A new adventure +

The show case at Phillippe's Deli, showing part of the huge slections.


In a short time I will be off to catch the bus to downtown Los Angeles to sit in on the final day of a class-preparing people to restart their life by learning the computer. The session is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The plans are that, then I will have an early dinner at Phillippe’s. That is one of my favorite spots for French dip sandwiches and other goodies.

Typical Friday

The dinner at the table outside was a nice event. Six of us had a great time together. Anne did most of all the food. She had help from her friend John and a baby sitter. We will be doing more of this.

Today will be laundry, library and dinner at UCLA’s cafeteria.

Typical Friday

The dinner at the table outside was a nice event. Six of us had a great time together. Anne did most of all the food. She had help from her friend John and a baby sitter. We will be doing more of this.

Today will be laundry, library and dinner at UCLA’s cafeteria.

Not much unusal

I don’t think anything unusual will happen today. My Thursday’s breakfast at St. John’s Medical Center have been going on for years. That is my day for bacon, egg, toast and coffee. Anne said, “Lets have dinner on Thursday at the table out back.” That suits me and all I need to furnish is the light red wine and brownies from Ralph’s supermarket. Anne includes me with her and John’s dinner some weeks. This complex has wonderful neighbors.

Nancy +

Nancy arrived from Minnesota at about noon yesterday. She reported as to having a great time. All of the family there are in good condition. The weather was very good and she had a good vacation. We had lunch at Fromins Deli and then she was on her way to home in Hemet.

The new volunteering start yesterday did not work out. The Big Blue Bus schedule had changed and I could not get back after 9 pm. I will attend my 1st obsevation session on Saturday from 11am to 1pm.

Checking out a new computer volunteering experience

A new chapter in my volunteering is about to begin. I contacted a group who posted on Craigslist. It is called computer digital divide nonprofit. http://www.cddnp.org/. They have a number of locations in Los Angeles. Their mission is to teach underprivileged, recovering addicts and etc. how to get restarted in life by becoming computer literate. This new enterprise may give me an opportunity to be of help to younger people. It will consume one evening per week and I will be able to easily commute by using the #10 express Big Blue Bus. It should be interesting.

Summer Soltice

Summer Soltice at Stonehenge at sunrise, 2006


Santa Monica’s Main Street had their eighth annual summer solstice s celebration on Sunday. It was nothing when compared with the summer solstice Parade in Santa Barbara. At the flea market I had a scrambled egg, potatoes, onion, and Italian sausage plate. Not too bad. I walked to the beach had a cup of coffee and watched the people. It made for a good outing.

Feeding Birds

English House Sparrow.
And introduced species, that has prospered phenomenally especially in conjunction with human habitation to the consternation of people and other birds. Eight pair was brought to United States in 1850 for the purpose of riding the shade trees of inch worms
There have not been as many birds coming to my bird feeding system. A neighbor has started feeding the birds and squirrels. That is okay.

The 4th

Wayne has invited me to spend some of the July 4th’s time with the family in Santa Maria. I appreciate the chance but will spend the long weekend here, stay out of the heavy holiday traffic. Santa Monica has a good 4th fireworks display and it is a good time to spend some hours at the beach.

Volunteering

Yesterday morning I stopped at the volunteer office at St. John’s Medical Center and let Grenda know that I would be retiring from volunteering the day before my 87th birthday. There was no reason given. I have been handling the job as well as ever. I thought that I would retire at the top of my abilities rather than waiting until the inevitable. I am not sure just what I will do with that extra day during the week; something will show up to fill the time spot. I had been volunteer there for nearly 10 years. Time to move on.

A new activity

This morning as I have been all week, I have been helping my neighbor, Mark, with his child-sitting problem. Jennifer is off from her regular day care school for a couple of weeks. I fill in only from 8 to 8:30, until the nanny gets there. No problem. I will at my usual Saint Johns Medical Center cafeteria for breakfast. The rest of the day is still unplanned.

The American Crow

The bird feeder is continuing to be visited by a variety of birds. The largest is the American crow. The crow is one of my favorite birds because it is smart, sometimes destructive and seemed do a lot of screaming and have confusion at the timet the young are leaving the nest.

Gardenia

The gardenia bush outside my door has been thanking me for my giving it proper care. This morning I counted 25 beautiful white blossoms and there are still hundreds of buds. It is over 7 feet high. The fragrance around the area is so pleasant.

Father's Day, 2006

I had a very nice Father’s Day. Sunday was the first day that the UU’s have only one service on Sunday at 10 p.m. I got going a bit late so miss that.

All the family called with best wishes for a happy Father’s Day. It was good to hear that all are doing fine. I can say that I have enjoyed all the years of being a father, a proud father.

jiantan mountain trailhead
Originally uploaded by birchloki.

The blackened catfish dinner at the Enterprise Fish Co. was excellent.

Now onward and up the path to the future.

Some lines

A few good lines of thought not, related to but good for any day, including Father’s Day.

Remember: the last words in American is, I can.

Casual acquaintances: It is like meeting someone while you are traveling, and you eat and drink and talk with this person, even feel love, and then you go home with the memory and it does not matter to you whether you will ever see the person again.

When you are older it can happen this way. The temptation endures, but the execution flags.

An obsession is likening to that of compulsive eaters will gulp their food without tasting it or those who drink to excess without ever discovering the mysteries of the grape.

Balloon over Carl and Joan's home

This a snapshot of a hot air balloon over Carl and Joan's home in Napa Valley, CA. They have been doing some improvements to thier home. They are off works for a month or so this summer. They plan on doin some caming with the family. Caming is on of the bes things that you can so with young childresn 

Friday

Friday is my day for doing laundry, my day at the library and dinner at the cafeteria Santa Monica’s Medical Center. The weather is warming up and preparing us for our first day of summer.

Wednesday

Nancy arrived we got her car parked, had a nice lunch and got her by bus to the airport on time.

I attended the second class of the Sustainable Works. It is a class promulgating sustainable practices in the urban environment. A class promoted by Santa Monica and consists of four sessions helping us with ideas to save our environment.

Wednesday

Nancy arrived we got her car parked, had a nice lunch and got her by bus to the airport on time.

I attended the second class of the Sustainable Works. It is a class promulgating sustainable practices in the urban environment. A class promoted by Santa Monica and consists of four sessions helping us with ideas to save our environment.

Wednesday

Nancy arrived we got her car parked, had a nice lunch and got her by bus to the airport on time.

I attended the second class of the Sustainable Works. It is a class promulgating sustainable practices in the urban environment. A class promoted by Santa Monica and consists of four sessions helping us with ideas to save our environment.

Nancy's bus trip

Nancy is expected this morning after her golf game and driving from Hemet to Santa Monica. She is to leave her car here and we will use the bus system to get to the Los Angeles International Airport. She will be a way for a couple of weeks and will leave her car here in my parking spot. We may even find time for a pleasant lunch before getting on the bus.

A few of short sentences. .

A few of short sentences.
.
For four eight years, Norma had given me all her life. That is all that I ever needed. Maybe Norma thought she had given too much.

Anyone is Celtic who wish to believe that they are Celtic.

Sunday

Sunday was started with hotcakes and eggs, then to the UU’s of Santa Monica, later to the library where I picked up a book two CDs and two audio books, finished off the day with dinner at the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center cafeteria. Great weather great day.

Saturday

Yesterday was another good day. Breakfast with Nick and his friend Jim at Rae’ s. Rae’s is a good place for breakfast, not so good for other meals, very busy on Saturday morning. In the afternoon I was at the Craft Fair at The Santa Monica Convention Center.. I didn’t think I would be much impressed by one. It was one of their better ones. I was not to impressed. The evening was pleasant as I listened to Los Angeles Theatre Works play on FM. I enjoy a good play that is well performed on the radio.

Virginia +

Virginia called and filled me in about some things in her life. Such as, her serious blood clots in her legs. The doctoring and her medicine are working out well. Otherwise she is doing okay. Virginia told about Marianne being in the hospital for four days for cardiac problems. I will find out what and how serious it was when I call her tomorrow.

ARMD

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of the macular degeneration support group at Jules Stein eye Institute at UCLA. A doctor who specializes in macular degeneration brought in many devices for people who cannot read. She explained and let us check out the equipment. None of the equipment was good enough so as for me to be able to read with the left eye. I am thankful that the right eye is still working well.

The Avastin that they were injecting in my left eye has stopped all leakage. The scar tissue left by the disease distorts the image in the Center of the eye. I asked those who have had similar treatment and they do not know of any means of overcoming the results of the scar tissue. Scar tissue of slowly disappears after a wound has healed. The next visit with Dr. Rosen may give me some hope.

There

The followings may sound weird and completely out of character. The following lines came to me while sleeping. I put no credence in dreams. Here they are.

THERE
Dig your shovel into the soil, and there is no there there.
Move your shovel over there and dig, and there is a there there.
Move your shovel and dig again, and there is no there there.
Alas!
Move your shovel over there and dig, and there is a there there.
There can’t be a there if there were no there there.

Silly, but that is what it was.

Voting

My voting place was as close to home as it has ever been, about one block away. They always send me an absentee ballot, which I do not use. It is surrendered at the polling place and I vote manually. Off year elections are never very exciting but I did study the candidate list and hope that I voted correctly.

The quality of life

I have just finished reading The Quality of Life, by James A. Michener. It is a book written in 1970. It is interesting to compare life with a separation of 36 years. There are many areas that could be selected for comparison. The following is what I have found interesting.

Written in 1970. We produce excellent doctors In the United States, but not enough of them. We have the finest hospitals in the world, but not always where they are most needed. Our medical schools are not surpassed, for the few who can squeeze into them. And for the availability of clinical services to the average citizen, this country ranks so far behind Russia, England and especially Israel as to be embarrassing. We simply do not have enough doctors to serve this nation.
We are now importing, because of our higher pay, many doctors from other nations, where they are also needed. The restricted and selective medical schools are still with us.

In a few minutes I will be off for my volunteering at St. John’s Medical Center, no doubt the same as someone else was doing in 1970.

Katrina

All the news concerning hurricane Katrina had not affected me very much. I followed the news and was interested in it but that was about all. Today I was touched by the destruction in New Orleans of the church that Paul, Norma and I have visited and is no longer functional. The group has moved to the suburbs. There is very little chance of them rebuilding as churches have a hard time raising money for capital expenditures. The United States Government, the City and the banks do not furnish money for churches. That is as it should be. It is sad to hear that church and I’m sure many more are no useful.

Technology

The thoughts of about technology get us excited. There is a lot of it in recent years. Technology that thrilled me in the past is a live steam locomotive pulling a working train. I can imagine being six, seven or eight years old ( about 80 years ago) standing next to a live steam locomotive at the Goodhue train station. The engine had fire in its firebox steam shouting our, water dripping and the smoke out of the chimney, an amazing huge complex machinery. This experience was not like seeing a locomotive in a museum. This was reality an essential part of the life of the community. The railroad from Red Wing to Rochester was the closest railroad to the Mississippi River in that part of the Western United States. The railroad ran along the western edge of our farm. It was visible from our farmhouse. I can picture the train heading south with its plume of black smoke. I cannot recall a picture of it in my memory of it going north.

Space walk

41 years ago on this date in 1965 an American walks in space. It does not seem to be that long ago. A lot of money, research energy and resources have gone into space adventures. Other must also wonder if those efforts could not have been invested in other projects. I had forgotten that the Russians had done that on March 18 of that year.

garden

A man with a chain saw will be here tomorrow morning to remove a stump that is preventing us from expending the garden. All the while I have been in her I have been cutting back the dead tree. The garden is doing wonderful. I don’t think I have never seen better garden soil and the irrigation extension system that I installed working properly

Aunt Elizabeth

Aunt Elizabeth, at the birthday party in 2004