Blue Pieces

We spent a few days palling around. Lots of time culling through “stuff” and cleaning, and paying bills, and doing household business – but we went out to Lido and lived large too.

I dropped Mel off at school and between her and the door was Dr. Hackett. “Just emailed her last night. Awkward.” She had an assignment to write a letter to an official advocating her position on some topic. Mel chose locker roomaccess and complained about school policy. Thus, the “awkward” part. Mel faced her fear and got out of the car just as a teacher walked up to Hackett. Mel sprinted past, saved, in a sense, by the bell. Last night she described how a bunch of kids in the class had waited til the last minute and sent letters to the superintendent. He thought a revolt was brewing!

Worst week in the history of Eastman Kodak Company. What could top Monday for worst day ever – when we got dumped left and right for borrowing cash on our credit line? How about Wednesday, when our credit rating got downgraded from “CC” (likely to default) to “CCC” (Only assholes loan to them)? What could be worse than Wednesday – when we listened to the corporate officers talk about selling off the heart and soul of Kodak’s patent portfolio in imaging – when our CFO joked and chuckled condescendingly to the audience of yellow bloods – “it’s only 10% of the portfolio” – yeah, yeah, yeah. What could be worse? How about Friday when the referee had to step in on the trading floor and say “no more” you people are crazy and when sharp traders made calls like dump it for anything – I mean DUMP IT for ANYTHING? Well – at last the bell rang and it was over for a few hours… So the week is over. We’ll see what Monday brings.

I went to work on Saturday, promising we’d have a dinner date at 8. I ran late, and kept wondering why she did not call. I just about finished my effort when the phone rang at 8:15. It was Jeff, asking when I’d be home. Turns out Marie had gone to get him to loan the car for the Geology Bill’s game project. They were on the road, and would arrive in 15 minutes…

I love Moo because she always finds a way to help others get through their challenging times.

I love Moo because she is as patient as the Milky Way with me and my lateness.

With Mel’s radiance and character and Gary Whelpley’s camera and artistic eye, we have a whole greater than sum of the parts, in short a treasure to mark this life milestone.

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Uncle Jim was in a wheelchair – or at least sitting down. His parents were on the phone. On a real phone – not some slab of silicon – the kind of thing you can grip with a ball for your ear and a ball for your mouth. “They want to talk to you,” I said, holding the receiver to his ear. He started to speak and in a mater of seconds I nodded at him – sort of motioning with my head to grab the receiver. As I stood and held it for him he sort of motioned with his head back at me – as if to say,”no way, jack, hold that phone for me.” Consternated, I looked down and his arm was limp in his lap. “I’m not putting up with this bullshit” I thought and started to fume. He went on speaking withe old folks – now in heaven with angels. After a huff or two i finally yanked the phone away from his head in mid-sentence and sort of shouted, “Hang on a minute” and tried to hand the phone to Jim. He wouldn’t take it – calling my bluff – figuring I’d never screw up an opportunity like this to have him (and presumably me) speak to the deceased John and Evelyn. I wouldn’t give in though. The deceased languished on the line. Jim got pisseder. I got even pisseder. It was a mess. I wasn’t going to pander.