[Magdalen] Cady's update (was Re: No mail...)

[Lynn Ronkainen]

.... thank you Roger, I forgot to include this wonderful email from Cady as 
another bit of news that was great to read.
Lynn

website: www.ichthysdesigns.com

When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not a 
single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me." 
attributed to Erma Bombeck

"Mercy and compassion are more than personal options. They are the antidotes 
to that fear and hatred." Mark Singel


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From: "Roger Stokes via Magdalen" <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2018 5:11 PM
To: <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
Cc: "Roger Stokes" <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com>
Subject: [Magdalen] Cady's update (was Re:  No mail...)

> On 21/04/2018 14:58, cady soukup wrote:
>> April has been a disorienting month, from the weather to whatever. Too 
>> much?
>
> Thanks for the updates
>
>> The Downers Grove Soukup sibs finally got together to inter our father 
>> next
>> to our mother in their chosen cemetery in the Chicago area  Fairmount
>> cemetery, surrounded by Cook County Forest Preserve, overlooking Long 
>> John
>> Slough and the Little Red Schoolhouse section of the preserve. It was
>> lovely, and blustery.
>>
>> Anne flew in from Switzerland, where she is now Madame Le President of 
>> tpg
>> (Transportation Publique de Geneve), the public transport system for the
>> Geneva Canton in Switzerland. She loves the job! Tpg is moving to
>> sustainable energy public transportation for all sections of the canton.
>
> I am not surprised she loves the job. It will; have its frustrations but 
> should be very rewarding.
>
>> Pete transitioned from a substitute teacher in the Cook and Du Page 
>> county
>> school systems (he is also a professional musician in the Chicago area,
>> trombone) back to a tech network sales person (after Dad died and no 
>> onger
>> needed daily care).  Peg is a retired legal aide. Bill, who lives in
>> Georgia, decided to opt out of our family. We respect his desire.
>>
>> The brand new Culpepr Region of the Diocese of Virginia had its first
>> meeting. Yes, I was elected chair.
>
> Congratulations and or commiserations as appropriate. I can see 
> interesting times ahead (interpret that as you will)
>
>> Of the five lay and six clergy members
>> present (representing 7 of the 10 chueches in the region), 3 of the lay 
>> and
>> 3 of the clergy now are officers/reps. Several of the churches do not 
>> have
>> web sites or official email addresses. Several of the small churches are
>> struggling. We have a whole new focus, with new directives from the 
>> diocese.
>>
>> The spring executive board of the diocese met with the region presidents.
>> The presidents had a working lunch with bishop Shannon Johnston. The top
>> Big Diocese Issues have largely been addressed, so it is time to pay
>> attention to the next levels of issues. Like finding a suffragan bishop.
>> More changes.
>>
>> As of April 1, the contract on which I work for CMS reorganized, so my 
>> job
>> description, team, and supervisory structure all changed. With those
>> changes are updates to the tools and the procedures by which we get
>> permission/approvals to perform updates and solve problems in the online
>> product (web pages for the kidney disease section of Medicare 
>> initiatives,
>> predating the Affordable Care Act by almost 20 years, so it should be 
>> more
>> “mature” than it is).
>>
>> The ultimate goal is to move away from Microsoft and Oracle products and
>> into open source and cloud products, a multi year goal.
>>
>> The transition to the new tech company, Perspecta (perspectacle, whose 
>> logo
>> looks ike a monocle) began on April 1. I now have 4 work related laptos 
>> on
>> my desk,  3 for HP>HPE>DXC Tech>Perspecta, 2 of which must be returned,
>> each of which needs several hours of fiddling to get functiona (for the
>> newest Perspecta DELL) or nonfunctional (for the HP>HPE>DXC Tech HP 
>> laptops
>> that must be sent back). BAH!
>
> I would adopt a fairly simple approach to the latter task - reformat or 
> destroy the hard disk.
>
> Roger