Boomer Chick Musings

I'm not sure why I didn't do this sooner. Who knew? And does it make it brighter! YEP! Most of my house is now full of LED lights. Sure, I had a few of them, (well, more than a few).   I was able to get my electrician to come over because, during another visit, while he was replacing this ridiculous chandelier in my office. Bulbs were burnt out. Everything was covered in dust and grime. My ceilings are high so I don't want to climb a tall ladder without a safety net below me. This is just a small sample of what I had in my house...all gone...buhbye! He actually told me the size of the light fixture to get, how many watts, bulbs, etc. I looked online and sent him a photo of what I wanted. He suggested I get a larger diameter for the fixture. I did. It showed up. And it's terrific. When he was through, he told me he could replace the old fluorescent light bulbs in my kitchen with LEDs. We made an appointment for him to come over, measure, count the bulbs,

On Saturday, December 14, I was running errands and drove by the Christ Episcopal Church...and it was their turn to sponsor a public sing-along with vocalists, a small chamber orchestra, and a narrator, of Handal's Messiah. I decided to attend that event. It turns out there are numerous churches in town that rotate the hosting of this event on a yearly basis. Who knew? I obviously did not.  I rode my bike over there just before 4pm. I am definitely not a musician, and I can tell when the notes go up and down, and have the ability to do some by-ear harmonization. I was greeted by some members who offered me a huge, very old paperback book, maybe 60+ pages, that contained the music and words, of that symphony.  I sat towards the back of the church. And after the introduction of the presenters, the magic began.  For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where they were in the music...and I finally told myself: sit down, enjoy it, watch the others belt out the Messiah.

It was Thanksgiving, 2019. I went to Napa for the day, to see son Evan, his wife Erin, their two kids, and Erin's huge extended family, most of them born and raised in Napa. They are terrific people! Based on my memories, my mom's parents were a bit weird. They liked the desert, liked dried fruit, didn't like the beach. My mom was a far cry from that description. My dad's mom was wonderful! He and his brothers (total of 4 brothers and 1 sister), supported Grandma Willson financially, and she lived in an apartment in Santa Monica, where those kids grew up. We got together at the beach, either at the San Onofre Surfing Club in San Clemente or at the beach house in Newport, that Uncle Ted and his family owned.  Once at the beach all the kids had either beach rafts/mats or surfboards. Usually, there were 9 of us kids, more if it was a reunion. (The Ted Willsons called 'home" a mansion in Piedmont, in the middle of Oakland.)  But I digress. Back to Thank