Sep 04

Water, Water, Everywhere, 2018

A continuation of this post.

Collection of crying water drops with various gestures.

At some point, we acquired a second POD

We must have brought bad luck to the Residence Inn. At least, this was in a different part of our building:

We couldn’t help but notice that their flood remediation was much faster than our home was.

The following are adapted from updates I shared with my piano studio:

On Tuesday January 2, 2018, they finally finished the demolition of our bedrooms, Tom’s office, the bathrooms and the halls.  There have been many delays – 2 weeks at Thanksgiving(!), Christmas, New Years…

The inspections have all been passed and the areas are certified mold and mildew-free.

We have chosen flooring which still needs to be approved by the insurance company.  After they accept it, it could be 7-10 days before that is delivered and can be installed.

In addition to flooring, we need the baseboards rebuilt and painted, bathrooms reinstalled.  After all that, the furniture will be returned from the PODS in the driveway.

All that being said, I would like to start teaching students in the studio again starting this afternoon.  If I hear from any of the construction folks that I can’t do this, I will post here and let you know by email, phone call and/or text message.

Please excuse the mess!  There are still boxes everywhere and no available bathrooms but the piano is fine and all my books are available as needed.  Please let me know if you prefer to meet elsewhere.

Thanks for your patience during this whole ordeal!

~~~

And here we are, January 24, 2018.  

We just signed a contract for reconstruction work to begin.  When it starts, it will be 7-21 days before it’s finished and we can move back home. 

Hopefully, it starts soon and their estimate is closer to 7 days… 

Meanwhile, we’re back to the past schedule:  Some lessons are at student’s homes, some are at Pender, some are at the studio, depending on who is doing what work on that day.

Students coming to the studio will notice an array of cases of flooring, vanities and other non-musical items.

As always, thank you for your patience!

~~~

It’s hard to believe but workers actually began work in our house on January 29 around noon.  My husband, Tom, said that they’ve finished the drywall in the rooms and started work on the bathrooms.

I believe that late afternoon lessons, beginning around 4:00 or so, can take place at the Studio.

We hope to be living in our home again in a couple weeks.

~~~

February 8, 2018

In an update of a different nature…

My Mom (Mary Kelly) fell Tuesday afternoon and broke her pelvis in 2 places. 

Early Wednesday morning, they found bleeding in her abdomen and took her from Fair Oaks to Fairfax Hospital for possible emergency surgery.  They did a new scan at Fairfax and found that the bleeding had stopped or slowed considerably so they decided to hold off on surgery until the morning.  

Later Wednesday morning, it was confirmed that the bleeding was stopped so no surgery would be required at this time.

There will be extensive rehab, possibly at Mount Vernon Hospital.

Her condition keeps changing and I’m not sure how that will affect my teaching on any given day.  I will try to give as much notice as possible when I need to cancel.

Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes.  

On the home front, it looks like our house will be finished today, with painting to come – possibly tomorrow.

Then, will be the reassembly of the rooms, taking stuff out of the PODs and figuring what to take and what to toss.

Depending on my mom, most future teaching should be at home.

What a year this has been!

~~~

February 9, 2018

 As of last night, my mom is doing really well. 

They had her sitting in a chair and walking a bit with a walker and a strap at her waist for the therapist to hold onto. 

They’re talking moving her Saturday (tomorrow) to a short-term nursing facility (I’m rooting for Manor Care across from Pender) for rehab. 

The bleeding has stopped or slowed considerably. She had another blood transfusion Wednesday night. 

Of course, everything is subject to change but there’s so much improvement since Tuesday.

Today’s lessons will be at the house unless something has drastically changed when I get to the hospital about 9 today.

~~~

February 19, 2018

First off – My Mom is doing really well, considering.  

She’s at Manor Care, doing daily rehab and napping a bit.  She’s eating a bit more, so this is all good news!

She’s had several visitors, thoughtful Valentine’s cards and gifts, a FaceTime with her grandson, a prayer blanket from her Pender knitting group and really nice flowers from a Studio Family.

All the prayers and good wishes are really helping.

THANK YOU!

 Meanwhile, we got our stuff moved out of the Residence Inn Saturday but some of it is still in my car (due to the snow/sleet yesterday).  That, along with ringing bells at the early church service Sunday – I’m really tired.  

We don’t start getting stuff out of the PODS until Thursday (if they’re on time!) and there is still so much to move and buy.  We have to buy a new bed for our son’s room and a new mattress set for ours – and we don’t know where the frame even is.

They will be installing flooring in the kitchen and laundry room sometime this week but that shouldn’t affect students in any way.

At some point, we may need to install handrails or other help for my mom but time will tell on that.

Of course, there’s still stuff around the piano that needs to be elsewhere.

But, it’s getting done, slowly but surely.

~~~

February 26, 2018

My mom had a bit of a setback last week.  She was due to come home from rehab on Saturday, February 24.  

On Thursday, she’d told me she was still having abdominal pain and some other symptoms, so I requested more medical care.  Friday, an outside doctor who works at the nursing home referred her back to Fair Oaks Emergency Room to be readmitted there.

We got to the ER and had the same room as we did when this all started, February 6.  Hopefully, it won’t be another Groundhog Day!

She was admitted about 9:00 pm.

Since then, she has had a variety of tests, IVs, poking and prodding.

They’ve found a large bleeding ulcer on her small intestine.

The current plan is to let her come home tomorrow (2/27/18).

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, understanding, flowers and patience.

Meanwhile, the house/studio goes on.  

We have been living at home since 2/24/18, although we don’t have any beds yet.  New ones are due to be delivered today.

Furniture has been unloaded from the PODS but nothing else has.

Stuff is being cleared out of the studio and returned to where it belongs. 

I am teaching at the studio unless there’s something at the hospital I need to be there for.  I will call or text you if that happens.

My mom’s room isn’t ready if she really comes home tomorrow.

February 28, 2018

My mom actually came home from the hospital on Monday night (2/26/18), even though her room – and the rest of the house – isn’t ready yet.

She has a bunch of outside doctor appointments but those are spread over several days.

She’s very strong and is getting around the house pretty well using a walker.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, understanding, flowers and patience.

Meanwhile, the house/studio goes on.  

Furniture has been unloaded from the PODS but nothing else has.

Stuff is being cleared out of the studio and returned to where it belongs. 

I am teaching at the studio unless something new and unusual happens.  I will call or text you if that becomes necessary.

~~~

May 22, 2018

…

Meanwhile, the house/studio/life goes on.  

Stuff is being cleared out of the studio (and living room) and returned to where it belongs.  This is taking way longer than I thought it would.  Most of the boxes left in the studio are books that have to go in Tom’s office.  They have to be sorted and put in the correct places.

~~~

And, today – Stuff is being cleared out of the studio (and living room) and returned to where it belongs.  This is taking way longer than I thought it would.  

Most of the boxes left in the studio are books that have to go in Tom’s office.  They have to be sorted and put in the correct places, so those are nothing that I can do.

Clothing is still in boxes, some blocking the closet doors so I can’t put them away.

Who knew that water would affect our life for so long.

As always…

Sep 04

Water, Water, Everywhere (Starting in 2017!)

I originally posted this in November 2017. All the boxes still aren’t unpacked yet. Most of the clothes aren’t unpacked/put away yet, either. But, life goes on and we’re doing the best we can.

This next series started as a Facebook post on November 12, 2017 – 1 month ago today.

11/5/17

Rang bells early service

Water running up the hall.

Rug doctor from Giant.  Grease

Tom took out rug in our bedroom.

11/13/17

Still trying to sop up water.  It was wet under Tom’s desk.

11/14/17

What a fiasco – our water damage last weekend has turned into a possible big construction project with us moving out for a couple weeks or so

🙁

I’m trying to find a place to stay – and found that our dog Mimi may cost $150 a night extra, at least the first place I looked.

Friday, they’re bringing a Pod to remove everything from 2 bedrooms+closets, Tom’s office, linen closet, one bathroom, a long hall…

That’s just for the demolition. Then comes reconstruction.

At least I don’t have to move the piano (yet).

Happy Thanksgiving! Also looking for open restaurants to eat at on Thanksgiving except for Bob Evans. LOL.

11/15

Our “plan” At the moment.

I’ve gotten 2 rooms for the hotel that Jean suggested for next week but we hope we don’t have to stay there!

I’ve ordered a blow-up mattress from amazon for the living room in case we can stay here. http://amzn.to/2zJFc9k

We’re pretty sure that the people aren’t going to be working on Thanksgiving so I’ve ordered a whole, cooked meal (except for desserts) from Wegmans. I’ll pick that up on Wednesday.

Thursday, after the Virginia Run Turkey Trot, we’ll come here, reheat the Wegmans stuff, have a “normal” Thanksgiving, then cards, piano duets, then retreat to our hotels or blow up mattress…

11/16

We have a guy from the “catastrophe team” here now taking pictures and making sketches. I sure didn’t like that term!

Water damage update November 25.

We’re going from bad to worse here

The original water was 11/12/17 Here we are nearly 2 weeks later and things have stalled.

On Wednesday of this week, our demo guys left midday (maybe wanted to start Thanksgiving early. They said we needed some sort of Industrial Hygienist to come in and test whatever is now growing in the carpet for 10 days. Then, they put plastic doors over 2 bedrooms. Like that isn’t going to make stuff grow faster.

IH 1 was on his way to Maine for Thanksgiving. IH 2 didn’t respond to voicemail until Friday (yesterday).

IH 1 recommended IH 3 who was able to come out yesterday morning and take samples to her lab – all before IH 2 got back to us.

The demo guys won’t be back until Monday. Of course, the stuff is still growing, even more behind those plastic-sealed doors.

Our Wegmans box of Thanksgiving went well, though and we’re having a great visit with son and fiance, even if the whole thing is a little weird.

This will always be a Thanksgiving to Remember.

Sometime after Thanksgiving, we moved into the Residence Inn at Fairlakes. We had 2 bedrooms, a living room with a fireplace, kitchen area. Pretty good, considering.

Mimi learned to tolerate elevators and I’d always let her choose that (further away) or close-by stairs. Being a smart dog, we usually went down on the stairs and up on the elevator.

When Christmas rolled around, we got a little tree and decorated the door.

This holiday, I got rotisserie chickens from Costco and some sides since Wegmans didn’t have anything really appealing. We heated that stuff up at our house and had a sort of Christmas there, complete with piano duets and cards before heading back to the Residence Inn.

One of the gifts we had gotten Michael and Lingyi was a gingerbread house. They decorated it and gave it back to us.

Optimistically, they put our house number on it.

Of course, I took a keyboard over to the new place…

And, so ended 2017.

Aug 19

It’s World Photo Day Again

World Photo Day

 

Today is another of those “Who Knew” holidays.

I was recently talking to someone about our last trip to Scotland and she reminded me to take lots of pictures.  Then, she said to be sure to print them out so she could see them.

cornerUm, no way!  I haven’t printed out pictures since probably the 1980s – or earlier.

All the work that went into that.  Taking the film somewhere, getting back to the store to pick up the prints, buying scrapbooks, and those little corner holders, sorting, writing the people’s names on the back, the place.  Then, finding the right scrapbook to show people…

No, NO NO!

These days. I keep most of my photos online.  There are 58,337 photos right now in my Flickr account and it’s so much easier to share online.

It’s interesting about photos.  A couple of my first real jobs were working in photo processing.

When I was first out of college, I worked for Technicolor, processing negatives into photos.

US3418913-5Back then, the film had to be processed entirely in the dark.

When the door of the machine was open, the light-proof curtain of the cubicle was shut tight.

I learned how to thread huge, heavy rolls of photo paper into a machine – in total darkness. Over, under, around, over…

Neither the undeveloped paper nor the negatives could be exposed to any light – ever.

Someone else had cut the end of the roll of negatives square and stuck it to a “leader” using special tape which wouldn’t peel off during the developing process.

leaderThe leader featured small rectangle holes like old movie filmstrips. The holes catch onto sprockets which guide the leader card and film through the processing machine.

After being sure we had enough paper in the machine, we would feed the leader end of the negatives into the side and that automatically moved the leader card forward.

We’d be sure that the machine was set for the type (size) of film it was (mine were usually 110 or 35milimeter) and feed the roll of negatives through the machine, making minor corrections using a special keyboard. Different amounts of cyan, magenta and yellow were added or subtracted to each photo to ensure the color was correct.

Adjustments are also made for exposure to each individual photo, and sometimes we’d recenter the subject (or what we guessed was the subject).  Sometimes, we had to choose between 2 or more photos to find the one that was “best”.

Then we’d (finally!) get the prints, package them up and start again.

The whole thing was on piecework so the faster, the better.  The faster we worked, the more money we made.

pocketfilm-110The young women who had worked here longer than I had got really good/fast at this and they were able to work with newer machines that let them work in a large room out in the light and have others to talk with.  As I recall, those machines only processed the 110 film, which was becoming more popular with amateur photographers.

It was a boring job, but it was a job.  I worked there from late afternoon until midnight, so it gave me lots of time to hang out at Lake Metacomet where I was living with a roommate.

Somehow, my roommate had managed to get us an apartment right on the shore of the lake and it was much easier to hang out there in the sunshine than to drive to work and be in the dark all evening.

Sometimes, I’d call in “sick”  LOL

Tom and I moved to Milwaukee so he could go to grad school.  While I was there, I did substitute teaching for public school music classes around the Milwaukee area.

And, after school, in the evenings, I did photo processing for a small photo processing company.

They hired me on the spot because I knew how to thread that machine.  I didn’t have to do that for long, though.  Somehow, I got promoted to wedding photos, those that took a lot of care, color corrections, perfect centering…and I was mostly in the light.  No more piece work because I had to spend so much time on each photo, striving for perfection.

Fond memories, all of them.  To this day, I am very good at telling if things are centered properly, level, and if the color matches perfectly.

In the greater scheme of things, World Photo Day is an international photography event on August 19th that celebrates the passion for photography in our communities.

Go out and get some pictures.  Print them, if you want – or not 🙂

Aug 05

Scotland’s Summer Bank Holiday

Last year we’re in Scotland on August 28, so wen’t were affected by the August Bank Holiday.  This year’s holiday is on Monday, August 5.

The August Bank Holiday was instituted by the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 to give bankers a day off so they could participate in cricket matches.

Since then, however, its significance has greatly expanded beyond those narrow limits. Now, it is a day intended to give workers of all stripes a three-day weekend before the summer holidays end and employees must return to the workplace and students to their schools.

(The video below says that they celebrate the August Bank Holiday on a different day in Scotland [August 7, 2017].  Where we were, they also celebrated August 28!).

May 27

Memorial Day 2019

Thanks, Grandpa…  You weren’t American, but you fought valiantly for the cause overseas.

 

I never met my grandfather.  He had died in Peshawar, India, fighting for the Black Watch during World War l.  Peshawar was on the northern frontier of British India, near the Khyber Pass.

In 1947, Peshawar became part of the newly independent state of Pakistan after politicians approved the merger into the state that had just been carved from British India.

peshawar

We have a trunk of his belongings, though, and it’s very interesting to recreate his life.

My dad was born in Scotland in 1913.

In 1914, my grandfather was involved in this:

On the outbreak of war there were seven Black Watch battalions – for in addition to the Regular 1st and 2nd Battalions and 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion there were a further four Territorial ones which had become part of the Regiment in 1908. They were the 4th Dundee [Mary O’Note: I’m pretty sure this was his, since that’s where my dad was born], 5th Angus, 6th Perthshire and the 7th Battalion from Fife. The 1st Battalion was in action at the very start of the war taking part in the Retreat from Mons before turning on the Germans at the River Marne and the subsequent advance to the Aisne. Trench warfare then set in and the 2nd Battalion arrived from India, both battalions taking part in the Battle of Givenchy. Meanwhile the Territorial battalions had been mobilised at the start of the war but only the 5th was in action in 1914.

From http://www.theblackwatch.co.uk/index/first-world-war

black watch

Black_Watch2

I guess this is why I love the Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch so much.

blackwatch-pipers

Thanks, Grandpa!

In August 2016 we went to the Edinburgh Tattoo for the second time. This had been on my bucket list for a long time since my grandfather was in the Black Watch and I just love to hear bagpipes. Even my cellphone ringtone is Scotland, the Brave.

 

My mom says that my Grandfather’s name is inscribed as a war hero in Edinburgh Castle, where the Tattoo is held.

When we were there last time, I didn’t quite make it to the top of the hill but next time we go, maybe…

You know, I’ll find that, sooner or later.

Thanks again for your service, Grandpa – and everyone who served!

 

May 25

It’s Also National Tap Dance Day!

tap-dance-day

Another of the Who Knew?-type posts. It’s National Tap Dance Day.  When I was a little kid, I took the “required” ballet and tap classes for a year.  My mom has a picture of me in my tutu and one in my majorette costume for the tap recital.  I imagine I only took for the year because those costumes cost extra money.

Later on, I bought tap shoes – still unused – and signed up with a friend for a local adult tap class.  Unfortunately, we were the only ones who signed up for the class and it was canceled.  It was a major nightmare trying to get our money back.  They wanted to give us a credit for the next time, but that would cost more money which we didn’t want to pay.

A couple years ago, a local teacher set up series of 5 classes and advertised on Nextdoor.  I signed up.  And, my mom fell and all my attention was directed in her way.

I reregistered for a later class and DH was diagnosed with cancer.  So, I canceled again 🙁

Maybe someday…

But, I digress.

National Tap Dance Day falls on May 25 every year and is a celebration of tap dancing as an American art form. The idea of National Tap Dance Day was first presented to U.S. Congress on February 7, 1989 and was signed into American law by President George H.W. Bush on November 8, 2004. The one-time official observance was on May 25, 1989.

Tap Dance Day is also celebrated in other countries, particularly Japan, Australia, India and Iceland.

National Tap Dance Day was the brainchild of Carol Vaughn, Nicola Daval, and Linda Christensen. They deemed May 25 appropriate for this holiday because it is the birthday of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, a significant contributor to tap dance.

Even Legos can tap to Puttin’ On The Ritz! A tribute to Fred Astaire, in the classic scene from the 1946 musical, Blue Skies, with the music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Although originally written for vaudevillian Harry Richman in 1930, the lyrics were readapted along with a brand new dance sequence some 16 years later.

Here’s the original from Blue Skies, although some has been cut with stills of Fred inserted:

And another version, with Michael Jackson 🙂

Just for comparison, the real original 1930 movie footage of Irving Berlin’s world-famous song, sung by Harry Richman, from the film of the same name.

And something completely different with my old favorites, The Nicholas Brothers from the film Stormy Weather.

May 25

It’s Towel Day!

Each year, May 25 is Towel Day.  Do you know why?

towel

Towel Day is celebrated every year on 25 May as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans.

On this day, fans carry a towel with them, as described in Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to demonstrate their appreciation for the books and the author.

The original quotation that explained the importance of towels is found in Chapter 3 of Adams’ work The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost.” What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

towel-day

This book is important to me because I read it while I was at NIH waiting for pituitary surgery.

May 13

XOR’s Hammer Talks Money

From my son, the math genius!

 

Source: Making Money Disappear Through Infinite Iteration, Now In YouTube Form! – XOR’s Hammer

May 12

Dogmother Day :)

This picture reminds me so much of our dog and her siblings.  Mimi, unlike our most recent past dog, refuses to wear a bandana, though!

 

Last Dogmother’s Day (second Saturday in May), Mimi shared this on her blog (yes, of course my dog has her own blog):

 

My human mom had a friend who said she was my dog mother so when mom saw this she took a pikture.

I thought it would be good for today since it’s Dogmother’s Day.

Here’s me and my sisters and brother just after our mom had us.

Happy Dogmother’s Day from Mimi (who thinks it’s MeMe!)

 

May 12

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom

Mom and me, w-a-a-a-y back in sepia, black and white photo times…

 

mom-n-me

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom 🙂

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