Where I was Born Revisited

English: Huff Hall at Pearl River Community College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes, I met my husband at Pearl River Junior College. He was a student and I was the speech/English Professor, however, I was only 2 years older. I tried dating another professor but he was rather dull and I preferred this younger person. Today, I probably would be jailed because I was 21 and he was 19. Is that a minor? I think so.

Anyway, we were married and I changed from teaching in college being far to young to know what I was doing. Remember I went to college to get a husband and failed. No one taught me how to teach so it was time to regroup and teach in high school which meant I had to go back to school to get more hours in how to teach.

Hancock North Central was my next place to teach after we were married. The school was located in Kiln, MS about 30 miles from the MS Gulf Coast. I car pooled with other teachers and we lived with his mother and father. Not the best but the only thing we could afford at the time. There were 3 generations living in the house. The Bourgeois’ were one of the oldest names in Waveland, MS and his father was Chief of Police; his mother worked doing something or other at City Hall and his uncle was the Mayor. Did not dare step out of line in that small town. Everyone knew everyone else or was related to everyone else.

I quickly became pregnant and of course the old biddy’s counted the months on me. I did not care because I knew and secretly smiled that they were off by one month….and they were. My son was born on July 4th. We were married the year before on September 9th if you would like to do the math yourself!

We moved that summer to Weir, MS because my husband was going to finish his degree in Math at MS State University. Therefore, the job teaching English in Weir, MS. That town is another story unto itself as is the story of my son….

I had a maid who came every day while I taught school in Weir. We were so poor that she felt sorry for us and would bring us food from her house. We paid her $25. a month and we lived in one room sharing a kitchen with this really old woman maybe 50 who taught at the school and had a big old house; one of the genteel folk of Weir.

Things began to go downhill but something happened during my time at Weir. For those of us alive we all remember the day, time and where we were when JF Kennedy was shot. I was sitting in my classroom, planning period, when the principal came and told me. That weekend we watched TV at my parents home in Sallis (about an hour away) the entire weekend. We would go almost every weekend so mother could give us food to take back. The car we had was mine from when I was teaching at Pearl River Junior College; a Chevrolet Impala, white with red interior…”See the USA, in your Chevrolet.”

English: 1959 Chevrolet Impala 2-door Hardtop (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He finished at State; my son was in the hospital; somehow I got pregnant again; and things became worse. I had a job teaching back on the coast, but resigned to take care of my son who had been given a year to live. My husband went off to work at the Stennis Center which was being built, at this time. A few buildings were open and they needed a mathematician.

During this time, a gay male friend of mine in the area stated that he tried to get me not to marry my husband because our backgrounds were so different. I think I was really miserable by this time. We had to travel to Jackson every other week to take our son to the doctor.

My daughter was born in Gulfport on May 23 and then my son went back in for his second surgery. A surgeon from Boston’s Children’s Hospital did the surgery. It was 8 hours long and I was told that if he survived the first 48 hours he might live 5 years. My mom, who was a nurse came to stay with me and we hired an RN to stay as well. My husband was so upset that he could not listen to the explanation from the doctors; this left me to deal with everything. By this time, he was working at the Corp of Engineers in Vicksburg, MS

English: The historic Mississippi River Commission (MRC) Building in downtown Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA. This building was constructed in 1894 and is listed in the U.S. list of historic federal buildings. The building is located at 1400 Walnut Street in the Uptown Vicksburg Historic District. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

and we had moved yet again to Clinton, MS to be closer to the doctor and he commuted to Vicksburg. Then we moved to Vicksburg. My son was better; I had a job teaching in the Vicksburg City Schools and we hired a maid/nanny for my daughter. She loved my daughter dearly.

I am now tired because the story does not get any better.

Later, I will revisit this untold tale.

Episcopal Church of the Nativity

English: Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Episcopal Church of the Nativity

Huntsville, Alabama

Episcopal Church of the Nativity is a church in Huntsville, Alabama. It was built in the Gothic Revival style in 1859. It is noted as one of the most pristine examples of Ecclesiological Gothic architecture in the South. Wikipedia

When I was in grad school, Emile, the ninth rector of this church, and I were in the same group in one of my Psychology Classes. He was funny and wise; we became good friends.

This church held the first vigil for Aids victim, I believe. I know I was there because I was a volunteer counselor for The Aids Action Coalition when Sandra Moon was the Director. She later became the President of the Huntsville City Council. We have remained friends for years. I think when folk go through so many deaths together, perhaps the silver thread binds you together.

She finally left; I stopped being a volunteer when the last of my clients died and I attended the last funeral. Emile retired and they named the Education Hall for him.

My photo….a glimpse from the Courthouse Square

From riding a little red tractor in MS to remotely driving a robot on the moon

• #leadership
• December 16, 2011
• By: Linda Bourgeois
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Fred attending Senior Football Night, Kings Academy.

Credits:

Tom Look

Fred J. Bourgeois, III has been dreaming and making plans to pursue space exploration from a very early age.

Growing up in a “NASA family” probably had a lot to do with that. Originally from Waveland, Mississippi, Bourgeois spent most of his childhood and pre-college years in Huntsville, Alabama, where he attended Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom High School along with scores of other NASA kids.

Bourgeois was early recognized for his mathematical talents, and went on to receive his BSCS degree from Tulane University’s School of Engineering. After attending the Tulane Graduate School, he began a career in academia teaching Computer Science at the University of Minnesota, and later for Eaton Corporation’s Information Management Systems Division, and several University extension programs.

Bourgeois’ teaching for Eaton included support for clients utilizing satellite systems and networks, and command, control, and communications programs. He next worked as a contractor on classified programs at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California.

Team FREDNET, The Open Space Society, Inc.

Weary of the classified world, he moved to Santa Cruz, California (near Silicon Valley), where he initially worked for MetaWare Incorporated as a Senior Compiler Developer, and then into his own software development and consulting business, FREDNET.

Operating for more than 16 years, the company was renamed Applios Inc. (Applied Open Source Technology) in 1999 providing Software Development, Systems Engineering, Networking, and Information Security solutions. Applios’ former clients include Lockheed Martin, NEC, AMD, Transmeta, Resilience, Sun, SJSU, many Silicon Valley startup companies, and a number of local, regional, and national Internet Service Providers.

Fred is the Founder and Leader of Team FREDNET, the First and Only International Open Source Competitor for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. He entered this venture with two of his colleagues, Rich Core and Dan Smith by sending this email

“Doing the impossible. Going for the Lunar X PRIZE, open source. Interested in joining?”

They believed and as time passed so did 700 volunteers from 60 countries and 6 continents. Team FREDNET was one of the first ten Teams to enter the competition. Fred leads the Team in pursuit of the prize alongside billion dollar companies, yet the model for the Team is rooted in a small non-profit 501(c)(3). As an open source team, it gives everyone or “Everyman” the opportunity to have a voice and to become a part of the larger space community.

Adversity has been a way of life for Fred. At two, the doctors, after surgery, gave “Freddie” one year to live. His mom said: “He will live because he has something important to add to this world.” At three, the doctors, after eight hours of major reconstructive surgery, gave him 48 hours to live. An R.N. and his grandmother, an LPN, rotated standing by his bedside. His mom stayed awake for the 48 hours making sure he knew she was there telling him he would be o.k.. He survived. Dr. Lamar Weems, his doctor, stated solemnly: “Somebody up there likes him.”

Freddie and his mom spent that summer and fall of his third year of life living at University of Mississippi Hospital. He rode his little red tractor (the kind you move your feet to go forward) up and down the halls, pulling behind him a little cart with all the i.v. tubes and other paraphernalia keeping him alive. He laughed and smiled as he sped down the halls weaving in and out between the steady flow of patients, nurses, and doctors. They would smile back at him and shake their heads in awe…the “medial miracle” child.

Thanksgiving marked the day he came home only to begin a new chapter of going back to the hospital every other week for a year. Medical students studied Freddie’s medical history; he and his mom attended a few medical conferences to answer questions about the first two years of his life before the operations. Minutes turned into days and weeks and months and years with doctor visits scheduled monthly, semi-monthly, and yearly. Finally, at age five, Dr. Weems said: “Perhaps he will live a normal life. Perhaps he will live to be 62. We just don’t know. Bring him back at least every other year.” Contact sports were not allowed; that was the only precaution given.

Once you realize that you are going to die, regardless of age, you look at a broader scope and want to use everything to the max. Here is a child who knew his life would be limited but still kept reaching for the heavens and wanted to make a mark on it before he got there. In the words of Saul Alinsky: “Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you’re free to live. You no longer care about your reputation. You no longer care except so far as your life can be used tactically to promote a cause you believe in.”

When the GLXP prize announced the challenge, Fred said: “This is what I am supposed to do.” The emails reached receptive minds of Core and Smith. Thus began the adventure to place a robot on the moon, travel 500 meters and stream video images back to earth.

Team FREDNET is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit research and education foundation that began with a vision of reaching the Lunar surface by developing all of the required systems using the same successful Open Participation model that worked so well to create other massively participatory software development programs. Specifically, the Space Development Program is based on past and ongoing developments of things like the protocols underlying the Internet (TCP/IP) and free and open software such as the Linux, FreeBSD, and Ubuntu operating systems. The Team just completed four years of development toward the first major goal (building the first privately funded mission to the Moon), and had a few success stories along the way.

Bourgeois states: “We’ve attracted and built a community of more than 700 volunteers from more than 60 countries on all 6 populated continents, which was a pretty good start. Our community covers a pretty diverse age range too, with volunteers ages running from 7 years old to ’70-something’. This community includes not only a lot of serious science and engineering talent, but also people from many other walks of life – because building a lunar mission requires more talents than just engineering and science. We accomplished a few pretty impressive things in the past few years, including being one of only six organizations in the world to be selected by NASA as a contractor in the Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data (ILDD) program – which gives us an opportunity to provide data from our Lunar Mission to NASA scientists to help in the development of NASA’s future human and robotic Lunar missions.

“We’ve attracted some incredibly talented people into our leadership community, too. Mike Brown, Ph.D., who serves as the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, came on board early in 2011 as Chief Scientist to guide all science initiatives. Mike also offered a course at CalTech this quarter entitled Ge 194: Roving on the Moon, in which students were tasked to develop, design, and build a fully functioning prototype lunar rover capable of fulfilling the requirements of the Google Lunar X PRIZE‘ with the further incentive that a ‘successful design of this type has a chance of being incorporated into the lunar mission of Team FREDNET‘. (See the class web site at http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/classes/ge194-glx/ for full details.)

“Our young volunteer participants have gained some notoriety as well these last two years. We’ve been working closely with several groups of young innovators (ages 7-18) who have built robots for a number of competitions. One of our young participant teams – the LegoAces of Granville, Ohio – won Second Place in the 2010 International LEGOTM MoonBots 1.0 Challenge, and this year reached even higher, taking the Grand Prize in the 2011 International LEGOTM MoonBots 2.0 Challenge! (Please read more about LegoAces on their web site at http://www.LegoAces.org/ – and sign up to Drive the Rover to Earn Your Lunar Drivers License!)”

Fred works from his home each day communicating with Team volunteers through Skype, email, text messaging and conference calls. He has crisscrossed the world bringing his message of “going for your dream” while building and binding the Team together. Dedicating his life to achieve this dream, Fred continues to inspire people of all ages to believe that conquering space will greatly benefit future generations.

Fred defied odds and lived to become a visionary, a leader, and a serial entrepreneur continuing to live his life doing what he loves. He represents the epitome of a Renaissance Man.

Suggested by the author:

• Team FREDNET signs agreement with Air and Space Education Consortium
• Pluto: Planet or not?
• Legos rule!
• NASA Lunar Transit video and images of the sun in AIA wavelengths
• Google Lunar X PRIZE final count of teams: 29

Linda Bourgeois, Huntsville Computers Examiner

Linda Bourgeois (Davidson) author/editor: Remembering Margaret Mitchell (1992); author, A Process Report of the Service Delivery System in Alabama for the Developmentally Disabled and companion Summary and Conclusions (1981); author Minor Poets, Major People (1985); chapter in book: “History of…

This article was featured on the front page of Huntsville local Examiner in December 2011.

Copyright: Linda Bourgeois, Ph.D.

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Death and Dying,the Alpha and the Omega

English: Town Crier, Provincetown, Massachusetts; from a 1909 postcard published by Provincetown Advocate, Provincetown, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today I read the obituaries. No, I was not present in any column, however, there were many who were there. Mary. Bill. Tom. Alice. Jo Betty. Lillian. Zane. Henry.

Did they intend to be in this paper today? Were they prepared?

Did they have a wife or husband who will grieve their passing? sons? daughters? what was the sum of their being? Did they go peacefully? did they “settle” all their affairs?

The media always lets us know when celebrities die; those whom everyone knows but what about those whom everyone does not know?

Do we, like a town crier, stand at the corners of our neighborhoods and call out their names each Sunday?

Do we call a town hall meeting each month to extol what these members of society contributed on a local level or do we just stop our cars and wait patiently for the hearse to pass not knowing who is going to the final resting place here on earth?

We are all headed toward death each day but do we all die a little bit as we see the hearse pass? the friend die? the unknown soldiers die? reading the names in the paper?

Is having ones name in the paper all that is left unless you want to pay a huge sum to tell the story of your life? and can you really tell that story?

You, the person, lived that story and no one really, really knows what that story was; there are those who know Bits and Pieces; those who passed through your life for brief periods; those who stayed for awhile, yet no one has all the Bits and Pieces of your life cataloged in one place.Not on this earth plane.

Would we really want that? Would we want all to know the deepest part of our being? would we if we could, tell all there is to tell? would we truly reveal our most sacred self? our irritated self? our jealous self? our vengeful self? would we?

In all our lives there are endings and beginnings. I am experiencing the ending of three lives and the beginning of my grandsons life serving his Country. I hope his country…my country deserves him.

For all the things I did not know; for all the hours of trying to understand; for all those times that I wanted to be alone but he was here, they are days to remember and to know that they, too, served to bring a lesson to me about life which I had not learned.

When he reads my obituary, will he remember? what will my children remember? my friends? and you, my friends, in this world grown small by electronic devices portrayed in science fiction on so long ago, what will you remember?

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Drat

Cliffs (Photo credit: Magnus Bråth)

Today started off wrong. The house was to hot last night to sleep well and I feel like a wrung out old rag.

Nevertheless, I must decide what I am going to wear going over the fiscal cliff. All night I pondered if it might be a formal affair or a casual affair. Cliffs are usually located outside so I decided that the black evening dress was inappropriate, however, the white ankle length dress I wore to one of my nephews’ wedding might work, however, the matching sandles might be a little cool for this time of year and high heels seem out of the question for this activity. I thought about carrying a purse, but there is no need for a purse. We are all going together and unless there is someway planned to catch us and spread us out when we go over the cliff we shall all be piled up together so need for a purse.

Pills for anxiety? ah yes, I think I shall take the entire bottle. Not knowing the depth I am falling or where the cliff is or how many millions or billions of people will be attending, I best order a refill and take those along with a bottle of water.

Will identity be needed, I wonder. Kinda like voting. What forms of ID will be acceptable? Probably no ID will be needed. We are all just going over the fiscal cliff. It could be like Alice falling into the rabbit hole. Does anyone remember if she took anything with her? I don’t think she did. We are bound to meet many interesting people over this cliff.

I wonder why our leaders are so engrossed with this fiscal cliff? If you pay into Social Security, is it still your money? or retirement? If you worked and made lots of money then is it not your money and why do you have to give it away to someone who did not work? Now I know I am not talking about those who served our country and came back without the ability to work or others which would take to long to identify here, however, able bodied folk should be working and that does not mean making meth or selling drugs, even though I guess one could call that a form of work. Everybody could all pitch in and help clean up our country…the roadways, the undergrowth in forests; the rundown houses…

I shan’t worry about all that. I have to decide what to wear and what to carry. Others are having a great time analyzing all that stuff for me.

If anyone has a map to the fiscal cliff could you send it along and let me know what you are wearing and taking with you? I really want to be prepared.

They do not say whether we are jumping, scaling down or falling off the fiscal cliff…they make it sound like a journey so I could be all wrong about what to wear. “We are going over the fiscal cliff….” Ummmm, what does this really mean?

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Fiscal Cliff and Pied Piper

Today Grandson 1 comes back until January 7. The house will seem very full again.

Eating the “green stuff” that people in the south always seem to make at Christmas…something like jello with nuts (not at all like green eggs and ham)…and drinking the last of the coffee, I seemed to remember that yesterday I was untangling web footprints and that I have not finished the process. It seems arduous today especially when I think of all the photo storage sites I sent photos to…so best to make another pot of coffee first.

While coffee is making it is good to know whether something ended up in Spam and you might need to dig it out so to delay the untangling process, I check out the Spam folder. The computer warns you against opening emails in Spam and it reminds me of parents warning children before Christmas not to be peeking into any dark places because the troll might be there hiding to take you away. So not heeding the warning, I opened this email that startled me by telling me there was a “secret conspiracy that the government did not want me to know.” WOW! I knew there was someplace that knew I was not paranoid.

After about 1 minute of listening to the video, I did not know that I was the only one poor and that everybody else, including the government knew this secret of how to make billions of dollars. I guess I should have listened longer and sent it on up to DC since the Fiscal Cliff is upon us. The world did not end, however, I do not know if going over the Fiscal Cliff is sort of like following the Pied Piper. We have until Monday to decide if we want to follow our leaders over the cliff; but wait…I don’t think we have a choice. I think we gave it all away when we voted these folk into office.

I think I shall have another cup of coffee and save a few photos. After all, I have until Monday to find out if I went over the Cliff or not.

How to untangle the web footprints

Tree (Photo credit: blmiers2)

Today was a day filled with frustrating phone calls and screwed up passwords. I decided that I did not trust our government not to read or look into my pitiful finances so I would spend the day deleting online accounts and going back to paper…poor trees.

Last night the trees groaned and tossed and turned as the wind howled for hours. I then decided perhaps I could do with a few less trees because I did not know where to lie down to sleep thinking “if a tree fell into the house as it did once before where would I be the safest?” Not having a good answer it was time to think about whether I should actually plant more trees or cut down the ones I have.

Well, with that thought in mind, today as I was going back to paper I did not worry about the trees. Going backwards to paper is tough. After an entire day of talking with folk, I am worn out.

One lady at one credit card company said quietly: “I don’t trust our government either.”

Another lady did not understand what I wanted to do so I said: “Let us start over. Hello, my name is…and I would like to keep activated the payment I made today; however, delete any automatic debits from my account in the future.” Somehow, that never registered and as I reviewed my email there was a notification of how to reset my password…duh…I just ask them to delete my email from their database and my personal profile.

My mortgage on the house is with Citi. Did you know that Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae bought Citi and they cannot do anything but delete your information from their servers but not Freddie Mac? I pay Citi and I guess they pay Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae….maybe Maxine, I don’t know, but I have to find the email telling me who bought my home from Citi. I am going to refinance so my home is not owned by Freddie Mac. Perhaps it came through the mail and they used a tree. This paragraph makes no sense.

Tomorrow, I will have to go in person to a couple of places to deactivate some things. Then I know where some companies big servers are located and they will do what they can to erase footprints left.

Why? why do I feel that Big Brother is watching? why do I feel I have a tracking device installed within my head without permission? why do “they” want to know what little ole me is thinking or doing?

I doubt “they” do but then I cannot be to sure so I will continue to try to disappear. I have not done anything wrong that I am aware of but what is right and what is wrong definitions may have changed when I was not looking.

So, poor trees…maybe tomorrow I can just do bill pay from my credit union account and save you and still untangle the web footprints I have left merrily along the way.

The steps for untangling:

1. Make a pot of coffee

2. Drink all the coffee

3. Make another pot of coffee

4. Drink all the coffee

When the jitters set in; take a pill; lie down and meditate on ways to save the trees.

5. Sleep

6. Start over

Related articles

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Clouding Cleared

Vision (Photo credit: ransomtech)

 

Good News for me and those people who drive on the same roads as I.

 

Today was my day to have my left eye checked to see what, if any improvement occurred.

 

When I went in two weeks ago, the vision in my left eye was 20/60! right eye 20/30 maybe 20/25 (could read three letters on that line.

 

Today…left eye and right eye exactly the same…almost 20/25! The drivers and I are safer and the world is so bright these days…the flowers, the smiles, the tears, the cars, the lines, the leaves, the birds….I knew I was seeing better when I found a pin on the floor.

 

Isn’t life marvelous….every little pin!

 

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“The dead…

Newtown/ Connecticut Department of Transportation 1970 (Photo credit: uconnlibrariesmagic)

“The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.”

― Lois McMaster Bujold

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12-12-12

Nederlands: Monogram van studentenclub Carpe Diem (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Every man dies.  Not every man really lives.  ~Braveheart

 

12-12-12 Added all together:36. Add 3 plus 6 and we get 9. The perfect number.

 

What does being the perfect number mean?

 

What is the meaning of 12-12-12 to you?

 

Predictions are made based on these numbers, i.e. 11-11-11 and 12-12-12.

 

We, who are alive now, will not see these  numbers again unless by chance scientist learn the secret of immorality…the next time we begin to see  numbers like this is 3001.

 

Therefore, go out and seize the day! Carpe’ Diem!