Sunday Stealing

 Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves.

1. What did you do this year that you had not done before? 
I had my first colonoscopy.

2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions/goals for the year and will you make/set more for next year?  What are they? What are your new ones?
I never make New Year's Resolutions, but for 2024 I have promised that I will write a story, perhaps small book length, about the history of our Pinata Group.

3. Did anyone you know give birth? Or get pregnant?
My BFF became a great grandmother. 

4. Did anyone you know die? Or have a serious illness? 
A few people we knew died, perhaps the closest of all would have been The Psychiatrist, for whom I worked for 30 years.

5. What places did you visit? 
We are still mostly staying home after Covid, but we did spend a short week in Santa Barbara for son Tom's 53rd birthday.

6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year (doesn't have to be a physical thing)?
I'd say more time with the granddaughters, but that's not possible.

7. What date from this year will remain etched in your memory and why?
I turned 80 in February. 

8. What was your biggest achievement this year? 
Probably keeping up correspondence with so many pen pals.

9. Did you get sick or injured? Anyone you know? 
no and no

10. What was the best thing you bought? 
My "yes I am cold" shirt, which helps me sleep at night, and my Zoshirushi cup, which keeps my coffee hot all day.

11. Where did most of your disposable income go (money leftover after you pay for food, transportation and shelter)? 
Probably Kindle books.

12. What song will always remind you of this year? 
Can't think of any.

13. What do you wish you would have done more of?
Probably reading. Or sleeping!

14. What do you wish you would have done less of?
play Block Puzzle Jewel.

15. What was your favorite new TV program? Movie? Album/Songs? Or if you didn't pick up any new ones, what are you still watching/listening to?
With the strikes, I can't think of any new TV programs but Jeopardy is always a favorite...and I love reruns of Monk, NCIS and Criminal Minds.  Only saw one movie in the theater, which was 80 for Brady, which we saw on my 80th birthday.  I recently watched Maestro on Netflix and that was great.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

Happy New Year

8497

Saturday 9 - Old Me

 Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9

questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer the questions, however, and here are today's questions!

Saturday 9: The Old Me (2020)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

We're bidding adieu to the old year with a song 

about looking back. 

Thanks for participating in Saturday 9 during 2023.

1) In this song, the lead singer thanks his younger self for everything he learned from past experience. What's something you learned in 2023?
I do not have colon cancer. 

2) He admits he did some things he wished he hadn't. Did you do anything in 2023 you wish you could take back?
Not that I can think of.

3) This music video consists of old photographs. Do you have many photos lingering on your phone or camera? Or are you prompt about downloading them?
Both.  I download them, but I also keep them on my camera.

4) This week's featured artist is 5 Seconds of Summer, a band from Australia. Have you ever been to the land down under? If not, would you like to go?
I spent 6 weeks in Western Australia in 2003.

5) In 2020, when this song was popular, "murder hornets," aka the giant Asian hornet, were spotted for the first time in the United States. Are you afraid of bugs?
I'm not sure I'd call it "afraid," but I'm not fond of bugs.

6) Enough about 2020! Let's look back on 2023. Did you travel this past year?
Once.  We drove to Santa Barbara for our son's birthday party in July.

7) What was the biggest purchase that you made in 2023?
I bought a mixer for Jeri for Christmas.  I also had special puzzles made for the kids for Christmas gifts.  (They were not cheap!)

8) What was your favorite book of 2023?
"As You Wish," the story of the making of Princess Bride.

9) What are you looking forward to most in 2024?
Seeing the end of #45, hopefully in jail, but if he can't be jailed, at least convicted...and not elected.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8496

recovering

 Walt made the comment that it seems strange with only the two of us here.  And it does.  Ned called earlier and it was nice to hear his voice.

But both Walt and I have continued to nap thru the day.  We've had an NCIS marathon on and I find I doze off and then I'll wake up and notice that Walt has dozed off.  I wonder how much longer it's going to take before we have slept off Christmas!

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8495*

All Alone

 Not only did I sleep all night, but I pretty much napped all day too.  And to my surprise, I was ready for sleep again at 9:30.  Guess all the fun of the many days of Christmas just got to me.  

But now we're alone.  When I wasn't napping, I tried to start answering all the letters that arrived during the Christmas time, some of which I hadn't even read yet.

I actually only got one answered, so have a lot left to do.

We had turkey sandwiches for dinner, watched Jeopardy and Celebrity Jeopardy and Finding Your Roots (I slept through part of that) and then I gave up and went to sleep.

Bubba doesn't know what to do with no Ned and Marta here.  He so desperately needs a lap and he will follow me around with whatever I'm doing and the second I sit down, he's in my lap.  I have to admit that as much as I love having a lap dog, there can be a bit too much lap!

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

Brianna will be 16 in April.
She got her learner's permit today

8494

Christmas is over

 I didn't write an entry for the 27th.  After everybody left, I was so exhausted, I ended up going to sleep at 9:30, waking up for an hour around 1:30, then back to sleep until 5:30...and napped through most of The Today Show.  But I believe I'm finally awake.  

Tom, the girls, and Jeri all spent the night here and Walt, Tom and Lacie took Jeri to the train station at 6:45 so she could head off to the San Francisco airport to get her flight back to Boston.  We came home and Lacie crashed, while Ned fixed the rest of us breakfast.

Tom and the girls were headed off to Santa Barbara while Ned and Marta were headed up to Tahoe to spend a week.  Lots of activity around here getting everybody ready to leave.

This has been such a nice visit with Tom and the girls.  The last couple of times I've been with them it's been so frustrating because the girls seemed to fight all the time, but there was no fighting at all this time...probably because Lacie got a cell phone for Christmas and everybody was doing stuff with their cell phones.  I was sad that Laurel didn't make it up here, but I texted her some photos from their time here.

I was happy that the squirrels were out, so the girls could finally see them live.  I've been writing to them about the squirrels for a long time.

After Tom and the girls left, Ned and Marta were getting ready to leave when I had some difficulties with the new television.  Ned was determined to get it all fixed before he left and worked hard at trying to find a way to get MAX, which I wanted so I could finish watching the episode of Julia that I had been watching before everybody arrived for Christmas.

He finally got it all fixed and they were ready to leave.  He has bought an amazing amount of frozen food at Trader Joe's so I don't have to cook while they are gone.  I was so touched.  They left me with instructions that if I fall, I'm to call 911 and if something goes wrong, their friend Jessica knows they are gone and will be here to help.  I felt so taken care of, but I know I'm going to miss them this week.  I hope they have a great time at Tahoe.  They deserve some time to themselves.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8493

OUR Christmas

We have now had our Christmas.  The morning was spent getting ready for our guests.  I finally got to make the pumpkin pies (more about that later!).

 Tom and the girls arrived around 5.  Laurel's father was not feeling well, so she stayed home to be with him.  Marta had made a great number of hors d'oeuvres and we sat around eating and chatting for awhile.

Lacie had received a cell phone for Christmas and cell phones were a big thing during the evening!

It was time for the pies to come out of the oven and when I checked to make sure they were done and went to lick the knife I was using the test them, I realized I had forgotten to add sugar!!!!!  But the turkey came out fine.

Dinner was delicious and when it was over, we opened gifts, with Lacie being Santa.

Bubba is having a strange feeling about the stuffed Bouncer.  He knows it's a dog, he knows it sounds like Bouncer (there is barking included), but he doesn't seem to understand why it doesn't smell right.  But still it was funny to watch him with the dog all evening.

There is always music at Christmas and Lacie started to play the piano.  Jeri started to accompany her on the flute.

Tom played the guitar and then Lacie announced we should all sing along.  To my amazement, she started playing "The Grassy Noel," a Lawsuit song.  It was just such a strange and wonderful feeling to watch Lacie playing and everybody singing.  How I wished Paul were there.

And of course the evening ended in a predictable way.

Everybody spent the night and Jeri will be leaving on the 6:45 a.m. train to catch her plane home from San Francisco.

It's been such a wonderful Christmas.

P.S.   Marta had leftover cheese cake from the party she and Ned had been to the night before and everybody had cheesecake for dessert; nobody ate pumpkin pie.  I tried one tiny piece with lots of whipped cream and it was terrible.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8492

Christmas day

This was posted on Facebook this morning:

Okay, Facebook, question:

The holidays are rough. Family can be a mixed bag, so tell me: What’s pissing you off? This is a safe space to vent, is set to Friends Only visibility, and we will agree with you and validate that whatever it is truly fucking sucks.

By the end of the day there were nearly 100 responses written by people who were upset by Christmas for various reasons, whether death in the family or family rifts or whatever. This struck me because I don't have a single bad feeling about Christmas this year. I love how we are enjoying each other and even though we won't have our "big Christmas dinner" until tomorrow, when Tom and his family will arrive, we've had a lovely celebration. I didn't even take a lot of pictures because I wanted to just enjoy the day.

I woke up early and turned on the tree and then found the "yule log" on TV and put it on.

Jeri, who had spent the night at a friend's, came around 10 and we opened gifts. One of the most fun gifts was Marta's gift to Ned. She had a dog made to look like Bouncer, their dog who was put to sleep last year. She looks very much like a smaller Bouncer, and she has Bouncer's bark imbedded. But the most fun thing was that when Ned opened it, Bubba, who was in my lap got very intense and kept staring at it and finally jumped down to investigate.

It took him a long time before he finally knocked it over and then ignored it. I was surprised that he seemed to find the stuffed animal familiar. I didn't think dogs relied on their sight that much.

My big surprise was a new very large TV, which Ned got set up. The resolution is amazing and I know I am going to be very happy with it.

Ned made a great breakfast, with cranberry bread that Char's daughter Dana had brought to us yesterday. My plan had been to make pumpkin pies in the afternoon, but Marta needed the kitchen to make food for the party they were attending that night, so I decided I'd just make the pies at night. Jeri and I went for a long drive. We were half heartedly looking for some place where we could have coffee, but really we just wanted to chat and since every coffee place was closed, we just drove out to Winters and then back again We had such a nice talk.

Marta was finishing up when we got back, but it was getting late and the 49er game was on. (look at the huge screen!)

Tom and the girls called at the start of the game and we chatted. Lacie got her first cell phone for Christmas and we've texted each other. It's a good thing I talked with Tom at the start of the game because the 49ers lost terribly (33-19) and he wouldn't have been happy at the end of the game! They will be here tomorrow around 4 p.m.

No time to make pies after the game because it was time for dinner. It was Ned, Jeri and I and I made fondue for dinner, which I haven't made in a long time. It was delicious! For dessert we had chocolate covered macadamias, which a partner on SwapBot sent me yesterday.

Walt was cleaning up the kitchen, but there were so many dishes that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher that there was no counter space at all, so I decided to make the pies in the morning. Instead we watched the Christmas special of Call the Midwife, and then Jeopardy.

Marta and Ned came home from the party they had attended. Marta had received a blanket that you can heat and decided I could use it when sleeping in the recliner (just what I need--something to put me to sleep!)

So Christmas day is over and tomorrow will be Christmas dinner. And I spent a lot of time today feeling so sad for the ~100 people who answered the Facebook comment about being pissed about Christmas.

I'm going to sleep with a smile on my face.

As an aside, I've been trying to watch Christmas movies this month. I've seen Miracle on 34th St. (my favorite), White Christmas, The Bishop's Wife, A Christmas Carol, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, Elf and the start of a couple of others that I really didn't like. I finally decided to watch It's a Wonderful Life and realized--yet again--that I just don't like that popular movie. We were going to watch Die Hard tonight, but watched Call the Midwife instead.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

Walt, Jeri and I sleeping through
The Wizard of Oz.

8490  

Christmas Eve

 What a lovely Christmas Eve we had.  Ned and Marta had been at a party the night before, and slept late.  Jeri had flown in from Boston and was also at the party.  She spent the night with a friend who has a guest bedroom...and slept, she says, until 11.  

She came over here in the early afternoon and together we finished the last puzzle of the Advent Calendar puzzle.

We had a nice afternoon, just visiting and getting caught up on our lives.  I love it when she comes to town because we get to have in depth chats.  Around 3, Char's daughter Dana arrived with her daughter-in-law and grandson, Jameson, to drop off a package from Char.

At 6 we drove over to Marta's family's house.  

The Wilsons have a bean taco dinner every Christmas Eve, and we usually join them for the dinner,

After dinner, Louise let her dogs in, 2 Corgis and her baby Chow, Bear, who is 3 months old and a little doll.

After we left the Wilsons' we drove out to the home of my former boss at the Davis Enterprise, Derrick Bang, whose house is usually voted best decorated in Davis every year.  This year, his next door neighbors decided to comment on Derrick's decorations.

We drove home again, with Christmas carols playing on the radio.  Bubba was very happy to see us back home again.  Jeri got on the bike she is using while here and rode back to her friend's house to spend the night.  I watched the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol while taking the Advent Calendar puzzle apart so we can take the puzzle table down to make space for Christmas celebrations

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

Ned and Jeri with Derrick Bang

8489 

Sunday Stealing

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves.

1. Who did you spend time with this year?
Didn't go out much, so just Walt, Ned and Marta...and the dog.

2. Anything change with the pets in your life?
No.  We've had Bubba for about 2 years now.

3. What was your job like this year? What do you do? Did any roles or assignments change? If you aren’t employed, base this question on your work at home or volunteering.
I guess my "work" these days is answering letters and doing SwapBot swaps.  I love putting journals together.

4. What was the best book you read this year?  How many did you read?
I didn't read as many books this year as I have in past years.  I only read 12 and of those 12, my favorite was "As You Wish," which was the telling of how they made The Princess Bride.

5. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you? Did you feel differently? 
I turned 80 this year and while 70 never made me feel old, suddenly I'm finding that I think of "80" as old all the time and wonder if I'm in my last decade.  On the day, Ned told me to check the internet and I found this wonderful "padlet,"  a collection of messages from people, some with photos, some without, all wishing me a happy birthday, but what a collection.  There are some 200 entries on it, some of which Ned wrote with appropriate photos, but he and Jeri and I don't know who else contacted every person they could think of  that I knew and asked them to pass on the information to others and this is just absolutely amazing.  (the most amazing was from a guy who used to sell tickets for the Lamplighters, whom I have not seen or heard from in 40 years!)

6. What political or social issue stirred you the most? 
Lord.  How much space do I have.  Mostly, I guess, all of Trump's crimes, but also the overturning of Roe v. Wade and how much trouble it is causing.

7. Who was the most interesting new person you met?
I can't think of any new people I met this year.

8. What changed in your home? 
I can't think of anything that changed in our home.

9. What have you learned throughout the year? (Other than crafts)  Can be a new skill or a life lesson.
I have been putting off having a colonoscopy because I was convinced I have colon cancer...and how lovely to discover I don't.

10. What was your favourite outfit for warm weather? Cooler weather?  what do you wear when you dress up? Any new clothes or accessories you really love?
My normal dress, winter or summer is pretty much the same, black pants and a t-shirt, adding a sweatshirt in the winter.  I wear Birkenstocks and when I "dress up" I bought a new pair of shoes that actually fit.

11. Did you make or give up on any efforts to be healthier? Diet, water, exercise etc?
Ned is taking good care of my legs and their tendency to blister.

12. Fave meals, snacks, desserts, restaurants etc? Eat out or eat in?
Well, my preference would be to eat out, but we almost always eat in.  My favorite food over all would be Chinese (which we either eat out or order in).  Almost never have dessert, though ice cream is nice now and then (and my favorite dessert would be creme brulee or cheesecake).  Given that my favorite food is Chinese, I guess my favorite local restaurant is Ding How, where we ate a couple of days ago.  My favorite restaurant over all, though, would be the Dead Fish, which is about an hour away.  You can get great crab there.

13. Did you learn any new crafts or techniques? What was your favourite thing you made? 
I'm always checking YouTube for new ideas of how to make pages for the journals I make for Swap Bot.  I made several and each of them is my favorite!

14. What are your hopes and dreams for the new year?  (Some suggestions-family, travel, work, lifestyle, hobbies, pets, appearance)
My main hope/dream for the new year is seeing the end of the former president.  Preferably with several judgements against him.

15. What was the best new/new-to-you thing you a) bought b) made c) acquired in some other way?
Definitely the Zojirushi cup that someone on SwapBot sent me.  I loved it so much I bought a second one, one to keep my coffee hot all day and one to keep my water ice cold all day.  And they do!

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

They're too old for Santa pictures now.

8488 

Saturday 9

 

Happy Holidays!

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

From the archives

1. As you can see, when Sam Winters was a little girl, she loved giving her annual wish list to Santa. If you could ask Santa for anything at all, right now, what would it be?
A Christmas visit with David and Paul (our two sons who are dead)

2. Are you currently on the Naughty or Nice list? How did you get there?
I'm on the nice list.  I don't do anything that would allow me to be naughty.

3. Are you traveling this Christmas? If so, are you going by car, plane or train?
No.  Everybody is coming here instead.

4. Did you ship any gifts to friends and family this year? If yes, which one traveled the farthest?
I sent a gift to our son-in-law in Boston (our daughter will be here).

5. Did you buy yourself a gift this year?
Well, I didn't consider it a gift, but I bought a holder for my cell phone.

6. Which do you prefer: candy canes or gingerbread?
Not a big fan of either, but I definitely don't like candy canes.

7. Close your eyes and tell us the first carol that comes to mind.
"Silent Night."

8. What's your favorite winter beverage?
I don't generally have any special winter beverage other than coffee, which I have all the time, but I do like egg nog, which we drink while decorating the tree.

9. Share a memory from last Christmas.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8487  

Speculaas

Many many years ago when Walt's mother was traveling to Europe, I asked her to get me Speculaas "planks."  Speculaas are molded Dutch cookies and I was into making cookies at the time.

Every Christmas, I made dozens of kinds of cookies and I wanted to add Speculaas to them.  She brought back two Speculaas planks.  I don't think I ever used them.  But they have made nice decorations on the wall of the kitchen.  We have lived in this house for more than 50 years, and they have never been off the wall.

After Ned asked me about them, I decided I wanted to make some, just to say I've used them.

So I found the recipe on line and I made the cookie dough.  They are OK, but I'll never make them again.  To cook them, you fill the planks with flour (instead of greasing them) and  then press the dough into the planks.  The recipe says to cook for 10 minutes, but I found that they weren't cooked under 20 minutes.  And since I only have two of the planks, I can only make 10 at a time.  I made 30 of them, but then just used the rest of the dough to make small round cookies.

They taste good -- a spice cookie -- but not good enough to spend the entire day making the full recipe of molded cookies.

When they were all finished, I had a nice bowl of cookies, and realized that probably I would be the only person who would eat more than one or two cookies a day, so I told Ned he could take the rest of the cookies to his party tonight.

And the Speculaas planks will continue to be a decoration on the kitchen wall.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8487  

Good bye, Pat

Our friend, Pat Hayes, mother of Joe, who was in Lawsuit, died in 2019.  We attended her memorial at that time.  I can't remember where they were living at the time, but maybe an hour from here.

Her husband, Mike, has decided to have her ashes buried here in Davis, where they lived for so long.  He invited a few friends to come for a ceremony, which was so wonderfully loving.  There were her siblings, friends she has known all her life, friends from their years living in Davis, friends from their years living where  they were living when she died.  There was music and wonderful memories.

It was one of those ceremonies that make you realize what a very special person she was, her entire life.

Husband, Mike, gave a lovely speech about Pat and then her ashes were placed the place where she will remain.

After the ceremony, we were all invited to have lunch at a Chinese  restaurant in Davis.  We took up an entire room and it was nice to see people I hadn't seen in a long time, like Paul's best friend Kag and his wife.

There were more comments and memories of Pat that were given at the lunch, and Marta sang a song from Oklahoma!

Lots of hugs at the end of the afternoon.  It was such a warm, wonderful event and made me so happy to remember the days when Mike and Pat lived in Davis and our kids were in Lawsuit.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8486  

Letter writing

I'm reading a book of letters by Jane Goodall. What a fascinating life she has led...and I’m only to her early clerical working years so far.  The guy who put this book together has collected something like 18,000 of her letters from friends and organizations.  The first chapter, starting at about age 10, is interesting for the bad spelling and grammar. Where I am now, she is doing secretarial work, but all of her letters have something to do with animals and birds and her interest in them.

It is interesting that the guy who put the book together writes in the introduction:

“Letter writing today is a dead art.  Easier to pick up the phone and visit by electromagnetically transmuted sound.  Cheaper to log on and visit by electronically stimulated phosphorescence.  Paper-based correspondence today sometimes seems an almost Victorian habit, bordered by lace and dust, and one can easily imagine that very soon we will see no more collections of consequential letters by famous people, since famous people no longer write consequential letters."

This  guy would be surprised to see how many pen pals I have!

* * * *

We are getting close to the end of the Advent Calendar puzzle.  This has been fun to do because the daily puzzles are so small, but on the other hand, there is nothing to work on once the day's puzzle is completed.  It will be nice to start another big puzzle after Christmas.

But Jeri (who gave us this puzzle) will be here to work the very last one, on the 24th

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

Almost finished.  Just five days to go

8485 

Families

 I said that one of the things I've done in my life that makes me the most proud was the publication of the Lamplighter histories.  

But the other thing of which I am most proud is raising our kids to be responsible adults and especially even in their 50s, to be friends not only with Walt and me, but also with each other.

In writing about family traditions on Facebook recently, I posted a picture of one of our "train pictures" and someone responded "We have 5 all grown up, used to take pictures Christmas morning!! We still come together at Christmas and have a family portrait made!!"  Someone answered, "You have 5 too! Mine are scattered. Miss them ..." and I wrote  "Two of mine have died. Two are scattered and one lives with me (with his wife)/"  Her response was "I'm sorry. 2 of mine are estranged. 2 oldest . He's 63 and she's 62. Haven't spoken in 15 years. Betrayal of family estate."

Being on several Facebook groups and having lots of pen pals, it is so tragic to me how many parents are estranged from their kids.

I love that Jeri tries to fly out here from Boston whenever there is anything significant that happens with the family and while we rarely hear from Tom (who lives 400 miles away), he's always here for Christmas with his family and we are always with him on his birthday (and I've started watching 49er games because he is such a 49er fan).  And, of course, I don't know how we could exist without Ned in our lives these days.

I love what good friends the kids are to each other and I simply can't imagine how we could be estranged.  I love them too much...and they love us too.  

It always makes me sad when I hear that parents disown kids when they confess to being gay.  The kid that you loved yesterday you refuse to speak to today. How can that happen?  My sister was gay and though my parents didn't disown her, she didn't speak to them for several years because of it.

I hate that disagreements between kids and parents can be so severe that kids refuse to talk to their parents any more.

Maybe we've just been very lucky, but I love my children and can't ever imagine having nothing between us any more.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8484 

Memowrite

Memowrite is a cool web site where you can sign up to have them send you questions every so often, you answer them and at the end of the year, they give you a hard bound book (with photos) telling your story.  Storyworth is another company that does this -- Charlotte did it and I have a copy of her book, which I love (Walt is reading it now).

I have thought about doing it, but really, this journal is my autobiography.  No, it's not in hardback form, but this is the 8,483rd entry I have written and surely most of my life has been covered in those entries.  I looked at the sample questions that Memowrite put on its web site and decided I could answer some of them.

One is what is the pivotal moment that changed your life.

There have been several pivotal moments I can think of like deciding not to enter the convent, choosing to leave UC Berkeley and go to work in the Physics Department, getting married, having children, etc.  But when I think back over my life, I think the biggest pivotal moment that changed my life significantly was when I answered a note in the Lamplighters (theater company) newsletter, asking if anyone was interested in helping to write a book about the company's 25 year history.

Walt and I had been fans of the Lamplighters, a Gilbert & Sullivan company, for many years, had ushered for many of its shows, and the idea of learning more about the actors we had seen all those years was just great.

Three of us worked on the book for a year.  There were a lot of interviews, but I didn't do most of  them; instead I typed them all, since I lived so far away.  But I did interview a couple of people.  One was Robert Wood, the lead actor at the time.  His partner, Phil Dethlefsen, became my good friend for many years.  

When the book was published, I was asked if I would be interested in helping to put all of the company's mailing list onto the company's newly purchased computer...my first experience with a computer.  I learned the computer and in working on it, became friends with the musical director, Gilbert Russak, who, over the next several years became my best friend.  I volunteered at the office once or twice week.  Gilbert and I started a company newsletter, which is still going.  We wrote several fund-raising shows together.  

I made many friends working with the company, who today are still some of our good friends.  Walt joined the tech company so he became a part of it too.

When Gilbert died suddenly in 1986, ten years after our first book was published, I wanted there to be a record of all the things he had done in the past ten years, many of which were new and exciting, since the book was published.  Alison Lewis, who started the first history project, convinced the Lamplighters board of directors to let me do the second book.  I wrote most of it, and she helped.  I never thought I would ever have a book published (I can look myself up in the Library of Congress), but this answers another Memowrite question: "what have you done that makes you the most proud."  

We don't see all the Lamplighters shows any more, and many of the good friends I made while working on the first book have died.  But as I look back over my adult life, I can see that so much of what I am, what I do, and what I remember involves the Lamplighters, and especially volunteering to help with the first book.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHOTO OF THE DAY

8483