Dad the Flipper

Today Jerry would have been eighty-one, It has been a day of reflection of what I know of his life before and after we met. As far as I have found out he was always in the middle of all the fun. When the guys put the Volkswagen's of the science teacher in the top of the tree in the middle of the grounds at the high school. The time He and his brother went screaming into the house telling their mom there was a snake in a burlap sack.  When we were kids all the school rooms had the ABC's pasted on to the wall so the kids could learn the alphabet.  Jerry learned it backward.  Yes he learned it ZXY.  He even sent a letter to our friends while he was in Nigeria--it was all in backwards and on bathroom paper. Barbara still has that paper.

Chapter One

I've about decided that my dad was a house flipper. I remember lots lf houses over lots of years. The house I remember best is the one in Los Angeles in the area that was Culver City at that time but now it is Universal City. Down the street from our house was a lot. At that time a lot was just open land waiting for a house to be built. This lot had LOTS of weeds and LOTS of concrete walkways. Something new and exciting. Something for a lonely young girl to keep her imagination going. The stories I would make up about why the concrete walkways were there. Millions of reasons. Why would someone put this amazing  puzzle so close to out house? It was a wonderful place for me to be. Did I even think that this was someone else's? No of  course not. It never even occurred to me that I could get into trouble, until the day the man came into sight. Someone began hollering: I began to get scared. He walked to where I was and told me that those walkways were for foundations for new homes. I was not supposed to be there as I could get hurt---I had to go home---but I didn't have to like it.

Those twists and turns were a lot like a maze. Twist here and then they go a little way--twist again and go the other way. Dead ends. Weeds. Trash. Those concrete  walkways had grabbed hold of my imagination and would not let me go.

After a week or two, of course--- back I went. The concrete walkways were calling my name. 

That day I went back, there were four boys picking up pieces of concrete and throwing them at each other.  I was watching them just like I watched Phil and his friends. Little did I know or suspect what was coming. One of them saw me and said," what are you doing in our fort? Go home, now ?"

More Tomorrow

LINDA

Foggy Today

 Today we had 100% fog when I got up. I for one don't like fog and here is why. One morning as I was going out the door to take the kids to school and me to a different school to work, I count not see to the street because the fog was so thick. Well I had to go because the schools were calling my name. Backing out of the driveway I realized that I had gone too far and wound up in the ditch--thankfully the ditch was not very deep or full of water--but there was a post holding up the fence and guess who bumped the post.  You got it--I did. A small scratch and my name was mud!. But we got to our schools right on time.

More about Jerry and me. 

Probably the schools you went to numbered, five. I went to twenty-six schools, and found something to like about al of them. I don't remember them all these days, I just remember that number. I do remember at one move the new class was seventh grade and not Junior High. Talk about a situation. It made me feel like I had done something wrong and had to go to baby school again. That was because the one I had left was in an Oklahoma Junior High school. We had to change classrooms to get to the next lessons. This new school, we stayed in the same room all day. Baby stuff. But the teacher was so good. Mrs. Waller was her name and she made us feel and think like adults. It was a good year. I don't remember many names of teacher or school and that's understandable because there was a boatload of schools and teachers. 

I married at eighteen and had our first child at nineteen and my second at twenty-one. This same person became a woman who lived lived in two different countries on tow different continents for a total of twelve years, six years in England and the same in Tunisia North Africa which gave me a wide spectrum of things to do and a realization that people are just people and all of us have our own different culture.

How did all this become me? How does it combine itself into the confident person who takes care of Jerry during his good days and his bad? It's been an awesome seventy-five years.

This book was started July 10, 2017, it was only a month later that e passed from this world into the light.

Now we begin with how it happened.  

Stay Calm-Have Courage

LINDA

        

Why I've Been off the Blog so long

I don't even remember what was the last time I got on the computer to talk to you all. I am sorry about that, but a lot has been going on at my house. 

First thing is that I wrote a book about my husband and Alzheimer's, and there was a lot to cry through and a lot more to just think about. As I wrote a chapter I realized that all the time I wrote I began to understand all the things I went through as a child, as a new mom and an ex-pat in England and also North Africa, God was preparing me to be able to care for Jerry until the last twenty one days he was at home. The kids and I were really thankful for how things went--even though we cried a lot and prayed a lot and finally accepted that he really had Alzheimer's.

Its been four years, and some times I get teary eyed but that's because I still sometimes think I could have done more, cooked different food, gotten into the shower with him so I could wash his hair. But I can't change anything, I can just remember our lives from the age of fifteen to age seventy six. 

There is time for me to say a little of what I wrote and if you have questions or just need to talk leave a note. 

Jerry, Alzheimer's and Me

Because of this adventure Jerry and I are on, I have found out that what I learned and went through as a child made into who I am now. As a child I was bold, but only around my family. To tell anyone but family that I needed something or want anything, was a non-happening. Forget it. I was the little girl who was always in her own as I was always the new kid on the block. The little girl who was shy, too shy to do anything but find some clay and make a tea pot, plates, cups and saucers so I could have a party with Sally my doll. I was the little girl ho would tell stories during recess because the other kids liked to hear them, it made them happy. They never acted like they knew that most it was just made up. I was the same little girl who when screaming down the street because her mom had passed and she didn't even know mom was that sick.     

More Tomorrow

LINDA

Jerry-Alzheimer and me

It hurts to see your loved one get to the place that they don't know any one by name.

Jerry, and I'm sure, would answer any question and would seem to know exactly why and what was being talked about. I could see that he had no clue as to the things that were being talked about. It was so crushing to me to see him like that. His smile never left his face until that last three weeks he lived. 

In 2003, we were going thru the traffic from Fort Worth to Dallas so we could go see his mom. We got half way to the turn off on I45 south and he said, to himself, “ I don’t know where we are. Are we gonna make it to Moms?” My reply was “we’ve been down this road for 15 years, and chuckled! His reply, loud and mean sounding. At first it scared me but then I said,” we’re going the right way you’ll find I45.” And he calmed and that was the last of it. For a while. 

Day Two after the Impeachment

Today is an eye opener for some of us. Even thought I expected that Polosi-it's as hard to spell her name as it is to figure out what lie she is going to tell next.

Anyway, on to the rest of the story. I really thought that she would turn over the papers this morning. I was soooooo wrong. She has decided to keep them until she knows what is exactly going to happen with those papers.

I think shes keeping them so she can play "being the person who started the USCMA." That wonderful agreement that Trump penned last year and she made sure that they were not put forth until He was not in a position to tell anything about them.

See, this is what I have figured out----Polosi is a bully in the passive-aggressive genre. She doesn't want people to figure out how thoroughly she has her hands on all things that come across her desk, and really doesn't let go. If I had been that sneaky with  thinks like that with my husband he would have divorced me.

And I think WE THE PEOPLE need to divorce her next time she election comes up. We need someone who loves this USA. In this order---God--her job, meaning the best for this country--and then her family and the rest of that world.

I for one, am tired of these Dummiesare the PEOPLE  in DC thinking that everyone one else is stupid. I am not stupid. I started collage at 58 and a community collage. I finished four years later with an 3.85 GPA. That is not a stupid person. Millions of "the rest of us" are not stupid either.

Lets let DC know that we are tired of being castoffs like they think we are.

WE  THE PEOPLE --I  like that.

More Tomorrow. 

The Impeachment

I've been like a lot of people, watched all that garbage on TV and didn't google anything.

That is until today., Today I got mad. The people in DC are wasting OUR money to keep on with things as they want them to be. No thoughts for the people who send in all that tax we pay for their salary which they don't work for. They just bitch at each other. Or rather, about each group of people.

The law says that the papers about the impeachment HAS to be turned over to the senators. Ms. Pilosi thinks she can keep as long as she sees fit. So, if its a law,  and she says she wants to go by the laws of this country, why doesn't she hand them over. What is she worried about.?

Just before I started this today I wanted to find out something more about the Biden son who worked for a company in Ukraine and another in Hong Kong. The pages were not filling out with words , just pictures. That makes me think that someone has decided to fiddle with the internet pieces about Biden. That makes me wonder what the family is trying to hide.

Bidens kids went to work in Ukraine while Obama was in office. I know that the law says that the president has to give up all of his businesses, Jimmy Carter had to give up his businesses. And he did, until he got out of office, as did his children.

If it is the law that the whole family has to give up, why did Bidens son stay on the payrole?

Trumps family quite working in the family payrole. Maybe that's it, Biden didn't own the place in  Ukraine so his son could work.

I don't know it just seems not right to me.

There is so much untruth going around this country, how do we know what's right or not.

So here we are with all these-fib-Ukraine-this person and that person secretly behind the peoples backs-and we still don't know what's going on. We don't know because they - meaning the media and others - find it's easier to tell untruth than is is to just tell the truth.

There will be more here.

I for one want to know about the impeachment papers and the constitution. Who gets them, who hands them over to whom, and how long can they be in the first persons hands.

Lots to ask questions about.

More Tomorrow.

Its a beautiful day today

Its fall according to the calendar. And here in Oklahoma the wind is blowing. And yes, the song is right---the wind comes sweeping down the plain. The pecan trees are shaking their leaves so the nuts will be coming down soon. I usually just let the squirrels have the pecans because I would eat them all if I have shelled ones to eat.

I've seen hummingbirds, and more spiders than I really wanted to see. And rain for tomorrow and lows will be in the 50s. That's getting cool enough for the grass to start hiding in the ground. That means less mowing. Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December. And then the year of 2020.

When Jerry was a child his family would go to Ma Hundley's house one time while all that was going on. Ma was Jerry's mother's name. But most of the time they would stay on the farm. My family didn't always go back to Dallas, but we went enough times that I remember.

We would usually travel at night. Dad told me later that he has to drive then because my brother And I would fight constantly. I would watch the stars in the sky over the Mojave desert, making up stories as we traveled. Cars were different right after WW2, and we could see through the big windows on the doors and the window on the back of the car. I didn't know the names of the stars, or even that there were stars with names. Sometime down the rode I would go to sleep.

There was one night trip that woke me up. At first I thought -- those stars are so bright! Then--this is so great-there are all kinds of colors coming from those stars. By then I was more awake and sat up. It wasn't stars--it was the lights in Las Vegas. They were so bright -- some blinking--some going up and down--some of the neon pieces were talking and some were moving...awesome!

In 2003 we took time for a vacation and were on our way to Yosemite to see the big trees. We went thru Las Vegas and it just wasn't the same. We stopped for breakfast and we went down the strip. And then over the dam. We got to see the west side of the water and the went on. We wound up spending the night in Kingston.

The last time I remember Kingston it had snowed and it was melting and so very slick. Dad helped us all into the room--don't remember food but I'm sure there was something. When we got up the next morning the snow was gone. The only thing I remember about Kingston is that dad couldn't believe that there was snow in the desert, I found out much later from instructors in college that there is a high desert and there is low desert.

It was so much fun to tell Jerry these things and then I'd ask him things that his family had done. Places thy had gone and all the fun times in their little community.

But that's for the next time

More later.