The Tuscan Affair

A vanilla Tuscan moon
Through wooden shutters
How sweet the lover's sigh.

The two photos I took of the full moon from the bedroom of my B & B in Monterongrifolli were blurred, but the remembered view in my imagination is always much more beautiful anyway. So, imagine an open window on a cool fall night, antique wooden shutters pulled away to reveal the silhouette of a Tuscan hillside and the quiet blanket of night over all. This was my last night in Tuscany and I came to the full realization then that I had ARRIVED.

But enough of that. With a romance and a temporary but passionate affair such as this, one should always start at the beginning.

Tuscany is a region somewhat known in America due to a number of romantic movies and books such as "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Room With a View." Sometimes when things are loved to death through literature or media they cannot possibly live up to their reputation and the resulting expectations. Fortunately for us all, this is not the case with Tuscany. It is all the smells, sights and feelings that you read about and see and it is more.

We left Sicily and arrived at the Rome airport. There we rented a car with a GPS and headed out to the mountainous region of Abruzzo. We spent one night in a small abandoned village with a B&B. That is another VERY LONG blog about getting lost as the sun sets, finding long lost relatives, showering with small scorpians, and enjoying a frugal meal of bread, hard cheese, proscuitto, and olives with small boxes of red wine as the haunting wind whistled outside the door and across the stone streets of an Italian ghost town. As if this wasn't exotic enough, after our make-shift supper, we watched an iffy TV cable reception beaming in from Northern Africa of the 2000 movie "The Gladiator" with French-African subtitles!

So, I will skip to warmer and more romantic Tuscany.

We left Abuzzo and drove north to the Tuscan region along the Autostrada which is just like the freeways we have in the U.S. It was not too crowded and there were only one or two 'crazy Italian" drivers and only one or two drivers who insisted that they needed to straddle both lanes in order to drive effectively. The rest of us knew what we were doing and where we were going...well sort of. We were fine except for when the GPS episodically disconnected at the most inopportune times.

We stopped briefly in the medieval walled town of Orvieto for a very nice lunch at a touristy place called The Grotto---now I know where that expensive restaurant in New York got it ideas. Not the expense...but the decor.

This is the outside of the restaurant and when you enter you head immediately down a flight of stairs to the grotto. There is a window to an outside fortressed wall at the end of the restaurant that lets in a little light.


We ordered a bottle of Vernaccia di S. Gimignano---a very nice white table wine. I ordered a ravioli stuffed with wild boar and floating in a buttery sauce, probably too robust for the wine, but like my feelings for art I am confident enough to appreciate things in my unique way. Besides my table mates were getting tired of the robust reds. They each ordered a pasta dish as well, one with a sweet sausage and one with ham. This was preceeded by a nice antipasta plate of cheeses and meats and olives.


We then took a walk to the walls of the city to look out over the country below as the afternoon was starting to wane. (Remember, you eat the midday meal in Italy starting at 3:00, so by the time we had wined and dined it was getting late.)


The city was arty and had lovely things to buy. Very much geared for the spending tourist.


And of course, the city had its important church in the center off of a large piazza at the highest point of the town. This one was most impressive, I must say. More lovely on the outside.


And the tourists were watching the locals who were watching the tourists!


We ended the day with a walking dessert at a world famous gelato place. They had a poster up that showed Alexander Solzenitzen eating gelato there, so we just HAD to try it.



Then trying to avoid putting our arrival too close to dark we reached the Agritourismo farm Locanda Rosati an hour before our scheduled 8:00PM family style dinner. We had brought playing cards and proceeded to sit at a game table in one of the farm-like sitting rooms playing games and sipping the wine brought by our host, Paulo. The dinner meal began in a large rustic dining room with introductions of all the guests and a vociferous welcome from Paulo. Many bottles of red and white wines were brought to the table for us to help ourselves. Then we started with a pate of boar, chicken liver, lime juice, olives, etc. to be spread on some salted puffed breads that were very much like sopapillas only salty. This was followed by an excellent mushroom rissotto, which was then followed by a meatloaf of wild boar, some wild bird and pistachios with a side dish of roasted potatoes. More wine and then a buttery fruit tart. Finally bottles of grappa, limonchello, and mezzaluna arrived and people freely sampled everything. I am not big on sweet liquors, but had fun watching my two mates get a little plastered and silly. After all, our room was only a short walk up a few steps.


Early the next morning we explored the grounds and found a lovely orchard of chestnuts and met our host's sister-in-law filling plastic bags with those that had fallen.


We checked out of the Inn after a breakfast of coffee that was to die for and an assortment of fruit, pastries and breads. We obtained directions to our next stop from their Internet, and thus plotted the day. We had been told that Italy's shopping outlets were on the way so we decided to stop at one called "THE MALL" just to see what an outlet in Italy was all about. There were stores from Fendi, Yves St. Laurent, Valentino, Gucci, Georgio Armani and a bunch of other old guys I had not heard about. These were the kind of stores that, in the states, you would wait for someone to unlock the door for you to enter. Here there was a steady stream of customers going in and out, many rich Asians with lots of bags over their shoulders. Items inside were 50 to 70% off! But since most items started at over $1,000 including simple silk blouses, I had to pass on any souvenirs from this place. (I played mind games in my head on what the ironing board thin 'customers assistants' in their designer clothes were thinking as I entered with my Macy's purse and sporting goods store walking shoes...and controlled myself so that I didn't laugh out loud.)

Then, as we settled back in the car, we read the directions from Chris and Christina to their Inn called Ankhura. They went something like this: Follow the exit to (Tuscan town) and then as you enter the roundabout take the exit to (another Tuscan town) and follow this road up the hill past the exit to (another Tuscan town) and take the roundabout and pass the exit to (another smaller Tuscan town) and head out and past the exit to (a very small Tuscan town) and then go on a gravel road and past (a named road) and head up the hill and pass the road to the cemetary and then you will reach Monterongrifolli.

Park your car at the sign that says "no parking beyond this point" and then go around the church and we are in the back up the street.(At first we thought that the symbol below was the no parking part! I took the photo the next day when we discovered it in the daylight.)



We arrived in the dark after 8:00 after much reading of signs and maps and second guessing and even going down a few blind streets in little unknown towns.

But the place was tremendously lovely and the hostess was graciousness personified. So, now it was time for my well-earned sleep on her lovely Malay linens and you too must rest for tomorrow we head out on a truffle hunt AND a wine tour.

A Sicily post script

The Sicily sun is intense, and even in the fall, so warm that we frequently sought the shade of a building or tree. The beach itself was very peaceful and sandy.

We stayed at Hotel Spendid in the little beach town of Mondello. Each night there was a little market along the beach walk where tables were filled with crafts from Northern Africa and rural parts of Italy. One stand was roasting chestnuts which were in season. It seemed to me that most of the tourists were Italians.

The best seafood in Sicily was the shrimp and squid which were fried. I had the stuffed squid which was tough and not all that appetizing looking. We also tried the mussels which were fat and fresh.

I tried hard to find fresh fish, but was unsuccessful.

If I get back to Sicily again I will rent a car and just slowly make my way around the island stopping at the various villages---each has something unique to offer.

The Island of Sicily

Commenters have asked for food pictures--and I don't think I took to many. I was always diving in and eating rather than focusing! And for my dear blogger, Colleen, that was my daughter and her M.I.L. behind the Venetian masks in the store photo.

Sicily is a fairly large island to the south of the peninsula of Italy and maybe most famous for the volcanic Mt. Etna. Most of what you read about Sicily will mention that it is a poorer and less pristine part of Italy. I think the Sicilians are a generous and polite people and several went out of their way to caution us about pickpockets and thieves. We did not encounter a single bad incident. My lovely daughter did get the 100-times-over from a man twice her age on the bus into town one morning. They are NOT shy about looking! There are also cautions about the criminal element, since the Mafia began here. (As an historic note, the big M began because Sicily felt it was being taxed unfairly by the main government in Italy but not getting the resources and support. They didn't like the main government setting up all the rules and regulations, so they decided to run their own little government.)

My daughter selected 2.5 days in Sicily because her M.I.L.'s mother's side of the family came from that region---was that clear? Anyway, because we did not have a car and had to rely on buses and trains, we touched only a small part of the island. I missed some great cultural and archeological parts as daughter and her M.I.L. were into the churches!


We stayed at a 1950's type hotel on the far point of one of the lovely beach areas. It was a little bit of a walk to the beach, but we did manage to soak our toes at the end of the days. The hotel is way at the end on the point in the photo above. It looks far from the beach, but I was taking the photo from the first drop off of the bus at the days end.


Each day we took the bus into Palermo which was the primary city nearby. It was a quick 15 minute ride. Then we had to walk a few blocks to catch the bus/train that we needed for the next leg of the day's journey.

The first day we went to a lovely village on the coast called Monreal. We were very lucky in that we got there early in the day. While we were eating a lunch of pizza across from the piazza in the photo below, I saw the police beginning to set up street barriers and various officials in fancy dress arriving. By the end of our lunch we discovered that this day was a funeral for their Archbishop who had passed away a few days before. The death of an Archbishop is a big deal in any country, but especially so in Italy. Dignitaries paraded in with banners and flowers and full regalia for several hours that afternoon and we just sat and sipped our wine and watched from our front row seat. We eventually moved to the church and got inside for a quick look before it had filled and the service started. They even broadcast it on a large TV screen outside. Below, the villagers that lived across the piazza watched the parade from their balconies.


Then we took off for a walk around the village since everything had started to close. Going up and down hills like these is what keeps Italians so thin after eating plates of pasta and pizza.


We encountered small children in the alleys and byways playing and taking advantage of their time off during the funeral. These two lovely ladies below were playing with Barbie dolls, of course!

And here is a sign outside the local day care center...?

The trip back on the bus was an interesting but it is a longer story...which I will save for another day, if reminded.

Our second day in Sicily required a train trip. Trains in Italy are so easy to use and so comfortable and really on time. We took the train to an even smaller village called Cefalu--to look at the church in the picture below.


We hiked outside the city walls and saw are a close-up view of the lovely Mediterranean Sea.


On our last night in Sicily we had eaten so much food that day that we decided on a dinner of cheeses and wine ( a nice Sicilian white) at an outside Enoteka. This was followed by a gelato (or cannoli in my case) in the piazza of the small beach town where we stayed. It was a good decision since we were given the fun of seeing the town wind down as the locals stopped in the piazza and viewed a local classic car show. The drivers were dapper as they had dressed for the occasion and clearly were enjoying the attention!


My next post will be the last of Italy but all about romantic Tuscany.

Rome Part II

We had allowed time to spend a second day in Rome. This turned out to be a good idea since we had only seen the outside in a sweaty blur as we taxied and then ran by. The Sistine Chapel was closed because it was a Sunday, so the M.I.L. had to forgo that tour for another time. Hubby and I had seen it years ago and it was beautiful and we felt worth the time if you could get your mind around the hundreds of tourists at your shoulders, the guards calling out telling people to keep moving, to stop talking, and the people ignoring the guards and talking, etc., etc. If I had to see it again I would pick a cold day in winter. Also we were wise to bring binoculars as the ceiling is far above you.

This trip we toured the Roman Forum below:




and the areas around that which are a necessary part of a Rome visit. We started with Circus Maximus which was near the hotel...a large area for horse racing and mock battles. Now just a large open area in the city and a long walk to other places.


We had lunch at an area near the Coliseum where back in history they did some outside training of the Gladiators or animals or whatever. While historically there were all kinds of events at the Coliseum including flooding the place and holding mock naval battles, the Coliseum always resides in my mind as such a blood-thirsty place that I have very mixed feelings when going there. It is also very touristy--notice all the heads below in the photo. Mock Roman soldiers with large hairy legs beneath their plated skirts willing and ready to get a picture taken with you for a fee--I did not take a photo!

We did set aside time to see the Baths of Caracalla which I had not seen during my prior visit and this visit was most impressive. Some of the wall and floor mosaics were still visible. This engineering marvel built in 212 AD used between 15-20,000 cubic meters of water (both hot and cold) per day and held as many as 1,600 daily visitors. Due to the tight living quarters among the Romans it was a central part of the Roman social life.

The photos above don't really do it justice and I didn't want to load ALL that I took.

Next week on to the sunny island of Sicily.

First Day Rome Arrival

Flying into Rome from America usually results in leaving late in the afternoon, flying overnight, and with the back crossing of time zones, arrival is the next morning. The airport is about 16 miles outside of the city and taking a taxi into the city costs about $50.00 depending on the going rate of exchange. NOT in our favor these days. You can also take a train into the city which is cheaper, takes a little longer, and requires a little more vigilance for pickpocketers as well as schlepping your bags.

Going through customs was a brief courtesy since Italy has thousands of tourists each day from the U.S. We had booked Splendid Hotel La Torre in Rome, but on arrival, we were transferred a few blocks away to
Hotel Villa San Pio. The location was a lovely, quiet suburban area. The three of us shared a room with an additional bed.


Below was the view from our bedroom window.


Since we could not actually check in, we dropped all our bags at the hotel and then requested a cab to the Vatican. Because we were booked for the Scavi tour at 10:45 A.M. and had arrived at the airport at 8:30 A.M. we were under a very tight schedule. We hadn't showered but were able to change clothes a little in the bathroom at the hotel lobby . In our pathetic Italian and rudimentary English we explained to the taxi driver that we had reservations for the tour of the excavations under St. Peter's Basilica. Only 120 people a day get to tour and we didn't want to miss this opportunity. He indicated that he knew where we should go. As we drove around the Vatican on a Saturday morning, we saw the line of people for the tour of the Sistine chapel...blocks and blocks long. He dropped us at the front of this line. We now had a little less than 20 minutes and were feeling pretty good about the time we had made. We, of course, were told by the guards at the drop off that the excavations' office was clear on the other side of the Vatican and our taxi driver was already gone. We held out purses and camera tightly to our bodies and actually jogged all the way to the other side of Vatican City past the line of tourists. I am sure they thought we were crazy...I have never seen anyone jog across St. Peter's Square, that was a first.

We arrived at the office out of breath, and a little sweaty, but on time. Our luck was holding as there were only three others on our tour and the women who gave the tour was magnificent. She knew her subject well and gave us lots of time for questions at each stop. It was not a religious tour, but an historic tour and most rewarding. It ended at the hall of the Popes where we were gently and firmly pushed aside by a Cardinal and his minions on a tour reminding us abruptly of our place in this structured Catholic society.



The Swiss guards at the Vatican are very patient in answering the tourists questions every day. They are also cute.

Here is a quick shot inside St. Peter's.

We then walked to the Pantheon which is a must-see for any first time visitor as was my daughter's M.I.L. As you can see they were way ahead of me!

During the walk we stopped to visit the shops and be silly since we now had been up for over 24 hours.

The Pantheon is most impressive with a span of over 142 feet. It was originally a Roman temple and survived by being consecreated as a Catholic church. The architect is unknown. I had taken many pictures on a prior trip, so was able to just enjoy the building this time.

Within a few blocks was a small and lovely church that we had passed before and decided to visit.

That evening was M.I.L.'s birthday and so we took a taxi to the top of Janiculum Hill for a meal at Antico Arco. This place is expensive and has recently been re-designed with a modern minimalist interior. The wait staff anticipate your every need before you know you have one and it is just the place for a memory. Don't eat here if you want lots of food at a reasonable price...memories are more expensive. I ordered a raw seafood salad, a wild mushroom pasta dish, a lemon veal, etc...I can't remember what everyone else ordered but we shared and tasted since they provided tasting plates of what others had ordered and it was delish.

The Wanderers are Back

We got up at 6:30 yesterday morning in Monterongriffoli where we had stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast in a medieval hamlet outside Siena for two days. By the time we drove to the Rome airport, checked our bags and got through two security checks, caught our plane to Boston where we went through customs and caught the second flight to Philadelphia and then drove home we had been up and moving for almost 24 hours! My daughters M.I.L. had been on 6 planes by the end of the the 10 day trip and handled all like a trooper. She now is thinking she may want to do more travel!

Still shaking the Tuscany dust off my shoes and trying to adjust to another continent, I have many lovely memories. My daughter had planned all of the this trip and it was one of the most rewarding I have ever taken. So I will take the blogger through step by step so that I have a good journal of the experience for myself and can share with readers as well.

Hundreds of pictures were taken and, of course, I cannot post them all, but will share some of the best.

Arrivederci

After many phone calls and odd conversations (due to poor technology not emotionality ) with all the family who are involved (there will be 5 of them) I have decided to go to Italy. I can probably do more to help all of them once Dad is moved back into my brother's house.

Today they moved him out of the hospital and into the therapy care house where they expect him to stay for the next three weeks. He seems reasonably strong if somewhat confused. The pain is finally subsiding for a while. From my brother's description everyone was in extreme pain just watching him struggle from the chair to the bed. We have never seen my father in pain. He has always been a go with the flow kind of guy, so this is very upsetting for all of us. And, although he is 92, he has never been in a hospital except to stay with my mother who there many times. Really!

Old age is not for the weak of heart or mind.

With regard to the Italy trip, I will post some pictures or at least talk about the trip when I return. My daughter has planned this trip for her mother-in-law's 63rd birthday and asked me to be the partner in the crime. Her M.I.L. has never traveled much anywhere in her life and is afraid to fly on planes. We will ply her with liquor and laughter. Three silly woman. I hope that we do well. We are going on a truffle hunt and wine tour. That should be something to blog about.

I will miss my blogging buddies and wish I could take all of you. You would all add something unique and special to the trip. But instead, I will try to take you virtually.

The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club (2005)

We had to leave the apartment for a dinner out and a movie last night since the managment told us the carpet cleaners were 'on the way" and had been delayed by a clean-up of a broken pipe. (They weren't and didn't! That is another story.)

Anyway we saw a movie that I had been hoping to catch sometime this month. Reviews, backgrounder and info can be found at Ronni's Guest Blogger entry at Times Goes By . Guest blogger did an extensive review of the movie, Boynton Beach Bereavement Club, which is about elders in a retirement community in Florida.

Anyway, the movie was very interesting in many ways but not all that compelling. The actors were all top flight folks and the dialogue was not all that bad although some of the jokes were predictable. The whole theme was about loneliness and love and in some cases sex among the elderly. It was pretty lite fare considering the lives of people in a retirement community are not that shallow. You won't see much of the younger family members either.

It is refreshing to see natural wrinkles and sags and real people on the big screen and maybe this will be the beginning of more movies like that.

I did find it painful to watch the actors who had filled their lips with collagen and tightened their faces so that they looked like perpetually smiling mannikins. The actors who had not were much more interesting to watch.

As an aside, I read an article recently which stated that Jane Fonda and Sally Fields had made a pact to not have plastic surgery.

Well, enough of this stupid blogging.

Bad Kharma

I am exhausted and really cannot continue anymore at this pace and with the type of news I am getting on the weekends. I actually think work will be easier than weekends!

Friday evening. Getting the spring and summer clothes out of the tiny apartment closet and exchanging them with the fall/winter clothes down at the house. (EVERYTHING going both directions appears to need spot cleaning or washing or mending or just throwing away--but no time now.)

Rushing to move all the furniture and loose and breakable stuff as the apartment management has promised a free carpet cleaning on Monday. I will not miss all the spots of my history this past year, but cannot do any cooking.



Saturday:
Loaded the car with STUFF. Stopped at Radio Shack and bought a battery charger for the phone that will work in Europe to prepare for my Friday departure to Italy. Visited my phone vendor and got them to set up international calling on the cell—setup is free but the calls are 99 cents a minute.

Called my sister to let her know I have the international service so we can arrange a meet up in Rome via cell after her week in France. Unloaded the car at the house and then tried to salvage the lawn with my husbands suggested tool of a pick axe, wheelbarrows full of top soil and handfuls of grass seed followed by armloads of straw. Setting many timers and many sprinkler moves was how I spent a long, dusty, and muddy Saturday afternoon outside.


In between times I swept away a hundred spider webs across each window and over each door. Hubby even shook out a spider from my tennis shoe which I had kicked off near the front door just 30 minutes before. The web across the mouth of the shoe caught his eye in the late afternoon sunlight and gave him the clue.


Sunday:
Sunday morning was spent hanging the bathroom mirrors…all four…which are VERY heavy. Husband and I had reached the point of yelling at each other because we could not seem to be able to successfully measure and complete the hanging in one try--both of us have graduate degrees mind you. We did achieve success with the the last mirror and that probably saved the marriage. Did laundry while waiting for a furniture delivery which never happened because the furniture truck broke down. Wrote the final punch list for the builder as I walked through all the rooms with pen in hand. Boiled and cleaned crabs for the freezer (husband's project).



Sunday Evening:
Driving home, and in the dark, unloaded the pile of winter clothes and boots and leftover food from the refrigerator. Vacuumed the apartment in preparation for the carpet cleaners, put clean sheets on the naked bed and then ate leftovers before falling into same dressed bed.

While Drifting to sleep in the eve and the phone rang. It was my daughter who told me that S.I.L. and baby brother in Colorado had been trying to reach me all weekend and left messages on my cell --- none of which I got. The quick jist: Dad fell on Saturday afternoon two steps into the sunken living room which resulted in breaking the ball joint in his hip. He was found shortly after the fall sitting up on the bottom step and continuing to eat the cookies which had been the motivation for the errand up the steps inthe first place. He claimed he had no pain but a trip to the hospital by ambulance was necessary.

Saturday night at the hospital they decided at first that there was no reason to do hip replacement on a 92-year-old. Then the nurse tells the doctors to look at the patient and evaluate him --- thank goodness someone thinks in that hospital. They decided he is in excellent health with more years ahead of him and proceeded to set up surgery on Sunday morning for a hip replacement. My daughter tells me that she was told surgery went very well and he does not appear to be in pain and they are going to get him up and walking on Monday morning. (It was after 11:00 at night by then, and of course, I had trouble falling asleep.)

Monday morning:
Here I sit in the office waiting for the Colorado morning time to call and see what is happening. Finished the call and all is as well as can be expected. They are not letting my sister know as she is in the middle of a week of gourmet classes in France and all of us feel she should enjoy her expensive vacation. (Wondering now if she will meet up with us in Italy or head on back.)

Called Dad this P.M. and between my bad cell connection, the hospitals 'iffy' phone, Dad's slurred speech due to drugs and his bad hearing, it was a most frustrating although sometimes funny phone call. He is in pain and discouraged. I gave second brother a pep talk about what lies ahead (had the same process with my M.I.L. when she came to visit years ago). I will call again Wednesday before I decide if I am going to cancel the Italy trip and lose all the money.

Oh, it is now 4:51 and no one has shown up to clean the carpets yet! Maybe this equinox thing is bad kharma.

You Can Never Be Too Thin or Too Rich

And THIS just in from London and THIS just in from Spain and THIS just in from Milan, the fashion capital of the world.

I knew that I shouldn't beat myself up for that extra little role above my slacks yesterday, and now it has been confirmed by fashionistas (the people who rule the clothing world) that I should be striving for a healthy body and not a size 0. I never was able to wear a size zero in my earliest of days anyway. My daughter wore that size when she was 18 and now that she is over 30 and has one child she is up to a size 4-6. She runs around like a chicken with her head cut off, so I know she gets plenty of exercise. Lifting Xman 20 times a days should count for something. And all that bending and clearing of floor areas is better than touching toes. Ands she has the cutest little figure in spite of her size increase.

I still want better proportion for myself and need to get rid of that pudgy middle which contrasts so well with my thin arms and legs. Some days I think I look like a woman who is malnurished rather than overfed. I have learned that 100 sit-ups a day for weeks will not work. It does give you excellent back and abdominal strength for standing tall and removing lower back pain, though.

More aeorobics and less food. This is my mantra before I leave for my trip with my daughter to Italy at the end of the month. (Geese, have you SEEN how stylish those Italian women in Italy look while walking down the street...including those in their 60's and 70's? No wonder they set the standard for style and weight.)

Last Week's Errand

Hubby is planning a business trip and has discovered that both of his razors have been left at the new house. So, just before ten on a Saturday night we make a trip to the nearby drugstore to pick up another razor before his flight tomorrow. I caution him that this may be a more expensive errand than he anticipated as I have run out of a number of age-stalling tools.

While looking for that great expensive face cream, I hear hubby swearing under his breath in the shaving aisle. "They don't even have my razor here. They have three--four--five razor gizmos that cost a fortune. What happened to the good old fashioned shave?" My husband hates planned obsolescence---especially that which relates to unnecessarily looking good.

I hand him my expensive cream and a jar of clear nail polish and smile sympathetically and tell him I will meet in front at checkout. I then walk to the front of the store hoping he won't take too long to pick something...anything. While standing near the front door a very thin elegant looking black woman walks in mumbling under her breath. She is dressed in black slacks, a gray sweater top with a white lace collar, pearls, silver hoop earrings and some new stylish gray baseball cap. I don't scrutinize her except to notice that she is carefully put together and about 55 in age.

She glances up at me and smiles. "Did you hear me? I am sorry. I didn't mean to be so loud."

I indicate with a nod that this not a problem and proceed to look at the newspaper headlines near the exit door.

She turns again to me and says, "It is just that I put something in the trunk of my car and slammed the lid shut with my keys and purse inside. AND my cell phone."

I suggest she may use to store to call her car club for help.

She sighs. "It is a BMW and can only be opened by a laser key and my BMW service says that they are backed up for three hours. I have an extra set of keys at Silver Oaks where I live. I just need to figure out how to get there."

I suggest she contact a police officer. I am beginning to get more uncomfortable with this whole conversation.

She grasps my hand with her thin bony one which is so very cold and smiles and introduces herself. She is a lawyer downtown and she rattles off some firm's name. "You can call this number and see that I am not lying." She hands me a card. Then she goes on to explain the laws of liability which police officers are under that precludes their helping her.

OK , now I have caught on and am really uncomfortable. I study her thin face and realize she was probably quite beautiful in her day.

"If you could just loan me cab fare, about $30.00 I will pay you double that when I come back to open the car outside."

My husband (who is incredibly naive) shows up and I cut the conversation off before he gets me in deeper than I want.

"All I have is $5.00 but maybe you can get more from someone else." I cram the money into her hand and grab hubby's elbow as I direct him out the door.

Outside I say aloud. "God, I hope I didn't contribute to her cocaine habit."

Hubby pats me on the shoulder and answers matter-of-factly..."You probably did."

The Times Between Times

A number of years ago I had reached the time in my life where my children were on their own in junior high school but it was also a time before I had become comfortable in my new role as 'loner'. Children had become a nice buffer for me on my adventures. It didn't matter if I got lost or used the wrong product or dressed poorly or made a public mistake. I had two kids that were distracting me and who, in turn, could be used to distract the focus of others on me.

I look back on that transition now and wonder when I got into the habit of using the kids as my invisibility cape. I do remember during the transition when it seemed very strange to enter a restaurant without kids and to sit alone at a table and order and eat food. It was strange to drive in a car and not be distracted by flying cheerios, upset stomachs and arguments about space. It was strange to have free, even though short, afternoons to go anywhere I wanted and do what I wanted at my own pace.

Years ago I was in Raleigh, North Carolina with my husband who was attending a meeting. This left me with free days exploring on my own. I enjoyed walking the town and visiting the farmers' market, but I eventually realized that I would have to take the rental car and do some country exploring to fill the remaining last day. Those of you who are born to explore cannot imagine why it would take courage to do this, but I was very uncomfortable with the thought of going out all by myself in a different car and reading a map all by myself and driving on strange roads. It was a new and different phase in my life.

There was a recreational lake and state park about an hour away and I decided that adventure would be my afternoon trip. I studied the map, used my instincts and made it to the resort without a hitch and with great relief. Weather was still warm and so there were quite a few families on picnics or boating the lake. It was a lovely blue sky day. I explored the lake and then found a path that meandered around the lake. It was a very long path and I knew that I could not make the entire circuit, but I could walk a short part of the way before I had to head back to the city.

I was twenty minutes into my walk when I saw grass movement and then heard a gentle but somewhat familiar noise to the side of the gravel path just ahead. I could not stop myself, but had to get closer to see the source of the noise. I just knew that is was a small rattle snake, but the closer I got the more intense and scary the rattle became. I got as close as I dared. I never had the courage to part the high grasses to see what was below. Yet, I felt very satisfied that I had tested my mettle thus far on so many goals that day and drove back to the hotel with a smile on my face.

Now I am at another time in my life that makes me uncomfortable once again. Twice this past month I have forgotten where I have parked my car when I went to the mall. The first time it took a short while and passing a number of rows before I stumbled on the little beast. The second time I wandered back and forth down the row of cars as darkness started to surround me for quite a while, trying hard to see my little car. Eventually I remembered that this was the row where I had parked the car a few days before on my visit to the same mall and with a little mind bending I finally remembered that I had most recently parked up the hill and on the other side of the store. This could be a small transition or a large transition that awaits me in the coming years and it has given me a twinge of concern.

I guess I will have to take it One Day at a Time as I always do.

Autumnal Rust

Autumnal rust returns

Wrapped in gold and amber.

Falling in love.

The Tablecloth Trick (Future magicians, link is here)

Do you remember the old tablecloth trick where the magician pulls out the tablecloth and all the dishes remain on the table exactly as they were before the pull?

Guess who wants to be a magician in my family? (Either that or he has a death wish.) While Xman was being fed from a jar of pureed peas of the most emerald green color, he got it into his head to reach for the place mat on which the peas rested. While his mommy was retrieving a fallen napkin, deft little fingers grasped the fringe of the mat and with a very professional twist of the wrist pulled the cloth mat determinedly up toward the air. The place mat flew in his grasp across the room and the spoon, the jar of peas, and another container of applesauce (as yet unopened) all took flight until gravity reminded the solids of their place within the laws of physics.

Everything went crashing to the floor, and like a good scientist, Xman carefully observed the results, including the swift actions of various adults rushing about with paper towels and sponges to protect all the surfaces of the new house. It seemed that some peas landed on the table, others on the floor and even dollops decorated Xman's clothes.


It wasn't until Xman's dinner came to an end that Tabor happened to look upward and saw that quite a few green circles of food had risen to the ceiling above. Xman has a unique talent for making me wish I had given in to my husband and just bought a fishing shack!

Thursday Thoughts #3

Colleen, it will never be the Thursday 13 because I am a rebel, I guess. Most of these Thursday Thoughts are about spending or losing money.

1a) My sister saved my image this last trip when my hubby saw her new wine cellar with over 600 bottles of wine. My wine cellar is a small cooler which holds just over 32 bottles. He now no longer thinks I am an extravagant connoisseur.

1b) On a similar note my sis and my B-I-L took us out to dinner and bought two bottles of wine at $35 each to go with our meal. It was great wine…and I am glad he picked up the bill. Those of you who regularly spend that much for wine…just shut up!

2) I am now into shopping for heavy duty and easy to clean bedspreads for my guest bedrooms. This is an important selection due to the following event: I purchased a nice and somewhat expensive red silk throw at Target and unpacked it to drape across the bottom of the master bed in the new house. Within seconds Xman had run to the material and bit into it and then left wet drool everywhere. (Note: he no longer 'walks' anywhere.) Patience…patience.


3) The recent Atlantic storm downed two trees at the new house, left lots of limbs and leaves across the deck, but spared the boat on the lift. My husband lost a year of his life on the plane trip home until we saw the boat was safe.



4) I just purchased a $10.00 glasses case for my 15-year-old Christian Dior prescription sunglasses. Guess what…they are now back in style! If you wait long enough everything comes round again. Of course, your eye prescription has to not change very much.

5) Hubby and I, while walking through the mall last night, purchased two Godiva dark chocolate truffles at $1.65 each. Are we the last of the big spenders or what? A woman my age that I didn’t know who was standing behind me during the purchase told me that I was worth it.

6) Did you know that it can cost hundreds/thousands of dollars if you lose your cell phone and don’t have it password protected? I go through this fear every other month while my hubby rushes around trying to remember where he left his cell phone.

7) And, not related to money at all but related to that great neighborhood of bloggers, please send good thoughts to Hedwig at Living the Scientific Life so she can get back to blogging, and send good thoughts to Peruby as she makes her SECOND batch of buckeyes and cares for the dog that ate the first.

8) On a final note, I sometimes think of (and miss) Carol at The Cerebral Outpost who has taken a brief, lengthy or permanent respite from blogging. My thoughts returned most recently when I came across this fellow below while walking around an area near Boulder. Carol will know why.

Twin Owls (Link)

Granite prominence
Timeworn by winter storms
Twin owls weather again

Many people watched the Stephen King movie with Jack Nicholson titled "The Shining" which was produced in 1980. While I have tremendous respect for Mr. King's writing talent I am not a big fan of his genre. Anyway what do Stephen King and the photo above have in common? The photo is a rock promontory called twin owls outside of Estes Park, Colorado and it rests above the Stanley Hotel which was the hotel used in the movie. The reason I have posted this photo is because it was a scene which I knew well. One of my girlfriends in elementary school had a father that managed that hotel. We got to play many an afternoon in that place which seemed enormous to me at the time. By today's standards it is not a very large hotel. We played in the pantry, the kitchen and the downstairs hallways. Today I am amazed that we were allowed to do that. Maybe nobody knew. It was winter and the season had slowed, so the hotel was not very busy as I recall.

That Strange Shape-shifting Time

Sitting in that gigantic metal airbus which, using any rational reasoning, should not be able to overcome earth’s gravitational pull much less fly over miles and miles of checkerboard farmland, I settled in and begin the time shift. Not the shift of time from Mountain Standard to Eastern Standard, but rather the shift in mental time from oldest daughter in a family that was started a long time ago and now exists with missing pieces to the my current mental time of being a wife, mother and grandmother whose days are filled with activities far from that former family.

My father, whose gentle demeanor and small stature would never fit the imposing image of Patriarch, is now ninety-two and a half. His walk is slow and careful, and his hearing is down to 30%, but his outlook and general health are miraculous. With pressures from his “busy-body” daughter-in-law and his first born (myself) he is adapting to some new digital hearing aides. The cacophony of daily noise is slowly being filtered by newly awakened neurons in the brain. The buttons and dials that rest above his ears are tiny and hard to identify for the awkward and numbed fingers of a 92-year-old, and yet he still tries to adjust. They actually seem to be working as I had several long if somewhat innocuous conversations with him. My father was never one to exchange deep thoughts, therefore, it is mostly talk about the “old-days” or what is currently happening.

During most of the week I was at my first brother’s house. Dad was far more active than he had been while staying at my youngest brother’s house, which had been his new home since Mom died over a year ago. This second move was necessitated by the unhappiness of my other SIL who after a year of living with Dad was requiring more privacy. (My judgement was that she was totally being selfish, but that is another story.) So the other SIL and brother have taken him in. We walked several blocks in the neighborhood each day, walked around Walden Pond outside of Boulder and elsewhere. We could see his strength and balance improving each day and he even commented on this himself. His gardening, which he loves, was limited in this new place due to the width of the vegetable beds. Still, he enjoyed watching the squirrels steal the strawberries as he sat at the kitchen table.

The next door neighbor had a sewer problem which also became my father’s new feature show. Since he was in construction years ago, watching the work of the back hoe and the activity of the laborers became another fascinating pursuit.

One memory I have from when I was a very small girl was watching John Wayne movies on TV with my father. I had purchased the John Wayne/John Ford DVD set for his birthday a while back and we watched one of those movies together while I was there.

I am involved in that traditional race where we try to fill our parent’s lives with activities and exercise to extend their life span...that race ahead of inevitable death.

Strangely, it was not unbearably sad to leave at the end of the week this time, but perhaps it was because I did not allow my mind to wander to those places in the future. I was concentrating only on the moment.