Celebration Time!

Who-hoo! Daughter has a new place to live! Her number one goal was to reunite with her two boys and as of today - well, can I say "mission accomplished?" She will start moving in tomorrow and everything should be done by this weekend. Naturally we've been drafted (or did we volunteer?) to help but this is a pure labor of love. I'm so proud of her and all she's accomplished in such a short time. Now we can go back to being grandparents and our stand-in-as-parents role is over. A chapter finished, a new one begins.

DD had a good driving day today. One of her fares brought her a huge loaf of bread from a local bakery. Bread? Hmmm. Does bread trump flowers? Rain is predicted for Wednesday and she's a little nervous about that since she hasn't driven in wet weather yet.

One picture worth 1,000 words?

Not really. The arrogance of this administration actually leaves me speechless.

You say potato.....

Yesterday it was lunch and shopping with my niece and her two young daughters, today it was shopping with a very patient husband and tomorrow it will be shopping with my 14-year old grandson who quickly grows out of shoes and pretty much everything else.

Our daughter may have found a new place to live! She will need a refrigerator and as luck would have it we won’t mind getting rid of the second one we have in the garage. She’s accruing and we’re divesting so things should work out just fine. I recently read, “Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat,” because the review said it was full of tips on how to organize a kitchen. It suggests getting rid of all the specialized items you use only once or twice a year and while that makes sense, when you need a nutmeg grater you need a nutmeg grater. However, if I can get rid of some stuff by giving it to DD who can occasionally loan it back to me – well, that’s a win-win, right? Love how these things work out.

Re refrigerators: DH grew up in Montana and to him a refrigerator is an ice-box because that's what he had as a child - an ice-box. I'd never heard anyone refer to refrigerators as an ice-box before but that's what he calls them to this day. Let's see - what's that about not being able to teach old dogs new tricks?

Friday

Yummm, potstickers!The best way to spend a Friday afternoon? With my beautiful niece and her two beautiful daughters. It was the youngest daughter's birthday (5th) and we went to PF Chang's China Bistro for lunch. Since it was a birthday, the girls each had a dessert - the birthday girl chose a banana split shooter primarily because there were four maraschino cherries on top (served with one candle for her to make a wish on and blow out) and the older chose a s'more shooter with lots of ooey-gooey marshmallow. After lunch we went to the mall and did girl bonding while shopping. The afternoon passed too quickly but we're looking forward to next month when the older girl has her birthday.

DD had a great day today - no mistakes while driving and a paycheck! Next week she loses her trainer and drives with another driver along as an observer. Her hours will change from 8:30am-4:30pm to 4:30am-12:30pm. She can't leave her 14-year old alone where she lives so he will spend the nights with us and leave for school from our house. This will change once she gets her own place and is able to have both boys live with her.

On a personal note: I've never been as turned off about politics as I am this year. I'm tired of all the lies, promises, attacks. A pox on all their houses.

1946 - A Very Good Year

My sister drying off after her bath, July 1946.I love how serene she looks in this picture.

Hey, this is Minnesota - land of 10,000 lakes - we can take a bath anywhere! Is that a bow in her hair?

Aunt Mae and my sister.Uncle Quentin and my sister. My sister lived with our aunt and uncle for about six months and during that time they came to love her like a daughter. They never had any children of their own and always had a special spot in their hearts for my sister. My mother told me that because she was a single mom with three children to support, she knew her sister and brother-in-law hoped they would be able to adopt my sister but mother never would have agreed to that.

DD had a difficult day today - while driving the bus, she missed stopping for a handicapped passenger. The trainer had her go around the block and make the stop a second time. I asked if the trainer had pointed out the handicapped passenger the first time around and she said no, she was supposed to be aware of everyone at the stop and somehow overlooked her. Tomorrow is her first payday and that should help her morale!

Reminiscing and Reading

My sister and Uncle Quentin, 1946. My Aunt and Uncle brought my sister from Florida to Minneapolis by way of Chicago. She stayed with them while our pregnant Mother and I went to Los Angeles. We were reunited after our brother was born, about six months later. My sister at Aunt and Uncle's home - bathing alfresco.
This is my sister's (on the right) second birthday party. I’ve just finished reading Predictably Irrational, subtitled The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. It was a little disappointing in that I really didn’t learn too much from it; perhaps my expectations were too high.

One part I did enjoy was reading the author’s take on why CEO pay is so high. In 1993 federal securities regulators forced companies to make known the pay and perks their top executives received. The thinking was that once this became public, boards would be reluctant to give outrageous salaries and bonuses. In 1976 the average CEO was paid 36 times what the average worker received and by 1993 the pay was 131 times as much. But here’s what happened: Once this was public, the media started ranking CEO’s by pay, CEO’s compared their pay to others and the end result is that now the average CEO makes about 369 times as much as the average worker – about three times the salary before the compensation went public. So much for good intentions!

Today DD learned how to parallel park the bus! This isn’t anything a driver will ever have to do but the powers-that-be want to make sure they know how. I’m not the least bit mechanical and am in awe of all she’s learned so far.

And we while away the hours....

These horses were not involved.There are commutes and then there are commutes. Yesterday around 3:30am, horses from a ranch on Green River in the Santa Ana Canyon managed to get loose and wandered onto the 91 freeway over five lanes of traffic. Drivers were suddenly faced with horses in front of them and swerved and crashed into other cars in order to avoid them. There were numerous accidents, three people were hospitalized and at least one horse was killed. CHP and ranch workers were eventually able to round up the horses and lead them off the freeway. This happened on the east-bound side, I'm west-bound in the morning but naturally it tied up traffic in both directions for hours! And hours! As bad as it was though, it could have been so much worse.

Whoops! Today while DD was driving the bus, she hit the curb while making a right turn. All the others training with her had already done it but she was hoping it wouldn’t happen to her. The trainer told her it was a good thing there were no pedestrians on the sidewalk! Tomorrow she starts going over the routes with other drivers, something she needs to learn before her training is complete.

Aaagghhh!

It's been one of those days - computer problems at work, computer problems at home. No blue screen of death problems, just annoying.

Under Pressure!

Pressure starts early, doesn't it? DD started actually driving the RTA city bus today. She drove the 40' bus for about 30 minutes, in traffic! The turn signals are on the floor and operated with your left foot so you don't have to take your hands off the steering wheel. Quite a change from her personal car, an old VW.

She is having so much fun telling us all the stuff she's learning - from how to evacuate the bus in an emergency to handling drunks. Want to bring your snake on board? Allowed if it's in a proper cage. Stiff the driver on the fare? Not worth making a big deal out of it but let them know they have to have the proper fare the next time they ride the bus.

The bus has to be completely inspected before they can take it out of the yard - tires inflated properly, brakes working, etc. In just a few weeks they (she is in a class of five) will have a driver with them and actual passengers on board. Shortly after that they're on their own. The trainer says they will all be ready by then but for right now there's so much to learn and they're feeling the pressure!

The Results Are In - All Good!

DH got the results from his medical tests today and hooray, all clear. The surgeon told him he was in remarkable shape, no signs of cancer, see you in 6 months. How blessed are we?!

More blessings? You bet.

DD started her job yesterday.
18-year old grandson just got a new job that will allow him to continue his education and work too - a job with regular hours and benefits!
My Medicare card arrived.

Are political questions too hot to handle in a blog? Any reactions to Obama's speech today? I'll stick my neck out and say that if my Pastor held the same views that Rev. Wright did I'd find a new church home but do people hear things differently? Is what sounds like hate an inspirational message to others? I'm willing to learn, open-minded and curious.

Bad Humor

There is absolutely nothing funny about a stock that closes at $30 one day and is worth $2 the next. Nothing. But this cartoon made me laugh anyway.

Four-Leaf Clover

Yesterday Yesterday I found this picture of my mother (center) and her sisters taken in 1941. The back of the photo says that they were looking for 4-leaf clovers when another sister surprised them by taking their picture.

My sister and I looked for 4-leaf clovers too when we were kids and sang this song:

I'm looking over a 4-leaf clover that I overlooked before
First is for sunshine and second for rain
Third is for roses that bloom in the lane
oh there's no need explaining the one remaining to somebody I adore
I'm looking over a four-leaf clover that I overlooked before

Happy St. Patrick's day to those who are Irish and those who aren't but celebrate St. Patrick's day!

Help!

I have this on our refrigerator and refer to it every time I'm tempted to rescue someone. As a kid I loved watching Lassie but that kid Timmy was always falling in the well or something! Makes for good TV but not real life.

Memoir Redux

Re six word memoirs, my grandfather always said:

"Too soon old, too late smart."

I'm now at the point in my life where I can relate to that and understand exactly what he meant!

Six Word Memoir

Couldn't find a picture of me in my Girl Scout uniform - this will have to do.Mom tagged me with this meme. Her blog friend Simon, had tagged her. Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six-word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Here is my six word memoir honest, fair, friendly, helpful, considerate, caring

I’ve thought about my six word memoir, whether to make it funny, touching, wacky but I kept coming back to these six words because they fit. Does it sound familiar? It’s part of the Girl Scout Law.

All my life I’ve set my own path – very independent, strong-willed (read stubborn), made my own mistakes, took my lumps, learned lessons and moved on. And though I grew up in the wild, anything-goes 60’s, I never smoked or took drugs. Not out of any particular virtue, I was health conscious at an early age and they just didn’t interest me. So I was called the Girl Scout of the group. Re alcohol – I had three drinks when I was 21 and then decided I’d rather chew than drink my calories. Recently though I’ve added a small glass of red wine in the evening. ;-)

I was out with some friends last week and when discussing bad habits someone said of me – she doesn’t even jaywalk. So I’m still seen as the Girl Scout but I’m not a goodie-goodie, have tons of faults and it’s often bothered me that because drugs didn’t interest me I failed to see their attraction to our daughter who next month will have been clean for one year.

And one more thing re the Girl Scout Law – I haven’t always respected authority. So maybe I’m a good Girl Scout with a hedge clause. Works for me.

I haven't branched out much to other blogs so will have to promise to eventually reach out to five but for now I tag Amy - four to go. I tag Kenju - now three to go. I tag Rook's Nest - now two to go.

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be:
honest and fair;
friendly and helpful;
considerate and caring;
courageous and strong and
Responsible for what I say and do
and to: respect myself and others
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place,
and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

Practicing Virtue

Well, patience is a virtue – right? We get to practice being virtuous. DH’s doctor had an emergency surgery so we didn’t get any results today. His appointment is now set for next Tuesday, 9:30am. At first I was very disappointed but now feel better about it. If the news is bad it can wait, right? And if it’s good it won’t make much difference when we hear it. Strangely, by not getting bad news today we feel like we’ve gotten good news. Go figure.

I bought two pairs of shoes yesterday with very rounded toes and they make my feet look very, very, small. At last, shoes bigger on the inside than outside – well at least they look that way. But the best part? Daughter likes one pair enough to want to get the same for herself. My taste has been validated!

Lunchtime Thoughts

Office CourtyardRe Eliot Spitzer: he created a lot of turmoil in my industry. There were some legitimate problems that needed to be changed but he went about it in a heavy-handed way and hurt a lot of people in the process. He wanted to create a name for himself and judging by the current headlines, he has. Now I wonder: will the wives of these powerful men ever refuse to be used like props while their husbands give their mea culpas? I’m not saying they shouldn’t or couldn’t be forgiven (not up to me) but isn’t it reasonable to think they’d want/need a little time to handle this privately?

I really like the song in the new JCP American Living commercials but what’s with the young girl in the red scarf who steps on her birthday cake while wearing red boots? Is that an ethnic thing? Something done in certain parts of this country? I don’t see a second cake in sight so do the guests scrape cake off her boots?

DH’s doctor appointment is tomorrow at 3:15. We have kept ourselves incredibly busy the past few days so we don’t have to think about it but it is the elephant in the room we’re both trying not to see.

More Memories

Grandpa Pete and Uncle Arnie "Black Beauty", Uncle Arnie's Super Buick and RheaArnie was mother’s younger brother, the youngest in the family. He and his wife Rhea had no children of their own. I thought he was so handsome and loved it when he would pick my sister and I up after school and give us rides home in his new convertible, especially if the top was down.

Rhea was originally from West Virginia and the closest thing to a femme fatale I ever knew. She was older than Arnie and an outrageous flirt who often flirted with dad at some of the family gatherings. It drove mother bats and there were often loud arguments after the company left. Dad, flattered by the attention, swore up and down Rhea wasn’t flirting with him which made mother even more upset. Hey, come on dad - it was even obvious to me and I was very young!

After Arnie passed away in a construction accident at the age of 44, Rhea moved to Minnesota. She had always flirted with an older brother of Arnie’s whose wife had also recently passed away and I think she thought he would ask her to marry him but he didn’t. Rhea eventually moved to West Virginia and we lost track of her.

DH was very close to my uncle and considered him a close friend and misses him to this day. So do I. And I regret that we lost track of Rhea. People that you share a past with aren't expendable.

What'd you say???

Here comes the sun.DH and I had an early dinner at Applebee’s and seated a short ways from us was an elderly couple eating their meal but not talking to each other. Years ago when I would see older couples like this I thought how sad, they have nothing to share or talk about and promised myself that that wouldn’t ever be me.

Now that I am half of an elderly couple I realize that some couples may not be talking to each other not because they’re bored to tears with each other but because one or both of them doesn’t hear very well. DH’s hearing isn’t great (however he says he hears everything he needs to hear!) and there were times when I felt I was shouting across the table in order to be heard. We’ve recently begun sitting next to each other in a booth or table instead of across from each other – problem solved.

Now I wish I could figure some way for us to both enjoy a TV program together – I want to “listen” and he wants to be surrounded by and absorb the sound. People have no problem getting glasses when their eyes need assistance so why is it so difficult for some to get help when their hearing begins to slip? Just wondering.

Just Stuff.....

Our neighborhood in the morning.Blood test - check
CT Scan - check
X-ray - check

A week from today DH has an appointment with his surgeon to go over the test results.

Tomorrow is DD's last day on her part-time job. She is taking a week off and March 17th starts a new full-time job with the city. After six weeks of training she will become a bus driver! She had to get a class B learner's permit before she could start classes and jumped that hurdle over a week ago. She is sooooo excited. This is a job she has wanted for a long time and the benefits are fantastic. Next - getting a place of her own where she can live with both of her boys. We're all ready!

Fait Accompli!

Birth dad and me, three months old. Mother and Dad, Christmas Medicare: signed, sealed and about to be delivered three months from now.

I was apprehensive about meeting with SSA today. When mother divorced my birth dad and married again she changed our last names to his without him ever adopting us. Since I was never adopted I had no legal papers explaining how my birth certificate name differed from the name I used until marrying. I once asked mother if this would be a legal problem later in life and she said, no – as long as no fraud was intended it was okay. Maybe, maybe not but it didn’t present any problems today. Next year: social security. There are definitely perks to getting older!

Remembering

This was taken at Griffith Park, Los Angeles. My cousin is on the left and I'm on the right. I am thirteen here - reached my full height 5'9" when I was 12. My four-month older cousin was eventually 6'.My cousin, Aunt Amy's son, was the closest thing to a big brother I had. Lee was a math whiz from the get-go. When we were in first grade I remember my grandpa asking me if I knew how old he was. When I said no, he said he’d give me a clue and told me the year he was born. That didn’t help me at all but when he asked my cousin the same thing, he figured it out.

He joined the air force and was sent to Viet Nam. While stationed in Pennsylvania, he met his future wife and though the marriage produced two children it didn’t last. He later met a divorced woman and fell in love. Her ex-husband decided if he couldn’t have her no one else could either and shot my cousin, leaving him paralyzed and brain damaged. He lived for some time in a convalescent home before dying. It still sounds surreal to recall this. The funeral for him was horrid. The pastor was new to my aunt’s church and got my cousin’s middle name wrong. There is no grief worse than that of losing a child no matter the age. My sister lost her only boy and said the pain really began in the second year – the first year she was just numb.

Aunt Amy stayed in touch with Lee's ex-wife who eventually moved back to Pennsylvania, got a job and planned on moving back to California when she could retire. When that time came, my aunt wanted her to move in with her – she looked forward to the company and the ex would need a place to stay. That didn’t happen because the ex developed cancer and within a couple of months was dead. Lee's son lives in Pennsylvania, his daughter in California. They both keep in touch with their grandma, my aunt. Remembering is a mixed bag - joy, comfort and pain.

Red Letter Day

See the baby? In three months she gets Medicare!Today I called the SSA and (cough) made an appointment to apply for Medicare. Medicare. Isn't that for old folks? Yep, and that now includes me. I turn 65 in June and like the good little cross-your-t's person I am, I did what they say you're supposed to do: call SSA three months before your 65th birthday to apply for benefits. Deb answered my call to their 800 number and made an appointment for me March 5th, Riverside office. March 5th - two days away? She gave such a hearty laugh and asked if I was surprised to get an appointment so soon. Did I expect to have a much longer wait? Well, yeah. I hoped to have enough time to sort of get used to the idea. But I'm a quick study and by Wednesday I'll be ready. Sort of.

Memories

Aunt Amy, Echo Park 1948Amy was the sister closest to my mother in just about every way and more like a second mother to me than an aunt. Growing up in Minnesota she dreamed of moving to Los Angeles and eventually did. She and my uncle bought a house near Echo Park and lived there with their two sons for some years. Later they moved to the San Fernando Valley where she now lives alone; her husband and eldest son have passed away and her younger son lives in Utah with his wife and family.

Echo Park has gone through a period of gentrification and is now home to artists, musicians and bohemian types. The last time we were all there was for a family potluck picnic; I always loved picnics there because the lotus blossoms in the lake were so beautiful and the paddle boats they had for rent were so much fun.