Almost

We had an almost completely normal week around here (almost completely? – nice sentence structure Bob). How unusual! Yes, there were doctor visits and a return of the nasty eye inflammation for Renee but things seemed almost routine. (almost again?) The biggest contention of the week was if we had enough butter in the house for the matzoh muffins (not near almost for me). Those things are like sponges. Renee can eat them dry. I don’t know how. They suck the moisture from your tongue. You could drop one in a gallon of water and the water would be asking for a drink. A thumb size muffin will soak up a pound of butter and ask for more. They put the smile on the face of the Land-O-Lakes lady. They’re good but it’s going to take another year for my body to re-hydrate.

Yesterday was just weird. I can’t go in to details here but I had the darkest day of my career at work. In contrast, it was a marvelous day outside, the brightest day of the year so far. Over the river the aerial acrobats were practicing for the big Thunder air show showing off the wings of warfare to a few scattered onlookers. Today hundreds of thousands will gather to watch the spectacular, yesterday though, I had the best seat in the house all to myself. Brown bagging it by the riverside while an F-16 pilot performed death defying stunts just above my head. It was as good as any thrill ride I’ve ever been on and just the ticket to help to temporarily lighten the burdens of the job. Then I got home and the girls and I just had a great family evening. I grilled a steak to perfection, played chauffeur, treated them to Italian ice and tucked them into bed early. Just what the doctor ordered.

A relatively quiet week under our belt goes in the plus column toward our goal of achieving normalcy before we jump back into chaos in June. We’re there – almost!

Plagues and Wonders

Mandatory listening for today, Keb Mo’s 'God Trying To Get Your Attention'

Today is Easter Sunday, it hits right in the middle of Passover just as it did thousands of years ago. This is not a religious blog and I’m not going to go all holy on you, but I do believe the spiritual has as much to do with health as doctors and drugs. We are told by the religious scholars to link the morals of these remarkable accounts to our everyday lives and it will make us healthier people. God knows we have put our faith in doctors and prayed they can perform miracles.

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After breaking out the mower for the first time this year what I’m looking for is some divine intervention into the whole landscaping business. I liken the purveyors of the suburban lawn to the Pharaohs. They have enslaved us all to the pursuit of the green. They are shysters and should be dealt with accordingly. In Kentucky they even try to convince us that green is blue. They pit neighbor against neighbor promoting the green with envy syndrome just because the guy next door can achieve carpet-like quality while yours is a dandelion catastrophe. You can eat dandelions and make wine from dandelions, can you do that with your basic turf grass?

We are shamed into uniformity, harassed if our lawn does not meet the standards set forth by the solicitors of lushness. They sell us fertilizers to sweeten the soil and then chemicals to control the bugs and critters that feast on what grows in such fertile earth. The run-off from all this pollutes the environment and causes us to plow more green in to the cleanup.

Who came up with the idea for the lawn? A plague of biblical proportion should be waged on them and their heirs. I know the curb appeal police would come after me but I’m thinking of going completely desert on them. I want to rock my whole lawn like they do in Arizona. Why is it acceptable there and not here? No mowing ever again, ahhh, enjoying Saturdays and Sundays without cranking the bladed noisemaker.

Or, is all this just the ranting of a guy who forgot how tough it is to mow a 60º hill?

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Back to the acts of wonder, I wrote this following the pronouncement of a miracle in NY when Scully turned a jetliner into a seaplane. Are we sure it was a goose that caused this? Hmmm, I wonder. It's a tent revival number so raise your hands and clap along!

A Miracle To See
By Bob Masterson © Old Paint Music 2009

We were taking off right over the city
We were flying off to a distant land, land, land
We were climbing up right over the city
But that bird, that bird had other plans

We’re gonna to skip this thing right off of the river
We’re gonna slide this thing right over the sea, sea, sea
We’re gonna land this plane on the Hudson River
Walk across the water for all the world to see

Was that the dove of peace sucked into our engines?
Was the dove of peace sacrificed for me, me, me?
Did the dove of peace bring me to the water,
Whoa-oh-oh, a miracle to see?

We’re gonna to skip this thing right off of the river
We’re gonna slide this thing right over the sea, sea, sea
We’re gonna land this plane on the Hudson River
Walk across the water, a miracle to see!

Can there be a higher purpose?
Or have we only skimmed across the sea, sea, sea?
We have only skimmed the surface
Whoa-oh-oh, of possibility

We’re gonna to skip this thing right off of the river
We’re gonna slide this thing right over the sea, sea, sea
We’re gonna land this plane on the Hudson River
Walk across the water, a miracle to see!

We were taking off right over the city
We were flying off to a distant land, land, land
We were climbing up right over the city
But the Lord, the Lord had other plans!

We’re gonna to skip this thing right off of the river
We’re gonna slide this thing right over the sea, sea, sea
We’re gonna land this plane on the Hudson River
Walk across the water, a miracle to see!
Walk across the water, it’s a miracle to see!
Walk across the water, it’s a miracle to see!


Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

Backtracking

I’ve been feeling very nostalgic lately. Trips back home will do that to you. But I’m also nostalgic for times when everyone I know isn’t dealing with doctors and procedures and surgeries. The news wears on you like a thirteen hour car drive. Construction and potholes and detours and speed traps and tolls, and tolls, and tolls all take their toll. It’s good to be back home. For all of you out there who are still on that long trip, here’s to a speedy recovery and smooth sailing.

Most everyone in Louisville heads to Florida for Spring Break. We go to NJ. It is really good to see the family, some old friends and go by some old haunts. Some of the places are gone of course. Progress has taken a bite out of our wonder years, rudely emphasizing that you can’t go back. Meeting with retired buddies will also squash that youthful feeling. I have friends my age that are retired, the President is younger than I am! When the hell did I get old? And why do I need extra strength ibuprofen to help me straighten up after a day long car trip?

Renee came through with flying colors. She didn’t ask to stop once. What a difference a year makes! We made record time both ways. Breakfast, refueling and a couple of normal bathroom breaks barely slowed us. And Renee even drove a chunk on the way home. We ate too much but isn’t overindulgence part of Spring Break? Now it’s double time on the Wii Fit for everyone!

We covered a lot of ground. We squeezed in day trips to both Manhattan and to the boardwalk in Seaside. We hit the Garden State Parkway at rush hour. I used to do 140 miles of that every day. I don’t know how. I think we got our fill of Jersey food and Jersey driving, at least enough to hold us off until the next trip.

Today we returned to the routine. After 4 months, Renee has returned to her five day a week work schedule. We’re going to try to act like a normal healthy family from now until June when the next trip north disrupts the welcome tedium.

While we were in Jersey, Renee’s grandmother also came back home. Other Nana was released after her rehab stint at the nursing home. She’ll never really go back home as her house sold last week and she’s living with Renee’s parents. We spent a good part of our visit sifting through a collection of items that took 92 years to assemble. Thirty days is all there is to disassemble it before the closing.

We rustled through stacks of dusty old dishes and trinkets much the same way Other is processing her thoughts. She travels seamlessly from present to past, sometimes lucid sometimes forgetful. She wrestles with her mind, banging at her temples, trying to will her brain to remember what she knows she should not have forgotten and sometimes remembering things that never happened. But she is much stronger than the reports we received. How many times have you seen a 92 year old doing a stairmaster? It’s a recumbent version but still I was impressed.

So Other, this one’s for you. {Notes: Raggedy Ann was introduced to the world circa 1917, the same year Other was born. It was also the year the US entered World War I, aka the Great War. The precursor to the Roosevelt dime, the Liberty was more commonly known as the Mercury dime. Other Nana and her husband Nat owned a grocery on Mulberry Street in Newark, NJ. It is now a parking lot.}

Raggedy Annie
By Bob Masterson © Old Paint Music 2009

You ran that old deli down on Mulberry Street
Cold cuts sliced thin, boiled eggs, pickled beets
Your fingers were raw, your prices were fair
But your bones have grown brittle, the load too much to bear

You gave a hundred percent, kept everything square
Now when you give it your all, change is all you can spare
Old copper pennies and Mercury dimes
Raggedy Annie give me a piece of your mind

Give me old copper pennies and Mercury dimes
A few scattered mem’ries of simpler times
Rag dolls and hopscotch and pearls of wisdom we find
When Raggedy Annie
Gives us a piece of her mind

You’re looking back, a child skipping in time
Chalk on a sidewalk, don’t step on a line
You raised up a family with an iron fist
Now they’re raising you, it’s a hell of a twist

Give me old copper pennies and Mercury dimes
A few scattered mem’ries of simpler times
Rag dolls and hopscotch and pearls of wisdom we find
When Raggedy Annie
Gives us a piece of her mind

Is there anything left in this modern world
For a Great War rugrat, by-gone girl?
Memories flipped like a coin in the hand
Called in the air, where will it land?
Tumbling truths we try’n understand
Heads n tails tales from Raggedy Ann

They tore down the deli for a Park and Ride
You no longer know me but I’m still by your side
A lot of years we’ve seen, a lot of coins that were tossed
Some of the changes don’t seem worth the cost

Give me old copper pennies and Mercury dimes
A few scattered mem’ries of simpler times
Rag dolls and hopscotch and pearls of wisdom we find
When Raggedy Annie
Gives us a piece of her mind

Old copper pennies and Mercury dimes
Raggedy Annie give me a piece of your mind