Don Today is the feast of All Saints. This morning’s walk to St. Philomena’s was more arduous than normal as I had to lean into a twenty mile an hour headwind. Following the twenty minute walk from my home to the church I was greeted by Fr. Robert Marino. Along with Fr. Marino I spotted many … Read more
Last night I taught a small group of seniors. They were an attentive lot and they were my first students this fall. The topic was “Beginner Computer Basics.” You may have guessed by now that these seniors were not seventeen and eighteen years olds. A couple were octogenarians. Nonetheless, the oldest student already had a … Read more
Today I began my day at St. Philomena’s Roman Catholic Church. As a young boy I attended daily Mass, often serving as an altar boy. Yesterday I met Fr. Robert Marino, Pastor of St. Philomena’s and he told me that Mass on Wednesday would be at 9:00 am followed by Adoration of the Eucharist. As … Read more
The Warming House in Olean, New York is the nation’s oldest student run soup kitchen. It provides meals six days a week to the neediest in the Olean area who find their way to our tables. It serves more than 12,000 meals annually. Each day volunteers from St. Bonaventure University and the local community assemble … Read more
One of the joys of retirement is the opportunity to spend more time outdoors walking. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been walking about two or three miles each day. Uphill, downhill, side streets, main streets. An hour or sometimes less each day. During my walk today I happened to see and old friend … Read more
I first became acquainted with open source software in the mid-1990s. My brother James asked me if I had heard of Linux. I had not heard of it up until that time. A few weeks later I bought Red Hat 5.0 at the nearby Staples. Now, the open source model applies to more than software, … Read more
Earlier today I was reading Joan Chittister’s book, “Becoming Fully Human.” It’s a great read and filled with bite sized quotes from Sr. Joan and others. One of those morsels resonated with me. The purpose of life is to let God work through us to make the world a better place for every living creature. … Read more
Earlier today I came across a quote from St. Francis of Assisi. I really liked it and it’s something that’s related to one of my earlier posts, “An Orientation to Social Welfare.” “We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.” … Read more
This morning those of us who live in New York State’s southern tier received a treat. We awoke to varying amounts of snowfall depending on your location. Some pictures and accounts indicated a couple of inches. In our neighborhood it was a dusting. Nonetheless, the first snow is a harbinger of what’s in store for … Read more
Yesterday I downloaded OS X Mavericks from the MacApp Store. I was a little hesitant to install it as you never know if some critical application will require an update. For me that was VMware Fusion 5. I’m happy to report today that the upgrade did not impact VMWare Fusion and so far the computer … Read more
