Ragazzi...trei

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ragazzi...due

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ragazzi e fontana

Kids don't need our help to have fun...here's the proof!

 

 

 

 

 

An explanation?

I drive a lot and tend to either listen to peace and quiet or NPR. Yesterday was NPR. As a result I came away with some info that explains how much I can/do remember. The guest was an inventor/author from Massachusetts, Ray Kurzweil. His current book is about the mind and how AI will help your memory. We humans learn in patterns and there are somewhere in the three million in volume. So by age twenty our heads are full of these patterns. From that age on, in order to retain a new pattern of thought we must "lose" an old one. It's an unconscious act, nothing we can preordain. Usually the one replaced is a duplicate from our store of good memories. If you like gelato that memory might be stored over and over thus replacing one is no big thing. Likewise as  you age memories of youth fade because it is no longer an active part of your life. It makes sense. So I'll fly with it!

If you see me and I don't seem to recognize you, it's because you were a part of my distant youth and I've misplaced that memory...not that I would ever have chosen, consciously to do so. My apologies and let's start a new line of thought, totally disregarding the poor victims of my memory being crushed by doing so!

The author feels that in twenty years, give or take, research will permit us to use electronic implants to aid our memory banks...you know sort of like those chips we put behind the ears of our pets. Maybe we won't actually remember more, but the days of "Silver alerts" are numbered! 

So the next time you read something on this blog and you feel that I already wrote it elsewhere, this is "my story and I'm sticking to it"!!!

Yes...and no!

 Perhaps there is a better way to answer the question, but it was really a two parter! When Grace told Kathy and Laurie about "us", they wanted to know if we planned to retire and travel. Thus the answer as above.

Travel we have done.Retirement we have failed. Someday, on that one.Maybe!

But, travel let's see...

The first places we went to were much closer to home than what we now do. Bed and breakfasts in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Quebec, long day trips all over New England. Jazz festivals in Montreal and Rhode Island. A weekend in Washington. We were both antique nuts so if there was a flea market in the area we most likely were there. Decorated our house that way and Grace did a stint on e-bay selling the stuff we didn't use. North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Virginia also made our list.

We went through an extended period of down time while Grace recovered her health and then we were on the road again!

Our first long trip combined family, water, car, zoo and spectacular scenery. California, from south to north! My brother Kelly married a Valley girl and moved to California years ago. We still speak, so I started our trip by calling him and inviting ourselves to his place...we still speak! He lives near the mountains close to San Bernadino, so the logical first trip took us up into the mountains. My first experience seeing snow on the ground and looking down on the Pacific Ocean. Somewhere there is a photo of Grace in shorts in the snow. Guess I'll have to find that one. Old Town in Los Angeles was a great visit, with a lunch in the oldest restaurant in the plaza. Pickled cactus salad, sounds one way, tastes another. You must visit the San Diego Zoo, it is a law! Capistrano, of all the Missions I have visited (most) this is the most famous and it is a deserved fame. Well preserved and displayed with  a great location, oh and Beano on thursdays!
Palm Springs with Juli's family and up the funicular. Little brother grounded by his innate fear of heights! Juli joined us though! Women are always braver.

After a week with them we left to travel the coast road north.
The Big Sur, Monterrey, Pebble Beach, Carmel experience should be on everyones bucket list. But you have to leave some room for the entire San Francisco visit. I love New York...not as much as San Francisco. My favorite city in the USA. Tough to walk if you are out of shape. But you'll be in shape at the end. There are enough guide-books to walk you through a visit to the city by the bay, so I'll just mention one place.

The Muir Woods is a strand of Redwoods near Stinson Beach on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Jaw dropping gorgeous. So awe inspiring that the visiting bus-load of New Yorkers were silent! One nature spot to pick? This is the one in the city.

The flight back after that was pretty quiet. Most trips back are.

So, yes to the travel...to be continued re: retirement!

Were you dissed?

The English language is perhaps the most expressive language in the world. Continually evolving from it's roots in Germany to the currently most used language in the world. The shear immensity of words available, allowing expression of thought, meaning and nuance is astounding. Several sources give a low quantity of 250,000 available words and that number could actually exceed 1,000,000. The top end is expanded, almost daily by the inclusion of new discoveries from science and the streets among others. 

To wit, DISSED. Strictly from the streets. Think it's a contraction of disrespected, itself a non-word. You respect or you don't respect. None the less we have a new word to place at the apex, right beside ain't. Yo man, you dissin me? Ain't!
If all these citizens could spell, perhaps some of glorious addendum would be redundant. Wrong word, they are redundant. Superfluous right! If you can not spell, how do you know what something means? How do you know you were insulted? With so many words to chose from why corrupt through ignorance? 

So many bright, witty people live by using our language. Writers, comics, wordsmiths all. What is an aphorist? The first is purported to have been Hippocrates. Basically it is someone that tells concise definitions of a principle. Henny Youngman told one-liners...same thing. We have an enormous vocabulary and an outstanding tool in "spell check". Is learning "not cool"? At my age I certainly want the physicians and pharmacists to have the ability to spell. It's in my long term best interests...yours too, if you think about it.

Aphorist is not my parting shot, "spell check" is!

Good morning Mr. Brewer, your car is ready.

 Mike is not a quiet, reserved sort of guy. For some unremembered reason I was at his folks while he retold a woeful story of incompetence. This part I'll make short, his car was in for servicing and they didn't get it done as fast as he wanted. They did finally meet his needs, fix it and return it to him...now he was blowing steam!End of story? Not on your life!

Some background, I had been a friend of the entire family for a few years and got to see some of these little vignettes develop . Mike worked for an airline in Boston. On the reservation desk, that's how you used to book flights before gadgets took over. And I had his phone number at the desk. So, now the rest of the story.

Because we knew each other to well for me to call and do this myself, I recruited an accomplice, Frank to make the call. After a few moments of script rehearsal I place the call and we're off. Good morning Mr. Brewer this the Assistant Manager at the dealership calling to tell you that your car is ready for pick-up. And he's off and running. Remember the counter at an airline is many booths long. They are all filled with Mike's co-workers, listening to him, as he tells them "the blanketty blank fools don't even know where the car is, I got it last night!" "This is going to be fun!" After several minutes Mike and Frank "trying to figure out how Mike can get his car", Frank tells him that perhaps the General Manager could solve the problem more to Michael's satisfaction. Phone to me, You can't get no satisfaction Mike..."Hey Michael, how they hangin"? The proverbial moment of silence followed by, "Max you SOB" and a few other things I hope no customers heard.

Sometime afterwards I flew on his airlines, upgraded, thank you Mike and the hostess says to me "since it's your birthday, would you like some champagne"? Mike getting even...nice touch the bubbly, of course I made sure that the hostess was aware of the entire event and told her, feel free to pass it forward. Still, the champagne was nice, thanks Mike.

Lavoro

 I don't sit well. That probably explains why here I am in Rome working! Maybe the only American in the Campo actually doing something. It might also explain why we were so easily accepted by our friends. We pitched in. Their lives and work were just as important to us as to themselves. Lena's stand is right beside Marina's. Has been for years and will continue that way. Their sons carry on the tradition . Sandro told me that one of his fears is that the old ways are starting to change. Stands changing hands and old families leaving the Campo. The world does not stand still, but you yearn for the stability that tradition brings. If you can watch the events that take place in the Campo over an extended time, you can appreciate how intertwined the place is. Antonio helping Fabrizio, Sandro and Fabrizio, back to back, no words helping each other. Produce dealers yelling to each other. Coffee being delivered.
Giulia, Piera or Desiree, all family, visiting on their off hours. Laughter, an easy feeling of belonging, sadness when sickness or death visits, joy for a newborn. All  a part of the life that just seems "right"!

This may be a small spot in the cosmos, but it's ours! We love the chaos, the noise, the choreographed pandemonium of daily life  in this compact heart of a big vibrant city. The cast of characters comes from all the corners of the Mediterranean, from Albania to Sri Lanka, throw in Bangla Desh and the Philippines. These are our chosen family, not blood, but closer. We gladly help where we can, because it's the part of the tradition simplest to express. Show your care, interest, concern and you will be repaid in kind! We believe.

...or, the only restaurant in Salem!

 It was my birthday and time for a bite to eat. The celebration had started after work and I needed something besides beer in me. My friend Kevin suggested that we go over to the place that his wife worked at and grab a burger.

So I get to meet Regis, visit a new joint and also have my first chat with Grace. My wife of twenty years. Our versions of that meeting differ a little, not much, but will be left for a later posting, maybe! After all this time, I realized yesterday how ironic that meeting was. I have been married twice. Both times to women I met on my birthday. Ya' just never know!

Leslie's and the entire cast became part of my life and remains as a memory of a good time even now. We live in Florida so seeing and keeping up isn't so easy.

Breakfast with June was a regular weekend event. Grace and June were both renting apartments from Claire and were side by side neighbors. When June left us a few years later the place seemed to grow dimmer and smaller. We still remember her and her acerbic wit, we really miss her still.

Grace's Aunt's also were frequent flyer's on the week-ends. We crammed into their both on several occasions. Like most of the places we discover, the location is not the prime ingredient, the people are. So we may not be there, but we still have a bit of it in our souls.

Drop in, parking in the back. Tell Claire we miss her and enjoy yourself. Black tie, NO! Real people, lots of food and it is not a bit "touristy"!

Work

We all want things. Nothing makes that more self-evident than the celebration of "Black Friday". In order to get "things", we need money. Simple statements, yes, but they guide our lives.

Of the many ways to obtain money I chose work. It is the most common method for the majority of mankind. Regardless of gender,color, nationality, etc...we work. I started when I was thirteen. My first job was as a helper on a bread delivery truck. Brownie, the driver was older...in his fifties! And, wanted someone to do his running. So he would pick me up after school and we would do his route, him driving and loading me up with baked goods from Cushman Bakery to run into the customer. Some he delivered in person, I suspect tips were involved. Saturday was a whole day and we would have lunch in an Everett Square luncheonette where everyone knew him. Talk Red Sox, Braves, etc. The proceeds from this got me my first camera, a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. The camera experiment died fairly quickly, as I didn't enjoy paying for film and development...plus the results stunk!

Max got me my next position. He was working in the safety department of a trucking company and got me into the office. At first I used the bus to travel the 7 or 8 miles to work, but I soon bought a 3 speed bike and was off and flying. Home to work in half an hour with no diesel fumes. Clothes, Christmas presents, and money in the bank. I was rich! Of course I did not have bills, or any other obligations, just me!

School finally ended with me somehow getting through. I now faced a decision, WTH was I going to do? No decision jumping out at me, I enlisted in the Navy. It was in the days of selective service...they notified you that you had been selected, you served! Mud, dirt and guns were not something I even considered. Navy or Air Force. Went to the enlistment office, Navy open, Air Force not, history is made.

I don't want to bore you to death so let's just say that I have worked happily ever after, give or take on that happily. I found that when I let the small stuff run me,happiness and work didn't coincide. And, when I concentrated on letting life lead me, I was in a much better place. Not rich, but not mad. A good trade I think.

Times have changed. I have gone from Dick Tracy cartoons and his wrist watch radio, to carrying a cell phone that does even more. But work is still a part of my life. I have also learned that one job is not more grand than another. Just being employed gives you self-worth. That self esteem is just as important a part of your life and happiness as food!

As we age most of us talk about retirement and what is needed to accomplish it. The statistics seem to indicate that there is a higher mortality rate in the first year of retirement than any other time in a human lifespan. Interesting! Kind of takes the bloom off the rose! The idea of being housebound frightens me, as does the thought of regimented enjoyment...it's Tuesday so we play bocci, etc. Being surrounded by those your own age doesn't appeal any more now than when I was young. If we are all the same, how do we get new ideas? Different slants on a theme? Sure, I feel my age and wish things were as easy to do now as they used to be, but I enjoy the fact that each day is different and new. I also enjoy getting a paycheck! It was the original reason to work and is still number one on the list!

Gotta go, work calls...

Caspar David Freidrich, NN