Archive for August 2014

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Pigs

August 21, 2014

I saw this on the wall in the men’s room at a Masonic Lodge in Santa Monica:

Pigs

  • When you can’t do a thing with your hair wear pig-tails.
  • A pig-ture is worth a thousand words.
  • Don’t be a boar.
  • Life is not a dress rehearsal. Ham it up now.
  • Tell people you are not fat. Just saving water for the whole barnyard.
  • When your house is a pig sty. Hire a maid.
  • Be pig-headed only when it really matters.
  • Better to bring home the bacon than to cook it.
  • People love you more with a few extra pounds.
  • Be the little pig that went “Wheee-eee all the way home”.
  • Life is just a bowl of slop so don’t take it seriously,

Categories: Humor
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The Mystery of My Father’s Mind

August 15, 2014

This morning I read an interesting article about Alzheimer’s disease on the New York Times by Rebecca Rotert. Whenever I see an article on the human mind I usually read it to try to make sense the changes that are happening to Paula’s mother’s mind.
 
 Here is an excerpt from the article:
 
 


 He went to the opera with her for years, and even though he dreaded it — the horrible seats, the suit and tie, the story he couldn’t understand — he never let on. Except to us kids. When they announced that they were headed to the opera, he would make a face as if he were about to undergo a spinal tap. But to her, he remained willing, enthusiastic even. It was one of the things I loved most about their love, the emotional concessions they made. I will not only go to the opera with you, but I will be happy about it, so that your joy can flow uninterrupted.
 
 Tonight, Mom’s going to the opera with an old friend, and I stay home with Dad. We don’t leave him alone anymore. Without Mom he’s terrified.
 
 Mom around here somewhere? he asks. I tell him she’s at the opera. He looks at the window, then back at me. Is Mom around?

 
 Here is the pointer to the entire article.
 
 And so it goes, we try not to leave Mary alone for very long. It seems that in some cases our minds fail before our bodies. We are seeing that in Mary.
 
 When we first moved out here in 2012, she was not very happy with us moving in with her. She didn’t feel that she needed any help. Fast forward two years, and she has learned to appreciate our presence. Though she still hasn’t learned how to use the TV remote. She hasn’t told us but I think that she knows that if we weren’t here she would be in a nursing home.
 
 The other point I took from the article was how their love manifested itself. Go read the whole article.
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Categories: Aging
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Mary

August 14, 2014

Every day is a struggle. We continue to try to keep it together. Mary’s memory continues to fail.

This evening we were having dinner and discussing our plans for a picnic on Saturday. We always try to be inclusive with Mary. We tell her of our plans and ask her would she like to go.

We are planning to meet with our long time friend Roberta who will be taking the train from San Diego up to Anaheim. We told Mary that we would pick Roberta up at the train station at Angel’s Stadium and go to a local park in Orange to meet up with Mike and family.

Mary asks us “Do I know Roberta?”. We tell her we should hope so. She was Paula’s maid of honor at our wedding and friend of Paula since her days at UC Davis. Blank stare. She was at Harold’s funeral in 2009. Nothing.

Were Harold and I at the wedding? Yes, let me show you a picture.

2014-08-13 20.20.05

 

Well she recognized the picture, but had no remembrance of the event. I thought that only her short term memory was failing, but from this event it seems clear that her long term memory is also failing. Picture was taken in October, 1978. Sigh.

She probably won’t come to the picnic. She is worried about the rough surfaces and possibility of falling. Fair enough, we understand.

Categories: Aging, Mary
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I was just thinking…

August 11, 2014

I am hereby breaking one important rule of mine. My good friend Doug (a DEC retiree) once told me, “Do one thing a day”. And when you get an urge to do a second thing, “Take a nap”. Words to live by indeed. But today, I am going to break that rule and write a second blog post.

So, I have been seeing a bunch of FB folks taking the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” whereby a person is challenged online either to pour a bucket of ice and water on themselves (videoed for proper evidence, of course. OR, send a check to ALS for $100.

So what exactly is ALS? ALS stands for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is also known as “Lou Gehrigs Disease”. For you millenials, gen-x’ers and other young folk, Lou Gehrig was a baseball player.

Here is the description on the ALS web site:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons  die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

So my question for you all: All of you that have dumped a bucket of ice water on your head. Have you sent some money to ALSA? I am sure that the ice bucket challenge is helping to bring awareness to their organization. Perhaps, they might need some money, too?

By the way here is a pointer to an article in the Boston Herald on how the ice bucket challenge started.

Last but not least, here is a pointer to the donation page for ALS.

Now, time for that nap.

Categories: Internet, Research
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My Favorite Internet Myths

August 11, 2014

So I am on Facebook fairly often and usually someone posts something that is just not true. Perhaps someone read an email from a friend of a friend of a friend. Usually there is no real attribution from a real news source.

Over the years, I have often tried to educate my FB friends to check the veracity (or as Stephen Colbert would call it “Truthiness”) of an email story. As always, I recommend checking Snopes.com as the definitive source for truthiness of internet myths. Or before the internet came along, urban myths.

Snopes.com was started (and continues to be run) by Barbara and David Mikkelson of California. Here’s the wikipedia entry.

Here are a few of my favorite internet/urban myths:

The Well to Hell

Geologists working somewhere in remote Siberia had drilled a hole some 14.4 kilometers deep (about 9 miles) when the drill bit suddenly began to rotate wildly. A Mr. Azzacov (identified as the project’s manager) was quoted as saying they decided that the center of the earth was hollow.

Supposedly, the geologists measured temperatures of over 2,000 degrees in the deep hole. They lowered super sensitive microphones to the bottom of the well, and to their astonishment they heard the sounds of thousands, perhaps millions, of suffering souls screaming.

Well of course this is not true. Here is the link to Snopes.

Skyway to Heaven

I was raised a Southern Baptist and twice now a preacher has made reference to airlines pairing their pilots with one Christian (or saved)and one non-Christian (or un-saved). This is done on the pre-text that if and when the 2nd coming of Christ happens and the one Christian pilot is taken into the clouds with Christ, leaving the non-Christian pilot to supposedly land the plane safely alone. One preacher specifically mentioned American Airlines as having this policy.

Also not true. See Snopes.

So many goofy stories, so little time. I could spend all day looking through this stuff. So just one more and then you will just have to go to snopes.com on your own and browse the nuttiness.

Jeter Signs with Red Sox

The franchise player Derek Jeter is sure to disappoint every New York Yankee fan in the world after deciding not to retire after this baseball season. One of their star players for years, Jeter has signed a multi-year deal with Yankees rival the Boston Red Sox.

According to sources, Boston has been eyeing the possibility of picking up Jeter since he announced he would retire after this year, his 20th season in the MLB. Reportedly, the deal will make him an additional $25 million a year for the 3 years of his contract.

As they say on the internet, ROTFLMAO. No true Red Sox fan (or Yankee fan, for that matter) would believe this. It is so bogus. Here’s the pointer.

So, gentle reader, if you are reading something on your email or Facebook or Twitter, that doesn’t mean it’s true. Before you go and post it to all of your friends (and make yourself  look stupid), go visit snopes.com and check it out.

Categories: Humor, Internet
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Guys & Dolls at the Warner Grand

August 10, 2014

Saturday night was date night for Paula and me. It was nice to get out without her Mother along. We started with dinner at Nikko’s on 6th St in San Pedro. Nikko’s is a nice Italian restaurant. I had fettuccine alfredo. Delicious. We don’t often have pasta at home seeing as Mary doesn’t care for it.

After we finished dinner, we headed up the street to the Warner Grand to see Scalawag Production’s “Guys & Dolls”.

picture0001

This is the second Scalawag production that we have seen at the Warner Grand theater. Last year we saw the musical “Fame – The Musical” at the Warner. Scalawag continues to present high quality musical productions at a reasonable price in San Pedro. Scalawag Productions is a non-profit corporation committed to developing young talent for the musical stage. Unfortunately, tonight is the last performance of Guys and Dolls. I am sure they will be back again next year. Stay tuned. They are worthy of your support.

Here is the synopsis of Guys and Dolls on wikipedia.

Now on to the Scalawag production. I guess my favorite song was the routine “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat” sung by Nicely-Nicely Johnson (played by Andrew Lucero). The performance by Mr Lucero sort of reminded me of Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman). This was the routine sung in the second act on how to get to heaven. All of the guys are at the revival meeting because they had all lost a bet with Nathan Detroit. It was probably made famous in the version in the movie (of the movie in 1955) sung by inimitable  Stubby Kaye. It’s probably not fair comparing Mr Lucero with Stubby Kaye. But seeing as I can’t post a video of the Scalawag version, I will show the movie version instead. Same goes for Frank Sinatra who played Nathan Detroit in the movie.

If perhaps, you don’t remember my post last year, here’s my post on “Fame – The Musical”

We had a great time.

Categories: California, Music, Reviews, San Pedro, San Pedro
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Jonathan Drops In

August 5, 2014

Yesterday, Paula and I were out doing grocery shopping. I get a call from Theresa asking could they come over to hang out while her car was being serviced? Sure, I say. We will be by to pick you up in about 20 minutes.
 
 So we pull up to the auto mechanic garage. Paula starts to load the car seat in the back of the Jeep. Jonathan is none too happy with the situation. I think he was afraid that Mom was shipping him off with us without her.
 
 So he calms down when he sees Theresa getting in to the Jeep with us. So off we go. When we got home, we load the groceries into a cart. Jonathan likes to push the grocery cart. So we let him push while I gently guide the cart in the right direction.
 
 Next step is for Jonathan to push the button for the elevator. Jonathan loves to “drive” the elevator.
 
 So we go into our condo, and out come the toys. We got a new toy helicopter for Jonathan and Jonathan likes it. I tried to get pictures but tough to hit a moving object. He is also getting the hang of the hobby horse.
 

 Mechanic calls at 4pm to tell us car is ready and off we go again. Grandchildren are so much fun.
 
 Meatloaf for dinner tonight.
 
 Later…
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Categories: Family
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20 Feet from Stardom

August 4, 2014

A couple of nights ago Paula and I watched the documentary “20 Feet from Stardom” on Netflix streaming video. The film tells the story of several back up singers and their attempts to become solo artists. The film won the Oscar for feature length documentary in 2014. Often you don’t get to see the films that win awards for documentaries. Streaming video services like Netflix has changed that and that’s a good thing.

The film tells the story of Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer and other background singers trying to make it in the pop music world.

There are interviews with Mick Jagger, Phil Specter, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, and many more. A very interesting look at the backstage world of pop music.

Side note: we finally dropped our Netflix DVD service. We just weren’t watching the DVD’s in a timely manner. We would get a DVD and it would sit on the shelf for 6-8 weeks before we got around to watching. I feel that the sun is setting on the DVD as a media format. Between Netflix and Amazon Instant Video we are able to watch most of the content we are interested in watching.

Here’s the trailer:

20 Feet From Stardom Trailer

There’s an excellent sound track available on iTunes and Amazon.

And finally, here is a Youtube video of Darlene Love and Bruce Springsteen performing “Fine, Fine Boy”

 

Categories: Movies, Music
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Organ Music

August 3, 2014

Okay, one more post and then I will be done for a while.

Most of you already know this about me. So bear with me. I am the organist for my Masonic Lodge in  San Pedro as well as the organist for San Pedro Harbor Chapter Order of Eastern Star. Now you’d think that seeing as organist is part of my job title, that I played an organ. Nay, not so. I play a piano.

It seems that real organs at Masonic Lodges are rather rare in Southern California. I have yet to see a working organ in the lodges that I have visited. Some day I will figure out why that is.

Most of the lodges in Massachusetts actually have an organ. Some of the larger buildings actually have a working pipe organ. Although, many of the pipe organs are getting rather old and falling into disrepair. For example, the Lowell Masonic Center in Lowell, MA has a pipe organ and alas it no longer works. I did get to play it before it had to be shutdown. Repairs of pipe organs can run into 6 digits.

Now i would be happy if I can get our hall association to pay to get the piano tuned. Am I the only one who hears the off tune piano?

But back to Organs. Our former church in Billerica, MA has an excellent electronic organ made by the Allen Organ Company. They put the speakers behind the pipes in the chancel, so you think that the sound is coming from the pipes. Fabulous sound. When I played that organ, I couldn’t hear anyone singing. I could only tell they were singing by seeing their lips move.

The church that we attend here in San Pedro has an older Wurlitzer that doesn’t get played much. It doesn’t have the necessary ooomph to fill the room. Anyway, they are more into Christian Rock. I do miss a good church organ.

So what got me started writing a blog post about organs? I saw a post on FB about a Compton Organ at the Apollo Theater. So without further ado here are a couple of videos of organ performances.

And finally, I give you “Phantom of the Opera”

And one last thing. This wouldn’t be complete without the Saint-Saens Finale to the Organ Symphony.

 

Categories: Music, Organs
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Organ Music

August 3, 2014

Most of you already know this about me. So bear with me. I am the organist for my Masonic Lodge in  San Pedro as well as the organist for San Pedro Harbor Chapter Order of Eastern Star. Now you’d think that seeing as organist is part of my job title, that I played an organ. Nay, not so. I play a piano.

It seems that real organs at Masonic Lodges are rather rare in Southern California. I have yet to see a working organ in the lodges that I have visited. Some day I will figure out why that is.

Most of the lodges in Massachusetts actually have an organ. Some of the larger buildings actually have a working pipe organ. Although, many of the pipe organs are getting rather old and falling into disrepair. For example, the Lowell Masonic Center in Lowell, MA has a pipe organ and alas it no longer works. I did get to play it before it had to be shutdown. Repairs of pipe organs can run into 6 digits.

Now i would be happy if I can get our hall association to pay to get the piano tuned. Am I the only one who hears the off tune piano?

But back to Organs. My former church in Billerica, MA has an excellent electronic organ made by the Allen Organ Company. They put the speakers behind the pipes in the chancel, so you think that the sound is coming from the pipes. Fabulous sound. When I played that organ, I couldn’t hear anyone singing. I could only tell they were singing by seeing their lips move.

So what got me started writing a blog post about organs? I saw a post on FB about a Compton Organ at the Apollo Theater. So without further ado here are a couple of videos of organ performances.

Here is a video of music of “42nd Street” played on a Wurlitzer. Turn up the volume.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Categories: Music, Organs
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