On Another Day In March..

..much fun was had worth remembering.

We packed up the household and found ourselves cruising into SF for a day of fun at the zoo. After making it through the obstacle course of a Freeway.. Two bicycles fell out of a truck in front of me on the freeway. Fortunately they only took up half a lane and I was able to quickly maneuver around them.  Greg coming up behind me, didn't have as much reaction time but also managed to maneuver it. In the mean time the truck owner stops in the middle of the slow lane to get his bikes so that lane was responding to their own emergencies. It could have been bad! And it left my nerves a bit jangled. Later we would come around an off ramp to find a car stopped in the middle of the lane as well. I think it was a good reminder to our up and coming drivers about being a vigilant driver who always pays attention to the road. So anyway.. we hit the zoo... all of us.. alive and well.

 The kids are getting older and we figured that this may actually be the last time any of them ever go to a Zoo at least as children.  I expect they may take their own someday but its not likely that they will have this type of experience again for a while.

Now my initial emotional reaction is sort of down on the whole Zoo idea. Animals trapped in cages for human entertainment. It is sort of sad. But as I wandered the Zoo I realized just how many of the animals they have in captivity were rescued from severe and often crippling injuries. When I take that into consideration, I can appreciate the experience  much more and realize that while not ideal, these animals do have a decent quality of life.

There was another thing I liked about this zoo. The habitats are well thought out for both the animal and the viewer. We felt like we were able to get rather up close and personal with the animals and yet for the most part they seemed very content with the amount of space and design of space that has been set aside for them.

 half a giraffe...

Geese and Goslings

 

 





Greg had a great time playing with the camera. He captured many wonderful photos.. too many to share here. The best one he captured by far ended up being a fluke of reflections on glass but it really captures the juxtaposition of being the observer and the observed.

The drive home was uneventful with the exception of hitting the cheesecake factory for dinner on the way home. It was a excellent day trip and everyone had a lot of fun.



There will be time enough for (Re)counting when the dealings done

I feel as though I have been mighty quiet as of late. I suppose after a day sitting at the ol' compy doing school work with the three.. well.. my time, drive and desire to sit at a computer (Speaking of ol' compy. It took a nose dive after plugging in my 10 year old first addition Ipod which has not been synced or otherwise connected in about 7 years. That was a dumb move because it fried up my laptop.. Yay new computer. Yay interest free financing!)  you know.. I just don't have much desire at the moment.. Anyway, life is lived off the computer and with a household of 7 now.. there is a lot of life happening around me. Its kind of fun actually. A lot like white water rafting.   I guess, for the time being, I am going to let go of feeling like I need to or want to express every small detail, moment and sigh I encounter. Rather I will simply immerse myself in the tangible. Weigh Anchor. Break out the camera. And write home with glory and/or gory stories when I hit port. Speaking of.. many fun adventures planned this summer.. Starting with a trip into the City tomorrow.  

 

Shark Dialogues .. Amazing book. If you have any interest in History, Hawaii, Coffee,  or have a strong affection for the ocean and human spirit, then this is a book for you. It was hard to get into at first.. hard to catch on to the stylistic way of expressing. Thoughts sometimes strung together. But once the story turned its eye back in time. I was caught. Anyway.. read it.

 

Greg and I took in a comedian not to long ago .. Steven Wright. My cousin recommended we check out his act. It was good. Hes presence on stage is slouchy and mumbly so you have to listen hard or you miss it. The woman sitting next to me.. she wasn't listening so well. And all of her irritating constant questions to her "date"  about "what did he say" and "whys that funny." made it a little bit harder for me to hear as well. Finally she shut up .. to play on her phone. Dude! If you don't want to be there then leave!. The guy next to Greg.. he was something else himself. But in a total gregarious and friendly way. An aspiring comedian... who also has the worlds longest tongue in the world... I think Ill focus on his comedy as the tongue was just freaky..  

 

Off on a tangent.. I was contemplating how things are coming together with roommates and how we settle in and find our rhythms...And I have to liken it like grooves in vinyl.. together we make music and I like the sound of our 7 part harmony. And then I expanded that thought outward and imagined the cacophony that envelopes the street, the city, the country, the world. Its quite a discordant racket out there!

 

Lastly, this poem was part of school curriculum. I like the analogy.

 

Surfing

by A. Gautam

Across the whitest sands

of my empty page

I ride the waves of words,

in the world of ink.

I surf the rhymes

the curves, the lines,

one thought, then two

ideas new.

The rhythm flows;

the stanzas splash.

My words afloat

the page is filled at last.

 

 

Lots of love! Good Night! 

Turning Grey with the weight of responsibility

You may have heard something in the news today. A company lays off a large number of employees. You think of us. No worries. We made the cut but Greg has come out of this far from unscathed. He is the one overseeing the chopping block. . Men and women .. . Some of whom he has secret handshakes with . Some of whom have cried on his shoulder. He cares about these people. They are his extended family. Making this cut is one of the hardest, most heartbreaking things he will ever do in his career. He has been carrying the knowledge of the weight of this responsibility for some time. Its nothing he could announce early.. there is a legal side of stock exchange and insider trading which requires secrecy leading up to such matters. It is nothing he would want to announce early.. panic.. stress reaching elevated levels prematurely. .. So knowing it has been coming has been something he has shouldered in relative silence. Today he finally was able to exhale and now begins the long hard process of a few days filled with back to back half hour long meetings with each designated employee to give them their termination interview. Some will go with dignity. Some in shock. Some in anger. Some in fear. Each and everyone of them.. a stone for him to carry. But he is heading into these heartbreaking meetings knowing that every available resource has been scoured up to help them all gain their feet. A decent severance package. Employment placing opportunities.. the works. Today he has to steel himself against sorrow and guilt. He must act with a certain amount of detached severity. And then tomorrow (or when the initial action is over) he will pause, he will feel and then he will weep for each of them… Who could hold back an ocean of tears that big for very long? In other news.. Willow now has rubber bands with her braces. Her jaw being pulled.. stretched. She aches. But in the end all of her teeth will fit in her mouth. Unfortunately pain is just part of the process. She is hanging in there though. Finally!! We have begun the journey of getting Connors allergies diagnosed and dealt with. Monday he had the skin testing as well as a respiratory test to see how his asthma is being taken care of. Turns out he is allergic to different trees, grass, mold, weeds, animals and dust/dust mites.. . most extremely to dust mites and dust. His asthma which I believed we have pretty well maintained .. turns out not so much. His normal breathing is quite restricted. Hes now trying advair. Poor guy. We have an appointment on Monday to plot our course of action. Life in all other ways is flowing along..business as usual and nothing to complain about. The time change came and I reset my own clock along with it by pulling an all nighter while Greg was in Orlando Florida. Oh.. Greg was in Florida last weekend for a Manufacturing Exposition. It offered a little calm and sun and fun before the storm. (I sent him out the door this morning with an extra hug and a goose for good measure.) We continue to get settled in with our new roomies and things seem to be progressing there with relative ease. Homeschooling.. we have our rhythm down and are working in block style. One subject done in depth per day rather many subjects scattered lightly across each day. And my highschooler, I think, has finally lengthened her stride a little bit and the grades are improving. Now lets see her keep it up!

Bursting at the seams

Im stopping for a moment. Feet up. Relaxed. This rest day/morning is wholey welcome even if it comes at the expense of a little health. My body telling me to take it easy close myself away and deal with things like bills and paperwork and maybe even throw up and then have a little nap. Each of the kids have their assignments which they are capable of working independently on today. Sun shining despite the promise of rain. Birds chirping. Allergens down because of the rain showers during the night. Its a perfect time to stop and smell the flowers in my garden.. so to speak. The last month flew by in a full on frenzy of activity. Id love to detail it all in painstaking detail as is usually my style when talking travel and the like but, In order to capture it, that all would require far more energy than then I really want to devote to it at the moment. But a quick run down looks like this. Superbowl and My Grandfather passed away. We gained three roommates three days after. Long story short we have adopted a family (hummingbirds) for a bit while they get through a rough patch. Then Valentines. Then a flight to Portland. Catching up with Family.. with my Brother. Getting a walking tour from Rebecca, an old friend, of the Hollywood District Mansions and meeting the freshest smelling bushy tree (it didn't offer up a solid whiff on our pass on by and when the owner of the house emerged we figured it better to wander on then leave our noses all up in his bush.)There was also the sampling of salted Carmel. I didn't much like it. There were nifty roadside libraries. There was the City sprawl and banked curves on the freeways (For rain drainage) which made you think you were going faster around corners then you really were. I drove through it knowing full well that life in such a City would depress me and leave me very ill.(It made me relfect on just how wonderful it is to live were we do.) The service. The remembering. The celebration of a life well lived. More family. A cousin I never met before. Laughter. Seeing the image of what I will look like when I am 70 and all grey as I gaze at my Aunt. Dinner at a cousins whom I don't know well as an adult but whom I loved as child and finding some of the same art decorates our walls. A bed and breakfast. Strange experience. Not bad. Still digesting and will need to try another B&B to compare the experience with. Anyway.. Back home and the settling in continues. Learning routines and adapting to others. Its a process for us all but we are meshing quite well. We are straining at the seams a little though and so the house hunt continues. Coming up Greg is going to be traveling like crazy.. more than usual. Work is taking its toll on him and we are looking forward to a little vacation whose planning is in the works. Simply saying we are busy doesn't seem to begin to cover it. But life is as good as can be.

Transitions

I woke this morning to the soft morning light filtering through sheer champagne colored crepe drapes. You don't need much else in Portland to block out the sun as it is continually obscured by grey clouds. I did not come here with the illusion of it being sunny and bright. My formative years spent in this area, I knew better but I failed to remember just how dreary it really is. I suppose my being here for a funeral service might add to that impression but Im here to honor a life and not wallow in grief so I don't think it is that. It simply is dreary. And as I reflect I can remember the joy I felt at 6 to see the sun those 3 days a year the clouds actual parted. I often think of home as always grey and foggy. Perhaps compared to the high desert that is true but in reality, the peninsula is quite bright considering. Regardless of the gloom (environmental and situational), I intend to make this a trip to happily remember.. reuniting with family will bring the biggest joy. I am also going to get in a visit with an old HS friend, Rebecca, who lives in the area. I am looking forward to it all. In other news, big changes are sweeping through our household. We are looking to buy a house. The reasons are multifaceted. First there is the fact that we are paying way more a month in rent than we would be paying a mortgage. Interest rates are low. We have put off the idea until now because of our previous home owning situation and the understanding that Greg's time with his company at this location is not guaranteed and in the future we may be faced with another long distance transition. But really... should we suffer a massive payment going towards nothing every month just because we don't know what direction life is going to take 1 year, 5, or 10 down the road? The only issue is finding a home that will work for us. We want something with more space and probably further off the peninsula and closer to San Jose. If/when a job change becomes necessary being closer to the job market in the city will be a boon.

Bloom and sneeze

Its beautiful out here, however, sinus headaches and other allergic reactions leave us enjoying the sights most often from behind glass.  

Crack the Ice and let the waters flow

Or more plainly stated.. spring is here and my grandfather has passed away.

It was not unexpected.. Grandpa was a champion when it came to longevity but 92 is long enough for anyone to stick around and he passed quietly in his sleep. He lived a long full life and danced through decades of change. When I stop to consider the world he was born into and the changes that have swept through his life, the wars fought and seen, the rise of technology, medicine, not to mention his own personal challenges such as childhood play forsaken early on to support his family during the Depression to the loss of  his wife (Feisty Grandma Bea, You too are missed.)  and his Son (Love you Dad!) .. and well.. everything.. it is pretty incredible. He lived long enough for 20 some odd great-grandchildren to grace his knee and managed to get two books of poetry published. He was a champion of the grill and the hunt. I can think of very few times where I ever caught sight of a frown. He lived positively, joyfully, with dedication, persistence and perspiration. While he may not have taught me how to sing he helped teach me to always listen for and play to the upbeat that pulses through this mortal existence. And so while a few silent tears may trace their way down my cheeks, a smile graces my heart and always will when I think of Grandpa. Peace be with you too Gramps!