| Today was another day of catching up and catching people, especially by phone. As I line up meetings and activities for the next ten days, I needed to call several states so I signed up for Skype and made the calls via computer. It is about 1/15th the cost of using my Tracfone from Wal-Mart which comes out to about 37¢ a minute versus the $0.021 per minute for Skype. |
| Earlier this year Charlie Dittmeier turned 65 and had to sign up for Social Security online from Cambodia. The process was confusing and left him with several questions so today he went to the staff at the Maryknoll Treasury Department who handle social security for the Maryknoll priests and brothers and they gave a lot of very useful information. This is the St. Joseph Building on the Maryknoll campus, the site of the treasury offices. |
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| Next to the St. Joseph Building is the Maryknoll post office. Because of its high volume of mail, especially the mailing of the Maryknoll magazine, Maryknoll has its own post office and zip code, 10545. |
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| The final stop today was another building, St. Teresa's, the center for retired Maryknoll priests and brothers who also need medical care and supervision. The facility is just about at capacity as the Society ages. It is sometimes disconcerting to see in a mailing the name of one of the really dynamic and prominent members of Maryknoll with whom age and disability have caught up. |
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| The specific reason for Charlie's visit to St. Teresa's was to visit Fr. Michael McKeirnan, one of the old China hands with whom Charlie lived for thirteen years in Hong Kong. He seemed to be in reasonably good health and it was a delight to talk about the "old days" in Hong Kong. |
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