Hoping for the last days

A lot more people must have believed that the world really was going to end in the year 2000 than was reported. Carolyn and I met with our retirement planner today who informed us that half or 2/3 or some other dreadful number of people in their 50's have less than $10,000 saved for their retirement. With more and more companies going to defined contribution plans, most of these people will not be able to rely upon a pension plan that will guarantee them a certain fixed income per month. Except Social Security, of course.

Now granted, some people wait until their 50's because they can't afford saving before then. And for some of us it is easier to set aside money when the kids are grown and out of the house. For others of us, the expenses just keep going on with college, helping out with the first house, grandchildren's expenses, etc. These people tell themselves they'll save enough in their 60's. And some of them can and for others the expenses for grandchildren multiply as they go off to college or try to get into the housing market. Then along comes a heart attack, a chronic disease, or something else that forces you to leave the job market and now without adequate pension funds. Not a pretty picture. I can see why you'd want to see the world end.

Family get togethers

I'm beginning to think that the secret of a good get together is to have enough activities planned for the young kids so they don't kill each other and to provide for enough time for the adults to have good discussions with each other without encouraging them to kill each other. Based on that criterion, I think the past three days have been successful.

In fact, the biggest problem I see was that I allowed the kids to play games on one of our computers. I thought I was pretty safe in that we have no games installed on any of our computers. Little did I know. Eight year old Michaelson promptly connected to the Internet and web sites that have hundreds of free games. From then on it was a struggle to keep them from the computer when they were home and in between activities. That computer will just have to be "temporarily disabled" during the next visit.

Whole lotta shakin goin on

We were surprised and relieved at the same time when we heard from our daughter Jessica about the 5.8 magnitude earthquake in the Los Angeles area this morning and the fact that they made it through without damage or injury. Sacramento is not in earthquake country so we tend to forget that there are still segments of our family that still are vulnerable. However, if any place has been paying attention to earthquakes and bringing buildings up to code, it is Los Angeles.

Getting together at Grandma's house

After having the two grandsons in our home for the past five weeks, we're in for a grand time this week before they return home. Five of their cousins from Long Beach along with all but one of their parents arrive yesterday evening. You would have thought this was the grandest jubilee of the century with each kid trying to outdo the next in volume and enthusiasm.

They did take time out to admire the Lego toy sets that the boys bought and Ben got for his birthday. Then it was wild time again.

Once we got out the sleeping bags and started enforcing no running in the house, things calmed down a lot. It was a classical case of the kids keeping themselves awake by keeping active.


This morning thins were a little better, at least with the younger set. We sent the older boys out into the back yard to feed the birds and play their war games. That left the younger ones (including one-year-old Gavin to color and cut paper decorations.

Plans for the day include Fairy Tale Town and lots more cousin interaction.

Circus - Schmircus

This old grandpa can hang up his stage shoes now. I have more than adequate coverage with two grandsons who can take over quite nicely, thank you. Tim and Jacob Loveridge completed their summer acting camp with a play with the unlikely title of Circus - Schmircus, not unsurprisingly written especially for this handpicked crew. If you enlarge the picture and look carefully at the person on the absolute right (your right) you will see the unbelievable Jake and about fifth from the left (your left) is the unperterbable Tim.



As in prior years, they divided the kids into three teams which were more workable as well as easier for the kids to get to know each other. From the way Edward talked to other parents the night we went, it appeared that some parent bonding went on as well.

This is Tim's group. He's on the back row l ooking like he's a bit shy. But you couldn't tell it by the way he belted out his lines as well as the songs they sang.

This appeared to be the more senior of the groups. There were no Loveridge family representatives with this group.

And this is Jake's group. He is prominently standing in the front row with a cheesy grin on his face. For being comfortable in his medium, Jake gets the grand prize. Whenever he was on stage he was hamming it up. It had us wondering whether some of the actions of the Little Rascals movies he's been watching might have rubbed off on him.

Several of the other parents remarked during the show as well as during the intermission and end just how much they enjoyed Jake's antics. One man remarked he felt he got his entire admission's worth just by watching Jake. And apparently the director was constantly battling for control as Jake was a such a natural "director". He was just possibly impossible to control.

Carmichael Pioneer Day Celebration

It's hard to believe but I think this is the first time in the almost 7 years that we've lived in the Sacramento area that we've actually attended the Church's 27th of July, Pioneer Day celebration. And we probably wouldn't have made it this year had we not been on the Activities committee and therefor more involved with the planning than we have been in prior years.

Our ward's assignment for the Pioneer Day picnic was to serve the Pancake/Eggs/Bacon breakfast. Now the idea was to have people walk down either side on the outside of these two tables picking up the food as they did. Not much work for us there. Oh, we were supposed to monitor for no more than 2 pieces of bacon, 2 pancakes, 1/2 banana, small grouping of grapes, small scoop of scrambled eggs, etc.

As it turned out, monitoring was the same as handing out the correct portion. Everyone who had agreed to help out, came on time so we actually had more than enough hands to keep the food moving.


We also acted as runners - bringing the food from the griddles and stove tops to the serving tables. (Because I carry around a pocket knife, I also helped with cooking the scrambled eggs.)


After folks got their food, they would go back up the hill to get their OJ or/and milk of water. They alkso heard about what games and other activities were going to be going on.


The real workers, of course, were the cooking crew. They were setting up at least 30 minutes before we got there and were still cleaning up when we had finished .


One of the interesting things they used this morning was five pound bags of raw eggs. They come frozen. There's three or four bags in this pan. If you can keep them in boiling water long enough, you get beautifully scrambled eggs with no frying involved.

Another innovation I saw this morning was frying "completely cooked" bacon. As you might imagine, that really just involved heating up so it goes very fast. But the end result looks and tastes like the real thing.

Since our boys had been enjoying all the games and treats such as the sno-cones while we were working, they were quite anxious to go home as soon as the breakfast serving stopped. But it was a fun morning.

God is Not Great - book review

I suppose Christopher Hitchens went for cute and catchy when he modified the phrase "God is Great" to create the title of this book. Had he gone for accuracy the title would have been "Religion is not great" rather than God is Not Great. Of course for Hitchens there may be little distinction between god and religion especially since he feels that both are a product of human imagination.

Early on in the book, Hitchens describes an encounter between religious talk show host Dennis Praeger and himself in which Praeger asked the question: "You are in a strange city. Night is coming on. A large group of men approaches you. Would you feel more safe or less safe if you knew these men were coming from a prayer meeting?" It sounded like Praeger really expected the prayer meeting to be the kind that Praeger would hold but this isn't what the problem states. And Hitchens easily answers less safe with just a few cases, namely Belfast, Bombay, Beirut, Belgrade, Bethlehem, and Baghdad. I'm sure you recognize at least half of these vacation destinations as ones that warn visitors (if any) that there may be civil disturbances.

He proceeds to describe how religion impedes the progress of science and discovery of natural law, how it took the Catholic church hundreds of years to apologize for persecuting Galileo. And while the religious right continue to debate intelligent design, real biologists are using Darwin's Theory of Evolution to predict and design new organisms that may be the next wave of health care solutions. Hitchens takes an extremely hard line that religion isn't just a harmless waste of time but that it is a nefarious, irrational, poison that corrupts everything it is involved with. Give Hitchens any example of religion doing good and he will counter with an example of how more or better good would have been done had religion not interfered.

I found the book compelling but not as well organized as some of his earlier works. It's as if he has a few loose ends to tie up or some arguments from previous books that he has done more research on and now wants to publish. Definitely a good book for those who want to know more about the thinking of an intellectual atheist.

Santa Cruz Adventure - Day 3 - Kickback day

The third day of our vacation in the Santa Cruz area was going to be a busy one indeed as we planned on visiting all those attractions and tourist dives that we had missed during the previous two days.

Of course, as it turned out, we used the day mostly for hanging out, eating, and hanging out some more. Earlier, between breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we let our kids use the hotel pool and jacuzzi. Ed and Camdan were there as sort of the watchful eye or life guard during this period.


What was really amazing was Camdan's reaction to the pool and the jacuzzi. We really expected that he's enjoy the hoter water of the jacuzzi but it turned out he just enjoyed being in th water. The jacuzzi filled up too fast for me and the pool water was too cold.

Closer look at the baby in the jacuzzi.



We wanted to make sure that we visited Steve and Lisaa's new living quarters. Here is Lisa showing off their latest bunny.


We were especially impressed with this room. It felt like a boat or or airplane galley, small but very functional.

And they still manage to have their rabbit catches.

When the group finally agreed we were all too tired and crabby to take in one more store, life threatening ride, or even more sand and water, we decided we'd head home while it was still dark and before anyone got killed.

Hotel Experiences - Hilton

Sometimes, it's the quirks of the hotel or motel or even a restaurant that make a vacation so unique and memorable. First off, we noticed that this hotel didn't worry about more than 4 people in a room. Of course we didn't show up with all 5 kids and 4 adults to rent two rooms. Ed and Carolyn took care of registration while the rest of us stayed in the cars.

This time the quirk was that one of the rooms got a complimentary continental breakfast while the other one did not. Thus we had four free continental breakfasts and 8 hungry people. There was also no room to eat once you picked up some food. Carolyn convinced the breakfast supervisor to bring us two trays and four plates. She started piling fruits and yogurt on her plates while I did the same for the pastries. Soon there was more food on our trays than on the breakfast bar and people coming to eat breakfast were starting to pick food off our trays.

As you might imagine, 8 people, half of them children, could easily clear off the plates and still be hungry for more. At least it bought us time to get a real break or take an early lunch.

Santa Cruz Adventure - Day 2 - Garden of Gilroy

When we first started visiting this delightful tourist attraction it was named Bonfante Gardens after its founder and largest benefactor Michael Bonfante, former owner of the Nob Hill grocery chain. When it ran into financial trouble in early 2008, a deal was made with the city of Gilroy and we now have Gilroy Gardens. Below is Jacob checking out the hip representation of Gil.

Ever since Steven discovered Bonfante Gardens and shared the discovery with us, we have loved the place. The pace is slower than at some other attractions. Here, Carolyn and Grandson Michael are enjoying a peaceful swim around the lake with the aid of a pedal equipped Mallard duck.

The kids were all keyed up for the place and it was about all we could do to direct them in the general direction of the next attraction we wanted to take in. Along the way Michael managed to skin his knees. For a while there we had one very sad boy who thought the day was done for him, he'd have to join Grandpa in a wheelchair. We asked an employee where the First Aid was located but she got on her radio and within 10 minutes this young man with all the necessary bandages and lotions appeared and took care of Michael's real problems. His imaginary problems persisted throughout the day.


Speaking of Grandpa and his wheelchair, Ed was kind enough to get a wheelchair for me. It was so nice just to sit and watch the world go by that I had to make a conscious effort to stay connected with the crowd.

While everyone else wanted an Icee, I preferred a soft ice cream cone. Bad choice. You can see how I'm desperately trying to catch all the drips but the ice cream is melting faster than I can lick it.
Carolyn and Ed took care of most of the pushing of my wheelchair which made it really nice. It was interesting to see how much has to be done to provide wheelchair access.

All in all, our family enjoyed the Park so much we were reluctant to leave. That meant that by the time we made it back to Scott's Valley for dinner (since our hotel reservation was there) many of the fast food restaurants were closed. Bruno's Barbecue had been recommended by Steve and Lisa .

We finally ended up ordering sandwiches at the local Subway shoppe.

Hotel Experiences - Quality Inn

Morale to be learned: Send one adult only to the office to register & get keys.

We were all tired and so anxious to lay down, eat, or use the small pool at this small motel that the whole group swarmed into the office. That was probably the worst thing we could have done. The person in charge said, "This is not right. You need to check out more rooms. You have at least 8 children here and you only have2 rooms reserved. The legal limit is 4 people per room. "

We argued that we only had 4 children, 4 adults, and a baby, which shouldn't count against the limit. The clerk repeated that we needed at least 3 rooms. There didn't appear to be any negotiating room. The Manager did offer us the the number of the Quality Inn customer service person but Grandma felt we needed to resolve the issue quickly. That was easily done by renting another room at the approximate cost of $135

That was an unexpected expense but it was also an unexpected benefit. We had the four older boys (certainly not the baby) in the center room while Tiffany and Ed took the adjoining room on one side while Grandma and I took the room on the other side. Technically, we were supposed to have a supervising adult in all three rooms but the managers never insisted on that.

Santa Cruz Adventure - Day 1 - Trains, Beaches, & Boardwalks

We just got back from a delightful trip to the Santa Cruz area which had more changes in the itinerary than there were people on the Santa Cruz beach. Or at least it seemed that way. We call it being flexible. Unfortunately, flexibility means different things to a 60 year old man and a 6 year old boy. But I won't even discuss the original plans since the changes were all made for a good reason.

Leaving Sacramento early Friday morning, we got to Scott's Valley just in time to drive over to Roaring Camp, eat lunch, and walk around the place a while. There wasn't much going on there for a summer afternoon. Maybe more happens on the weekend but if not, this isn't much for a tourist attraction.

They did have a few ducks to watch and some old cabooses to admire from a distance. We're a little jaded from having in Sacramento one of the best railroad museums in the country.

The train finally got underway for what was supposed to be an hour ride down the mountain to the heart of Santa Cruz - the Boardwalk. The trip was narrated although difficult at times to understand. And it took about 45 minutes. The track itself is spectacular, at times laying on a sheer dropoff that makes you hope they've set in good footings. And along the way there are great views of virgin redwood forests as well as second and third generation harvested redwood forests.
We almost had to walk onto the Boardwalk to get off the train which explains the puzzled sound on the telephone of the train representative when we asked where by the Boardwalk we would pick up the other leg of the train ride. She said, "You can't NOT see the train from anywhere on the Boardwalk."

We convinced the kids that it was pretty late in the day to take in the Boardwalk (minimum price for rides is 4 tickets = $3). So instead, for the hour that we were there we all walked out to the part of the beach where the waves were breaking. The dry part of the beach seemed much wider than in Long Beach but the wet part was narrower. There was almost no room for any body or board surfing.

Burning Book - book review

In case you didn't know, Burning Man is a week-long celebration of nature, art, and mankind. It is held every year so as to end on Labor Day. And probably the most unusual thing about it is that it is held in the middle of the Nevada desert, Black Rock City desert to be more precise. Almost as unusual is that there is no exchange of money. The barter system is alive there but most items are given away, or in the case of large artwork, simply built to everyone to see. Upwards of 50,000 people attend this event.

Now in case you aren't up to trekking a hundred miles out into the dessert to live for a week with the barest of essentials to get a look at what it is like, the book Burning Book, a visual history of Burning Man by Jessica Bruder, may be just what you're looking for. It also costs 1/10th of what the real things costs.

Burning Book is primarily a photography book as Burning Man is primarily a visual experience. The Bruder gives you the feeling of being there, or having the burning sun always around you, the hoards of naked and near-naked bodies, the sand covering everything after jut a small breeze. Although it can't possible do justice to a week-lonjg event, the book should be mandatory reading for something even thinking of going. It is fair and balanced and the closest thing you'll ever get to a mans landing on the moon.

Old entertainment is still fun

We actually have quite a collection of Disney videos at our house including Swiss Family Robinson, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Parent Trap, Old Yeller, and Pollyanna. We also have a complete 10 volume set of the Little Rascals or Our Gang Comedy (depending on which generation you belong to). But what has been interesting is how little use these videos have gotten from our in-town grandsons or our grandkids when they've come a visiting. Until recently, that is.

It appears to me that you have to have a critical mass before something becomes enjoyable or enticing. The Little Rascals, for example, have no laugh track although they are filmed as though a live audience were watching. When one or two of our grandchildren watch them, they are qu ickly bored. But when four or five are watching, especially if some of them have seen them before, it quickly becomes a mad house at our house.

Of course the recent event at our house has been Michaelson and Ben spending several weeks with us, enough time to get bored with the usual games and toys but not enough to go outside and ride bikes or play Zim Zam yet. The solution is to watch some videos. While Tim and Jake are in stage summer camp memorizing their lines, Ben and Michael are memorizing whole dialog segments of the Little Rascals episodes. Then when they do get together, it can be quite hilarious as they try to outdo each other.

Carolyn and I are even enjoying seeing some of the old classics again and watching Grandpa fall head over heels for Hayley Mills all over again.

Suspected Deep Vein Thrombosis

Deep Vein Thrombosis or DVT as it is known to physicians who worry about such things is not something you want to have or even be SUSPECTED of having. I found that out in a little scary exercise today.

For the past three or four weeks my left legs has been somewhat swollen (see picture above). I didn't really think that much of it since it wasn't painful and didn't even show that much when I wore shorts. Carolyn had to point out to me that the swelling was enough that my anklebones disappeared as did most of the toe tendons. However, the only time it really got inconvenient was when I had to readjust the straps on my beach sandals to get the left one to fit over my swollen foot. So when it refused to shrink back to the normal size, I decided it was probably time to see the doctor. Even as late as 8:00 this morning, my doctor still had a couple of appointments left, one of which fell right between Meals on Wheels and chausfeur the kids from school to swimming lessons.

I obligingly took off my shoes and socks so that when the doctor asked "what is the problem?" all I had to say was "my feet and legs". He looked and then spent the next 10 minutes writing up my condition, scoring an assessment of probability of DVT, then finally putting together an information and treatment package to rule out DVT. Then, on the chance that it is something else, he had to write up a treatment plan for that something else. The part that scared me was the part that said, "If your ultrasound test is positive, go to the Infusion Center if it is open, otherwise go to the emergency room to begin infusion treatment." They also said there was a possibility I would have to be hospitalized based on what the ultrasound showed.

What the medical staff were saying in so many words was that I had a high probability of having a blood clot in my leg. A clot in a leg is not really a problem. A clot that breaks loose and drifts up to the heart, the lung, or the brain can be fatal or very disabling. The doctor was appalled that I was doing vigorous exercise with my swollen leg this past month.

Of course, I still had care of the boys and needed to get Carolyn to take over for this afternoon.

Fortunately, my tests turned out negative so no hospitalization was necessary for me this time. I do have two new medications and a suggestion that I keep my legs elevated whenever possible. I guess we'll see if that makes any difference.

Bookbinding 101 - unit project

Rather than taking a class at our community college this summer, I'm taking a "class" from a master bookbinder. We hold once a week classes in his workshop. Until now, this has been pretty much a "look but don't touch" experience but that has now changed. The book we're currently working on is "Easy Steps for Little Feet" by Annie White, published in 1903 and pictured above. While there are things that the book needs that I don't know how to do, there are lots of things I can do. As you see in the picture below, I"m ironing the edges of the pages that have gotten so frayed. I've also removed the adhesive and yellowed cellophane tape as well as much of the remaining residue. Cleaning the spine and the "boards" (front and back cover) will be next. I'm looking at all these things as unit homework.

"Easy Steps for Little Children", is a book of bible stories that I grew up listening to and reading. But the book became so damaged that we put it away. I'd like to get it in good enough shape to share it with my kids and grandkids.

Google Reader -Checking the blogs

(I just read this over and it sounds sooooo like an ad. It isn't. I get nothing from Google. I just want to share something that's made my life easier.)

With so many friends and family members blogging now, I’m finding it just a bit difficult keeping up with all the blogs. And checking someone’s blog only to find it the same as the last time I checked is almost as frustrating as getting halfway through the latest post before realizing that it is an old post.

Well, I found the answer -- Google Reader. It's an "In Box" for all your blogs. You may find it more trouble than it’s worth but I found that all the effort I put into it paid off the first day.

First, you must be a Google “member”. If you’ve ever used gmail or customized your Google screen, you are already a member. Even if you aren’t, registering to be one isn’t very difficult. You have to provide a valid email address and a password (which shouldn’t be the password you currently have to access your email). That is it! There are a couple of optional choices but this is all that is required.

Open Google Reader by entering the url www.google.com/reader If you already have a Google Account, enter the email and password for that Google account. If not, click on “Create an account” and proceed to get one. Then sign in with that account. (You may be sent a verification to the email you entered so it does need to be a valid one that you have access to.)

This is the Google Reader screen. You can take a tour of it’s power or start adding subscriptions to web sites and blogs you want to visit regularly. At this time use the Add Subscriptions link on the left hand side of the screen. Note that as you add each blog url, it will show up with the current entries of that blog. Whenever you return to Google Reader, you will see all the current entries of all blogs you subscribe to.

Or you may see the notice “You have no unread items.”. You can now read only the new items or know that you’re caught up to date. Now isn’t that a quick way to check all your blogs?

You can make it even easier by customizing your Google page. Then you can select Google Reader as one of your customize items. And setting up the itemized Google Page as your normal Home Page means that you can always keep track of your blogs and know when a new items item is posted by any of the blogs you subscribe to.

Ben and accordion

When it was being discussed about Ben and Michael staying with us for most of the summer, Carolyn got together a list of "100 Things to do with Grandma and Grandpa" - sort of a "bucket list" for Ben and Michael. One of these items was "learn to play the accordion". Accordingly, we got out the old accordion and gave it a few squeezes to see if it still played. Surprisingly, the only problem seemed to be the highest note on the piano side was stuck. Loosening the sidewall with a handy kitchen knife solved the problem.

Not so easily solved was fitting the accordion to Ben. I think if Ben were seriously interested in learning to play the accordion he'd want to rent a small "starter instrument" that is less than half the size. It has enough keys to play through half the method pieces I have.

The other "not so easily solved" problem is finding a place or an audience where playing the accordion would be welcomed. The only places I know anymore are in the Lawrence Welk orchestra and in a Zydeco bank.

Another family blogger

More of a stealth entry than a grand entry, my son Lee has finally joined us bloggers. His blog the Foof for All Seasons can be seen at http://the-fool-for-all-seasons.blogspot.com/. He's been a prolific commenter on this blog and certainly calls me to task when I criticize without adequate rationale.

Welcome, Lee!

But it's just an LWP (little white pill)

It started when Carolyn started having a little more heartburn than usual, then a little nausea, then some cramps, a finally a visit to the Emergency Room.

Like most of us, Carolyn is great at self-medicating (with legal drugs). After all it's very clear on the label what a pill is for. Right? Well, a while ago her heartburn got too frequent for Tums or Mylanta so the doctor upped her Omeprizole prescription to twice a day. But that wasn't quite enough. Then she remembered some "little white pills" that she had been prescribed early in her myasthenia diagnosis. They were to control nausea if that became a problem with the myasthenia medications. That never happened so she stopped taking them and ended up with a large stash of LWP's.

During this latest bout (yesterday) she tried them again after the Omeprezole, Mylanta, and Tums weren't doing the job. At first she couldn't tell if they helped or made things worse. She was outside helping Edward chop down some tree branches when her heartburn and nausea got really bad (8 on a scale from 1 to 10). Fearing a possible heart attack, Carolyn went down like a punctured tire. Plans for the rest of the day were canceled or at least shelved. With Ed and Tiff taking over Ben & Michael, I drove Carolyn to the E.R.

After 2.5 hours we got a diagnosis that was far from definitive. Rather than a heart attack they did find a urinary track infection but her symptoms still exceeded that cause. In reviewing all the medication she had been prescribed. the advice nurse began to think that it really was the LWP.

So while the rest of you were enjoying the beach, the mountains, or just a good movie, we got to enjoy the Sacramento Kaiser ER.

RSVP-mail

Is it happening to you? It is to me and I like it. E-mail is becoming an important and significant part of my life.

Example 1: We received a wedding invitation today with the usual picture of the smiling bride and groom in informal dress and even less formal settings but with the image of the temple as one of the montage of pictures. Enclosed in the envelope is the request to Please RSVP [sic]

Please RSVP by sending an email to
donnybrooke@gmail.com
including the number of guests in your party.

Donny and Brooke are registered at
Target, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and Circuit City

I'll bet they get more RSVP's than most couples do.

Example 2: I had a visit with my speech therapist a couple of days ago. She prescribed a set of exercises for me to do daily and handed me 3 or 4 copies of the worksheet she recommended I use to track my progress and compliance. She asked matter-of-factly, "Do you have access to a copier." I replied even more matter-of-factly, "Can you get me an electronic version of the worksheet. Then I can print as many as I need (and even make improvements)." The last part being unvoiced. I don't think we would have had that conversation even 5 years ago.

The END of the WHAT???!!!

Unlike some people who have lots of time on their hands to research things on the net or around the world or between the G and H keys on the keyboard (Yes, Deathshade, I'm talking about you) I don't have time to do such research. But that doesn't mean that some answers from the gods doesn't just drop into my lap so I can share them with you.

This particular insight came when I was fiddling with Google Reader, a really nifty program for putting all the new posts from your favorite blogs right on your home page. I got Google Reader to work properly and we can even configure it so that Carolyn and I can look at different blogs.

So I'm blissfully trying it out reading blog after blog when my screen goes blank save for the following message:


Congratulations, you've reached the End of the Internet .


Linking to the End of the Internet brings up the following message:

The End of the Internet

Congratulations! This is the last page.

Thank you for visiting the End of the Internet. There are no more links.

You must now turn off your computer and go do something productive.

Go read a book, for pete's sake.


All I can say is it takes a lot of chutzpah to claim your URL as the End of the Internet.

It's only air

One of my favorite lines I used when I was a southern Californian was, "Well, yaknow I just don't trust air that I can't see." I thought those days were pretty much over after we moved north to Sacramento and went for months without "seeing" our air. Well, it seems to have come onto us with a vengeance as we've had something like 10 of the past 14 days with the air quality "unhealthy for all people". It burns the eyes and chokes the throat just like Southern California smog.

The main cause of the bad air quality is all the fires in area surrounding Sacramento. I will admit, I'd rather be handling their bad air than have our house or fields go up in flames. Maybe all the smoky air is to help us remember those worse off than we are.

Missing bill

Have I ever said how much I love the Internet?

I recently lost one of our monthly bills. I know we had received it and I had opened and looked at it remarking to myself that it was slightly lower than usual. And that's the last I remember seeing it. I would have completely forgotten about the bill except that my Microsoft Money program reminded me that the bill was coming due.

I looked and looked and couldn't come up with it. I was ready to just pay the same as the month before which should more than cover it when Carolyn suggested going online and printing a duplicate of the bill. So many companies are doing this now that it seemed almost a "duh" moment. Sure enough. I easily logged into the company, printed out a new bill to replace the lost one, and paid the bill using Money as I always do. No more crying over lost bills.

Have I ever said how much I love the Internet?

Jillian's math "homework"

This past weekend we had a visit from several people in our family including our granddaughter Jillian. At one point during the weekend, Jillian was scribbling intently on the dining room table which had been converted to a worktable for the grandkids. As Jillian was working so dilligently, I asked what she was doing. "Getting ready for 1st grade," she said and showed me what she called her "homework". It appears she is going right from the obtaining problem solutions to making up the problems.

After writing down each problem, Jill would then "check it" with a genuine Lakeshore calculator whose colors certainly seemed to indicate it was for 1st graders use. On some of her later "homework" of the day, Jillian would write out the whole equation such as "4 x 123 = 492" and she would say the numbers as she wrote them. It was "one-two-three" it was "one hundred twenty three". This was just amazing.


As some of you know, my love for math began about the same time as Jillian's apparently has been. Bernell and Woody would let me work on their homework when they were in 3rd and 5th grade. But of course I didn't have a calculator back then. And it started me on a long trajectory of always being 2 or 3 years ahead of my age group in math class. I was studying 9th grade algebra in the sixth grade and university level calculus during my senior year. I hope that Jillian gets all the encouragement she can stand to keep "doing her homework" in math.

Builders of the future, and the present

Most days, taking care of Ben and Michael has been a lot easier than we had feared. Of course, they're in school from 8:00 to 4:30 as we had expected and they're asleep in their rooms from 9:00 to 7:00. But what we hadn't counted on in the dedication they've shown to building with Lego blocks. From their own allowance they collected enough money to build this monster set piece from the latest Indiana Jones movie.



And for Ben's birthday, grandma and grandpa got this this fascinating piece.



Most of all when they have extra time you can find them building onto these Lego pieces or demolishing them to be rebuilt.

A triple-header!

Our family had three, no, FOUR reasons to celebrate today.

• I turned 64 today
• My oldest grandson Ben turned 11 today
• My youngest grandson Camdan was blessed in church today
• Our beloved leader President George W. Bush celebrated his 62nd birthday today by traveling to Japan aboard Air Force One.

The last one we didn't a chance to get personally involved in. We celebrated Ben's birthday yesterday at John's Incredible Pizza where they have a great pizza buffet and dozens of arcade games and rides. We even found a quiet dining room so that grandpa and grandma could get away from the crowds.

The weekend events were exciting enough to induce Richard and Natalie to bring their family, Jessica to bring Jillian, and Steven & Lisa to bring themselves to join us, Ben & Michael, and Ed and Tiffany and family. Right after the meeting where Edward gave Camdan his blessing we had the following picture taken.

Another welcome to blogging

I had heard that Julie had been blogging for 3 or 4 months but I just now got hold of her blog address. You can visit her at http://julie-juliesjumbles.blogspot.com

Welcome, Julie.

Welcome to blogland

I'd like to welcome my niece Becky to the blogosphere. Check out her blog at the link on the left of my blog.

Jury Duty

I got an official summons for Jury Duty a couple of weeks ago. This is the first time I've gotten such a call since I've retired so I was almost excited at the idea that this time I could serve for weeks and weeks without having to worry about my job. But, alas, it wasn't to be.

According to the Summons, Sacramento County, like most, if not all, California courts uses the "one day or one trial" system for juror's. That means that if you sit in the jury room for one day and don't get called onto a jury, you're excused. You've filled your duty for another year. However, if you get called onto a jury, you're stuck until that trial ends. I was rather thrilled that my week of service was only a four day week.

When the initial notifications came out, I saw that there were about 49 groups this week and about a fourth of the groups were assigned to s how up Monday morning, another fourth on Tuesday morning, another fourth to check back on Tuesday evening, and the fourth that I was in to check back on Wednesday evening. That meant I was definitely free for Monday through Wednesday I had a low enough number that I expected to be released Wednesday evening. Instead, the group I was in was told to check back on Thursday evening!! I couldn't believe they were trying to hold us in reserve for the holidays.

Late Thursday afternoon, I checked and found we were finally released and they had already posted the next week's groups. I missed out for this year!

Libby's new glasses

Look, Mom, now I can see clearly.

Happpy Birthday, America!

In spite of her best efforts, Carolyn was not able to start any ward traditions for the Fourth of July this year. But that certainly didn't mean that she was content to sit back and just enjoy the day.

We had invited several friends from the church over for a pancake breakfast. That started the day off really well. They didn't stick around but left to celebrate the

Soon, our kids began to show up. Some of them had arrived at 2:00 am this morning but we had redirected them to the Marriott Residence Inn so we'd all sleep better. I managed to work through 6 cups of my pancake mix. Only a couple of hours later we had a picnic in our backyard for all the family members, especially the grandchildren.


Two fireworks demonstrations capped the day for our family. First the one at La Sierra community center where they had dozens of beautiful professional displays. And then the one in our cul de sac that was sponsored by Richard. He said it was a little bit of the Philippines.

Senior Nutrition Services

As a driver for Meals on Wheels I don't often refer to or use our official designation as a program of Senior Nutrition Services which itself is a branch of Sacramento County government. To at least some extent, one of the reasons is that until about two months ago I was less than impressed about what else Senior Nutrition Services did other than prepare the meals that we drivers delivered.

At Orangevale there was a small lunchroom with seating for maybe 12. Before April 1, the food delivery truck dropped out meals for 3 Meals on Wheels routes of 8 to 12 meals each and another 8 to 10 meals for the lunchroom on site. From the few times that I finished my route before the lunchroom crowd finished eating, I wasn't impressed. It was crowded, institutional looking, and generally uninviting.


The first of April my food delivery point (where I got the meals to deliver) was changed from Orangevale to Folsom. It is like two different worlds. At Folsom as these pictures show, the lunchroom is part of a larger auditorium which gives the feeling that these meals are part of a banquet. And the staff, mostly volunteer, do their best to make at least one meal a week an inviting experience. Of course the decor is already self-suggested for holidays such as Independence Day but on weeks with no holidays, the staff will invite guest speakers or performers or just spruce up the room. In Folsom, at least, I can't imagine a senior who is at all mobile, staying home for his Meals on Wheels meal when he could enjoy the crowd at the Folsom Senior Center.