I donated my 96th pint of blood at Memorial Blood Center Yesterday. That’s twelve gallons. I plan to write a Reader column about this aspect of my civic mindedness when I’ve hit the 100th donation. I still get twitchy feet doing it but I’ve greatly improved over the little boy who threw a fit the first time he was given a shot in the doctors office. Its not quite the fear of blood. I’ve been bloodied hundreds of times. Its needles going into my veins…..It will be worth an appeal to donate this year or next whenever I cross the century mark.
For the time being its just a good excuse not to have blogged yesterday. I am always warned not to do any heavy lifting after my draw.
I also gratefully finished reading the Greater Journey to Claudia yesterday. I know a lot more about the American Artists that began populating Paris after the American Revolution than I probably ever needed to know but I was pleased to read about Elihu Washington one of Abe Lincoln’s Illinois confederates (I’m being ironical)……a staunch union man who was our Ambassador to France during the German siege of Paris in 1870. That story is a nice lead up to my planned journey to France this September. Its also a bit of a preview of how the French felt as they were being invaded by Germans for the second time in 1914. By the way, I got my Grandfather’s dog tags back from Park College yesterday as well his son-in-law’s Second World War dog tag. His son-in-law was my dad Dan Welty. I lent them for an exhibit last year of Park Colleges contributions to the US military.
My Grandfather loved his years at Park. My Dad endured his V-12 officer’s training there with no special affection for the school. Their dog tags will once again be placed in my official family shrine.
I am irritated that my old 2003 Window’s Front Page software has gone bad and won’t let me update my Snowbizz website’ page on my lifetime reading. None of the three books I’ve completed in 2018 so far will show up when I try to update the page. I am not merely an old dog resistant to learning new tricks but I am resistant to restoring failing tech from the past. And yet I am duolinging myself through the French language. I got another near 20 hours in last week and I’ve got almost ten in for this week so far.
This entry is being cataloged to Harry’s Diary. Its public of course so it doesn’t disclose the dark details that can emerge from real diaries. Unless I’m feeling like an exhibitionist. At least I seem to have a lot less to hide than our exhibitionist Commander in Chief. There have been some very funny late night bits at his expense lately. And his positives have crept up to 42% from the mid thirties. I guess bad news really is better than no news.
