April 13, 1999

March 22, 1999

Had a great weekend. My nephew Jack was in from Denton. He brought along his daughter Jessica. On friday they came out to the Port and then continued on to Wooloroc to see the buffalo. On Saturday morning we went to Gilcrease Museum, and then to my cousin Sharon's for lunch. She showed me some photos which I couldn't resist including in my journal. Sharon has this black cat she calls "Shadow Monkey." Recently, while in Egypt, she bought an appliqued piece with a black cat on it. These photos show the interest Shadow Monkey took in the piece after it was framed. Click on the photos below for a larger version.

Went to a great Equinox/St. Patrick's Day party on Saturday night. It was a great group. Just wish I could remember all the jokes I heard!

March 17th, 1999

"There is nothing to write about, you say.
Well, then, write and let me know just this,
--that there is nothing to write about;
or tell me in the good old style if you are well."
---Pliny the Younger

es, I know. I haven't written in my journal in a while, and entries are getting less frequent. Part of the reason is visible above. I discovered some beautiful engravings in a set of old books I own, Saint Bruno et L'Ordre Des Chartreux. They were published in M DCCC LXXXIII -- got that? Yeah, 1883. I scanned them. Then I tweaked them. Tweaked? Well, since they were not machine made drawings, not only were they not perfectly aligned, but they weren't printed on the pages exactly straight. Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun with them. In the main sections of the books, fancy letters begin the first paragraph. Unfortunately, taking them all together there wasn't a full alphabet. Soooo, you see that "Y" at the beginning of this paragraph? I concocted that from one of the fonts on my computer and some borrowed decorative elements from lettering in those books. Am I crazy? Should I really be out in the fresh air excercising? Yeah, that's probably true. The graphics I used on my newly designed poetry page are ones I adapted from those books.

s you have also probably noticed, I designed a new gallery entrance and put the menu on a separate page. I hope this is more convenient and helps the pages load faster.

've also been busy at work. My concerns about the Historical Society Website can finally be put to rest. I think it's now in manageable form. I've completed a new Museum brochure that I should have back from the printers soon. I'm working on several new exhibit design projects--that's the real fun part. Hell, one of the terminals got a shipment of four barges of corn yesterday (this is a first for corn that I know of). While I was there the terminal manager gave me some great ideas for new displays! All this and preparations are now underway for an April Board meeting, and a May Hall of Fame awards ceremony.

ell, I'll try to include more substance in my next journal entry. So, as a good friend I've met on the Internet usually says: TTFN.

February 27^th, 1999

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
--Robert Frost

The last few weeks have been very hectic. On top of it all I got some different office furniture. This means that my office has been in a state of chaos, and will be until I get everything comfortably put away.

Did I mention that I had been to a wedding last October 11^th? No? My niece, Carole Bieler, married a very nice fellow named Tony Randal Curtis. Would you like to see photos of the newly wedded couple? Aha, you have no choice! Here they are: Carole and Tony. I also want to mention another wedding that took place in November. My cousin Sharon, and her husband Phil Rychel, did it again--only this time at the real sphinx. Take a look: Sharon and Phil. Are you wondering about all the advertising HooHa at the bottom of Sharon and Phil's page? The URL has been published on Reeder's Egyptian Page. Just scroll down to the "other links" section. Hey, if anyone wants to pay me to do this stuff just talk to me.

Oh, hey, did I forget to tell everyone that I edit the Temple Israel Homepage. Check it out. The drawings of children used on the Services Page and Programs Page are restored copies of originals by my late aunt Carmelita Avery.

Also check out the Arkansas River Historical Society Museum site. I've updated the main menu, and expanded the Hall of Fame section. Let me know what you think: [email protected].

This weekend my wife will be luxuriating at the Dolphin Hotel at Disney World in Orlando. I didn't have the time to go with her (RATS!). I hope she has a good time and gets some much needed REST. Me? I'll be cleaning house, and doing laundry and yardwork. Uh, and also having some folks over to see slides this evening.

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February 17^th and 20^th, 1999

"Every day in every way I'm getting better and better" --Emile Coue

Wow, it's February 17th. Time sure has passed quickly. Right now I'm busy with various projects. The new Museum brochure should be at the printers. I'm designing an update for the Museum Website--revamping the Hall of Fame section. Has everyone out there visited the Museum Page? Click here to check it out.

The Museum archives continue to grow. The possibilities for new and informative exhibits just gets better and better.

I was reading another individual's online journal the other day. He mentioned some "words to live by" his grandmother had shared with him. I thought about my grandmother, my "Bubee." I had to laugh. She was certainly a person to remember, but not one (I think) to impart helpful words of wisdom. Actually, in order to be able to communicate with her in a meaningful way would have meant to speak Yiddish. That barrier limited interaction between her and me.

My Dad had some good advice for me. "Honesty is the best policy," he always used to say. "It's okay to wear a cheap hat, but don't wear cheap shoes." Wisdom from a person who was on his feet working most of his life. "Don't eat 'Chauzer'(Pig, or something unclean) in your own neighborhood." That's some advice he gave my brother when my brother began dating a non-Jewish girl in the neighborhood. And, since he was a great kidder, some of his advice was frivilous: "Don't eat meat and fish together." Why,You might ask? That's so you don't get "Kur Slippitah" (Night Blindness).

I recall that my mother told me a story about a girl (we'll call her Esther) working the candy counter in a large department store. She was not the only girl working that candy counter--there were two or three others. But Esther was special. Customers would line up to have her wait on them. The other counter workers didn't have that sort of following. The situation was so strange that the store manager watched the candy counter one day to see why customers wanted Esther to wait on them rather than the others. What he noticed was that the other girls, when filling an order, would put a lot of candy on the scale and then take away a little at a time until the weight was right. Esther had a different approach. She would put a little candy on the scale, then keep adding more until she reached the proper weight. The customers didn't get any more, but apparently it seemed to them that they did.

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"How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who is surprised at anything which happens in life" --Marcus Aurelius

January 28, 1999

I ran across an old friend the other day. It's not a person, it's a graphic I cut out of a magazine sometime in the 60s. I liked it. I saved it. In a way it was sad. Each time I rearranged or cleaned and came across it again, it had deteriorated just a little bit more. In the last few days I changed all that with the marvels of digital scanning and a few computer programs. Modern magic has returned an image as clear and vibrant as the original I admired years ago. The graphic was published with a caption. The words were found scribbled, I believe, on a wall in one of the empty European ghettos after World War II. So, here it is once again:

"I believe in the Sun, even when it is not shining.
I believe in Love, even when I feel it not.
I believe in God, even though he is silent."
--author unknown

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