I Needed McGee

My nightmare began very innocently.  This laptop wakes up like an old lady getting out of bed in the morning.  V-e-r-y slowly.  It has to test out all the programs and stretch its arms and legs and moan and groan about the aches and pains, but eventually come to life.  Even under the best of conditions, it operates very slowly, like it has arthritis.   And it is so old, it does not multi-task without a lot of complaining.  It was taking so long yesterday that I decided that re-booting it (my version of "kicking it") might help.  So I rebooted and up came the lock screen asking for my password.  I confidently put in what I knew was the password but it wouldn't open.  

I have about four different passwords, each with a combination of letters and numbers, which I use for everything.  They are all easy for me to remember, but sometimes I use capital letters or I add punctuation.  I tried every password I had in every iteration I could think of and the machine stayed stubbornly locked.

I went to Facebook to ask for help and got some great suggestions, none of which worked.  Then I went to the internet to ask how you unlock a laptop when you have forgotten the password.  I found lots of suggestions, all of which had been made by my Facebook friends except the final one -- completely reinstalling the operating system, which would erase everything on the computer. (now that I think of it, how do you do that if you can't open the machine in the first place?)

Anyway, all day long, I fretted about my situation and tried to figure a work-around for Funny the World, using Walt's computer to at least leave a message that I wouldn't have any entries until we got back home again.

It was when we were driving home at 10 last night when a lightbulb went off.  I remembered the password.  I got this machine in 2003, right after I returned from Australia and in choosing a password, I wanted to use one that would be impossible to guess.  I see McGee on NCIS or Garcia on Criminal Minds  or Chloe on 24 figure out passwords instantly--the guy's birthdate, or his cat's name, or his mother's phone number.  Something easy to guess eventually.  I was smarter.  I chose the address of the house Peggy was living in when I went to Australia.  I was so excited that the first thing I did when we got home was to try that and....voila!  Open Sesame.  I was in.  Now I have written the password in several different places, told Walt and Alice Nan and now you.  If I ever lose it again, you don't know what the address is (or was...she hasn't lived there in years), but you can tell me and I'll know.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln....  it was a full, fun day,  It started at the crack of dawn, heading down to Brianna's school for a 9:30 a.m. concert by the first, second, and third graders.  Being a 3rd grader, Bri was toward the back, but was easily visible when we got there because the younger kids hadn't arrived yet.  

Eventually the stage filled up and the kids put on a half hour show.

Very cute.  Laurel wasn't able to come, so I took video and pictures so she could see at least part of it.

After it was over, back here to Alice Nan's house, where Walt and AN took naps, I took a shower, and continued to fret about my password.

At 3, we went to the football field for Brianna's flag football game.  If the concert was cute, the football game was cuter.  It was not difficult to pick Bri out of all of her teammates..,.she is at least a head shorter than all of them, but she's fierce and watching her run the ball down the field was really fun.  

It was a girls' team playing a boys' team and the boys were better (but they don't keep score yet).  Bri stole 3 flags (equivalent of making a tackle).  In the end, it had been a lot of fun and we came back to AN's house to rest up while Laurel and the girls went to the store.

Eventually we went to the house for Family Movie Night.  They were watching ?Fantastic Beasts? which seemed awfully dark for kids and I never did figure out the plot, but we we enjoyed visiting.  

Tom had been in Boston and was due home, but never did get there by the time we left.

And then the computer finally leaping to life ended the day on a high.  I woke up at 2:30 this morning to write this and if the arthritic old lady ever lets me into Facebook to retrieve photos to add to it, I can finally post it and go back to sleep.

[Addendum:  What would have taken me about an hour or less to do at home has taken me 2+ hours here.  Putting in the football picture alone took -- I timed it -- 17 minutes!!!!]

And so it ends

Caroline's last day started with a farewell love-in with the dogs who, I am certain, will miss her.

She went off for a walk in the university Arboretum, which I'm so glad she did.  It is just beautiful at this time of year and she had not had the opportunity to see it at all while she was here.

When she returned, we had our final Skype chat with her parents,

It was about noon when the car was packed and we were ready to hit the road.  It was only 10-15 minutes later, along the freeway, when Walt spied this in his rear view mirror.

He thought he was being pulled over for speeding, though he had only been keeping up with the speed of the cars around him, but no...

He had been going too slow.  Only 60 in the middle lane and you are supposed to go 65 in that lane or pull over to the right with all the "slow cars" so you don't impede traffic! He only got a warning, but he was very careful about his speed on the rest of the trip.

Too soon, we arrived at the SF International Airport and it was time for goodbyes,.

We told her, again, that she was welcome to return any time, and then she and that HUMONGOUS backpack were gone.

It was 2 when we left the airport and we stopped a couple of times (lunch at 5 Guys and a rest stop) and arrived at Alice Nan's at 9:59 (she was surprised we had made such good time and said she hadn't expected us until 10!)

We had some dinner and wine and then everyone went off to bed and I have been tearing my hair out trying to get this entry written.  I had forgotten that after not being used for a long time, this laptop needs about half an hour to wake up.

I also realized I am a very bad grandma.  I forgot to bring Bri's birthday gifts with us!!!!!  I will have to mail after all.

Changing of the Guard

Out with the old and in with the ... uhhh .... older?

It's Caroline's last night here and I've asked her to strip her bed in the morning so we can wash and dry the sheets and get them back on the bed in preparation for Ashley and family to move in while we are gone.  

Doesn't seem possible that Caroline's time here is already over.  She wrote us a beautiful goodbye letter that whe printed on  the back of a drawing she had done, which is just gorgeous (I'm going to frame it)

She says birds are the only things she draws, but she obviously has a talent for them!

I watched her sitting at the table holding Polly tonight and marveled at how far she has come.

Polly doesn't bark at her any more.  She's the very first person who has been able to tame her.  Oh, Polly barks but it's her welcoming bark and her "feed me" bark, not the "you're a scary stranger" bark.  Ashley said she'd be jealous if Polly jumped in her lap...and that's the one thing she doesn't do, but she will let Caroline pick her up and doesn't tremble any more when she is holding her.  Caroline has worked long and hard making friends and it has worked.  I don't know if Polly will miss her, but Caroline will probably miss Polly more.  And of course, Lizzie loves everybody and Caroline has had a special relationship with her ever since she bathed her.

Last night she made eccles cakes.  These are small round pouches of puff pastry filled with a mixture of currants and spices and then baked.  They are small, but surprisingly filling.

She left four for Walt and me (one each for last night and one each for this morning) and took the rest to share with her friends at the vet school. I found the recipe on line and am going to make a batch to take to the nice neighbor who loaned Caroline a bike for her time here.

We had a nice farewell dinner tonight and then she went out for a final night on the town with her friends.  It's difficult to say goodbye and she has already warned that there will be tears tomorrow.  She won't be the only one.

I've told her she is welcome to return whenever she wants.  It's been a good 3 weeks.

Democracy in Action

All of my life I have heard about the glories of democracy and how this country is so great because we are a democracy, as we go around the world trying to force the glories of democracy on other countries, whether they want it or not, because democracy is so wonderful.

But it is more and more clear that we do NOT live in a democracy...probably not for a long time, but definitely lately.  

Our voting system is totally wacky.  The people do not elect a president, but a select group of a small number of selected representatives elect the president and even if the other candidate has received a significant majority of the actual votes, she doesn't win the election  How is that democracy, defined as "government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system."

If an ethnic group is going to vote in large numbers for your opposing candidate, make it more difficult for them to get to the polls or qualify to vote.  How is that democracy...making it difficult for voters to vote?  How is that "a free electoral system"?

If the voting groups don't favor your candidate, there is always the Gerrymander, drawing the lines so that the majority of districts do favor your candidate.

And when your elected representatives get to Washington, they aren't there to do the will of the people, they are there to get re-elected.  If the majority of the voters express opposition to your opponent for the Supreme court, change the rules so that the negative votes don't count.  If the president you don't like nominates a worthy candidate for Supreme court. refuse to even talk with him on the flimsy excuse that he "only" has a year left in office, so should not get to name a new justice (historical precedent notwithstanding!)

I am so tired of the people making their feelings known and our "representatives" ignoring them and doing whatever they damn well please.

I am also tired of so many people with very shady pasts, people who have almost certainly committed crimes and get a free ride when Hillary Clinton went through a monumental witch hunt, which cost the American voters millions of dollars and turned up nothing, time and time again.

We call this a democracy.  I don't know what it is, but it is not a democracy!

 

You can't tell me that the majority of people want to return to this:

or to watch children getting sick from the use of DDT, which, has been used only in limited instances (killing fleas responsible for bubonic plague, for example) since the 1970s.  The ban on DDT has been credited with the return of the bald eagle, our national bird.  But now?  Go ahead.  Use all you want!

The Daily Mail in the UK reported that more than HALF of US rivers are too polluted to support life as a result of agricultural fertilizers.  I don't know the date of this article, but it mentions that the Obama administration finalized regulations to control mercury pollution in 2011.

Now?  Gone.  Dump all the junk you want to into the nation's waterways.  Remember Flint, Michigan?  Brown unusable water coming from  the taps?  Kids getting sick?  You can't tell me that this is what the majority of Americans want.

Anybody feel all cozy knowing that it is now legal to kill mama and baby bears as they hibernate in their dens?

These things (and too many more) are now legal in our "democracy" and you can't tell me this is the will of the people.

But where are the Republican with balls who will stand up to the tyrant who is systematically getting rid of every environmental regulation that Obama put into place, which has made our world so much cleaner and less dangerous.  Other than John McCain, is there not one senator who will say ENOUGH???

We are supposed to go into war only with approval of the congress, but Trump just sent troops into Syria without a public vote and without letting the public know he was doing it.

I just don't believe this is what the idea of a "democracy" is like.  Nothing is perfect, but this is so bad, bad, bad, and we, the common people trying to raise our families, feel so terribly powerless as we watch the country that we love slip away and as we become the laughing stock of the world.  (Just spend time with someone from another country to learn how people around the world feel about this country now.)

Thunder Down Under

(I came across that phrase and it fit so perfectly.....)

I learned an important lesson today.  If you are seeing a physical therapist and he decides to assist you to a flat position on a table on your back, and if you haven't been in that position for literally years and because of your size, it's rather awkward getting into that position in the first place, for god's sake don't fart!!!

I didn't, but my 74 year old body, gaseous in the best of times, really really wanted to!  I consider it a major victory that I was able to hold it in.  He was a nice young man, freshly out of grammar school, I guess, judging by his Doogie Howser appearance, and I would have been mortified to fart in front of him, though I suspect I would not have been the first.

It was really a pretty good meeting.  We talked a lot.  He had read my file and my correspondence with my doctor and asked lots of questions about where exactly the pain is, what kind of pain it is, when it comes, what makes it better, etc.  I was impressed.  He asked more questions in 15 minutes than i think my doctor has asked in 15 years. 

He showed me my x-rays and the lovely curvature of my spine which explains the loss of nearly 2" in height over the last 20 years or so.

He showed me how the disks in my spine are flattening due to pressure on them and that he can't cure them, but with some simple exercises along with the cream my doctor gave me, the pain can probably be made better.

He also had a model of a spine that would look like a muppet if it had a face.  But it was a great graphic example of what is going on and made it very easy to see what and where and why the problem is.

We didn't make a return appointment because once he had shown me the exercises (3 simple ones), there didn't seem to be much point in a follow-up, when we have e-mail to communicate and I'm welcome to come back whenever I want.

After the appointment, I had lunch at Denny's and learned, finally, how to take a proper Selfie.  My arms are too short and my fingers too uncoordinated to do a good job the regular way.  But I discovered a timer on the phone, so by setting the timer for 3 seconds, I can take a selfie that looks fairly decent.

I was all excited to go to the store on the way home.  Last week when I was there they had a whole bin of fresh Dungeness crab and after our lunch in Berkeley the other day, when Caroline said she loved crab, I decided we would have crab for dinner tonight.  Crab, salad and French bread.  Nectar of the gods.

But when I got to the meat counter there wasn't a single crab to be had.  I asked when then expected to get them in again (thinking maybe I could get crab for our final dinner before she leaves) and he told me that crab season had ended and they would not have any again for months.  Poo.

So I bought something else to cook, and since it's quite late and she's on call tonight, it's probaby just as well.  But I had my mouth all set for fresh crab!  

---

My cousin Denise, the cosmetologist, had called to let me know that she was going to come and have lunch with my mother and do her nails, so I didn't feel I had to go to Atria today.  But when I was on the way back from Kaiser, she called to let me know that my mother was almost out of toilet paper, which mystifies me because I bought her 6 rolls last week and this means she is going through a roll a day!

I asked Niecie how the visit had gone and for the first time she said that it was just sad. She's usually so upbeat and eager to let me know how my mother is just FINE for her. She got her singing to familiar tunes, but she zoned out after awhile and it was the same stuff I have with her when I visit  Also, apparently she answered the door wearing only her pajama bottoms.  Usually she's wearing only her pajama tops, but this time it was just the bottoms, which must have been quite a surprise for Niecie!

When I got home, there was a message from a friend of my mother's, who had stopped by to see her before Niecie arrived.  She found her in bed, with no top on, but she was pleased that my mother seemed to recognize her and they had a fairly good visit.  I suspect, however, that she won't be back.

I cooked dinner around 9, figuring I could cook for Caroline when she got home, but she texted that she was going out for burgers with some of the other students. So really good that I didn't buy crab. 

She did miss the strawberry shortcake though.

Kosher Hiking

Our decision for today was between going to San Francisco again, or going to see the redwoods, which Caroline had also expressed inerest in.  However, over dinner last night, she admitted that what she would really do was to go on a hike up a hill to see a view.  Since Davis is in the flatlands, the only "hill" we have here is the overpass with the only "view" of the traffic on I-80.

So I turned to Facebook for suggestions.  What I thought I wrote, from my phone in the restaurant was:  "Davis folk--our guest would like to do an hour hike to maybe somewhere with a view. Any suggestions? All I can think of is the overpass."

However, damn that auto correct that I didn't check.  What actually posted was "Davis folk--our guest would like to do an hour hike to maybe somewhere with a. Jew. Any suggestions? All I can think of is the overpass."  

By the time I got home, my original message had so many smartass comments that I just left them:

Rob Byrnes Well... where do the Jews like to hike these days? (to which John Lindner repied Anywhere but the desert.
Renee Anderson My favorite movie is "A Room with A Jew"!
Ari Laura Kreith The walk from your house to my (Jewish) parents' house would probably be about right.
Sue Abdi Lincoln I spit my water. I know lots of Jews if that truly is the requirement.
Jen Kiernan Can't stop laughing.
Steve Isaacson Oy!
Tina Whittenburg Thurman Lmao, thank you Bev for this lil typo in your status because I needed this crazy laugh so badly, that no one would ever understand
Denise Hoffner Thought you were considering an outdoor Seder!
Kymm Zuckert I'm so so glad you didn't correct this post when you saw the error, because it's my new favourite. I want to hike for an hour to see a Jew!
Jan Scal Newman Still snorting over the hike with a Jew, I'm just now amused at the thought of a view in Davis
Lynne Conrad-Forrest well mt sinai is somewhere nearby every city it seems...maybe qe could burn some bushes...I would suggest point reyes or muir woods
Sarah Kutter Great way to start my day. When I saw your post I knew you would get some hilarious responses! Thank you, Thank yew-My contribution to spellchecker hell
Pauline Brock Jews really aren't the best hikers, but whatever!
Gayna Lamb-Bang That made me laugh out loud! Best typo ever!
John Dennis Kiernan  Overpass?  Did you mean Passover?
Susie Weintrub I have a lot of matzah you can take for the discerning hikers!!!
Steven Chaba  Whatever route you choose, make sure there's a place to stop for a little nosh, otherwise it'll nothing but kvetching the whole time.

While we were deciding what to do today, first there was Caroline's morning chat with Polly.

Caroline just keeps talking to her, and Polly's tail wags a mile a minute, but she still has that "I don't really trust you" look on her face.  I think Polly will miss her when she's gone.

Then we Skyped with Caroline's family.

The suggestion of Table Rock, outside Chico, was looking good, but Walt says it was a 2 hour drive to get there and he just didn't want to drive 4 hours so Caroline could hike for an hour.  We took Sue Abdi Lincoln's suggestion of Lake Berryessa, which is nearby and it was perfect.

It took us a while to find a trailhead, but the drive through all this green was marvelous!  It made me wish I could teleport my mother to the car while we were there already because she is so enamored by green things that she would love it--but not the long drive to get there.

I remember many years ago, when she still had all her marbles, when she pointed to a scene like this and remarked how amazing it was that there were so many different shades of green  We certainly saw that today!

We finally found the trailhead and parked the car.  Walt decided to hike with Caroline for a bit but when it got very steep, he (wisely, I think) decided to come back to the car.  I spent the time sitting in the car, finally finishing my book.  Caroline did the whole 5 miles and at the summit, she texted me, but since we had no service down in the valley, I didn't get her message until after we were driving home.

She was a happy camper.  She found her mountain, her hike and her beautiful view.  The weather was gorgeous and it was the perfect way to end her last day of touristing while in California.

Today it was Berkeley

Caroline's time here is growing short.  She will be working Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then flying back to Edinburgh on Thursday.  So this is her last weekend to get any sightseeing done.  We had planned to go to Berkeley today.  She also had yesterday off and took the opportunity to give Lizzie a bath.  Lizzie wasn't too pleased, but she is very clean now.

We lazed around the house until mid-afternoon and then went down to a place here in town that she had discovered with some of her fellow students last week.  It's called Cream and it's a place where you choose your flavor of cookie and your flavor of ice cream and they make an ice cream sandwich for you.  I had salted caramel ice cream between two snickerdoodles and my sandwich was big, but delicious.

We walked from Cream to the theater where we saw the new Beauty and the Beast, which I loved and highly recommend.

After the movie, Caroline decided she was going cook dinner for us, so we stopped at the store to get a few things--I already had most of the things she needed.

She whipped up a fantastic shrimp curry, which  was so easy I don't even need a recipe.  You thin slice whatever veggies you want (she used snow peas, asparagus and carrots) and par boil them.

You chop garlic and onions and sauté until soft, then add the drained vegetables and a jar of curry paste (that one was new to me).  Stir all together and add a can of coconut milk and cook until the liquid is reduced and the shrimp are cooked.

It was fabulous and I will definitely be making it again.

We had a quiet morning today and around noon-ish, we got in the car to drive to Berkeley.  Caroline had asked her friend, who had been here before and was excited that Caroline would be in Berkeley, what sights she recommended.  One that she suggested was the Berkeley marina, where I had not been in years (other than driving by on the way to San Francisco).  We drove around a bit and then stopped in a restaurant called Skates.

We had a window table with a gorgeous view!

And all three of us ordered the Dutch baby with Dungeness crab and sliced Granny Smith apples, which met my criteria for:  something I'd never had before, something with crab in it, and something delicious.

We don't know what this woman ordered but it arrived in a dish with billowing white coming out of it and it billowed for awhile (note that she is holding her cell phone up trying to take a photo).

From the Marina, we drove up to the campus and gave a quick driving tour before finding a place to park.  Caroline was looking for a specific shirt...

Interestingly, she seems amazed at how much crap you can put a logo on.  We were in this HUGE store filled with shirts, hats and just about anything you can think of with the UC Berkeley (or the California) logo.  But she did make a couple of purchases and then we headed over to campus, where I had Walt give her the grand tour while I sat in Sproul plaza in front of the Administration building and remembered the 1960s and the Free Speech movement that all started here.

 We came back to Davis, had a brief rest and fed the dogs and then went off to Sushi Limited for dinner.  I was going to take pictures, but didn't touch my camera.  Trust me.   It was delicious...and the Lincoln Hills sushi roll is still the best thing on the menu.