Grampa Robert

Its about time.

2007-07-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

For reasons unknown I have been having quite a time figuring out how to actually post a blog. Everything comes up except what I want. Luke figured it out for me and I think we are under way.
What a great time we had with the DeHarts here with us for ten days. Many of those days they spent elsewhere seeing family and old friends, but we got the lion's share. So much fun. And the trip to San Diego was great. Sam has been pretty shy in the past but that is gone now. When we got aboard the Midway, we got him up into the cockpit of a plane and he loved that. What they did was to cut the front of a twin engine patrol plane off and mount it so you can go up steps from the rear and sit is the pilot's seat. Wiggle the controls, it was great. Then videos of plane landing and some not landing on the carrier. Some crashes in which the pilot and the man in the rear seat ejected moments before the plane hit the water or the ship. Then floated back into the water on the chute.
It was a great day for the five year old boy. Not to mention his great grand parents, we enjoyed it, too. How many have we enjoyed? 12 grands and maybe eight of the greats thus far. First trip was in 1976. Poppa

2007-07-02T08:39:00.001-07:00

This here is a new post

Not quite up to speed

2007-05-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

David got me going and then, once again, I blew it! By posting the thing twice. Well, I guess there is plenty of room out there in cyberspace. Gpa Poppa

Back in business

2007-05-14T12:05:00.001-07:00

For some reason I lost the ability to put up a blog and today David Shack is here and got me reconnected. Not that you missed so much, but it is frustrating not to know how to overcome such things. Luke is a big help but has been pretty busy of late.
Seems like what we are really getting into is the idea of the team evangelism we call The Friendly Corps. Plus an idea popped up from Paul Hansen of putting The Gentle Touch on a website as an effort to teach evangelism. We work along at these ideas and they are great fun and who knows what will come of it all?
Next Sunday we will join Clark DeNoon and his family in a celebration of his getting a Masters at Biola, and when that is over we will go to Cardiff for a couple of days to look at the ocean and eat at The Hungry Hunter. It means my weekly letter will arrive on Saturday as there will be no 'normal' time.
Your grandma had a nice Mother's Day with one and all agreeing that she has been a great one.

Back in business

2007-05-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

What will come of it?

2007-03-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

Some pretty exciting days and the best is yet to come. But one really exciting time was having Heidi pop in for lunch on Tuesday. Now that was a precious time. We realize all the more what we have in our grandkids. Wonderful beyond belief. The best part is knowing it could be repeated 11 times. What a great bunch!! To say nothing of the grands in law! Wow.

But going to, well, not mundane, but other things. In recent months our friends, Clingwald and Hansen have been getting more and more into using TGT and loving it more all the time. Monday this week, a man named Ramesh Richard, a 20 year prof at Dallas Seminary was in Hawaii on a speaking gig. Hansen has known him for a long time. He spoke from John 3 and 4 on evangelism for Hansen's crowd. No notes and an hour and a half. The next morning they were together again and went over TGT in light of what he had had to say.

Here is what Paul wrote to me,
"Was over at his condo and he had read the TGT material. He told me to tell you that he writes a lot of books and has one he would love for you to read on evangelism. He said you wrote in such concise words in TGT and if he did it, it would be at least 100,000 words. He loved it. He told me he has also written a 3 vol set on evangelism. He said the book publishers want nothing to do with books on evangelism. He said we are on to something and we could really see things happen. I have challenged him to try the questions this week. We will talk more about it."

I think that is quite something. After all these years of playing around with the thing, a guy like him sees it. And there is more, but out of space. Well, just this. In April, Hansen is flying over from Maui, Clingwald is coming down from near Santa Barbara and Thom Wayne, who lives near Idllywild, is coming and we are going to have two or three days on how to implement all the stuff we've been talking about.

Low tech frustrations

2007-02-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

While we have news of low temps and ice and snow, out here in Sunny California, we have other things. Like tangerines, oranges, the peach trees beginning to blossom, quite a contrast. Howsomever, we have our days. You will quickly recall that I have been identified as a certified spammer by Verizon, who supplies (ed) my DSL. Had a problem at the end of December and got that staightened out. But not this time. Called the techies (in India) and we talked to three of them. I could barely understand them so mom did the talking. No help at all. Then I went to the local Verizon place where I signed up; for it. They gave us a number of a Supervisor, long talks and zero ability to help. So here we are, Wed. afternoon, and even though the weekend letter went out, I got cut off and can't send anything. However, cleverly, on Monday AM I spoke to the Earthlink people and signed up for their DSL, and I figure it should arrive, the kit, Thursday. Luke will then get it going for me and that will be the end of that. Ever talk to yourself in the mirror? Same thing. No results. So life stumbles on. I find that a blog once a month is just fine. Poppa

Once a month blog?

2007-01-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

Today is the day above every day! January 4th, the day upon, or in, which, I made an entrance into this cruel world. At a place called Burkett Home in Whittier run by an osteopath lady that my mom thought was really wonderful. My brother also saw the light of day there. An osteopath, for some of the younger ones, is an offshoot of a chiropractor, but higher up the scale, having been to a regular medical school. Don't seem to be any these days. So why didn't your folks have more than just you two? At about 18 months I lost my hearing for about two weeks, and my folks, both being deaf, didn't want to bring any more children into a family of deaf parents. I got a bad cold during the summer of 1937 when we'd been to California and were coming back on the bus. By the time we got to Portland I could hear nothing. Took two weeks to find out that a doctor could do a simple surgical procedure and open up the sinuses and get the inflammation pressure off the ear drums. Instantly I could hear again. I feel pretty good that I have gotten to age 83 and can still do fairly well in hearing people. I started off badly. Howard has now begun to wear a hearing aid, he never had the problems I had. The moral of the story? Eat your Wheaties, drink your pomegranate juice and all will be well.

Sore feet, anyone?

2006-12-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Seems like I post about once a month. But then, you should be hearing from me more often, so it more than balances out. We had some wind Sunday night (and today) and on the way to doing something Monday I suppose there were 50 avocados strewn around the front lawn of the down the street place. But no time to stop and help them keep the area nice and neat. Even so we have at least 15 of them in a basket. Haas stay OK without spoiling longer than any other, which is why the growers like them. They are out there for free which is why we like them. But we have a bountiful crop of tangerines, limes and persimmons. Whew! Froze three trays of lime juice tonight and squeezed enough to fill three trays tomorrow. Stick them in the garage freezer for when I need some for my Diet Pepsi. I think we'll take a big basket of them to Friendship, have too many.
I went to an auto parts place the other day and bought an oil pan that slides under the car on the driveway. Two feet by four, and it will catch the diesel fuel leak and not mess up the driveway. The man said it would cost $1800 to fix the injector pump and the car is barely worth that. So for ten bucks I have solved the problem.
Gretchen and Chris Jensen are back from Dallas and you need to ask her to tell you about Abigail DeHart's foot massage business. Or maybe I will have her write a blog about it. That girl is going to change the world.

More ag plus other matters

2006-11-16T12:51:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to see how our avocado crop was doing and here were eleven in the curb. Today on the way to the gym we got 4 more and have some from in between times. We love avocado everything. As Shacklemom says, we like it best smashed on that wonderful whole wheat sourdough Trader Joe's has, toasted. With salt or a bit of lime juice. Wonder if Simon will learn to make WW Sourdough bread? It is a desideratum.
Books have consumed the time of late. A guy who used to be both at Whittier College and in our college group whote a book called, Blah Blah Blah, how to interpret the world's religious talk." It is not a best seller just yet but will be. How to figure out what the prof or friend's world view might be, just by hearing him talk. I am almost done reading it and I can't reccomend it more highly.
The other is "Evolution Exposed" and I have mentioned this one in my letters. I bought 90 of them and don't expect them to be around very long. $5 plus $2 for shipping. The author, a former science teacher teaching evolution, got really twisted trying to make it make sense, then he got saved and began to really look into the thing. The book is a terrific piece of genuine research. Every citation in the three major Biology texts used in all US public schools are examined. He shows why they are false and shows how to ask the teacher questions in a Christ-like way. Wonderful.
Found a drip under the 300D some time ago so installed cardboard on the driveway to catch it. Took it to the garage and they can fix it, but for more than the car is worth. So now we know which car will be our permanent second car from now on.

Ag report

2006-10-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

Down Gregory a block west and down that street about four houses, they have an avocado tree in the front yard. We knew the former owners and they gave them to us from time to time, very nice Haas. Well, the new owners sweep them into the street. Like autmn leaves, they are. We have about 15 of them right now, so we have avocado at any or no provocation. At the same time the guavas are also falling, and so good. Plus the tangerines are getting ripe, you have to look for an orangish tinge, They are really good. Gmother says the persimmons are about ready plus we are still picking luscious tomatoes. Good thing we never have to go to the grocery store!!

Gmother got the disk of her teaching Galatians 2 this AM so we can now listen to her in her finest moments.

Home from Mexico

2006-10-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

What a fun trip! Before we left we asked the Lord to show us who was ready to talk, and boy! Were we ever covered up with people. We got home today (Saturday) at 10 and one thing mom and I are going to do is make a list of the people we had conversations with. Just amazing. We met several really eager Christian couples, that was special. Gave one (well I gave it to two) copy of TGT to a couple from Arizona. Don't actually know their names, but the lady came up to us a couple days after that and said that all her life she had had a bad attitude about the way people witness and TGT fits exactly the way she thought it ought to be, though she had never articulated it. She said she would be Emailing me.

So many lovely Filipino guys and gals, even met a fellow from Transyvania but I mentioned him. Language like Italian. Food. You simply cannot believe the exquisite food they dish out. I got a lot of conversations in Spanish, that was a big joy to see if i could do it well. We were on a tour bus in Puerto Vallarta that was hit by a dump truck, so there was action of several sorts. But get this one! Met a couple who said that was Ship Cruise #60!! Can't imagine wasting time and life that way. Glad to be back and David Shack just arrived to spend three days doing his work from our place. Wonderful.

Back in business

2006-09-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

For some reason my blog got all fouled up and then when it asked for a user name I had forgotten that. Now I know. A very strange name, RobertSeelye, can you imagine such a title? Luke got it figured out for me, such a mish mash of boxes to enter stuff!! It is a wonder that Espen can do it. On the 7th of Oct. Gmother and I are going to take a seven day cruise to Mexico and back. I am not going to take my laptop so will be out of touch for awhile.
Yesterday was a stellar day for us. In the AM Gmother taught Galatians 2 amidst much acclaim. This at WOW. That is is such packed chapter!! She did a great job and next week she will have a CD so I can hear it.
In the PM I did the third gig on TGT and that went well. Their assignment for this week is to go through the dialog once a day with a friend. Love to see that place get moving again.

Tires and what to do with old ones

2006-08-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

Several years ago we invested in a company that was converting old tires to useful products. Based on patents held by Joe Coffin, a 2nd cousin, once removed. Today we went to a stockholders meeting at 1st Friends to see what had become of our money. In it's simplest form, they have weathered the storm and are still in business and are growing. Will our stock ever be worth anything?
Today was also moving day for David and Heather. All their goods except some that were too many for the five boxes they have, are packed and ready to go to Seattle. The rest will follow in due course. House was completely empty, sad to think they won't be around here. Will those trikes in our garage ever get used?

Old freinds

2006-08-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday an old friend from high school days stopped by. He was in Aunt Gloria's class but I knew him and his father very well. His dad was a barber in Whittier and looked like the pictures of Mark Twain. Quite a charachter. This man, Clem, lives in Yorba Linda and goes to Rose Drive Friends and went to Plymouth before they moved out there. He came by to get the new pages on the Malta chapter of the bio. We are both continuously amazed at how closely our thinking patterns are. Early this year we had a letter, as did he, from Untied saying we had unsed air miles, would you like to use them for magazine subs? I took, as did he, a six month sub to Barron's, a business weekly. His wife, as did mom, took a year of Sunset. He invests in mutual funds and has set up mutual funds for their grandkids. Plus all kinds of things. His Gwen avocado tree has no fruit set for next year, same as ours. So it is fun to see old friends and compare notes. And wowee, Shacklemom got her hearing aid fixed for cheap in Manila!! This week Peter and Amanda show up in Cagayan!!

We'll try it again

2006-07-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow the 28th I take Ray Lentzsch to LAX for his three month journey to Europe. He has so many friends that he won't likely spend more than a night or two in a hotel. I am to get him at 8 and get him to LAX by 10:30. With traffic at that time of day I was worried but went to the Auto Club and got a map showing which freeways have commuter lanes, so it will be a breeze.
We had a four man crew from Granada's HS Dept. come today to do chores, for which we put money in the HS fund for camp. Three girls and one guy. Had them do the front of the house, cutting and mowing, mostly.
They were thrilled to see the blue table and chair set under the orange tree. Thought that was a nice thing for great grand kids. Tomorrow Gmother goes to David's and picks up Espen and Abel and we will have them until Saturday sometime. Then they go to an auntie's of Heather and then on Wednesday back to us. Thursday the folks get back from Olympia and the work they are doing on their new house.
Nice to get a phone call tonight from Joy. I have a hard time putting up a blog since much of what I write about each week is my blog. But I wll work at it.

Its been awhile

2006-07-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

One day at a time

2006-07-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

Today the church is having a big picnic (bring your own stuff) and then fireworks at La Mirada Regional. We decided to not go. Too much walking, last time we had to walk half a mile to park and to get the car.
Looking at the lovely pictures of the babies. Just think of all they will be learning, simply amazing.
Reading what Will has written is a joy and a half. Grace, ah, glorious theme! How easy and how elusive. We seem built to strive and how different is the real thing. A couple of months ago I sold a copy of GRACE to a guy at church who always seemed to be striving and never making it. Sunday I saw him and we chatted and then I asked if he had been able to work his way through the book. Wow!! Lit up like the Christmast tree of old!! Put his hand on his heart and said, "No more trying to prove myself." he got the message. Toughest lesson we have to learn, letting God do the work as we stand there watching. So good to have Joy with us at least for a short time. We got to hug her, anyway.

Trains and other matters

2006-06-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Reading Erin's blog about riding an old train around the Ft. Worth Stockyards. Well, yesterday I had quite a long chat with Howard Marshburn who lives near Fresno. He and I have done some train riding together, and the locomotives were powered by steam from burning fuel oil. And you could see them from where you were sitting? Easily, just look straight ahead. Since we were sitting or standing or walking on the tops of the freight cars.

On top? Sure, where else do you ride freight trains? We were hitch hiking through Arizona on our way to Mexico City and at Bowie we could not get a ride, but there was a train, stopped right in front of us. So we hopped on and rode to Deming New Mexico. Hitched into El Paso but the next day could not buy a ride so got on a train going south. Went all day to a place called Sanderson where we got off as the train headed east to San Antonio.

So. Trains. Don't think there are many around who have done that. We even went back to the caboose and had lunch with the guys riding there. So it was fun to talk about such things with Howard.

I wrote this ten days ago and then could not get the blog to open to me. I sneaked up on it today and here we are.

News today is Emelia Marie and John Anders, but you knew that.

Film was GREAT!

2006-06-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

There were about 15, mostly folks like us who were extras or helped with details. But two locals who apparently know or knew nothing of such goings on. For me, it wasn't that much as the sound was hard to hear. but I tried an innovation and put my 2nd hearing aid in my other ear and it helped, which gave me an idea for the future. We were in a room where the big TV was canted in the SW corner with enormous windows on each side. Rick pulled the blinds but way too much light to get the full effect of the film. Even so, I could follow it, mostly, and thought it was great. On the other hand, everyone else thought it was the greatest and each person filled out a very comprehensive questionnaire, except me. Everyone was enthusiastic.
For me I especially loved watching the man go through TGT and 1 Peter 2:24 with "Gino Polecritti. " My name in the picture is Peter and my wife is Barbara and our two little girls are Robin and Gretchen. Later on we have triplets, so things get a bit mixed up, though all actually happened. But in the real world to other people. I really think it will do well, not finished up just yet. Rick has it in the Mac and it is like a Word doc, you can pick up what you want and put it where you want. Amazing. On the way home we stopped at Forex to get some boxes for Shackelmom to take stuff back in.

Movie day!

2006-06-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Today at one gma and I go to the Garside's for a first time showing of the "Faith Happens" film. It is two hours and five minutes long and Rick has maybe ten people coming to see it. Some who know nothing of Granada, and it will be a test to see how they react. Some of the story line comes from my bio, Gino Polecritti and people like that. So this is going to be really fun and I will report when we've seen it.

Merrily we rool along

2006-06-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Reading Erin's blog about riding an old train around the Ft. Worth Stockyards. Well, yesterday I had quite a long chat with Howard Marshburn who lives near Fresno. He and I have done some train riding together, and the locomotives were powered by steam from burning fuel oil. And you could see them from where you were sitting? Easily, just look straight ahead. Since we were sitting or standing or walking on the tops of the freight cars.

On top? Sure, where else do you ride freight trains? We were hitch hiking through Arizona on our way to Mexico City and at Bowie we could not get a ride, but there was a train, stopped right in front of us. So we hopped on and rode to Deming New Mexico. Hitched into El Paso but the next day could not buy a ride so got on a train going south. Went all day to a place called Sanderson where we got off as the train headed east to San Antonio.

So. Trains. Don't think there are many around who have done that. We even went back to the caboose and had lunch with the guys riding there. So it was fun to talk about such things with Howard.

One more. Last year I went to see Dr. David Marshburn about a cataract removal, which he later did. I had filled in the form and where it said, "Who referred you to us?" I had put Howard Marshburn. He said, "How do you know Uncle Howard?" I said, did you ever hear about the trip to Mexico City Howard made in 1946? "Yeah, we've heard it many times, it is a family legend." "Well, I am the guy who went with him." Suddenly instead of being two dimensional I was three.

June first

2006-06-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Used to be that this was the day we started counting fingers for the end of the school year. "No more teachers, no more books . . .!" So what do we count now? How many days until the next great grandchild is born, that is what we count now. How things change. Amazing how one's perspective keeps moving over the years.
Got to musing the other day about our perspective in Christ. On June 1st 52 years ago there was no perspective and I was just winding up teaching the 8th grade SS boys and Gma was doing the same with the primary department. With zero inkling as to what was just ahead of us.
Meeting Jesus Christ and knowing that our sin was forgiven, changed everything. In one special SS hour in October all our close friends became acquaintances or less. Bingo!! Just like that. So June first was when the change began, unbeknownst to us. The wonder of it all.

The Lunch Bunch

2006-05-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Every Friday noon a bunch of us meet at Carl's Jrs. for lunch. Some from Granada and some who are Professors at Talbot Seminary or Master's Seminary. Occasionally others. Today was occasional day. Verl Lindley showed up, a rarity. So much fun to have him just sitting there talking, at church he was always deluged with people, so not much talk.

What made it special for me was that Monday I had given him and Lois a copy of my bio, he had never seen it. This week both he and Lois read the whole thing!! Like he said, it is a history of Granada from my perspecitve and he was just thrilled to read it, as he knew most of it from knowing what was going on at the time.

I am thinking of doing some editing and I might add a chapter or two as things do keep happening. Very little has been written about the grandchildren and even less about the greats. Can you imagine, Ariana is going to be ELEVEN shortly!! Then in September Madeline will be TEN! We are very happy with the way the family is positioned, looking to the Lord four guidance and not to mere men.

Unintended consequences

2006-05-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

We do things and never know where it will go. Spoke by Email the last couple of days with a man going to the new Friends church in Brea. They have about 350 and are excited. So? Well, he is #4 boy in his family and his mom came to the Lord in a Bible study I had in 1961, dad was a believer but had been sleeping for thirty years. All four boys are in ministries, one is a missionary. The folks never slowed down until papa was hit by Als in recent times. The missionary son is in Poland and a couple of years ago he was in charge of a mission get together in Prague. Met a lady from HQ in Michigan who had come to do the children's ministry. Got to talking and "Where are you from?" and he said California. Where in CA? La Habra, near Disneyland. "Well, so am I, grew up there. What church did you go to?" and he said he started in the ME church but they switched to Granada Hts. Friends in La Mirada when he was quite young. She about fell over and said that had been the path of her family and developed her folks had gotten saved in the Bible study we had at the Whiteheads. Smallish world? So you never know, just keep at it.

Well, I tried!

2006-04-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

I was looking at Luke's blog and saw a name of a girl he knew from Doulos. Thought it would be fun to write to the girl and opened her blog. Turned out she was traveling with a friend and was in Cambodia and they were able to look up and stay over night with Peter and Amanda. But in the process I was told I could not add a comment to her blog. But apparently to do it, I had to sign up. Turns out signing up gives a blog of my pwn and I still have not commented to the girl. Peter's blog has not been touched since late October, so no need to go there.