MAY-C-8

IN A RAINY RUN-UP TO AN EVEN RAINIER MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, A SERIES OF FAST-PACED CHANGES AND LONGER TERM RESOLUTIONS TAKES PLACE

IN AN UNANTICIPATED RUSH OF OPPORTUNITIES:

HAITI TRAVELS, A NEW TRUCK, SWAPPING VEHICLES,

A “PHANTOM” CONTRACT,

AND THE “FOGGY BOTTOM INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH” AND POTENTIAL SPONSORS THEREOF

May 22-25, 2003

Some days it seems as if nothing is happening despite efforts to move things along—like the efforts toward the Human Sciences PhD, the completion of several books which are now held by the publishers which have either gone defunct (J & S Publishing) or are not answering repeated emails about the past due status of the book now three years past due (Landes BioScience). It had seemed that we were getting nowhere on the Derwood remodeling because of the counterclaims holding it up, and there were several unsettled matters on major projects in personal and professional plans. And then, some days, there is a rush of everything at once toward some completion at often unexpected timing.

BIG PLANS FOR GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE

AND FOR THE MEDICAL MISSION TO HAITI—

TO WHICH I MIGHT NOW BE TRAVELING IN JUNE—

TWICE!

I had spoken with the Senator Bill First at Commencement at which he was the speaker and had arranged with his personal aid to have a meeting during the congressional recess, at the same time my commencement platform seatmate Peter Hotez was asking me if I wanted to direct a Global health Institute he had put together in the planning process tentatively called the Foggy Bottom Institute. When I had informed him that Bill First’s father had founded HCA from which the family fortune had originated, the idea began to take shape that we might be discussing the “First Institute.” We are arranging to meet with him the first week of June.

Right after this news, I called Dr. Fournier, in Miami, who directs Project Medishare for Haiti. He was excited that I could join in the group with the students from GWU and start up a regular exchange with a rural village near Cange where Paul Farmer is. Paul Farmer had also contacted me by email, but had asked the dates, which Ellen Power had given me as June 8—14. When Paul emailed back, he was alarmed that he would be gone during the first part of that period fund-raiding in the US, in Alabama, I believe. I had replied that the dates were flexible for me, and I might be able to re-arrange them, when I got the call from Dr. Fournier that he wanted me to make a second trip to Haiti only a week later, to go to Port au Prince, since the Haitian ambassador was hosting a meeting showcasing this project and they would have several very influential people there for the presentations, including representatives of the Gates Foundation and the Soros Foundation, and he wanted to have me there for this support. I called the group back and asked if we could move the students’ dates back so that I could make one trip and appear both in the villages with the students, satisfy Paul Farmer’s request for a later date when he could return and host me at Cange, and then go to Port Au Prince for the meeting all in a single trip. I was told that the dates for the students were fixed and that these were two very different kinds of trips and I might just have to take two tips to Haiti even if they were nearly back to back. So, my mid-June schedule is still somewhat uncertain.

INTEGRATING HOUSE REMODELING PLANS

WITH TRAVEL SCHEDULE

I had hoped to meet with both Dale Kramer as scheduled June 18, and the designers, Sandy and Megan, who will put on order the appliances and furniture which should then be ready about the time it would be needed in the remodeling. Dale Kramer had come over on Wednesday morning with the architect Ivan to prepare the final architectural plans on the changes and the upstairs modifications to the master bedroom and bath there with a walk-in closet consolidating the two northern exposure bedrooms. The plans on finishing the basement and the cedar closet in the attic were also added, and the window subcontractor came over to measure and make plans for replacing every window in the house—even the windows in the attic.

I wrote to Tom and Sherrie to ask when they were planning to come down since immediately after they leave to go back there arte two other items on my calendar before I take off for six weeks in India: one is the fate of the Bronco, and the other is that I will have to go through the entire house and sort and pack all things, to be crammed into the two southern facing bedrooms where they will be sealed off until only the last minute when they are opened to tear out their windows in replacing them as well. I had written to see if I could join in a container already booked for Africa (see May-C-7) and will have additional medical supplies to be picked up in Dorchester County on my trip there this weekend. Perhaps I can even get some storage utility for such supplies and all the stuff that will go one way to Africa in the storage shed out back. The only time there now is the lawn mower over which I have been jerking the starter rope so often that I had given up after three days of trying with the constantly wet weather preventing the mowing under any circumstances. Finally, on Tuesday, I came home early on the one brief period when it was not raining, and took apart the dirty carbreurator and its filter and sprayed some gasoline in the mower’s intake, and it started. So, I quickly gave all the grass its first cutting of 2003 (only a couple of months since the snow had been three feet deep over the same leaf litter and fallen branches) and got it down just as it started raining again.

FIRST DENTAL WORK IN FORTY YEARS:

RESTORATION OF MY AMALGAM THAT HAD BEEN PLACED

IN THE ONLY SIX WEEKS PERIOD OF MY LIFE WHEN I EVER HAD

A CAVITY—AT AGE EIGHTEEN!

I went to my dental appointment on Wednesday morning and had my teeth cleaned, and Joan Moretti had saved some dental supplies for my next mission. At the same time I had an appointment with the dentist, Thomas Glass who had said that one of the “restorations” in my upper left bicuspid had a crack in the side of it and he would advise replacing it with the newer porcelain filling. So, for the first time since I was eighteen, I had a local anesthetic and a drilling out of the cavity that had been filled, with a trimming around the sides and a filling of it with the new high tech materials, along with a view of it all on the high resolution image intensifier screen.

The assistant to Dentist Glass was Alphonzo, a licensed dentist in the Philippines, who cannot get a license in the US, so the gain for Glass is a highly competent assistant. They got to talking with me about my missions and were fascinated about my Mindanao missions. Because Alphonzo comes from Manila, he and Glass both would like to accompany me on the next mission which I told them would probably be in January. So, the dental team is growing by another pair of competent folk whom I highly recommend.

AND, NOW, FOR A RAPID PROGRESS ON THE VEHICULAR FRONT!

A NEW TRUCK COMES TO OWNERSHIP:

A 1998 DODGE RAM 2500 SLT LARAMIE QUAD CAB,

WITH A 24-VALVE CUMMINS 5.7 LITER TURBO-DIESEL ENGINE,

A BUILT-IN GOOSE NECK AND 16,500 POUND TOWING PACKAGE!

Virginia had answered an ad in the newspaper, while looking for the kind of vehicle for which I had Gary Pusey and others out on buying safaris, most of them involving F-250 Lariat package Ford Power Stroke Diesels. Every one I had looked at, even two years or more old, are over $30 K, which seemed a bit excessive for a “second “vehicle for leisure or occasional use, and too big and too costly in low mileage performance to warrant commuting for which I would eventually need a reliable high efficiency gas mileage vehicle to replace the Bronco as my means of getting downtown on a daily basis when I am here. She found a 1998 Dodge, driven 105,000 miles (which should be about one fifth the life expectancy of a big turbo diesel engine) that was loaded (the Laramie package with all leather interior—and immaculately clean) driven by a young fellow who is exercise boy for horse owners, for which reason he had this gooseneck equipped big turbo diesel to pull a four horse trailer. Since the Trailette Apollo Spirit two horse slant steel trailer that Virginia had ordered is due for delivery next week and is already equipped with a gooseneck, and weighs 4500 pounds empty, with Porter weighing in at 1750 pounds, and an as-yet-unnamed companion horse for what is called in the “hunt sports” (not mine, hers!) “hacking.” I checked the internet for the Ram 2500 with the turbo-diesel and its towing package is 15,500 pounds—anywhere from two to three times the margin of safety we would need. For that kind of hauling power I would have only two options—a huge V-8 gas guzzling engine which would get somewhere around eight miles to the gallon in fuel efficiency –like an Excursion—an unconscionable vehicle, even if I did not plan to use it a s a single passenger commuting vehicle---or an efficient Diesel. This one is a V-6, the bigger of the two TurboDiesel engines available by Cummins for this Ram Truck line, a 24-valve as opposed to the 12-valve smaller number and getting 17 mpg on diesel fuel with higher highway cruise with the automatic transmission and on-the-fly 4 WD for the Derwood driveway. So, the truck is now purchased with a down payment in cash, and an already identified financing at the bank in Omaha which holds Virginia’s Audi A-4 title and loan. The truck now awaits the finishing of the trailer, and both are due at the same time, the first of June, the liberation day after Margeaux graduates.

AND, NOW, THE NEXT VEHICULAR RESOLUTION:

A COMMUTING SEDAN WITH A LOT OF VALUE TO IT, WITH A GOOD

GASOLINE MILEAGE, EASY TO PARK AND WITH GOOD PASSENGER COMFORT AND CONVENINCE:

VIRGINIA’S AUDI A-4, QUADRITRACK ALL-WHEEL DRIVE

In looking for trucks, Virginia was chagrined to find that her good Audi, which she has used to commute the long distances to Simpson to teach and (after the rather expensive to maintain BMW was traded in for it) to University of Iowa for her music doctorate degree for which she is at present “ABD” (does this sound like a familiar recent situation?) would be offered a fraction of its Blue Book value in trade in. She could not afford to own two vehicles, especially a large and costly to run commuting vehicle that would be used on weekends to pull a horse trailer as its only specialized function (until it came time to pack up and move a household!) and she did not want to lose money—all her equity—to a car dealer as essentially a higher premium on the truck payments. So, she called the Bank in Omaha that had her Audi title and asked for the balance of the car loan as of May 30. I can simply pay off the loan, which is a little less than Blue Book value presently, and they will transfer the title to me. This would be the commuting vehicle for each of us eventually, replacing the Bronco for my purposes of getting to work. She has a Jeep C-J which Margeaux had been using and will no longer be needing as she graduates on June 1 and leaves on June 2. She already has a buyer for the jeep for $3,000, which is a good deal on selling it, a vehicle rather like the Bronco in that it is of much greater value as rolling stock for someone who can use it than it is a cash purchase. She found out that if she opens an account at the Omaha bank with direct deposit, she can get a car loan for 5.7%, far better than the 9% going rate, and can finance the truck, which she needs there for the puling of the horse trailer, and I will get the Audi at whatever time I need it to takeover from the Bronco retiring to Michigan for another long and good life in faithful service. WE had planned to have me fly out to Iowa in time to have the drive back to stop in Cincinnati for Father’s Day and perhaps in Michigan and a long-shot earlier thought of going to Chautauqua and Mayville new York for the fourth of July—that was before we realized that we would need to be packing up Derwood entirely before my moving out just as I leave for India in mid-July.

All of these plans were in the process of being cooked up and integrated, and I had been digesting the purchase of the truck as I was driving out to BWI to rendezvous with Paul Gibbs and to go out for a sea food dinner at a nearby typical Maryland spot, when an intervening phone call changed even more the whole context of what would be happening next.

UNEXPECTED, BUT, AGAIN, PERHAPS PROVIDENTIAL

PLANS OFFERED IN ALTERNATIVE TO THE SUMMER’S ALREADY BOOKED INDIA TRIPS AND SEPTEMBER HALSTED,

AND PERHAPS EVEN THE SIMPSON CONTRACT FOR TEACHING THROUGH THIS NEXT ACADEMIC YEAR

RETURN POTENTIAL FOR THE TRAVELING DIVA ON THE ROAD SHOW

A “PHANTOM” CONTRACT FOR SEVEN MONTHS OR MODIFICATIONS THEREOF FOR A ROAD COMPANY FOR GREENVILLE, SC, DAYTON OH, AND SAN FRANCISCO, WITH TERMINATION IN TIME FOR DEL RIO IN CHICAGO

As I was trying to fax the information I had found on the Web regarding the Ram 2500 that had not been familiar to either one of us, along with the note that Dale Kramer had left with the last minute modifications before the architectural final plans are drawn, Virginia was trying to call me while her phone was busy at the time I had tried calling her. The other caller was Peter, who had known her from the days when she had been doing “Phantom of the opera” in the road show. He invited her to sing the lead in Phantom in the road company that had five week gigs with a one week (paid) interval, and a per diem living allowance for the next seven months of the company’s tour. It would begin in Greenville, SC, and then go to Dayton OH for five weeks. She could visit both DC and her brother in Greenville NC during the first, and stay with her parents in Cincinnati during the second. She would be far better off in the short term financially with this performance than she would on Simpson’s salary, although she wishes to be employed by a college when she goes looking for a college job. The job offered has health insurance, and also some perks, but there would be no promises after December—and she would still want to do the Del Rio she has done for a dozen years around Christmas time. She says that she is very weary of the road show circuit, but she might need it just now, except there is one other big drawback—she might have to miss India and the Lingshed trek which was the target goal for her and her sister Kate to be joining me on the first of August and trekking for the next three weeks in the Zanskar River Valley. She would no doubt miss the September Halsted Society which we were counting on going to with the Harkens in Boston, but then is the time I am supposed to be in Alaska with Craig. If I do not go to the Halsted Society meeting, then I could DRIVE to Alaska—which is a better plan for anyone carrying back two moose worth of meat hides and trophy heads. We might stop on the way up at Des Moines and also in Vail Colorado, where I have left the Weatherby 340 Mag with Reg before I knew that I would be knocked out of this year’s elk hunt by the Sikkim trip and the possibility that I might be involved in the ACS meeting in October.

If Virginia does the Phantom gig, she could leave Iowa soon and lease out Porter. Then she could earn and also do what is professionally rewarding, even if it meant that she might have to not sign the Simpson contract that she had worked hard to get for the coming year. The Music School Dean is away until Tuesday when she has an appointment to see him and between now and then, Peter will call back with all the ramifications and modifications—such as singing all summer and returning to Simpson in the fall, and whether the two arte mutually exclusive. Robert, the chairman of the Music Department would be very disappointed, and he is her recommendation and well as the Head of the DesMoines Opera Society. She would like to keep the Simpson contract, still get out of Iowa soon and also earn her way through several coming expenses, and eventually find her way East when Derwood is finished and she can be in a position to do three things: dig in the dirt in her garden, ride Porter and haul him around to events and hacking in the newly balanced truck/trailer rig, and apply for a tenured faculty position in the music schools and institutions in the DC Consortium and environs.

Oh, yes, and then there is also ----I! I will be doing road trips from mid-July to mid-October, with a new wave of these starting up after Christmas in Chicago and Michigan, and January in Florida and possibly Texas, before going off for extended trips in the Philippines and Africa, and others in Haiti and other points, including the Amazon which I had hoped we might do together. By the spring, Derwood might be ready to move back into, from wherever my suitcase will have me living in transit—mine, as well as hers—and a bunch of chattels stuffed into storage in between.

I can think about all of this as I take off to the Eastern Shore to visit the Schaefers in their new house into which they have moved two weeks ago after having all their stuff in storage for the past two years. I seem to visit them on Memorial Day weekends and have done so in three different locations in the last two years—so they are settling now as I am unsettling. We will compare notes.

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