Pleasant Hill Picketts - Day Three

Sam had a Cub Scout outing Sunday and it was a wonderful opportunity not only to spend time with Sean, Julie and Sam but also to connect with an important part of Marilyn's family history.  Marilyn's Dad was crew chief on a B 24 during World War II.  He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service and we are all very proud of him.  In fact, he will be part of an Honor Flight from Buffalo to Washington this weekend where he will join a group of his fellow World War II veterans at the Memorial in our nation's capital.  The reason this is especially relevant to our trip is that Sam's Cub Scouting was to a display of a B 24, B 17, and a P 51 Mustang at a local airfield in nearby Concord CA.

Marilyn in front of the area where her
Dad would have worked in his B 24.

Marilyn had a wonderful time exploring the plane about which her Dad had told her so much and in which he provided his remarkable service to us all.  I created special photo album for the pictures from that display.  You can click here to view them.

I also got some nice video of the P 51 Mustang taxi and takeoff while we were there.  You can view that in the window below.




After spending time at the display, we headed to a local pizza restaurant where the Cub Scouts devoured several pies and then celebrated their year of scouting.  Sam will advance to the Webelos by the end of year and will then advance into the Boy Scouts.  We are all very proud of his achievements as well.  It was great to see him interacting with his den mates.

After a nice dinner, we said good by and drove over to Petaluma to spend a couple of days with our friends Barb and Bill Crowley.  More about that in next trip blog.

Click here to see an updated photo album of our time with Sean and family in Pleasant Hill.

Pleasant Hill Picketts - Day Two

The big activity Saturday was the assembly of an adjustable basketball goal.  This was not some wimpy version for a little kid but a full scale one, adjustable from 7 feet to a regulation 10. The base is anchored with 300 pounds of water.  It took us most of the day to complete it and by "us" I mean Sean, Sam and yours truly.  Marilyn provided some photography, occasional advice, and mostly reading her novel in the sun.. Oh, yes, and it was hot...very hot.

Actually the very first activity was a game of Ticket to Ride with Sam.  It is fairly complicated game of strategy on board that looks like a power grid of the United States--that last bit of observation from Sean.  The first one to 100 points wins which Sam did 100 to 98.  I almost caught him!

After Julie left for some Saturday work in the office, the guys began the assembly of the goal.  It took four hours plus a lunch break.  There were the inevitable reassembly of steps once it was recognized that something had been installed backwards.  This apparently is a Pickett trait--at least a Bill Pickett one--since every piece of furniture or device that I have ever assembled has been at least 120 percent assembled due to some necessary rework.  Finally however it was completed.  It was too hot and everyone was too tried to try it out right away so that is left to another day.  Perhaps Sunday before we leave.

We went to 5:00 Mass at Christ the King Parish and heard a remarkable homily by one of the priests who does weekly supply on the weekends.  He preached the raising of the widow's son as a way of accessing the plight of women in the time of Jesus and then went on to say that things really haven't changed all that much.  After detailing the many abuses and injustices of women throughout the rest of the world today, he painted a similar picture of the situation in the United States where we think everything is just fine.  He received a spontaneous round of applause when he noted the fact that "the old boys club" still reigns supreme in most areas of life including the Roman church where women religious who care for the sick, homeless, and marginalized are being investigated by the male bishops most of whom have never been in a homeless shelter or ministered to the homeless and marginalized.  That was the trigger for the applause which was repeated when he had finished.

After a delicious dinner from Three Brothers from China restaurant, I finished the tub of Ben & Jerry's American Dream, watched another episode of The Walking Dead, and went to bed.  Tomorrow is a big day for Sam and his promotion to the next rank in Cub Scouts.

Click here to view photos in the updated album.

Pleasant Hill Pickett's - Day One

Marilyn waiting to board in Newark

We are off on a one week trip to Northern California.  Our first four days will be spent with Sean, Julie and Sam in Pleasant Hill and the last three days with our friends Bill and Barb Crowley in Petaluma.  We left the rain and storms behind in Rochester to arrive in sunny California to a pleasant 68 degrees in San Francisco and a summery 80 degrees 30 some miles inland in Pleasant Hill.  On Friday, our first full day, the temperature reached 98, but as the saying goes, "It was a dry heat."  Saturday should be the same with a nice cooling off by Sunday.

The day we arrived was Sam's last day of school.  Julie had taken the day to be with him as he went through his promotion to fourth grade.  As I have come to expect, she had numerous lovely snacks ready for our nibbling and Grandma and Sam got right to them.   Since we had gotten up at 3:45 to make our 6:00 flight, we were both exhausted.  I kept falling asleep in the most comfortable rocker and foot stool ever--Ikea acquisition--and we hit the hay a little after 8:00.  I slept so soundly that I only got up once during the night and when I did, I initially had no idea where I was.  Lovely sleep after a long day.

On Friday Julie went into work.  She is in a particularly challenging time with many tight--perhaps impossible--deadlines in an implementation project.  The rest of us just lollygagged around during the morning.  Sam and I enjoyed a couple of bocci ball games while Marilyn enjoyed the seemingly always sunny backyard and patio.  After lunch and a quick nap--for the adults, not Sam--we decided to go bowling at a nearby bowling alley.  

The results were a little different than we had expected.  We got in on a Thursday afternoon $2.75 a game special and were given an alley between a very good bowler--last game was 266--and a group of beer drinking, screaming women who apparently had the afternoon off from their jobs in a nearby warehouse or something similar.  More than that, we didn't anticipate that Grandma Marilyn would turn out to be a turkey...well she bowled a turkey:  three strikes in the tenth frame.  Who knew?  The rest of us had had enough bowling but she kept whining about another game...and putting a little loose change on the outcome.

We returned home to spend some time with Sam's new cats who joined the household the first of the year.  Miko is very personable and enjoys interacting with people.  Monkey on the other hand is more like a cat.

After a yummy dinner of takeout from Los Panchos, we welcomed Julie home from working late.  After Sam went to bed, Sean got me caught up on two more episodes of "The Walking Dead," my new guilty pleasure.  Julie plans on going into work Saturday so she can be with us for Sam's Cub Scout promotion ceremony Sunday afternoon at a local air field where a B-17 is on display.

You can view more photos on the constantly updated photo album by clicking here.

Mother's Day Trip to Kansas City - Day Four

May Crowning

I went to Mass with Anola at St. Therese The Little Flower Church, her long time home church.  As usual there was a lot going on in this energetic and racially diverse parish.  We happened to catch a procession of children with flowers to place in front of the statue of Mary.  The ceremony culminated with placing a crown on her head.  The little girl who placed it had some difficulty getting it straight and thus Mary spent the rest of Mass looking out at us in either a somewhat disheveled state or with a bit of rakish swagger.  Take your pick.

After Mass I picked up Louisa and along with Mom joined Peter, Anola, and Bob for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, another one of Mom's favorite places.  Mary joined us back at Mom's apartment for dessert.

We spent the next couple of hours with the mother of whom we are all so proud and fond.  Our two out of town brothers, Tom and Terry, called to wish her happy Mother's Day.  

A couple of years ago she began writing poetry.  This spring an annual volume of poetry by local poets was dedicated to her and included two of her poems.  This is one of them.

I'm Really Not That Old

When I am old, I will wear purple,

As the saying goes.

But the many shades of purple

Present a lot of woes.

I'm not an artist, never was

And find the going rough.

To make the color that I want

Is really very tough.

I think you take vibrant red

And a touch of blue,

But when you mix the whole thing up,

It really, really isn't you.

So I put my palette down

And turn to things I know.

To solve the problem of my choice

I life my head and raise my voice:

I really don't like purple!

Could it be that I'm so bold

That I don't like purple

Because I'm really not that old?

Mother's Day Trip to Kansas City - Day Three

Cafe Sebastienne at the Kemper Museum

After breakfast with my brother-in-law, Peter, at First Watch, we went to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art near the Plaza for some indoor photography.  This is a wonderful community asset created and sustained by Kansas City's leading banking family.  There is no admission charge.  Among the many interesting features and exhibits is the Cafe Sebastienne.  The walls are completely covered with a 110 interlocking paintings by Frederick James Brown.  Each piece is a tribute to specific artist or school.  In the artist's words, "This is a project of love.  It is a tribute to art and artists throughout the ages.  The works in exhibition are my interpretations of the selected artists and/or art.  No attempt was made, nor was it ever the intent, to reproduce or copy any works of art."  Any visit to Kansas City should include some time at the Kemper Museum.

Louisa

After that I drove to Grandview to pick up my sister, Louisa, who is rehabbing after knee replacement surgery.  Actually this is her second replacement...but of the same knee.  The first one ended up providing a home base for a raging staph infection that nearly cost her the leg!  She has been off work since January but should go back next month.  She is doing well and it was so great to see her pain free after two years of dealing with infection and its systemic effects.

After lunch I returned to Grand Court to pick up Mom for a trip to Kauffman Gardens, again down by the Plaza.  These gardens were created as another public asset by the Kauffman family.  Ewing and Muriel Kuaffman founded Marion Laboratories and the Kansas City Royals Baseball Team.  Their immense fortune was used at their deaths to create the Kauffman Foundation (NPR listeners will often hear a reference as an underwriter) which is primarily focused on the quality of life of the Greater Kansas City area.

Mom and me

It was beautiful spring afternoon, cloudless skies with a steady breeze.  The gardens were filled with wedding parties, graduating seniors, families, and young couples.  We enjoyed looking at the flowers and the people...oh, yes, and the resident cat, Tom.

We stopped at a nursery on the way home so Mom could pick out a plant or two for her balcony.  She chose a couple of coleus plants.  She then prevailed on me not to eat dinner in the dining room at Grand Court.  She wanted to go to another of her favorite dining spots:  McDonalds.  So we did of course.  After holding out for three days, I finally gave in to eating bad but delicious food.  "Please supersize those fries."

Click here to view the constantly updated album of photos from this trip to Kansas City.

Mother's Day Trip to Kansas City - Day Two

The Liberty Memorial

Mom and I decided to visit the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial.  Anyone who grew up in Kansas City is familiar with this although many of us have not visited it since it was reconstructed, enlarged, and developed.  We remember the two halls on either side of tower with a perpetual flame (electrically lit) that symbolized the liberty that was "guaranteed" by the "war to end all wars." Sadly, of course, that was not true.  But no one realized that when ground was broken in 1921 in a ceremony attended by 100,000 Kansas Citians along with the Allied leaders:  Field Marshall Foch (France), General Pershing (United States), Admiral Beatty (Great Britain), General Diaz (Italy), and General Jacques (Belgium).  Also present was the nine-year-old Ruth Platt who walked from 31st and Flora with a procession from her school, St. Vincent's Academy.  Mom shared that bit of history with one of guides who was showing us through main gallery with the "Music of World War I" exhibit.

Ruth Platt Pickett being interviewed at the National World
War I Museum

Within 15 minutes, a group from the museum's public relations department showed up with a video camera to interview her about her experience.  She told how her mother had given her sister, Maude, and her a nickel apiece for streetcar fare to get back home.  But kids being what they were and still are, Mom and Maude decided to spend their nickels getting an ice cream cone and then walked back home!  After Mom enjoyed listening to the music of that era at the exhibit, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Over There Cafe courtesy of the museum staff.

Mom with Pat Croaker

As we visited with the guide, Pat Croaker, we learned that he had grown up in Good Counsel Parish in Kansas City and, much to our surprise and delight, had been a friend and classmate of my brother, Terry, at Rockhurst High School.  You can read more about the Liberty Memorial in an interesting and accurate Wikipedia article.

You can see more pictures of our visit in the Picasa album with pictures of this Kansas City visit.  We returned to Grand Court where we had dinner and then back in Mom's apartment watched Gran Turino with Clint Eastwood followed by one of Mom's favorite programs, Blue Bloods with Tom Selleck who is the real reason she likes it.

Mother's Day Trip to Kansas City - Day One

On the way from United B to C at O'Hare

I have not been on the road for a couple of months but that is coming to an end.  I just began a trip to Kansas City to spend Mother's Day with my Mom and sisters.  I left Rochester on a 6:00 am flight through Chicago and arrived in Kansas City on time at 9:30.  I drove up to Clyde MO to the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration monastery to visit with Sr. Paula.  I had a great visit with her as I always do.  We have been friends and spiritual companions for more than 30 years beginning in San Diego.

Culinary innovation

While I had shared many meals with her, I had never experienced what I had at the retirement facility on the grounds of the monastery.  The menu for dinner (the noon meal) is shown below.  Yes, it does say "Revamped Apple Crisp."  When I asked Paula what that meant, she replied simply, "We had apples crisp yesterday."  Apparently, "revamped" is the new word for leftovers.  The only revamping I sanoticed  was that the leftover apple crisp was placed in a large bowl and then smothered in Dream Whip.

Sr. Paula is celebrating her 60th Jubilee this year.  She is in good health again after a bout of illnesses and up to all her old tricks.  She continues to read and reflect and bring her own style of plain spoken sophistication to matters spiritual and ecclesial.  

Old and new in the Heartland.

As I was driving in to Clyde I saw a scene that caught my eye.  On the way out, I pulled the car over and took several shots of an "old school" windmill used to pump water for livestock and three of the modern wind turbines that generate electricity.  I thought it a nice commentary on a land out of time and modern at the same time.

I drove down to Kansas City and stopped at Panera to get dinner for Mom.  It is one of her favorite spots although she didn't feel like going out.  We visited and ate our dinner and then watched Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwick in "There's Always Tomorrow" on Turner Classic Movies.