Its been time off

Wednesday was cooking preparation day. Thursday was Cindy arrival and cook the turkey day. Grandma Alberta came too and brought the yams. They were super good yams, too. Friday was take Dad to the cemetery day. It rained on the way there, but not for the short ceremony. Lissa said a few words for us. We did not take a priest or minister. I would have had a problem mixing the religion and the miltary. Peter always had that problem too.

He did his duty as he was asked and was one of the beginning programmers for the Navy, outfitting ships prior to Vietnam. There were no systems when he began, just a giant room full of machines with lights and boards to wire making certain that cards would be punched and sorted so that the stuff that was needed on a ship would be chosen and sent to the ship. It seems so simple now. In 1962 it was not that easy. He was told to make the machine do what they wanted. He did it. He always did it. Until the end he was always busy with some sort of system, most recently helping Charles with his work and advising David Lincer with his business.

Cindy left us for Texas at 4:00AM Saturday and got there in the afternoon. Aidan slept the whole trip. That was nice for her and for the other passengers.

Believe it or not, the floor just may get finished tomorrow. Lowes is scheduled to come between 9 and 12 to finish. It sure would be nice. They may even get paid if they finish.

I am starting to think about where I want to live next year. It will be different. I am not certain if I should stay in the Bay Area or get a condo near 'lissa or a house near Cindy, or both. I am going to fly to Dallas on Jan 25 (Cindy got a round trip for me for $176. Is she good or what?) so that I can go to the Del Webb information meeting about a new senior sub-division near Cindy's house. Peter and I had planned to go and look at it together. We thought that Texas would be good for being closer to our cousins who are even further east. We loved to travel and visit our friends and relatives and wanted to return to that life. I may do it myself.

Did some work

Cut the onion (tears and more tears) and the celery. The bird is not quite thawed. Need to get the innards and the neck to make broth for the dressing and the gravy. It may take a few hours to get it out. But then, I do need to wash clothes or (oops, nudity) dress up today too.

I have lost Alberta again. She is not answering her phone and she did not tell me she was going shopping. Ellie does not have her. Ellie and Charlie are at the hardware store. That's Ellie's toy store. Whenever you lose her, just call her cell. She will be at the hardware store or staging another home for sale.

OK, I give up, I will call Alberta and leave a message for her.

Now I will sort the laundry.

Another day, another ?

I am not ready. Maybe tomorrow I will be. I really miss him. He did not do any of the work on dinner. He did talk to me and keep the conversation going so that I did not go out of my mind with numbing activity. Today I have to get the dressing ingredients ready for tomorrow.

Oh, well, I guess I will move my lap top into the kitchen and listen to AAR while I cut and chop and bag the parts. I need to try to get the innards out of the bird too.

Let's go.

Monday starts a new week

It's Thanksgiving week. The turkey is in the fridge, as is the cranberry sauce and one nice yellow onion. It is only real cranberry sauce if it has the identations from the can. The bread has been thawed. The corn bread mix is ready to be made. But, oh, oh, we don't have the celery, the olives, the sparkling grape and cranberry juice and some brown gravy mix for Melissa. There are Potato Buds in the cupboard (ooh, not real 'tatoes). Grandma is making the candied yams and more veggies are at the store (don't forget to put them on the shopping list for tomorrow).

We moved Dad's ashes from the table and put him in the family room. We will take him to the cemetery on Friday. In the meantime we can still talk to him here. He loved Thanksgiving.

We all had parts of the meal to fix as soon as we were able to do something, all, except Melissa, the "not-a-cook". She loves brown gravy with her turkey. Why? I have not got the faintest idea. If she wants it, she can make it. She can boil water and heat soup so should be able to make gravy from a mix. John is the cook in her house. She is at the studio so much, or at competitions for her students, or doing the paper work that she has no time for cooking. It is a good thing she decided on a performing arts career. She is very talented and enjoys dance and performing so much, and housework and cooking so little that she is happy with her life. Peter understood this and was so patient with her. Although he did tease her about her inablity to create a funny joke. He was very proud of her. And she loved and was proud of him. She was so happy when she was able to change the name of the studio to O'Sullivan's Dance Academy. She sent pictures of the signs to him as soon as they were up.

Time to complete the shopping list and listen to Randi Rhodes on Air America.

Thoughts on life, the universe and US

I have just read an article in the Observer, a London newspaper about Nebraska. Parts of it a reverting to prairie. check it out: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1646659,00.html?gusrc=rss

I wonder how much of where we have lived is going in this direction. I noticed a small mention in the article that the land is thin there; that this community never did grow. Perhaps the return to prairie is good and normal and natural. Are we building in places where there is no sustaining eco-system? Are we building where we should be planting?

We have many empty towns in the Mojave desert. But then, there is not a lot of water. Of course Las Vegas and developers from there want to slant drill and take water from the California side to build more near them. This would destroy the few communities that use the aquifer under that area. These communities would then die and return to the desert. This is not exactly the same as a natural degradation, but rather is a direct attack on smaller communities.

I have just thought that the desert situation is very much like what the US does in South America and why they are now asking us to leave them alone. Time to ponder, Brain.

Time to read

I love reading. I am trying to finish the new Ludlum. It seems to have bogged itself down in minutiae. The main characters are running around Paris not knowing what they are doing or why. It is obvious that the male character has been set up to take a fall. It is not so obvious that the female character is ambiguously good. She is too good. Perhaps I will finish it tonight.

I have sent e-mails about Pombo, the Tracy real estate guy who is the representative in Congress for that area. He is trying to "patent" public lands. That means sell them to the highest bidder for wonderful mining actvities and such. Check it out.

Another day, another trip to the notary

This will be the third trip to have a form notarized so I can send it to an insurance company. They gobble up notary forms and death certificates as if they were popcorn. Since I can't eat popcorn, they may as well have it.

My neighbor, Carol, witnessed another form for me last night. It was enjoyable to visit with her and her husband, Len. They are about 10 years older and have many relatives. They are from Minnesota, near where Peter's Aunt and Uncle and cousin Mary lived. Carol is a very hard worker who was raised on a farm and still loves to garden. She has created a beautiful native garden in her front yard. My garden is native too. It is not beautiful. It is native weeds that grow only in the winter and spring. But, at least they are green then, just like the hills.

Making Chilli for George's party on the 10th of December. He wants to find a small solar system to power a room heater for winter time. We can always look it up on-line and write lots of e-mails to find one for him.

Yes, the Harry Potter was cool. It had more humor than the earlier movies. But then, if the humor had not been there, it would have been excessively dark and heavy. It followed the book fairly. We had our discussion after, while we were at Baldie's having our "linner". We missed Peter's input in our discussion. I felt that he would have agreed with us, especially since he would have reread the book just prior to attending the movie showing. There were parts of the book that were left out. But they were subplots that were not necesary to the main story line. The lack of Dobby story seems OK for this movie, but needs to be put back in for the future stories.

Time for the notary trip. Want to catch the mailman.

It's Harry Potter Day

Peter P. should be here shortly. And Charles will help create a good breakfast. Then we can shop for a turkey and stuff. After that, we will try to go to the theater and watch Harry Potter.

Dad would have jumped into his scooter and been ready to go at least an hour early. He loved Harry Potter stories. He read them all, both the written word and the audio books. He saw all of the movies and owned the DVDs which he watched often. He would discuss the characters and their development, the plots and the differences between the director's approaches for each of the films as well as the differences between the books and the films. We would all get involved in these discussions and have a wonderful time. We will enjoy the movie today and hopefully have an interesting discussion.

A new beginning

It has been 18 days since Peter left us. Some times during the day it seems he is still here and I can share with him. Other times I know that I can no longer talk with him and be next to him and I feel lonesome.

I will copy some of the e-mails I have received from his (and our) friends and relatives and include them in this blog shortly. I will also include some of his writings that indicate his love of life and family and friends.

Then I will find a way to make a new beginning.

Suzanne (Auntie Suzi)