Wiebe family memoirs
We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane. Kilgore Trout -Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, Ch 1.
Old leaves drifting down, vermilion and ochre, resplendent in death. -haiku
Christmas 1958 - Steve, Tom, and Grandpa Wiebe. Family.
So Long, Steve
My brother Steve, Stephen Alton Wiebe, died recently of heart failure; he was 66 years old. Steve's wife, family and friends were around him at the end of his life, a life whose last years were painful and difficult. Steve, my older brother, is no longer suffering. I will miss him.
Family.
At play with Uncle Ron
Ron Wiebe, my Uncle Ron, my Dad's youngest brother, died recently. I will miss him. He was a good man, a man of heart, a man who lived his life with passion, and shared his joie de vivre with everyone around him.Book review, Title Flora of the Pacific Northwest, Author C. Hitchcock, A. Cronquist, Rating 4.0,
Flora of the Pacific Northwest
C. Hitchcock, A. Cronquist
Book review
Of ovules and ovaries
Flora of the Pacific Northwest is an excellent dichotomous key of indigenous regional flora. It served as one of my texts for a college class in Systematic Botany, which I feared would be deathly dull, and so proved the lectures, but the laboratory unexpectedly turned out to be a rewarding journey exploring the world without and the world within.
Oregon Scribbler.
Resident artist
My wife Cindy, for as long as I have known her, has gladly shared her artistic temperament. She is an accomplished singer, painter, and decorator, and has adorned our lives with the beauty of her creations, some evanescent, many more corporeal.
Oregon Scribbler.
Milestones of our courtship
While doing some spring cleaning, Cindy came across some discrete milestones of our courtship, perhaps a short and selective history of Cindy’s path to my heart, assisted by her pal Snoopy.
Oregon Scribbler.
Celia’s Lullaby
My mother, Celia Wiebe, has loved music for as long as I can remember. She often played music on the record player when we were growing up, mostly classical, and encouraged her children from their earliest ages to listen and to participate. She also sang around the house, and with her children; sometimes she sang solos or duets with my father in church. Her soprano voice sounded wonderful to me when she sang.
Oregon Scribbler.
Home brewing: Yeast is your friend
After many years on home brew hiatus, my son Jon and I have begun brewing beer together, now that he has finished his arduous post-grad studies and has time for something other than work. We have managed to brew two batches of beer so far, and a third is nearly finished conditioning. We have made all of the mistakes one can make starting out, but thankfully all of the beers are drinkable.
Family.
AVID teacher
My brother Peter was pictured in the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper highlighting a program he is running for students trying to improve their grades through self-discipline and efficiency skills. The picture shows Peter and two of his students, Demetrious Wiggins and Antonio Thomas in his freshman Advancement Via Individual Determination, (AVID) class at South Eugene High School.
Click the Register-Guard to view the picture.
Family.
Glenn Jaeger, in Memoriam
Glenn Jaeger passed away recently. Glenn's father Nick married my grandmother Edna Wiebe after my grandfather died. Getting to know Glenn and Carol was one of the blessings of that union for me. We moved into the neighboring school district just before my senior year in high school, and Glenn and Carol took me in that last year to allow me to finish high school where I had started. They treated me so kindly, much more kindly than an obnoxious teenager might expect.Das echte Lied der Alpenkräuter
When I was growing up, my father taught us a little ditty from his Mennonite boyhood:
Dar war ein Mann in Tode Loch,Und kein er sahe Mann,Und im dem letzen Stunden,Stunden,Hat er das Alpenkreuter gefunden.It was a charming little tune. Eventually, my curiosity was aroused regarding its meaning, so ...
Family.
Opa welcomes Maiella!
Cindy and I are dancing with joy - our first grandchild has joined our family! Maiella Skye Estaris Wiebe, whose parents, Jenn and Benn, are starting their journey as parents. May they have as rich an experience as we have had! She was born at 3:21am on June 15th, 2013, weighed in at 6lb 14oz, was 20in long and is our sweetheart. Woo Hoo!
Attrib: Ruth Moreau, Family.
Doctor Dad . . . Irreplaceable
My Dad, Tony Wiebe, retired as a family physician nearly twelve years ago, in 2000. He was my personal physician for most of his practice, as well as my family.During the course of his forty two years of practice, he had always taken care of family members, immediate and extended, with the greatest generosity. Dad was always available for family, 24 x 7, and family members were never charged for his services. He would get up at any time of the night and go to someone's house or meet them at his clinic when he received a call for help, whether from within his household or via the telephone.
Oregon Scribbler.
The joy of making music
Growing up, we often sang together as a family while on long trips in the car, my parents taking the lead, giving their children the gift of singing freely. My mother loved music, particularly classical music, and she was determined that all of her children would get a sound musical education.
Oregon Scribbler.
Zeno’s Paradox? Not so much
Family.
The first time I heard the tale of Zeno's paradox was in childhood, one night after dinner, with the family still around the table. My father grabbed a random section of the day's newspaper, called for a pencil, and with occasional cramped diagrams in the margins of the newspaper, intense and intent, showed us something that fascinated. Such moments with my father, which were relatively rare, I still treasure. His telling of Zeno's paradox inspired me these years later to attack the subject more vigorously.
Family.
Grandbabies!
The birth of a new child in the family never gets old, even if it occurs a thousand miles away! My niece Janna and her husband Jerome recently had a baby, Deacan. Not long before Deacan was born, Matt and Katie Stewart had a baby, Miriam, the first grandchild of my old friends Tim and Laurie. And penultimate addition to the Wiebe family, Sophia, remains a source of regular, albeit once removed delight, thanks to Facebook.Oregon loves New York: memories of 9/11
My wife Cindy and I awoke early on September 11, 2001 in Portland, Oregon. As I was preparing for work, she called me to the television, which had the smoking image of the first of the burning World Trade towers. We both stared in disbelief, and watched numbly as that terrible day unfolded, as the second tower was struck, as people began to jump from the buildings, after which one building and then the other crashed to the ground, so rapidly as to seem completely unreal. We watched as the Pentagon was struck, and followed the tense and fragmentary reporting as planes were grounded, fighter planes were scrambled, and frantic searches were being conducted to account for all of the airplanes in the air, culminating in the crash of flight 93 in a Pennsylvania field. We wondered what could possibly motivate someone to cause such horrific damage, to deliberately destroy so many innocent lives.Chess tournament etiquette: Performance art?
Several chess writers have mentioned a German 'book' entitled Instructions to Spectators at Chess Tournaments, which was comprised of three hundred blank pages followed by the phrase "Shut Up!"
This piece of performance art (the performer is the reader of the book) brought to mind an experience my son Jon and I shared years ago at a chess tournament. Jon had an early interest in chess, and starting in the fourth grade, played in multiple chess tournaments, the only member of the Wiebe family to compete in chess, even if only for a few years. I took him to his last tournament, and joined the ranks of fussy parents watching their children anxiously from the sidelines. In his second game, after perhaps ten moves, I noticed that Jon had just placed his opponent in a discovered check situation. I was excited for him, because discovered check can be a lethal tactic . . .
Family.
Philosophy and wine, or modern critical theory for the (inebriated) million
In which, my brother Craig provides me with an introduction to deconstruction, by way of formalism, structuralism, and semiotics, while sharing several bottles of good wine. Derrida never made more sense.
Family.
The promise of new life
In the face of my grand-niece, Sophia Catherine Wiebe, shines all of the promise of new life. She inspires me every day. I look forward to the day when Cindy and I have our own grandchildren.
Oregon Scribbler.
Congratulations to Dr. Jon! Woohoo!
Our son Jonathan Wiebe graduated from the University of Virginia medical school recently, and just started his residency at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. Congratulations, Jon!
"Superman violates the laws of physics!" (I will never live that down.)
Many years ago, my wife and I viewed the Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, which featured a scene wherein Superman sees Lois Lane being crushed in an earthquake, and so he flies around the earth faster than the speed of light so that he can go back in time and rescue Lois just before she is crushed.
My immediate response to this was "That couldn't happen; nothing can move faster than the speed of light." My wife's response was to start giggling without pause.
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