Thanksgiving Week

November 30, 2014 Joe AuBuchon

Thanksgiving Week – Nine Days

My wife, Diana or Di, to her English family and Charlie to the rest of us is still teaching. This year she had the whole of Thanksgiving Week off. A good week to relax and veg-out.

Saturday – relax, watch college football, and fix spaghetti for dinner.

Sunday – as above, but pro football and took Charlie to have a mani-pedi.

Monday – relax, we went to MNF dinner at Mike and Sandy’s (nice tradition as Mike and I have been doing this for somewhere around thirty years).

Tuesday – took Charlie to her “pain management” doctor and had one of her “heavy” meds dosage reduced—less med in the same number of pills for the same cost.

Wednesday – one of Charlie’s good, retired friends came over to visit for several hours and I then took Charlie to another doctor’s appointment.

Thursday – the two of us had a quiet Thanksgiving dinner together: turkey, mashed potatoes and peas. Her brother called and was quite chuffed that he had prepared a good batch of roast potatoes. I’ve found that a 16-pound turkey has plenty of meat for the two of us for dinner and several days of leftovers—oh, yes, gave the cats a bit of turkey, too.

Friday – quiet day with leftovers and football and Charlie grading English class essays (7th & 8th grade). When I see her doing this I give quiet thanks that I was able to retire when I did.

Saturday – basically a copy of Friday except I started out watching Premier League “football”—Go Arsenal!

Sunday – should be a copy of Saturday except for the angst of Charlie having to go back to work tomorrow and the Grey Cup is on this afternoon.

The above list is not an exhaustive one. There was grocery shopping to do, including the purchase of cat and bird food. Clothes washing, dishes, general cleaning, etc. that needed to be done. The gardener came by yesterday and the front yard and backyard gardens are beautiful, if lacking in summer flowers.

Charlie finished reading the latest Aloysius Pendergast book, Blue Labyrinth, by Preston and Child. She is now on the patio reading Relic and drinking her second cup of tea. We actually have dark clouds overhead so, maybe, we’ll get some of that promised rain this week. (Maybe, even today.)

I’m a half-dozen chapters into Heritage of Cyador by Modesitt and it promises to be a good read.

I’ve written the first eight chapters of my book, two more full chapters and two partial chapters farther on in the story. My goal is a hundred thousand words but I’ve got more story than that in my head and will have to do a “bit” of trimming.

Downloaded Annie Lennox’s new album, Nostalgia, marvelous. I’ve got 18,000+ songs and tunes on iTunes and have music playing in the house most of the time—on Apple TV and playing through our stereo. (Still waiting for Diana Krall’s Wallflower.)

The OC Register is again a no-show today—haven’t had a copy delivered since Thursday a week ago, but I still get their emails. The LA Times hasn’t missed a day or been late. (This really bugs me as the Times does not cover Orange County high school football. It’s playoff season now.)

School Teacher Alert

—and anyone else who has ever had a “pointy-haired” principal or boss: Today’s Dilbert (with apologies to Scott Adams).

Principal: Would you like some feedback on your (teaching) performance?

Teacher: No.

P: You’re supposed to appreciate feedback because it makes you feel valued.

T: How does listening to you belittle me about things you don’t understand make me feel valued?

P: Well, I don’t know. It must be an indirect thing.

P: Maybe we should just try it and see how it feels.

T: Whatever.

P: I don’t actually watch you (teach) work, so I’m mostly guessing about the things you do wrong.

P: I accuse you of being slow and disorganized!

P: Is it working yet?

T: Yes. If that makes you go away.

I don’t know if this accurate for your current situation, but, if you’ve been a teacher long enough, you’ve had at least one, and maybe several “pointy-haired” principals. (I know I have. I, of course, won’t mention any names, but, if you’ve taught with me, you will probably name the same ones.)

Etc.

Charlie’s sister, Tricia, has confirmed that she’ll be here for Christmas. (She lives in England.)

The cats are keeping me company: one on the back of my chair, from which position he sometimes washes my hair, and the other atop her castle.

And, as I look around at all I possess and think on all I am thankful for one thing stands out: Charlie, without whom nothing else seems to matter.

And, one more note, Charlie reports that it is now raining.

The Cat

November 21, 2014 Joe AuBuchon

By Oliver Herford
1863-1935

OB-SERVE the Cat up-on this page.
Phil-os-o-phers in ev-er-y age,
The ver-y wis-est of the wise,
Have tried her mind to an-a-lyze
In vain, for noth-ing can they learn.
She baf-fles them at ev-er-y turn
Like Mis-ter Ham-let in the play.
She leads their rea-son-ing a-stray;
She feigns an in-ter-est in string
Or yarn or any roll-ing thing.
Un-like the Dog, she does not care
With com-mon Man her thoughts to share.
She teach-es us that in life’s walk
‘T is bet-ter to let oth-ers talk,
And lis-ten while they say in-stead
The fool-ish things we might have said.

Newspapers – A Love-Hate Relationship – 2

November 17, 2014 Joe AuBuchon

Newspapers – The Orange County Register

This is the second in a, hopefully, short series of posts having to do with the spotty delivery of my “morning” newspaper (OC Register – not the LA Times, which is “always” on time).

Sunday, November 9 – in the wet gutter at the foot of our driveway and delivered sometime between 11.03 am and 12.12 pm
Monday, November 10 – delivered by 6 am (a second copy was on my driveway by 6.40 am—I assume that the delivery person passed by my house after I picked up the first copy and thought s/he’d missed it earlier)
Tuesday, November 11 – Saturday, November 15 – all papers delivered between 8 am and 12 noon
Sunday, November 16 – NO paper delivered
Monday, November 17 (today) – no paper delivered, as yet (9.21 am – I just went outside to check)

I do wish the Register would get its act together.

– – – – –

Marijuana

I received a reply from Sandy Banks, LA Times columnist, on my comments about her article on marijuana. (I emailed them to her.)

Her reply: “Thank you, Joe. You raise an important issue. Colorado has seen a big increase in the percentage of DUI drivers who are under the influence of marijuana, not alcohol.”

I do believe, however, that she missed the following point: “But making a socially acceptable, mind-altering drug legally available on a widespread basis is, in my opinion really, really stupid. Kids in junior high already have access to alcohol and tobacco through friends, acquaintances and family members who can legally purchase them. And we now want to add marijuana to the list?”

It is nice to know that the people whose articles you read in the newspaper read your replies and comments.

– – – – –

Today

The weather here in Southern California is beautiful. High 60s to low 70s at the beach with sunny skies. I’ve got a salad and chocolate milk to take to the beach for lunch later. The cats are sleeping: Smoke in a south-facing window soaking in the warm sunlight and Mist on their sofa-blanket across the room from me.

Pot

November 15, 2014 Joe AuBuchon

Pot

This morning’s issue of the LA Times contained a commentary by Sandy Banks entitled “Clear thinking needed on pot.” In the article she offers her thoughts about its legalization, including the problems and pitfalls.

Personally I see a few added dangers: for everyone who travels by car, motorcycle, bicycle, skateboard or walking. When I first started driving in the 1960s, we worried about drunk drivers, drivers fooling around with radio buttons and parents paying too much attention to children in cars without seatbelts (including one who took off the front end of my car as she ran a stop sign).

Kids are belted in today, but they still distract parents. In addition we also have cell phones, texting and in-car navigation systems adding to the list of distractions facing users of our roads.

While bicycling to the beach for lunch yesterday I passed an accident involving a motor vehicle and a bicyclist. It was on Pacific Coast Highway approaching Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach. There is a left turn lane, two traffic lanes, an increasing in size separation divider and a right turn lane. I don’t know exactly what happened but I can guess that the driver of the motor vehicle and the bicycle rider collided in the right turn lane while the bicyclist was moving across the lane to get into the separator in order to be in the right spot for crossing Beach Boulevard.

This was in the middle of the day. Do we really need to add alcohol or legal pot to the mix? Isn’t life out there dangerous enough as it is?

I don’t believe we need to add another legal and widespread drug to the list of things distracting drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Legalize the recreational use of marijuana and you, I believe, will see, maybe slowly, a real rise in accidents caused, at least in part, by marijuana.

Marijuana may, indeed, have a documented and valid use as an analgesic. Regulate it. Standardize dosages and prescribe it through our system of pharmacies so those who need it can obtain it legally and be sure of the efficacy of what they are purchasing.

But making a socially acceptable, mind-altering drug legally available on a widespread basis is, in my opinion really, really stupid. Kids in junior high already have access to alcohol and tobacco through friends, acquaintances and family members who can legally purchase them. And we now want to add marijuana to the list?

Containers

Yesterday, on Facebook, I posted the following:

Had about 0.01 inches of rain last night. Almost perfect day today, rode my bike to the beach for lunch – Attention Walmart shoppers and other looking for cheap foreign goods – counted seven (7) container ships off L.A. / L.B. coast – their goods were not being unloaded.

Here are the images to go with that post:

Oh, Yeah, we also need a cat picture.

Vacation Travels 2014 – Part 3

September 7, 2014October 24, 2017 Joe AuBuchon

Time to come home.

Alas, a week and a half before Charlie was due back at work it was time for us to head for home. Having done most of our packing the day before, it would seem that we would have little to do. But we still didn’t leave before noon.

Those who never closed a residence for a Minnesota winter don’t know about draining water. Turn off the water supply, turn off the water heater, open all the faucets and then drain the water heater. You don’t want water in the pipes to freeze and burst. Leave the heaters on low to prevent freezing the pipes and put RV antifreeze in the drains (after all the power might fail and the house freeze).

Travels and Motels

We said goodbye to Warroad a few minutes after noon and began our journey west. Roseau, Greenbush, Karlstad and then south at Donaldson as the construction/repair detour was still in effect (still unknown to OnStar and Waze). When we reached Warren we turned west once more and stopped at the Sky-Vu Drive-In Theatre. The current film showing was Tammy. We stopped, took a few pictures and resumed our journey to Moorhead.

Again we stayed at the Moorhead Travelodge, second floor smoking, cats. Nice room, good soundproofing as the motel is backed up to a busy rail line.

The next day it was I-94 across North Dakota to Wibaux, Montana and the Beaver Creek Inn (same room we had before). This time Charlie went with me to have dinner at the Shamrock Club, excellent meal and great atmosphere. Of course, she had to buy a Shamrock Club hat as a souvenir.

On to Bozeman, Montana and the Holiday Inn. This time the room was downstairs next to the back exit and it was a lot easier to move our luggage. Good room service dinner. This time we ordered three appetizers between us and no entrees, just the perfect amount of food.

Stopped in Haugan, Montana at the Lincoln’s World Famous 50,000 Silver $ Bar for a break and souvenir shopping. Stayed the night at the West Spokane Super 8. They messed up our reservation for a smoking handicapped room and I ended up toting our luggage up to the third floor (dirty word, dirty word, dirty word).

The next day it was south through Washington and then west along the Columbia River to Portland and south to Albany. A nice, easy day without too much Portland traffic.

Our last motel day was south on the I-5 to the Umpqua River and viewing elk at Dean Creek, a stop at the Mill Casino for an hour of slots and shopping for Charlie and the on to Arcata. The Arcata Super 8 still had not correctly fixed the handicapped room shower, but, otherwise, the room was fine.

Friday, it was south to Gilroy, California and Bill & Artie’s place. Artie had a good rib dinner from Nob Hill waiting

for us (and I, of course, ate too much of her macaroni salad) and we had a good talk and rest.

Saturday, it was south on the I-5 to L.A., with some stop and go traffic and home a little after six, a Subway sandwich for dinner and a sigh. It was good to be home.

Three days to get the house organized and luggage unpacked and Charlie was back to work (and I embarked on my third year of retirement).

Aside from the Super 8 screw-up in West Spokane the only negative about the trip home was the condom wrapper. At one of the motels, whose name I will not mention, Mist found an open condom wrapper under a bed missed by housekeeping. I mentioned this to the desk when I turned in our keys the next morning and they halved our bill. Quite nice; we’ve stayed there before and will again.