What a Game!

They did it!

If truth be told, I'm not really a hard core sports person.  I have "my teams," the Giants and the 49ers -- you can't live around this family and not -- but I don't "follow" sports as religiously as, say, Tom and my brother-in-law do.

I'm the kind of person who watches the last inning or quarter of a game when my team is winning.  I like to see the exciting finale.  

I have not watched any games of this year's World Series, but I even though I never cared about the Cubs before in my life (and Ernie Banks, in his day, was the bane of my existence), I couldn't help rooting for the team whose last chance at the big prize was 108 years ago.  

My "rooting" for the Cubs this year did not extend to actually watching a single game, though I did, at some point in the evening, check the score for that day's game.  While I was thrilled when the Cubs won the first game, my heart sank when they were down 1 game to three and it seemed the Indians were going to take it all, but rejoiced again when they picked up the net two games to tie the series.  Even at that, with this being the finale game, win or lose, I didn't turn on the game until Walt started coming downstairs to tell me what was going on.  By the time the score was tied and the rain started, I had to stop cooking, turn off what was already on TV , and turn on the game.

I don't think there is a single person, Cubs fan or Indians fan, who would say this was a boring game!  It had just about every exciting thing you could hope for, including a 15 minute rain delay in the 10th inning, and when the Cubs made that last out to win the series and the entire team burst onto the field, I had tears streaming down my face.  I'd never paid attention to the Cubs before, but my heart was so full to know that finally they had won a World Series.

Congratulations, guys...you definitely done good!

Having confessed my relationship with sports, I must make another true confession.

Alice Nan and Joe have this cookie jar that they have had for years.  I think someone (it might even have been someone in this family) gave it to her long before they were married.

The thing that makes it unique, in addition to the fact that you rarely see cookie jars that look like policemen, is that when you tip the head back to get a cookie, it commands in a loud, obnoxious voice "Stop!  Move away from the cookie jar!'

I guess it's a great thing to have if you are serious about watching your weight, but there is absolutely NO sneaking any cookies with this guy around.  The whole house knows you are checking the cookie jar. whether you take a cookie or not.

When I was at Alice's this week, all by myself, she had left a note about various things in the house I might want to eat, including a note that the cookie jar had Girl Scouts lemon cookies in it.  I'm not really a big fan of lemon cookies and I hate the sound of that damn policeman, so I never looked in the jar to get a cookie.

But it was sitting on the counter next to the coffee pot, which was right by the electrical outlet.  When it came time to recharge my cell phone, I reached between the coffee pot and the cookie jar to plug in my electrical cord and in so doing, I knocked the head of the cookie jar and it fell open.  "Stop!" cried the police man, for what would be the last time.

Somehow in knocking the head over, I had somehow damaged the mechanism and silenced him.

I anguished over that all week.  To tell Alice or not to tell her and let her think it had finally worn itself out.  In the end, I did the honorable thing and as I was leaving the house, I turned, like Colombo, for "one last thing" and confessed to her that I had broken the cookie jar and that it no longer had a voice.

I went to show her what I'd done, showed her how I'd gone to plug in my electronics and then said that I had knocked the head back.  In explaining it, I opened the voiceless cookie jar and it aid "Stop! Move away from the cookie jar!"  So I hadn't broken it after all and leaving it alone for 2 days (and not trying any of the lemon cookies) had somehow "fixed" whatever I did to it.

I was very relieved.

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I went to Atria in the morning to have lunch with my mother.  She was pleased to see me and even seemed to realize that I hadn't been around in several days, though she didn't remember visits by Alice Nan and Joe, Ned, or Walt.  But we had a nice visit and I went with her to lunch.

Her laundry basket was overflowing and she had been folding up dirty clothes and putting them in the bag that I use to carry her dirties home with me to wash.  

The bag was piled high when I left and I could see that she was out of underwear, so I will go over again in the morning and take her all clean clothes which will last her another week.  Now that she is getting assistance with dressing, the aids or choosing clothes in her closet that she has not worn in years, and the clothes she takes off are actually getting put in the hamper when they are dirty, which is a refreshing novelty.

For once I had lots to tell her when she asked "what have you been doing that's exciting?"  I told her about my trip and told her cute things the girls had done, and what they had done for Halloween, about their costumes, about how cute it was watching both girls helping both Tom and Laurel cooking dinner, and how tired I had been on the drive home and when I finished she asked "so are you going dancing tonight?"

I guess life is back to normal again.

Three for Three

I had another entry entirely started but then we watched the final game of the World Series and saw the Giants win their third in three tries (2010, 2012, 2014).  It may take awhile before all of the Giants fans come down after this one!

I have been aware of other World Series games featuring teams I was not interested in, so I understand that it is entirely possible that some readers here never saw a game of the 2014 World Series between the Giants and the Kansas City Royals.  It is also entirely possible that people reading this don't care a whit about baseball, or any sports, but I tell ya, I have been glued to this series.

As I have said before, I am a fair weather fan.  I don't much pay attention to the games at all until my team gets into the playoffs, so I started paying attention with the playoff games and gradually watched them win and lose and win again until they were actually in the series.

If you like tension and suspense, you could not have asked for a better series than this one.  I would have said that even if the Royals had ultimately won.  The games were that good.  "Each one was delicious torture,"  said someone else on Facebook.  There were two of the seven games where the ultimate result was no in question--Giants dominated in one, Royals in the other, but all of the games had jaw-dropping work in the field, amazing pitching (I even kinda sorta got to where I could call a "ball" some of the time).

But it all came down to tonight's winner take all game and it was a nail biter from start to finish.  As one friend of mine shouted on Facebook "WHOEVER SAID BASEBALL WAS A DULL GAME?"  While the Giants led by one point through most of the game (except when the Royals tied it up), and you'd think you could relax and contemplate celebrating a win, in the 9th inning pitcher Baumgartner struck out two batters and then the third hit a ball that was bobbled by the outfield and now there was a runner on third base, who could tie up the game.

 

It couldn't possibly have been more tense when the count got to 3-2 and you knew that the next pitch would decide whether the Giants won the game or if it would go into overtime, essentially making it a whole new ballgame (and remembering back to the 18 inning playoff game!)

But then the batter hit a pop fly that Sandoval, bless his heart, caught for the out, leaving the runner stranded on 3rd base and Giants fans all across the country celebrating the win.

Before the game started, Marcus Crowder, theater critic for the Sacramento Bee had posted to Facebook

It's the last game of the season and my boys are playing. They're not supposed to be here considering injuries they had to front line players. History says they won't win tonight. Odds makers say they won't win tonight. The other team has the home field advantage and the more talented players. We've got heart and soul, not that the opposition doesn't but it's what we run on. So we'll see.

Marcus doesn't have a clue who I am, though I spoke to him once.   He's the Big Critic in the area (literally and figuratively -- he's about 6'5"), but I commented on his post and said "It ain't over till the fat lady sings.  I'm a fat lady and I am not singing."

Then along comes that heart-stopping 9th inning when he wrote, "Bottom of the ninth.  I can't breathe" and seconds later the game was over and I wrote THE FAT LADY IS SINGING. 

I wonder if he will remember the next time we are reviewing shows together.

But it's all over and I can finally take off and wash my Giants t-shirt.  Good going, Giants.  Walk proud, Giants fans.  I'm proud that this is my team, even if I ignore you all during regular season play.  (And it's always so nice when the city dresses in Orange and Black on Halloween!)

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There is also good news on the Atria front and I am impressed with their attention to complaints.  I had a note from the Corporate Communication Specialist who had handled the response to my sad tale of woe about my mother's birthday party.  She told me she had forwarded my e-mail to the Executive Director for the Atria communities.   Within an hour, I had a phone call from the head of Housekeeping, who promised the apartment would get a "deep cleaning" today and that he would continue to spot check to make sure that it was being cleaned properly.  Now how much of that will happen, I don't know, but it made me feel good.
What made me feel even better was that I reminded my mother to watch the Giants game and called her when it was over and she was just as excited as I was and said she had been sitting alone in her apartment cheering and was happy I had called so we could cheer together.  Again, a brief "almost like the old days" moment that made me feel very good.

Old Friends

I love watching my mother with her friends, old friends with whom she has laughed for years, and who know she is has memory loss, but don't realize how extensive it is.  It is almost like having her back, briefly.

Wednesday is my usual day to have lunch with her (we started it because of the Brain Gymnasium.  Now I just go for lunch.  She doesn't remember it, of course, but is pleasantly surprised each week.)

When I got to her apartment this morning, I heard voices inside.   It's also the day the housekeeper cleans, so I thought she was talking with the housekeeper, but when I opened the door, there were her two good mah jongh friends, Paula and Dodie.  

They had a mah jongh group going for many years.  It was kind of like our Cousins Day, without the overnight.  There was eating and drinking and laughing and even a little game playing.  Before my mother moved here, the group had disbanded.  One woman died and someone else took her place, but was never up to the hilarity of the original group.  Dodie moved to a facility with her husband and could not come--and then her husband died.  Another woman developed Alzheimers.  So what is left of the original mah jongh group is happy memories.

I think Paula is the youngest in the group--she will be 90 in January--and she's the one who is still the most "with it" and this was her second visit to Atria.  She picked up Dodie, who had never been there, en route.

Dodie is entering her own tunnel of dementia, though not quite as bad as my mother.  She mentioned her husband dying, which I had known about for years, but my mother was shocked.  How terrible that nobody told her!  She apologized for not sending a card, but Dodie didn't remember that my mother had been at her husband's funeral.

But mostly it was fun listening to the three women joking and laughing and teasing each other.  I was not going to stay for lunch, but they talked me into it.  Paul and my mother had wine.  Dodie and I were the tea-totalers.

It was fun listening to her tell them about living at Atrial, how she joined an exercise class but halfway through her back would start hurting (she's never been to an exercise class and doesn't even know where they are held), how she participates in all the activities (nope)...I just marveled at what she was saying to keep up with the conversation, but she was keeping up with the conversation and having a good time, and who cared whether Paula and Dodie knew there were part of her fantasy or not.

I had received a phone call from Kaiser this morning, saying that the doctor wanted me to get another chest x-ray and I had planned to do that after lunch, but we lingered so long and Walt was going to San Francisco...and who knew if my "short trip" to Kaiser would turn into another 3 hour visit again, so I put it off, probably until tomorrow morning (or maybe Friday, since I'm stopping by Logos to take pictures of some of the trick or treaters and Walt needs the car again tomorrow)

I spent the evening watching the Red Sox win the World Series.   A great night--and text messages were flying fast and furious between Davis and San Francisco until the symphony started in SF.