| Past Thoughts and Outbursts ~ February 2006 - April 2006 |
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Thank you all! I don't know what else to say. We had our "March Madness" gathering last weekend and I came away with way more gifts than I expected. Is that cool? or what?
But the best part of the weekend consisted more of magic than annual
partying. First and foremost are those whose birthdays were celebrated over
But as with most things "Rubio", there was much more. There was the "Circle of News" that was shared as many of us had exciting things to share. There was "The Sisters Connection" and the reason for today's romp into essay writing, "The Shadow of John Lennon". So Chris and Karen have this home in Sisters, Oregon that they plan to "retire" in and their news was that the home in Davis is up for sale. They would be moving to Oregon sooner rather than later. Now, we didn't know that when we were picking out gifts for the two but ALL the gifts they received were chosen with the Sisters home in mind. It was as if this was a house warming party and not a birthday bash. Rod Serling stuff.
Next up are the odd coincidences that followed me around all week.
Okay, this is getting long now (sorry). Geoff's gift turns out to be "The Making of A Hard Day's Night" to which he asked if I got the John Lennon remark. he didn't know I had already bought Imagine. A couple days after the party, I received "A Hard Day's Night" through amazon.com but there isn't a note of who bought it for me. I assumed it must have been Geoff to go with the making of dvd but found it wasn't. WOW. Now I'm looking for Jeane Dixon to pop up in my living room! Out goes the email to the family to see who the culprit is. I'm thinking someone carried the Lennon spin further since they knew I was amazed of the coincidence of it all. That was not the case. Okay, now I had to find out the mystery shopper. I'm even wondering if I bought it for myself and then forgot. There was one other person who came to mind as the possible gift giver and so with John Lennon on my mind (in case you forgot that!), I sent my own e-card to Renae with just a note of "thinking of you" attached. After receiving it, she replied to me "does this mean that you got your present?" I'm calling her shortly to thank her and tell her of the wonderful week. (break time)
(Some time later) "We now return control of your television set to you..." In closing, I must also thank everyone for all the great gifts. And need to say that the best gift I received couldn't be wrapped or sold on eBay. I've been given a gift of incredible family and friends who love me. You all make this life wonderful and this man humble. I thank and love you all. p.s. - did you notice the "italics" theme? I imagine it drove you pretty crazy! April 9, 2006 |
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March has become an interesting month for me. It begins with my birth which came in this month and now contains a variety of annual traditions. Okay, so the picture gives away one of the things I'm writing about today. Columbo Season 4 came out today and just as I did last March, I went out to pick up my copy. Why? I don't know. No other television collection (or movie for that matter) brings me to such a state of anticipation that I make it a point to buy it immediately. I suppose one of the reasons is that it is affordable at under $30. Beyond that, I don't know why I find Peter Falk's character so appealing to me. Whatever the reason, March is a recurring month for a new season to be available - so I lump this purchase into a birthday gift from myself to myself. Another tradition began a few year's back. Pillows. Like smoke alarm batteries, I like to replace my bed pillows once a year as that seems as good a time as any. I don't wash them, so after a year's time, well, you can pretty much guess why I replace them. It was March one of those times and so I add it to my list of March traditions that fall under the umbrella of my birthday. This year might be different. In a previous dialogue, I spoke of "memory foam" mattresses and will be adding pillows to that same mix this year. Since they cost nearly 4 times what I usually pay for a pillow, I'm expecting at least much longer comfort from them and so might not replace them in a year. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some TV to watch. Ah, one more thing... I forgot to mention one of my biggest gifts I'm hoping for this month. I went to Kaiser yesterday for an assessment for a new wheelchair. This morning I got a call that round one of three has gone my way. They approved a new one for me informally (whatever that means) and now it's to the retailer for a quote on the cost of a new chair. The third step will be approval of the quote which I'm told should be a slam dunk. I should have my new chair before my birthday at the end of the month!!! More on that as the news arrives. March 14, 2006 |
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Last Sunday was football's Super Bowl and for the first time in years I journeyed to Berkeley to gather with my siblings. Now that might not seem like very far away to many, but for me, it is the trip of no easy endeavor. And although much of the day was spent in a morphine and pain fog, I have some wonderful memories of the day (thanks in part to photos taken by Chris and Steven (Sue's aren't online yet). This tradition began over a decade ago, but I haven't participated for a while since travel is a problem for me and the party was usually at Chris' up north. I am happy to report that years have only worked to further prove that a roomful of Rubios (and extended) is both scary and incredible. It is difficult to put into words what a day with this family is like, but I'll try to get the flavor of the day across. All Times Approximate. 2:00pm There was a second half and more side-betting on what color socks John Madden was wearing or something like that, but my mind is a bit fuzzy by that point. In the end, I am glad to have made the trip to Berkeley and was again reminded of this wonderful thing known as family. February 8, 2006 |
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Last month was my mom's birthday (she would've been something like 800 years old or so) and sibling blogs posted memories of her to honor the day. This of course has little to do with today's topic (or does it?), but I thought it was worth mentioning. With the degeneration of my body comes the expected loss of strength. My house-keeping abilities have lost much of the elbow grease once used to "keep my kitchen sparkling". I'm having to relegate much of the chores to my care-givers but still need to do my own maintenance occasionally. And with this disease, there are also many fun-filled, sleepless nights sitting in front of the television watching those hypnotic info-mercials. My mom helped to create this beast by funding QVC in its infancy, buying nearly everything they had to sell (see - I knew there was some reason I started this off with her birthday!). Although I am now the proud owner of many of those late night products, I have to admit that I've never bought them over the phone even though they had persons "standing by to take my order". Nope, I find them in stores like Target and Longs Drugs. Now to the purpose of this writing. I'm here to give first-hand recommendations for a couple items.
Where it fails in on the BBQ and the floor attachments are pretty useless. All-in-all, I recommend it if you find it on clearance somewhere (like I did). As a bonus, the kids like to play with it which gets them to do chores for me as well!
February 3rd, 2006 |
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Reflex Sympathetic
Dystrophy
With a
gift certificate I purchased a dvd upgrade (to replace the vhs version) of "Imagine", a
wonderful documentary on John Lennon. Then the emails started coming in. I
got an e-card from sister Sue that was a "Ouija board" joking about
where I can find my youth. Later I got another e-card from brother Geoff
that amazingly was the SAME CARD Sue sent to me! His had a
comment about contacting John Lennon with the board.
March
Traditions
Super
This
one nearly lives up to all the things shown on the commercial. It does
indeed make cleaning easier on my hands but in no way a replacement. And I
really warn against using it on appliances like the coffee maker; it
screws up the display, on/off and timer! Luckily, after some drying and
cussing I was soon back into coffee. It is wonderful for the microwave,
counters, sinks and floor corners. I've also found it quite helpful in
cleaning up a muddy wheelchair!
Next up is "memory foam - developed by NASA..." but perfected in Sweden
for some reason. I've been in need of a new bed for a long time - but the
funds just aren't there me so I went to Plan 9 and purchased a
mattress pad. Again, budget came into play and I went middle of the road
to test it out. $60 for 1 1/2 inches of memory foam to lie on atop my old
mattress. The verdict? A good buy. I can see why a thicker pad would be so
much better but thicker means more costly. If you wake in the morning
with a sore body, this is a good band-aid to put between you and the
bed.