On My Way: NYC to Clarion, PA

I'm having trouble uploading photos tonight, so I'll try again tomorrow. Meanwhile, all is well. It was a pleasant trip -- nothing eventful.

One more time: Happy Birthday, Mary!

Happy Birthday, Mary

Now that I've run through the various Google Image birthday cakes, it's time for something new -- and this year it's going to be my own personal testimonial starting with:

 

5 Things that I like about Mary

1. She's a great friend. I remember the first time I met her in September 1967 and liked her from the get go. We met in a gym class, but it turned out we were two doors away from each other in our freshman dorm. Through the years, we've been through all of life's ups and downs together. When I think about my life, I can't imagine what it would have been like without Mary.
2. She's a great hostess. Mary always makes everyone feel welcome in her home. Always buying special food, cooking special things. I am struck that when I arrive in her house, she always seems so genuinely happy to see me. And when it's time to go, she urges me to stay while trying to convince me to take home these cookies or that piece of fruit.
3. We always, and I mean always, have fun. No matter what we do, I always have fun with Mary. Whether it's actually doing something fun or just sitting on the sofa or playing cards or watching TV, we simply have fun together.
4. She's so kind. Much kinder than I am. If there's a kid crying in a restaurant, my reaction is to mutter, "Shut that brat up" while Mary says "Oh the dear little soul."
5. She's fun to talk to. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but we've logged thousands of hours of phone and face time together, and I never get tired of talking with her, whether it's silly gossip or world events.

And to answer the question 45 years in the making that we posed way back when, Yes, I still need you, yes, I'll still feed you when you're 64.

 

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Off to Ohio on Tuesday

So stand by for those on the road photos you love, along with views of various hotel rooms and wildflowers along the road and anything else to amuse and entertain.

Sundry Sunday Thoughts

Semi-dry Vanity Fair: I was able to finish my athlete-as-murderer story, peeling back the pages. I also read this long piece on a new Broadway show, Rebecca, based on the book and the trials and tribulations that got downright bizarre with investors. Both were great reads, and then I retired the magazine to the recycle box.

Water in the garden: It only took two weeks and repeated phone calls, but the water has been turned on in my garden. Before it rained, I had to water the plants by carrying water in a bucket. Of course, it's about a 20-foot walk from the kitchen to the garden, but I was identifying with indigenous people who carry water a half-mile or whatever from the river.

I mentioned to a client who believes he will care for me when the apocalypse comes by housing me in a family farm in Kansas -- we're not quite sure how I get from NYC to Kansas -- my job is babysitting the children -- OK, I can handle that, but I told him don't assign me the job of carrying water-- it's too much. I'll sit by the fireplace minding the children, shelling peas and darning socks. Oh wait, I wouldn't be by a fire and shelling peas... I'll sit on the front porch shelling peas and sit by the fireplace darning socks.

How do you darn a sock? I remember my mother had this egg-shaped thing with a handle in her sewing box that was for darning socks, but I don't think even she did it back then.

My new best friend: Even though I'm leaving for a trip on Tuesday, I decided to order groceries rather than (as usual) coming home to an empty larder. The same guy, Sowe, came this week all friendly and saying now he knows exactly where to go and he knows where I want him to put the bags (right on the kitchen floor) and he waived the obligation of my signing for them.

The Cops May Have to be Called

It's a rockin' Saturday night on 43rd St NW in DC... and it all started with this innocent looking shot of the two sisters...

But note that Mary is gripping that cake cutter like Lizze Borden gripped her hatchet.

 

They circle the cake ready to attack... L to R: Mary, Judy, Fran

The Aftermath.

 

Drowning Brad Pitt

I was getting a mani/pedi yesterday and had put my copy of Vanity Fair down to speak with Marianella. I had been engrossed in an article about that South African athlete who is accused of murdering his girlfriend -- a great Vanity Fair-esque detailed, lengthy story covering it from all angles.

I shifted in the seat and the magazine dropped into the pedicure water. Marianella fished it out and said she was going to put it in the garbage. She thought it was a lost cause, but not me. When I was finished and she left, I fished it out of the garbage and here it is this morning, still drying.

I just want to finish the murder story.

Sorry, Brad

I was thinking that we all (yes, I'm including you) have weird ways in which we splurge and in which we're cheap. It so goes against my grain to buy another copy of this magazine, yet I would gladly waste $5 on something else. I have no idea if the ink from the pages will make the pages stick together so we'll see what happens in another 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Mary's sister Judy battled horrid traffic and torrential rain to make it to Mary's last night and she came bearing gifts -- Mary's birthday is Tuesday but the celebrations have begun.

Just what the doctor ordered

My cleaning woman had some lump/bump of the sole of her foot, on her heel, that was very painful, especially early in the morning. She had ignored it for a number of years and eventually it got worse and too painful to ignore.

So last week she had some kind of shot, an equally painful injection into the bump/lump, which has worked well. The doctor suggests one more injection next week and then wait and see for three months.

The point of telling you this is the exercise the doctor recommended which I think would be good for aching feet -- you'll know if this helps yours. He said to take a plastic water bottle, fill it with water, then freeze it. Put it on the floor and roll it back and forth with the sole of your foot. She loves doing this. I love anything like that that's cheap and I admire the doctor for providing a home remedy.

I asked her why she got this lump -- she isn't totally fluent in English -- but she said that the doctor told her it happens to people who are on their feet most of the time. And Ana does have a job folding clothes in a laundromat so she is standing alot. I'm just glad this shot seemed to work. So far, so good.