Nice pants. Went through a couple of boxes of old pictures at my mom's this trip and found a trove of old and embarrassing photos. Some may call them cute but the common thread is a lot of curly hair. Have had a lot of nicknames in my day and a common one from this era was Tumbleweed. Will share one each time for a while...
Mentioned a while ago that it had been a good while since we had any noticeable earthquakes. You all probably saw that we had some big ones recently but what the news didn't show was just how many. Before the big one that toppled the buildings (locally measured as 6.1 but Fox News keeps printing 6.4), it was preceded by dozens of big ones. Check out this screen shot of just an hours worth of activity a couple days before the largest one.
The center of this swarm is far enough away from Taipei so that we feel them plenty, but not nearly as violently. Have spent most of my life in earthquake territory and you never get used to it. The ones here tend to be dip slip rollers, not the violent slip strike that the West Coast gets, but what was new to me was the frequency of decent sized fore/after shocks. Over a 100 greater than 3 and dozens of 5 and above. As an amateur geologist, totally predicted this wave based on not having felt many for months. As always, am ready to be interviewed.
If you read this thing, you are undoubtedly smart and cool, and that means you probably know smart and cool people. Think about your female friends and those that are strong and fearless, and direct them to the She Should Run website. Here is a link to it. Was talking to the Boy and some other young single fellas recently and gave them some dating advice...look for strong and smart women. Many (most) men are intimidated by them so your competition is less, plus they are awesome. It shows you are confident enough in yourself to possibly not be the smartest at the dinner table.
Have been less and less impressed by all the dudes in politics. There is a guy here that I have zero respect for that is going back to middle America to run for some office. Guy thinks he has it all figured out when the fact is that zero people who worked for him has any respect, but he suckers in enough people to keep failing upwards. Sound like any (every) male politician you know? Feels like women would be more likely to govern in the interest of their constituents rather than donors. Are there nut jobs on that side of the genitals, no doubt, but count me in and you can count on my vote.
Another thing for you smart/cool folks...octopi are most awesome creatures in the sea in my opinion, and the In Our Time podcast had a good one on Cephalopods last week.
Full disclosure...I hate the Patriots. Have total respect for their unprecedented run of greatness but still hate them for it. That is on an irrational fan level. But these guys have become so loathe some...Kraft up Cadet Bone Spurs ass (I love Cadet Bone Spurs and he will now be referred to as CBS in this space), Belichek sending CBS a congratulatory letter, and Tom Brady's MAGA hat. But what sent me over the edge was the latest kerfuffle with Tom v Time.
So Tom put out this web series touting his lifestyle. Crazy devotion to his craft while pushing his bizarre food and exercise regimen as something for all. Doesn't pass any smell test but whatever...glad it is working for you. If we all had this same intensity for everything, can you imagine what a world that would be? What got me was the feud with the local Boston radio station. One of the DJ's commented that Tom's kid, who was featured in his web series, was a "pissant". Great word. Anyhoo, Tom went on the radio and said he was "hurt" they would criticize a child and wouldn't do interviews with them anymore...and he was heralded as a great father for doing so. I felt completely the opposite as this "show" was a total cash grab for his TB12 line of avocados or whatever, and he is the one that put his kids out there in classic 'look at me' fashion. When you pimp out your kids, don't get bent when someone calls them a whore. By the way, didn't see the child you fathered with Bridget Moynihan, who you left while she was pregnant for your current wife featured in the video. You had an amazing game in the Super Bowl and I would call you the greatest of all time...on the field...but we'd like you better if you just got cool haircuts and kept your mouth shut about how others should live. By the way Boston fans, you buying into this troika of cretins are reasons one, two and three why the rest of the world hates you. Fly Eagles Fly.
Before dipping into the latest SF trip, this video of a Talking Heads show in Rome from 1980 is amazing. At the peak of their greatness with an augmented line-up including Adrian Belew and funk master Bernie Worrel. Belew dumps a tanker truck of gasoline on the fire throughout.
- Midnight Oil at the Bayou in Georgetown in the Spring of 1984.
- King Crimson at the Greek Theatre in LA, June 6th, 1984
- Yo La Tengo at the Crocodile in Seattle, August 7th, 2016
- The US Festival, Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, September 3-5 1982, which is a lot of shows, but the best that weekend were The Talking Heads, which featured the same line-up as this Rome gig. Adrian Belew was a big part of two of the above. Aggressive, propulsive and discordant.
Took a 10 day trip to SF to hang with Mom. A quick recap...she fell and shattered her shoulder in November and had a replacement. Went for some of that rehab in December and she has been stuck in the Skilled Nursing part of her place since. As she gets stronger and is getting close to being freed from that, the consensus was that she has become too weak to resume living independently and needed to move to Assisted Living. While it was a consensus, Mom didn't want to move. She knows that she has to give up a lot, both in space and freedom, and while we don't want to say it, it is the next step on the ladder to the end. Felt bad about being part of the crew that persuaded her but she acquiesced. There was a hole in Betty's travel calendar and we found a cheapo flight so I could go and help her prune some of her stuff so it'd fit in the new place, and to lend moral support. My sister has to carry the heavy load with her and her husband (my brother in law) was having a cancer procedure during this period, so alleviating some of their responsibilities was a bonus.
Wasn't a hugely eventful trip and did not even rent a car, which in in California is a serious break of cultural norms. I stayed in my mom's old apartment and sleeping in her bed was kinda strange. The days went almost the same...walk to her room and watch Let's Make a Deal/Price Is Right, go to her apartment for some cleaning, and then maybe a meal or activity back at her joint.
She hasn't been able to get out hardly at all, so going to Nordstrom for some soup, or to Taco Bell was a treat. We could wheelchair it over to the Mall for Nordstrom, but had to take Lyft to get further afield. The Lyft drivers were invariably "ethnic" and not being a frequent Lyft rider, mom was intrigued by them. She asked one driver, who had a Sikh-like turban, his name and he said Inderjeet. "You can't make that up" she replied which we thought was funny in a old person's acceptable racist kinda way.
I say "we" cause in addition to my mom , her Caregiver named Lisa would come along. Mom needed 24 hour care givers for the first month or two of her rehab cause she was a fall risk. Lately they have been scaling her back, but she still needs some and we are trying to get Lisa to be a full time one for her. I really like this one so hope it works out. Her previous client lived in the place where she is moving so she knows all the nurses, other residents, and how it operates, which will help with getting her involved in stuff. She insists that they do an activity every day just to get out of the room. Mom typically resists, but she goes and ultimately has a decent time on most days. I went with them to a few. Bret, who I detailed a few episodes ago, is still there weaving his magic. I typically can't stand music hour cause I'm a music snob. Had to walk away from one guy who was singing 50's rock tunes when he declared before an Elvis tune that "not many people know Elvis north of the Mason-Dixon line". What?
One I liked was a guy named Larry Martin, who was a blind piano player/singer. A pretty decent crowd was there and he came around before the show and introduced himself to all of the residents and asked their names. Mom's name is Mary Lou and there was another lady named Mary Ann. He started the show and launched into back to back songs called 'Mary Lou' and 'Mary Ann' and proceeded with a medley of other songs from the 40's, 50's and 60's with women's names in them. Did a little tango, a little classical and was terrific. This place really tries hare to provide an active and interesting selection of things to do daily.
The new place should be nice. They are fixing it up and it has a balcony with a pleasant view. The nurses that I met have good energy and like to chat. The one thing is that the residents there are in various states of disrepair. Some are with it, but there are others in a vegetative state that is kind of depressing. Caregiver Lisa's previous client was a guy that couldn't speak, so she just sat around looking at him for the last 6 months of his life. Was chatting about it with Babydoll this morning and she asked how one becomes a caregiver. Explained that there are various kinds with different levels of training, but the one common factor is they have to have the right disposition to be one. Being able to sit with a mute or wipe an ass is simply not for everyone. Takes a special kind of person and know I am not that type. As an example, one day I went up to take a picture of something in mom's new place and as I am walking down the hall, a lady is coming towards me from the other direction. She has no pants on and starts yelling "somebody help me!" Made quite an impression.
Mentioned that we watched games shows in the morning and have to say that of them, Let's Make a Deal is my favorite. I like the games and contestants on Price Is Right and Drew Carey is fine as a host, but he is just that. Family Feud has always been a favorite to play along with, and Steve Harvey makes some funny faces, but he isn't funny in a clever way. Wayne Brady and his cohorts on Let's Make a Deal bring it. He is a great improviser and his talents are on display daily. They do goofy skits and it seems they are just trying to make each other laugh. I turn on an episode on-line often when we need some mindless stuff to enjoy as a family.
As I was getting ready in the morning, the Hallmark Channel had two hours of I Love Lucy. I was there during their European trip run and the show holds up excellently. Brilliant writing and acting...the one where she stomps grapes, chosen to do so because her feet were giant, and has a brawl with the Italian lady in the grape tub was genius. The advertisements on the Hallmark Channel are a hoot too. A lot of adds for prunes and eczema treatment. After Lucy they have a talk show and one of the guests was Moby who was going to "show us how to make blueberry pancakes". I like blueberry pancakes, but what happened to you Moby?
While this was not a vacation, did manage to have a night out. After booking the flight, next thing I did was check the concert calendar and was fortunate to see that one of my all time favorite bands was playing. Luna, who had taken a decade or so off from playing together, has reformed, put out an album and were touring behind it. My brother in law is a music fan too and it is not too hard to talk him into a show. As an added bonus, he likes to throw down good and/or sleazy food. Had been craving Thai since we (bizarrely) don't get it much here and we set off early. Had a pre-show great meal at a place called Lers Ros and would definitely go back. Spicy seafood soup done just right.
The show was at the legendary Fillmore and Luna had not lost a step. Bro-in-law was skeptical after sampling some tunes in advance, but guaranteed him he was gonna love it and he did.
So the day before the day before I was to head home, Bro-in-law had the procedure to remove the cancerous growth, which was in his bladder. The prospect of a catheter post-op made for some inappropriate comments from yours truly, but he was able to pee on his own and avoided it. I thought he'd be laid up the next day but got a message that he was willing to make a meatball sandwich run for us for lunch. Sweet...with no car was unable to make the pilgrimage to the delicious meatball sandwich place this trip, and you know that an unexpected meatball sandwich is the best kind.
It was yummy (we order them with double meatballs...natch) and as we are plowing through them, Caregiver Lisa declares that she has never eaten one before. How is it possible to go through 20+ years on the planet and not eat a meatball sandwich. The life experiences others have never cease to amaze me.
Chinese New Year next Thursday...Year of the Dog don'tcha know. Will share some thoughts on that next time..
Damn.. how did I miss Luna at the Neptune last month? MS
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