June 20, 2009

Me Teaching English?

I was sitting here reflecting on this last week. Each afternoon I spend time with two very nice Korean young men. They have asked me to tutor them in English. I was flattered when they first asked me the last month to spend 3 hours Monday through Friday teaching and helping them to correctly speak English.

I wasn't sure what to do at first but soon learned that they appreciated the technique I chose to help them pronounce words like an American. We work from 2PM until 5PM each day. I am enjoying them very much. There names are Kiven and Warren and have taught me a lot also.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day so Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I will try and take more photographs as soon as I get new batteries for my digital camera. More later....Dave

June 17, 2009 - #2

I rekindled a Friendship from the Past!

A couple of days ago I was checking my Facebook site to see if there were any new entries. I noticed that a good friend, Bob Johnson had entered some new photographs so I proceeded to check them out. While I was checking out his pictures I ran across a name of a friend on his (Bob's) listing. It was the name Tom Torbert. Instantly my mind started going back checking through my mental files. I suddenly recalled the name "Torbert".

I remembered my parents coming to Perry, Iowa for my basketball games back in about 1957, 58 and 59. They always made a point of visiting a couple that dad said he knew from Spencer, Iowa. The couple's last name was Torbert. Well my memory kept working and I recalled that dad told me John Torbert (I think that was his first name) and his wife Docia and their family lived in Perry. I remembered my mother told me Mrs. Torbert had a somewhat different name, but she went on to tell me her sister also had a different name. I don't remember what mom told me her sister's name was, only that she (her sister) and mom were best friends in high school.

After the years passed and I eventually ended living in Perry in the 8o's, I remember that I stopped to see Mr's Torbert from time to time. I would share with her want my parents were doing and enjoyed visiting with her.

Then somewhere in that time frame we had a son that played basketball and one of the good friends and players was named Jeff Scheib. Bart and Jeff played together and one game I was sitting next to to a lady that said she was Jeff's mother, Linda. We began exchanging conversation and before long we discovered that we were both born in Spencer, Iowa and as my memory serves me she and I thought we were born in the same hospital in Spencer in 1941. I want to think that we were both born around the 21st of August(my birthday), but I am not sure about that memory!

Anyway we also discovered that Linda's maiden name was Torbert and that Docia was her mother. Well at the end of the basketball season Bart came home one day and was very sad. He said Jeff and his family were moving to Colorado.

So far that is what I remember about the flash of past memory that I had. I sent Tom an invitation to be my friend on Facebook with a short statement asking if his dad ran the farmer's grain elevator in Spencer back in the early 40"s and WOW, Tom sent me a response saying he was the one. Well I was just so excited and even more excited when we shared that his Mom was still alive and lived at Spurgeon Manor, a place where I cooked for the residents for over 3 years back a few years after my wife died from a brain tumor.

I went to Tom's web site and found pictures of his family what a great feeling I had remembering everyone....Docia, Bob and Linda Scheib and Jeff. And Bob's camera ability was awesome! In fact I made one of his photographs my desktop background. Below I have included a few of his family photo's that I can relate to from Tom's site ...and I am sure Bart will enjoy also.


Docia Torbert










the Scheibs
Jeff, Linda, Bob and Matt









Tom and Linda

June 17, 2009

One Way to Relax is to Meditate!

I have found that a good way for me to Relax from everyday events is to sit here at my computer and reflect. Sometimes I reflect on my past, my childhood, my family, my move here to the Philippines or just let my mind go.

I spend a lot of time meditating and working here on my computer. I write, play simple games (like cribbage and dominoes) or just spend time checking my email and going to different web sites. (I think it is called "surfing the net!")

I have a couple of other Blogs on here, but I was thinking I would have another where I could just share my thoughts of the day. Also now that I am set up on "Facebook" I could share with friends there some of the things I have done in the past and things I do now to occupy my time now that I am retired.

I also want to share as many photographs as I can to add some "pazazz" to my Blog. So first let me Welcome you to this Blog and please feel free to add comments and sign the Guestbook. I will try and keep this Blog as simple as possible.