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This is how it is and it’s not even Halloween yet…

Yow, a lo-ong time has passed since I last posted. What was that I was saying about being better at posting more often?! Well anyway, here I am again… Wonder what I should talk about?

First, if the person who wrote asking me about Fred Pizzuto is out there somewhere, please write again and let me know how I can get in touch with you. I have no clue what your email address is but I would most certainly love to correspond with you about the wonderful, fantastic, wild n’ crazy percussionist, Fred Pizzuto. The Rock and I often wonder how ole Fred is doing. We hope he is well and still ‘percussing’ with the best of ‘em.

Second, if Lawrence Lormand is out there I want you to know, per your comments on an earlier entry on this blog’ that the ending of the “Pop” goes the mainspring story… mentioning the late John DeLorean is pretty much complete ( archived under April 2005) as is. After the relief van was delivered to the posh house on Rattlesnake Road the wild bunch (sugar-fueled kids) and I proceeded to the camp and it turned into “just another day in the life of this bus driving secretary. Mr. Lormand asked if I had any more John DeLorean stories to tell but no, alas, there are none. I did see John occasionally when picking up or dropping off the kiddos but other than a cordial hello we didn’t really have much in the way of conversation. He seemed like a nice family man and was very quiet and polite. He made some ‘kick-arse’ cars though. I always felt bad about what happened to him. I cannot help but believe he was set up and I’m glad that there is still interest in his dreamchild, the DMC-12.

There is a company, The DeLorean Motor Company, a newer company which purchased the name and logo and has taken up ‘the cause’ and is currently engaged in uniting the dreamers amongst us with the dream.

This year has flown by at an unprecented rate and I am hard put to slow it down. A very large chunk of the year was taken up by illness. I even ended up in the emergency room reenacting that famous scene from The Exorcist sans the rotating head. Gosh was I sick! I spent four days in the hospital and was attended to by a doctor who I call “Dr. Hollywood” because he is much too handsome for real life. I have been ‘scoped’ from both ends and am now taking a medication which has pretty much ended my misery. I had gotten to a point where hunger pangs were less painful than eating. I have made changes in my lifestyle and am starting to enjoy life again.

Older Sonny is still in the hospital and has spent the better part of two years in hospital. We visit him about twice a week and thank goodness it’s a lovely drive in all seasons because it takes an hour and 20 minutes one way. It takes quite a bit of time during our week. Although he has priviledges he doesn’t want to leave the unit and it has been a struggle just to get him to walk around. Lately we have encouraged him to take a short ride with us and we’ve finally been successful in getting him into the car, although he still won’t get out of the car if we stop somewhere. He’s still losing weight but is starting to eat a little more without such an effort as before. Progress is slow but we haven’t lost hope.

I have started reading aloud when we go up, after we talk for awhile and we’ve all been enjoying that. I’ve read a couple of new books by members of the 82^nd airborne paratroopers who were the subjects of the film Band Of Brothers on HBO. Fascinating books by some pretty special guys who, during the Second World War, had a good deal to do with preserving our country’s freedom. They were definitely heroes even though they didn’t think so. We owe those guys a real debt of gratitude.

Younger sonny has a shift on the local college radio station once again. We listened to him tonight and he was very entertaining. I think he was really enjoying himself. At one time the whole family was on the college radio station. When we had to leave town for a funeral the station had to fill more than 20 or so hours during the interim. Fifteen of those hours were mine alone since I had 4 separate shows of my own. I’m glad at least one of us has gone back since it’s so much fun. Younger sonny is a natural on the air.

Beautiful daughter, all the way over on the other side of the country, is most likely under the impression that the rest of the family has disappeared into a black hole since she has heard nary a word from any of us in an eon. What a family we are… Earlier this year sweet little granddaughter organized a fund-raising campaign of her own called African Nets for Nothing But Nets, a grassroots organization for saving lives by purchasing mosquito bed nets (through donations) to prevent malaria in families living in Africa. She has raised $1,375 so far, which is 20% of her goal of $5,000 for African Nets. She is aware of the dangers of malaria since her mom had it while working in the Peace Corps in Ghana some years ago.

On a sad note, our family doctor is dying. This is extra sad for us because he has become a good friend over the years. We were in his office earlier today and his nurse told me the cancer docs have said he probably has about 15 to 18 months left since the cancer has spread from his prostate to his bones and beyond. This cancerous assault is a travesty since he is a good man who has devoted his life to serving and saving others. He is my age and much too young to die. He is also a brittle diabetic which makes the treatment more difficult and he had polio as a child. He doesn’t complain though and continues to work. I can’t imagine going to a different doctor. We have come to rely on his jokes and relaxed manner. We always talk and catch up on family matters (his and ours) and he never hedges if he has something to say. He’s very straightforward. Doggone it...

It’s fall again and I feel blessed to live here in New England where Ma Nature knocks herself out every year to drape the landscape in the most beautiful array of colors that was ever on an artist’s pallette. Tomorrow we will go apple picking at an orchard which sits atop a hill that overlooks a huge expanse of mountains and valleys and rivers. Sunsets from there not only take your breath away but they leave you giddy. I think my favorite fragrance is that of an apple orchard on a sunny day. I’m already looking forward to that first juicy crunch…

Prelude to a post...

I have recently come to realize that I’ve been pulling the layers of my life in around me like the cozy comfort of a soft warm blanket on a chill winter’s eve. Alas, as usually happens, it’s morning and time to thrust aside the covers and rouse to another busy day. And so I must throw the covers off, get moving and hie myself off to do battle with life once again. So be it…

Life goes on and my small respite is over. Thanksgiving came, went and then came Christmas, New Year’s and Easter. They were all satisfying. Here I sit on sunny day in April looking out the window and noticing succulent new leaves on the maple just outside. Hope! The world has survived and I with it and it’s time to look to the future. After such a respite though, it’s hard to get my ‘sea-legs’ again.

My resolution is, as always, to post more often. I admire folks who find time and inspiration to post every day or several times a week. Alas, I am not one of them. I had thought to be when I started out but fate has caught me out. Ah, well… I am here now and it’s a beautiful day and as the blood starts to flow to my extremities I feel the urge to rejoin the human race refreshed and invigorated.

Winter was beautiful! I have no complaints. Spring looks to be promising and summer? Well, summer is a whole ‘nuther topic, which I won’t delve into prematurely and taint with cynicism. Perhaps I won’t find summer so objectionable this year. We’ll see…

As of last week I am a year older and I’m amazed that I once found 63 to be a ‘ripe old age.’ Ha, ha… Except for the additional aches and pains and sometimes worrisome forgetfulness, I still find myself thinking of roller skating and such. I truly don’t feel much different from many years past except for feeling more comfortable within myself.

And the Rock said “indeed.” And I say “I’m hungry. What’s to eat?”

And so, for now, I’m outta here. Later…

A snowy holiday interlude...

It snowed yesterday. It was the first snow of the season and it was beautiful! This snow was particularly enjoyable for a couple of different reasons. The Rock was home on vacation so he didn’t have to travel in it and he “didn’t have to shovel it himself.” That certainly added to his enjoyment. Watching the big fluffy flakes quietly falling was enormously entertaining and we had our noses glued to the windows like Ralphie and Randy and the gang when watching the Christmas displays in Higbee’s department store windows in “A Christmas Story.”

We moved to a new apartment recently and we now have a view. I joke and say that we moved to the penthouse since we moved from the first floor to the third floor of our same building, which is only three stories high, hardly the height of a building sporting an actual penthouse. Our new apartment is more spacious and brighter too since it is on the corner with windows on two sides. The back of our building faces a picturesque park-like area with lots of trees and a winding path through it. There are a couple of attractive benches placed strategically and even a small picnic table adorns the woodsy setting. It’s a pretty view and I am loving it.

There was still snow clinging to the tall pine tree branches and covering the lawn today. It was a great start to the holiday season. The only thing missing from the picture was a jaunty red cardinal sitting on a branch to set off the display. I am definitely feeling some holiday spirit starting to bubble up.

The snow has brought something else along with it. Skiing! No, not for us personally, but most certainly for a bunch of other folks… The first snowfall of the season in New Hampshire usually heralds a slew of traffic accidents until everyone gets used to negotiating the slippery stuff again. The newspapers and the radio are full of stories about traffic accidents as people go slip-sliding their way into ditches.

This year is just a bit different from ‘the norm’ though. A good many of the traffic mishaps have involved completely overturned cars. It is reported that a much higher than usual number of vehicles have ended up on their roofs. A state policeman was quoted as saying that people have been going too fast for conditions. I figure they’re probably hurrying off to their favorite mountains for some good skiing before the snow melts or is ‘rained away.’ It would seem that they’re getting in a little extra practice on the way.

Tomorrow it’s “over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go...” My mother is once again hosting the annual turkey bacchanal and I suspect the ole brother-in-law has commenced marinating already. The Rock is in the kitchen starting to prepare the required dishes for us to gain entrance and by this time tomorrow we ought to be writhing on the floor close to bursting from all the gluttony that we intend to commit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

She's Coming Back

Sometime after the last blog entry Google took over Blogspot. Switching the account caused a glitch and it was impossible to upload to the ftp server for a long time. No one could figure out what the problem was but it eventually went away by itself. Computer issues seldom resolve themselves but the cyber gods must have finally felt satiated. I am glad it is resolved since I am the one who made the switch. Let's face it guys, screwing up anything on your wife's computer is as big a crime as spilling black ink on the new bedspread.

Foxy Mama also experienced serious computer performance issues earlier this year. Switching from McAfee to Norton resolved a lot of issues the worst of which was an incompatability with her Eudora email program. If you use Eudora you should avoid using McAfee. The problem is discussed on the McAfee website but the only fix would have meant switching to Outlook. So far there have been no issues with Norton.

The system performance improved after the switch but it required a significant increase of RAM to get acceptable performance. Somewhere along the line a new wireless mouse and a new ergonomic keyboard were added. So all the tools are in place and everything is working. The next step it to get Foxy Mama’s fingers dancing across the keyboard to talk about all the things that have happened these months she has been gone.

Whether it's weather...

We live in New Hampshire, which is considered a wonderful place to be if you like winter. The place is rife with skiers, skaters, sledders, tobogganers, snowboarders, ski mobilers, ice fisherman...and me. You would expect New Hampshire to be cold and snowy wouldn’t you? Yep, you would. But it’s not. Not this year. The closest we’ve come to actually having any snow (in our part of the state anyway) is a brief dusting last week, not in time for Christmas and not even needing shoveling or plowing.

“What kind of winter is that?” you might ask. “Not winter!” I would answer. Dang! I like winter. I need winter. I need snow, nice fluffy white snow. So where is it?! The mid-west has hogged all the snow! Not fair… They get all the tornadoes and heat waves you could desire (if anyone in their right mind would desire either of those). Why do they have to get all the snow too?

I thought it would be nice now that we live in the apartment, to have a snowstorm where I didn’t have to worry about the Rock getting a heart attack because he was shoveling tons of snow every couple of hours and we could stay inside together and be cozy and have all that time to do ‘together’ things and sip hot chocolate or tea or some such and look out the window together and enjoy being out of reach for awhile and say things like “Look at all that snow! Boy, isn’t it great that I/you don’t have to go out in that and shovel and get tired and wet and sore…”

Now that we’re perfectly situated for enjoyment of winter instead of dreading it, there isn’t one. No snow. Nothing. The temperatures are such that a light jacket is about all that is needed most of the time. Well, all right… The Rock has to dress more warmly at night when he takes the Old Guy out for his interminable walks. I grant you that standing around for long periods of time waiting for the Old Guy to remember what it is that he’s supposed to be out there for can make you cold but part of that is because who wants to be outside standing around waiting for a geriatric dog’s bowels to get functioning anyway?

The Rock complains that he can’t even get up a good head of steam walking, and thus getting some decent exercise, because the Old Guy has gotten so terribly lame that he can hardly get out of his own way anymore. It’s usually a battle of wills and stubborn endurance as to the length and fruition (or futility) of the constitutional anyway. As with all of us getting old, the Old Guy’s ‘workin’s’ aren’t much anymore.

What often happens is that after being out so long I consider sending out the troops to see if they’ve succumbed to the elements or have been abducted by aliens, but then back in they come, the dog dragging and the Rock’s face flushed with consternation, just in time to hear the ominous sound of tootsie rolls of death plopping onto the wall-to-wall carpeting as the Old Guy continues on his journey through the length of the apartment laying down a fragrant track. The Rock has developed a very colorful form of verbal expression these days. He does everything in his power to coax our geriatric chum to express himself outside instead of inside but to no avail. This behavior has come about since he’s become so stiff and enfeebled. He’s not a spiteful fellow and until this past year he’s never ever had an accident of any kind under any circumstance. We’re trying to remember his exemplary past but the memory dims in comparison to frequency of the transgression.

Another thing which has become a problem is the Old Guy’s shaky bladder control. Oh he does alright in the house as far as that’s concerned but he has trouble holding it through the hallway until he gets outside on the grass. He forgets, I guess, which side of the door is supposed to be his cue. What happens now is the Rock gets him leashed up and runs out through the hallway as fast as he can and gets the Old Guy into permissible territory quickly and woe unto anyone who decides to come in that door at that moment. The Rock has to be careful that he doesn’t run anyone down in his haste. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that the Old Guy isn’t incontinent so far.

Well, for heaven sake, how did I get on this topic?! I started out to chat about a couple of winter ironies. The first being that New England is now warmer than other parts of the United States (places that are traditionally warm like the south and west…). It’s warm, there’s no snow, although there is rain, and now that we could enjoy a winter, there isn’t any. I think the Rock was actually looking forward to standing at the window and thumbing his nose since the snow was no longer a problem for him.

The other irony? We have not had to put the heat on. Not once! It’s so warm in here sometimes we have to open a window a little bit. Doesn’t it figure? We used to have to pre-buy a whole tank of precious oil to get us through the winter and that was expensive and called for us to monitor our usage and sometimes ‘tough’ it out a little bit. Heat is included in our rent now and we have not had to use any BTUs thus far. That means we’re paying for nothing. Sigh, might as well be summer…

New year, new home, old dog…

It has been some year…oh yeah, quite a year! We moved…and it seemed like it took forever. We’re settled now and love the apartment but not some of the noise, although we agree that it’s still better than drunken college students prowling the streets in the early hours of the morning and cars going by with heavy basses booming. Now we just have a couple of adolescents with new hormones circulating in their bodies and no brains to temper the mess. These boys slam the doors incessantly and run all over the place, presumably in search of the errant gray matter necessary to govern their lives in a civilized manner. Of course many of the adults around here slam the doors too. Sigh…

The apartment is touted as luxury apartments and I have to say that it seems pretty luxurious in that it is modern, spacious enough and nicer than the old fashioned house we had. It’s easy and fun to take care of and it makes us feel as if we’re on perpetual vacation. It’s not unlike a nice large hotel suite. We got rid of a lot of old bedraggled stuff and bought some new furniture and our art work looks splendid on the walls. People who come seem to notice the art, that we’ve had hung for years, for the first time.

The apartment is comfortable and convenient and I no longer have to do battle with the stairs which became the bane of my existence for the past few years. I feel much more independent since I can do many things here by myself which were difficult for me before. The Rock and I have a new lease on life, you should pardon the pun… The hardest thing for us right now is living with an extremely geriatric dog and we feel a big bad decision closing in on us which we would like to postpone or, better yet, not have to deal with.

We are on the cusp of a brand new year and my chief resolution is to blog again…and regularly. Happy new year everyone! May this upcoming year hold good health, prosperity and joy for you and yours!!