Tom & Celia

Uncategorized 5 Minutes

August 21

A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

On August 15, 2026, Tom Gaither, our one and only grandchild, married Celia Duffala, a fellow Boilermaker at Purdue, at Newfields in Indianapolis. May they live long and prosper . . .

August 12

There is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Ruthie, grandma, and Jami, mom, enjoy a meal at the Machine Shed in Rockford, IL, enroute from Minnesota to Indianapolis . . . ]

August 13

Once that particular subject [love] comes up, it is almost impossible to talk about anything else. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The place where Jami, a metallurgical engineer, made steel – Steel Dynamics . . . ]

She [his wife Jane] died believing in the Trinity and Heaven and Hell and all the rest of it. I’m so glad. Why? Because I loved her. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The following six photos are of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway . . . ]

Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library in Indianapolis . . . ]

Nobody’s so damn well educated that you can’t learn ninety percent of what he knows in six weeks. The other ten percent is decoration. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Where we stayed. The JW Marriott Indianapolis is a landmark 34-story luxury hotel located at 10 S. West Street in downtown Indianapolis. It features 1,013 upscale rooms, over 104,000 square feet of meeting space, and a direct climate-controlled skywalk connection to the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium (Wikipedia).

When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud, ‘If this isn’t nice, what is?’ ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Home of the Indianapolis Indians . . . ]

But I have to say this in defense of humankind: No matter in what era in history, including the Garden of Eden, everybody just got there. And, except for the Garden of Eden, there were already all these crazy games going on, which could make you act crazy, even if you weren’t crazy to begin with. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Home of the Indianapolis Colts . . . ]

 We are all so close to each other in time that we should think of ourselves as brothers and sisters. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Jami’s bestest friends in Indiana . . . ]

[Jami’s husband Danny with the bestest friends . . . ]

August 14

Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Jami and her mom at Newfields for the wedding rehearsal . . . ]

Open from dawn to dusk every day and always free, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park is a 100-acre rural oasis situated in the heart of Indianapolis. A living sculpture park focused on experimentation, public interaction, and community engagement, it includes a 35-acre lake, woodlands, wetlands, and the largest native pollinator meadow in Indianapolis (discovernewfields.org).

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The parents of the groom . . . ]

The practice of art isn’t to make a living. It’s to make your soul grow. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The grand openings of the quilts Jami made for Celia & Tom . . . ]

August 15

Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Pretty much the view from our window all week . . . ]

Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Proud grandma at the Marriot . . . ]

The insane, on occasion, are not without their charms. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Kilroy was here . . . ]

Love is simply too strong a word to be of much use in ordinary, day-to-day relationships. Love is for Romeo and Juliet. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The Candy Bar . . . ]

I have had some experiences with love, or think I have, anyway, although the ones I have liked best could easily be described as “common decency”. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

There is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look. I am proof of that. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Prior to dinner . . . ]

We Bokononists believe that it is impossible to be sole-to-sole with another person without loving the person, provided the feet of both persons are clean and nicely tended. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The deejay . . . ]

I will tell you how to win love: wear nice clothing and smile all the time. Learn the words to all the latest songs. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

That’s what it was to be young—to be enthusiastic rather than envious about the good work other people could do. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Halloween booty from the Candy Bar . . . ]

I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The newly wed game – what do you know about your spouse?]

Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally, and if they would contribute mutually to each others’ welfare. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The cake cutting – Celia’s mom is in blue on the right . . . ]

Egregious. Most people think that word means terrible or unheard of or unforgivable. It has a much more interesting story than that to tell. It means ‘outside the herd.’ Imagine that–thousands of people, outside the herd. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The son dances with his mom . . . ]

What passes for a culture in my head is really a bunch of commercials, and this is intolerable. It may be impossible to live without a culture. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The head table . . . ]

Here is my understanding of the Universe and mankind’s place in it at the present time: The seeming curvature of the Universe is an illusion. The Universe is really as straight as a string, except for a loop at either end. The loops are microscopic. One tip of the string is forever vanishing. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Danny in the background, The Biddies in the foreground . . . ]

August 16

I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[The last day views from the top floor of the Marriot . . . ]

[That’s the White River wending its way through downtown Indianapolis. There was much flooding the area while we were there . . . ]

Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

[A nice afternoon tour was our goodbye to Indy . . . ]

So it goes , , , ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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Published by tomobert63

The Journey Begins Thanks for joining me! This is the follow-up to the original, “alexandriacardinals.wordpress.com,” which overwhelmed the system’s ability to handle it any more. Thus, this is “Part 2.” As the original was initially described: 10-26-07-4 “It all began in a 5,000 watt radio station in Fresno, California” . . . wait a minute, that was Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show! Let’s see . . . oh yeah, it all began in 2003 when retirees, i.e., old people, in Alexandria, Minnesota, who had no desire to become snow birds, went looking for mid-winter entertainment here in the frozen tundra of West Central Minnesota. We discovered girls’ high school hockey, fell in love immediately, and it remains our favorite spectator sport to this day. Initially, and for several years, reports on these games were e-mailed to those who were actually snowbirds but wanted to keep abreast of things “back home.” It was ultimately decided a blog would be more efficient, and it evolved into a personal diary of many things that attracts tens of readers on occasion. It remains a source of personal mental therapy and has yet to elicit any lawsuits. ~ The Editor, May 9, 2014 p.s. The photo border around the blog is the Cardinal girls’ hockey team after just beating Breck for the state championship in 2008. It’s of the all-tournament team. The visible Breck player on the left is Milica McMillen, then an 8th-grader – she is now an All-American for the Gophers. The Roseau player in the stocking cap I believe is Mary Loken, who went on to play for UND; and the Cardinal player on the right, No. 3, is Abby Williams, the player we blame most for making us girls’ hockey fans who went on to play for Bemidji State. *********************************************************************************** Photos contained herein are available for personal use. All you have to do is double click on any of the photos and they will become full screen size. You can then save them into your personal “My Pictures” file. They make lovely parting or hostess gifts, or holiday gifts for such as Uncle Ernie who wants to see how his grand niece is doing on the hockey team. If any are sold for personal profit, however, to, for example, the Audubon Society, National Geographic, Sven’s Home Workshop Monthly, Curling By The Numbers, or the World Wrestling Federation, I only request that you make a donation to the charitable organization of your choice. You have two hours and fifteen minutes. Pencils ready? Begin! **********************************************************************************

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