Well, it's been more than a month of Sundays since I last posted on Sundays in Cincinnati--it's been very close to two months. Not that there hasn't been anything to say. In fact, there's been too much. I am much busier here, and have a fuller life, than I did back in Spain, when I started the predecessor to this blog and wrote faithfully almost every Sunday.
So where, on this last Sunday before Labor Day, has the summer gone?
Two trips to Orlando. The first at the end of June for the American Library Association annual conference, where I also was able to begin helping my 92-year-old aunt prepare for moving into the assisted living facility in the community she has lived happily in independently for ten years, and for which she was now on a waiting list. That trip also occassioned an emotional visit to the site of the Pulse massacre, just a week after it happened. ALA had observed the tragedy with a moving service on the opening day of the conference, at which Congressman John Lewis' appeared.
The second trip to Orlando was just this past week, when I joined my sister Nancy to help with the actual move to assisted living. Again a very emotional time, as our remaining blood relative from that generation faced this loss of independence. We managed the details and left her in a stable and trusted environment, and she has recovered her native optimism and forward-thinking stance and is well on the way to making new friends as long as still seeing her old bridge friends. An unexpected benefit for me was the hospitality of one of Nancy's friends from high school, who provided a glass of wine each evening in a beautiful environment, a change of pace and concerns, and many fun moments as we recalled days from the past and learned what we had done in the almost 50 years since I had last seen her.
Volunteer efforts. I had made a commitment at the beginning of the summer to work two mornings each week at Catholic Charities to help in their efforts at resettling refugees in Cincinnati. I honored that up until the final weeks when schedule intervened. I also made a few trips to a different agency, Heartfelt Tidbits, which also teaches English to Nepalis from Bhutan, some of whom have spent 20 years in a refugee camp before being admitted to the USA. I have learned a lot about the resources available for teaching English as an additional language and about the hurdles that these people go through to gain a better life. No one chooses this path on a frivolous whim; in fact, they have little choice in which of the many countries throughout the wold they are sent to at all.
Lately Johannes and I have been out registering voters for the upcoming (but not soon enough!) election. We have concentrated on identifying Latinos who are US citizens and might not otherwise have voted before. We've learned a lot about the political process. I expect that effort will shift to getting people to the polls as we get to election day.
I was also one of about 300 volunteers at the International Federation of Library Associations' World Library and Information Congress in August, held this year in Columbus, Ohio, just up the road a piece. IFLA is always interesting and provides the opportunity to meet people from many countries of the world--this year 145. I was stationed in the expo hall for two days and learned about The History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society, and how the city of Columbus came to be the capital of the state. My third volunteer stint was in the main hall on the last formal day of the conference in the Internet area, where I spoke with lots and lots of delegates and learned that many US Internet service providers--and especially the one supplying the Columbus convention center--routinely block emails sent to many African nations.
Other fun stuff. I attended several OLLI single session lectures on areas of Cincinnati history and culture (theater, publishing, Prohibition, philanthropy). I had lunch or brunch with a couple new friends from my Unitarian-Universalist congregation. I went to two new musical events, and in addition to enjoying the music, experienced two lovely family estates now reformed as foundations. I met with the Scandinavian Scribblers and the Readers, and my other book group and a women's group, and my regular Sisters (my own) gathering once a month. And on the work front, I weathered the demise of my tasks related to publication on an old platform and recreated a life as customer service rep on the new platform.
Today is sunny and clear and cooler than it has been in this otherwise hot and humid summer--much hotter and more humid than last year, at leaf as I remember it. Tomorrow is Labor Day, and it feels like fall is coming. I wore my all-white pants and top outfit to church this morning, with the white shoes that I laugh about not wearing after Labor Day. I think we still have many more warn days ahead, but there is something about that change in the calendar that says we are moving along to colder weather.
There is one thing I had really wanted to do this summer that I didn't: I didn't ask the Cincinnati Parks department to build a petanca court. Maybe next year.
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