promise

Hi. If anyone still takes a look at this blog from time to time, my apologies, and I PROMISE to try harder to write more often. Right now I will say: look for a new post during the last week of any month. I hope all our readers are well. I got an e-mail from a nice person who said, "Robinson Crusoe was the only man to get all his chores done by Friday." The rain here has eased off, and that large, bright object in the sky once more appeared. I am working as a volunteer at a local school for developmentally delayed children, it is called the McKenzie Centre, and the staff is just lovely - lots of smiles. Right now I am doing dumb work, like scanning in stuff to help reduce the amount of paper present. I had to get a new fuel pump for the BMW, as it was starting to just quietly die (at which time I would think, is my hearing getting worse, has the car suddenly become quieter, what is going on: then, energized by the opinion of the car(s) behind me, expressed mostly with honks, quickly put the gear shift into park and turned the key and lo and behold it was no longer quiet - especially with the cacophony of hoots behind me. Well, spring break is over, and it is back to school, where Emily sometimes struggles with social behavior issues (gee, I have no idea where she got that machine gun she brought to school, headmaster; or the other interestingly labeled stuff!). Joseph goes about his existence pretty quietly. I hack and snort. Carrie coughs. We walk, talk and breathe down here pretty much like when we were up there. Carrie has gone to Wellington twice, and Melbourne, Australia once. Her mom may come for a visit, and so, too, her dad. All are welcome here. Items of greatest scenic value stay largely in the South Island, but there are certainly opportunities for visual pleasingly sights here in the North too. What are some favorite spots you readers have visited. Would you like to go back. I would like to visit Berlin, and maybe Venice before it sinks, and Madrid. Take care, gentle reader. Manford

Rain

Hi,everybody. It has been a rainy seven days or so in our new hometown, Hamilton, with no let up in sight. An interesting characteristic is that it comes in spurts, and that it will be not raining, then suddenly raining, as though the clouds had finally gotten overloaded with moisture and said "Hey, that was alright up until now, but now you are too heavy to carry this high," and so they rolled over on their sides and dumped some of the water, and down it came, with an occasional clap of thunder which is worrying to Charlie (I think she just digs her burrow in the carpet deeper if inside, and who knows, outside, with trembling and shaking). She has a bump on her nose, or a growth of some type - will get her to the vet's tomorrow afternoon. The plus side of the rain is a very colorful Spring, with many blooming trees, lots of flowers, including one we did not plant, from a bulb, known in at least some quarters as Sprixia, purple with a yellow central part of each leaf, and no easily seen at least, stamen. Book of the week/month: La Vie en Rose, with a web site, www.extremelypalerose.com. Nice escapist reading - Wife and husband are off to France to sell Rose wine to the populace, setttle in, meet interesting people, write about it, make a little money, and then set up a blog. Memories of Provence were triggered for me. I will try and take some new pictures and see if I can figure out how to get them on facebook. Joseph Manford Barber resides there. I discovered a fairly close winery this weekend, taking kids to a Quaker youth camp in a park to our west and south, near Mount Pirongia, if anybody wants to look. Roast chicken for dinner - sometimes it is still a challenge to decide and cook and clean. Emily sends her regards. Carrie and I say hi to any readers. We hope you are well and that your lives are going good. Sincerely, Manford

Charlie and some other stuff

Our dog, a bearded (stubborn) collie, is now somewhat over two years old and has moved gracefully and rapidly into adolescence. She likes to supplement her diet whenever the opportunity arises - at home by raiding rubbish cans or the garbage bag in the kitchen or food on the counters there (she seems to especially like chocolate, which (unfortunately from some points of view) is only fatal if ingested in fairly large amounts, amounts which so far (hmmmm, there's an idea) have not been that large (hmmmm). Oh well, its all part of the circus. Which i so far have been unsucseccesful in convincing her that running away to one would be a fun and gratifying thing to do. She has developed some new fears so that walking her, which used to be a straightforward thing to do now becomes one of those random walks statisticians like to talk about (about which statisticians like to talk). Carrie gets to hear some interesting lectures at work - a classicly trained psychologist who showed movie clips to highlight various types of disorder, for example, showing parts of Annie Hall for neurotic, and (I think this is the correct title) Grizzly Man for psychotic. Wonder what he thinks of the real Kiwi blokes who start running around in boots or gum boots, singlet and shorts any time the temperature is above about twenty degrees Farensheit? Or not. I became a semi- unlicensed one this weekend, wearing shorts, but cheating with three layers up top. And sun glasses. And a cap. My chest now being harier than my legs perhaps I should reverse that???
I recently purchased (to shift topics) a new string trimmer, much more macho than the el cheapo I bought a couple of years ago, and what a joy it is to use as it chops up weeds, grass, trees, Charlie (woops! not yet), the back porch, our new fence, etc. Only complaints - it is loud, and drinks fuel like Charlie drinks spilled juice, etc. But enough about Charlie (unless something terrible in the future happens to her, etc.). I trying to remember some of my passwords for various places in the internet universe, sometimes without success, so go through the forgot your password (or pissword?) stich, and then forget the new one. So I finally wrote them in code in a one book, which of course I have forgotten the location of and which code I was using. Oh, well, gives me something to do. I believe that Kiwis in general (human type) use periscopes in driving, as when one stops at a red traffic light, or (sometimes) sign, one is supposed to be able to see the back wheels of the car in front of one, and as best I can tell they do that, by mounting a periscope upside down in their vehicle and thus follow along with at least the spirit of the law. If you are reading this, as you go ALONG if you see a word in caps makes it looks like a shout, not? But not here, where to shout means to buy a meal for others. How about or ?? You got me. Well I must be off to shout (or is it shout out?) tweedle dum and tweedle dee. Sorry to be so negletful a writer, and here is a promise (if Charlie does not eat the computer, which she seems disinclined to do as long as Joseph keeps feeding her his partially done homework)to try and write more often. Love to hear from any of you readers, here or facebook or manfordb@gmail.com or manford_barber@hotmail.com. Etc.

Newspaper quote of the week and other stuff

"We tried every other form of contraception and found that they all suck. Being a scientist, I was interested in what could be done," by a guy who invented a NZ1250 dollars ovulation detector - a tiny thermometer that is worn on either arm that alerts the wearer when her temperature rises half a degree Celcius as a result of ovulation - either do it then and get pregnant, or don't and don't, I guess. On the front page, a big pictures of kids getting new shoes, titled "Kids take a shine to new shoes". Well, we are having beautiful weather here, finally, not so awfully cold (remember what it was like in Auckland, Marge), clear skies, birds tweeting, flowers starting to bloom (see a few pics on Facebook for Joseph Manford Barber). Had a very nice visit with a lady doing research on meditators views for her doctoral dissertation. I will be making a collection of some Hamilton sights, sites, this month, hopefully, and will share them on facebook. Had Emily's school conference; left feeling school is concerned with developing her socially, that grades at this point are not important; some testing she did do, however, indicated that she is bright and she gets a special class during the day for bright kids. She invented a game where she sets up eight or so play mobil figures and then rolls a marble to see how many she can knock down, then it is my turn, then hers, etc. Have been reading a fairly new book from Elmore Leonard, and a couple of books that outline short trips one can take in NZ. Carrie is busy at work. Joseph seems to be doing more real school work in the evenings. I am feeling well, finally more right/left balanced, and feel my (mighty? I don't think so) muscles are better supporting my skeleton than before. Well, thanks for reading this. Sharon, hope things are ok. Sincerely, Manford

Potpourri

Hello again, and warmest greetings from relatively cool down under, or next to down under, since Australia is what one usually thinks of when hearing or reading "down under" (reminds me of a saying I like - When you hear hoofs galloping you don't usually think of zebras" which leads to another I like - "When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail," and the last one for today, attributed to various authors, "I would have written you a shorter letter if I had more time" or some variation of that. I am going to recommend a book, because I think it catches the essence of some of New Zealand: Long Cloud Ride, by Josie Dew. I could not find it in any Kansas library, but you can get a paperback from Amazon for about eight bucks plus shipping and handling. It was written by a lady who cycled around NZ in 2004 or thereabouts - went in the summer, but rained much more than usual. Some good descriptions of places, characters and events. And dead right. Hope you can find it. Joseph is taking driving lessons, three so far, with some progress. He has already passed the written portion of the license. Emily stayed home yesterday with a modest sore throat, but because of the concerns about swine flu the schools are being more conservative re when you should not attend. I would also, today, like to recommend a video/dvd that I was late to come by, Conversations With My Gardner, a French movie, sweet and sad. And a more recent movie, The Grocer's Son, also French. Fun thing - my sis sent me a magnetic poetry set, and Carrie's created this poem/haiku?/whatever: "zen for monkey look impossible in world of silent grasshopper be now you" and Emily's: "know all when insect grin is at work". Pretty profound, huh. Or not. (Har, har, har). For my birthday I got several e-mail wishes for a happy birthday - thanks to all of you for that, a book on organic gardening, and another that is in the disc world series, and a word game sort of like scrabble called addictionery - starting with a three letter word each player in turn then modifies it by adding a new letter or changing existing ones - e.g. egg goes to beg goes to big, etc. Joseph and I went to the new Harry Potter movie on opening day and liked it. Even though it was not entirely faithful to the book, apparently. Wish I could look a hundred years into the future to see what has been happening to/in NZ and USA. Interesting to think about. We are trying to cook more different things, even though the kids don't always like what we make I think it is good for them to at least have a taste. Emily and I had a good week during her school break - she and I partnered up the first week and went here and there, one of her favorites being Smiggle, a sort of home/office supply of various pens, pencils, notebooks, desk top stuff, in vibrant colors, including pink and purple. Then she had YMCA camp daily the next two weeks. She seems to really like speech and drama class at her school. Joseph is involved with a school assignment for his computer class designing a program that Emily can use to learn to type. I am looking into doing Pilates, or some old geezer version of that. Carrie is very busy at work. We don't have specific plans for the next school break, but will try and go somewhere by the ocean. I plan to get out a little more, see local sights. Most days are book ended with taking Emily to school, then picking Emily up from school, but I can squeeze in some short trips, and on Tuesdays Carrie picks her up which will allow me to go further afield. Well, have to stop now and walk the dog. Arf, arf, arf. Sincerely, Manford. Oh, by the way, Liz we wish you great success and interesting times in Rwanda.

Fact.....or.....Fiction

The average New Zealander walks 100 K/hour (fiction - it is 101.4 K/hour): The average consumption of beer at the 21st birthday celebration is 101 bottles (fiction - 101 cases): It takes at least twice as long to complete a road trip than the mapquest/google/etc. web sites say it will (fact), no matter where you are going (fact) : Emily won best player of the day ribbon at her latest soccer game (fact - though it may be the case that they like to spread that award around - she was goalie in the second half and even got recognition from the competition's coach for one save!): there are no earthquakes in New Zealand (fiction - recently mild earthquakes near Lake Taupo caused the evacuation of a small community because of fear of a landslike (these have occurred in the past)). And so on, and so on. Well greetings. It has been the coldest winter in 50 years, the locals say. We get frost on the car even the though the ambient temp is above freezing - I am sure the brighter readers can explain that. Emily is home this week - she gets a three week break from school - will go to day camp most days starting next week. My car is in the shop for its biannual (? - every six months) checkup. Finally had to buy some rear tires last week - Toyos or something like that. We are thinking about getting a wireless printer. Carrie has now had basic training in how to assess little, teeny babies using the Braselton scale. Joseph is off to Auckland at the end of July for a chess match. Manford is doing well, and is out more often, helping trim plants for propagation at the local Hamilton Gardens (they are a must see for visitors though none of our visitors so far have seen them), once a fortnight, and Thursday goes to a lecture about godwits, birds that fly from Russia (Siberia) to NZ. I still don't understand cricket, as well as some newspaper reporting of the goings on of rugby players during a game, but at least some of the local teams are doing pretty good in that sport. We are welcoming a new psychology staff person and his family today, so have to stop here and take a shower and wash my hair. I was pleased to read that Bill is making progress, and our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to him and his family. We also read that Liz is leaving for Rwanda in August: good luck and best wishes - what an exciting adventure. Sincerely, Manford

Boo, some nostalgia, and recent visits

Hello from a rainy (most days some precip) and pretty cool NZ. Our thoughts and prayers are being sent out to Bill and his family in their recent struggles with a poor hand fate has dealt them. Lots of support from their friends should help them get through this hard time. We are fine. We had a lovely visit with Sue and her mom, here for a week. Toward the end of their stay a nice guy has been coming over and is building a replacement fence for the old, beat up, cracked and gnarly painted one that was there along the east side of our property, plus adding fencing at either end to provide yet another enclosed space in which Charlie the wonder dog might amble at her highnesses convenience. We did take her to a two day stay south of Taupo, and also took there our out-of-town guests, seeking snow but alas, alack none was found within driving range of our vehicles (though had we had chains or a four wheel drive vehicle we could have gone higher in elevation and found some, for Emily had plans to make a snow angel, throw a snow basll at Joseph, etc.). Previous to that jaunt I had a nice trip to Auckland riding a bus up and another back, on the Naked Bus line, though to my disappointment (sp?) there was no nudity anywhere (or perhaps to my shame for wrong thoughts?). The maratime museum was splendid, with many fine models. Also went to a natural history museum with a variety of exhibits, some creaky, some not. Walked a lot, too. Per recommendation of a podiatrist had bought some Asic gel running shoes, designed to reduce my tendency to pronate my arthritic feet, and they do make a (positive) difference. Stayed in Mt. Eden, with no sign of Adam or Eve, at a Quaker owned rest house, could take the train or a bus there from downtown, free for old geezers like me, after nine a.m. Ferry free, too. But it only goes in the water. Huh. Imagine that. The workshop there has inspired me to try and contact other mortals to see what I can do re possibly testing kids or adults for auditory processing disorder; the Listening Program sounded (har, har) pretty good for the right type of disorder. There are other rehab progrms for auditory processing difficulties. Google those three words in that order all on one line for more info re that topic. I'm sorry, did not mean google "those three words" - google (while you giggle?) auditory processing disorder, and you will learn more. Carrie and friends attended fielddays yesterday, a serious get together of almost everything related to mostly rural NZ life, hopefully she will blog that experience. I am trying to get pictures on Face Book. More later. Here is hoping all our readers are well and in good spirits. Manford