East Coast Happenings

[sixdogsmom]

Glad to hear the good eye report. That was pretty scary stuff. I will never forget my first Christmas without a tree. My hubby had fallen and badly damaged his back a couple weeks before. I was going to school full time, and holding a part time job as well. I would run home between classes to check on him and do what had to be done. We had him on the living room floor on a mattress, with the phone and a potty can nearby. Whew! I remember meeting myself coming around corners, and before I new it Christmas was two days away. No shopping or anything done. I took an evening during an ice storm and went to a store where they gift wrapped, and bought something for everyone on my list, took them home and hubby made out the name tags as I feverishly worked on a card list. I did make it into the attic and pulled out a small electrified lantern that was decorated with Christmasy stuff, and set it up so that we would not be entirely without any decoration. That year taught me a great deal. Christmas is not the decorations, but the love that it represents. I guess it takes tough times for us to realize that. BTW, I was trying to prepare for and pass semester finals while all this was going on. Talk about stress! 

[Diane Amberg]

Wow. What a time you had! Our situation right now is nothing compared to that. You are right though. The real Christmas is all internal as far as I am concerned. As much as I love my tree and all the fancy old glass and hand made kids' ornaments we put on it every year, it means nothing as compared to the people part.
We did get our icicle porch lights put  around the edge of the porch roof.That took about 5 minutes.The red berry wreath is on the house by the front door under the porch roof, and my stuffed snow man "wind sock " is flying on the porch edge too.That's enough for this year.
I said I worked on my Christmas cards during Al's surgery.I finished the last few and they went out in the mail yesterday. Tonight we walk up the street two doors for a neighborhood dinner that our friends have every year. They are very sweet people. She makes the best poached salmon. We are missing two this year though. Our delightful old Scot has passed on and our ancient Russian holocaust prisoner had to go to a nursing home.
Al just got up so I'd better fix his breakfast. Enjoy your day.

[Diane Amberg]

It will be interesting to see what pops, or not, now that two NYPD officers were murdered sitting in their car. One was oriental and one Hispanic.There was no confrontation. The shooter, who is dead, was black. He had to be nutz! I'm not going into this very deeply or I'd put it in politics.( Ross better keep his paws off this!)
  Our local neighborhood adult party last night was a real hoot. There was lots of good food, friendly conversation and all sorts of holiday joking among  age groups from early twenties to mid eighties. They hired one of the local teenagers to act as a ''serving wench'' and everyone had a lot of fun with her. She had no previous experience, but she did very well at keeping everyone's glasses filled and plates full. I think she had as much fun as we did.The weather last night was very cold, but dry, so most of us could walk there without worrying about ice and snow underfoot.
Today I'm going to be as lazy as possible,but working around eye drop schedules. We'll have oatmeal as soon as Al gets up and left over pork roast and veggies for dinner. In spite of having a lot of fun too, this eye business has been very stresfull and frankly, I'm tired.

[Ross]

( Ross better keep his paws off this!)

Ya had to call me out, with a threat no less ! LOL

May the bird of paradise fly up your nose
May an elephant caress you with his toes ETC
(A Great Song)

https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=chr-yo_gc&ei=utf-8&ilc=12&type=523482&p=May+the+bird+of+paradise+fly+up+your+nose

You are such great fun.

Maybe Santa will bring you an encyclopedia on disk.

Merry Christmas to you too Diane.

TTFN

[jarhead]

WILMINGTON, Del. – The former headmaster of an elite Delaware prep school faces at least 50 years in prison after being convicted Monday of dealing in child pornography.

Christopher Wheeler, 54, was found guilty on all 25 counts. Wheeler is a former headmaster at Tower Hill school, where he was paid more than $300,000 a year and where tuition exceeds $25,000 a year. Graduates of the school, founded by members of the du Pont family, include DuPont Co. CEO Ellen Kullman, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons and television personality Dr. Oz.

Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said the evidence showed Wheeler sought out and downloaded images of child porn.

"Mr. Wheeler developed a pattern of Internet browsing for child pornography," Davis said.

Wheeler waived his right to a jury trial after the judge denied a defense motion to suppress evidence seized by police.

Wheeler showed no emotion as Davis read from a lengthy opinion. The judge tentatively set Wheeler's sentencing for March. Each count carries a minimum two-year prison term.

Defense attorney Tom Foley said he planned to appeal.

Wheeler resigned from Tower Hill in October 2013 and has remained behind bars in lieu of $1.5 million cash bail since his arrest.

Wheeler, an accomplished musician and composer who flew his own airplane, was hired as headmaster at Tower Hill in late 2004 after 14 years at Lake Forest Academy near Chicago, where he was assistant headmaster and wrestling coach. He previously worked at St. Paul's School in Garden City, New York.

Tower Hill officials said in a letter to the community after Wheeler's arrest that he was extensively vetted and had a criminal background check before being hired.

Court records suggested Wheeler for years may have hidden a darker side.

In a letter to a Pennsylvania man who asked Wheeler about making amends for alleged child sexual abuse, Wheeler wrote: "I did those things. I am the one responsible," according to court documents.

"I will not compound your pain by attempting to deny or in any way deflect responsibility for my actions 35 years ago," Wheeler wrote. "I'll wait to hear from you about further appropriate steps towards resolution and restitution."

Wheeler has never been charged with sexually abusing anyone, despite allegations leveled by the Pennsylvania man and his younger brother. They came forward in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State University. Wheeler's own adopted son also has accused him of abuse.

Prompted by those allegations, Delaware investigators searched Wheeler's home and office at Tower Hill last fall for evidence of witness tampering or intimidation. They instead found more than 2,000 images of child pornography, according to police.

A Delaware State Police officer who was the only witness called at Wheeler's trial testified that Wheeler had subscribed to several online newsgroups involved in child pornography, and that Wheeler tried to scrub his laptop computer as police closed in on him.

Foley argued that prosecutors had failed to prove that Wheeler viewed or downloaded any child pornography, or that he knew images from online newsgroups to which he subscribed were being automatically cached to his computer. Foley said Wheeler could not be found guilty of dealing in, or even possessing, child porn based on what prosecutors think he might have looked at, suggesting that prosecutors were acting as "mind police."

The judge rejected the notion that Wheeler may have been unaware of the images or wound up with them on his computer devices inadvertently

[Ross]

WILMINGTON, Del. – The former headmaster of an elite Delaware prep school faces at least 50 years in prison after being convicted Monday of dealing in child pornography.

Jarhead it doesn't look like all that extreme edumacation made him very smart, does it?

[jarhead]

Ross,
I don't see the connection with having an education and being a pervert. Probably just as many perverts without  "'papers" as there are with that diploma.
Only posted this in case Diane had missed seeing it on the news.

[Diane Amberg]

There is no way I could have missed that one. We do get the daily Wilmington paper and they have been covering it for quite some time.
Tower Hill is an extremely good, tough and well known academic private school.
It seems that people with wretched perverted souls come in all stripes.  It just doesn't stop.

[Diane Amberg]

Al had a very good eye appointment yesterday afternoon and I had a good one this morning. Al has permission to drive again, so that will help him feel more normal. He will still be many weeks with the eyeshield and eyedrops.The swelling is slowly deminishing and the irritation  is much less. He still has some multiple vision in that eye, but Dr. Ko said that will lessen with time.
I have to continue one drop once a day until the bottle is empty and then that's it....hurray. My vision is back to an easy 20/20 and my reading glasses are back to 2.5. What a pleasure!  I don't have to go back again until April. I have a bone density scan at 2:00 and that should finish my medical appointments for the year. I am extremely greatful that the weather has held for all this running around. By this time last year we had already had a lot of bad weather .
  It is 54 outside now and the deep woods robins from across the street have burst out onto our front yard and are running all over the place looking for worms and bugs.There is always something hopeful about seeing robins in December.

[Diane Amberg]

It got up to 60 here yesterday, with moderate rain all day. It felt very strange to be so warm and again, robins all over the yard. ...terrible news about the tornadoes and deaths, especially at holiday time.
We have had several serious fires here, with three deaths, including one in our own fire district. A couple of apartment complexes were burned out in the area taking the residents' food, gifts, clothes, and holiday spirit with it.
This morning, 10 years ago, I came downstairs to find Daddy collapsed on the living room floor. He never came home from the hospital and died there January 9th. I am finally able to get past it now without ruining my Christmas.
Since he lived with me for three years after we lost Mom, we had lots of time for him to share his Kansas memories of his childhood and Elk County. He was a very intelligent, and quiet but funny man who always had a good joke to tell. I miss him.
Merry Christmas everyone. Enjoy the day and it's meaning in whatever way is right for you.