Boomer Chick Musings

A dear friend shared this photo with me.  It's a good reminder that if I have something to say, think twice before saying it! Another friend said she and her husband (who have owned a business here in A-town) are hitting the road in a motor home! They are shutting down the biz. It's the same type of motor home, as some other friends! They will be traveling to Bryce Canyon and beyond. I started to laugh out loud as I remembered that my family (mom, dad, 3 younger brothers, and myself), piled into the station wagon and we were headed to Utah. We would be seeing Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Both are beautiful...but you look up to see the mountains @ Zion and you look down to see the huge valley @ Bryce. And if you're cynical, you might whine that it's just a bunch of rocks.  Knowing what I know now, I would never take any kids to either place. The drive is too long, and they would get bored and blah blah blah.  Shortly after that, we moved back to Newport Beach (fr

  WE'VE generated (so far) $6074 from the 16th annual Shredding Party!  All of you generated $3037 in donations, plus a $50 check made out to the Alameda Food Bank (which has been forwarded to the Alameda Food Bank). We're waiting for two checks from an employer that matches the employee's donations. This is a big deal when an employer matches the employee's donations! And I will match those as well! I took this photo on April 7th, 2014 Peri, who runs the AMOW office, has let me know that the matching funds could take a bit of time.  Any and all gifts are terrific! And all of you are just as terrific, as well! I love that we step up our game when necessary....it says a lot about who you/we are and what we can do together. Now, we get to think about our election, which is coming up. Not always fun, but we need to cast our votes for whoever seems best to each of us. It's a privilege, not a burden.  Live richly,  marilyn

Everybody should be as blessed as I am. After 2+ years, Sutter, my daughter, arrived @ SFO from Christchurch, New Zealand.  Evan was here with his son, Cadel, a couple of weeks prior to Sutter showing up. She actually drove to San Diego to visit with his family. And while she was here, she met up with some of her wonderful college friends.  Some friends of Carl's (who have been close to all of us), flew their plane to OAK to meet up with us! And if you haven't had a meal @ Jim's On The Course, you'd be surprised at how the restaurant has upped its game, and how much remodeling has been done! Eating outdoors is a treat as well as watching the golfers! I've been there twice since Sutter showed up!  It's a long flight to and from NZ. Because it's been awhile since I've driven on the freeways, I remembered to take the San Mateo Bridge to pick Sutter up, instead of going over to SF via the Bay Bridge.  However, we had lunch at Max's Opera Cafe in S

....with with a couple who flew their airplane from Paradise/Chico into OAK (the north field). Carl had been a good friend of John's from way back in the day. Sutter picked them up from the airport and we met at Jim's on the Course. I have not been the most social person these last 2+ years. But we had a lovely lunch in the patio area. And I was super-suprised at how much renovation, remodeling, had been done at the restaurant (inside and outside), and the restrooms! It literally was lovely! Woody, my golf instructor from years ago, offered to show me the changes that have been made on the course during those months (years). I have yet to call him and make those arrangements...but I certainly will do that now that I've seen the results! The only thing we didn't do is rent a cart and play a round of golf. I took a photo of the duck, who was waddling around, attempting to get some scraps of food. We did not offer the duck anything. It was a lovely day. The food

All are welcomed! We're supporting Alameda (city) Meals on Wheels! If you choose to make a donation to the Shredding party, I'll match it, and AMOW is the winner! This Saturday, April 23rd, 9am until noon!

I heard some song birds, somewhere outside my home office window. There were maybe 3 of them. Then I heard the leaf, dirt blower. It sounded like the garbage truck. Then I heard some planes (small single engine planes, some multi-engine planes, and some jets). Then I heard our Spanish-speaking neigbhors. I wish I spoke another language. In high school I took French. Then I heard the little boy on the other side of the house, learning how to ride a bike. His father was very encouraging. Then I heard neighobrs tearing down their garage? It didn't take very long.... And then I smelled the roses....and I asked my son's son...if he'd like to help me cut the roses. We did it together: counted 5 leaves down from the rose, and did that 3 times. And I helped him snip off the roses. This was a small piece of heaven. Live richly, marilyn

...from gas to electric. I was on a zoom meeting this past Wednesday morning, sponsored by the city of Alameda (specifically AMP - Alameda Municipal Power), watching a chef explaining what 'induction' cooking is. He obviously knew what he was doing. I know this is the right thing to do...but I don't know anybody who has made the shift.  And I'm not the one who will jump off the cliff.  (Although, I did jump out of an airplane with a parachute attached to my back, and I landed safely, by myself. I took a lesson up in Vacaville. I did it because I was wearing parachutes when I was flying sailplanes in Minden, Nevada and I wanted to be sure of what I was doing,  I guess there's a first time for most everything. Here's a link to Home Depot that explains what induction appliances are.:  https://www.homedepot.com/c/ab/induction-cooktop-buying-guide/9ba683603be9fa5395fab9015e8023b9#:~:text=What%20is%20an%20Induction%20Cooktop,induction%20stovetop%20uses%20magnetic%20c

I had a very nice meet-up at a friend's house this afternoon.  She had this plaque on one of her walls: +++++++++++++++ I saved this  from Bay Area Mercury News 3-10-22 It shows that our town of Alameda is more than out-of-area folks think it is..an island anchored in San Francisco Bay. I'm pretty sure that  Alameda means something like 'tree-lined streets."  And that's probably why it feels a bit crowded these days. But we need the 'out-of-towners' to cross our bridges or go under the water through our Tube and drop some $$$$ here, and have a great time: whether along our shorelines, or our bike lanes, or our parks, or even our historic movie theatre. -Just a ferry ride or tunnel trek away, this island on San Francisco Bay offers plenty to do, from urban hikes and splashy fun to a World War II-era museum that might actually be haunted. Here are three ways to play — plus some virtual options, in case you’re not ready to venture out just yet. Naval history:

 One of the first 2022 roses this year! I'm assuming the pandemic is mostly over. That could be a very wrong assumption. However, I'm still wearing a mask (of my own accord) and those N95s are washable. I've noticed a couple of things as these years have rolled by: People are letting their gray hair show up (men and women). It's about time. If they dye their hair, they're no longer doing it. At one point many years ago, I had my hairdresser put some dye in my hair because I was going gray. That didn't work out so well. After trying it for about a year, I decided it would be easier to admit I was 'a rainbow head' and move on. It sure didn't look like it was covering the gray...so I had the hairdresser cut it shorter and shorter so it wouldn't take so long to have it just be natural. I think the hairdressers just chuckled once I was out the door. I'm sure they were saying "She'll be back...!" kind of like whoever that actor was Br

I've always said... "Have space, will fill."  " If we can't see it, it doesn't exist."  First rose to bloom in my front yard. All of us do it: we keep filling up cabinets, closets, under beds, behind furniture, and blah blah blah. It makes us feel good, because we can't see what we've stashed away. I was very glad that Carl was happy to build quality stuff in our carriage house (aka garage that you couldn't get a vehicle into):  -half-models of boats that he designed -fixed fixtures that were broken I was able to give a lot of Carl's quality tools to friends.  Here's a bit that George Carlin did....all about STUFF! Beware: there's a boatload of swear words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac His dad (an airline pilot with Western Airlines) taught him how to use hand tools and machinery that woodworkers used.  There's a canoe that Carl and our son built which is still hanging from the rafters. Son Evan continues to say

 ...based on these 'marketers': 2/22/22 National Margarita Day  (food.com)  2-9-22 National Pepperroni Pizza Day (where did this come from?)  I'd like it if we had one holiday per month. Maybe attach it to a Friday...so we'd have a long weekend.  -We used to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday on Feb 12.  -We used to celebrate George Washington's birthday on Feb 22. Now we merged them into Presidents Day. I think we need to have a Mr. (Fred) Rogers' Day. He meant what he said, and he said it so kindly. The thought of being kind to a neighbor is downright good! But sometimes neighbors don't like neighbors. The world is going mad.  I had a very unexpected chat with an older gentleman when I was bringing in my garbage bins late today. Of course, older means different things to different folks.  He wondered how long ago I had my house painted...he loved the colors. He also spoke about the very blue house up the street. He was kind, but kind of surprised tha

 One of my dear friends emailed me that this week is palindrome week. I'd never heard anything about it. Here's her explanation: "Kicking off from February 20th, 2022, this week is a palindrome week which affects nine dates in total. This means all the dates in this week are palindromic dates, meaning they read the same way both forward and backward." The calendar came from daughter Sutter, and the artwork is created by New Zealanders (aka Kiwis)! The dates are the following (please note these are written in US format): February 20, 2022 (2-20-22) February 21, 2022 (2-21-22) February 22, 2022 (2-22-22) February 23, 2022 (2-23-22) February 24, 2022 (2-24-22) February 25, 2022 (2-25-22) February 26, 2022 (2-26-22) February 27, 2022 (2-27-22) February 28, 2022 (2-28-22) 2/22/22 Baby Kian arrived in Walnut Creek on 2/22/22 — a minute after 2:22 in the morning. I let her know that my birthday is among those dates. But I didn't let her know which one.  However, when Car

 Flowers sent by one of my friends!  I cannot imagine how much time it takes to be able to be good enough to get into the Olympics. And now a 15-year-old ice skater is probably wondering how, why, when, who, what happened when she was given (a) drug that was on the NO-NO list. argh. Okay....that's enough about that. How about the Curling event? One person shoves the large disc down the ice, and  then the other folks on the team make it slide faster, by sweeping in front of the disc. Curling The bobsled slayers. How about the Monobod ? Oops...time for me to get back to the TV....who knows what else will make me laugh or cringe? But congrats to all who made it to the 2022 Olympics. You are champs, even if you don't win a medal.  Live richly, marilyn  

 Homemade macaroons. It seems simple...but life can 'seem' to get complicated.  I was to meet two dear friends in my backyard, about 2pm on Wednesday.  At the last moment, one of them was writing an offer on a property, so there were just the two of us. My friend, Dee, brought some sweets over, and these macaroons were among them. They were homemade, and they were light and fluffy and they tasted wonderful. They nearly melted in my mouth, but had a crispness that said to me that she knew what she was doing.  Then she started telling me about how she learned to cook from her husband. It was amazing!  From that point on, we were talking about everything: the world, how we came to know each other (she and her husband bought a listing that I had years ago, using  another excellent agent). She recently retired...and she is loving it! She talked about their dog(s) and told stories about them. It was gorgeous outside, It was a bit chilly. But to have quality time with someone I've

  I think I took this photo in front of a church on Central Ave. It's simple. It states what we need to do. And it was in Alameda. Oh my gosh! I heard something crashing (but not like glass) while I was sleeping the other night. I struggled to get up and looked around. I have magnets on all of my kitchen cupboards so they were closed.  I opened up the back door and went outside. I have a motion sensor/lights that I had my electrician install because those lamps had burned out. This new fixture is much, much better. Still, no sign of any crash.   The laundry room windows were locked and I was quite sure that the tenants upstairs were undisturbed. They are super good about letting me know if something is out of order. No signs of any wild animals in the backyard. (However, one neighbor that I spoke to said there was a mountain lion roaming our street! What?) And when it was time for me to take a shower, I found my plastic bottle on the tub floor. It was my shampoo that I use once per

...as I attempt to age with grace.  What is spam? My mom used to make us (me and my 3 younger, squirrelly brothers, and our Dad) fried  spam (canned ham) squished up in a can, for dinner. I don't think I've ever purchased a can of spam since I moved out of my parents' house. And I sure haven't tasted it in decades. But I do question my son and daughter when something that doesn't seem quite right electronically, shows up in my email. I feel like an idiot doing that, but I'd feel much worse if I didn't do that.  These days, there is no shortage of folks trying to hack into other folk's emails.  This week, I got an email confirming that I had purchased an iphone for $600. WHAT? And my son told me to look @ the sender's email address, which is in clear view. It turns out it wasn't from a company but from some hacker, probably located out of the country. These days, most any iPhone is much more expensive than $600. I think that I think too much abou

 ...whether in my office, the kitchen, the den, my bedroom,  the living room, backyard...and more! That's because my sound/tv guys (Hidden Connections) installed SONOS for me several years ago.  All I need to do is to sign in via my computer and I get to choose what station I want to listen to, and wherever I am, I can turn on SONOS. Except for yesterday, Suddenly there were voices speaking gibberish and blah blah blah. I turned it off, gave it a rest, and turned it on again, and again, and again. Same sounds. It was very frustrating for me. Then I told myself....'let it go.'  So that's what I did.  I don't know why this happened...but I learned a lesson.  I told myself "Marilyn, you are not the queen of the earth. Get over it. There are millions of people who have more concerns about living than you have a right say anything about something. " It took me about 15 minutes to calm down. So today everything worked...I didn't need to bother my friends.  O

....but I'm getting tired of Covid (Delta, Omicron). Ugh! Thank you, Miss Vickie! You've been sending these for 2 years!  And now I'm using them again!

 I woke up to find frost on the carriage house.  Yes, that's my table laying on its side. I do that so I don't need to haul it into/out of the garage/carriage house.  And the grime is much easier to get off. I'm tired of hearing about Black Friday. These days it sounds like a racial slur....not a discounted shopping holiday. Besides, what can we purchase when the supply chain is so backed up? I went to the former Naval Air Station (i.e. Alameda Point) with a friend, on Wednesday. It was bright and clear. As we drove around we could see all many of the container ships anchored on the San Francisco Bay.  We were just looking around at what has been done, and what really NEEDS to be done, regarding housing. Some of those ancient buildings are literally falling down: full of broken windows, trash, tire marks where the drivers were having sideshows.  The 'Alameda Point' landmass is one-third of the island of Alameda! Because my son and his family live in San Diego, we