Our Halloween Party is over

Well, the team of Carolyn Loveridge & associates have pulled off another great party. Her official "associates" are the ward Activities Committee but Carolyn pulls in representatives from all organizations or even those walking by at the right time. "Sara-Beth, you and your husband would like to use your fabulous clown costumes and hand out prizes to the kids, don't you?"

If you'd like to see more pictures of the event (taken by a real photographer) go to http://www.aaronklapheck.com/pictures_upload/Aaron_Klapheck/Events/La_Sierra_Ward/La_Sierra_Halloween_Party_2009/

Some folks got to the church early so they could get a front row seat and not miss any of the festivities.




Some got there early because they take a little longer getting anywhere these days. Carolyn as a "Newsie" is shown here helping me - Superman. I should have gotten the prize for Irony - Superman with a walker!!





Others got there early to make sure they were ready for the kids.



A ouple of the early arrivals try out some of the games without worrying about competition.


And some got there early and just had to wait and wait... and wait........


Of course the kitchen crew under the expert direction of Karen managed to get everyone fed in record time and without running out of anything.


Well, we did run out of Carolyn's famous "Witch's brew" (root beer) and had to set out non-vaporous lemonade toward the end of the evening.

This little girl was somewhat surprised seeing me in a Superman costume very much like hers. And superman was using a walker just like her mom.

Usually women get upset if someone else at the party dresses like they do but somehow this trio of kitties looked planned:

We had a nice visit from Che Gueverra who seemed to want to hang around Groucho Marx. Wrong Marx, Che!

Snug as a bug in a bug's costume is about the most you dare say about this little fella. A winning costume in the insect category.

Glen had to get down on the children's level to help with this game. It was ring toss with a twist - the targets were all witch's hats!

A backup overflow eating area allowed people to eat without having to hurry off and without having to listen to some rather joyful noise.

Little Camdan enjoyed the nachos but wasn't sure about the spicy cheese.

SaraLynne and her friend Megan show off what wonderful things can be done with some talent and a sewing needle.


All in all it was a great party. Some attendance estimates were in the 160 give or take 10 people. It was pretty hard to count the little kids because they moved rapidly and in random directions.

Here are three kids who definitely enjoyed the evening - 3 of my grandkids. Jake as Inspector Gadget; Tim as Voldemort (he who must not be named); and Camdan as Curious George who isn't at all curious about what he ws dressed in this evening.

Pomegranate Jelly

I was absolutely amazed with our Pomegranate tree this year. I thought I had killed the thing last year when I attempted to prune it such that it would be tree-like rather than bush-like. I pruned it to a few longer sprouts in the center and eliminated most of the side pointing branches. But he branches I left didn't grow significantly and the tree put out dozens of side branches. I was sure we wouldn't get much fruit.


Surprise, surprise the yield was much more than expected. I thought we get a dozen or so to add to the ones we get from the neighbor's overhanging tree but instead we got from our little tree 4 times what we got from the neighbor's tree.


Of course Carolyn wanted to make good use of the fruit and gave quite a lot of it away. She was still left with enough to fill 5 dozen half-pint jelly jars and have half the fruit left.

No Longer an Apprentice

Well, almost anyway. As you may recall from past posts, I am learning to be a bookbinder. My instructor and guru is Pat Bruno who mainly binds valuable antique books. If he had his way he wouldn't touch a book worth less than $100 because even the slightest repair is probably going to cost his a couple of hours and $50 to $100 in supplies and equipment usage. So naturally he isn't really happy to have me waste that much in supplies and even if my time is really cheap, his isn't.

Anyway, he's a very "show you" sort of instructor while I'm very much a "do it" sort of learner which leads to the following scenario: Pat shows me how to put the hinge cloth (mesh, crash, or super as it is sometimes called) on a book then gives me a book to try it on. I start but make a mistake in technique or order or placement and he immediately takes back the book and shows me how to do it again. A couple of weeks later he again hands me a book to put the cloth on and again within second he has asked for the book back and finishes the task the way it should be.

Fortunately for me he has needed to be out of his bindery more often frequently allowing me to finish several steps on several books. I hesitate on some repair steps until he is outside hovering around the door so that if I do make a mistake he can pull it apart while it is still wet. Other steps that I feel very comfortable with so I do them as soon as he walks out the door.

I think Pat knows what I'm doing because he doesn't complain that I've done a step without him. It's more a disappoinment that he didn't see me in the act. Yet ne knows he would have taken it away from him. I'm going to make it yet.

Is it True? Is it Kind? Is it Necessary?

Those questions rang so familiar to me that I thought they must be the motto of the Kiwanis Club or the Rotarians. When I googled the phrases I ended up with number of folk stories and traditions using these questions to improve civil discourse.

The questions re-entered my conscious when I was a multiple recipient of some obnoxious political spam. I replied to one forwarder mainly because she had included so many addressees in the cc: field.

You see, I am very troubled by a new phenomenon made possible by the Internet called "viral disinformation". Like a virus it can spread incredibly fast and infect hundreds of thousands of minds in a matter of hours. But it doesn't infect your computer or your body, it infects your mind. There is no one to take credit or blame for the information which may be true, partially true, or a complete, outright lie. In fact, the more shocking it is the faster it travels. Truth doesn't seem to play a part in it.

In the past we tended to look to newspapers and network news shows which had a reputation to guard. If they helped to pass along tall tales, they would generally get called on it. Reputable newspapers and TV news programs employ fact checkers who do the necessary footwork to stop scandalous and shocking and untrue items from entering the public discourse, at least from them.

But the Internet is another matter. Anyone with an idea, a video clip, a talent for writing can put together a piece of (dis)information and send it to 50 of his closest friends or just one of these Internet Tabloid lookalikes. If it catches someone's fancy, it is forwarded further and becomes "viral". Now, no fact checker in the world can stop it. Even if the President of the United States should hold a press conference to deny the viral rumor, some would turn his denial around to say, "See, even the President is worried that too many people have found out about this secret deal."

It was here in my thinking that I asked myself, "So how do we stop these viruses?" I think a start are these three questions: The next time you're tempted to pass on an information virus, please ask yourself,

(1) "Is it true? How can I tell if this is true?"
(2) "Is it kind? Who does this message affect and how?"
(3) "Is it necessary? What would happen if I did my part to stop this virus?"

And I apologize in advance if someone has already copyrighted, patented, or registered as a trademark these three questions.

Do it yourself for Halloween

I've written before about how creative Carolyn has gotten with making her own jewelry to match her various outfits. She finds that it's often easier and certainly less expensive to make your own instead of shopping for just the right thing. Of course this only works if you have some talent and taste. She has both.


This Halloween she combined some good quality connectors and wires with some rather less quality beads and dangles from Oriental Trading, the place that sells 10 toys for a buck. But if all you want is a bead that sits on a wire or chain, you can probably get by with less expensive beads.

Another nice feature of the Do It Yourself system is that Carolyn had some leftover pieces that she sent to her granddaughters in Long Beach.


She would have made me a couple of ear rings but I really don't the right outfits to go with the colors of these beads.

Using a menu

Nothing particularly unusual to report today. But I did want to share a couple of pictures of Camdan with you. He's growing so fast that he actions and reactions just seem too mature, too coordinated for a little boy his age.

See how concentrated he is. It's as if by willing it, he can change what's inside. And in the meantime, he can enjoy the pretty menu covers.


When he does finally open a menu, his expression changes from concern to fear, surprise, amazement? Who knows. What a fun kid!

Roomba lawn

As promised, Ed and the boys have been coming over to mow and edge our lawns. I'm not sure what method they use to divide up the work but this morning Tim was using the edger while Jake mowed. I was really quite impressed that the two boys could work with very little surevision. That allow Ed to do things like vacuum the lawnclippings on the front drivewayl


Both boys don't have much of an eye for grass that is out of control or weeds of any kinds. "I don't care," I'd say, "just cut the tall grass and pull out weeds." Ed and I would still need to play the pointing game.



Jake seemed to mow in random directions like he had been programmed that way -- just like the Roomba vacuum cleaner or a pool sweep. This undoubtedly made it more interesting for him but again Ed or I would have to point out areas that he had missed.

Even little Camdan got into the act by lifting the box that we use for tossing out recyclables. We wouldn't get nearly as many if we had to take out to the garbage cans every little can, box and bottle. There was no reason for Camdon to suddenly haul away the green box. Eventually, he brought it back and sat it Close to the origianal place.

My new dump chair

For some time now, Carolyn and I have been eyeing this chair at Sam's Club. The main reason, of course, is its ability to just about put the occupant in a standing position so that a seated person can get up without doing the Tim Conway/Carol Burnett routine for getting out of a deep chair.

Of course its always important that the chair also be a fully reclinable chair and that it return to to its normal position with minimum stress and energy.

After Carolyn had purchased the chair, the folks at Sam's Club had helped her load it in the back of our van but there was no way the two of us could unload it. But after our usual Friday dinner with Ed & Tiff, they came over to help us. Edward lifted the 150lb box with only moderate stress. While I watched Carolyn, Ed, and Tiffany put the two or three pieces together, put the wiring under the step on wiring chanel and called it a day. I had to try it a couple of times which then meant that everybody else had to try it out as well.


Meanwhile the huge box the chair came in was working its magic on the young 'uns so that pretty soon they had a fort, a kitchen, a boat, sleeping quarters. It was fun to see what they could come up with but the fighting between the kids got too much.
Our little warrior! Camdan found the corner braces to be more fun for him. It was like Luke Skywalker way outclassed with a weapon.

Broken Communication Line

I belong to at least 3 e-lists which is approximately equivalent to 3 newspapers. Each of these three are hosted by yahoo groups. One or more members of the e-list is designated the administrator. That can be a real headache if he or she chooses to be hands on such as approving new members and new postings or it can be almost nothing if you let the elist run on automatic.

Since I don't know who managed the elists I belong to so I don't know whether this is a people problem or a system problem. For a couple of years now, I have been receiving a weekly newsletter from the Renaissance Society. When it stopped coming last May, I attributed that to the end of the semester and didn't think further about it.

Then the other day a fellow student said she'd learned of a special event posted in the newsletter. It then occurred to me that I hadn't received the newsletter lately. Seems that our email account was blocking some of the messages from the elist. So the provider simply shut down my participation in the elist without giving me any warning.

Fortunately, there was a self-help reset process so I was quickly up and going but I've lost all the newslettters since early May.

After the rain

I forgot to include what few pictures I was able to take during the first rainstorm of the season. I did mention that we had the promised 3 inches of rain and gusty winds that often reached 40 mph.

Here is our sand box. It's no longer sand, or even mud, but actually lakeside property for little kids' toys.


All around the city we saw tree debris down on the road. This shows the mess under the oak tree in front of our driveway entrance. Carolyn actually went out Tuesday evening and swept it all off the road and loaded most of the mess into our green waste trash can. Our neighbor Tom chided her for doing this without a hard hat at least. He showed her a 5 inch diameter branch that had fallen from the same tree into his flower garden. She said she was listening for any sounds of cracking. At least the wind had died down before she did the work under the tree.
There were power outages all over the city but most of the time it was for brief moments only. Ed and his family suffered several hours of power outage so they came over to our house for supper and evening play.

strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff

But Little Jackie Paper didn't bring me sealing wax. He might have brought me the excess ear wax that I've had to deal with lately. (eeeuuuuwww) Don't worry, this time there won't be any pictures to gross everyone out. (whew!)

Recently, the hearing in my right ear had become significantly worse. My hearing aid helped but it still sounded to me like the canal was plugged up. Carolyn volunteered to help and, with the aid of several Q-tips was able to get a lot of wax out. But it still felt and sounded plugged. I remembered my mother using Hydrogen Peroxide to loosen ear wax so we tried that. When Carolyn dropped a couple of drops in, with all the snaps and pops, it sure sounded like it was working. And we were able to get more wax out. It felt like I was hearing better, too. Still, I thought it might be a good time to get an updated hearing test.

At the hearing exam I was ushered into the sound booth after we figured out what to do with Matilda, my walker (you know... "walking Matilda, walking Matilda, you'll come a walking Matilda with me...). Melissa, the tech, sounding almost apologetic said she'd have to make sure I didn't have any wax in my ears. "Oooooh," she said, "problem. Let's check the other side. Yep, same problem. Let me get my tools." The last was said with a little bit of glee, like she doesn't get a chance to use her tools much.

Melissa returned with a small packet of tools, the main one being a pick with a 4 inch handle and a 3 inch probe ending in a sharp circular blade. It looked like she could go all the way into the brain if necessary. But unfortunately, the wax was mightier than the probe. Melissa apologized immensely then went about setting up another appointment for me with the Head and Neck specialists in the hospital office building. And about 24 hours later I was again sitting in a medical recliner with a nurse this time looking down my ear canals. A few quick looks, a couple of probing stabs and questioned looks. I filled her in on what Carolyn and I had done so far. The nurse looked like she'd seen a ghost (and not the one taped onto the door in time for Halloween.) "Just a minute," she said and walked out hurriedly.

Soon the nurse returned with a nice-looking young man in tow. "This is Dr. Kwa," she said and explained that we were lucky he was around. Without further ado, he had me lie on the examining table and brought a machine close to my head. He pushed the machine against my ear and I began hearing loud sounds. As near as I could tell the nurse was dripping mineral oil into myear, the Dr. scraped the oil into the wax, then he would vacuum the loose wax and oil up and out of my ear. In less time than it takes to explain it, Dr. Kwa had cleared my ears of all accumulated earwax.

On my way out I was handed a single sheet of paper describing what one should do with accumulated ear wax. In part it reads

. . .if you have a problem and you know that there is no hole in your eardrum, you ca put two or three drops of Mineral Oil or a commercial preparation called Debrox in your ear at bedtime. Repeaet for 2 or 3 days and the wax will usually come out on its own.

NEVER attempt to remove earwax yourself. NEVER put Q-tips, hairpins, matches, or any other objects in your ears. This could damage the ear or push the wax further in and cause an infection. NEVER put water in your ears on purpose.. . .

Now I have very clear ear canals and I'm still waiting for a hearing test.

The answer is blowin' in the wind

We got our promised storm all right, over 3 inches of rain in a 12 hour period and gusts of wind over 40 mph. Actually, I haven't seen any wind damage to our place but there are several incidents of tree limbs down that will make it interesting for going home this evening. It took Carolyn an hour and a half to travel what usually takes 20 minutes because a tree had fallen over one of the freeway exits. We definitely had 40 mph winds but fortunately they came in gusts so the trees generally had some tine to recover before the next gust. The only damage I saw on Max Court was our oak tree dropping lots of little branches. When she got home Carolyn filled our green waste garbage container with alll the branches so that gives you some idea about how much fell.

I took a small movie clip but I can't seem to get my service provider's software to upload it to blogger. I've either got to get a camera that takes a different format of movie or a program that converts movies.

Big Storm's A'comming

Batten the hatches. Seal the door. Get ready for roof leaks and hot popcorn. We're told that the remnants of a super typhoon are coming our way. It's to hit us sometime Tuesday with 1 to 6 inches of rain and winds up to 40 MPH. We'll see now whether the roofer who looked at our roof a couple of weeks ago knew what was talking about.

In the meantime we're trying to get ready by making sure the screens are all tightly secured and the water spouts clear.

Here are the Before pictures. Let's see if we ca get some during.












(By the way, my spell checker works on the text of the blog but not on the Title. Hence the problems this time.)

Nobel Peace Prize

Much as I respect and admire President Obama, I cannot agree with the Nobel Peace Prize committee (or whatever name they go by) this year in awarding Obama this year's Nobel Peace Prize. According to news articles, he received this award because of his aims and direction. This just makes a laughing stock of the whole process. Imagine a physicist receiving a Nobel Prize in physics because he was "aiming" to find the Grand Unification Theory" or GUT which has so far evaded detection. Or a doctor receiving the Prize for finding (well, meaning to anyway) a cure for the common cold. There are many more good intentions than there are successful achievments.

There may have been no one else for the award. Big deal, don't award it this year.

Columbus Day

In two more days we will celebrate Columbus Day---- or not! I don't remember any controversy as a child. Columbus Day was to commemorate the discovery of America by Columbus. It never seemed to enter anyone's mind that it's hard to "discover" something that is already inhabited by a million people.

The distinction became very clear in our household when Carolyn was working for the Washoe Tribe TANF program. Native Americans or Indians generally see Columbus as the first in a long line of invaders bent on destroying a civilization and committing genocide. Why should we celebrate that?

This year our household is again seeing a tug-of-war regarding this holiday. Governor Schwarzenegger has decreed that Columbus Day is not a day off for all state workers. State offices already reeling from 15% salary and workhour cutbacks cannot afford additional time off according to our Governor.

Service Employees International Union Local 1000 see it as a contract issue. Currently they don't have a contract with the state because the old one expired and the Governor has opposed the one that was hammered out in negotiations between the state and the union. Apparently the Governor hasn't read the old contract which cleaerly states that in the absence of a replacement contract all the provisions of the old contract continue to apply. That means Columbus Day is still a holiday for SEIU employees.

With the union telling them to stay home and their personnel department telling them they must go to work, many state employees are puzzled as what they should do. Personally, I think the union has the stronger case. In any case, we will soon find out just how strong the union is and how people feel about Columbus Day.

The world gets smaller and smaller

I walked into Sam's Club yesterday afternoon for lunch (3-meat pizza) and a gallon of milk. They had cotton hoodies for sale for $28 and since it was right on my way, I tried one on. It felt both light and warm and the hood was a nice feature. I probably wouldn't even have bothered except that Arden Fair Mall, one of the major malls in the area, has just banned wearing a hood in the mall. You can wear the hooded coat, just don't cover your head with the hood or you're out of there. I can't imagine a reason to wear a hood in a climate controlled mall anyway.

But what struck me about the coat was that it was made in Vietnam. I've gotten used to buying things made in China and the baltic states buts Vietnam still surprises me. I think I'm going to get an outline map of the countries of the world and start filling the countries in from which we have purchased items.

Then while removing the tags I had to chuckle - the tag was "green" in that it was made from recycled material. The big coat wasn't but the little 1" x 3" tag was. I wonder if they hope that gives them credit for trying.

Cousins

One of the things we keep trying to do when relatives visit is to invite the other members of the clan who live in Carmichael or surrrounding areas. Most of the time we haven't been successful but this time when Woody and Wanda visited we were able to connect.

Actually, Carolyn called Neil and Bobby to set up a breakfast at our house. Bobby suggested we have it at her house instead. Neil or Bobby also remembered to invite Marilyn, the widow of Neil's brother Gordon who passed away last year.

It's been really nice to have family here in Sacramento when we moved here. It didn't feel near as lonely as when Carolyn and I moved to Southern California back in 1970. Here, we had Gordon and Marilyn put us up for a couple of days while we searched for an apartment. Neil and Bobby made us feel welcome in the area, inviting us over to enjoy their pool so we wouldn't miss our Long Beach pool. And Bobby got us involved with the Jazz Jubilee. Not bad for family who had only the vaguest of ideas who we were.

Cookies without crumbs

This afternoon, right on schedule, I picked up from our mailbox cluster a standard sized US Postal Service box. I knew what was in it but it was still comforting to see the card taped on the outside which read: Krandi's Sweet Co, Kristi Higham, CBO (Chief Baking Officer). The reason I knew what was inside is that two days before I had ordered four dozen cookies from Kristi who, in addition to being a CBO is also my niece. I want to make it clear that this review might possibly be biased (but I don't think so).

Inside the box, packed like they were fine china, were the cookies I had ordered. Each dozen had its own vacuum pack which kept them from jostling around and also sealed in the freshness of the cookies that 48 hours earlier were coming out of Kristi's oven.


The vacuum packaging also provided a way for Kristi to clearly mark the type of cookies which were in each pack in case the 100% visual didn't do it. We ordered (and received) chocolate chip, s'mores, cinnamon toffee doodles, oatmeal raisin, oatmeal cranberry cashew, peanut butter, and lemon. I sort of twisted Kristi's arm to get such a variety. Normally, all her cookies come in dozens and you're limited to 4 dozen a box. Of course you can order as many dozens as you want. She'll find the boxes.




Carolyn caught me in the act of cutting open one of the packages.


Then I snapped Carolyn getting the first bite. Believe me, I wasn't far behind. So far we've only tried 3 types of cookies so I can't give an opinion about which are my favorites. And that's going to be hard because all three so far have been DELICIOUS.

To get some for yourself or your family to try go to the Krandy's Sweet Co website to see what's available, the prices, and how to place an order. When placing an order I found it best to copy the address info@krandyssweetco.com into your own email program rather than rely on Windows to select the proper program and actually send your order.

And speaking of prices, I looked at several mail-order cookie web sites and found that Krandy's is very competitive.

So there you have it: good service, good taste, and good pricing! Order your today!

Tending Camdan

We had the delightful experience of tending our youngest grandson last Saturday evening while Edward and Tiffany took their older boys to see "Seussical the Musical". Camdan is 16 or 17 months old and already shows a strong personality.

He also seems to have two settings right now: (1) pleasant, cooperative, fun to play with and (2) angry, destructive, "run for your lives". It is especially aparent when you feed him. He wants grownup food almost all the time. When he wants more of something its a grand scale yelled request, often with shouts and tears.

Then, as soon as he gets the thing he wants, he's all smiles and controlled temper. You'd never guessed that he had just thrown a gran mal demonstration about not getting what he hhad wanted. It will be so nice when he can talk.
He's also in that stage when food is to be EXPERIENCED rather than just eaten. Thus, you'll see him in a mask as long as he's around easily handled food.

A New Plumber in Town

Several months ago, our toilet started to leak. From all appearances, it looked like a large rubber washer between the input hose and the tank was causing the problem. I took the shank apparatus apart, ran down to the local Ace hardware for a replacement, and put everything back together again. The leak was less obvious but didn't stop. I told myself it would get better if we gave it some time. I should know better. Plumbing leaks never heal.

It had again reached intolerable levels last week but I explained to Carolyn that in the meantime my body has reached new levels of non-flexibility. We talked about who we could call for this minor plumbing job. Then Carolyn asked if she could fix it. I ventured to say that she could. After all they're making the fixtures with excellent instructions now.



I instructed Carolyn how to dismantle the toilet column. Of course the first thing you do with any plumbing job is turn off the water and the second thing is to make sure you have lots of absorbent towels available. She had to empty the tank and found that flushing doesn't completely do the job. A small towel or large sponge does the trick. While taking out the column, water valve, floater fixture we broke a small tube which meant we had to get the whole assembly. It was only $5 more than the rubber washer I had purchased before.



A quick trip to Home Depot and we had the part in hand. It was even easier to put back in than to take out. When she turned the water back on -- no leak! No drip! Made us wonder why we waited so long. And we both thought, "One more thing we share the knowledge of in case one of us dies before the other."

Moddern day beggars

I've been quite blessed in my life with enough to purchase food, clothing, housing, and the other basic necessities usually without worrying where the next dollar or dime was coming from. And unless the recession gets much worse, it looks like we just might be able to survive 15 to 20 years of retirement before having to get a job again. So we've been equally interested in sharing our bounty with those less fortunate. We have done that both the easy way and what I think is a much more difficult way.

The easy way, of course, is through something like a tithe. It's easy because you agree to a certain percentage of your net or gross and pay that amount - no questions asked, no feedback reports expected or given. Reminders are given over the pulpit and in the lessons and written material of the church. But they tend to be minimal even subtle.

The above photo represents one aspect of the way to give - to charitable and non-profit agencies. Just for the fun of it, I stopped sending anything in to these other charities over a six-month period. But I continued to collect the evidence of their soliciting, their collective hands out, you might say. I've missed collecting some as I either forgot to save the request or could not envision our supporting that cause.

It seems a harsh word to call these organizations beggars and characterize their activity as begging. But isn't that exactly what they are and what they're doing. Other than checking out sthe reliability, character, and principles of the company based on their self-reporting, we usually know nothing about a cause we're supporting. An NPR or CNN report on such an organizatsioan mean a lifeline, rescuoing them or it can be death if suspect conditions exist.

But the chance of such a report is pretty minimal so it's left to us, the donor to make some of the hard decisions. I suspect that will always be difficult.

The Towe Auto Museum

Although the Towe Museum is fast becoming one of my favorite places to take people to in the Sacramento area, there are some real problems that need to be addressed before they can be considered a first class museum, in my thinking. With a new Executive Director on board they are in the process of changing in several ways including changing their name to be consistent with their mission. The new name is the California Automobile Museum. That gives them pretty big hubcaps to fill.

• Some positives: there are dozens of cars, all of them well kept at least by appearance. The Museum is also clean. Although there was construction going on it was fenced off well. There were lots of signs making a self-guided tour almost feasible. The staff were all friendly and helpful. The gift shop was stocked with a good variety of merchandis and handy to both the entrance and the exit.
• Some negatives: We were told when buying our tickets that we should just start somewhere looking and a man with a blue vest would be by to help us shortly. It was a half hour before one man showed up, told us a story about the car we were currently looking at, then disappeared telling us over his shoulder that we should look for the men in blue vests. I wondered if we had to wait for the next midnight to get a visitation from the spirit in a blue vest. Luckily Jim came alone within 5 minutes and stayed with us for the whole tour. In fact, he acted like we were his new best friends and he really didn't want us to go.

Suggestions: Have a guide waiting for the next visitor or visiting group. He/she can be doing something else while waiting but he/she should be available and standing by the group within a minute of their buying their tickets. He/she should ask the following questions:

• Have you been here before?
• How much time do you have?
• What have you already seen here?
  
• Is there something you'd particularly like to see?

The answers to those questions should allow the docent to structure a tour that is timely and meaningful to the visitors and they will feel like they have had a personal tour. Obviously, the larger the group, the less this can be done. But if a large group can be split up, there will be some data to base the split on.

In these times of economic strain and engineering challenges, cars should have original sales price, price in today's dollars, actual MPG, and cost per mile in today's dollars and gas prices.

I have heard a demo of the organ there but the guests with me had not. A recorded demo would have been impressive. Also a list of organizations and events that have used the museum would probably be impressive.

I don't want to end on a negative so I'll repeat my beginning statement: The Towe Museum is fast becoming one of my favorite places to take people to the Sacramento area. Go there. You'll enjoy it.

Iiiiiitttttttt's Yogi Bearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Before this week all I knew about Yoga was that that was the name of a lovable troublesome bear in Jellystone park. No? That was Yogi Bear. How about a powerful little green character from Star Wars? No, that was Yoda. Well, that is some indication of just how how much I knew about Yoga although I did know that it was a system of stretching and exercise and getting to know your body. I think I'll be all right with it if we stop right there and don't get into any new age foo-foo. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the latest Parkinson's Association of Northern Carlifornia (PANC) newsletter there was the usual ads and calendar items for programs of interest for Persfons With Parkinsons (PwP). One of the ads was for a class in "Chair Yoga". I was interested because (1) it was held at a date and time when I used to do Meals on Wheels and that time slot was now empty; and (2) it was right here in Carmichael. Then when we last saw my neurologist, he suggested going to an exercise group. Then he pointed to the same ad and recommended I check into it.

So it was that at 9:00 on the big day I called the instructor and then the facility listed in the ad. The instructor was out so I left a message on her phonemail. The woman covering the facility office explained the program and the costs - $20 for 4 weeks. She also took my credit card number and charagaed me the $20. She also told me where the class was going to meet.

At 10:00 on the dot I walked into the classroom finding 3 of my classmates ahead of me. The teacher was also there and welcomed me based on the phone message I had left for her. In the next 5 minutes another 4 or 5 joined us. Since I didn't have a mat yet (who knew?) the instructor loaned me one. It would have been a wasted hour without the mat.

We started slowly with bends and stretches that were all possible if we were experienced. Since we weren't, or at least I wasn't, the instructor went even slower than normal. And all them made allowances for us, the new class. When the instructor started chanting that the spiritual line was passing from the head to the body and back again and that we needed to let the spirit pass through us, I let all the woo-hoo pass through me, all right. I guess I'm a pick and choose yoga student.

The hour did seem to fly by. I enjoyed it enough that I'll at least come four times 'cause that's what I've paid for.

Meet and Greet

We had an invitation to a meeting last night called a "Meet and Greet" hosted by the Carmichael branch of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. I could think of a dozen reasons not to go but thought maybe they needed our moral support if nothing else. After all, we're both so busy there's no way to take on additional jobs, even if part time and voluntary. But since I 'm so involved with the Friends, I thought maybe they wanted me there in the official capacity of System Friends board member, Treasurer, or library volunteer. In such case it wouldn't be very polite to turn down their invitation.

It turned out that they had less than 6 people show up for 100 invitations sent out. They weren't expecting many more judging by the quantity of refreshments.

Actually, the program was well organized and kept on schedule by the newly elected President. As involved with the Friends as I am, I still learned something new. But even more important, I met the newly elected Treasurer of the Carmichael branch and got important contact information from her. I met the office liaison for the Foundation office who is handling all our receipts and recruiting through our downtown office in lieu of a "rented" employee like we've had in the past. And maybe best of all, the Carmichael branch manager Shelly recruited a new helper for our pick list on Tuesday mornings. She migiht have done that anyway but my being in the audience smiling at her may have reminded Shelly of our conversation last Tuesday when I pleaded for more help.

In other words, you don't always get out of a meeting what you expected and sometimes it is even more valuable than what you expected.