Bene Diction Blogs On: Bureaucracy
Frank Herbert, better known for the Dune series of SF novels, also wrote (in his Dosadi books) about a Bureau of Sabotage, whose main function was to throw monkey wrenches into overly efficient bureaucracies.
Miscellany: June 2004 Archives
It seems like last Thursday was more than just a few days ago. My time sense is so horribly distorted. Let's see - Wednesday just before midnight I attended a truly awesome birth. Thursday AM as I was home John called me on my cell to tell me that Janice had died. Thursday PM I went ahead and got on the plane to Chicago. Friday I blogged about below. Saturday all day - the Marquette conference (which was awesome, BTW) - where I had the pleasure to meet Kevin Miller in person. He is a really neat guy and an excellent speaker and the conference was so healing. It was just great to be around persons who take seriously the church's teachings on life and sexual morality, and the closing mass was strengthening. Saturday night after Mass I drove 70 miles to Beloit to visit a midwife friend I hadn't seen in person since 1997. Stayed up till midnight talking, got up 0430 to drive back to Chicago to get on a plane home. Came home for a couple hours and then drove John back to the airport to catch a plane to the other coast for Janice's funeral.
Unfortunately for us, it was scheduled for Monday morning (tomorrow) - and dear daughter has finals M and T and there was no way to reach teachers over the weekend and there was not time to try to get creative finding affordable air fares.
The one upside of our being unable to fly out for the funeral was that I didn't have to cancel the scheduled rendezvous with the estimable Peony Moss, Mr Moss, and of course the extremely well behaved Hambet. It is so great to be able to meet fellow members of St Blogs in real life. What always surprises me is when I am recognized right off. We spent a couple of hours over dinner etc just talking about all kinds of everything.
Anyhow, I should probably get to sleep soon - have to get up early to take dear daughter to school for finals. Sleep is good, and it is a good that I have been short on lately.
Posting this from the Border's cafe in Milwaukee.
I had an interesting flight into Chicago last night - rain and all that. Manchester NH was blue skies and sunny, but Chicago was anything but. The SWA flight I was on took off nearly 1/2 hour late, but still got on the ground fairly close to the original arrival time booked. Heard behind me as we were deplaning (from a business traveler who changed plans at the last minute as we were leaving Manchester), "United can't even get off the ground and Southwest lands early, as usual."
Drove from Chicago to Milwaukee in steady rain, listening to jazz on Chicago Public Radio until the signal got too scratchy - then popped in the CD I had brought along of Ralph Vaughn Williams hymns sung by the Oxford choirs. Learned that Mr. Ray Charles died, seems to be a lot of death around these days. May he rest in peace and one day join the angelic choirs, his vision restored.
Got up this morning later than expected but still managed to pick up Karen Marie in enough time to make it to morning Mass - alas, we missed morning prayer. I gave one of my copies of Jeff's wonderful little prayer booklet and she gave me a couple of hand-made rosaries - one knotted and one beaded, along with a little one decade rosary. We sat and talked over breakfast at a local cafe. She then played tour guide as I drove around the city. I will confess that we mostly stayed in the car. I usually pack lightly for these kind of trips, but I packed a little too lightly this time - no coat, no hat - and has been raining steadily since I got off the plane.
In a couple of hours I am meeting up with a couple more friends for dinner, and then back to Marquette for the opening of the conference.
We still haven't heard exactly about funeral plans for Janice - it may end up with only my husband going depending on what we can find for air fare and affordability. Also, our youngest has finals until Tuesday. So we shall see what happens.
Thanks again for all your prayers.
Nathan says what I should have about Mr. Reagan. Frankly, I have been hesitant to say anything, because I am probably in the minority in St Blogs in that I have never liked the man nor agreed with most of his policies. Still, he is a Christian, a child of God, and he died one of the more horrible ways that age can take one - dementia leading to pneumonia leading to death. So thank you Nathan, for pointing out those important facts, and I will pray for Mr. Reagan among "all the faithful departed".
