Mom story

Seeing as it's almost Mother's Day, and since I have a wonderful mother with a great sense of humor who will never see this blog anyway, and since I could never even begin to tell you how great she is and how much I love her, think I will instead share funny stories and pictures.

This first story Dad told us at dinner Saturday night. (Mom and Dad and Sue and I met at Applebee's because I can ride there on my wheel chair. My sore tooth put a damper on the evening.). Anyway, Mom made some kind of slight mistake and said, "Well, I'll be John Brown!"

We laughed, and Dad told this story about how when he and Mom were still newly-weds. They were in Boston at a picnic for newly graduated preachers. Mom was all dressed up and went through the serving line and her plate was completely loaded down, and she tripped and fell flat on the ground and her food flew everywhere. She looked up at all these startled people in the food line and said, "Well, I'll be John Brown!", a Southern expression I'm sure they'd never heard before.

Wonder where that exclamation comes from? As a rebellious abolitionist, John Brown was greatly hated in the deep South. They say that it was his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 that escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the Civil War. Maybe saying "Well I'll be John Brown!" was like saying. 'Well, I'll be the devil."

When we were kids and lived in Winchester, Harpers Ferry was just a nice Sunday afternoon drive away, so we went there all the time. The main memory I have of these educational trips is that Harpers Ferrry had a wax museum, and in it they had a wax depiction of the raid. In that display, they had a diorama of the raid that had a wax "John Brown" laying on the ground wounded, AND HE BREATHED! It was super creepy for kids!

dentist

Whoops! My bad! The dentist's is Robert Morabito, DDS and he seems very nice (except that he wants to do a $4,000 ROOT CANAL next Tuesday, which I guess I'll let him do because I got an incredible amount back in taxes. (But isn't that a HELL of a way to spend a tax refund!)

Sunrise Assisted Living SUCKS!!

It is now 1:05. Repair people still haven't been here, even to check it out. When staff is asked when they are coming, they respond that "they don't know". OK, OK .. I'll shake off my lethargy and find a new place to live.

Sunrise Assisted Living SUCKS!!

The Sunrise air conditioner is broken. Granted, such things happen everywere, but, once again we have to wait on the repair until the Sunrise approved repair service decides to arrive. Lets hope to God that they don't find they "need a piece", as happened when the elevator broke All of this most certainly must pivot around what makes the most money for the Sunrise owners rather than what provides the best quality customer service.

BUT, this is my own fault, because I'm still here LONG after I said I was leaving. I loved the place in Arlington, mainly because of the location. I really am hesitant to commit to a move that would make things harder on Mom, so I guess I've kinda been waiting to see if Mom & Dad might decide to make a move of any kind. Dad would go tomorrow, but Mom won't hear a thing of it. Dad wants to go to Hermitage, so I did check it out, and they don't take people my age, which is probably a good thing, because living in the same old folks home as one's parents seems a situstion fraught with anxieties. (Especially since a major consideration now on my mind is: Since medicinal marijuana is now legal in DC, do they let you smoke in nursing homes?

Stranger and stranger

I have a toothache - bummer, but no big deal... right? Except that I got to wondering, "How do I get from the wheelchair into the dentists chair?" So I call 1-800-DENTIST, and they give me a name and phone # (which I will call tomorrow, because today is Sunday). But the name is "Dr. Bito", and, when you put "Bito, dentist" in a search engine, you come up with this link to a movie called "The Dentist II", about which they say "Murderous dentist Dr Caine escapes from his secure hospital and flees to a small town in the Midwest where he tries to start a new life. He sets himself up as the town's dentist and even meets a new love - but when he finds her with another man, his old murderous urges come back with a vengeance..." This does not inspire confidence. But, on the other hand, 1-800-DENTIST says he has patients in wheelchairs!

Picnic

It's still the same day as the last post and it is still a bummer of a day. Although it actually really shouldn't be... I just get in a bummed out mood when I think too much. I should probably think about that for a while, but that doesn't seem wise.

Did you hear the one about Descartes? He was in a bar, and the bartender asked, "Do you want another drink?", and Descartes said, "I think not.", and POOF - he disappeared!

They had a picnic here, with ribs and hot dogs that they cooked outside. I talked to this guy named Dan who works here as Assistant Activities Director, which is rather a thankless position. He has a band called Poor Man's Lobster. I listened to some of their music on the web, and I like them. Then I went out on the patio with a nice family who has a young woman with only one leg that lives here (I phrased that wrong! No, the other leg does not live in New Jersey!) Look, give me a break - if I don't amuse myself, then who will?

Anyway, here is another Christmas card poem:

This one refers to the fact that we had a one bedroom apartment, so I turned the dining room (off to the side of the kitchen) into my bedroom.

TO: AWAY IN A MANGER

Away in the kitchen,
The place for her bed,
The poor Debbie Taylor
Lays down her sweet head.
The garbage disposal
Upstairs grinds away,
And our icebox engine
Keeps running 'til day.

I love this apartment,
But I'd like to lay
Where nocturnal hamsters
Don't bang as they play.
Where coffee ain't brewin'
As dawn breaks the sky.
Maybe, oh maybe,
I'll sleep by and by.

Bummer of a day

Bad day today, and then, to top it all off, my hit counter appears to have gone backward by 2. I guess that two people who clicked on the blog forgot what they’d read?! Anyway, it’s a good day for Christmas carols in which I can ignore the reality of the present and escape into the silliness of 20 years ago.

This was written in response to the fact that they kept predicting snow and I’d get all excited that maybe City Hall would close and I wouldn’t have to go to work, and then it wouldn’t snow at all.

To: LET IT SNOW

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
‘Cause the sun is so delightful,
And to work I don’t want to go.
Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.

Oh, I wanna stay home and watch movies.
That would sure be groovy!
But the wind doesn’t even blow!
Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.

Well, Bob Ryan said late last night
There was 10% chance of a storm,
And Bob Ryan is usually right.
So why the heck is it so warm!

Well, I guess the old bastard was lying.
God, I feel like crying.
This is three days of work in a row!
Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.