Life of Wry

A couple of days ago, this squirrelly fellow was hanging out on our back deck, crawling all over the hammock stand — pulled in for the wet winter. He let me take a bunch of photos, then I suggested he go over and hang out with the Buddha… which, surprisingly he did!

They make a nice pair.

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In unrelated news:

As I write this, I’ve completed my packing, checked in for my flight, and filled out my customs form for entry to Guatemala. I’ve organized my documents and money and whatnot… and am pretty ready to go! Additionally — sometimes as a exercise in procrastination and sometimes in the process of packing — I cleaned out and/or organized 5 cabinets, a set of shelves, and most of a closet, netting a whole nuther huge bag of stuff that I took to Goodwill yesterday. I also cleaned out the refrigerator and tidied up an already uber tidy house. Just because. My calendar’s clear for the next two weeks and my “upon return” list is written out. So damn organized. Sally and Ron arrived this late afternoon; we just got back from dinner, and Ron has now left and is driving back up to Tuolumne. Sally’s doing her own fine-tuning of her bags and we’ll leave at about 7:30 in the morning for San Francisco. 

Adventures await.

I’m going to miss Jim.

So, lots of talk around our beautiful state lately about atmospheric rivers — storms that bring great gobs of rain, which bring floods and mud slides and all kinds of drama. LA is getting epic rainfall and they’re thinking this latest atmospheric river will land LA in the record books. They think that it’s SO MUCH RAIN it could be like the 5th most rainfall LA’s EVER gotten!

Well, know when #2 was? Check this out:

Sally sent me that screen shot of a story she was reading today and when she saw the list of other record rainfall dates, she noticed that #2 was on my birthday! These are two-day rainfall events and #2 started on January 25 and ended on January 26 — the day I was born, and the first full day of my life on earth. A storm for the ages.

My parents often recounted the story of my being born in a big storm. I believed it, but didn’t imagine it was anything beyond a typical southern California weather event — not much of an event at all. I wish mom and dad were around right now and they could tell me again what those days were like. I’d love to share with them the significance of that storm and its place in weather history.

The story went something like this: mom was having contractions and wanted my dad to take her to the hospital. My dad was sick, but they went, only to be told it was false labor and to come back later. They went home and shortly thereafter, her contractions got more intense and she wanted to go back. Dad wanted her to wait. He wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to go back out into that storm only to be sent home again. But she was sure … as sure as you can be about these things when it’s your first and you you know nothing about labor (I’m sure there were no childbirth classes back then, just Dr. Spock’s book). But mom was in a panic and so she called Mrs. Hesse (who lived across the street), and she took her. They had to drive to San Pedro, which I guess was the closest hospital. I claim my birthplace as Manhattan Beach on all my official paperwork because that’s where we lived, but I was technically born in San Pedro (hey… St. Peter!)

At some point, grandma Mary showed up at the hospital and she and Mrs. Hesse became the support team for mom’s first birth. Mom talks about smoking during labor and maybe that Mrs. Hesse and grandma Mary suggested that wasn’t such a good idea.

That’s about it for my birth story: second time was a charm, I was born in a storm, dad was not there, Mrs. Hesse and grandma coached her through it, she smoked, and I was the most beautiful thing she’d ever laid eyes on. And that’s all I got.

It’s great knowing that storm was such a big and well-corroborated and documented part of the story!

I have these photos scanned and handy… they are close enough. She 26 years old here. Practically a kid.

(She sure got her figure back! Just in time to get pregnant again and have Jay 18 months after me.

Can’t remember the last time I watched the Grammys. I gave up years ago when I fell so far out of the music scene. But for some reason, I made a point to record tonight’s and just finished watching the whole thing, minus the commercials (the only way to fly!).

I loved it. So many artists and moments to love. Here are a few. (And yeah… I took pictures of my laptop screen with my iphone. Weirdo.

Cried at this: Tracy Chapman, who rarely performs in public anymore, singing Fast Car with a country music guy (whose name I forget, but he was lovely). She is such a class act. I just lost it, seeing her grey hair, hearing her voice, singing along (like the entire audience did), and gave her my own standing O.

Stevie Wonder did part of the In Memoriam tribute. He started it off with a duet of For Once In My Life with (the dead) Tony Bennett (an impressive editing feat), and really moving:

I also really loved hearing Annie Lennox sing Nothing Compares 2U in a tribute to Sinead O’Connor. Such a powerful voice.

ALSO in the In Memoriam tributes… Oprah honored Tina Turner… and then that Fantasia woman sang Proud Mary (fantastic):

I just couldn’t love this more… Brandi Carlile introducing and then singing Both Sides Now with Joni Mitchell, who’s 80 (jesus!) and has had to relearn how to walk, talk and sing after a brain aneurysm ten years ago.

I am always a Meryl Streep fan.. and loved seeing her with her daughter, who is married to a very successful music producer (I believe). Meryl and he also presented an award together, which was cute, as she is just as confused as all of us over the difference between best song, best record and best album.

Finally, I, like so many of my fellow non-pop music friends, are starting to realize Taylor Swift is a genuine phenom. I am quite ok admitting I’ve listened to some of her music and like it (mostly the acoustic, folky sounding stuff… in fact, I saw a song that she performed as an SNL host — not sure when — that I absolutely loved… Alanis Morrissette- sounding). Anyway… she won the biggest prize, which turns out is the Album of the Year award. And set a record in winning that award tonight. Good for her. On to the Super Bowl.

I also liked seeing Billy Joel, loved Trevor Noah’s hosting energy, was blown away by Billie Eilish (and her sweet brother), was sad to see what’s happened to Celine Dion (even though she’s not someone I’ve gotten to know over all these years), and learned who some of these other folks are whom I’ve sort of heard about (mostly on pop music questions at pub quiz). So, all in all, a great night of music. Yay.

Today was sure an unexpected surprise of a day!

Here I was, deep in a flurry of home projects, some unplanned (the act of putting away a single piece of tupperware, let to the cleaning of that (huge) drawer, then a cabinet, then another, then another… which resulted in the full-on reorganization of so many items — storage containers, coffee mugs, ramekins, thermoses and insulated vessels, stemware, guest-ware, some appliances — AND another good-sized pile of items to be donated), and some planned (packing for my upcoming Guatemala trip).

Well, as I said… I was deep into a super productive morning. Then I got a text from Sidne (who lives in Auburn) who said she and a fellow PVHS classmate were in town and how about getting together. By the time I got the text I’d likely missed getting together for lunch, but suggested they drop by afterward if possible. Which, apparently, it was.

So they came by and we had a lovely couple-three hour visit. Most of the time was spent replacing a teeny, tiny eye that had dislodged from a small sculpture Neal had brought over from Italy, where he lives and works as an artist in the mountains an hour or so away from Florence. He’s in California for a week or two to meet up with various gallery owners up and down the state, hoping to place his work in one (or more) of those galleries. He’s hoping to introduce himself in the US as a California-inspired artist (he grew up in PV) and get a foothold in the art market. Not a world I know much about; it was fun to hear how that might work.

Neal sculpts in a style I think he called post funk, having been inspired early on by Robert Arneson and so many others (I don’t know them, but I do know Arneson). He uses mostly marble, often an assortment on each piece, gathered at locations all over Europe and the Middle East. His pieces range from the small ones he pulled out of his backpack for Sidne and me to see, to huge pieces that are human-sized, or even bigger.

Here are some examples:

Here is Neal working to re-affix the eye… (there is a story …. )

.. actually, he’s trying to open a tube of super glue here.

And here’s the piece with its new eye intact:

Here’s a pic of Sidne and Neal. I’ll see them both again in July as we’re all planning on attending our 50th high school reunion!

Aunt Bonnie sent me a sweet card for my birthday last week, and in it was this photo of mom and me… taken.. I’m not sure when! Early 1990s, I’m thinking.. perhaps at a celebration lunch for Eric and Staci prior to their wedding? Not sure why I think that…but there ya go. Don’t take any of that to the bank.

Anyway… this is the pic and I LOVE it. I actually look a bit like mom.. and I like that! I’ve never really seen the similarities, but they’re there. 🙂

The photo’s not yet set in a frame… it’s just leaning up against this one (it can’t live in this frame because under that photo is my all-time fave pic of Peter). For now, the photo’s sitting on my desk, the one I got from mom’s house, after she passed away and we distributed all the goods. I was eager to have this desk. We all got an assortment of owls, all part of her collection, which used to sit on this very desk in mom and dad’s entryway (I acquired about 6-8 owls in the distribution.. this parliament (like that?) is some of them). The lamp (its base just visible in this picture) was also part of the package. I love this lamp.

(That would be my somewhat amusing — to me — version of speak softly and carry a big stick… in case that was not obvious.)

Here is somebody else’s even more amusing meme-y thing suggesting Taylor’s gonna take down the presumptive republican nominee for president, hopefully by registering a bazillion young people to vote democratic in the upcoming election.

Go get ’em, Taylor.

Went down to SF today…. (always a treat, you know? I mean… it’s a really beautiful, quirky, human, unique place and every time I’m there, I’m reminded that it’s a real treasure)….

At a stop light….

If it hadn’t been raining, I might have stopped a couple times to capture a neighborhood street scene or two… I love the colors of the houses, the trees and parks, the hills, the corner cafes, the street art, the rainbow flags, the feelings of social justice that seem to permeate everything. I hope they turn their humanity on the homeless challenges they face… if anyone can.. I hope it’s San Francisco.

Anyway.

I went down to hear Maria give a talk. Here’s how she described it on a Facebook post this evening:

Today I had a “fireside chat” with Sean Kana, music director for Hippest Trip – The Soul Train Musical and Associate Director of Administration & Communication at UCSF Facilities Services. This was part of UCSF’s annual Facilities conference.

We talked about building resilience: through creativity and the arts, resources and practices (like therapy, community, and gratitude), and mindfully leaning into grief. We shared video moments with David, and I spoke about his life devoted to compassion. I felt like we shared the stage together.

It was worth the four hours in the car (which ordinarily wouldn’t have been anywhere near four hours, but the atmospheric river that hit northern California today slowed down traffic and the time spent trying to find a parking spot added more time).

It was nice to spend some time with David, too. Here are some pics:

It was really moving to see David so large, and to hear his voice.

Maria was really good. I hope she’ll find a way to become a compassion speaker. It would be a fantastic way to further his life’s work.

Got a very cool birthday gift in the mail today from Claire and Lisa… two of my most favorites. T’was such a pleasant surprise.

Penzys is my kind of spice company.. 

The Penzys shipment: a little box (decorated with a peace symbol, yay) filled with 4 tiny jars of spices (I’ll get to those in a sec), a couple bumper stickers that say “I will vote 11.5.24 Remember January 6,” two strips of stickers that say the same, and four recipe cards to accompany the spices. Additionally, there is a fifth card that talks about how “insurrections have their consequences.” It talks about how the peaceful transition of power is a bedrock of our democracy and how the republicans have let us down. Then, it talks to me directly (or whoever has received the package) as a cook. It suggests that I put the some kindness and compassion into efforts to hold my republican friends accountable as I put into my cooking. How about that! A bold ask with a lot of assumptions, but they pretty much nailed it.

The spices I received in this package are 1) cinnamon, 2) seasoned salt, 3) justice, 4) outrage. Justice is a mix of various herbs and seasonings, same with outrage, but different ones. All go with fish or chicken, or sprinkled on avo toast or salads…. you know, your basic herbs and spices. Oh.. and I also got a bonus packet of minced garlic.

So happy to receive. Look forward to giving a similar gift to someone in the future!

I remember when Teri and I were in Pittsburgh this past summer, we had a couple hours to spare on our final day and explored the historic Strip District. We came upon a Penzys store which was such an incredible treat… the store is heavenly scented and very attractive and we each bought bunches of spices. So happy to patronize.

This is a tree a couple blocks from our house, corner of University and Russell. It lost a branch last winter and in its place, there is this huge mushroom. I would say, “weird looking mushroom,” but that’s redundant.

I’d estimate it’s 10-12″ in diameter-ish, or so. Ridgy, furry-looking, bulby, spongy. This one was taken the other night…

These were taken this morning:

And don’t worry, even if you said it was edible, I wouldn’t.

I didn’t do much today, but I did do this….

…. a wee bit of gardening. 

Mostly I walked around the garden in flip flops with my garden gloves on and a pair of clippers and removed skeletons (what remained of last summer’s spent vegetable plants). Weeded a bit, even. That was fun. And then I just wandered around looking at things. It was so nice.. warm, gently sunny, moist.

Everything’s been dormant, but the weeds are definitely popping up and color’s coming back. It’s supposed to rain later this week and the temps are supposed to drop back down to normal (40s and 50s). Very glad I got to enjoy the garden today.

A few shots…

From the deck:

The neighbor’s citrus trees are dense with fruit and the climbing rose vines are thinking about setting some buds. That rosemary’s super thriving:

This was after I weeded this particular box… gone are tomatoes, eggplants and peppers skeletons, I left the strawberries:

This was just before weeding and old plant removal; the soil’s so wet and soft.. everything came right up:

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I also think I achieved my PB (personal best) in football viewing this year… having watched, I believe, three (maybe three and a half) football games. I probably shattered my previous football-watching-in-a- single-season record signifcantly. Two of the games I watched this season were college games: the U of Michigan Wolverines starred in both (yay, UM won the title of #1 college football team). About one and a half of the games I watched were NFL matchups… specifically games featuring the Detroit Lions. I saw part of last week’s game and all of today’s against the SF 49ers. I was rooting for Detroit because: Michigan. Fanism is transactional.. this time having everything to do with Peter living in Ann Arbor. Of course.

Unfortunately, after starting today’s game very impressively and leading San Francisco 24-7 at half-time, the Lions lost their mojo in the second half, losing in the end 31-34. Aww, too bad! Close, but no cigar (Super Bowl). I’ll be in Guatemala during the Super Bowl, so I can confidently say my PB tops out at 3 1/2 games.