DID YOU EVER NOTICE?

When your parents told you that “I’m telling you for the last time…”,

it rarely was…

Back in the spanking days they always told you that ”This will hurt me more than it will you”,

but it never did…

But if they told you “You’ll always be my little boy (or girl)”,

you pretty much were…

(It’s been 4 years today…still miss you Mom)

IN THE ARENA

by Charlton Heston (a great actor, even though he turned into a right-winger):

‘Still, both that (Sioux Indian blood-brother rites) and the Montagnard initiation were easier than swallowing that sheep’s eye at the Berber feast in the Sahara.’

Which is something my Dad once did when in Saudia Arabia for Mobil Oil in the 1960s. He said it was considered a great delicacy and when offered, it would have been an insult to not eat it. So he popped it in and swallowed it whole like a raw oyster. He said he was glad he only had to do it once!

RIP: EUGENE POLLEY

At the ripe old age of 96. But who is Eugene Polley, you may ask? Thanks for asking; he was the man who invented the TV remote. One of the greatest inventions since sliced bread! I remember as a kid my Dad would always jump up while we were watching a show and crouch by the TV so he could change channels during the commercial in order to see how the football game was going (or baseball, or golf). Click, click, click...click, click, click...Dad, c'mon...we need to see Lassie save Timmy from the well, Dad, c'mon...click, click, click...

And the model above is the original model changer, kinda like a ray gun - how cool is that?

RIP: MOM

Well, I've been putting this one off; put she passed away a week ago last Monday (5th). I was pretty much born an orphan, and unto orphanhood have I returned.

I'm glad she went quickly and easily, and in the hospital; not a slow lingering slide into extreme Alzheimer's like Dad.

But I do wish she'd been able to stick around until we got there in June to visit. Or conversly, that she (or they) had moved to Florida when they were still able to travel.

But, not meant to be...

Love you Mom, and I know you knew that.

VETERAN'S DAY

To all the veterans from ALL the countries, many thanks for helping keep us free. And especially to my Dad & his brother, who were in the RCAF during WWII.
My cousin Guy purchased the stones in memoriam to the two of them and went to the dedication ceremony at the National Air Force Museum Of Canada.

SOME THOUGHTS ON FLYING

In airplanes, that is. Took a trip to Greensboro, NC on business earlier this week; flights up were good(thanks Delta); flights back were hell(thanks U.S.Air). But this flying brought some thoughts to mind.


Starting out with the trip to the airport, from driveway to parking space was exactly 53.6 miles. Oddly enough, I pulled intop said parking space at exactly 5:36. Weird, huh?

So now they load planes by something called 'zones' (a great Hawkwind album by the way) which apparently are just random groups of people seated in random seats all through the plane, which backs up the line into the entry tunnel. Makes no sense, compared to the old way of loading the plane from the back to the front, which caused less trouble since people had a smaller chance of being in each others way, and I'd bet was faster.

So then they give you pre-flight instructions on seatbelts, as if it was a 21st century invention!

Now, I can remember riding in cars as a kid where there were no seatbelts in the back, so back in the day, seatbelt instructions were probably helpful. But I should think in this day and age that anybody who can afford to fly probably at least knows what seatbelts are and how to use them.

Which reminds me of another old tradition (like getting actual food on the plane) that seems to have fallen by the wayside. I remember when flying as a kid, whenever the pilot would land the plane smoothly, the passengers would clap. Yeah, really. Of course, judging by my last trip, out of 4 landings, there was only one I would have clapped for, and one was downright crappy!



Though as my Dad used to say, "Any landing you walk away from is a good landing", and since hew was in the R.C.A.F. (though not a pilot)during WWII, I guess he'd know.



As for me, you couldn't pay me enough to fly U.S. Airways, no matter how patriotic-sounding their name is...

RIP: EDDY ARNOLD

The famous Country/Pop singer 10 days before his 90^th birthday. Now, he rates mention not bcause I'm a fan of his, but because my Dad was. In the mid-60s he had a hit song called "Make the World Go Away" which my Dad used to sing (not very well) at random moments in time. And he never seemed to know anything past the first line or two… "Make the world go away, take it off from my shoulders" as close as I can remember it. But he seemed to enjoy it. Now, the funny story connected to Eddy Arnold is this:

My Dad came back from one of his many business trips, and when my Mom was going through his suit prior to getting it cleaned, she found a napkin from some hotel bar. On the napkin was written "What are you doing in my life?" in Dad's handwriting. So my Mom asked him about the napkin, wondering who why it had that phrase written on it. Well, it turns out he'd been out with a few of the business associates wherever it was he happened to be (he traveled all over the world) and he heard a song playing, which he liked, and wrote down what he could remember of the title. The actual title was "What's He Doing In My World" by Eddy Arnold, and of course he added it to his repertoire of half sung songs, of course with the words the way he originally wrote them down!

 So, Eddy, now that you're gone, and in heaven with Dad, please teach him the right words to your songs…

--
tim 8>)...
http://heathcliff13.blogspot.com

A WINTER'S TALE

Talking to my Mom on the phone the other day; it had snowed out in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island (which doesn't happen a lot, it's the warmest spot in Canada) and hadn't warmed up enough for it to melt yet. So Mom says to me: "Remember the year we put the snow chains on the car?" Well, I do, now that she reminded me. (place squiggly flashback lines here)
My Dad used to work in NYC, and commute in from Wilton every day. No longer being able to drive due to his poor vision, my Mom used to drive him to the train station and bring him home. This one day in early winter, hadn't really snowed yet, we had a sudden snowstorm, not a real lot of snow, but enough to use snow chains on the tires. Remember snow chains? Well, in the days before snow tires, you had regular tires on the car, and when it was winter, you wrapped the tires with these chain thingies that would grip the snow. So, it snowed that day, and Mom realized there were no chains on the tires, and being that Wilton was quite hilly, you couldn't drive around without them. So, enlisting my help, and finding the how-to info in an encyclopedia, my Mom and I put the chains on the tires. Off she went to get Dad at the station.
Well, we must have done a good job, the chains didn't fall off until she was home again, when 2 of them fell off halfway up the driveway!

PARTY ON!!

Hahahaha...found this photo the other day, from 1973, I'm pretty sure; me, my Mom, & Dad at a place called Your Father's Mustache in Greenwich Village NYC. From hat I remember, you sat at a long table with other people, and drank pitchers of beer. And occasionally the waiters climbed up on the table and sang drinking songs. There may have been some sort of music, but I really don't remember. As you can probably tell from the photo, I was certainly feeling no pain (I may even still have the styrofoam straw hat), and even Mom & Dad (wearing MY hat) were having a good time. This is back when I was living in the Norwalk CT YMCA (nowhere near as fun as the Village People would have you think, and Mom & Dad had come over from England on a business trip and a visit. This was probably the only time I actually got drunk with my parents, it was quite a memorable occasion...

SNIGGLEFRITZ

Say what?Well, when I was young, that's what my Dad woulf
call me every so often. And I actually hadn't remembered that
until this morning when I was reading my All About Beer magazine.
(Great beer magazine - check them out at www.allaboutbeer.com )

But anyway, there was an article about songs and beer, and the author
mentioned a German children's ditty-turned drinking song called the
Schnitzelbank Song that had some sort of rhyming pairs of words. Well,
one of the rhyming words was Schnickel Fritz (or Schnickelfritz)
which apparently is a slang-ish term for 'mischievous child'

And I'm sure Dad picked it up from 'Uncle' Helmut who was a business
associate in Germany who helped with my adoption (and for some reason
I remember visiting his house and playing with his son Wolfgang in their
empty built in swimming pool!)

Go figure the items our brains retain and dredge up at the strangest times...

THIS DAY IN HISTORY & MORE

On this date in 1871, British Columbia joined the Confederation
of Canada.
Which of course brings us to the fact that
my Mom & Dad live there; well, just my Mom since
Dad died last year. Though he did have his ashes scattered
in the ocean, so in a way he's still there. So after moving around
a number of times, they finally settled in Nanaimo, on the Island.

And here's
the Nanaimo
skyline. Mom & Dad
used to live in that
tower facing the
waterfront, about
the 20th floor.
Pretty neat,eh?

And such a great view of the islands, ferries, etc. from there.

And this is the waterfront

near where they used to

live; little shops along the

waterfront, and a nice

restaurant at the end, you

can see the cupola sticking up

at the back. Very scenic, with

boats and seaplanes coming

in and out all the time.

And this is the famous

Nanaimo Bar, which I first had

on a ferry going to visit Mom

and Dad in B.C. many years ago.

Now Phyllis makes them every once

in a blue moon, and they sure are good!

RIP: MY DAD

Who passed away yesterday at approx. 12:45pm DST, in Nanaimo British Columbia.
He was 89 years old and suffering from Alzheimer's. I'm glad he
went peacefully, and that we got a chance to spend 2 weeks with him last
year before it got too bad. Not terribly bad, but bad enough. So now, in the
words of Trudy Webb "He's in a place where he can remember everybody".

I wish we'd spent more time together over the years, but he refused to retire
to the U.S., so we did what we could...

Goodbye Dad, I love you...

ANDREA DORIA

Was reading a article about the Andrea Doria, the Italian liner that sank off the coast of Massachusetts in 1956. It reminded me of a story my Mom & Dad told me when I was a kid. Apparently, when they went to Germany to adopt me in 1956, they sailed on the Andrea Doria to Europe. But they decided for the return trip that we would fly back rather than take the sea voyage. So, apparently, we may have lucked out by not being on the final voyage of the Andrea Doria!

As an aside, a diver who exploring the Andrea Doria, died in July of this year shortly after completing a dive to the wreck.

ALZHEIMER'S

So I went to the neurologist yesterday about my foot pains. Very nice Oriental doctor. So we go through different questions about general health things, and we get to the short list of pills that I take. Along with eye pills and 81mg aspirin, I've also been taking Ginkgo for memory. So the doc askes me how it's working(with a smile on her face) and I tell her:
"I don't think it really helps, but I'm afraid to stop..."

Just in case...you know what I mean??

Of course, Dad's got advanced Alzheimer's, and in a home now, because Mom just can't take care of him anymore. She's moved to the same place, but apart, so she can still keep an eye on him without having to caregive 24/7 as she had been doing. The thing that really pisses me off is that my Dad was a very intelligent businessman (head of the European Purchasing Dept. for Mobil Oil in the 70s) and after retirement him & Mom played Scrabble, cards, kept active and ate healthy all the time. And they say that doing that is supposed to help stave off Alzheimer's.
Yeah, well, don't give up things you enjoy and change your lifestyle because of what modern medicine tells you, it may just be a crock of shit!!

So now he's 89 years old and doesn't remember much of anything; even last year when we visited and he was much better than he is now he had trouble remembering who Phyl & I were if we weren't right there with him.

Yeah, sometimes life sucks, and you can't even remember that much...

ON THIS DATE...PART-2

In 1944, the first German V-1 "buzz bomb" hit London.

Which is less a random thought than you might think. My Mom is English, and actually grew up in the Ealing district of London up until she married my Dad, who was in the Canadian Air Force, attached to the R.A.F. Legend has it they met in an underground (subway) station during an air raid. Anyway, previous to that, my Mom was actually hit in the leg by shrapnel from a buzz bomb that exploded in her neighborhood. When I was growing up, I remember being able to see the scar on the back of her leg - not large, but still visible.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

Of course, he won't see this, not having a computer, but anyway:
89 years old today, congratulations Dad! I hope I live as long (but not if I get Alzheimer's).

Famous people born on this date:
Walt Whitman(1819), Don Ameche(1908),Dad(he's famous to me)(1917), Prince Rainier of Monaco(1923), Clint Eastwood(1930), Peter Yarrow(1938), Joe Namath(1943), Tom Berenger(1958), Chris Elliot(1960)-no relation-haha, Lea Thompson(1961),& Brooke Shields(1965).

Notable events from this date in history:
1962:Israel hanged Adolf Eichmann for war crimes.
1902:Peace treaty signed ending the Boer War in South Africa.
1889:Johnstown,PA flood kills more than 2,200 people.
1790:George Washington signs bill creating first U.S. copyright law.

And my personal favorite:
1678:Lady Godiva makes her famous naked ride through Coventry, England...

DAD

Dad's in the old folks home Alzheimer's section now, finally moved in this past Friday. Which is a sorta good thing, because he was getting too much for Mom too handle at age 86. They really should have moved down here from B.C. years ago. But they like their 'National Health', though I don't know why. One has to wait forever to see a doctor, or have a non-life threatening operation; and apparently you still have to pay money, and they don't pay for things they don't want to; even Alzheimer drugs. So where does the national healthcare part come in?? I guess they treat everyone equally crappy, eh?
So anyway, now he's there, and Mom's waiting to get a room there also.
But a funny side to this...
Mom called and told us that when she visited Dad the other day he told here he was
ready to come home know because "There's so many silly people here".

It's funny, but it's sad too if you knew my Dad...when he was still who he used to be...

A HALLOWEEN STORY

A story from my childhood: When I was 6 or 7 and living in the Phillipines, we occasionally went to Bagiuo to spend vacations or holidays in the mountains at the Mobil Oil house that executives and their families could use. It had room for 2 families to stay at the same time. We were up there for Halloween with another family, and we had a Halloween party for which my Mom handmade both my & my sister's(the evil one) costumes. My outfit was a gorgeous clown outfit with the polka dots and all. Well, we were outside fiddling around and all of a sudden a ghost jumped out at me and off I went. Came around the side of the house and slipped in the mud, ruining my outfit!! Boy, was my Dad (the ghost) in trouble with my Mom for that one!!

STORIES OF MY DAD...

Couple more short bits of my Dad's younger days. When he was in the RCAF in Africa working at the radar station, the men used to climb the radar tower to pee from; a contest to see who could pee the farthest. Or so the story goes!
Also, when the cook used to bake bread the dough would be filled with flies, and the bread would bake like that. Rather than picking out the flies and losing a good portion of the bread, they used to pretend that it was raisin bread. After all, the bread was baked & any fly germs would have been destroyed by the heat. Or so the story goes!

STORIES OF MY DAD...CONTINUED

Dad used to have a photo album of old pictures from before he was married. During WW2 when
he was in the RCAF, he was stationed in Africa at a radar installation in the jungle. One of the photos in his (now gone) album was a picture of about a dozen guys holding a REALLY REALLY large snake (dead). Wish he still had the picture, but it's gone now, thrown out in a cleaning frenzy. Ah,well...