1003

 Monday,  October 3, 2022

In bed before 10, up at 6:20, 4 pss, 1 glass of red.  39 outside but high of sunny 63 expected.  Sun about to rise as I type, at 6:52.

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Tua Tagovailoa football scandal.  NFL pearl-clutching, OMGing, ditto the fans.  I stopped watching football games 5 years ago or so, when I was so disgusted by the actions of the NFL Commissioner Goodell and the billionaire owners he answers to about chronic encephalopathy or whatever it's called: brain damage to football players from repeated blows to the head, concussions in the brain, and the aftermath for many players.  Perhaps it is not the vicious sport it used to be (perhaps: Jack Tatum, Darryl Stingley), but it is still an inherently violent sport, brutal, in which the object of the game is to throw a ball carrier to the ground, to knock him down, and hopefully to hurt him, to 'ring his bell' or tear his ACL  so that he'll have to leave the playing field to be replaced by a less skilled player, all to the end of your team scoring more points than the opponent, all to the end of playing more games into the playoffs, all to the end of winning championships, all to the end of making more season income, your franchise more valuable, and your billionaire owner wealthier, mostly from television revenue.  I know I'm one viewer out of tens of millions, but I don't want to contribute to those owners and their enterprises.  Same for professional boxing, the same for thoroughbred horse raising.  

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Watching the world through my window: Next-door neighbor John McGregor is out for his morning walk at sun-up.  Down the street neighbor standing at the bend of Wakefield onto County Line, waiting with his mastiff for John to approach and give the mastiff a big chuffing pet on the head.  Then John heads into Mequon, neighbor and mastiff head down County Line.  Still warmish outside, neighbors on bicycles, young parents pushing strollers or walking hand-in-hand with little ones, older folks out walking, some jogging.

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Lula - Bolsonaro.  Lula comes up short of 50%, and gets 48%+, about 5 points higher than Bolsonaro.  Runoff on October 30.  "The Edge of Democracy" by Petra Costa.  Situation SO similar to US with Trumpism, the nazification of the Republican Party.  Best guess: Bolsonaro wins run-off after violent run-up to the election.  Whether he 'wins' or not, he'll claim a victory and retain power, supported by mobs in streets, violence.

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WTWTMW: Red finch and song sparrow filling up peacefully side by side on tube feeder.  Red-bellied woodpecker arrives and scatters the little guys.  Chickadees and goldfinches follow, only to scatter when the woodpecker returns.  Gray squirrels loading up on provisions from the riches beneath the feeders.

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New CPAP mask and hose.  Slept 8 and 1/2 hours, but mask seal score 14/20 with online notation, 'adjust mask.'

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Albert Camus:

". . . in the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.  In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.  I realized, through it all, that.. in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy for it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me there is something stronger, something better, pushing right back."  Reminds me of Emmylou Harris:

Precious memories, unseen angels,  Sent from somewhere to my soul. How they linger, ever near me,  And the sacred past unfolds.

Precious memories how they linger,  How they ever flood my soul.      In the stillness, of the midnight,  Precious sacred scenes unfold.

Troubled father, loving mother,  Fly across the lonely years              And old home scenes of my childhood, in fond memory appears

(I had to add that 'troubled father' lyric.😔

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Painted the pupils in Balustrade's eyes early this morning.

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Finished writing a draft of my obit/death notice info for my 'death dossier' for Geri.  For what it's worth:

CHARLES DENNIS CLAUSEN died at _______ on _______, 202__.  

He was born on August 24, 1941, in the Englewood Hospital on the South Side of Chicago.  He lived in the Englewood neighborhood until leaving for college at Milwaukee’s Marquette University in 1959.  He attended St. Leo Grammar School and Leo High School.  At Marquette, he was a midshipman in the Naval ROTC program and president of the midshipmen’s Anchor & Chain Society.  

On graduation in 1963, he was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the U. S. Marine Corps where he served until discharged as a captain in 1967.  He served in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966 as well as on Okinawa and Iwakuni, Japan.  Iwakuni was near Hiroshima and its atom bomb Peace Memorial which then-lieutenant Clausen visited in 1965.  His time in Hiroshima, time in Vietnam, and his experience as a Casualties Assistance Calls Officer during his last year of active duty, coupled with living with his father’s emotional wounds from his Marine Corps service on Iwo Jima in WWII all contributed to a lifelong aversion to warfare, antipathy toward military adventurism, and deep skepticism toward most assurances from military and civilian authorities about military interventions.

After his service in the Marines, Charles Clausen attended Marquette University Law School where he was elected editor-in-chief of the Marquette Law Review and graduated with honors in 1970.  On graduation, he was appointed to the full-time faculty for the following years.  He served on the faculty for more than 29 years, most often full-time but also on the adjunct faculty.  When he wasn’t teaching, he practiced law with the firm of Friebert, Finery, and St. John in downtown Milwaukee.

Over the years, he served on the governing boards of a number of Milwaukee civic, religious, and not-for-profit organizations including the City of Milwaukee Public Housing Authority, Messmer High School, Esperanza Undid, Legal Action of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Bar Association.  He served as treasurer and, for a short time, as president of the Milwaukee Ballet Foundation.  For a number of years, he was a member of the parish council of St. Francis of Assisi parish at 4th and Brown Streets in Milwaukee.  After retiring from the law school faculty, he served from 2000 into 2003 as executive director of The House of Peace, a Capuchin Franciscan community center at 17th and Walnut Streets in Milwaukee.

He is survived by his beloved wife Geri, his daughter Sarah Clausen [Christian Kovacs], son Andrew Clausen [Anh Hoang Clausen, Peter, Elizabeth, Andrew), stepson Steven Kevil [Nicole Onorato], stepson David Kevil [Sharon Celek Kevil, Ellis], nephew Michael Reck and niece Chrissie Reck, Maricopa County, AZ, children of his beloved sister Catherine Clausen Reck, who predeceased him on March 3, 2022.

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Also sent a kind of awkward email to Sarah, copy to Andy, about 'advance planning':

Slogthrop <slogthrop@gmail.com>

1:39 PM (2 hours ago)

Hi, Sweetie. 

       No reason for concern but I'm getting back to work on some end-of-life stuff I started a while ago and put aside, i.e., funeral home and cemetery arrangements.  I've put it off too long and want to take care of as much of that stuff as I can while I can.  I have waffled between burial and cremation and finally decided I want a 'green burial,' e.g., no chemical preservatives, expensive casket, and all that stuff.  Rather a biodegradable cardboard container, and so on.  Forest Home Cemetery on the south side offers this kind of burial in a prairie setting on one edge of their location.  And Schmidt and Bartelt on Port Washington Road in Mequon offers funeral home services which are still necessary even with a 'green funeral.'  Anyway, I'm filling out a bunch of information to pre-file with the Schmidt to save Geri as much logistical, bureaucratic, and administrative rigamarole as possible assuming, as is likely, that I will predecease her.  One of the pieces of information I'm asked to provide is the address(es) of my children.  I have your old address but not your new address.  Could you send me that, please?  Also I need the best telephone number for Geri (or anyone for that matter) to reach you.  Is it the texting number :  +49 176 20023048?  Is there also an alternate number?

     BTW, one of the necessities of a green burial is a degree of promptness since there is no embalming involved.  I mention this only because we are on different continents and there is no predicting what your circumstances may be when I move on, i.e, whether you would be able to make arrangements to hop on a plane to get back to Wisconsin at the drop of a hat.  I do want you to know that I recognized and considered  that fact in nonetheless deciding on a green burial.  I will not be wanting any pre-burial wake or funeral mass though I recognize that those events have some beneficial values for survivors.  I have wrestled most of my life with religious faith and the idea of God, ( at least as I internalized that idea from my years of basically Irish Catholic education) and find myself still pinned to the mat about much of it.  In any event, Geri will be making arrangements for a memorial service of some sort after the burial and she will of course consult with you and Andy about the timing.  I'll copy Andy on this message so we're all on the same page about this matter.❤❤

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