11/28/24

 Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2024

D+23

1994 Jeffrey Dahmer was clubbed to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver in the Columbia Correctional Institution gymnasium

In bed around 9:15, up at 4:05.  It's 26° outside, with a wind chill of 15°, and an expected high of 32°.  Yikes, brrrr.  Lilly showed up at 6:35 by which time it had warmed up to 27° as I let her out and Ghassan, bundled up, and Athena walked by on Wakefield.

Prednisone, day 198, 7.5 mg., day 14.    Prednisone at 5:00.  Sore shoulders. 2 cookies at 5:20.  Morning meds at 7.

Dinner at Andy's and Anh's.  Geri and I split up today, she at David's  and Sharon's house with Elllis, Steve and Nikki, and others, me at Andy's and Anh's with Peter, Lizzie, Drew and Anne.  I had a lovely time schmoozing and eating and my worry about the custard pie ended up be a waste of emotion.  The pie was delicious and enjoyed by everyone.  Andy's quite the cook; his turkey was moist and tasty and was accompanied by stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, and brussels sprouts - all very tasty.

Thanks-giving.  I'm thankful for my wife who keeps me alive, on course, on an even keel, as balanced as I can be, and who teaches me every day how to live properly.  I'm thankful for my former wife, Anne, who shared with me our early adulthoods and brought our two children into our worlds and nourished and flourished them.  I'm thankful for my mother who loved, protected, and nourished me and for becoming friends with my father at my age of 55 and his of 75.  I'm thankful for my children and my grandchildren and for my stepsons, Steve and David.  I'm thankful for Christian and Anh, Nikki and Sharon and Ellis.  I'm thankful for my sister Kitty, who held me dear throughout her life and was my daily communicant, confidante, friend, and advisor in her last years.   I'm thankful for our friends and for the friends I've lost, especially Ed Felsenthal, Tom St. John, and David Branch.  I'm thankful for the rich friendships I regretably let slip away, especially Vicki Conte and Ara Cherchian.  I'm thankful for Larry Anderson.  I'm thankful for decades of dinners with Caren and Dan Goldberg and David and Pip Lowe.  I'm thankful for Tom Devitt, Bill Hendricks, Jerry Nugent, Joe Daley, Cam Wakeman, and the whole Notch House gang.  I'm thankful for good neighbors starting with Carl and Ann Semrau ('movin' on up, to a deeluxe apartment in the sky') and then so many more; Lance and Mary Ann Herrick, the FitzGeralds, John McGivern, Howard Schoenfeld/Paula Simon, Reuben PetersonCheri Bubrick, John/Debbie MacGregor.  I'm thankful for Mr. Kelly, who kept us fed 'on the cuff' during hard days.  I'm thankful for Brother Coogan who extended himself to extend me and my classmates.  I'm thankful for Wally Halperin, my first Jewish friend and Dave Sinclair, my first Protestant friend.  I'm thankful to Moses and his bible in the guard shack at 73rd and Emerald, my first Black friend, and to Major and then General Frank Peterson, a later Black friend.  I'm thankful for Father Matthew Gottschalk and our daily morning and afternoon chats.  I'm thankful for Uncle Hardy and Aunt Evelyn.  I'm thankful for my Uncle Jim who gave me my first bike, a green J. C. Higgins, and took me to Brookfield Zoo and Riverview and Comiskey Park, and taught me how to drive stick-shift in south side Chicago alleys in his exterminator's panel truck.  I'm thankful for Ray J. Aiken, 'Old Miscellaneous', who mentored and loved me.  I'm thankful for Bob Friebert for what he taught me about the law and about living. I'm thankful for Lilly, and for Blanche, and for Ralph, Bear & Ruby, for Alley, for Freckles and Cookie who sits on kitty's and my lap in the photo,  and for all the pets who have enriched and softened my life, even the hamsters., parakeets, turtles, and goldfishes.   I'm thankful to the many physicians, physicians' assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, and therapist and medical technicias of all kinds who care for me at the VA.   I am thankful to the techeers of all sorts who have helped e learn, especially those who have inspired me to continue learning outside of schools and classrooms.  There are many more to whom and for whom I am thankful, people who have helped me along the way over the last 83 years.  

 Christine Cummings Klaer.  My cousin Christine died yesterday.  Her daughter Colleen called me from Lamont, Ill., where she and Chris lived with Colleen's husband Alex.  Chris would have turned 84 in January had she lived.  We were only 5 months apart in age and were close friends in our childhood and youth.  She died of granulomatosis, a rare autoimmune diseaste that affected mainly her lungs and kidneys.  She started home hospice on Tuesday of this week and died on Wednesday, peacefully, with Colleen, her brother Jim, and other family members with her.

Anniversary thoughts.  I was only a degree or two removed from Jeffrey Dahmer and a few degrees separated from his murderer.  Dahmer was represented in court by Gerry Boyle, my Schroeder Hall freshman dorm counselor and lifelong casual friend, and by Gerry's daughter Bridget Boyle, who was my student at MULS.  Christopher Scarver's family were users of services at the House of Peace.  Before his arrest, Dahmer worked at the Ambrosia Chocolate factory in downtown Milwaukee.  When I was a student at the law school, in the warm months the windows would be opened to let in fresh air and, if the wind was easterly, we would smell chocolate from the factory all day.