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More about me

I retired just one year ago after working since I was 14.  Since, even before that, I always had housework and other chores to do -- I started washing the dinner dishes when I was 5 -- it has been quite a change to be able to call time as my own.  I haven't gotten done nearly as much as i had intended, but I love being retired.

 

I have been happily married for 49 years, to Bill, and have 3 grown sons and 5 grandchildren, one of whom we adopted and raised, our daughter Rebecca, who is finishing up her degree requirements and is still living at home. 

I garden (flowers), read a lot, watch movies, shmoooze with friends, and bake a lot.  I love dogs -- actually all animals, but especially dogs, and have 2 Maltese.  They are real characters.  I am also a Lincoln buff and a Civil War one, naturally. They go together.  I am also a writer, although I haven't done any serious writing since I retired from being a college professor for 37 years.  I love to meet people and find out about them, their histories, their likes, their interests.   

The only things I never discuss is the validity of any religious beliefs or partisan politics, unless I know the person really well. I do not like discord.  I am very liberal in politics, but have conservative friends, and I believe in the religion I was raised in, although not so literally as when I was younger. I have friends of all religions, incuding Muslims.

Activities

I love to walk the old streets in the historic city I live in, looking at the old houses and buildings, some of which date from colonial days. Providence was founded in 1636 and there has never been a big fire, nor did people knock down the homes of the original settlers. It contains the largest National Historic District in the country. Walking entails climbing up steep hills, so it is exercise.

Favorite Charities

Providence Animal Rescue League ASPCA Rhode Island Food Bank Planned Parenthood

Favorite Music

Opera Folk/Rock from the 60's Rock from the 70's and 80's C&W (guilty pleasure) Classical, starting with Baroque

Favorite TV Shows

Rescue Me 30 Rock Mad Men

Favorite Movies

Too many to list. A few examples: Taxi Driver, Days of Heaven, Miller's Crossing, Eastern Promises, The Fisher King, Neverwas, Enchanted, The Lady From Shang-hai, Double Indemnity

Favorite Books

An impossible task. Ive 've lived in books since I taught myself to read when I was 3, so here's a representative titles: The Brothers Karamazov (Pevear & Volokhonsky transl.), A. Lincoln, Lincoln's Greatest Speech, The Guns of August, The Effects of Light, all of Jane Austen, Wicked, The Raj Quartet

Favorite Quotes

If you live long enough, you get old

Favorite People

Abraham Lincoln Barack Obama Bill Chaika Joodie Perlow (a friend) Anyone who helps feed the poor, rescue animals, genuinely works to soothe those whom the world has caused suffering

Favorite Places

Newport, Rhode Island The woods of Maine (as they were in the 1950's) The Bay area in California Jerusalem Italy, The Nile

Favorite Animals

dogs wild creatures whose habitats are being destroyed mice

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