The Olympics

I have thoughts about the Olympics...that maybe aren't "normal" thoughts.

First, I'm noticing a lot of tattoos this year.  I don't ever remember being overwhelmed by the number of tattoos...and many seem to be full body, or at least full arm or leg tattoos.

It didn't hit me that none of the men have hair on their chest until I saw one man on a volleyball team who did have hair on his chest.  Looked strange.

It's amazing how many of the athletes have physical problems.  Whether severe burns that put him in the hospital for months, or kidney disease that made her body swell up to twice its size, Simone's mental health that kept her out of the sports for a long while.  It seems like most of the athletes are bandaged somewhere.  Being a professional athlete ain't easy!

I'm getting to see events that I've never thought of before...like climbing up a wall (two types...one how fast you can climb a wall and another, "sport climbing" where you climb up weird structures).  I haven't seen break dancing, but I've heard this is a new sport competing this year.

Skateboarding is fun, but so different from the first years that it was included.  It will be interesting to see skateboarding in the Para-olympics, where instead of using skateboards, the athletes will be in wheelchairs.  I loved that the oldest skateboarder this year is 51.

Also, I enjoyed watching the equestrian jumping.  The guy who has won the gold for twenty years was riding the horse he has ridden for the past 14 years and got tossed!

I loved seeing the guy who won the gold in pole vaulting...they showed home movies of him pole vaulting from the time he was 5 years old.  His father built bigger and bigger poles as he got older.  It truly was truth when he said he had dreamed of winning the gold his whole life!

All of the teeth of one of the runners are gold...it's nice he won the gold; they match.

I'm noticing that in some sports, particularly diving, the coaches are videotaping the dives and then showing them to the diver so they can see what they did wrong...we didn't do that in the days when our kids were diving!

I watched the artistic swimming today and realized that it's nothing like the kinds of things we used to see in the movies.  The various athletic jumps included aren't nearly as "pretty" as the old fashioned artistic swimming groups.

I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying this year's Olympics.  I've probably seen more sports in the last week than I have in the last 10 years.

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No lunch

 Thanks to Anita, I learned how to find comments that have been left on this blog and I was able to approve them, so they should all be visible now.  Thanks, Anita!!!

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Today was supposed to be lunch with my friend.  She canceled lunch 3 weeks ago and set it for today, and then she canceled today because of some problems she's having.  She did not reschedule, and I don't expect to hear from her in the near future.  I'm surprised at how depressed I was.  I almost never have social engagements and rarely with another woman so I was looking forward to our conversation, especially about Kamala Harris.

So since I had no lunch to go to, instead I went to Kaiser to get my glasses corrected.  They are wearing a big wound on my nose.  I've started holding them away from my face, but I knew I needed to see someone about them.

There is no way they can "fix" the glasses I had, so we went with a new frame.  Instead of a dark frame, like the ones I just got, I'll be back to wire rimmed glasses, but at least they will be comfortable.  For now I'm wearing my old glasses and keeping them off whenever possible to let the wound on my nose heal.

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These will be my new new glasses

Berklee students

 Jeri teaches a group of high school students at Berklee in the summertime.  At  the end of their program, they put on a show.  Jeri works with the orchestra, others work with the singers.

It started later than she expected, but we were able to stream the concert.  Sadly, it started just as Ned put dinner on the table, and I sat there with my phone on a stand watching the concert while the others were eating, chatting and watching Family Feud.  The concert ended just as dinner ended.

They did bits from various musicals, starting with Wicked, which I loved.

It wasn't until later that I realized Jeri was conducting the orchestra.  Last year, one of her students conducted, so I didn't even look for her until I saw her by accident.

The best picture I got of her conducting was during the final number.

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Sunday Stealing

                           

I am curious....is it possible to write a note on my entries?  I'm wondering if people can't post a note. If you can't, please write to me at basykes@gmail.com so at least I know why I have not had any comments at all for weeks.

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.

Stolen from League of Extraordinary Pen Pals

1. How would your pet describe you
She has a soft lap and she sometimes feeds me.  She always feeds  the squirrels and I try to chase them.

2.. Tell us a story...
Little Miss Muffet,
She sat on a tuffet,
There came a great spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

3.. What do you pack in your beach / hiking bag
Well, I don't go to the beach or go hiking, but if I did, I'd have a snack, something soft to sit on, and a book (mostly for the beach)

4.. How do you like to spend great weather week 
In  the house with the air conditioner going!

5.. Describe a time when the circumstances fell in your favor|
I answered an ad asking for someone to help put together the history of a theater company for its 25th anniversary.  That changed my life.  I helped write the book, stayed on working with the company, made some of my best friends, wrote a second book, etc.

6.. Which summer sounds do you enjoy
I can't think of any sounds I hear from inside the house.

7.. It’s not really summer until ...
The temps get up into the 90s.  And the strawberry patch opens.

8.. What music are you listening to these days
Not really anything.

9.. How much has changed since last summer
I'm using my walker more.

10. What are your favorite things to wear in summer
lightweight pants, t-shirts, and Birkenstocks

11. What do you miss about winter
The cold weather and the rain.

12. How would you spend summer vacation as an adult
Well, I AM an adult and these days we don't really do summer vacations other than going to Santa Barbara over 4th of July week to celebrate our son's birthday.

13. Describe your ideal get together/party
Sitting around having drinks and hors d'oeuvres and then a group dinner. I'm going to a party today and I'll see how that goes!

14. What makes you feel like part of your community
I don't do that much these days, but I have written so many different columns and reviews for the newspaper that it's nice that people recognize my name when they hear it.

15. How was your July 2024?
Quiet, other than our trip to Santa Barbara.

  

Saturday 9

 

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: Ghostbusters (1984)

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

This month we're going to recall Summer Songs. These will all be records that topped the charts during August.

1) Number 1 on the charts in August 40 years ago, "Ghostbusters" was written quickly. The Ghostbusters producers originally approached Lindsay Buckingham to write the movie theme. Buckingham took a long time to say no, and the film's production date could not be changed. That left Ray Parker Jr. only a few days to come up with a song. Do you work well with a tight deadline?
I usually do better with a tight deadline than if someone gives me months to complete a project.

2) Parker recalls he got his inspiration from a late night TV commercial that kept encouraging viewers to call, call, call. What's the most recent business that you phoned, and why were you calling?
I called the Kaiser pharmacy to see about getting a refill prescription.

3) The music video (linked above) was directed by Ivan Reitman, who also directed the movie. It features a variety of celebs saying "Ghostbusters!" None of them were paid for this, they all did it as a favor to Reitman. Have you more recently done or received a favor?

A pen pal liked my new Kamala Harris return address label and I made one for her.  I also received a wonderful cookie jar from another pen pal.

4) In 2009, Ray Parker Jr. made the Ghostbusters theme available as a ring tone. What's your phone's ring tone?
No special ring tone.  It just sounds like our regular phone.

5) This song is so enduringly popular that a 2020 documentary about Parker is titled, "Who You Gonna Call?" If you were to write a memoir or authorize a documentary about your life, what would you call it?

"Funny the World," of course.

6) Early in his career, Ray was in demand as a session musician. He played guitar on the records of some of the 70s most successful female singers, including Tina Turner, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and Diana Ross. Of those ladies, which is your favorite?

None, really, but probably Diana Ross

Let's look at the summer of 1984.

7) Released in June, the original Ghostbusters was a huge hit throughout the summer. Have you seen it? Did you see the sequel that was released this past spring?
I saw the original, but not the sequel (which my son tells me is terrible)

8) Beverly Burns became the first female captain of a Boeing 747. She was a pilot for People Express Airways, an airline which later merged with Continental, and Continental then merged with United. Do you recall which airline you flew when you took your first flight?
No clue.  That was the year Disneyland opened.

9) Ronald Reagan joked about bombing Russia during a mic check for a radio interview. He was embarrassed when the comment was leaked and broadcast around the world. Have you recently felt embarrassed?
Not really

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This was a zoom call the family
made when Laurel got her law degree

Gold for Simone

 The gymnasts' competition started at 9 a.m. here and I was able to sit and watch the whole  thing.  The Olympics certainly have given me permission to do nothing but watch TV.  Things even got a little suspenseful with the Brasilian gymnast doing so w ell.  It was obvious Simone was going to get either gold or silver, but she performed her floor exercise flawlessly and the Brasilian took silver.  Suni Lee took the bronze, so it was 2 for the USA.

I don't gleefully count how many medals the US gets...somethings I think they get too many and I root for countries like Brasil or Australia, where I also have emotional feelings.  

With my being in front of the TV all day, Ned has taken advantage to having my legs elevated for a long time.  The medication it took me so long to get from Kaiser controls swelling in my feet and legs and now I have it again, so with the medication and elevating my legs, the swelling should begin to disappear, we hope.

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Babies

I've been looking at a lot of videos of babies these days.  I love babies.  When we had five children, I imagined myself interacting with lots of grandchildren, but then Paul and David died, Ned & Marta didn't want to have children and Jeri was in her 40s before she married, so my only grandchildren are Brianna and Lacie, who are now 16 and almost 13.

My sadness is that I have no fond memories of interaction with the girls, especially when they were babies.  The first time I held Brianna, my first granddaughter, she fell asleep and Tom took her out of my arms because he said she had to stay awake for another hour.  She never liked to be in my arms as a baby.  Laurel's favorite picture of me and Brianna is from Christmas, when she has just handed her to me and she is crying.  I hate that picture. This is how she always was with me. She loved being in my sister-in-law's arms, but as soon as she was in my arms, she would cry.  

I tried to spend a weekend a month in Santa Barbara after Bri was born so she would get to know me (her other grandmother was her occasional babysitter), but the first time I went down, I was very careful to do what Tom asked me to do, which is not get there before 2 p.m.  I got there at exactly 2 p.m. and the babysitter had taken her out because nobody told her I was coming.  Tom said I could see her the next  time I came down.

I don't really remember much about Lacie as a baby, but neither she nor Bri wanted to be around me.  When Laurel took a family picture of us, Bri always made sure she sat on the side of Walt that was farthest away from me.  When I took Lacie into my lap to read to her, she always got down and went to do something else.  My lap was too fat, I guess.

Whenever we came to the door, Bri would immediately turn and go into her room rather than greet me.

Being shy, I can never think of anything to talk with the girls about.  I have been writing to them regularly, letters and post cards, just to help them think of me as part of the family.  They rarely answer, but that's OK.  They are "grown up" now and I don't need the kind of relationship I hoped to have with them when they were babies.

But how I miss babies.  

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