Come Up and Skype Me Sometimg

Hey, this Skype thing is really cool!!!

I got Skype a few years ago, when Peggy and I decided that we would try it for free phone calls between here and Australia. Unfortunately, she then moved out of the Perth area into a place where her bandwidth is very limited, so Skype became not a possibility for us. I have this lovely hand set, like a cordless telephone, which has been gathering dust because there was nobody else to talk to, and I wasn't going to troll for strangers to chat with.

But then Laurel got pregnant and I told Tom that since I was going to live so far from them at least during the early years of Brianna's life, that I wanted us to get web cams. Bless him, he bought me a web cam for Christmas last year and said that he had gotten one just like it for himself.

I had my guru set the camera up for me. I could probably have done it myself, but as long as he was going to be here anyway, it was just easier to have him do it so I knew everything was right. But Tom hadn't set his up, so we never did have a test call before Brianna was born.

But then along came the Morning Stories Transcribers Club, and the suggestion that we all get Skype and start having chats.

My first Skype chat was with Kate in Florence, Italy.

What fun it was! Especially since she had a web cam too, so we were able to see each other. I learned about Calcio Storico, historic soccer matches which take place in early June in Florence. The game answers the question "what do you get when you cross soccer, rugby and Renaissance costumes?" Kate explains that at the start of the game, players are wearing bloomers and colorful tunics, "but as things heat up, the boys strip -- much to the [female] crowd's pleasure."

(For a fascinating description of this game, check here.)

Later that same day, I had a chat with Lynn, from New York. Lynn is our "Wonder Woman" who is faster than a tickertape, more powerful than a BlueGene/L computer, and able to leap tall piles of transcription in a single bound. She swears that she primped and made up, but I did not see her on the webcam she swears she has. But we still had a lot of fun and giggled a lot on our Skype call. (We had another chat today and she still hasn't gotten her web came working--but I know it's only a matter of time.)

However, today was the first call I'd been waiting for. Tom and Brianna called. The video was great, but Tom's sound was too low for me to hear him...or rather I could just barely hear him. But I got to see my little granddaughter live and in color. I tried to take a screen shot, as I did with Kate's chat above, but it didn't work and I realized too late what the problem was. I'll do better next time. (But check the photos below for cuteness).

I'm going to have a great time with this Skype account. So...come up and Skype me sometime! :)

---

Today was also the first day I felt really good about Miles to Nowhere. Yesterday I managed to walk a mile and a half, to make up for the day I only did half a mile. Surprisingly, I did it in two longer stints. What kept me going was watching something interesting on television.

Last night we went to a dance concert, which I reviewed. My favorite section was danced to Simon & Garfunkle's Old Friends and was a beautiful, poignant piece about two older women (older than I am) and the young girls they had once been. I watched one of the women with the young girl who was her younger self. The girl was about junior high age and I looked at the two of them together and for the first time it was very important to me to have the experience of standing with Brianna when she is in junior high.

This means I have to get serious about the miles to nowhere (among other things--but it's a start). I didn't walk a mile and a half today, but I walked a solid mile and I walked faster than I've walked since the treadmill arrived (mostly because I didn't want to stay on the treadmill that long and was determined that I was going to finish the full mile).

I'm noticing a change. It used to be that 5 minutes at 2 mph left me panting. Today it was 15 minutes at 2.4 mph and I was sweaty and breathing hard (which Dr. G always told me is when exercise starts to become effective), but when I finished, I didn't feel like I needed to collapse somewhere.

So this program is actually working and I'm starting to adjust to it. I still hate putting on the shoes each day and actually getting on and I still set a goal for that particular segment and don't go .1 of a mile or 1 second longer than the goal I set, but I'm setting longer goals, both in time and in distance, and higher speed goals, and adjusting to them.

I don't envision actually running on this machine, but I envision keeping at this and continuing to improve.

I have a date with my granddaughter in about 14 years and I want to be around to keep it.

100 Things I Like

I stumbled across this on Golf Widow's Ministry of Silly Walks.

The instructions read: Make a list of 100 things you like in no particular order. Avoid the obvious (significant other, pie ...) and be completely honest with yourself. If you try to think of things that you are curious about and inspired by, you'll end up discovering a lot about yourself and, in doing so, developing a sort of bank of your interests and ideas.

1. Memes (I admit it--I love these crazy things)
2. E-mail
3. Snow (to look at, not to be in)
4. Comfy socks
5. Taking photos and making videos
6. Books
7. Mint-flavored toothpaste
8. Blowing dandelions filaments off of the plant
9. Movies, either in the theatre or on DVD
10. Word games
11. Jigsaw puzzles
12. People who give selflessly and unobtrusively
13. The sound of rain on the roof when I'm snug inside.
14. Marching bands
15. Spectacular vistas
16. The smell of the paper of just-off-the-press books
17. Whales, the bigger the better. Gimme a humpback rather than an orca, for example.
18. Elephants. I am fascinated by the social structure of elephant societies.
19. The feel of a keyboard under my fingers.
20. Older ladies walking in downtown San Francisco. They all have that certain "look" that reminds me of my growing up years there. They are a dying breed.
21. The sound of my mother singing softly, under her breath, while she works
22. Hugging old friends
23. Jeopardy -- only game show on TV any more that is fun to watch. I liked game shows better before they added bells and whistles, when it was just the wits of the contestants of the guest panelists (like "Match Game")
24. "Girl talk." I don't get enough of it.
25. People who speak "theatre-ese" and who "get" all my obscure brilliant comments
26. Soft pretzels, which I don't buy because I don't want people to talk about the fat lady eating the big soft pretzel.
27. Old clothes you find in the back of your closet that actually FIT.
28. Peanuts (the Charlie Brown / Snoopy kind)
29. Peanuts (the kind you feed to elephants)
30. The insignificant feeling you get when standing in the middle of a huge gothic cathedral
31. Remembering the days when I "believed" -- in religion, in government. Why do we have to grow up?
32. The smell of roasting coffee, roasting cocoa beans, tomatoes being cooked (I've lived near a lot of factories in my day!)
33. The feel of relief when a plane touches down after a flight and your luggage comes out right away.
34. Being a grandmother. (even though it's only been 3 days)
35. Soft, fluffy slippers
36. Butter. Cream. Cheese. Fried food. Fast food. Greasy food. And everything else that's bad for me.
37. Hearing from someone who stumbled across me on the internet, and whom I haven't seen or heard from in years. (Just happened the other day....Hi, Tanya!)
38. Foreign languages. I don't speak any fluently, but I love trying to figure out what language is being spoken and what is being said.
39. Long, meaningful conversations about almost anything. I miss my mid-night conversations about life, death, love, and politics with David and Paul.
40. Nature specials on TV.
41. The faces of little children. I love taking close up photos of kids, whether I know them or not.
42. A-capella choral music
43. The baby of any species, the fluffier the better.
44. Watching the birds at my mother's bird feeder (which she won't have if she has to move!)
45. Text messaging, especially with Jeri (since I seem to do it more with her than anyone else)
46. Watching dogs run full-out at the dog park. Sheer joy.
47. The emerald green of the hills in springtime
48. Any view of San Francisco on a clear day.
49. Any view of San Francisco on any day.
50. Sushi -- but really only the "safe" ones, like spicy tuna, shrimp, etc. I like eel, but only if I don't know that I'm eating it.
51. Watching my children enjoy each other's company.
52. Air conditioning
53. Candlelight
54. The smell of crab pots on Fisherman's wharf
55. Watching people doing things I wouldn't be caught dead doing (like dancing or riding a roller coaster)
56. High heels -- on anybody but me.
57. the San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Jon Carroll (even if he does think there are 108 beads in a catholic rosary)
58. Al Gore, for inventing the internet :)
59. Interesting postage stamps. We see so few of them in these days of e-mail
60. Instant gratification
61. The poetry of Claire Amy Atkins
62. MailWasher
63. Well-written blogs that inspire me to write better entries myself (any day now!)
64. People who read this journal. Bless 'em all.
65. The smell of a newborn baby's hair
66. Having a laughing fit with a good friend, when everything seems silly and you can't catch your breath from laughing so hard.
67. Internet Cafes and free wi fi
68. Ireland
69. Greeting cards. I don't buy as many as I used to because they cost so much now, but I still like standing in a card shop and reading them.
70. Gilbert & Sullivan (even though I've seen each operetta countless times)
71. Says You
72. Playing Scrabble at The Pixie Pit.
73. Back scratchers
74. Thick, heavy fog.
75. Schmaltzy shows like Waltons, Little House, Touched by an Angel and 7th Heaven. I'm a sucker for tear-jerkers.
76. Having people in the box office of several theatres greet me by name when I show up to pick up my tickets (the perk of being a critic!)
77. How-to books for computers, even though I rarely read them!
78. Amazon one-click ordering (see #77!!)
79. Actress / comedienne Jane Lynch
80. My cuisinart. It was the only "luxury" item I bought myself with my father's savings after he died. I think I have used it almost every day since (and he's been dead more than 10 years).
81. Word Perfect (I sure hope I can find my program disks again!)
82. Eclipses. I have only experienced one full eclipse of the sun during the middle of the day and it was one of the strangest experiences I'd ever had.
83. S'mores -- but the "real" kind, with marshmallows cooked on a tree branch over an open fire, and probably burned a little bit. None of this "electric" s'more machine for me!
84. Old book stores, new book stores, any book stores.
85. The Christmases we used to have, with everybody waking up in the same house and coming downstairs to open packages and have a special breakfast. I miss those days.
86. Winery tours
87. Giving my famous tour of San Francisco
88. Chocolate (how come it took me to #88 to get to chocolate?)
89. The Golden Gate bridge, from any angle -- under it, on it, far away from it. I love it.
90. Walking through a pile of autumn leaves (pretending that you're not deliberately going out of your way to walk on them and make them crackle).
91. Doves nesting and raising babies on my mother's front porch (which won't be possible if she has to move).
92. The silence of a redwood forest (when you get far enough away from the crowds of tourists)
93. Sunflowers
94. Floating in a hot air balloon
95. Fields of tulips
96. Riding on the train
97. The sound of the wind blowing through the trees
98. Vincent Van Gogh's paintings (absolutely loved touring the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam)
99. 2-ply toilet paper (just to get down to basics, here!)
100. Puppies, puppies, puppies

Mobile post sent by basykes using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

California's Prop 99

Rent Control is a wonderful thing, if you are a renter. It puts a ceiling on the amount that can be charged for rents and prevents the property owner from either gouging his/her tenants with astronomical rent raises, or finding other ways of getting a law abiding, non problematic tenant out of a building so you can charge astronomical rents to someone new.

I can understand that if you have just purchased a piece of property, with the intention of making big bucks out of it, rent control can be a raspberry seed in your wisdom tooth since it ties your hands and prevents you from evicting lower rent-paying tenants in favor of higher-rent paying tenants.

I learned a bit about rent control when a friend was being pushed out of the apartment in San Francisco where she had lived for many years under rent control. The landlord was only permitted by law to raise her rent a certain percent each year, to keep it in line with the cost of living, but not the suddenly make Big Bucks.

A landlord is apparently permitted to oust a tenant if s/he plans to use the unit for either his/her own residence, or that of a family member. In this instance, the building was sold and the new landlord said he wanted to move his daughter into my friend's apartment. My friend took him to court because the unit was on the top floor of a flat in San Francisco and there was an identical unit standing empty right next to hers where the daughter could move.

However, the law is not perfect, the judge's opinions were highly suspect, and injustice prevailed. She was forced to move from her home of some 20 years.

The issue of rent control is hitting much closer to home at the moment.

My mother has a beautiful mobile home in Contempo Marin, a mobile home park in San Rafael, across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco, in affluent Marin county. She and her husband bought the unit outright when they sold their home at the Russian River, so she owns the home itself, but pays rent on the land on which it sits. Her husband made many improvements to the unit before his death and it is a real showplace that you would never believe was actually a mobile home.

The park has been sold several time since they moved into it and each time the new owners try to force the residents out. It's on a prime piece of land and developers would dearly love to put condos in there.

But Marin County is required, by law, to have a certain number of affordable housing units and at the moment they are under the required number. Contempo Marin is classified as "affordable housing" and to raze the park and put in expensive condos will further decrease the number of affordable housing units in San Rafael.

The residents of Contempo Marin own their own homes but rent the land. Judges in the past have agreed that the land is thus protected under rent control agreements.

But the new owners, Equity Lifestyle Properties, has finally found a judge to agree that rent control in this case is unconstitutional and so the rent on my 88 year old mother's tiny plot of land (as well as that of everyone else in the park) has been raised from $890 a month to $1,995.95 a month. Obviously anybody moving into affordable housing can't afford to pay that much rent.

The major shareholder of Equity Lifestyle Properties is Sam Zell, a billionaire who owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. The company had a PR firm send a statement, saying rent control actually "drove up the sale prices of homes" and that it "serves no public purpose and benefits only a handful of people," which is fine unless you're one of the handful of people who "benefit" and if you are facing having to move--and having no place to move to. Most of the people in this park appear to be old or infirm, or both. A man with a wife in a wheelchair and on oxygen said he cannot afford to leave Marin county because he is "wedded to doctors" in the area; another woman, about my mother's age had a vacant look on her face as she said she didn't know where to begin looking for a new home at her age.

At present, the city of San Rafael and the residents of the park are appealing this ruling and there is a measure about to be placed on the California ballot for June of this year which will protect people like my mother. Its outcome will affect most of the mobile home parks in California. It is Prop 99, the "Homeowners and Private Property Protection Act," which will, among other things, "prohibit government agencies from using eminent domain to take an owner-occupied home to transfer it to another private owner or developer"

There is a competing bill also on the ballot, Prop 98, which would eliminate rent control, among other things.

If you live in California I urge you to check the material which compares the two bills:

http://www.no98yes99.com/images/sidebyside.prop98.prop99.pdf

The results of this case could have a major impact on mobile home parks and affordable housing all over the country. I know the mobile home park here in Davis is facing the same sort of problem and has been fighting it. The only park which is not, is one in Woodland, where the residents bought the land outright from the owner and pay under $100 a month fees for upkeep and maintenance and don't have to face the annual terror of astronomical rent raises. But it was a long, painful process getting them to the point where they could buy the land outright.

Obviously I have a selfish interest in this bill because its outcome will affect where my mother can live out (most of) the rest of her days (and it will also affect Cousins Day!!! LOL. If my mother moves into any sort of senior living facility, we won't be able to continue our Cousins Day frivolity. Mygawd...pass Prop 99 immediately!!!!!)

It may be that the residents of Contempo Marin have another two months before they know the outcome of their petition. Their fate appears to rest in the ballots of California voters. So I am writing this entry to alert folks in California that this measure is on the ballet and to urge you to read up on both sides of the issue. And please save my mother's house.

Save the house...save cousins day! (And what would this journal be without the monthly cousins day reports?)

Thirty-Eight Years Ago

[Be sure to check out the new pix of Brianna that Tom sent to me, which I posted on Flickr.]

I have a feeling that Tom's not going to be looking through boxes of books to find his copy of my book, How I Did It (the copies of my diary when the kids were growing up, that I had printed and hard-bound for each of them), so now that he has been through the birth of his daughter, I thought I would record what his own birth was like. He and Laurel maybe able to relate better.

(Note that Daddy is wearing his 49er hat!)

So here, from my diary of July 1970 is my story of Tom's birth:

Contractions started Sunday morning around 3:00. As with Paul, the contractions were about 10 minutes apart, moderately strong, and just stayed like that for hours. I finally went to the hospital about 1:30 only because Paul had gotten up from his nap and wanted to sit on and climb over me and I figured things would be easier at the hospital than at home. (Momma and Daddy had come over around 8 a.m. Daddy, as usual, had rushed, tho I had told Momma when I called that I probably wouldn't be going to the hospital until afternoon.)

Got to the hospital and was examined by a very nice young lady doctor, Dr. Rice, who said I was 3 cm dilated, effacing nicely, and could be prepped. Got "the works," retired to the labor room and started contracting a bit closer together (about 5 minutes apart then).

About an hour or so later, Dr. Rice came in to check me again and said I hadn't progressed very far. She decided that since the bag of water was bulging, she'd break it, which she did. Then, as with Ned, when they broke my water, the contractions started getting "wild," as Dr. Nuddleman once described them.

I was pretty uncomfortable and thought I must be in transition because my hands were numb and I was trembling. The nurse decided to check my progress and did a pelvic. With the first contraction she said, "Oh, that's much better" and then with the second contraction, she said "the baby is coming now!" and rushed out for a table to move me.

Dr. Rice, who had figured I was good for another hour or two, had gone downstairs and came rushing back yelling, "it's not fair; you were supposed to wait for me!" She and the nurses were telling me not to push and I was trying not to and complaining that it was easy for them to say, but not exactly easy to do.

At one point I asked Dr. Rice whether we were waiting for the baby or for her, but she didn't answer.

Finally I got those lovely words, "push" and Tommy's head was born. I was able to watch his nose and throat being cleaned out and him crying before his body was born, then he came out and the guy assisting said "it's a boy."

Dr. Rice had said I could nurse on the delivery table but at the same time she was trying to instruct this guy on how to sew up an episiotomy and he was having quite a hard time and I decided it wasn't worth the trouble--especially since they had handed me Tommy, but nobody offered to help me get ready to nurse him. He was kind of quiet anyway and probably wouldn't have known what to do.

They finally took him away to the nursery and came back a few minutes later to report that he was 8 lb 7 oz, which rather shocked me since he was so much bigger than the other three clowns.

Stitching me up took quite awhile, with Dr. Rice offering such encouraging comments as "that's going to be kind of a sloppy job." They gave me lots of shots of a local anesthetic because the guy was taking such a long time and I could feel just about every stitch. I was also making it difficult for them because I had developed tremors and was shaking all over and hence very jumpy and each time I felt the needle I jumped.

When Walt called home to tell them about Tommy, he said "would you believe 3 boys" and my father just about had a heart attack because he thought I had just had triplets.

And, I don't want to be discouraging or anything, but if Laurel and Tom are thinking about having more kids, they might want to read what follows. Tom was born July 5, this entry is dated July 27:

Today has been a real gem. It started out by Ned crying for half an hour. By the time he became reasonable, the neighborhood had arrived. Today I just couldn't take them and kept them outside for about an hour, but they eventually started infiltrating. I somehow managed to get dressed. Jeri usually bring two friends in to ask for juice about the time I start getting out of my nightclothes. Paul, the little boy from up the streeet, let Mutt [the dog] out --not once, but twice. Ned threw a tantrum at lunch time and was put to bed. He was followed by a sour-faced Jeri, who was quite snotty about going down for her nap and as soon as she was on my bed with her blanket, Paul woke up. When all the kids woke up, they decided to hunt bees. This resulted in one broken and one cracked jar, and Jeri decided she wanted a different door, left the door to the cabinet open and Paul pulled out--and broke Walt's thermos. Mutt climbed on the bench in teh kitchen and ate Ned's left-over cottage cheese. Paul let his popsicle melt on the kitchen floor. Ned dropped his fudgsicle on the living room rug. Paul unfolded laundry. And my newly fixed dishwasher works all right, but the door won't stay shut and it stops every time the door pops open. Otherwise things are great.

Come to think of it, maybe she shouldn't read it. I'd like more grandchildren.

Baby Watch

The following is a report of how I have spent the day.

March 30 - 4:30 p.m.. We returned home from seeing Brigadoon and immediately checked for messages on the phone, since we are in the middle of "baby watch." There was none, but my caller ID showed that I had received a call from Santa Barbara. I returned the call and got Tom's cell phone message. I left a message saying we were home.

Meanwhile, Walt checked his cell phone and found a message from Tom saying they were on the way to the hospital. I checked my cell phone and found a message from Ned saying that in case I hadn't heard the message, Tom and Laurel were on the way to the hospital

Five minutes later- Tom called to say he and Laurel were in the hospital. She was having "tests" to see whether she was in labor or not and he would get back to me.

Twenty minutes later - Tom called back to say they had decided to admit Laurel and thought that the baby might arrive by 4:30 a.m. or something. I told him I wanted to be called when the baby arrived, no matter what time it was.

I called my mother, who was tickled. Walt called his mother, who had already heard the news from Alice Nan, who was at a Lakers game. I sent a text message to Jeri, who sent a reply. Walt called Alice Nan and reported that it's very difficult to have a cell phone conversation at a Lakers game.

9:30 p.m. or so - I fell asleep watching TV, with the puppy in my lap.

March 31 - 4:00 a.m. - I woke up with a start. It was 4 a.m. Would Tom be calling any minute now? Had I posted my journal entry? (answers: no, and no) I got up and posted my journal entry and then tried to go back to sleep,but sleep was impossible. I waited for news from Tom. Said a prayer (very unusual for me) that all would go right with the birth and that this much awaited baby and her mother would be all right.

7:54 a.m. - got a text message from Tom saying there was nothing to report.

7:58 a.m. - got a phone call from Alice Nan, who had just arrived at the hospital, reporting on progress, which appears to be slow. They had given Laurel an epidural so she could get some sleep during the night.

8:07 a.m. - Sent e-mail to my midwife friend Lynn with all the details, as I knew them, figuring that if anything sounded unusual, she would let me know.

8:30 a.m. - phone call from my mother. I reported things were coming along, but slowly.

8:45 a.m. - phone call from Walt's brother. I reported things were coming along, but slowly.

9:22 a.m. - sent link to YouTube video to Ned and also reported that things with the baby were coming along slowly.

10:10 a.m. - text message from Jeri. I reported things were coming along, but slowly.

10:30 a.m. - note from Lynn saying average first baby takes 12-16 hrs, so to expect it to take awhile. I decided to try to take a nap myself, to make up those hours I didn't get last night.

Noon - Took a nap and thus had missed e-mail from Alice Nan, but she called to say Laurel is at 9 cm, baby is face up and they are trying to turn her.

1:45 p.m. - Alice Nan called again. She just arrived at the hospital after a text message from Tom an hour ago saying Laurel had started pushing. They must have succeeded in turning the baby. Laurel's mother is fielding calls from all of Laurel's family; Alice Nan is fielding calls from Tom's friends and relatives. Must be like a switchboard in the waiting room!

2:45 p.m. - OK. I am now officially worried. But I think I remember Laurel saying that her mother had long labors. I was spoiled in that my labors were always ridiculously short, even the one that was breech. Still--it's so difficult being this far away imagining the worst. So many people already love this baby...!

4:01 p.m. - e-mail message from Tom: "She's in!!! I will call soon."

4:02 p.m. - telephone call from Alice Nan: "We just got a text message from Tom. All it said was 'Bingo.'"

4:05 p.m. - called my mother, sent text messages to Jeri & Ned, sent e-mail to Lynn. Made graphic for Flickr. Waiting for call to get specifics. Little details like her name, weight, and how Mommy is doing.

4:45 p.m. - Alice Nan calls from the nursery window, watching the nurse take the baby's footprints. Brianna (Breanna?) Leigh (Lee?). 7 lb 9 oz, 19", brown hair. Daddy is wearing his 49er hat. Of course. Teach the baby about the 9ers from the first.

HEY......

6:25 p.m. - Tom finally has time to call. It's Brianna Lee, she's "very healthy" and they'll probably be in the hospital for a couple of days so Laurel can rest up. He said it was "quite an ordeal" and wondered if we'd ever been through anything like that before.

We laughed.

So..it's over. Our granddaughter has arrived and we are just so happy!!

Mobile post sent by basykes using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3