Braddock Road

Where did the sand go?
Butterfly fluttering by -
Pace, space, rat race.

Potomac Services Chimney Repair

The words that caught my eye when I googled "chimney repair" were "certified" and "veteran-owned". My concerns about my chimney were brought to me by my roofing contractor, who showed me water damage to the chimney . When the words "water damage" were uttered, I knew I needed a pro, which is why I called Potomac Services to schedule an appointment.

15 minutes early, in a shiny new van, my chimney pro arrived.. He used a high resolution pole camera that allowed him to inspect the entire chimney for signs of damage, so I was able to see for myself signs of structutal damage caused by chimney fires, a hidden danger of which I had been unaware.

In reviewing the real-time images with me, my certified chimey pro explained the process for applying liquid ceramic which his technicians would use to seal the chimney and restore structural integrity. He advised that he would provide a document for me to submit to my insurance company.

While I am awaiting that report, I am totally confidenr that I called the right people. When the job is done, I'll update my review.

Marie Kondo

For me, Marie Kondo's methods have found  me at the right time.  The past 20 years have been turbulent, and my basement and workspace clutter reflected how out of control my life had become. My decisions or non-decisions to hang on to possessions and pile them rather than dispose of them with gratitude, reflected my anxiety of desperately just hanging on financially as a husband, father, career-switcher. For the first summer as a teacher, I did not work a summer program to "maintain my skills", but I have, instead, focused on getting my house in order.

Having the audiobook alliowed me to listen on the long drive home from the beach. When I returned home, per Marie Kondo, the first area I addressed were my clothes,. I found it surprising how comforting ir was to ask, does it bring me joy? or separate my drawers using shoeboxes, folding clothes and placing them edgewise,

Meanwhile, as live-Tweeting the Mueller Testimony brought another chapter in my life to a close, cleaning my own house the Marie Kondo way has connected me spiritually to the decluttering that needs to occur on a national level. Just as I have had to make urgent decisions of what to dispose of and what to store, Mueller's testimpny about his prosecutory decisions also reflected the investigation's decisions of what to dispose of and what to store.

Since the Marie Kondo way emphasizes cleaning house all at once, in deciding what to dispose of and what to store, I've been forced to reckon with what I find most important. America faces a similar set of existential decisions.

Scale

I just completed Scale by Geoffrey West, narrated by Bruce Mann on my Audible app. Try Audible and get it free.

An elephant, but a scaled up mouse; fractals as naturally crinkly  borders Sysiphus, not merely tasked with rolling a boulder up the hill but at an ever accelerating rate; growth plotted on a logarithm curve over time; sublinear & superlinear scaling - big ideas, chunked,.

Launch of Justice University

As tough a year as I've had since being a rookie teacher - mantra: my toughest classes make be better. Learning how to use Google Classroom, & Google Docs in innovative ways. Was dragged into all day prof development in how to scaffold academic discourse - surprisingly, I loved it

Several of my kids came to me broken, hostile to learning, which has forced me to dig deep.

Yesterday, went to my dad's 89th birthday party, which was also the official launch of Justice University. My dad wrote:
"Justice University was conceived to overcome the rigidity within the global university world to the "Just Third Way" paradigm's critique of traditional and competing economic paradigms."

Having had a front row seat to his life's work, l understand the importance of controlling the message, & initially the focus will be on developing a certification program. I'll help set up his initial Google Classroom & Google Docs, & help him set up a colkaborative format. Need to learn Pear Deck, an ievaluation system that integrates w/Google Docs.

We had, on the conference call, an ally who wa Lech Walesa's communications manager, who has been getting white papers into the hans of world leaders. I spent time with an old family friend who co-founded the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In the early 60's,  our friend & 2 foreign svc agents from Russia ate dinner at our house. Back then, my dad was calling Kelso's work "the Capitalist Revolution." My dad would have me toast at dinner, "up the capitalist revolution!" And I did that at dinner that night. Years later they would inquire, how's our little capitalist?"

I learned about how our friend, Bob Crane, brother of Phil Crane, had been fired as Kissinger's Dep. Dir of ... (not sure what) because he had written a book w/ a preface by Gerald Ford, that espoused a view that American policy must take moral positions. I understand now why Kissinger groomed Kushner.

Anyway, crazy busy w/upcoming testing season

Social Justice in action

Yesterday, I thought I had my mic on while I was typing furiously on OneNote while my dad was telling one of his social action stories from Greenwood, Mississippi, where Bob Moses, a leader of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, was at a church organizing black congregationists to submit protest ballots at the courthouse. The national press corps had surrounded the courthouse, expecting a scene. The sheriff had threatened to jail anyone who tried to submit a protest ballot. My dad, wearing a black suit, black shoes, and a black briefcase, negotiated  with the Sheriff. "You're one of Bobby Kennedy's boy?" the sheriff drawled. My dad smiled. "Why do you have that camera?"

I won't use it if I don't need it."

The sheriff agreed to let the parishioners submit their protest votes as long as there wasn't any trouble.

Nothing happened, to the disappointment of the national press.

But my mic wasn't on. Very frustrating.