Rocking My World

I woke up this morning to the announcement that there was a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in central Philippines this morning. Little Fred, my favorite of my Compassion children, lives in the Philippines.

"At least 13 people were killed and 40 are believed missing, most of them along the shore near the epicenter of the 6.8-magnitude quake that struck in a narrow strait just off Negros Island."

Eight year old Fred lives near La Carlota City, with his parents and sister.

To put it in geographical perspective here is a map of the Philippines, with the earthquake area circled.

Compassion is pretty good about letting sponsors know about things that affect their children, but this quake is brand new and, as with the Haiti quake, it will take a long time before they know how bad it is.

Fred's family has already had such tragedy, with the death of his younger sister a year ago. My heart aches for them and what they must be going through right now.

Compassion supposedly improved connection between sponsors and kids last year. They devised this new great way to correspond with your child--all done on line, where you write a letter and include photos, and it's all printed at the compassion office, translated, and sent to your child.

I love it and write more frequently (though don't send as many letter with gifts attached, since I'm doing so much on line....you can still send things via snail mail, but this way is so easy).

The apparent downside of this new thing that we are all so excited about is that more people are writing and so it takes longer to get letters. Before the new system started, I was receiving at least one letter a week from one of my 11 Compassion kids. Now I have received none for over a month and the Compassion rep, who used to sound so encouraging and comforting, now sounds testy and wondering why I am so impatient. They can't seem to understand that I'm worried about the fact that NOBODY has written, where before almost all of them did frequently.

I'm just glad we can get letters from the children, but this new apparent slow-down means that it will be literally months before I know whether Fred and his family have been affected by this earthquake, when it appears that he is very close to the epicenter.

You know...those Compassion folks are really sneaky. They actually have me praying for the first time in years, that this little boy I have grown to love and all of his family are safe.

Sunday Stealing

The 99'er Meme: Part 2

6 February 2012

26) Are you happy with the person you've become?
Is anybody really? I'm happy about some parts of who I am today, not happy about other parts of the today me.

27) What's a sound you hate; sound you love?
I hate the sound of a crashing car; I love the sound of the ocean.

28) What's your biggest "what if"?
What if I had not dropped out of college...?

29) Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens?
I do believe in ghosts. I wrote an article about a house full of them. As for aliens, I think it is the height of self-centeredness to think that in this vast universe this little speck is the only place where there is intelligent life (and lately, I'm wondering about the "intelligent" part of that!)

30) Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm.
The right arm first touches a bucket where I keep all of my incoming, to-be-answered letters; my left arm touches my cell phone, on top of my desk.

31) Smell the air. What do you smell?
Brewing coffee. Mmmmmm....

32) What's the worst place you have ever been to?
I'm not sure if I can remember "the" worst, but I'm sure it was on a camping trip with the Blackfords.

33) Choose: East Coast or West Coast?
I was born and raised in San Francisco and have never lived out of California, so I definitely choose the West Coast.

34) Most attractive singer of your opposite gender?
Placido Domingo

35) To you, what is the meaning of life?
42

36) Define: Art.
I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.

37) Do you believe in luck?
Yeah, I do. Take me to any casino and have me gamble for a bit and I'll prove it. I have zero luck!!!

38) Patriots or Giants? Or, who gives a rat's ass?
Don't really give a rat's ass, but if I have to choose, it would be Patriots, because (A) our daughter lives in Boston, and (B) the Giants beat the 49ers, and that's just not fair!

39) Will you watch the game? If yes, with who?
I will have it on; I doubt that I will watch much.

40) Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?
Yes, I drive. I had an accident my first day of driving when I ran into the back of a parked car. Later that year, I took off both right side doors on my parents car trying to drive into the yard of my high school. Fortunately, nothing since then.

41) What was the last book you read?
"Talk to the Hand" by Lynne Truss

42) Do you like the smell of gasoline?
Love it! Whenever I pump my own gas, I realize that I could easily become addicted to the stuff!

43) Do you have any nicknames?
Does "Mom" count?

44) What was the last movie you saw?
The latest "Sherlock Holmes" movie.

45) What's the worst injury you've ever had?
Flying over my bike handle, landing on my head, and dislocating my shoulder. My first and (so far) only trip in an ambulance.

46) Have you ever caught a butterfly?
I am ashamed that as a child, when on vacation in Sonoma County, I used to catch butterflies and pin them to a collection board and watch their wings flap until they died. It never occurred to me that I might be causing them pain.

47) Do you have any obsessions right now?
Writing letters and post cards.

48) Do you go to church?
I left the Catholic church over many things, but primarily its treatment of gay Catholics and the nun and priest who created a gay ministry in San Francisco. Neither situation has changed and so many other terrible things make me glad that I made that choice.

49) Ever had a rumor spread about you?
Not that I've ever been aware of.

50) Do you believe in magic?
I've seen too many magicians and heard their tales of how they do their tricks to ever believe in magic. I believe in magical moments, but not magician-magic.

God's Still Laughing

I started out the week talking about how if you wanted to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. That was the day that my plans had been to work in the book store, until my mother called to ask me to take her to the doctor, and I ended up spending the day and night in San Rafael.

I certainly had no plans to spend last night cleaning my office, disconnecting the computer and trying to set up this lap top to use while the computer is off in ICU until the virus can be removed.

And my plan for today had been to attend a 5-hour photography seminar north of Sacramento. It was to start at 4 so Walt and I planned to have our sushi dinner in honor of David's birthday tomorrow instead.

First I called my mother and was pleased to learn that she is starting to feel better. The meds are finally kicking in.

Next, I took the computer to my guru in Woodland. Fortunately, I already had the laptop set up here, so I didn't have to beg him to get the computer done speedily...just get it finished.

I came home, took a nap, and then went to get the camera I was going to learn on and get ready to go to the class. The battery in the camera was dead, so I went to change it, but I couldn't open the door where you put the battery.

That little slider at #1 was corroded and immovable and it was impossible to slide the battery door in the #2 direction. I tried and tried and Walt tried and tried and it just would not budge.

By this time I really wasn't feeling like going to the class anyway and so I decided not to go at all. I dropped a note to that effect to Facebook and someone suggested that I use a paste of baking soda and water on the lever. I did and miraculously I was able to free it up so that it slide back and forth, but I still couldn't move the battery door. I guess I'm going to have to take it to a camera shop, but there is none in Davis, nor in nearby Woodland, so I'll have to wait until I'm next going to Sacramento during the daytime.

In the meantime I had a call from the guru who told me that my computer was filled with so much dust and debris that it had been in danger of starting a fire, should a spark erupt near it. I don't know how often you open your computer to dust the inside, but he says it should be done twice a year. He said that the two memory sticks were so covered with dust that it explained why I've been having memory problems on the computer and that once he got all the dust cleared away, it showed that I had triple the usable memory than I had before. Who knew? Turns out Walt has cleaned the inside of his computer but never thought to suggest that to me. I honestly never thought about doing it, it being an enclosed system and all.

Anyway, he rattled on and on, as computer geeks do, explaining things that went way over my head because I don't have the technical lingo, but something about the CMOS burning out and his replacing it (I read the explanation of CMOS on Wikipedia and I'm more confused than ever...anyway the replacement will be less than $5.) He will get on eradicating the viruses starting on Monday and will call me next week. Thank goodness I am comfortable with this laptop.

While I was talking to the guru, Walt's sister called from the road and said she would be here in about half an hour. Walt invited her to go to a Japanese restaurant with us, which she was happy to do.

We went to Osaka Sushi in Woodland and had a lovely dinner, though I ended up not eating sushi after all.

This was on the "senior menu" and was just the right amount. We remembered David and enjoyed our food before coming back home.

Rather than face the dogs eagerly awaiting us at the front door. Alice Nan decided to just get in her car and head to her next stop, their brother's house, where she will watch the Super Bowl before heading back to Santa Barbara again.

I have no plans for tomorrow, which is probably better, since if I had, who knows what sort of monkeywrench God would toss into the works at me!

The one thing everyone remembers about Dave was his big smile.
Happy birthday, David, wherever you are...

Pulling My Hair Out

It had been my intention to address all the commotion around the Komen Foundation's decision to remove funding from Planned Parenthood. The reversal of that decision took some wind out of my sails, but still doesn't really restore the full funding, merely states that they are free to apply for funds in the future.

However, I didn't have time to research the issue fully because my computer blew up on me.

It was a return of that Security Shield virus I got a couple of weeks ago. This is an alarming notice that pops up and tells you that you are in danger and you can only get out of danger by buying a program, supposedly (but not really) from Microsoft, that will clean up all the viruses that have accumulated.

It's insidious. It makes many of your program unusable. I tried opening up Notebook and got the blaring message that the program is infected and it won't let you use it. It also gives you a list of all the files on your computer which are infected with nasty viruses. It looks all official 'n' stuff.

When you try to open a supposedly infected file, a big red warning appears and you can't do anything. It keeps asking you "are you SURE you want to proceed without protection?" It's very effective, using lots of scary red and exclamation points and incredulity that you would even THINK of proceeding unprotected.

The "protection" "only" costs $80 and from all I've read, does nothing. There are tons of sites on line which say they can help you remove the virus and I tried one, waited 20 minutes or so and went through all the steps only to discover that this, too, wanted money to fix the problems and remove the virus.

I tried following some instructions for deleting the virus and I don't remember what I did at that time, but doing whatever I did and then doing a system restore seemed to work and I've had a few weeks of blissful ignorance.

But I picture this virus like some science fiction monster, which, when defeated, retreats to his cave and licks his wounds and then comes back bigger and stronger than ever.

The big strong Chtorr-like virus returned today. In spades...big, red spades. The faster I tried to work around it, the bigger the warnings got until I got a warning, when I tried to get to the System Restore screen, that filled my screen and could not be removed. I could only reboot the computer and the second I rebooted and got back in again, there was that damn blocking screen again. I was dead in the water.

So I called my guru. I wasn't even going to TRY to do anything with this thing, because I don't know how to tell the fake fixes from the real fixes. I wanted it done professionally. I made an appointment to take the computer in to his office in the morning.

That meant disconnecting it. Do you know how much dust accumulates on computer cords in a space of a few short years? I tried to take careful note of which cord went where, and tried to label which cord did what so I could restore it all when the computer comes back.

In the meantime, no problem--I would just use the laptop . I'd done it before. Only this time nothing went right. I finally got the cords straightened out and connected both of my back up hard drives to the computer, so I'd have access to most of (but not all of) my files.

When I fired up the computer, it showed that I was connected to the Sykes router, but that I had no internet connection. Walt and I tried almost everything and I was so frustrated. It was 10 p.m., and too late to call anyone at DCN to get help. I just figured I would have to go to Mishka's in the morning, which seemed crazy, since I have a perfectly good wifi connection here--heck, my CELL PHONE works, but neither computer did.

Finally Walt tried a different plug for the router to connect to the modem and suddenly we had internet connection again.

I always swear I am going to remember how to do all this stuff, but the problem is that I may go months or years before I need to know whatever it is that I learn during crises and since I can only barely remember things better than my mother, the chance of remembering something highly technical is essentially nil.

But I am back on line again and I can post this, I think. This will probably be a good time to install my new printer, now that I can't connect the current one to the laptop and I will go nuts without being able to write letters while the virus is being killed. But that probably won't get done tomorrow.

Have I mentioned that I hate computers? When they are good, they are very, very good--but when they are bad, they are horrid!

Oh What the Heck

Let's finish this tsatske project and be done with it. Here are the last two shelves.

It's actually one long shelf and here is the left end of it.

The little bell on the left was given to us by Suzanne, a woman from Switzerland who stayed with us for awhile. She was amazing. She wanted to buy a car and rode one of our bikes from Davis to the far side of Sacramento to car-shop, and then had us drive her back to pick it up the next day. I believe Jeri visited her in Switzerland that year.

Next to the bell is a thing that looks like a hockey puck. That was a gift of appreciation given to all of us on her committee from Joan Sallee to thank us for working on her campaign for School Board.

There is a jester ceramic mask-ish thing that I bought as my souvenir of New Orleans when we went with the jazz choir to be a chaparone. Next to that is my prized "cuteware" box, by Davis artist Heidi Bekebrede. I got that at one of Walt's office White Elephant games at a Christmas party. I couldn't believe someone wanted to get rid of it.

Behind the cuteware you can make out a silver statue of a horse pulling a wagon load of hay. That also came from Suzanne in Switzerland.

To the right of the wagon is a little vase that I bought on an Apache reservation we were driving through. We stopped to look at all the vendor stands and I stood there waiting for Walt to go back and get money. I still remember the stoney face of the woman and how she never even looked at me during that awkward period.

The two copper things, a tiny teapot and a little vase-like thing, came from a guy from Chile who stayed here. I'm not sure about the two glass things (one a vase, one a glass). I think they both came from Cousin Nora in Ireland, but I'm not sure. The dark statue on the left was a gift from Walt's mother after she had visited Thailand. The two beeer steins were from another of her trips, this one to Germany.

This is the other half of the shelf. There are two plain ol' plastic water bottles, one from Weathervane Playhouse in Ohio, where Jeri worked summer stock for a couple of years, the other from Kilbarri park in Australia, where I visited with Peggy. The last bottle was from our friend Eric's wedding to his wife Nan. Behind that is a square thingie which, I believe, came from Chile, though I could be mistaken about that.

The photo frame shows pictures from Walt's surprise 50th birthday party.

To the right of that is a Mexican chocolate stirrer, which a guy from Mexico (from the town where XX beer is made) brought. To the right of that is a glass from New Orleans, which held my Hurricane (drink).

The cool mask is something Paul made. It was a school project and it fit his head. Doesn't come close to slipping on my big head.

The candle in front has no significance, other than I put it on the table as a decoration one Christmas and somehow it just never got packed away again.

And there you have it...all the stuff on our glass etageres and the stories behind them. If we ever get to all the rest of the junk around here and puttin them back in their place again, I will do another record.

The Oz Shelves

You'll be happy to know this is the pentultimate tsatske entry. Today I'll deal with the Judy Garland (more accurately Wizard of Oz) shelves. The thing is that I've been a lifelong Judy Garland fan, but never really a big Wizard of Oz fan, but it seems that lots of people give me Oz stuff. And, in truth, I have even bought myself Oz stuff. So here is that collection of stuff. It occupies not one but two shelves on the etagere.

As I look at this shelf, the embarrassing thing is that I don't really remember who gave me most of these things. That glittery ruby slipper in the back was the "box" that came with a Wizard of Oz watch that my mother gave me one year. The star isn't technically anything having to do with Judy Garland or Wizard of Oz. My friend Ann gave it to me one Christmas many years ago. It has glitter in it which floats around when you turn the star upside down. It just seemed the right shelf for it.

I think I bought the water globe myself, but it may have been a gift and if it was, I abjectly apologize to the person who gave it to me!

I do know that the picture at the back of the shelf...

...was the only one of those "put your face in here" souvenir pictures I have ever taken...but how could I not? This was taken in the tourist trap shops along Waikiki Beach on a trip Walt and I made with a couple of Brasilian couples.

This is the second shelf.

That Dorothy doll that is on the left is one that Jeri made for me and you can't see it, but at Dorothy's feet is a little brown Toto. I know I bought the two plates, and I don't remember who gave me the two little sets of figurines that line the "Oz" bell. I also don't remember who gave me the Dorothy box on the right.

But I know where I got the framed card in the middle.

It was a birthday card given to me by Ned's friend Brendan (who died in March of last year). He was afraid I might be offended, but it was the only card I think I have ever framed, and it's had a place of honor in the living room ever since.

Naturally the inside of the card says "Toto--I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."

What's missing on these shelves, which must still be packed away somewhere, is my Dorothy cow that Tom gave me--a cow dressed in Dorothy's gingham pinafore and ruby red hooves. One of my favorites!

The Mask

You know what they say about the best laid plans.. or "if you want to hear God laugh, just tell him your plans."

Well, my plan for yesterday had been to work at the book store, but then my mother called early in the morning. The minute I heard her voice, I knew she was not well. When Peach and I had been there for Cousins Day last week, she had the start of a cold. She almost canceled, but decided she didn't feel that bad and she really wanted to see us.

Other than some coughing, the obvious signs of a cold, and going to bed early, she seemed OK. In the morning she was feeling sick, but not all that bad.

That was a week ago.

Each day I've been calling to check on her and each day she has felt worse. Finally, when she called yesterday, she said she thought she needed to go to the doctor. For my mother to agree (let alone ask) to see a doctor she needs to be at death's door, so I knew this was serious and I called the guy who is the manager of the book store, told him I couldn't work, and I was on the road about 10 minutes after she called.

I was halfway there before I realized I had forgotten to put on my bra. Fortunately, I was wearing regular pants, not pajama pants!

It was obvious that she was really feeling awful. She said she was so disoriented that she didn't even know what she was supposed to do. She was coughing continually. She ached all over.

We went off to the doctor. "Wouldnl't you know the ONE day I need to see a doctor is the day of a nurse's strike," she said many, many times, though the nurses had walked off in sympathy with another union and it hadn't affected my mother's doctor at all.

But anyway, we got in to the see the doctor and the nurse handed my mother a mask to wear so she wouldn't spray germs all over the office.

Well...my mother hated the mask. She kept taking it off because she didn't want the doctor to see her looking like she did with the mask. I kept telling her it was to protect the doctor from her germs. She did keep it on until we left the office to go to x-ray to check for pneumonia. She took it off in the elevator because she didn't want to look "stupid, stupid, stupid" (her frequent comment). I told her she needed to keep it on for the safety of the other patients. Sitting in the waiting room, she took it off because she felt stupid. She didn't want the x-ray tech to see her looking stupid.

We went back to the doctor and yes, she does have a mild case of pneumonia and she prescribed some antibiotics. The doctor also asked me to spend the night with her, which I had already figured I should probably do.

We went to the pharmacy, which was packed with people and my mother took the mask off because she didn't want to look stupid. She kept asking over and over again, "how did I get pneumonia. I haven't been anywhere but Safeway and church." I commented, dryly, that she probably got it from someone in Safeway who was sick, but who refused to wear a mask to protect the other people in the store. So then she put the mask on, but took it off when she was about to have a face to face interaction with the clerk because, you know, it's better to cough germs on her than to look stupid.

When I try to talk to her about her responsibility to other people she becomes "cute." She acts like some co-ed who is flirting with a guy, thinking that because she is being cute, I won't give her a hard time. I did stop short of saying "With the mask on you look like someone who cares about not making people around you sick. With the mask off you look like someone who is more concerned with your appearance than the health of others around you."

(I had to write that because I wanted to say it SO often yesterday, but didn't want to hurt her feelings.)

So anyway, we finally got the meds and came home. I left her to take a long nap (which she did) and I went off on an adventure. Sort of.

Since I hadn't planned on spending the night, I had no change of clothes and I desperately needed a shower and to wash my hair. I figured if I could buy some sort of "thing" to wear while I washed my clothes then I could take a shower and we'd be just fine. Well, when you're my size, just try to find clothes. Any clothes.

There was no fat lady store in the Northgate Mall, so I tried Sears. Their director says there is a fat lady section, but darned if I could find it. I walked through the entire mall and to Macy*s. Their clothes are on the second floor, but their fat lady section is on the 3rd floor (I don't know why I was offended by that) and I actually did find a pair of slacks that fit me and two tops that fit me. Everything was at least 50% off, some where 60% off. There was no underwear anywhere.

I told the sales clerk that I didn't have my Macy*s card and that I hadn't used it in years, but that I could charge on Visa, which I did.

On the way downstairs, just on a whim I checked out the "intimate apparel" department, certain that there would be nothing for me because there never is, but lo and behold, they did have things in my size and I bought 3 pairs of underpants and a nightgown (the "thing" I was looking for in the first place) that was priced at $70, but with the discount was only $20. Too good a bargain to pass up.

Ultimately, since I didn't get back home until nearly time to go out and buy pizza for dinner, I never did take a shower that night and didn't need to wash my cloths. But I did need the clean underwear, so it was good that I went shopping...and now I have new clothes to wear after all!

My mother had a horrible night and slept hardly at all. I knew if I stayed longer, she would feel the need to sit up with me and be gracious so I packed up and headed home. I've already had two phone calls about things she can't remember. I'm still toying with going back down there maybe tomorrow, but she has an army of people who have called to do things for her, so I probably won't, unless she needs me.