A Party and some family history

Two brothers, cousins of mine put on a surprise 75th birthday for their mother yesterday.  Kathy, their mom is a first cousin of mine that I share a lot of history with.  My parents Dorothy and Ed were best friends with his brother and wife, Bill and Bonnie throughout my entire childhood.  There were many nights at their home in West Dearborn with parents playing pinochle (a game I never understood) and Joan and I hanging around with our cousins Kathy, David and their little brother Mark.  This house hosted many basement parties with lots of beer and booze consumed.  The attendees were mostly neighbors so driving home was not part of the picture.

We all grew up.  Some of us survived to be senior citizens.  Kathy's dear husband died ten years ago from some virus.  He was well and in a month, he was gone, a truly wonderful guy.  His memory was discussed at length with all of us sharing stories we remembered.  When we were kids and our parents sent us to the 6 Mile theater for a movie, we walked down Woodward Ave in front of Palmer Park each holding about 50 cents for the movie and popcorn.  And Kathy was in charge of us, a fact proclaimed by our parents.  

Matthew, the one on the left and Gregory at his side, although being very different now make a great brotherly team.  Matt has a husband, David and their relationship stands on the shoulders of the gay men before them that suffered countless indignities and pain.  Some of those guys are life long friends of mine and I have heard their stories.  Matthew and David are married, happy and their families are happy and  love them both.  This collection of people in this setting is a testament to how things can be in a more perfect world.  Greg, a really likable guy in the film business who has a wonderful girlfriend, Sara, who I met tonight.  She and I swapped photos and she loved the photo of the bearded dragon with the party hat from Jamie Clark.  He and Andrew are pals with infrequent hangouts. 

I got to meet David's parents, wonderful folks that like us have a disabled daughter.  Vito and I discussed at length the pitfalls of the lacking social safety net for the disabled.  He is a spectacular cook and made eggplant parmigiana that was without parallel. He of course down played his talents.  

Matthew and my Katey had crazy fun in their earlier days, always getting into some kind of trouble.  I will make it my mission to get them together for a reunion.

well, that's it. 

all for now

stay safe

 

Snow, eh not that much

We were supposed to have another snowmaggeden in our county.  All the news and weather people were all excited to report.  They had frozen and snowy street reporters in the thick of it with frozen eyebrows and drippy noses.  There were interviews with the county road bosses as to preparedness.  Here at the old folks home, residents were shuddering watching the snow come down.  There were a few blips in the power, screwing up all the cable signals and the streaming services.  None lasted long.  We probably got about 3 inches in our neighborhood.

Shannon is happy even with the snowy day watching movies and listening to her tunes, satisfied with a simple breakfast of oatmeal and some fruit from her mother.  

Even with the snow, it is a little pretty outside.  

It's a low key day with Shannon going back in the afternoon.  I have a social occasion to attend in the afternoon. 

Yesterday had breakfast with friend Bob Kavanagh and i forgot all about it and was 30 min late, too busy reprovisioning the household.  He and his Judy had an adventure in TX seeing the sights in Austin, SanAntonio and Houston.  

Thats it for today

stay warm and safe (snow should be melted by later today)

all for now

Back to Reality

So it is extremely weird to be back in my quiet kitchen making my oatmeal this morning.  It is quiet and and nice in this soundless room aside from the  pot on the stove starting to boil.  Gained about 4 lbs. on the trip after 28 days of eating like I was going to the electric chair.  Sun burn is fading and the bites from the no-see-ums are gone. Going to Kroger early this morning to preempt the coming snow because we are without food.  Have a doctors appointment next week to check glucose levels.  Really dreading it because of my eating habits over the last month.  I am preparing myself for the scolding.

Slept in my own bed last night which had a comfortable familiarity.  Still woke up early after about 4 hours of sleep.  Really have no complaints. 

So all the guys on this trip seemed to have beards, ball caps and tired old jeans.  I didn't want to look too out of place, hence the whiskers.  But now, I have to get back to my normal routine.  Will struggle back to Planet Fitness on Monday and try to move forward.

Have to visit Joyce to get my mail and packages this morning.  Saw some of my resident friends in the lobby as I was unloading my stuff.  it was great to see them.  Gonna get Shannon before the snow gets too bad.  It was a good respite in warmer weather but I am really glad to be home.

all for now

stay safe

 

A Last Day Summation

It's the last full day here.  Been thinking about the most enjoyable and tasty foods we had during our adventure in Carrabelle.  I made a couple of good things, shrimp scampi and the Carla  recipe for BBQ ribs and some ok pasta dishes, Janine's shrimp salad and some decent burgers.  Our visits Carrabelle Junction yielded great coffee and wonderful Cubano sandwiches and wonderful homemade pastries.  My dessert highlight had to be the Key Lime pie from Fisherman's Wife.

Spent many nights at Harry's Bar (opened in 1942) Had a few beers, mostly diet cokes and some afternoons as the summation of a walk to town.  This place allows well behaved dogs in to interact with the patrons.  Last night we met a Bernese Mountain Dog  in the mix.  He was gentle and friendly about the size of a small pony.  Along with friendly and engaging local folks, we met people from MN, WI, Buffalo Ny and the upper peninsula of Michigan. 

Had a wonderful dinner with our new friends Ken and Kathy in their motor home at their site on Ochlockonee Bay. Judy took some spectacular photos of sunsets at different times.  This is one of them. 

It's amazing the things that become customary when you are in them.  There is sand everywhere,  in your shoes, on the floor and in the car.There are no-see-ums, little biting bugs that arrive with the warmer weather.  My legs have now fading spots running up and down my limbs.  There are indigenous palm trees that are low to the ground and not picture perfect.  The sandy beach is a great walk for the pooches and me with a few shells to pick.

Living in a neighborhood has been interesting, met church people, and many that have lived here most of their lives.  It is not a pristine spot.   Some houses are in disrepair or underdevelopment.  There are dead palm leaves all about.  The library has an authors presentation about every two weeks.  I attended both of them on our visit.  We went on a "Cultural Crawl" and learned about the history of the town with cotton on the river, the harvesting of resin for ship building and the rendering of turpentine.  

All in all it was a good trip.  But I am ready to get back to my family, my little apartment and my little town.

all for now

stay safe

Katey

Today is the birthday of my darling daughter Katherine Rose Kocsis, achieving the age of 37.  Out with pals last evening, I got the lowdown on the night with this mornings call.  She has never been a patient person.  Even on this occasion that was supposed to be a scheduled C-Section, she decided to make her appearance a month early.  We went to the hospital for a routine checkup and much to our surprise, it was time.

My lovely girl has traveled life's journey with all its ups and downs.  Many careers and romances and strong and stable friendships,  with folks you can count in a pinch.  

She makes me happy and can always make me laugh hysterically.  I have met some amazing people thru her,  one of which is Alvin that I regard as another son.  For this entry, I wanted to include photos of us as grownups at different times

We have traveled this road together along with my best friend  on four legs, Apollo,  always continuing forward.

I love her

and wish her a Happy Birthday.

Adventureland

 

Departing on our adventure tomorrow.  This will be it for a while.  Launching a new blog from the destination.  Excited but slightly nervous with anticipation.  Have a monster "don't forget list" I keep referring to.  

all for now

stay safe

Credit Freeze and Music Lament

 

This is my companion of yesterday, Simon the cat. He is giving me the "What do you want from me?" look.  Had a nice day with the kids yesterday for their scheduled day off from school.  Care and feeding of pre teen and teenagers is much easier than little ones.  All you have to do is announce: I'm making pizza at noon.  They grunt a response and you let them know when it's done.

A little advice, take steps to freeze your credit thru the bank or credit card companies.  If your accounts are frozen,  no one can access them.  You will not be prevented from making purchases or payments like you always do.  if you are purchasing a home or car,  you can unfreeze your credit, then when done, put it back in the deep freeze.  There are lots of criminals out there and they don't always brandish firearms.

Read an interview with Mike Love (Beach Boys) yesterday and it reminded me of the state of music when I was growing up.  It was all "Fun Fun Fun till her Daddy took the T-Bird away"  and "She Loves you" and The Four Tops singing "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch", kind of happy, nonsensical tunes you could dance to in the high school gym.  It was all about love and meeting someone that maybe liked you.  Those sentiments and the silliness are long gone.  It is my suspicion that no one under thirty even know what a T-Bird is.  Times do change and our society has as well, not necessarily for the worse but much more complicated. 

There is a plethora of media delivery systems with YouTube, TIk Tock and others.  Recorded music is streamed through Pandora or Spotify rather than compact disc. Frankly, I really enjoy dinosaur bands with old concert footage on YouTube. Further nearly anyone with a guitar that can carry a tune in a bucket can put it out on some social media platform and get thousands of views and they can make money off it.  Again, it's  more complicated but accessible to more.  This where we now live.

On a happy note, my friend Jerry has a new grand daughter this week, Gemma Belle Duff, 5lbs 2ozs.   All are doing well.  I am quite fond of her moniker. 

I am still looking for classified documents in shoeboxes at my apartment.  Haven't found any yet.

all for now

stay safe and warm