☼ meistersinger

[meistersinger]

I know I'm late getting this up here, but with having to move (and to a lot more inexpensive place, Thank God. $390 per month for a room with ALL utilities paid, INCLUDING Comcast Cable and Internet.) Anyhow, enjoy!

[meistersinger]

Now that I'm finally settled in my new room, I can start to do what I want to do for once. I did spend less than 600.00 for new furniture (a bureau, a filing cabinet, a bookshelf, a twin mattress, a JVC receiver, a technics turntable, JVC dubbing cassette deck, an admiral cd changer, and an Akai open reel deck, all from the Salvation Army Store in Dallastown. I can now digitize tapes that were in the choir library of their long-time choir director (from 1930-1980) he made back in the 1950's. I'm doing this as a mustard seed project, with the proceeds from the sale of the CDs to benefit the music program at the church (which needs the money badly.). While listening to these tapes, I heard a string quartet where I recognized two of the players. The principal violinist was my English teacher when I was a senior in high school. FANTASTIC violinist, but a BORING English teacher. The violist is my attorney's wife grandfather. I contacted my attorney and let him know what I found. He called me back and asked me to send the files to his home email address, as he wants to burn the files to cd, and give it to his wife on Valentine's day, and give it to his brother-in-law for his birthday, which also falls around valentine's day. They've always treated me well, for the 35 years I've been at this congregation intermittently.

As to where I'm currently living, there a 3 other guys living here. The only other person here with me during the day is Justin, who's currently on Workman's comp. He's divorced, and has 2 boys, ages 6 and 2. They fight, like most kids do at that age, so if it gets bad, I leave and go for a walk. Dairyland Square shopping center is nearby, so I can easily walk there to do my grocery shopping, get supplies at the dollar store. Rite-aid is nearby, as well as a McDonalds, a Hardee's, a Papa Johns, etc. At least I don't have to do much driving.

Steve is a fairly young guy from Ohio. He's an engineer working for a DoD contractor. (I'm here, been there, done that, have the t-shirt, considering how the government treats contractors. It hasn't changed from the days I worked for NRaD detachment in Warminster, PA, and for the Army DCSOPS Information Management Support Office at the Pentagon.). He usually doesn't get home from work until late, so I don't see him much.

Ryan just graduated from York College, with a degree in Political Science. He's not decided what he wants to do yet. He's considering graduate school. He's currently working driving delivery truck for one of the local restaurants, driving to Philadelphia several nights a week to pick up groceries for the restaurants. He's also trying to scrape up enough money to take the GRE. I told he he might also want to take the Miller Analogies test, since a lot of grad schools are now accepting that exam instead of the GRE.

I've also started to cook more, rather than eat out. I've made 3 Pennsylvania Dutch specialties in the past week, namely, chicken corn soup, ham bean soup and ham and green beans. I've offered it to everyone here. So far, Justin and his family have taken me up on my offer. He's said my cooking is pretty good, considering I could never cook before.

As for Doc, he was attempting to harass my brother and sister-in-law (the one with the two low functioning autistic children). I told my sister in law I'd speak to Doc's mother, and see if she can straighten him out. I sent my brother a link to Verizon's telephone harassment page, in case Doc wants to cause more trouble, since he's still on probation, and will be sent back to jail if he's arrested again. I should have listened to my uncle Cowboy, when he told me Doc was nothing but trouble.

The only thing that has gone wrong so far were 1) I had a minor tiff with Justin regarding the wash, which was settled quickly. 2) I had to buy a new Mac Mini, an iPhone, and a new iPod, since The hard drive in my iPod crashed, the IOS 6 upgrade screwed up my iPhone 3GS, and my Mac mini was getting long in the tooth (especially when trying to do this project for the church, since some of those tapes need major cleanup after being digitized.). The catalytic converter broke loose under my car coming home from the church this afternoon, so I left it at a garage in York that replaced my starter this past summer. The mechanic estimates about 200.00 to weld the converter back in place, do state inspection, and change the oil. I called the church and the assistant pastor gave a lift back to the townhouse, since she lives in Loganville, which is not too far away.

So far, no major problems. I'm now waiting on vocational rehab to come through with funds for a pc, should I need it for NTI, which contracts out telecommuting services for the disabled. I've also printed business cards to get students, build pc and transfer LP and tapes to digital format, on a casual basis, now that I don't have to put up with the first shirt and Gettysburg, let alone Doc.

[Skyler]

Have you been able to settle in at the motel? How are you doing, how are your neighbors? Hope your car is okay now.

 

Things may not have worked out for you at doc's but he was a port in the storm when you needed one. Hopefully there was more gain than pain?

[meistersinger]

It's been a while. The only reason I'm up this late is I'm suffering from both a cold and sinus infection.

 

Since the last time I was here, a good bit has happened. Doc finally got it through his thick head about me being ASD. He's been a lot nicer to me since (although I wish he would stop the vitriol against his mom, his brothers, and his aunts. His mom's Parkinson's has gotten worse since I moved out. Yes I've noticed the changes myself, but considering how progressive Parkinson's can be, he still is trying to get her to be ramrod straight like she was 40 years ago, when we were both in high school.) What really frustrates me with him is that, for all his faults, he'd give you the shirt off his back. I've seen him do it plenty of times. It's also how I managed to get another car, since the Saturn's wiring harness caught fire underneath the dash earlier this year, along with going through 3-5 quarts of oil a week, and the transmission starting to slip. I ended up in a 99 Ford Escort at 200.00 for the next 15 months. While I'm not fond of buy-here/pay here, Doc and his mom both recommended this dealer/garage, as they both have done business with them for years.

 

I have also left the church I've been a member at for the last 20 years, and where I was their tenor soloist, and tenor section intermittently for the last 37 years. I've had difficulty with what the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been espousing since their founding back in the late 1980's, with the merger of the former Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in Canada and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. In particular, I have big problems with the ordination of openly gay clergy, the sanctification of same-sex marriage, and the big one, the demasculization of the Holy Trinity, especially in the liturgy and hymnody, as well as theology. It all came to a head when the pastoral staff forced the resignation of the congregation's director of traditional music. The previous director retired in 2013, and his successor had impressive credentials: Graduate of the Armed Forces School of Music, and a career music director/organist in the Army Chaplin Corps. His last duty station was the Carlisle Barracks and the Army War College in Carlisle, PA. The pastoral staff pulled the same stunt on him that they pulled on my attorney's wife almost 10 years ago, when she was music director. What really confuses people about me is, I really don't care what you do with me, but don't you DARE do it to my friends. Anyhow, there is a Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod congregation on the other side of the hill from where I was that I decided to check out, since a buddy of mine from IUP grew up in that congregation. The first Sunday I was in attendance, I looked at their bulletin, to see who's who. Turns out the organist is a buddy of mine from high school. He and his twin brother and I also played in the same community band while in high school and college. I haven't seen either of them in 40 years. I did talk to both the pastor and his wife, and found out they graduated the year after me from IUP. They sorta remember me as that nut that did the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera/Lyric Opera of Chicago shift at the campus Radio Station. Further, Pastor's roommate his freshman year was a music major, so he probably knows some of the same people I know from the music department, as well as the marching band. In addition, the president of the congregation is also an IUP alumni, and played in the marching band, as well as the men's glee club, back in the 1960's. He recently retired as one of the three marching band directors at one of the schools near Gettysburg. I asked if he knew my niece, Gettysburg daughter's. He's here, you're her uncle? Yep. What's she up to? She's now a senior editor for all the high school physics textbooks for Macmillan Publishing. She and her boyfriend are living in Austin, TX, where's he's a doctoral fellow at UT-Austin in astrophysics. Well, as focused as she is, at least she's doing something useful, was his reply. Finally, the choir director, realized i was looking at joining, and already knew who I was by reputation. She now has a tenor section. I couldn't place who she was initially, until she told me her maiden name.

 

I also had surgery done recently. I have been complaining about my wrists for years, and while I've tried getting the horn out of the case a few times, it was plain too painful to play. After 3 of my fingers curled under at my D.O. Office during a routine checkup, and I started screaming bloody murder during the checkup, he sent me to an orthopedist. Sure enough, after all the tests, I have carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists, as well as a pinched nerve in my left elbow, and a large corn on my left big toe, in addition to peripheral nerve damage, no thanks to diabetes. I already had the right wrist operated on, and don't have the numbness any more in the right hand. I'm holding off on the left hand until after the new year.

 

As for around the house, I'm ready to keelhaul my one roommate, who's acting more and more like a jackass every day. I understand now why his wife kicked him out. I can understand why the Army kicked him loose with a less than honorable discharge.. Hell, his sons have more horse sense than he has, and they are 6 and 4, respectively. While he was diagnosed ADHD in school, he's old enough to be a responsible person, instead of the drunken lowlife he has become. Even Doc can't stand the guy, especially with the way he acted with me at Doc's place. My roommate started extremely stupid after a few sips of vodka and beer and a few hits of the wacky weed. He tries to shadow box at me, which Doc took offense at. He told the guy, be glad you're not black and from the 'hood, since quite a few of the brothers would knock the living sh!t out of you for doing that to anyone the consider to be a brother, black or otherwise. Hopefully, the landlord will toss him if he fails one more time to pay his rent.

[Altostrata]

Good to hear from you, meistersinger. It sounds like you are doing pretty well, overall.

[Skyler]

Hey there meister... glad to hear you are still 'kickin' Glad you stopped in to give an update!

[Altostrata]

I added our cheerful "here comes the sun" symbol

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to the title of your Intro topic, to show you're recovering.

Please continue to let us know how you're doing. I hope you will add your story to our Recovery Success Stories eventually!