To One and All~~~HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Hello Sweet Things,

I'm blogging from my folks house, took the train down on Tuesday after working over the weekend to make sure things were in place before I left, I'm planning on staying with the Folks through the Weekend and coming back by train on Monday.

My Folks, Baby Sis and her boyfriend met me at the Station, in the rebuilt 1950's Buick, it felt great!

We've spent Wednesday just getting things into place and ready for the dinner, Mom insists on baking home made pies. No store bought, almost everything home made, it can be a chore but with all of us pitching in it's so much easier, now I have to get the receipes.

Dad has invited his co-worker Andrew and his wife to Thanksgiving with us, Andrew's wife is expecting and in her eighth month, Mom insisited that she not be pressured into doing a Thanksgiving dinner, which was good because Andrews' wife's family live up in Washington State and they couldn't visit and Andrew really has no family, being estranged from his father.

So it's going to work out really good. The only down thing is that Ted, Baby sis's boyfriend is going to be with his folks for their Dinner because they have out of town relatives visiting that he hasn't seen in ages, but he will be by for dessert.

And Mom is cooking so much, I can picture the left overs, turkey sandwhiches, turkey casserol, turkey soup, turkey tetrazzini, but with Mom's home made stuffing which you have to make at least a day a head of time because it involves chicken.

And no you don't stuff a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey which I've heard some people do.

Mom is just so excited about this, she's resurrected the old family receipes that she hasn't made in ages, and the smells are just so wonderful.

Dad, of course, has to keep Trixie out of the kitchen because she gets so excited, so he keeps taking her for walks, and more walks just to tire her out. But from the looks of it, it's Dad that's getting tired.

Right now we're taking a little break, everything is almost ready. Andrew and his wife will soon be here. And Mom is planning on giving them a lot of leftovers so she doesn't have to cook for a while. Since Michelle's folks are up in Washington, Mom has offered to help out with anything she may need, and Dad, Ted and Baby Sis have offered to Take her to the hospital in case Andrew is tied up.

But Mom keeps saying that the Baby will come most likely in the middle of the night.

Everything feels so good right now, I just don't want it to end and I have a lot to be Thankful for.

Must go Sweet Things, our guests are here and Trixie is barking up a storm.

Until later.

Yoshi, Lillian, Hoppy and Me~~~~~~

Hello Sweet Things,

Another Sunday morning has come and gone, and a lovely Sunday morning too. I dawned sunny, clear, cold and a bit crisp. Fall is fully upon us.

I have been a bit of a busy bee this whole last week, went in taking Bus and BART on a coldish, drizzly, rainy, Friday morning, at least it was casual Friday. The crowds were back to being their usual self. Worked till 1 p.m.

Met with my friend Yoshi for lunch near Union Square, and with her driving in the crowded Streets of San Francisco on a rainy, drizzly day (an adventure in itself) we went to this Antique/Collectible shop that had been recommended to me.

And it was not a wasted effort, I found a wooden 4 drawer filing cabinet in excellent condition, that matched my desk, however no luck on a 2 drawer cabinet, I was not upset about that. I just have to be on the watch for it.

So I made arrangements to have it delivered to my home Saturday evening, and it now sits in my home office waiting for all the files that I plan to put into it.

After our little excursion, Yoshi and I went to do some Grocery shopping, I decided to hold off on perishable dairy goods, until I got back home. Yoshi asked if I wanted to come over for dinner at her aunts’ house in Oakland, but feeling tired from the day and the week, I had to beg off.

So she dropped me off at my home before going to her aunts’, she, like Lillian, is such a good friend. Friends always need to be cherished, especially when they are there to support you in your time of need.

The Gun Show yesterday was fun, a lot of people, a lot of guns, a lot of collectibles, and a lot of items to buy for security and self defense. The NRA was out in force, outside and inside; out side they were signing up people and having people sign petitions to repeal the ammo limitation sales, as well as signing letters of support to Assemblyman Hager for amending his bill to repeal that idiotic law.

Inside the NRA had an information booth about the current gun law status, who to write to, and information on gun ranges in the greater SFBay Area. People were taking the Gun Safety course and test, and other were taking the conceal weapons carry permit course.

Frank wasn’t working detail for the show but I saw and said “Hi” to some of his friends, they asked about my health, getting better and stronger of course.

The members of the Sunnyvale Cowboy re-enactment group were there, we had a nice chat and they inquired about my previous purchase, I told them I hadn’t gone through the gun yet and cleaned it, nor fired it because of my health problem from earlier and when I was feeling better I didn’t want to do it in front of Mom, although I’m sure she would understand, I just didn’t want to upset her while she was staying with me.

Of course every one of them offered to help, and I know their offer is sincere but the day I can’t clean a gun is a day when it’s time for me to retire. But I’m not foolish, if I see something that I feel requires a gunsmith, I will do that. I never attempt my own repairs, I don’t have that level of expertise.

I did have a chance to see a few 1^st and 2^nd generation colts, a matched pair of 1^st generation colts, with sequential numbers, fully restored by Doug Turnbull, with ivory grips, asking price a mere $7,500 although I think they could go for more. I longed to hold even one of them in my hand, but with ivory grips, I didn’t want my hand oil to do any further discoloration.

After a couple of hours looking and admiring, I felt hungry and at all stadiums, the prices were high for a hot dog and coffee, but an Italian Sausage Dog, worth the price, coffee was Starbucks and very strong, no fancy lattes here, just a lot of dry dairy creamer and sugar (lots of it) I’m sure my calorie intake went off the chart.

I shared a table with several gentlemen from out of town, they were visiting from Seattle, a business weekend for them, I just said I worked as a “secretary”, avoiding what my real job is. One never knows what sort of tidbit of information one can get in a conversational chat. (slight “James Bond” theme here).

I love James Bond movies, even the sexiest Shawn Connery ones.

But I digress, I did get a bit of information from them that I mentally filed away and asked them for their business cards, it always pays to get business cards. We chatted about guns, the laws in California and about the Fort Hood Shooter, everything is now alleged at this time, like he might not have worked alone, that he might have 9/11 connections. We all agreed that we’ll have to see how this plays out.

It turns out that my “Koffee Klatch Friends” are also Cowboy reenactors from up North as well and we talked about that.

But then it was time to move on, and with ‘friendly goodbye’s’ and ‘nice talkin’ to ya’s’ we went our ways.

I never go to one of these shows with any expectations, which is good because one doesn’t get disappointed. But sometimes something shows up which I call a “Gotta Have”, and there it sat, no fanfare, just sitting there. Not a gun either.

It was an original picture of Hopalong Cassidy (portrayed by William Boyd) in an original Hopalong Cassidy picture frame from the time Boyd took the Hopalong movies to T.V. in the 1950’s. It was in very, very good condition only slight wear, in fact I was amazed that it held up this long, the price was a steal.

I looked at it, took out my money, the man came along looked at me, I pointed to the picture, he smiled and said “The guys from the Sunnyvale Cowboy group are going to be upset, a couple of them came looked and said ‘I’ll be back’, one of them said I need to get some cash from the wife, I hate to see their faces”. I grinned as he carefully bagged the photo and frame.

And yes Sweet Things, I had to ‘gloat’. I went over to the group and said “hi’ again and said “Look what I found!” Showed Hoppy, their faces just were priceless, one turned to his wife and said “See!! I told ya!” She could only just shrug her shoulders in that “Oh Well” movement. But I told them that Hoppy would have a good home.

A couple of the police officers that work the show came by and saw what I had purchased, and one said “I just looked at it 20 minutes ago, I shoulda moved on that!”

And now Hoppy has a good home in my home office, I’ve made sure that he’s not in an area where he’ll get faded from the sun, but where I can also see him. I never saw the Hopalong Cassidy show, it ran many years before my time, but at a western film revival they showed some of the films that were filed in historic Jamestown and Columbia back in 1935 before Columbia became a state historic park. And I got hooked and watched first for the Tapes then DVD’s for the films.

Of course I also love Roy and Gene, and the Lone Ranger, but for some reason Hoppy has staying power, his image is still on Producers Milk, which is what my Mother buys even now.

Now after a busy weekend gun shows, finishing grocery shopping, antique shopping, I thought I would stay in on Sunday, but Lillian had a different idea, so off we went to Niles, she has a friend that was showing some of her works at a small art gallery in Town and she wanted to see what her friend had produced. After looking at everything for nearly an hour, Lillian and I came out of the small gallery and as we walked towards Bronco Billy’s Pizza Parlor for coffee and a salad she proclaimed “I can do better.”

I don’t argue with Lillian.

We sat at the only table at the window of the place; I had no idea why she wanted to go there except that one has an excellent view of the street, and both Lillian and I love to people watch. There was a fellow dressed as a cowboy all in black and his wife, she looked a little ill and she was wearing a high plains drifter hat, but wore red cloth gloves and a warm jacket, they were sitting at the counter, drinking coffee and quietly talking, I heard him say “You’re only out of the hospital less that 4 weeks, it takes time to get better from surgery, I don’t want you to push it” she was using a cane to assist in walking.

After a bit they left, the cowboy husband carefully watching his wife and they joined a group of cowboys near this passenger railroad car and they went in. Lillian remarked it must be for some sort of meeting. I was thinking "Why am I running into cowboys?"

I was looking out at the area that the Niles township is working on, the new plaza, with it’s old fashioned passenger and freight railroad depot. Lillian told me that she was trying to get tickets for the Christmas lights train that runs from Sunol to Niles and back, but the dates she wanted were sold out, just at the time her family would be visiting.

I’ve ridden the Niles Canyon Railway several times for fun and have eaten at Bosco’s Bones and Brew in Sunol, I’ll have to plan on riding the Christmas lights train sometime.

I suggested that we go to the Dicken’s Fair on one of the weekends, so we’ll make plans for that.

Before we left Niles, we went through some of the antique shops, and I saw a pair of art Deco type brass and onyx bookends in the shape of Falcons. I thought that they would be perfect to hold my hardcopy address book and my calendar book. The price was right and a 20% discount on top of that. No argument from me. How could one be so lucky in one weekend I thought, but sometimes fate works that way.

We left early, I was feeling tired, Lillian asked if I would drop her off at a Friends house who was expecting her, so while in town as we were driving past this warehouse being renovated I saw it, a very large Falcon, I’d seen him the day before, and there he was again, I have no idea as to what breed of Falcon, I’ll have to look it up. Lillian spotted him too and remarked that she had seen him several times, so there must be a nest or something nearby, it appears to be his territory. How remarkable I thought, and how wonderful.

Now I’m finishing typing my weekend adventures, not much in the grand scheme of things, but fun. I have some wonderful War Won Ton Soup ready to heat, that I purchased yesterday and never had a chance to eat it. Then I’ll spread out the newspapers and catch up on things.

I wonder what is on “Retro Night” on KOFY T.V. something interesting I hope, if not I’ll put on a James Bond movie, or maybe watch William Powell and Myrna Loy exchange banter as they solve a “Thin Man” mystery. And then to Bed…It has been a busy weekend for me.

Until Later Sweet Things, Kisses.

The Missing "Cents" symbol~~~~~~

And a Lovely Thursday Morning to all you Sweet Things,

We are finally getting our chilly Fall weather now, clouds appearing, gray and overcast, with the threat of showers---well we do need the rain, we need it very badly.

I’m finally caught up with all the bumps and dips at work, things are rolling with its usual “side-bars” and I do get a bit tired, but sleep is the healer of all things they say.

I even found a "Halloween" picture of the Lovely Ava, that I added to my Halloween post, check it out.

I’m thinking of doing alternating choices in my commute to work, the usual methods, Bus and BART and from time to time taking the Ferry, with either driving myself to the parking lot or Lillian driving me over and picking me up or my catching the bus, and making a second connection, although I did discover that the commuter bus from the Ferry only drops me off a half block from my home. It’s a question of catching it in the morning. But I’m not taking it while it’s raining; I’m not going out on choppy bay waters.

Lillian has taken up water colors, she’s attending classes and I have to say is a very good painter. She likes water colors because she says it’s more immediate, she doesn’t have to wait for the acrylics to set. It’s done.

I told her that there is that painter who seems to do a painting in an hour’s time on T.V. why not try that? I should remember that Lillian’s verbal tongue lashings can strip off skin.

I am looking forward towards the Gun Show this weekend, who knows what I may find.

But this evening is balancing the check book and bill paying---sigh---I know one should do bill paying on line, but I have to confess, Dad ages ago got me into the habit of doing checks and paying by mail.

At work we’ve been talking about how could one protect their personal and financial information, one good electronic pulse and that’s it---everything is gone. And people are getting more and more enamored with electronic bill paying----a very dangerous thing.

I’ve always believed in Hardcopy, and since I can access my information on line, I do a print out every two days from home. It may seem excessive, but it works, Gloria “The Diva” at Ladivalocafabulous (it’s another blog spot site) suggested it to me, and to keep one years worth for hardcopy back up. Along of course, with my bank statements.

I’m not saying that one should be a Ludite, but hard copy is always good.

And my Dear Sweet Fram, yes, I do think buying property in Canada might be a good option to persue, the way things are going.

I’m going to be taking a half day off on Friday (casual Friday) going in early and getting off at after the close of the N.Y. exchanges, I can check on things locally from home. But there’s a couple of antique stores that I know that deal with period office furniture from the 20’s to the 1960’s for those people into serious Retro. They also rent out things for theatre and movie props.

I want to get a wooden 4 drawer and 2 drawer file cabinets to go with my desk, none of the new ones seem to match. And I found a shop in Castro Valley that sells reconditioned manual typewriters; I seriously want to buy a Royal if possible.

Did you know Sweet Things, that when a sales man would demonstrated a typewriter he would type the word typewriter. Why? Well the letters for the word is all on the upper rank----take a look and type out typewriter very slowly.

TYPEWRITER. It made it easy for them to sell it when they would demonstrate it. The remaining letters were cast randomly on what was left of the key board, with the two least used letters Q and Z at the outermost reaches, A is always easy to hit with the little finger of your left hand and if you notice you hardly ever use the little finger of your right hand at all.

And it has remained that way ever since----there is one character that is missing from the keyboard and that is the cents sign---we have the dollar sign but no longer have the cents sign. On a manual type writer missing that symbol you’d type the lower case c, back space and then strike / through it but you cannot with a computer try it c/ can’t be done, the word processor thinks something is there and will skip it.

Now does anybody know how to create a “cents” sign on a word processor?

It’s not on any of the “wing dings” symbols. How many young people do not recognize the cents symbol----O.K. I know that in the grand scheme of things it’s small, but we lost it without realizing it.

And that is what is happening everywhere, we are losing things without realizing it with our complacency of life, our complacent attitudes.

Wake up Folks, be aware of what is disappearing before it’s too late, like your Freedom and Liberty.

And that is your thought for the day.

Until later Sweet Things, Kisses

A Short Comment on Obama or "The Cow and the Ice Cream"~~~~

Hello Sweet Things,

I do love flash drives, small, discreet, very portable, lots of memory, I wrote this up Tuesday night, came to work early again this morning, things are quiet right now so no problem to quickly down load this. Then a meeting at 9 a.m, I just “love” Wednesday morning meetings, coffee, bagels, fruit, pastries; our boss “foots” the bill. Big believer in staff moral, which is pretty good around here.

Well it was a good thing that I got an early morning start to work on Monday, with Lillian dropping me off at the Ferry and the Ferry being crowded it was a good choice. After getting to work I found that much of my colleagues were able to keep things going for me, but I did have a bit of ‘catch up’ to do.

Which wasn’t too bad really, it was good to see everyone, and they treated me to lunch at our favorite place; Fortunately when I asked for the days that I wanted for vacation it was not a problem, especially since I would be in the office before and over New Years, and with WiFi and everything I can keep in touch with the office.

Unfortunately I had to take BART and Bus back home, I called Lillian to explain. Bless her she ordered ‘delivery’ from our favorite Chinese place, so she had the fun of me explaining to her all the woes of commuting with the Bay Bridge being closed. Hmmm it felt like New York during Rush Hour.

I have to admit, taking public transportation is really a good thing in the City, unless you have to ride one of the City’s Muni Busses. Especially into one of the more crowded ethic parts of the city, but I’ve such a short walk to the BART station from work, it’s not so bad. Thank Goodness for tennis shoes, so much better on the feet when you have to walk, although I’ve gotten fond of Sketchers, no Crocs for me, they are so ugly.

It was a good thing that Lillian ordered dinner, I was so tired, but I know it will get better once I’m into the swing of it again.

We got word that the bridge is finally open but it will close again in a few months for any additional repair. Well I’ll be prepared with alternatives. Just let us know in advance is all I can say.

But I still don’t trust the repairs that have been made, not that it’s CAL Trans fault, its an old bridge and until they can be sure it will be safe for a longer period of time then I’m going to have to take the San Mateo Bridge to get to the City on Saturday---Another Gun Show at the Cow Palace---Yippee!! I just know I’m not going to get lucky as I did the last time, but its wise to never say never.

Of course it will take a long time to get over the bridge even for a Saturday, however with the Bay Bridge being open and functioning for a few days it might make it easier, from what I’m hearing they are going to make sure it is fixed and fixed right---Well I hope so!! The persons in those three cars were lucky to not be injured, the next time it might be worse.

Patience that is what one needs right now, patience.

I’ve been keeping quiet on President Obama for many reasons, the first being that I wanted to see how his administration is going to start out.

But recently Rush Limbaugh in an interview said that Obama (and I’m paraphrasing) is the most dangerous person to the freedom and liberty of the American people.

Although the White House spokesperson said that Limbaugh is just an entertainer, from the rumblings that I have been hearing among my colleagues, Limbaugh may not be off the mark.

It’s a question of “The Cow and the Ice Cream”.

A teacher wanted to show to her 3^rd graders how politics and elections work, so she had her class select two candidates Joe and Olivia, both were excellent students, and both had their parents support. When it came time for them to give their speeches as to why each should be elected Joe gave an excellent speech about how he would improve the class room and how he would go about doing it.

Olivia stood up and said “If I’m elected I will give everyone ice cream” and sat down, when asked how would the ice cream be given, where would the money for the ice cream come from, and where was the source for the ice cream, or where was the “Cash Cow” to handle all of this, the reply was “I don’t know”.

Olivia was elected, because all that her class mates could see and hear was “Ice Cream”

And that is how a number of my colleagues view the Obama Presidency.

It is a frightening thought.

And now I must get back to work. Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho.

Until Later Sweet Things, Kisses

The Halloween After~~~~

Hello Sweet Things,

Did you all have a Happy Halloween? Mine was fun, all the little trick or treaters in their costumes, and with warm coats on. Mommies and Daddies holding very little babies that were dressed as pumpkins or Teddy Bears and holding out the bags for candy, well I just knew who was going to be eating the candy.

But it has become quiet a family event and one that I approve of. It’s almost as big as Christmas but without all the angst of gift giving.

I shut down the lights by 9:30 p.m. all the “littles” had pretty much come and gone. I had a late night dinner, mostly leftovers from Mom’s wonderful cooking with plenty for Joe and Frank for their late night snack.

Their cots were set up in the living room with night lights in the kitchen and half bath. They have spare keys that I gave them, no sense doing the long drive home and I know they would be having problems on “Mischief Night”. This morning over coffee they told me some of the problems. I won’t tell you of some of the stupidity.

You’d think that people would have more sense. But they don’t. Frank and Joe have now crashed out on the cots, I can hear their snores even the caffine of the coffee couldn’t keep them awake.

Halloween dawned cold and gray but then the sun came out but it was still a bit chilly at night. I lit a small fire in my fireplace to make things cozy, I find that my house is empty without Mom’s presence. I saw her off on Friday morning at the train and got a call that night when she arrived safely at home, Dad, baby sis and Ted met her at the station, with all her luggage. I spent the day tiding up just a few things, not that there was much to do, just a load of sheets and making the bed.

And then setting the clocks back one hour last night, now this Sunday morning the dawn and time seemed right in sync.

I and Lillian will be doing our grocery shopping and a few other things today, maybe taking advantage of any sales, Frank and Joe said they would lock up my house when they go.

When I get home I’ll be setting up my things to get ready to go to work tomorrow, back into the hustle of the working world.

The Bay Bridge is still closed, so I’ll be taking the Ferry over to the City, Lillian will drop me off and pick me up, parking at the Ferry terminal will be insane anyway.

Although I usually take bus to BART but for the next few days during the work week I think the Ferry may be a nice change of pace. Leave early and get back into the swirl of work. And Lillian said she doesn’t mind, she’s an early riser anyway.

For Thanksgiving, I’ll make plans to go down by train and spend a few days with the Folks, I’ll leave the day before Thanksgiving then come back Sunday or maybe Monday after, if work will permit it and I’m sure they will, I have to use that vacation time and they know it.

Then see what I can do for the Christmas holidays, I do know I want to go up to my country place for a weekend and see what holiday festivities they are planning, my caretakers will let me know.

Then down to the Folks a few days before Christmas but coming back just before New Year’s, I always need to tie things up at work, so we shall see how things work out.

Hmm, sometimes the sounds echo strangely around here, I though I heard a ships fog horn going out of the deep channel of the Estuary, although where I’m at it’s sunny but then on the water things can be different, fog banks and such. Oh, I am not mistaken I heard it again and again. It may be a ship coming in to off load at the Oakland Terminals. Such an eerie, mournful sound, it does remind one of San Francisco by the Bay, a signature sound.

Ahhhh yes, just a lazy Sunday morning this November, and that is just fine for me. Lillian is here, tiptoeing to not wake the sleeping beauties in my living room, and with a few final taps of the computer I’ll be off.

Until later Sweet Things, Kisses.