Weather Report

It's really late/early and there's a nice drizzle tippie-toeing 'cross the window pane; it's slightly open. I'm sitting in our studio-room, stool scooted close enough to feel the bits of rain sneaking through the screen.  The air is sweet and damp...alive with memory.

There's an old wooden screen door slamming off stage left. My oldest brother enters, saying something about the weather.  I nod, glance past him through the wire mesh toward a darkening sky.

I am sprawled on the oval braided rug in our livingroom floor, flipping through a teen magazine...pretending not to be eager but knowing there's excitement in the air. You'd think I was expecting one of my teenie bopper heroes to come waltzing off the front page, the way my heart fluttered as I looked up from the current vapid-eyed king. But no. I will only be satisfied with one thing at this moment....something only Mother Nature can offer; something she's been promising all afternoon. 

Brother asks and I let him know the windows and skylight have all been closed. Mom and I had run the course at thunder's first distant rumble; we had it down to a science and could have set some kind of record dodging about the little two storey row house sealing it against the elements.

I feign new interest in my reading and he goes up to his room. I scurry out to the front porch just in time for the storm's first major thunderclap. A great claw of lightening follows, striking somewhere near the railroad tracks. The air smells metalic...electric.... The rain comes....first in a torrent of large drops, striking the yard an pavement with sharp slap; the storm is one of my favorite kinds-a real window rattler!  It lasts long enough for us to loose the lights for a moment, but by suppertime, the lights were back and the storm spent.

We don't get much in the way of thunder and lightening here in San Francisco, usually the worse we get is two little cracks of thunder and a flicker or two of lightening. And even though we didn't have either tonight, the rain was a nice thing to hear....it's soothing and relaxing. 

We took a couple days to fix up the rest of our apartment; Jack's sister came by for a visit. It's great seeing them together and she's such a sweet girl. We'll be back with the music in the next couple days...gotta get some money together for more green paint and wood.  But there's always practice and writing more music! That's were we're at for now...rockin' all the way, come rain or come shine.

So for today, Fifty Five is the New Weather Report....sunny with a chance of dreams come true.

P.S.  The picture is called "Santa Fe Mood," one of my computer graphics. Even though the memory wasn't of Santa Fe, it just seemed like a good picture to put here.  Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Today

Beatles in the night...Sgt. Peppers with a backdrop of fog, of times when wonder was common as breathing.
Something happened between the patchouli and protest marches, between Kent State and Karma.

These days it's easy to condemn the hippie movement and the '60s.  We were accused by our parents back then of  being unwashed, shiftless, useless and without morals....now our kids and grandkids are calling us the same thing all over again. Everything evil in the world, it seems, is our fault.  And the accusations are getting worse-we're being called "Godless" and "Communists."

The way some people talk it's like they want to turn time back to when men were men and women wore pearls while they waxed the kitchen floors all day. UGH! !!@#*?/!@#@?! even.

This world is changing, drastically and fast.  Everything is going on at once, in epic...dare I say Biblical proportions. Our leadership systems are failing, our infrastructure is collapsing and we're on the fiscal critical
  list.  Is it any wonder insomnia is on the rise?  Me? I'm an insomniac from a real young age...actually love being that way.  But lately, my mind is too full, way too full.

So what can Fifty Five be the New of today, when everything is going to heck?

The Beatles are playing, damnit! Not the CD; Sgt. Peppers on classic vinyl. No cheap reprint, either.  My classic vinyl that I grew up with...there's something good going on right now.
 I'm playing  the Trick of Time, winding back to some good memory and bring that magic back to the present...and there we are! So for today, Fifty Five is the New today, wrapped warm and snuggly in a blanket of yesterday's dreams.

P.S. this art piece of mine is called "Crystal Ball" because that's kinda what we need right now....or maybe not. Afterall, what's better than a surprise party?

I Did...I Am

It happened.  I was just sitting there on hold to Walgreens pharmacy department, minding my own business when the On Hold music switched to something other than Muzak.    "The Wedding Song" by Paul Stokey.

A very special tune, that.  How many people have had that one played at some point during their nuptials?   I wonder.

My one wedding celebration was on June 21, 1975.  It was a vibrant sunny Philly-Suburb kinda day with a gentle breeze.  The church was huge...no, I mean really H-U-G-E, more like a cathedral than a local house of worship.

The place dwarfed everything and everyone; even our large family was little more than a few pew-rows worth for the wedding.  The invited and uninvited showed up...in-laws, out-laws, friends, friends my mother didn't want me to see, friends I hadn't seen in years, favorite school teachers, our mailman....everybody!

We kinda mixed it up a little, having what was called an "Ecumenical Ceremony," because we had not only the priest at my family church (the very ginormous one we were being wedded in), but my fiance's minister as well.  Dad did the flowers-gardenias and white roses, my brothers did the music, mom made the bridal party veils, the reception was family catered at our family home.  Did I mention it was a family affair?  Just checking.   It was probably one of the more fun weddings I've ever attended and even though the marriage didn't last, the memories did.

My ex-husband and I are still in touch and is someone I consider a friend.

To be honest, sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if I'd stayed married.  Would we have had more kids?  Would we have stayed in Philly?

Hard to say.  Somewhere in an alternate universe there's probably a me running around as all the opposites of the me that I am here.  But here is where I am....looking back on the day after, forty some-odd years earlier I was married.  It's weird, that song coming on out of the blue.

But anyway, for today Fifty Five Is The New I Did...I Am, because everything I did in the past is part of what and who I am now....still learning along the way.

Four and a Half....memories of Dad

Today was Father's Day....to all those Fathers, wanna-be Fathers, Father figures and so on-happy Father's day, and on behalf of all kids...thanks.

My folks didn't have it easy...there were five kids, two parents, assorted pets and for a five year stint a live-in Grandpa under the influence of Alzheimer's.  For a majority of the time, it was a one paycheck family.   Amazing by today's standards, pretty darned amazing by the standards of yesteryear, too.

We weren't rich, not even comfortable....we managed.  We kids didn't get allowances and did chores anyway....my sister, mother and I did the majority of the cleaning, bed making  and cooking; the boys did things like taking out garbage, cutting the lawn (a mere postage stamp), clipping the hedges...that sort of thing.


For most of his working life, Dad was a florist.  That's no easy gig, not by any means.  Florists didn't celebrate holidays like most people....they worked through them, all the way up to the last moment making floral arrangements for churches, funerals, grave yards, family gatherings and so on....along with the various seasonal fare like Christmas Trees, Lilies, Red White and Blue themed arrangements and so on....poor man worked and worked and worked....tried a short stint as an insurance agent but went back to floral designing.  Never owned his own shop, though he sure could have.

Anyway, we were provided for.

Dad was one of those "go to it" guys....somehow he managed to be a Scout leader, a member of the Knights of Columbus and Judge of Elections for our local ward....there was always somebody looking for his help with something, and he gave it lovingly and humbly.  There was a lot to learn from that man!

We didn't always see eye-to-eye....actually we came to blows a few times, but he was always and will always be my dad.  He passed away a few years back, one of the many afflicted with cancer.  After a fairly long battle he died; the church was packed at his service....people came from all over to pay final respects.

My favorite memory is of him teaching me to swim.  I was a small child, and it didn't take much water to get over my head.  Just knowing he was there helped....then he showed me the magic of floating and my fear vanished.   That guy could float like a cork!  And he taught me how, too!

Anyway, for today Fifty Five is the New Four and a Half....reminding me that life is a big pool and I'm in it to swim!