advisor (student employee) is in on time and ready to work, Talk over the schedule with RA. Contact other technicians via MSN using trillian and see what jobs are coming through, speak to academics about labs, ect., install software.

1:00 till 2:00 Lunch with someone hopefully

Monday's Lyssa, Samuel, Steve and others and pray

Wednesday's Samuel, Tim, Steve, Matt to study Bible

Carry on with the same as above till 5:30 or 6:00 PM sometimes later.

Walk home or take bus, mostly walk

Wednesday nights team meeting

many and various other things I have to do too

Inverness

So I'm going to spend 24 hours plus on a coach journey from Sheffield to Inverness, via Glasgow and back! Why? well I do really like Scotland! My two previous visits have only made the allure all the more powerful. Second prior to working fulltime at Sheffield Hallam University I would have taken a guest like Meredith on a few trips around the English countryside. I'd at least have spent a few days out in Derbyshire near my home. But in the six months she has been with us I have hardly done anything special with Meredith. So when I relaized I had used almost all the holiday time doing important things and Meredith was about to leave to go back to the States I figured we had to break away and see something special before she left. National Express is running a deal where we could go anywhere in the UK for £18 return. That was a preatty good deal since it would have usually cost us two to go up that far north more than three times that much. So we are on our way to see the Loch Ness monster for ourselves. We leave on Friday morning and return Monday night.

We benefit from being made vulnerable and weak

Recently I have had sick children. I have had my own fears of medical problems. I have been burdened by a major shift in diet. I have had a number of friends have a loved one die. And I have had friends face the prospect of impeding death for a family member. Recently I have seen others face rejection, and the fear of loss of opportunites in school and work.

I know this all sounds like a downer; But it hasn't all been bad. I have also seen people get serious, look at life more realistically, listen to others, look to God, and with humility make changes.

We don't want to face hardship. But it seems to me if we didn;t we might never get around to the important things in life. We may never leave off the habits which are clogging our minds and keeping us from making progress towards greater things.

Times and gaps

Have you ever had an acquaintance, friend, or family member who you connected with but then lost contact? I mean one of those enjoyable connections where with serendipity you listen and talk with interest. Under no obligation you find commonality or friendly differences which are stimulating.
I often meet people whose lives offer a sort of travel or experience by proxy. And then there are those people who are knowledgeable about subjects which effective cause them to serve as expert guest lecturers and tutors in the university of continual life learning. Occasionally, you may encounter a light hearted witty person who seems to hover apart from controversy and without introspection, satire, sarcasm, or agenda you simply dismiss the turmoil of weightier issues.
My reason for finding a connection pleasant may differ. But since it is a meeting more or less outside the relationships which I am responsible to maintain I may lose contact. Or maybe it was at camp, on a holiday, at work but outside my direct area of responsibility or normal routine, possible a more distant family member, some one has moved , a student, a transient or traveling worker, a builder who came for a time, a tour guide, or the guest of someone else with whom we have regular contact.

Time passes and you don't see the particular person, for a month, a year, five years, or twenty years. Can we just pick up where we left off? Will they be the same? We wouldn't be just the same (at least I wouldn't be). But have you ever noticed in these situations we sometimes revert back to a former self? None the less there you are in the presence of a past joy.

I used to walk the street of Sheffield feeling very much the foreigner and quite priviledged to be here in such a far flung, out of the way, wild and exotic place compared to Lakeview or Entrican Michigan. And as I walked along I would expect one of these people from my past to walk past and be completely surprised to find me in Sheffield , England. I'd ask if they had some time and we'd go and have a coffee somewhere and catch up.

The book I'm reading entitled Austerlitz is so far about the chance meetings between the author and the man named Austerlitz.

I am the kind of person who can meet and get to feel a connection with practically anyone quite easily. But the length of the connection and the future of it seems an unpredictable element in life.
As I ramble on I have a strong feeling that the same thing I feel for people I actually feel also for places. Places I used to go often and grew to enjoy and now I hardly ever get to go to at all.

This summer Alasdair, Samuel, Paul (an acquaintance from Luke Dudenhofer's church in Chicago) and another Bulgarian friend of Paul's I think called Marcus went swimming at the Indiana Dunes State park on the shores of Lake Michigan. It was one of those idyllic days with the boys that you would see in a movie. The people I was with, the weather, the lake, the swimming, the train ride to get there, the big city(Chicago) we left behind for the day, the exciting yet down to earth guy that Paul is, the walk I had on the beach and around the camp sites, the meal in the old big brick state park building and the gates to the park, the short walk through the woods all added up to a real memory and I only wish somehow without changing it I could share it in a meaningful way with others. It will be a one off in my life. But one I'll remember with fondness for some time to come. It is an experience I wish on their own Lyssa, Emily, Wendy, Bethany, and Daniel could have.