085.October 8

University of Nottingham, UK

The weather is dry and clear. I had a 09:00 class, Chaucer. An and I got there early, and then went into tutorial with the others. We read the Reeves prologue, and interpreted it. I came home and went uptown on the 65 bus to get guitar tuners and strings. The guitar is now fixed. I played for a while. I went to the University bookstore to get books. I got back just before 17:00 to clean the shower stalls and throw out the garbage.

We went to dinner at the Faldet's. We had pasta stew, fruit salad, and chocolate chip cookies. An, EB, and I ate outside in their garden. Then we had tea. I came home and played guitar. John brought the Faldet's VCR here and fixed the TV tuning. We watched "Peter's Friends," with Kenneth Branaugh. (I FIND IT FUNNY THAT AT THE TIME I ONLY LISTED KENNETH BRANAUGH, WHEN STEPHEN FRY AND HUGH LAURIE WERE TWO OF MY FAVOURITE ACTORS ALREADY FROM JEEVES AND WOOSTER) Lisa and I bought cider at the local Silk Cut and drank it.

1993

I had lunch today with Mike and Mica at Koreana. They have just returned via canoe from their wedding and honeymoon, which was a 100 mile canoe trip from the town in Wisconsin where they tied the knot. What a beautiful idea, and they lucked out with wonderful weather all week.

At 17:00, I took my folding bike over to Amalia and David's house for Men's Club 2010. Many of the Nottingham students were there, and otherwise so many others that have appeared in my journals or have been important to my life. I had a wonderful time, and Rachel came a short while after the majority of people arrived.  We missed dinner in the cafeteria, so later Liz and Hilda, Drew and a few others went to T-bocks for dinner. I took my bike there, and for some reason thought we were stopping at La Rana. I was having a lovely time with Deb, Sharon and Melissa, who got me a cabernet at my request, when I remembered that it was T-Bocks I was to be going too. Oops. I joined the others at T-bocks just in time for some food, and then Drew, Rachel and I went to the Hay Market for a few hours before crashing in Decorah at my brother's house.

2010

I fell down the back stairs on my way to the bathroom at about 01:00 this morning. I'm in a lot of pain now, but happy that nothing more serious occurred. I could have been paralyzed, but I thought I was at the door to the bathroom, not the servants stairs, which are steep, and wooden. I went to work, and had only some problem sitting, mostly it hurts to get up.

I made a wok dish with the really thin noodles when I arrived home from work, and I believe all enjoyed it, but I ate first before I had a Ye Old Opera House board meeting. Then rehearsal. I've started a new book set in upstate New York, and I am really enjoying it.  Rachel and I relaxed on the couch and caught up on the first two episodes of Season 3 of "Once Upon a Time.

2013

I joined the group at Spring Grove High School to celebrate the life of Almore Mathsen, our choir director at church and school for many decades. He had stopped teaching for good in 2013. We had a good size group sing five or six songs from the stacks of music he left behind. Oh Day Full of Grace is always a highlight of his time. After this, Sara helped me pick up six apple pies from Dollars for Scholars. I then spent about an hour getting ready to pick up a new refrigerator for our kitchen. I enlisted Jen to help me, and we drove to Waukon's Jim's Appliance showroom to pick it up. It was a lovely ride, and we practiced our lines for the upcoming show on the way. That night, after Rachel helped prepare the space to accept the larger fridge, Jen came back and the three of us got it out of the truck and into the house. It almost fit in the box through the door, but not quite, so we cut the side off the box on Jen's suggestion and everything fit though. I had the best time filling it up with things from all of our fridges and a bit from the Dometic Freezer.

2023