Memorial Day Celebrations

Red, white, and blue was the order of the day for Irene/Gram/Mom/Great-Grandma's 89th birthday. She started out the day at a very early hour, having the weekly shower, whether she needed it or not. This always tuckers her out; not that there's so much to wash, but that the thought of being all sudsed up and perhaps slipping in the soap might necessitate bringing in strangers in the form of emergency help, and this would be much too much drama for early on a Sunday. She reports that all went well, and all parts were cared for. (She had washed up as far as possible, down as far as possible, and yes, you know the rest, "possible" didn't get touched. :)

She was so amazed at the amount of red, white,and blue decoration that had been attached to her scooter, that she decided to add to the effect by wearing everything in her wardrobe that had any or all of those colors. Right down to the shoes, she was the picture of Betsy Ross, or Martha Washington, or, maybe, Rube Goldberg's wife! You see, even with birthing four beautiful children (eat your heart out, you in-laws!) they can't all be counted on. One insists on having someone chop out his knee, one is running to the other coast for beaches when we have plenty right here, and so the eldest and the youngest were left to do the decorating of the scooter for the annual Memorial Day parade at Maralago Cay. Irene was so excited, she arrived at the clubhouse almost an hour early. No one could believe the sight: woman on scooter, but scooter is not visible due to excessive red-white-blue stuff hanging, dripping, blowing in the wind. Banners, flags, pinwheels, ribbons, flowers, you name-it, and it was red or white or blue on that vehicle. And there were leftovers of the dec's, as Jean, bargain-hunter that she is, sent John, scavenger that HE is to get plenty, and Joanne had a case of the Excessives, so we further decorated Christian's trike and Evangeline's stroller. The baby even had flowers on her pigtails. Together they all lined up and entered the parade.

Skipping many funny details like Mom sitting, early, on her scooter at the ticket table inside, greeting everyone, reminding them it was her birthday, and Christian riding around on that low trike, not being visible to the naked senior-citizen eye and jeopardizing many an old fart into what could have been severe accidents, we all awaited the flag raising and the following bar-b-que. Why they had this on Sunday instead of Monday, the holiday, is anybody's guess. All the church folks were piously peeved that by the time they arrived the baked beans might be gone. The military folks, in charge of the flag-raising, were perturbed that the buglers from Santa Luces HS band slept in, resulting in our having a tapless affair. The flag-raiser guy got the ropes tangled, but, being military, he figured it out in no time, and saved us from having to let the Old Glory touch the ground and require burning. Instead, they replaced the hurricane-ravaged old flag with a new one, and the acompanying Moment of Silence for those who gave their lives in the service of our country was shortened to a half-minute, in view of the 92 degree heat.

But, lest you think I am poking fun at the poignant moment of it all, I do apologize. The ceremony was very necessary, as we were all about to eat birthday cake, fresh corn, and all the fixins, and if it weren't for our military men, we couldn't even have this much fun. That was the trouble with them shortening the prayer time: we had to thank GOD for Uncle Bob, who flew the B-24's in the Pacific Rim, George's Dad who did radar, our Dad who shot guns in France when he wanted to do chemistry research, Trace, who went too many times to Iraq, Jay, who is in Okinawa when we want him home, and others.

Well, you all missed the cake, shared with the whole bunch of geizers, you missed Gram and Christian accepting their first and second prizes ($10 each) in front of the gathered masses, and Gram having to listen to many war stories brought on by the Memorial Day/birthday celebration. She did not use a cane, drove her scooter, bangles and all, right into the luncheon, and forgot how fast it could go when it was time to return home. They had tried out a different configuration of the banquet tables, and she judged the distance a little too close, and made her exit in less-than-graceful fashion, clipping the edge of the center table as she side-swiped it and drove on outa there to go home and collapse with the Sunday paper like nothing had happened.

I went to check on her later in the afternoon. She was rested and wondering if any arrangements had been made for dinner! I was still full from hot dogs, but we settled on trying out a new local restaurant. Carrie, 2 kids, George, Gram and I shared so much good food, but the best part was them surrounding Birthday Girl to sing her Happy Birthday to You in Italian! So, you see, keeping plugging along and maybe some day you, too, can have such a happy birthday as this. Tune in again next year, when she celebrates the Century-Less-Ten.

Feast or Famine

Boy, we don't blog for a while, and then everything happens at once! Can't believe the bizzare happenings (Jennell's boogie man and Bill's job pulling the rug out!). I'm glad both are handling it!

I am in Fort Myers with Mary Burns, and we are having the vacation of our lives! We've been bicycling around the nature preserves on Sanibel/Captiva Island and Fort Myers Beach (which is also an island). We have swum in the Gulf numerous times. We have eaten in all kinds of interesting restaurants. We have watched the sun set into the Gulf. We have eaten watermelon on the beach. We have basked in the sun by the pool - this time share place is awesome, but in the middle of nowhere, so we have to drive a lot. We have visited the Thomas Edison/Henry Ford estates (interesting!) and tomorrow we plan to do ocean kayaking, weather permitting. The bad news is, Mary has either sun poisoning or some other kind of rash all over her body. She got quite a bit of sun, so I'm not sure, but I gave her benadryl, which is why I'm in the library using the computers. She's asleep! Anyhow, we're going home tomorrow (Wed) and she leaves for Chicago on Thursday. Great time, tho! Wish you were here...

I understand Carrie and the children have returned to AK, and Joanne has begun her job with the County. I'm anxious to hear how that goes. Anyhow, I'll check in another time. --Carolyn

Intersection of Fertilizer and ventilator

Well, it seems as if the poop found the power, the fertilizer has hit the ventilator around here. Thursday I came from the doctor's office to work. I told my boss that I would be taking time off during the break to get my knee replaced but would attempt to be here for the first day of class. If not I would have lesson plans ready for someone to fill in. I went to the HR person on site (who really is the Director's secretary) to ask about Short Term Disablitly and such. They nodded and acted concerned.

At about 9:30 that night my boss pulled me in and stated that I would no longer be considered full time as of June 1. I could still teach six classes but would have to accept adjunct pay; aobut 1/3 less than my full time pay and would have NO benifits.

I had told the doctor's people that if something sooner than June 6 came up they should rescedule me. They called Friday to tell me I could be operated on May 31. I have no idea what this will mean for my insurance after June 1 but at least the operation will be covered. I mean, I asked to use my insurance and they cut me off at the knees, so to speak. What a place.

I came in Friday to tell them I would have the new date and to ask about COBRA insurance, they have no idea. They called headquarters but did not come back with a response. It seems that the people who know were extending their Memorial Day Vacation. Headquarters gets an extra day off and we work for peanuts.

I also do not know what this means for Valerie's operation. They have cut her off as well. She is crying because she was SO looking forward to releif from pain and discomfort and all.

Last night as I finished my grading and today they are acting weird towards me, I wonder if they have further plans. A collegue here gave me the number of a good laywer.

Random Ramblings

Hi all…I’ve been slacking on the blog updates so I thought I would catch up a little while was on the train to Tokyo last Sunday. Here is what I wrote...hopefully I'll have some time to catch up more this weekend.

I’m so excited that I got a seat because that is always a toss up on the weekend.

So let’s see…I’m trying to remember where I left off last. Um…that is kind of a challenge without internet access to check. WOW!!! I just made a startling discovery! I went to the internet to see if I could see an archived version of the web page or something in my history. To my surprise the internet popped open and it works! On the train!!! Oh my goodness! Ok…so ballet…got it!

When I went to ballet class I paid for two and then the week after my first excursion, I missed the class because I was able to get an appointment to get my hair re-straightened. That was a very happy thing because it was starting to really annoy me and I couldn’t get a good straightener here…even after trying three different kinds. I went to a place in Tokyo that I found out about in my “Being a Broad in Japan” book. They people there spoke English and it was much cheaper than the last place I went to get it done. Plus, they gave me a head massage each time they washed my hair and before they cut it, they gave me a shoulder massage. It was heavenly! I didn’t like the cut they gave me, but the rest was excellent! But I did miss ballet and then found out that the teacher is PCSing (permanent change of station – I don’t know why people can’t just say moving but whatever!).

A few weeks ago I was visited by the boogie man. I was asleep and must have heard something, so I rolled over to investigate and saw a man standing in the hallway of my room. My movement must have startled him and he walked out of the room. I didn’t hear him go downstairs or anything so I laid there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. My killer dog was asleep next to me, not aware that anything was amiss. Dumb dog! So I finally decided to get up and check things out. I woke Kitty and we made lots of noise getting out of bed and stomping around upstairs checking closets and what not. No sign of anyone, so we clomped downstairs. The front door was locked and my purse was sitting right there next to my wallet. I looked around and there was no sign of anyone anywhere. I glanced at the sliding doors and checked the windows. All was well. I looked to see if anything was missing and found nothing gone. Hmmm…no way into the house and nothing was missing. I convinced myself that I must have been dreaming when I saw the boogie man…I mean c’mon – the dog wouldn’t have just laid there if there had been someone in my bedroom, right? Deciding I was just paranoid, I went back up to bed and after a while, fell asleep again.

The next morning, I got up and went about the regular routine. It was a little early, so I sat down on the couch to pet the dog and that is when I saw it…the sliding glass door had a hole in it right where the latch is. I freaked out at that point! Someone really had been in the house! So I checked everywhere again to see if anything was missing. Back in my room, right in front of where I saw the guy was a change bowl where I through yen when I was emptying my pockets. The yen was all gone! It was only about $3 worth, but it led to more freaking out because he was actually in my room! So I called the base police and they said they would come and call the Japanese police too. While I was waiting, I had to call work to tell them I would be late. Instead of getting Judy, the regular secretary, I got Jan…the dramatic one. She immediately put me on speakerphone with her, my boss, and whoever else happened to be in the office. So I had to explain the whole goofy story. First question…what are you going to do? Get a new dog? Ahem…no! So they offered me the whole day off and I said half a day should be fine.

About that time, the cops showed up and I had to explain it all to them and show them everything. They repeatedly asked me how someone could have come in without awaking the dog. I repeatedly answered that I didn’t know why she didn’t wake up or bark. It seemed as if, despite the hole in my glass door, they did not believe it possible that the boogie man could enter without disturbing my dog. After going round and round about that, the Japanese police arrived with about 10 people who all looked through the whole house. Then a couple started dusting for fingerprints and one came to ask me questions through an interpreter. I explained the whole thing again and they asked my why my dog didn’t bark at the intruder. Hmmm…where have I heard that before? This time, I offered the dog to answer the question, but since they didn’t have a canine interpreter, that was a no go. At that point the base policeman made a very helpful statement. He said that since he arrived, the dog had been sitting next to me on the couch and had not barked or moved while the many policemen came in and walked all around. Ha! There you go! My dog really IS useless! So finally they left and I had to call my landlady. She couldn’t believe it and had to come look for herself. After the promise of a new door as soon as possible, I went to work. Through the many retellings, I realized that I must not have anything that the burglar wants, because he could have taken it already if he wanted it. That night it was a little hard to fall asleep, but it really hasn’t bothered me much since then. Peace that passes understanding…gotta love it! J

Side note – apparently, internet access only work on the train near some stops. Still impressive, but not quite the wow I thought at first!

Weekends lately have been spent in search of flowers and furniture. Even the police made fun of my empty tatami room. I have been looking for a Japanese kotatsu table to put in there but the ones I had seen were either too small or too expensive. So I went to Ikea which just opened. There were about a million Japanese people there but I did find some cute things to decorate with. On the way back from there I stopped at a Japanese furniture store that I found in an article that said this store would be Ikea’s closest competition. There I found the perfect table at a good price and TONS of other stuff to decorate with. Since I had ridden the train, I was happy to find that they deliver…then sad to find out it would take more than two weeks. Oh well! I bought it anyway and it is coming tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have been thinking about what to hang on the walls. Buying art or pictures would be too expensive, so I was looking back through my pictures to see if there were any worthy of wall space. Looking at the pictures that Josh had taken for mom on our trip to the sumo match gave me the idea of framing flower pictures. So, I have been going to gardens and taking pictures of flowers. Gazillions of flower pictures!!! Last weekend I thought I was set and went to print the pictures. I was dismayed to learn that the pictures I had cropped to 8 x 10 were being cropped by the picture printing machine even more and cutting off the edges of the prints. Waaaa!!! So basically (since I had not saved originals when I edited them) all that picture taking was basically useless. Luckily there are lots of flowers in Japan….oops Shinagawa is coming up…gotta go…more later!

Ok, so I got off at Shinagawa and took the Yamanote line to Tokyo Station. The Japanese are enthralled with the Yamanote line because it goes in a circle around Tokyo. They think this is the best thing since sliced raw fish, so I refrain from talking about the El (L?) in Chicago. I don’t know which was first, but the Japanese seem to think they have a monopoly on having four seasons and a train that goes in a circle around the city.

I’d never been to Tokyo station before and the entrance was pretty. There was supposed to be a huge information center nearby so I decided to go there and get some stuff for when my friends come. On the way there was a street festival and bazaar. There was all sorts of cool stuff, but I refrained from buying any. :) I found the information center and came away with handfuls of information that we probably won’t need, but it can’t hurt to have it…well actually it can, but more on that later.

By then it was about noon, so I was hungry. I found a little restaurant with plastic chicken outside, so I went in and ordered that. Have I mentioned that most restaurants have plastic food outside so you know what you are ordering? Many also have pictures on the menus. It’s very helpful for us gaijin! The chicken was great and it came with rice of course, so I was a happy girl. After lunch I made my way to the Imperial Palace…in search of gardens with flowers of course. Unfortunately, the emporer doesn't seem to like flowers because I haven't found a single one. :( However, the grounds are beautiful, but I am tired from two days of wandering around and a bit sunburned, so I decided to take a little break. Bringing the computer was a good idea because I am getting caught up, but the stupid thing is heavy and all of those brochures and books aren’t helping. So I’m sitting here on a bench in the Emperor’s garden relaxing and writing to you all…you should be very impressed!

It has been surprisingly sunny here this weekend. Surprising, not only because it has been raining for weeks now, but also because I’d heard that we were supposed to have a really wet weekend due to spin-offs from the typhoon that hit China recently. Whatever…it’s been a beautiful weekend! Sunny and not too hot or cold! For the first time on a weekend excursion I didn’t even bring a jacket!

Yesterday it was raining when I got up, so I was trying to figure out what project to tackle in my house. I had just decided that it would be the book cases in the guest room when I noticed that not only had it stopped raining but that it was starting to look sunny! Ooohhhh…time to go out and play! I’ve learned that when you get a sunny day you take advantage of it. I’ve been so tired of rainy weekends that I went in to file a complaint with my boss. It was sunny on Monday at work so I stopped in her office a said that I wanted to talk to her before I filed a grievance. She immediately stopped what she was doing and invited me in to ask what was wrong. The union here is so powerful that the threat of a grievance gets a lot of attention…even though the people here do it all the time. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!! They are actually filing a group grievance because on rainy days during lunch they have no where for the kids to go so they send them back to the teachers for 20 minutes after they eat. Most teams have worked it out so they only have to do every other rainy day recess, and the admin doesn’t send kids in unless it is really raining hard. I haven’t had to do it for about a month. The whole think is retarded! Oh and another one they are filing is because the price of phone service doubled for our classrooms, so they made it so that we can only call on base phone numbers instead of numbers out in town or cell phones. You can call those numbers down in the office, but that isn’t good enough. They are filing the grievance because they think we should be able to call from our classrooms! UGH!!! I will not be in the union next year and I told them to make sure that my!!! Anyway, back to my boss…I told her that I thought DoDDS should schedule or days off better so that we work on rainy days and are off on sunny days. She laughed and suggested I take it to the big guy upstairs. I don’t think she meant the union rep though. :)

Okay…I think it’s time to keep wandering around…I’ll have to tell you about yesterday later…Sayonara!

Knee Replacement Surgery

I have been scheduled to have my left knee replace on June 6th. I will be in the hospital till Friday, June 9th, most likely. I will be out of work for a while after that, but plan on returning as soon as possible. That week is the first week of the quarter and I have new students in three of my six classes. I will undergo physical therapy for a few weeks to get off the walker and back to full strength. Full recovery takes six to eight weeks, but I can deal with being slowed down for a while.

My knee was arthroscopically operated on in 2000 but the problem has returned and I have been in a lot of pain lately. Being on my feet at work a lot has caused quite a bit of discomfort. I have not been doing much walking for the last six months or so. I had to quit setting up at church as it was too taxing. I have not even been riding my bike much due to work and the discomfort it caused. This meant that I have added quite a bit of weight lately which only adds to the pressure on the knee.

Everyone I talk to about it tells me that they are glad they had theirs done. The doctor come highly rated by Nancy, a friend of Valerie's, that is a long time surgery tech and has worked with Dr. Murphy, she even had him work on her. I am not looking forward to surgery or being cripped up for a couple of weeks but the pain I have been going thru has not been much fun either, so I am looking happily at the prospect of it leaving.

Pray for me, if you will.

A Visit From Mary Burns

High School buddy Mary Burns is coming to South Florida this afternoon. She and I are going to head over to Fort Myers (Sanibel Island) for a few days. She's never been there, and I have only been once or twice a looonnnng time ago. Should be fun. She'll be down here for a week. Consequently, if anyone is paying attention, please check on Mom. I'll be out of town for her b'day.

Hello from Chicago

 
Just a wave from Boppa Bill and Jeremy from Lincoln Park in Chicago. We were ending a fun trip to the zoo and wanted to send a "shout-out" to all our friends on the Internet. 

Jack

 
This is Jack. He is a felted lamb that Valerie made for Jeremy. He was a gift at the "baby dedication" that was held the week after Easter at Jon and Amanda's church in Valporasio. Jack often comes back to visit his birth home as he is Jeremy's favorite toy. A couple of weeks prior to his chritening Jeremy and Valerie and I went down the road to the sheep farm. Shirley who runs the place showed us a number of the sheep and let Jeremy pet them. One of JP's (Jeremy Patrick) favorites was Jack, a three month old lamb that would be; as Shirley said: "Going to Lamb Heaven May Second."

Valerie has started another lamb knitting project. This one is for me and his name will be "Bert" of course. A lamb, Bert. I have no idea when Bert will be finished, and shrunk to fit as it is one of many projects in the mix, but I am looking forward to having Bert come to live on my computer monitor. The lambs are knitted rather loosely and then washed to get them dense and cuddly. Then the are stuffed and sewn up, the shrinking process is somewhat random so each one gets its own personality as it shrinks. Jack has his head cocked in an inquisitive manner and is very cute. 

Danny Radecki

On Sunday after church Valerie had to deliver a summons to a place in La Grange. We were done with that by 12:00 and it was a nice day so I decided we should head over to Berwyn and visit Danny Radecki. He was quite gracious when I arrived unannounced. He had seen me getting out of the car and met me at the door. Valerie had stayed behind as she did not know if he would be up for strangers or even dressed. He had seen her in the car and insisted that I get her. We had a very nice visit.

Valerie enjoys art and she appreciates well built houses. Danny and Fred have fixed their place up and were glad to give her the grand tour. She loved the way they had moved the wall from the center of the room to form an alcove at the back and how well the plaster on the walls had been done. The pictures of the Columbian Exposition that decorated the bathroom were a conversation piece as we had read The Devil in White City about the 1893 World's Fair held here in Chicago.

Danny is rather thin, even thinner than I remember him. His two strokes have affected his speach but he gets by. He is doing therapy which has helped and he stalls in his speach only occationally. He had some teeth removed and has false choppers but his jaws are quite drawn in at the cheek. He and Fred were very glad to have company and I think that Fred was impressed that family had stopped by. Danny asked after "Aunt Irene" and Joanne. He gave the usual report on his mother that she is getting by well and ruling the community where she lives. Robin (his daughter) is a stay-at-home mom with her three sons. We saw pictures of Aunty Lee and Robin's crew. The pictures from California of his mom were with a number of kids, great grandkids, as I remember. Robin's sons were in their Little League uniforms and quite good looking. Danny seemed disappointed that Robin was not out persuing some career but Valerie assured him that this is what a woman of that age really loves to do.

Fred was about to depart for a week-long business trip in Toledo, of all places, so we left to let him finish packing his car and getting gone. Danny and I exchanged numbers and promised to contact each other. I am sure that he appreciated the visit as well as did I. I know that Valerie enjoyed herself and that we will do it again soon. She was impressed that I still had family locally and that I had not run her by sooner.

Missing Treasure Found

 
A couple of weeks back I was cleaning out my drawers and I bumped into an old treasure. My mother had given me this watchband that she purchased out west on one of her trips with my father to visit his old army buddies. At the time I did not have a watch that it would fit so I put it in a box that has been in my top drawer or in a keepsake box since.

When I bumped into it recently I realized that a watch that Trace and Alex had given me a few years ago was just the right size. The silver was rather tarnished but Valerie cleaned it up and now my six or seven year old watch and my 15 year old watchband have been gracing my wrist and giving it a certain funky class. 

Whew!

Well, we have had the week of a lifetime! But we're getting our bearings back. Joanne has returned from her trip to Oregon and her drive home from Colorado. She made pretty good time driving a Lincoln Town Car from Calareso's in Boulder - 2500 miles! Now she starts a new job at the Palm Beach County Courthouse. Sheesh!

Auntie Marty had a nice visit with Grandma. She arrived on Saturday, and left on Thursday (yesterday). Problem was, the rest of us were scarce as hen's teeth! I was at a conference, Joanne was driving across the country, and everyone else was working! So the two ladies sat and looked at ancient pictures and talked. For days. Before taking her to the Miami airport, Joe and I wheeled the two of them around the Morikami Museum for a couple of hours. They seemed to enjoy that.

The refrigerator at Grandma's finally got fixed on Wednesday. Try entertaining out-of-town company without a fridge! Whirlpool did not care. It took them almost three weeks to get the thing fixed. My vote is for some other brand next time around....

I attended at VERY intense seminar for speakers and authors, which was very motivating and exciting. I found it a little hard to be creative enough when there was so much going on at home, but I learned a lot. Try giving a 3-minute speech with 3 points, and five minutes to make it up!

This morning Jay called to inform us that the Marines have waited too long to send him to Iraq, and he probably won't have to go. In order for them to send him there, Jay would have to re-up and extend his overseas tour, which he is not inclined to do. I'm certainly happy to hear this news, and I think Jay is, too. Hopefully, he'll post something about that here on the blog eventually.

So now that my decorating is pretty much finished (for now) and all the commotion is over, I'm going to set myself to writing. After my nap...

Fat Tuesday: MMMmm Shrove Tuesday pancakes

cyber-care
http://www.cyber-care.net/news.html
cybr went to .12 then .25 after hitting .49 is back at .20

Dinnings desend

Fat pancakes
Well Jean thought her sister Lauri was comming fer a visit in honor of her 50th b-day. What she did not know was Robert and Paul were also comming. And so they did 15 min after lauri and I pulled up (having dropped the boys at the church parking lot.) WE went inside and I had to get Jean out on the patio with wats wrong with out here...what is this? Well that is when Robert came around on the side and Paul came around the back of the house both with water soakers! She was geting blasted before she saw it was Robert then she turned and saw Paul. They thought it great fun and Paul fell over the chair laughing.

Jean got Robert back the next day as he napped in the chair! Dinning fun you understand....

Well we got them back on a plane today Monday. Back to the norm as soon as we clean up.