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Today in My History

2000:  Vet-erans
2001:  Taking Off on the Fourth
2002:  The Fourth
2003:  View from the Gutter
2004:  Back to the Beach
2005:  "T" Time
2006:   Ahhh...Cruel Fate
2007:  Fantasy and Reality
2008:  In the Thick of Things
2009:  Home Again
2010:  No Entry--in Transit
2011:  Wrinkly Toes
2012: A Fine and Febulous 4th

Bitter Hack
Updated: 6/26
"Cats"
"Wizard of Oz"

Books Read in 2013
 Updated: 7/4
"Uncle Daddy Will Not Be Invited"

Weekend of Bri's Graduation

mail to Walt

FEISTY FEMALES

5 July 2013

I didn't realize that when I got into the car at around 2:30, that this would seem cool.

When I left Atria at 5, the thermometer on the dashboard read this:

This is supposed to be the last of the 3-digit days here.   But I don't care.  We'll be in Santa Barbara tomorrow night, where it is reading 69 degrees right now!  I'm going to crank up the air conditioner in the house for Ashley and her dogs, who move in tomorrow, and then head off to blissful cold and fog.  

I went to Atria to deliver my mother's clothes which I washed last night, and to go with her to the Great American Songbook Sing-along which was happening in the front lobby all afternoon.  I didn't rush because it was going on for such a long time and, to my surprise, when I arrived at the place she was already there.  Yay!   She's figured out how to go to events by herself.

The lobby was all gussied up for 4th of July and there was a professional piano player at the piano, so much better than dear Ida Sue, who used to be a "real" piano player, but has been robbed of that talent by age (she's 95) and a recent fall.  She struggles at our weekly sing-alongs, but mostly does 1-finger accompaniment.

There was a good crowd there, with chairs extending off to both the right and left in the following picture.

My mother is sitting in the circle and chatted with the woman next to her throughout the afternoon.  I was tickled to see her getting along with someone so well, until it was all over and I found out that the woman never knew which song they were singing and was drivng my mother nuts asking her questions.

This patriotic lady, sitting to the right of the two ladies in the rectangle in the previous picture, was really getting into it, singing with everything and loving it all.  I loved watching her.

But it was the two ladies in the rectangle who amused me throughout most of the afternoon.  The lady on the left would be somewhat less "with it" than my mother.  At some point, a man came over and handed her a song sheet, since he noticed that she didn't have one (none of the women in that row did).  She held on to it, but never looked at it, never turned a page, and never sang.  After a couple of songs, the lady next to her tried to grab it away from her, indicating that she would like to sing the songs and would like to see the words.  The lady on the left hissed that she wanted to sing too (though she never did and never even looked at the words) and punched the lady on the right in the arm.  The lady on the right pouted throughout the rest of the songs and tried to sing what words she knew (I didn't have a song sheet or would have given her mine).  At the end of the music, she was hissing and pointing and trembling with anger at the lady on the left .

I don't know how it all turned out, but it certainly did add an interesting note to the afternoon!

Walt came and squirted some WD40 into my mother's squeaky chair, we had vodka tonics to celebrate the 4th of July and then we came on home.  Walt went off to the festivities at Community Park to get his annual 4th of July hot dog.

When the temps drop another 10 degrees or so, I have to go out and get cottage cheese for the dogs and treats for Ashley.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

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