Cafe Au Lait

Greetings, Jeri, Teal and Laura! After having to give up on mybloggers in 2014 because I could not log on or get to my blog, and I couldn't find a mybloggers customer service contact to help me fix what was amiss, imagine my surprise when out of the blue, I started once again receiving enotices of blog posts this week. So nice to rejoin you all!

This sad ending of St. Gregory University, the only Catholic liberal arts university in Oklahoma, touched my heart and made me dig a bit into its long history since its founding as a high school in the 1870s. As a journalist, I seemed to cover numerous sad events like this in the 1990s in Northwest Ohio.

I found an article that summarizes many of the particular problems St Gregory had to deal with. This school's story is not unique. It applies to many founding orders of men and women religious facing rapidly dwindling numbers of members, plus underfunding or financial stresses, and having to make very hard decisions. Perhaps you will find it interesting.

Why St. Gregory’s University Is Closing Its Doors ---
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/st-gregorys-university-closing-doors

Teal, this really touches me. I've experienced something akin to this after major losses along the years, revisiting locales that were both intensely familiar and nostalgic and yet very strange and foreign at the same time. I had to realize that I was the stranger in those sentimental scenes, comforted in some way but feeling very odd and different at the same time. Which of course I was. Reborn after sorrow and recalled to a new life.

An e-mail account of mine was severely hacked a few weeks ago, and I'm still digging out of the mess. What a royal pain! A colossal mess that took techs six hours to unravel and uncover all the rerouting fake e-addresses. Lost all my 1,600+ contacts, but not my 2,000+ folders and files. Techs said the coding profile evidence points to Russian hackers. If you get an e-mail from me in Kiev asking for money, please ignore it.

A new Kitchen Aide mixer is on my list. They are fabulous. The thought of making your feather cake is making me swoon....

Applause!!

Sending you a bouquet of

Love your Rex! And, by the way, my cats are on his side. They think the iron is a mini vacuum!

It used to be that businesses that made products that worked just fine and were well made kept the same design for a long long time. Now products are rapidly discontined, upgraded or improved just to drive sales, irritating customers. And the so-called improved product often is less serviceable or even worse. Probably your smart Mom's habit is even more important today.

Applause to these young fellows! Very impressive -- and so glad you met and hired them and have the help you need. Well done!

It took many years to pass on some my parents treasures. Downsizing my home space was what was the primary motivation. It isn't easy. I still have a ways to go....

The scars of that flood will be long in healing.

Love the morning! I tend to wake early, often with the pre-dawn birdsong, such a delight.

Thanks for the book recommendation. Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play as well, so I'm intrigued.

Sending you and yours smiles and cheer!

Imagining just being with you at those dinners, agog! One of my aunts was married to a brilliant physicist. I was young and my imagination would be so intrigued when Uncle Fran would describe this current research. My favorite time with my uncle was on starlit evenings outside, listening to him describe the expanding universe, the planets and the stars. Agog!