Beware, or I'll eat you alive.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Of Shopping, Reporters, Guns shows and Poker~~~But mostly shopping

Well Sweet Things once again we experienced a heat wave last week, a very muggy one at that, but our weather persons predicted that it would cool down a little by Sunday with some dry lighting----HAH!!

Not only did we have the lighting we also had some serious showers, which would have spoiled an outdoor wedding for one couple that was planning to be married on the beach near my home, but ever resourceful Lillian came to the rescue and called a few favors and before you knew it up went some of the neighbors e-z up shades that fend off all but the most worst droplets and it was one very happy, laughing couple ---yes Sweet Things, I was among the rescuers with an e-z up shade. At least the vows were held at 11 a.m. and everyone was off to the reception which was moved indoors just in case.

I have to admit life with Lillian as a neighbor is never dull and that is one of many reasons why I love her.

Last Friday I got home early from work which gave Lillian and me to finally do the curtain and drape shopping that needed to be done to replace the ones that were destroyed earlier this year.

I’m sure some of you are thinking “well it took long enough”, to be honest it didn’t feel very high on my priority list because of the work that had to be done in my own home, the floors were refinished, the walls painted and for an accent one of them wall papered, my couch redone, a chair and a few end tables replaced, and bit by bit the lamps, I even got a new area rug, it wasn’t until I had all of that that my thoughts turned towards the curtains and drapes.

And my lawyer neighbor whose tree it was that started my re-decorating has been as good as his word about paying the bills, what the insurances didn’t cover he did. How rare to find that quality in a person.

Well I did baby sit for him and his wife their two little ones while they went out for an anniversary dinner 4 weeks ago. And very good children too, dinner early and instead of asking for a movie, they wanted to play a board game, Scrabble Junior, so I asked if Lillian could come over and be a 4th player, it made for an interesting evening, we all laughed so much getting into friendly debates about the legitimacy of a word. We did have to lay down some rules; abbreviations such as “TMI”, “OMG”, “ROTFLMAO”, “BFF”, “IMHO” etc. did not count.

But late Friday night in a fit of energy I totally stripped out the bathroom and gave it a very through cleaning and Saturday (after the wedding event) Lillian and I went to see what we could find at IKEA or Bed, Bath and Beyond. Frankly I adore the things at BB and B but I knew Lillian wanted to see what IKEA had so I indulged her; we even swung by Target as well.

Yes Sweet Things it was an orgy of shopping, we even went into the City last Sunday to see what the shops in Union Square had to offer. Sometimes one has to do that.

Today I went to the Cow Palace again for their Gun Show, and I enjoyed myself completely. I saw a lot of nice people, and a lot of nice guns, this time quiet a few antiques and collectibles, and surprisingly a lot of survival things. I have a feeling that this might be a future trend. (Along with another heat wave)

I just hope that the idiot legislatures don’t put a crimp into that by passing that stupid legislation banning Gun Shops at the Cow Palace. It’s only a “feel good” legislation which will promptly go to court and be another waste of the tax payer’s money.

I’d written to my Senator and Assembly person protesting about it and urging them to vote no, as if these idiots would listen to common sense

.

Now it’s before the Governator, and I have written to him as well, I hope he veto’s it.

If he doesn’t it will come up for a lawsuit by the NRA.

If I didn’t love the Bay Area so much or parts of California in general I’d move to another state. Hmmmm I really don’t see why I can’t anyway, there’s property in Nevada near Carson City that looks good or Arizona.

Oh wouldn’t that be rich, buying a place say in Tombstone, Arizona.

Ahhh but it is a question of visiting the family as well. This is something I’m going to have to think upon for future, owning the property and having it pay for itself is important, but it needs to be in an area that I’m going to like and have that special “something” that makes it special to me.

Arrggggh!!! See what happens when one goes Shopping!!! Decisions, decisions!!!

And more shopping this week, well I have my tennis shoes on and Lillian and I will make the most of it. Yes Sweet Things, I still have vacation time to use up, because the last couple of years I barely used my vacation I was asked by Corporate to use it up this year to get back to into sync with what I would normally have---***sigh*** well there is an advantage with being connected to work from home so I can take time off and keep tabs as well.

So I’ve taken this week off to finish redecorating my house, it’s not dark like it use to be reflecting at the time what I was emotionally going through, now it’s more fun, I’m looking for pieces that look like it was from the stylish 40’s and 50’s sort of an art Moderne without going into those extreme Picasso styles. Clean lines that could also support Art Deco as well if I wanted to.

Yesterday I saw a desk with matching chair at this Antique Coop here in town with clean curved lines, the drawers dove tailed and pulled smoothly, with even a drawer for a file to hold current files, in a light blond wood. I was pleased that it barely had any scratches on the surface so I bought it for my at home office, but it’s not going to hold my computer, that is going to be on another work table, no I want this one to be clear for me to do other paper work.

But Lillian, who was with me, drew my attention to this typewriter that was displayed on top of it, I hadn’t noticed it before because my attention was taken up with the desk, but when I saw the provenance on the typewriter I could understand why there were tears in Lillian’s’ eyes.

The typewriter, a reporter’s lap top portable Remington belongs to a long time news reporter, Everett Johannes. Lillian introduced me to Everett when I first moved into town, he was semi-retired then from the local paper, still writing local color pieces.

He, along with former Mayor Terry LaCroix was at the Tahoe Apartments when a navy Jet crashed into them in 1971, resulting in a huge disaster, Everett was the first reporter at the scene that was how he met Lillian, she lived across the street and he asked to use her phone so he could call the story in.

The story about this event can be found at www.alamedastories.org under “Front Line Mayor” as a digital story.

I noticed that Everett always called Lillian “Joan” and although he was told my real name he started called me “Ava”. I found out from Lillian that he was a real film buff always preferring the old films when stars were stars, so he had a habit of addressing the Ladies by nick names of the female stars that they might have resembled. A flattering bit of style and also a way for him to not have to remember the real names.

So from time to time the three of us would get together for drinks and dinner, and he told me about the town back in the days when it was a real town with real characters. He had been a reporter since his high school days, he never thought of any other career, he worked for a number of large newspapers, but eventually came back to his home town started working for the local newspaper and settled in.

He always found something interesting and he told me that this town was never boring, he was right. The last 18 months he didn’t come out of his apartment because of a disfiguring growth, a type of goiter that was impossible to operate on because of his age, from time to time he would call me and I always returned his calls and we had nice chats on the phone.

He died earlier this year in his mid-eighties, I and Lillian attended his memorial service, he never married, and left his estate to his younger brother and this was his typewriter. It was in beautiful condition, he took loving care of it

.

I asked the shop owner since the desk that I bought was just recently displayed in the window, if he wouldn’t mind continuing to display it until he got in another desk to preserve the vignette of the display, the owner agreed. I didn’t have the heart to break up the display at this time, but instead I found a hat in the shop of the type that Everett wore and draped it over one corner of the upright cover of the typewriter, as if Everett just returned from covering a story and in his haste put his hat there as a convience, the shop owner liked it, it gave immediacy to the scene.

No Sweet Things, I don’t think I’ll buy the typewriter as much as I’m tempted to, but I’m going to take a picture of it for my memories. I just hope someone will buy it who will appreciate it.

So now Sweet Things, I’m going to join Lillian, Joe and Frank and few other friends at her place for an outdoor buffalo wings and other goodies Poker Night. All proceeds to go to charity. We write out a check to the charity and we receive in return that amount in chips, the winners with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd highest amounts will receive prizes

.

I think it’s going to be a long night and a very warm one.

Kisses Sweet Things.

No comments: