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May 30, 2007
My Fathers funeral.
The people are gone. The old church is locked the candles blown out and the flowers placed in the memorial garden. The house is quiet.
It was a perfect day. A balance of joy and sorrow that felt... right.
My Fathers coffin was carried into the 900 year old St Jame's Church by six firemen and a fire engine stood sentinel outside, it's day-glo orange starkly contrasting the green of the trees.
Inside the church the organ set a scene of reverence as Dad was rested in the alter. Ursula struggled from my hand and went up to the coffin placing a single buttercup she had picked from the churchyard next to the cellophaned wreaths.
Father Nevil gave me the nod to say my piece and I read my eulogy and one from my sister . I took a deep breath and listened to my words echoing through the nave of the church. I don't quite know how I managed it.. I think I had a little help.
I urge you to download and read the eulogy here.Download file
After the service we went to the crematorium but stopped by the fire station first. In an unbelievable moment, they brought my Father through the back of the engine house, the crews forming bowed ranks. After a short pause, they sounded the turnout alarm and my fathers casket rolled forward into the sunshine and on its way to his "last fire". .... not a dry eye.
At the crematorium I piped my Father into the chapel (more help here) and gave the old chieftain a "proper sending off" playing the traditional lament "flowers of the forest". This moment of tribute may have been the reason that I learned to play the pipes in the first place.
We love you Dad. We will miss you, and yet you will always be close.
Posted by Andrew at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
Pipes and drums and chums.
My Fathers funeral is set for Thursday afternoon.
As a Scottish family and especially because my Father was himself a piper, I need to play the pipes at the service to give the old chieftain "a proper sending off". My pipes are however in California so I need to borrow a set.
Trevor Stokes, the pipe major of my old pipe band, has been kind enough to offer to lend me his set, so Ursula and I attended band practice last night to pick them up and see some old piping friends.
It must be something in the blood, but as the band struck in Ursula was "fair frothing at the mouth" to get into the action. As I held her back I could feel her heart pounding in her chest and her eyes danced wildly.
You can't keep that sort of spirit bridled for long, so I stuck her in the back rank of the drum section, gave her a few pointers on marking rank and counter marching and let her go for it.
The youngest member of the band is 10 year old Callum, a prize winning drummer of insane natural talent, and he set Ursula up with drum sticks and she became the newest member of the band (don't get used to the drums baby, you are going to be a piper whether you want to or not.)
The end of practice was concluded with the band playing "Abide with me" for my Father..phew, big stuff.
Posted by Andrew at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2007
"Go deep!"
Everyone has heard of the London Underground, but what about the Yorkshire underground?
Ursula has been displaying infinate patience and love with the events going on around her.. she needed a change of scene.
She had never been into a cave before and was rather nonplussed at the suggestion, but as soon as we got away from the daylight she got with the program and became a intrepid spelunker scurrying from chamber to chamber with echoing "oos" and "ahhs".
The formation of Stump Cross Caverns began millions of years ago, when the area which is now the Yorkshire Dales was covered by oceans. Sediment from the ocean floor would eventually form limestone. Underground streams found their way into the cracks and began to expand the cave system. Once the streams had gone from the upper levels of the valley the cave system was left behind, and the mineral structures that are present today slowly began to form as water dripped through the caverns. The caves were then discovered in 1860 by miners who looking for lead seams in the Yorkshire Dales.
Our journey into realm of Orpheus was breathtaking. A five foot pillar takes 250,000 years to make and when you see a large chamber it is hard to get your head around the time that nature invested into this jewel box.
On the return to the surface she exclaimed, "I will never forget this". Boom! Perfect day.
Posted by Andrew at 2:45 AM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2007
Bernard Joseph Johnstone. 1926-2007
My Father quietly passed away today at 12.02pm.
I can't write much now, but some lines from Burns my Father often quoted are strong with me now.
(our time) is like the poppies spread,
one moment bloom, then next it's shed.
Or like a snowflake in the river,
one moment white, then gone forever.
(Robert Burns.)
Dad was a great reader of gravestones and said that it reminded him that the time here is fleeting and precious. He told me that when one reads the dates of a persons life we may see 1926-2007, but it is not the dates themselves but the " - " in the middle that is important bit.
Maybe we should take a little time today to think about how to make our own " - " spectacular.
He will always be with me.
Posted by Andrew at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2007
After dinner walk.
This time of year is total magic in England. It's not just the countryside, it's the light. "Etheral" doesn't even begin to describe it.
It isn't difficult to understand why this little island groans with painters and poets.
Posted by Andrew at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2007
School... Its just the same, only different
When we decided that Ursula should travel with me on this trip home, the question of school came up for the first time.
Ursula's teacher, Miss Hosley, was kind enough to put together a parent/student pack of math and English sheets to maintain her studies while we are away (she is working on them as I write!), but we also were able to have her drop into the local primary school as a guest student to see what an English school is like.
Today, St. Mary's Primary School, Oswaldtwistle was increased... by 1.
With her Marshall elementary school uniform proudly being worn, the "yanky kid" was the big hit of the day.
After introductions and a little information about Ursula's hometown, they enjoyed a music class followed by a shop keeping exercise with the children taking turns to figure the price of the goods that they bought and make the correct change for the customer. Ursula's big complaint was that ALL the kids wanted to sit next to her, leaving her feeling a little hounded, and that the day wasn't long enough ( she was only there for the afternoon). She is however looking forward to tomorrow and cementing the friendships that she made today.
And Ursula's overall impression of British schools?..... "English kids pretend to make farting noises too!"
Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose.
Posted by Andrew at 2:03 PM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2007
Getting out of Dodge... a bit.
It has been a bit of a wild start to our trip so far... as you can tell.
So with the wide-flung curtains of this Monday morning revealing a spectacular English summer day, and with Dad in safe hands until our next visit, we hit the road for a little local runabout. We went to the neighboring village of Clitheroe for a bit of pie and sausage shopping and a visit to the castle.
First however, we had to pass my favorite view in the world. As a SF Bay resident you would think that my vista quotient would have been blunted by the majestic panorama of the Bay from Grisly Peak, but the view of Whalley Nab and Longridge Fell left me awestruck as a schoolboy and its effect is just as powerful today. Its face changes clock and season round, and is God's secret present to herself.
The Norman castle keep of Clitheroe has dominated the skyline for more than 800 years since being built around 1186 by Robert de Lacy to protect the administrative center of his vast estates, and is said to be the second smallest keep in England.
The views of from the old castle walls are breathtaking, as is the walk up the hill. We have more and bigger castles to come but this was a nice jaunt and a lovely day with my favorite sidekick.
Posted by Andrew at 4:03 PM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2007
Update on Dad.
We just came back from visiting Dad at the hospital,and he looks 1000% better than he did a few days ago.
He has been taken off the IPAP machine (intermittently), and was sitting up in bed when we arrived. He remembers nothing of his fall, is still very out of breath and for now will remain in the high dependency unit. His blood oxygen is still up and down and is checked regularly by a mountain of technology. This is the benchmark that is used to measure his progress and by this measure he is still in the danger zone.
To see him, however, alert and improving is a huge relief and a cause (not to pun) for us all to breathe easier.
Posted by Andrew at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)
No sooner than we had arrived....
We had only been home for a matter of hours, when reality set in... BIG TIME.
Because of jet lag, I happened to be awake and dressed at 4am, and was sitting down stairs having a cup of tea when there was this huge crash from upstairs. I ran up to my Dad's room to find him unconscious on the floor.
He remembers nothing, but it would seem that he was looking for his dislodged oxygen canular and became dizzy and overbalanced in the dark. He tipped froward and landed crumpled on the floor, maybe hitting the wall on the way down. I checked for breathing and pulse, and lifted him back into bed before summoning an ambulance. The ambulance crew were awesome and got my Father comfortable before taking him to Blackburn Royal infirmary.
Although he did not suffer any injury in the fall, his blood oxygen was desparately low and he has been admitted to the high dependency unit. He was x rayed and has a chest infection (very bad for a COPD patient) and has been put on a IPAP machine to help him breathe. The hospital is brand new and everything looks as though it has just been taken out of the box. Dad could not possibly be getting any better treatment and he seemed to be responding well to care as of our visit yesterday, giving me the usual long list of needs, wishes and wants.
All this has brought the family debate of Dad going into assisted care to the fore. If I had not been here, Florence would have had to deal with this crisis on her own. We have already had a meeting with social services and are coming up with a game plan for the future.
I am just very glad that I was here and that he, for now at least, seems to be doing better.
Ursula's beaming love to Dad, and processed the experience by sketching the scene and providing an illustration for the blog.
Posted by Andrew at 3:33 AM | Comments (0)
Home again.
Its time again to come home and spend some time with my family.My Dad, of course, is very sick and I decided at the last minute to take Ursula with me, as she is at the age now where she will have an indelible memory of my Father.
Someone once said that there are two ways travel... "first class, or with kids!" but Ursula is the greatest companion for a pan-planetary journey you could wish for. Every minute is wonder, and she brightens any grey and jaded view of air travel with wowed enthusiasm. She spent the last several thousand miles of the journey sleeping like a cat on my lap to arrive bright and sparkling, and got me through baggage and customs with jokes and questions, putting my mind in the right space for this emotional trip.
Here is captain Johnstone at the controls of a 777.
Posted by Andrew at 3:07 AM | Comments (0)
Burningman meets NASA??!!
I just ran the Burningman Earth project at a very cool event called "Yuri's Night" down at Nasa Ames Reserch Center in Mountain View.
It was to mark the aniversery of Yuri Gagarin's first manned flight into space, and I anticipated a rather dry and academic event.....NOT!
It turned out to be a delcious mix of brains and creativity, with a large chunk of the Burningman geek infrastructure in place for the night. We trucked in several loads of projection systems, lasers, fire dancers chill domes, playa art, sound and light rigs and several thousand of our closest and wierdest friends to turn NASA's cavernous hanger 11 into little piece of Burningman.
I got into a great conversation with a guy who wanted to know every detail and dream of the Burningman Earth project only later to find out that he was the director of NASA. Whats more, he was on the cusp of pulling the plug on the event earlier that day as he saw the installations going in and only had the notion of "rave" as a paradigm... he finally left the gig at 2am with hugs all round and promises of "lets do the again next year!"
This is a shot of me taken by my pal Greg MacNichol at 2am as I pray for photons as the projection system went down... Fun, fun, fun.
Posted by Andrew at 2:30 AM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2007
Pull the udder one.
Kids love milk... milk shakes, ice cream, in puddings, on corn flakes.
We just had the chance to see the whole process from grass to glass, up close and personal.
A friend of our uber pal Jeri is the manager of a large dairy farm in Sonoma and we took a bunch of kids to the farm to get a tour and have every question from what is her name, to what the hell is that smell?
The farm is a large one, with 1000 cows (Holstein, Swiss brown and Jerseys) that need milking twice a day. We got to hand feed day old calfs, watch the cows in the milking parlor and the tour was climaxed with the kids being taught to hand milk the spectacularly buxom and placid "Valentine".
Our corn flakes will never be the same again.
Posted by Andrew at 5:53 AM | Comments (0)