We moved again! Still unpacking like snails . …

Our new house was completed the end of Oct this year.  Two days after we moved we sold our mobile.  It is a smart home. It out smarts us! All homes here are solar now and we are saving on the electric. 

My dad passed last November.

We had to put Annie dog down in 2017 :(.   and Java dog went crazy some problem with here brains stem.

We now share our home with two small rescue dogs.  One is a tripod  (terrier mix)  and the other is partially blind (min pin mix).

More on the home and furry friends  later if anyone still reads this blog?

Last resort is to just reinstall wordpress and hope the database backup works   I thought with all the crazy social network problems  blogging might be fun again?

If you type a post and nobody reads it  did you really write it?

With all the basketball this and arena that in the news the performing arts  seemed to have taken second stage.  The Ballet cancelled an event we had tickets for – it cost more to hold the event then funds would justify. The dancers laid off have formed their own company and are performing in a smaller setting.  The city has appeared to be headed toward a cultural wasteland.  yes, we have roadway shows and the Music Circus, the Mondavi Center in Davis,  but symphony,  orchestra, opera, ballet . …  exposure has been limited.  I remember going to see the people play violins, bang the kettle drums, and sing strange songs with foreign words when I was young. Here, in Sacramento.  Mozart, Brahms,  Gilbert and Sullivan, Peter Pan, Mary Poppins live on stage.  Heck, i even played a bunny rabbit for Captain Kangaroo at the Memorial Auditorium. I  watched the elephants walk through the corridors of the old auditorium  – that was something – elephants walking in where I had walked myself to see a show.  But nothing beat the strings and kettle drums.

The point I guess is while everything changes somethings should stay the same. it should not be such a battle for kids to hear a symphony or watch Peter Pan fly. There will always be adults who choose to take their kids to the next great movie or comic-con over the opera or ballet but I believe there are still adults working to expose the youth to the joy and magic of the performing arts and classical music.

KRP dozed off at the concert and I giggled along with the lady near us whose husband had done the same, we knew what was coming.  We stifled giggles as their heads jumped up.

The critics are out there and most of what they say about the show is true.  I am just happy that the symphony orchestra is back.

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren’t alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promised joy.

In the poem, he is apologizing to a mouse for the destruction of its nest while plowing a field. We humans sure can make plans for the future. The mouse, unaware really had no plans. Well, we do all die in the end. Is the mouse blessed because it unaware?

John Steinbeck familiar title “Of Mice and Men” is taken from Burn’s poem. I am not going to get into analyzing Lennie and George . .. Steinbeck’s work or Burns either. Just that point – the best of plans can and does go awry.

Nothing screams oh NO louder than 100 plus degree-days and a DEAD A/C unit. Do mechanical object die? No, they cease to function. They like little mousey are unaware but the impact made this human very aware. The plan was to replace the obviously old unit this winter when they are discounted at the end of the season. Bra ha ha – so much for the plan and enter the schemes go wrong part. Enter the dreaded service call

old a/c unit

We were blessed when the technician turned out to be the most understanding and sympathetic of my intolerance for heat. We went from a two-week window for replacement to a three-day one. He hunted old parts down and got the old dinosaur jump-started. He came back and made sure it would come back on. The company moved us up to Monday (today) for installation.

Saturday morning we were awoken by a knock at the door. Standing on the doorstep was to young men with big grins on their faces. Our friendly technician had scheduled himself to install our unit on Saturday they explained. Therefore, because he had such a full service call schedule the company had called them in (bigger $hit eating grins) so here we are! How cool (pun intended) is that!

The cool hero’s

No mice were harmed in the installation of this unit.

New Coolness

Highlights:

• Some one was murdered in our complex
• our neighbor purposely ran into our station wagon twice and totaled it and the shed wall.
• A unit across from us  was shot up lots of holes
• the next night another unit one building down was shot up – lots more holes
• My father pulled my moms car out of the trust and gave it to me (we pay back the trust upon his death)
• we were not so politely told that we needed to leave by people occupying the slum lords units (10-15 people in each unit)
• we gather every dime we had available without pulling from retirement
• a mobile home was coming up for sale in a 55+ complex that is owned by the association (no changeling to a family park)
• we but our valuables into storage
• Catfish dog’s cancer came back and we kept him comfortable until . .. we are going to sped his ashes. I really miss my little guy.
• our offer on mobile home was accepted,
• the next day we accepted an offer on the condo from a broker we had been talking with.
• mobile home escrow closed
• we had our friends son in law paint, build a fence, instal gates and misc touch ups
• friends and all camp at the condo with shotgun so does not get broken into
• we hired a security guard to watch the place after we moved the last of our things out two days before it closed.
• Annie is adjusting to the move they are still a bit nervous

The mobile home has a ramp, covered parking  for three on one side and one on the other. Our back looks out on a big grassy area and one side along the has grassy area also It has a fully walled in porch with two sliding doors.  Not counting the porch it is around 499 sq feet smaller than or townhouse/condo so we are going nuts trying to find places for things. We donated lots of stuff the the goodwill and to the library here.

Billy came from Nevada with the boys (they are men now) and hauled a lot of stuff to the dump, e waste, and cans of paint etc. Brandon came back twice and  helped us with the packing :).  Our friends son in law, his cousin, my niece and her husband moved our furniture and remaining boxes. We packed up everything in banker boxes and moved them to the mobile home in the pick up late at night early mornign when the bad folks were crashed out and done for the night.

Some snaps

Before	after
before	after master bedroom vanity

Living room	let side master bedroom
ramp repairs	living room behind couch

Ok that is all for now

 Anacreon recording is performed by John Townley from The Top Hits Of 1776 on Adelphi Records.

I presume you recognize the tune of the drinking song. The tune was used in the 18th and 19th centuries a lot with the lyrics changing to fit the affairs of the time.

Most of us should be familiar with the history of fort McHenry and its role in the War of 1812 when Baltimore Harbor was successfully defended from an attack by the British navy on September 13 and 14th in 1814. We all learned in our school history classes (hopefully) that while observing the bombardment of the fort Francis Scott Key wrote the poem (Defence of Fort M’Henry) that was to become our nations National Anthem. The poem was then set to the tune of Smith’s “To Anacreon in Heaven” and its title soon changed to to  The Star Spangled Banner.

President Woodrow Wilson gave the U.S. Bureau of Education the duty to provide an official version of the Star Spangled Banner. The Bureau enlisted the help of five musicians Walter Damrosch, Will Earhart, Arnold J. Gantvoort, Oscar Sonneck, and John Philip Sousa deliver the arrangement. In 1889, Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy signed General Order #374, making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that “The Star-Spangled Banner” be played at military and other appropriate occasions. President Herbert Hoover signed a law adopting The Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem of the United States of America.

I do not know about you but our nations anthem has to be one the most near impossible songs to sing. I know the tune, I know the words, but seriously, it is an odd day out when I can get through it without stumbling on the words trying to muddle through the tune. If the lyrics were set to a drinking song, why not choose one of the easier old sea shanties – chanted, with emphasis on a syllable or word. Perhaps they saw the future where thousands of people gathered in a coliseum drinking beer signalling the games beginning by singing the tune.

This post is getting long but if you are so inclined here is a sampling of versions of the anthem.

 The Star Spangled Banner

1898 Souza band played on a 1913 Victor Victrola model X:

1991 Whitney Houston Super Bowl XXV :

2014 A modern interpretation by Madison Rising. They performed a shortened version at the Nascar Nationwide Series season opener at Daytona.

And of course our friend Reyna! @ age 11

Where were you?  I was driving down the freeway  almost to work when the first reports of an  airplane hitting the World Trade Center hit the local radio. By the time I arrived at work it was clear that yes the unbelievable – a commercial plane had crashed into one of the towers.  Then the second plane hit.

I was now opening the garage of the second tallest building in Sacramento.  One of the tenants was Trade and Commerce.  To make a very long story short the Parking Facility Manager, the Janitorial shift lead person, and a couple security guards were the only people remaining in the building.  I sure hope they have better plans in place now because back then the plan sucked.  If you were high enough up the food chain you either arrived and argued with us explaining how important you were trying to bully your way into locked down building without proper ID or you stayed away afraid the aircraft that were reported missing and headed to Calif  were going to hit the building.

I remember watching the Towers fall on a TV we borrowed from the Pawn shop next door.  Over and Over again.  As my pal the janitor awaited news about his cousins that worked in the buildings hoping that they somehow survived.

Today in remembrance: