I have been self-isolated for eleven weeks, probably over-reacting to the Covis 19 pandemic. My children are overly protective and keenly aware of my fragility. And, the fact that well over one-fourth of the octogenarians who have been infected have died is frightening. Consequently I have stayed close to home all this time.  I am writing this on June 6, the second day Allegheny County has been promoted from “yellow” to “green” in the gradual transition back to something closer to normal. Two weeks ago my daughter Elizabeth, who has carried the brunt of supplying me with groceries, allowed me…

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For a number of years, a statue of a dog has been a landmark in our woods. It was about thirty inches high, portraying a Golden Retriever obediently sitting back on its haunches (hunkered down?). No one seems to know how it got there, although some of the older eccentrics in the neighborhood apparently have fabricated unlikely scenarios. My favorite is the story that a farmer living in the century old house across the road at the west end of the woods was having a problem with a dog that simply wouldn’t obey. One day the dog ran off and…

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My grandson, Ian Alistair McCance, is about to graduate from Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, in a ceremony severely limited in attendees. His mother has elected to supplement this with a teleconference including all of his extended family. I was asked to provide the Commencement Address for this family celebration. What follows is an approximate version of that address. Good afternoon, Ian, and to your extended family as well. I am honored to have been asked to give this Commencement Address. This is an appropriate assignment for me, as I am the oldest, and consequently the wisest…

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Our current pandemic has frequently been compared and contrasted with the massive flu epidemic in 1918 and 1919. We got to wondering just how serious it was in Bridgeville. The result of our research has been that it was indeed serious. For perspective we should consider overall statistics. Worldwide the epidemic lasted from Spring 1918 through early summer 1919. In 1919 the population of the whole world was about 1,600,000,000 persons (one-fifth of what it is today!). About five hundred million people were infected; total deaths were estimated at fifty million, might have been twice as high. A fifty million…

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We are now into the ninth week of quarantine and running out of ways to look at it positively. We have sipped our “half-full glass” very slowly and are eagerly looking forward to its being refilled soon. This week’s positive observation is a sincere one – the technology of teleconferencing has worked well. Our experience with the seven Senior Design final presentations certainly was positive, albeit a poor substitute for our normal in-person colloquium. So far I have successfully hosted two virtual meetings of our elderly gentlemen’s Book Review Club and have another scheduled later this month. Son John has…

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“On the first of May, it is moving day” is the beginning of the verse for Rodgers and Hart’s wonderful standard, “Mountain Greenery”. It typifies our general perception of May Day as a happy time, an opportunity to proceed to positive things. In the song a young couple is leaving the city for the joys of rural life, anticipating Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor in “Green Acres”. This all changed with the onset of the Cold War with the worldwide Communist expansion following World War II. By 1955 the Iron Curtain had split Europe down the middle, and Communist sympathy…

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When my children were small we enjoyed participating in the YMCA parent-child programs, Indian Guides and Indian Princesses. I particularly enjoyed “playing Indian” and soon found my niche as story teller. Most of the traditional Indian stories for children were of the “Why the ….” Genre, such as “Why the chipmunk’s back is striped”, etc. Typically in these stories some animal performs some beneficial action which is rewarded by the Great Spirit by being awarded some admirable feature or characteristic. Once my daughter Elizabeth and I got into the routine of telling such tales, we began to write our own….

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This past week has been particularly busy for me. Despite losing a full week of school and being forced to function remotely, the graduating Seniors in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Pitt were required to complete all their final assignments this week and take their final exams next week. The most significant of these challenges is the completion of their Senior Design Projects. In their final semester our students are required to participate in a significant “near-real-world” team design project. Before my retirement it was my responsibility to coordinate this program. This term I volunteered to mentor one…

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One positive consequence of being sequestered is the fact that it has provided me with a few more hours each week to devote to reading. My love of reading has always placed high on my list of blessings. An inventory of the pile of books within reach of my favorite chair in the living room would be a good guide to my current interests. The first one I reach for each day is “Jack Frake”, which is the first book in the “Sparrowhawk” series. It was a gift from my former student and dear friend Kevin Abt. There are six…

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An expression heard frequently these days is that “things will never be the same again”. It’s easy to believe that, and indeed it does appear that major catastrophes like our current pandemic do have long ranging effects on many aspects of our lives. However it is also true that gradual evolutionary changes have a similar effect and perhaps an even greater one. Every time our Octogenarian Brunch Club gets together someone brings up incidents from our youth that demonstrate how much things have changed since then. In an effort to shift our intention away from today’s problems, we have decided…

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