Life of Wry

We went to the Melon Ball tonight for another good concert.. this time to see that band ^^. We both remembered attending a kids concert a hundred years ago with the young Peter, at which Dave Nachmanoff played with the much beloved Linda Book. I remember just loving his performance.

We learned tonight — or maybe relearned — that Dave toured for 17-some years with Al Stewart (the Year of the Cat guy). He’s got some chops.. pretty polished musician, performer and songwriter in his own right.

But we REALLY went to this concert tonight to see Brendon, a kid who played baseball for many years with Peter. Brendon was one of our favorite kids — a great baseball player with an even better attitude, who was just the nicest and friendliest little kid around. Brendon was a standout little leaguer and he and Peter both went on to play on a travel team together. At one point, he got in a terrible dirt bike accident and broke his leg. He was down for a long time and, it turns out, his leg never really healed, which brought his baseball playing days to an end. I learned from his dad tonight that it was during this time that he picked up a guitar for the first time. In fact, his first (and only) guitar teacher was tonight’s drummer (who also plays a mean guitar!). The two of them opened the second half of the show with an acoustic duet that was gorgeous…

Brendon is trying to make a go of it as a musician; hope he makes it.. it clearly brings him a lot of joy.

It was a great night of music, saw lots of folks we knew, too. T’was a good time.

L to R: Nick Carvajal (drummer and guitar teacher), Brendon Tull (bass), Dave Nachmanoff (guitar, piano), a harmonica guy who played for two songs (and was amazing), and Martin Lewis (guitar).

Purgedays continue, I’m happy to report. A bit gimmicky, perhaps, but it’s working for me. Once a week on Thursdays (rhymes with Purgedays), I’m filling one of those large black trashbags to take to Goodwill (actually this week, and probably from now on, it was All Things Right and Relevant). A bag a week is all we ask. I’m starting to get to the end of what I can give away clothes-wise.. and when I do, I’ll start on other things. I can’t see this lasting forever; we just don’t have that much excess, but so far, so excellent!

Today’s haul comprised work clothes I’ll never wear again. Even if I did still work, I’d never fit into these things. Somewhere back in the early 90s, I must have lost a bunch of weight and then ran out and bought a bunch of clothes. Probably as an incentive to keep the weight off. Lots of silk and lots of linen.. pencil skirts and boyfriend blazers. This was overkill when it came to working in our little nonprofit office in Davis, but when I was on the national board for the Alliance for Community Media and traveled a lot.. well, linen pencil skits and boyfriend blazers were just the thing. Ms. Fancy Pants.

I was probably a size 6 for about five minutes. But it was a very fun five minutes!

Evidence:

And the heels to go with them. My my goodness.

Here are three exciting screen shots…. I’ll wait while you read each of them.

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Here’s what I have to say about that: Sister District, who only works on statehouse races, made all the difference here. Their strategists long ago identified Virginia as a state to focus on because it’s an important swing state, and because it’s flippable. They’re not going to waste their time on states that are not both. Then, their strategists singled out candidates in races that were close, whose victories had the potential to put dems over the top. They know that when SD volunteers 1) knock on doors 2) raise money 3) make voter contact via calls, texts and postcards, it makes a HUGE difference in these small, low profile campaigns (as compared to big national races). The few thousand dollars we raise in Davis every time we send out a friendraising letter, for example, is HUGE for these small campaigns. My personal $100 really REALLY makes a difference. When SD volunteers reach thousands of voters in a candidate’s district through their multiple “touches” (door knocks, calls, texts, postcards) it makes a difference in a race that is won by just a hundred votes (these are, in fact, the margins of victories in so many of these races!). SD’s efforts in these selected campaigns are often the lion’s share of the ground game for a lot of these candidates. These are small races.

But here’s the thing: they add up. When you pick the right candidates to back (strategically speaking), when you unleash hundreds of Kari Petersons (as one small example) on a close campaign, you have a good chance of winning. And if you win enough of those, you tilt the balance in the dems’ favor. You might win one or both of the chambers in that state’s statehouse. And when you do win a statehouse, especially one that WAS half red, especially one that the state’s republican governor spent millions on to protect, especially a governor who had presidential aspirations and wanted to have a republican trifecta in order to roll out his conservative agenda (and now he’s been stopped in his tracks) … you get the attention of the whole nation. Bellweather Virginia is a major prize and tonight dems won big. And it is in NO SMALL PART because Sister District put its considerable strategic chops to work and mobilized its eager little volunteers. Like me. And Kelly and Lyra and Rebecca and Amy and Chris and Chris and Audrey and dozens (and dozens) more here in Davis (and the other several dozen chapters across the country). We’re probably talking just a few thousand volunteers nationwide, but the efficiency with which those volunteers are used to make seismic differences in these campaigns is impressive. It’s time and effort very well spent.

Statehouse races are the sleepers of electoral politics. They are so low profile, and yet are massively critical when it comes to policy enactment. Have you heard that reproductive rights are states issues now? LOL, thanks Supreme Court. And, school curriculum, redistricting, voting rights, gun laws, climate action, LGBTQ policies — all happening on the state level, with key legislative decisions made in state houses. Dem majorities are critical. Tonight, Glenn Youngkin lost the possibility of control on all of those policy fronts. He wanted a trifecta to be able to pass marquee conservative legislation; he wanted to show off for the last two years of his term, in hopes that’d propel him to the White House. Not happening now with both chambers of his statehouse controlled by DEMS! He’s been shut down. THAT is huge. And the reason for the headlines.

Again, SD played an incredibly important role in that. The candidates know that, too.

You are welcome!

…. vintage 2001.

On this rainy day in Davis, on the first day of non-daylight savings.. I wondered what I’d blog about. Certainly not the effort of finding a customized hammock cover, nor the time spent on the phone with the Southwest Airline folks trying to track down my account number, nor the unsuccessful-so-far effort to find the owner of a Chinese passport I found on the streets of Davis this past week.. nor any of the numerous rabbit holes I fell into in between those tedious tasks.

I decided to journey back into the photo archives (my favorite thing to do) and choose a few from the earliest Halloween for which I have digital photos. When I got to 2001, I enjoyed looking at a few more from the immediate weeks surrounding Halloween and selected this bunch… they tell a little story of Peter that Fall, when he was 3 1/2.

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This is a Frame family heirloom.. a costume made by Peter’s great grandma, Vovo, and multigenerationally worn by various members of the family..

This is Jim sewing the costume Peter preferred wearing that year, a lion suit! (If you look closely, you can see Peter watching/interacting with something on my computer). This was back in the day when I only had one file cabinet (I now have four). But most notably: Jim’s sewing P’s costume, and he’s doing it on his mom’s sewing machine. I married a multi-talented guy.

The finished product: a sweet lion and a lion suit seamster:

And a couple more…

With Vicki at a Halloween party we had for Peter and his friends…

(Peter was not the only lion!) Pictured: not sure, Morgan, Sabrina, Jocelyn, Rowan, Chenoa and Peter.

Let’s see… then there was the pumpkin patch (Impossible Acres), which we evidently visited that year with Uncle Chad (who knows his way around horses) and Aunt Teri!

Looks like we’re celebrating a birthday.. but for the life of me, I can’t think of whose it would be, and can’t figure out who the fellow on the right is… (maybe Chad’s dad?). But I love the pic of Peter with his Aunt Teri and that beautiful German chocolate cake! Wondering who made it. Hope it was me.

Then we have a visit to the Wild Animal park that was down the road that may or may not exist anymore. Looks like we went with Duff and Chenoa. That elephant did some remarkable tricks! I like that they allowed children to feel the skin.

Up close to a swimming, diving tiger! Peter’s 3-year old self is dwarfed in size…

This was also the Keith era.. when the Kulicks (Gail and Bob) lived next door and had a kiddo exactly the same age.. what a lucky turn of events that was (Bob was a grad student and they lived next door for two years, which resulted in countless playdates!). Keith and Peter each had mini Tiggers (which I’d forgotten) .. Peter’s beloved “Little T,” an enduring member of our family, still (these days encased in glass and sitting on the piano!).

A view of our backyard, much like today’s, minus the bridge…(in fact, as I type this, I’m sitting in the “west wing” — 12 feet of extended house — where the porch used to be, looking at the deck that replaced that bridge).

This photo also shows up in that month-long 2001 window… and I like it. Obvious what’s going on here. Not sure what inspired the photo.. except that it’s pretty cute, no? Maybe it was the pedicure?

And I’ll wrap with a couple at the park… because park visits were a huge part of our lives during this era.

Hope it was a soft landing! (Peter was not a cryer.. he took his lumps in stride, almost always getting right back up and doing it again.)

It felt summery today, but it’s November 4, last day of daylight savings, and the holidays are around the bend. At 79 degrees, it was nice to be in the garden for a little bit this afternoon. Didn’t do a lot…. but pulled up all the squash, weeded some, snipped a bit, and picked what may be the last of the eggplants, a couple tomatoes and a huge bowl of orange cherries.

Jim, Darlene and I saw Scorsese’s Flower Moon movie tonight. It was excellent… and it was heavy… and it was long… so instead of writing, I’m going to post some funny things from my Pretty Good Stuff file. I’m glad I have a Pretty Good Stuff file.

T’was a lovely day for a walk a bit north of town. This is some private property where Carrie likes to take Shasta the dog, so she can run around leashless, chasing turkeys and whatever else tries to elude her (the dog that is).

To get there, you drive up Rd 102, turn on maybe 26A, maybe catch a bit of 102B, and since there’s no sign posted that warns you to stay out, you just park and wander. You’ll pass a whole lotta pistachios, a just cleaned up tomato field, another where sunflowers bloomed this past summer, a bunch of oak, a dried up slough, lots of poison oak (very red and visible right now!)… and other things. Kinda fun to be out there. I liked it.

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To note: I was a bit nervous walking out in the fields under a bright fall sun, as I’d applied my first dose of efudex this morning — day one of a 21-day course — and knew I had to be 100% protected from UV rays. (Efudex is that topical cream that kills would-be skin cancers and is something fair-skinned people like me who’ve spent too much time in the sun are advised to consider using every couple years.) Since it’s essential that you avoid sun when using efudex, I had a thick layer of sunscreen, a broad-brimmed hat AND carried an umbrella. Well, this evening, after doing the math and realizing that day 21 lands on Thanksgiving (really? I hadn’t figured that out when I decided to start the treatment today?!), I decided to suspend the whole thing and restart the treatment on December 26. I just can’t have my face all red and cracked and flaking and oozing and hurting as I prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for visiting family and friends. I’d be uncomfortable, they’d be grossed out. It took looking at the photos from 2014 — the last time I did an efudex treatment — to convince me I’d made a huge mistake in starting today. So I stopped. Yay. Just wanted to remember that.

I’ve been back from our nearly three-week trip now for a little over a week. Still feel like I’m finding my sea legs.. as there have been so many niggly things messing with my return to routine. To wit… it’s approaching midnight and, instead of going to bed, I’m looking at a stack of todo lists (tasks scribbled on multiple tiny scraps of paper scattered atop two data books representing my master todo list and current (dormant) projects), a bulging email inbox, an overpopulated desktop (computer desktop, that is), a long list of missed blogs, a calendar missing a bunch of entries, stacks of unread must-read books..

And I’m ORGANIZED! I really am.

My organization spilleth over.

[Inhales deeply, remembers life’s priorities, regains perspective, yawns…]

Tonight’s photo, therefore, is this… grandniece (accurately: first cousin twice removed –> Jim’s first cousin Monica’s daughter’s daughter) Diana taking a nap. What a beauty. What an inspiration.

I’m going to bed.