More Photo Play

I found these a while back and they are just too funny. I haven't figured out how to change the size and postion of each photo so it's just a random collage,,, so just have a random giggle. 

The Next Twenty

This last trip to Indy left me absolutely wrung out,,, lots of happy things and lots of sad things. Too much emotion. I hope I don't have to think too hard about anything any time soon.

One thing I really need to concentrate on, though, is my game plan for the next 20 years. Flygirl and I had a brief conversation about what we wanted to do. However we quickly left reality to flirt with ideas that would get us put in jail.

Since the last 60 years went so fast, and most of the folks who raised my generation are sliding down a slippery slope, I think it's high time I got serious with my plan.

If my goals are to 1) do something meaningful 2) do something that allows for maximum creativity and minimum supervision 3) something that makes a little money 4) but doesn't cut into my time for important family things, 5)and something that doesn’t allow me to live past 76 (but no pain involved in checking out earlier). What is the answer?

Some people feel you have to start with your passion. What is my passion? Heck, I'm 60ish, how much passion counts? Getting my heart rate above 80? Staying awake past 10 or getting up before 6?

Okay, let’s get serious. What are your thoughts? What can you add to this list of maybes?

1. Business owner (cat or dog "hotel")
2. Fund raiser for ASPCA
3. Fund raiser for organizations that support orphanages
4. Pole dancer at Baby Dolls
5. Uniform designer for NBA and the US military
6. Reality Police for Hollywood
7. Grass mower for folks with big yards (riding lawn mowers only, please)

It's easy to see I really need some help here. Don't be shy. Pull out the stops and let that brain storm loose.

Suggestions for the Prez

President Bush is gathering with top advisors this week. Somehow I didn't get my invitation; it must be lost in the mail. Maybe yours did too.

If you could attend the meeting, what would you tell the President? What should top his To Do List?

I'm making a list of my opening remarks to him and it starts like this.

1. Focus on alternative fuels. Set a goal (5 years) to have this country free from foreign oil. If Brazil can do it, we can.

2. Focus on Education. Improve education in sciences, math and languages. We are far behind other countries in our ability to compete in the global market

3. Focus on the law: If Americans are arrested for hiring illegal immigrants, those jobs would dry up and so would the illegal flow of immigrants. Help Mexico improve it's economy (think about annexing the whole place! Maybe turn it into a resort. Ask Disney for advice)

4. Focus on Consensus Opinions: Both within our own government and with foreign countries. Having friends will do more to stop terrorist attacks than trying to go it alone with a world full of enemies

5. Hire a decent FEMA director -- any military person knows more about disaster preparedness and personnel rescue than the ones currently running the place

6. Forget about the Gay Marriage thing. It's a bogus issue and shouldn't matter one whit. While you're at it, lose the religious fundamentalists; they are not creative thinkers nor good problem solvers.

7. Listen to Laura more than you do Cheney and Rummy

What else should be added? subtracted?

Silver & Gold

Vandy, OJ, the Clements' & Vandy's Kids

Vandy & the Award Winners


XX


Vandy's Kids
The Stage Production





"Make new friends, keep the old
One is silver, the other is gold"
-- from a Brownie Scout song

A recent mini-reunion of my high school class was certainly awash in gold. Most of us met in the first grade and grew up in the same rural Indiana school until graduation in 1965.

Since then, our lives have taken us in different directions; we met challenges, disappointments and success in our own way. I had not seen many of my classmates since graduation; it was a thrill to see that they were much the same as they were back then – still fun loving, bright, interesting, and fully engaged in life.

It was gratifying to see that we had all learned to shine in our own way. From the Army Lt. General to the talented musician, from the successful business owner to parents of happy well balance kids.

A helicopter pilot, a church pastor, a HS teacher, a school nurse, a church secretary, a doctor, a resort owner, an accountant -- all so different yet as familiar to each other as siblings.

Each remembered stories from school days, laughed at ourselves, shared life stories of successes and failures. It surprised me that the spouses of classmates fit in so well; I kept thinking they were in our class too. What a delight!

A special treat was seeing our Principal, Vandy. Although he looked frail, his mind was as sharp as ever, he remembered many things we had all hoped he might forget. Hearing him say “Peeeeeeeeeeople …” had the same effect as if 40 years had not slipped by.

We celebrated being the Luckiest Generation, born of the Greatest Generation and gave thanks to those who made it happen. Our parents and teachers taught us lessons that sustained us and made our lives a rich tapestry .

The reunion was magical for me and I hope for others. It was a moment in time made of shear joy and remembrance -- worth much more than gold.

Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

One post script: Another class was represented and sadly was not adequately acknowledged at the time. Union High School Class of 1940 was 100% in attendance – OJ and my mother, classmates and friends since they were kids, shared the day with us.

They might be considered to be in the Platinum category

In the Company of Women

A few years ago, I decided to take up sewing in hopes of avoiding dementia. My reasoning was that if I had to problem-solve in an unfamiliar media, I could keep grey matter alive longer.

I bought a machine, took a few lessons and began to make things. I became fascinated with different fabrics, how they are made, different colors, different patterns, ways hey could be cut up and sewn together to make useful things.

It wasn't long until I ran into some quilters and then things really changed! In the company of other women I have learned so much more than how to sew: stories of their lives that make up the colorful fabric of life and I never tire of listening to them.

This sisterhood of women is as old as time and as vital as the new day. Anita Diamant writes in the novel The Red Tent about the lives of women in Jacob's tribe, the details of which the men knew little or nothing at all. The women paid lip service to their master but when push came to shove, they relied on each other and the advice of their mothers for survival.

Lisa See writes in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan , about Chinese women with bound feet, who went so far as to have a secret language for communication with each other in their highly regimented lives.

Once when I was overseas with the Air Force, another nurse brought in some of her quilts. It wasn’t long until the small clinic room was filled with women admiring her work, the fabric, and patterns. Few of us spoke a common language but we all understood the language of quilting and language of sisterhood.

Whether a culture values women or not, this ancient yet active sisterhood creates a strong fiber for the culture.

Sewing around the tables at the Quilt Retreat, my quilt sisters discussed husbands, children, grandchildren, illnesses, treatments, recipes, house repair, and which car gets the best gas mileage among other things. The ladies’ ages range from 19 to 76 years and all are animated and energetic in their enjoyment of life.

The youngest woman will marry this summer. She asked everyone to write down their advice for a happy marriage. She ended up with three pages of detailed notes, more than I can remember now!

What advice would you give her?

Gone Quilting

I know this Blog looks more like a test pattern than an active Blog but now I have a excuse,,, I've gone quilting.

A little B&B in east Texas, with cabins and a fish pond, cater to quilters and scappers. A major feature is a work area about the size of a 3-car garage, with lots of light, electrical outlets and cutting tables -- plenty of room to lay out projects. And you get stay up late or even all night working on something if you like,, nobody cares and you don't have to be anywhere else!

Did I mention that the rooms look like something out of House Beautiful and the meals are straight out of Southern Living? Cell phones don't work well in that little valley, there are no computers, TV is there but never on.

Stay safe and I'll see ya on the flip side.

Travels

Trading emails with Flygirl made me remember one of my favorite trips to England.

I love to ride trains and could quite happily spend an entire vacation riding around, reading a James Herriot book and eating Cadbury chocolate (the REAL stuff, not the kind we have here).

About 20 years ago, I rode the train and then a bus to James Herriot’s (All Creatures Great and Small) home town, Thrinsk, in Yorkshire. He had described it perfectly – the people the animals the shops—all of it!

The first night I stayed in a B&B whose other guest was an Aussie. At tea we, the guests and the family, reviewed the news from the Colonies.

The second night, I stayed at a B&B on the edge of town and could see Mrs. Pumphrey’s house from my room.

I had Sheppard’s pie at the pub the vets frequented, had dinner at the hotel where Helen and Jim danced and bought some candies from the shop keeper who picked out candies like a pharmacist might select medicine. I even visited the Vets surgery, where Herriot’s son works. Very little had changed in that office since it opened before WWII

Later, I was standing a shop that was smaller than single car garage and was stocked just like the one on the comedy Open All Hours. There were 5-6 people browsing and waiting in line. Suddenly, everyone left! No one said a word, they just walked out!

Was it something I said? The owner smiled and said “No Lass. The sun came out. Didn’t want to miss it.”

Five minutes later the sun was gone and everyone came back, talking about how lovely it had been. Cracked me up!

Do you have a favorite vacation? Perhaps a trip you like to relive? Or maybe someplace you want to see in the future?

Gershwin

Okay, I can't stand it.
Now I see why I was made a team member at "Purple Tabby"......
Is this a Chinese water torture?
The last post here was 2 February.

So, to keep things growing here, I'll spread a little "Greybeard" fertilizer......take that the way you will!

United Airlines is presently running an ad campaign that centers around "Rhapsody In Blue" by George Gershwin. This piece of music is one of those that touches me somewhere at the very center of my being.
I never tire of hearing it.

I think Rhapsody In Blue may be my favorite, but there are others that will also stop me in my tracks so I can devote full attention to them:
"Fanfare For the Common Man",
The theme for "2001, A Space Odyssey".

Even some Pop/Rock has the ability to nearly bring me to tears:
"Good Vibrations", by the Beach Boys.
"Hollywood Nights", by Bob Seger.
"Nights on Broadway", by the BeeGees.
"Gangsta's Paradise", by Coolio.

I cannot explain why these particular pieces of music affect me the way they do.....and I don't really care. I guess that is why we have "Art" in our lives in it's various forms.

Care to take a stab at explaining it?
Are there types of Art that affect you viscerally?

Look what I can do!!! Look what I can do!!

WOW! The Tabby has learned a new trick!

Now that I can add photos, I'll have to think about stories to put with them.

Later. Much later. That's enough learning for this kitty cat for one day.

C.E.R.T.

Last Saturday I attended the first of four classes in Community Emergency Response Training. Even though it’s a FEMA funded program, it’s downright GOOD! (Poor FEMA. Its lack of leadership has given a bad name to many fine people)

Anyway, the course is well worth the time if offered in your community – the Police and Fire Departments supply most of the instruction and they have a great time doing it.

The course is free but we can buy a backpack filled with C.E.R.T. items for $30 – green hard hat, wrench to turn off a natural gas valve, bandages, flashlights etc. I had to laugh when we pulled out the hard hats though. It made me think of the guys in W.W.II who wore the Civil Defense hard hats and watched for enemy planes (maybe that was only in Europe, not sure)

Being prepared for an emergency is not a new concept for folks who grew up in the Midwest – blizzards and tornados made regular appearances. Having a box of survival gear (or just something to tide us over until the AF delivered house hold goods) is pretty much S.O.P. here. The C.E.R.T. class made me aware of some other things we need to add, though

CERT wants us to be prepared for floods, fires, tornadoes, chemical spills, hurricanes, complete loss of house, loss of the ability to buy food, access a bank, ,,,, you name it! They didn’t mention nuclear threats but I’m not sure what they could say about it anyway.

We USED to be very well prepared for nuclear attacks in Indiana, as I recall. In 1952 all we had to do was get under out desk. I think that might still be the best plan

Review: The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Most of the books I will add to my reviews are at least Two Paws Up. But lest you think I only award praise to books, I offer my opinion on The Mermaid Chair

What the Producers say:Sue Monk Kidd's stunning debut, The Secret Life of Bees, became a best-selling phenomenon and a modern classic. ...

The Producers say a lot more but for this book (and all others), my opinion trumps theirs

My Turn: Screaming Hissing Fit
I selected this book because 1) I enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees and 2) it was on Laura Bush's list of summer reads. DO NOT MAKE MY MISTAKE.

To be fair, I only listened to half of this book; that was all the pain I cared to endure.

In my opinion, if the author knows the Secret of the Universe or even how to boil water, he/she should not hide it from the reader. Neither should the author beat the reader to death with worthless thoughts that only serve to obscure plot, character, direction, and purpose.

Above all, the author should not piss off the reader. If he/she drew them in with the first book, suckered them in with the second but left the reader having a screaming hissing fit, the reader will not come back a third time no matter what marketing tricks are used.

Not only that, the reader will broadcast said hissing fit far, wide and LOUD!

Review: Ireland, a Novel by Frank Delaney

What the Producers say:
One evening in 1951, an itinerant storyteller arrives unannounced at a house in the Irish countryside. In exchange for a bed and a warm meal, he invites his hosts and their neighbors to join him by the wintry fireside, and begins to tell formative stories of Ireland's history.
Ronan, a 9-year-old boy, grows so entranced by the storytelling that, when the old man leaves abruptly under mysterious circumstances, the boy devotes himself to finding him again. Ronan's search for the Storyteller becomes both a journey of self-discovery, long unspoken family secrets, and an immersion into the sometimes conflicting histories of his native land
.…Ireland is the beautifully told story,,, rings with the truth of a writer passionate about his country and in full command of his craft.

My Turn Two Paws Up (aw heck put all four of them up and roll around in catnip! This book is GREAT)

If you crave the art of fine storytelling, this book is the holy grail. Delaney deftly weaves a delicate yet complex storywith such ease, it was like watching a master magician. I never knew where the story was going but I couldn’t take my eyes from it.
Often, when an author narrates his own work, it’s bad news; the reading is usually a monotone singsong that makes it a hard listen. Not so with this book. I could almost see the author wink at me with smiling eyes saying, "Now that’s how ‘tis done, Darlin’ "

Review: The March by E. L. Doctrow

What the producers said
In 1864, after Union general William Tecumseh Sherman burned Atlanta, he marched his sixty thousand troops east through Georgia to the sea, and then up into the Carolinas. The army fought off Confederate forces and lived off the land, pillaging the Southern plantations, taking cattle and crops for their own, demolishing cities, and accumulating a borne-along population of freed blacks and white refugees until all that remained was the dangerous transient life of the uprooted, the dispossessed, and the triumphant.

My Turn: Two Paws Up!
In Doctrow’s characteristic style, colorful characters’ lives are intertwined with those of famous people. His accounts of Civil War medicine is vivid and accurate, even some of the details that aren’t widely known i.e. the President was attended by doctors who knew little about medicine and more about paperwork. The higher-ranking doctors with little practical experience dismissed a younger surgeon with extensive know-how in treating trauma. These Administrative docs proceeding to examine and treat Lincoln with out-dated methods and may have hastened his death.

Another thing that amazes me is the numbers of dead – 20,000 at one battle, 10,000 at another and so on. It's hard to imagine just what that means in terms of burying the dead and caring for the injured. Having a fair understanding of what it takes to keep a military group fed, clothed, sheltered and motivated to continue, I just wonder how they kept it up for four long years with so few of the bare necessities!

Just thinking about the things they did NOT have gives me a headache: Nothing was clean and certainly not sterile, no blood transfusions, no I.V fluids, no N/g tubes, no trachs, no antibiotics. The opium-based laudanum was used for everything but it was often in short supply.

Good book. Highly recommend it to Civil War buffs, folks interested in medical history and Doctrow fans. This one was every bit as good as Ragtime or Welcome to Hard Times

Audio Book Reviews

Listening to audio books is one of my favorite things. In the last 15 years or so, I’ve listened to so many more books than I ever would have stopped to read. Sometimes I use books on tape or CDs in the car but usually I download books to my MP3 player.

I’d like to say I’m not picky, but I am. While I enjoy a wide variety of books – history, biography, mystery, comedy etc, -- the thing that matters the most is the reader. The reader’s skill can make or break a story and unfortunately it colors my review.

CINC House recently fixed my MP3 player, so I have been playing catch-up with my listening.—I’ll not review them all today, least I lose all my readers (all three of you) at once ;)

My Rating System is self-explanatory
1. Two Paws UP
2. One Paw Up
3. Indifferent Look
4. Litterbox Material
5. Causes Screaming Hissing Fits

Military Mix Master

One of the things I really like about the military is that people of different ethnic extractions mix together and with a completely American attitude. Get’er done, Dude!

A few years ago, I was on training trip with a squadron from California and almost everyone had been born some place other than Mayberry USA. The Philippines, Venezuela, Thailand, Mexico, India, Vietnam, and then there were those of Chinese extraction, Laos, and a host of other places. Caucasians were defiantly in the minority.

One physician, a woman who was raised and trained in Taiwan, was timid and spoke very little. When she spoke, her accent was so thick, it was difficult to understand her. We ended up sitting together in class and during many of the exercises. Toward the end she turned to me and said very clearly, "You have a funny accent". Cracked me up!

When I was in Kuwait I was privileged to work with one of the best NCOs ever! He was from Vietnam and had come to America when he was about seven. His trip had been difficult; his family of 10 had split up in hopes that some of them would survive the treacherous journey out of Nam, threw the camps, and the boatloads of refugees. He and one brother made it. By his own account he became a "very bad person" until he joined the military and got some direction.Now, he has a wife and two little girls who think the sun rises because Daddy wants it to.

For the stellar job he does for the USAF and the country, we couldn’t pay him what he is worth.His English is heavily accented but I could always understand "I already took care of that Boss." Or "Just let me do that, please. I’ll take care of it". And he always did. He could take any job and hand it back with a bow on it.

In Baghdad, I was fortunate to work with one of the finest physicians I’ve ever met. He is a prince of a guy and a talented surgeon. He is also a second generation Japanese American. His father was about eight when he came to the East Coast before WW II. Somehow his family missed the camps, thank goodness.The father grew up and married a teacher. They raised three sons, all of whom became physicians, and all of whom graduated from the AF Academy. All three are still on active duty, have families. All are also specialists is different fields. What a contribution that family has made to our country.

Over the years, I’ve worked with folks from just about every country we have had as allies or enemies. As far as I can tell, it’s a great way to assimilate many divergent groups and the country always benefits.

Besides it’s always nice to have a friend who can explain jokes in different languages, teach what foods are good and what to avoid, teach manners of different cultures and above all, teach all the bad words and when to use them!