Woodstock

I was too young to be at Woodstock in 1969.  Besides, I was more into sports than music growing up.  My husband, however, is older than me and has been into music all his life.  He did go to the festival and enjoyed many of the thirty-two musical groups that performed between Aug. 15-18^th.  Woodstock was not actually held in Woodstock, but rather in the town of Bethel, in the Catskills in New York.  It is regarded as a pivotal moment in music’s history. As a Woodstock attendee, he agreed to an interview.

How old were you when you went to Woodstock?

17

How did you get your parents to let you go? 

I just asked; they knew I was interested in music and bands.  My friend Roger bought tickets and it wasn’t a big deal. To them it was a concert in New York.  They didn’t know the scale of it; no one did until after it happened.

Who did you go with?

My friends Roger and Joel.  We were all in a band together.  I saw one other person I knew there, but that was it.

What happened when you arrived?

When we got close to the festival on Thursday, the traffic was ridiculous.  We had a map and found an alternate route around the traffic and luckily drove right in.  We parked, set up our tent, and then we walked to the concert area.  The barriers and fences had already been pushed down at the entrance, and the people who were taking tickets had already given up trying to collect tickets.  So, I still have mine.

Do you know where the ticket is now?

Yes, as of last year, it is in one of those enclosed shadow boxes on the wall in our family room along with some other guitar and music related items.   It’s cool to have it out where others can see it.

Did one band stick out as being unbelievably great?

The whole experience was great.  No one band stuck out, but there were a few I can mention.  The Who, Sly and the Family Stone, Carlos Santana, and Joe Cocker were the highlight for me. We left on Sunday afternoon after the big rainstorm because we were tired, soaked, and cold, so unfortunately I missed Hendrix, who played on the last day (Monday).

Who else did you miss?

Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Ten Years After, and others who played that day, but Hendrix was the biggest one I was most disappointed to have missed.

Tell us about the rain.

There was some rain on Friday night and our sleeping bags got wet.  Then there was a big summer thunderstorm with heavy rain and wind for about an hour on Sunday.  The music stopped because of the thunder, and everyone just sat there trying to stay dry under anything they could.  

What about all we have heard about the drugs and alcohol?  Was it exaggerated?

I don’t remember a lot of alcohol, but there was a lot of pot and LSD.  For the most part, most people were keeping it together. 

How much sleep did you get?

We tried to sleep Friday night, but stayed up all night Saturday listening to Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, and then Jefferson Airplane, who went on just after sunrise on Sunday morning.  The music pretty much played all day and night with some breaks now and then.

Were adults there too?

My impression was that the people there were in their teens and twenties.  It was all the younger generation.

What was the most interesting or surprising thing you saw, not music related?

Just the overall impression of hugeness.  I wasn’t surprised by anything other than the size of it and how many people there were.

Is there anything else you want to say about the experience?

If I could sum it up, the whole experience was punctuated by some great music, with kind of a mild physical discomfort from the heat and wetness, in the middle of half a million people. 

Was it worth going?

Definitely.  I wouldn’t have missed it.

The Earthquake I Lived Through

On October 1, 1987 at 7:42 AM, my husband dropped our television on the floor in the living room.  I was putting on my make up in front of the mirror in our bedroom.  I couldn’t imagine why he was moving the television.  I thought he was in the kitchen eating breakfast.  When my mirror started shaking, I knew that he was nowhere near the TV.  We were having an earthquake.

Having moved to Los Angeles in 1982, I had experienced several small quakes, but nothing like this one.  We knew it was a big one.  The entire house started rocking back and forth.  We quickly exited the house and waited.  What seemed like forever was probably more like a minute.  We were speechless and numb.

After the rumbling ceased, we didn’t know if it was safe to go back in the house or not.  When we finally did, we saw lots of cracks in the walls.  We didn’t know how much damage had been done structurally.  Many of our belongings had fallen on the floor, but our main concern was the structural integrity of the house.  We had just purchased it the previous year, our first house, and put a ton of work into this fixer-upper. 

Neither of us went to work that day.  We spent the next few hours talking to neighbors, discussing what happened, and listening to the news.  The quake measured 6.0 with the epicenter only 12 miles from our house, which is why we felt it so strongly.  The noise I thought was Chris dropping the TV was the sound of the earth moving.  There was nothing else I could have equated that noise to other than that. 

Three days later, sitting at my desk on the third floor in Culver City, a 5.6 aftershock hit.  We all felt it and rode it out.  Luckily there was no significant damage to the building or anyone in it.  Watching tall strong buildings sway and rock is quite a scary thing. 

We had to go through the proper channels to get someone to come check out our house.  Thankfully the damage was all cosmetic and not structural.  We patched up the walls and went on with our life. 

Six months later, our first son was born.  A year and a half after that we moved back east.  It was a tough decision to make because we had wonderful friends there, loved being so close to the beautiful blue Pacific and loved the landscape of the west.  But in the end, family and land without earthquakes won out.  As we were driving cross-country in October of 1989, we heard on the news that there was a 6.9 earthquake up near San Francisco.  We took that as a sign that we made the right decision.

My Old Toys

It’s fun to reminisce about toys you played with while growing up.  I like looking at old photos of Christmas mornings to see what toys were under the tree and which ones I remember playing with.  Few of my toys remain now, which is surprising because my father never threw anything away. But I understand how that happened, having gone through it with our boys.  When the toy is worn out or not used anymore, it gets donated somewhere or more likely tossed.  I have tried to save more of our boys’ toys in boxes in the attic. Here is what I do still have:

Sno-Man Sno-Cone Machine – This toy by Hasbro was a big hit because it made a sweet treat.  All you needed was a few ice cubes and a packet of their syrupy flavoring.  This kept us busy making our own snacks.  For some fun memories, here is a Sno-Man Sno Cone commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smHmoIGR2P8

My Nun Doll – Back when I attended St. Patrick’s School for grades 3-4, I remember the nuns taking us to the ‘store’ on special days where we could buy religious things.  I don’t remember much more than that, but I do have the nun doll to prove it.  I don’t have many memories of actually playing with it though; I guess she seemed too much like my nun teacher to actually have her do any fun things.

Penny Brite – Ok, so I don’t still have my Penny Brite doll… and that’s bothering me.  She was my favorite.  I also had her kitchen set, bedroom set, and her cool blue plastic car.  I had the carrying case and several of her outfits and accessories.  I used to love setting up all the furniture and playing with her.  I have checked my parents’ attic, asked my sister, and checked the boxes in my own attic in case my father packed it away and gave it to me years ago, but no luck.  Lately I have been thinking a lot about getting a Penny Brite doll.  I can’t really explain why.  I have been looking on eBay and am even contemplating placing a bid.  In a way I feel like that is cheating though, because it won’t be my Penny Brite. So why am I having this urge?  At my age, I am hardly nesting.  Neither of our sons has a girlfriend, so grandchildren are not in the near future.  Could I be regressing back to childhood?  Looking for a leisure time activity?  Ha!  I hardly have time to write this blog let alone play with dolls.  Where would I even set up the doll furniture?  I can’t explain it other than I guess it was a big part of my childhood that I want back. 

Does anyone remember Penny Brite?

Some other toys I have fond memories of playing with include: Operation, Slinky, Etch-a-Sketch, Mr. Potato Head, Gumby, Pick Up Sticks, Rock‘em Sock‘em Robots, Tinker Toys, Hula-Hoops, Pogo Sticks, Silly Putty, and Yo-yos.  What were some of your favorites growing up and do you still have them? 

Gymnastics

Gymnastics was my passion growing up.  I started the sport in elementary school, choreographing my first floor exercise routine to the Beatles’ song ‘Hey Jude’.  I still remember that 6^th grade routine.  I continued throughout high school, went on to make the Cortland State gymnastic team, and even went back and coached my high school’s team after college.  Gymnastics was my life and I used every free moment in high school to go to the gym and practice.  If my grades slipped, my parents threatened gymnastics and they went right back up.  I have so many great memories of the sport, but I also can’t help but to be amazed at how different it is today than in ‘my day’.

The equipment has improved drastically for the better.  For example, back in the 70s and even the early 80s, the balance beams were not padded.  So when I did no-handed forward rolls on them, I was rolling my spine along a 4-inch piece of wood, over and over and over until it became a sure move for me.  When I fell and caught my leg or arm on the beam, the purple bruises confirmed its wooden surface.  This is not to say that gymnasts today don’t get bruised from falling, but the padding on the beam nowadays does provide a little cushioning.

For floor exercise, I used to have to strategically place the rectangular mats in the gym horizontally across the floor area where my tumbling passes would take place.  During meets, sometimes the mats moved and sometimes they stayed put.  It depended on which school you were at and how good their mats were.  All the other moves that could have benefited from padding were done on the hard gym floor.  Thankfully, today the entire surface of the floor exercise area is well padded.

The vaulting horse is different too.  We used them as horizontal pieces of equipment to hurdle over, with the big move being a handspring with a twist.  Today the horses are vaulted over vertically, generally starting with a round-off on the springboard to begin your tumbling pass over the horse.  The uneven bars are also much different and are used much farther apart, with better material for the bars.  All these improvements have been for the better and help the safety of the gymnasts.   

The scoring is also very different today.  It used to be easy understanding the system from 1 to 10.  Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian gymnast and winner of 3 Olympic medals in 1976, was the first female gymnast to ever get a perfect 10 in an Olympic event.  Tens were rare for a long time, but soon after she broke the  barrier, a new system of scoring was created, which also coincided with the increased difficulty that was being required for each piece of equipment.

When I graduated high school in 1975, the moves that we considered difficult are considered routine today.  For example, the hardest move anyone attempted on the balance beam was a single back-handspring, and you only saw one or two gymnasts doing this move at the sectional competition at the end of the season.  On floor exercise, you might have seen a back flip with a twist or one or two girls attempting a double back.  The difficulty of the moves brings me next to the area of spotting.

A gymnast can only attempt to learn new moves if she has a coach who can safely teach it to her and spot her while learning it.  I remember Mr. Hank Alzieri, the Ossining coach, helping out our Yorktown team with a few ‘joint practices’ so he could spot some of our more difficult moves.  He was a big, tall, strong man and he knew how to spot more difficult moves.  More importantly, we felt confident that no matter what we did, which was often changing our mind mid-air, he would safely catch us.  When I went on to coach my high school team after college, there was one gymnast who was extremely talented and I did not know how to spot all the moves she was learning.  Luckily she also attended a private gymnastics gym and they did most of the teaching.  When she had the move down, I basically had to ‘be there’ just in case.

Many schools have done away with gymnastics because of the liability. I remember one time during high school, my friend Joann knocked out her front teeth on the trampoline in gym class while doing a front flip.  She tucked so hard that her knees knocked into her teeth.  It is a shame that hardly any high schools still have gymnastics teams, because I see kids coming into my classroom every month with casts and crutches from every other sport.  Where the schools have come short for the sport, private gymnastics gyms have sprung up all over to take their place.   Maybe that is better in some ways with highly trained coaches and up-to-date safety equipment. But I sure do miss going to watch a local meet with kids I know.

My friend Jack used to call me Cathy Rigby.  Maybe you know her as Broadway’s Peter Pan, but way before that she was an Olympic gymnast.  This would be analogous to knowing Paul McCartney as a member of Wings instead of the Beatles.  Anyway, her specialty, like mine, was the balance beam.  She participated in the 1972 Olympics and my friend Jack used to call me Cathy Rigby because of our love for the beam and for the sport.   I miss those days, but am happy for all the memories.

Cortland State gymnastics meet at SUNY Buffalo in 1976 during warm ups, doing a back walk over.  Notice the balance beam has no padding.

I guess I got my gymnastics genes from my father.  He would do handstands just about anywhere.  Here he is on a lifeguard chair at the beach, most likely showing off for the girls.

Kissing a Rattlesnake

Seeing a rattlesnake in the wild is not something that happens everyday.  Picking it up and kissing it is something even more rare…

Back in 2003 my husband and I went to Sedona for a quick 4-day get-away.  During that trip we decided to do some of the touristy things like ‘ride the pink jeep’ and take a hot air balloon ride over the red rock area.  Both were fabulous experiences.  Today’s story will focus on the hot air balloon ride experience.

We had to be at the launch site at an ungodly hour.  We arrived while it was still dark out.  The employees of Northern Light Balloon Expedition worked steadily at inflating the balloons at that early hour because it is not generally windy then.  They can’t inflate the hot air balloons in windy conditions. Our flight would be at least an hour, longer depending on where we ended up.  We would be flying in and around the Coconino National Forest, which covers the Sedona area.

There were several balloons being launched that morning.  When it came time for us to get into our balloon, we did so with four other passengers and the pilot, making of 7 of us in the balloon.  We ascended gently and began floating over the beautiful landscape.  The lighting was spectacular at that time of day, just after sunrise.  It was so quiet except for the occasional noise of the hot air controls ascending or descending, controlling our destiny.

The ‘chase vehicles’ followed not far behind us.  These were the trucks that were present when we landed, not only to bring us back to our cars, but also to bring the balloons back. Our pilot pointed out the flora and fauna of the area.  There weren’t many animals except for a few large hares hopping around.  It wasn’t until we were getting ready to land over an hour later that the pilot spotted a rattlesnake in the brush.  We were on our way down and no one else saw it.  But when we landed, he quickly told us to get in one of the chase vehicles and he drove us down the dirt path to where he saw the snake.  We all thought it would be long since gone, but our pilot/snake whisperer found it.  It was an endangered Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.  It is considered endangered because it is hunted for its meat and skin.  In some of the southwestern states, snake meat is considered a fabulous meal.

Lest you think our pilot was nutty, he informed us that he was also a certified rattlesnake handler.  I don’t remember if ‘certified’ was the term he used, but the point was that he was qualified to handle them.  He cautiously approached it and lifted it up.  We maintained our distance but then as curiosity took over, some of the group inched closer.  He was teaching us a lot about the snake, even holdings its mouth open so we could see the inside.  I took a lot of pictures, but it wasn’t until I asked him to pose with the snake for my students back home that he surprised the heck out of all of us and kissed the darn thing.

We went back to where the balloons landed and enjoyed our champagne picnic while the employees packed up the balloons.  It was a fabulous way to spend the morning but for me, the rattlesnake experience topped it off. 

The first balloon of the morning takes off.  This was not our balloon.

Sunrise in Sedona

One of the employees filling our balloon

Our balloon and our sister balloon which would travel together

This is obviously our sister balloon, but the scenery we saw.

Flying high over the red rock area

Flying low too...

Where we saw the hare, but you can't see it in this photo

One of the 'chaser' trucks

The Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Handling a rattler...don't try this at home!

A closeup of the inside of its mouth

The rattle tail

Kissing the rattlesnake...  <3

Why I Love My Job

I consider myself one of the lucky ones.  I actually enjoy what I do for a living.  When I stop enjoying it, I will retire.  But for now, being a teacher is still very rewarding and often entertaining.  I especially love working with 11-12 year olds, an age that I often describe as “still doing anything for a sticker”.  They are independent enough, capable of great insight, and have an emerging sense of humor.  Some things they say, write, and do make me smile.

Last month students were asked to write about a person who inspired them.  One student wrote about Looge Errig.  He had a lot to say about him.  He mentioned that Looge was a great baseball player.  I love and follow baseball and was surprised I never heard of him.  Looge was also a Yankee, which surprised me even more that I didn’t recognize a player from my favorite team.  He died of a disease that is now named after him.  Oh!  Lou Gehrig…  You have to smile at that.

Recently students did a science lab that included a goldfish in each student’s eco-bottle.  Now that the lab was over, each student got to bring home his or her goldfish.  An hour after getting home, one student emailed the science teacher with this note:

Hi Mrs. _____, Sorry to bother you but something is happening.

The orange fish is having a prolapsed intestine meaning its intestine is coming out of its pelvic area.  It has come out pretty far.   I googled "prolapsed intestine minnow" and I saw a website saying that his fish had one and asked what to do. People said they actually watch their fish die in front of them because of it, and I need to know if I can save him somehow or if he will heal by himself. They said that healing is very rare.  I need your input. Please reply to this email as soon as you can.

From,

_____

This from an 11-year old whose parents are not doctors.  I am neither a doctor nor a veterinarian, but it sounds to me like the fish was pooping.  These are just two quick examples of why I love the students I work with, and why I love my job.

The Sistine Chapel

The famous Sistine Chapel in Vatican City is the Pope’s chapel.    It is well known for the Renaissance art inside as well as the location where papal conclaves take place.  This is the process where a new pope is selected, when the old pope dies.

Construction of the Sistine Chapel started in 1473 and the first mass was celebrated there ten years later.  The measurements of this simple rectangular structure are 134 by 44 feet with its ceiling rising 68 feet. Michelangelo Buonarroti was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV to repaint the ceiling in 1508. He considered himself a sculptor and did not want to accept the commission from the Pope but knew he had to.  He was afraid he was being set up to fail.

With more than 300 figures, the ceiling took four years to complete.  Ironically it has become one of Michelangelo’s most well known pieces of work and is also considered by many to be his crowning achievement.  Personally, I believe his statue of David in Florence is tied for this honor. 

Later on in 1537, when Michelangelo was in his 60s, he was called back again to paint the wall above the altar with The Last Judgement.  Again, this was against his wishes.  He included his self-portrait in this work twice, which he has been known to do.  Michelangelo was not the only Renaissance artist who frescoed on the chapel walls.  Other notable artists included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, and Pinturicchio.

I have had the privilege of visiting the chapel several times. After visitors work their way through the Vatican Museum, they are led outside into a one-way line into the Sistine Chapel, which is adjacent to St. Peter’s. Each time I visited, it was riddled with tourists.  I had the benefit of a tour guide who explained several of the frescoes before I entered.  This helped give me an area to find and focus on after entering.  The details and beauty of each section of the ceiling and on the walls were so overwhelming that I didn’t know where to look first or what to look for.  I think you appreciate art more when you know what you are looking at. 

There are a few benches along some of the walls of the chapel, which are quickly filled by tired tourists.  Basically you have to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your tourist neighbor while cranking your head up trying to absorb the beauty of the ceiling that permanently damaged Michelangelo’s eyesight, as a result of the paint that dripped into his eyes while he was on his back.  There is absolutely no photography allowed in the chapel, flash or otherwise.  If a tourist tries to sneak one in, they are quickly reprimanded.  I have seen cameras confiscated too.  I was disappointed that I could not try to capture a memory of the beauty all around me.

I recently found this website which is a virtual tour of an empty Sistine Chapel.  It is worth exploring and enjoying, but it does not take the place of experiencing the masterpiece firsthand, which I hope you can do someday.  

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Creation of Adam on the Sistine ceiling. Courtesy of Web Gallery of Art.

How I Won a New Van

Back in 1999 the Honda Odyssey van was a hot commodity.  After researching vans, we decided that the Odyssey was the one we wanted.  We have had several Hondas and like their reliability and drive.  The problem is that after visiting two local Honda dealers, we were told the same thing:  there was up to a six-month wait to get one.

We had an 18-day road trip coming up in 3 weeks with the boys, ages 8 and 11 at the time.  We would have to settle for taking it in our year old Honda CR-V, which was much smaller than the Odyssey.  We really didn’t have much choice, until that fateful Friday came along when we got a call from the Honda dealer in New York.  They had great news!  An Odyssey deal just fell through and did we want the van?  Could we be there at 9:00am the next morning?  You bet we could!

At 8:00 the following morning, we pulled into the dealer’s parking lot.  We waited alone in our car until 8:30, when another couple pulled in and waited in theirs.  At 9:00 some employees arrived and we all entered to find our prospective salesperson.

Well, lo and behold, there was a problem.  Apparently this van was promised to two people, us and the other couple.  We tried to remain calm about it, but we were there first ones there and shouldn’t that count for something?  Apparently not.  The sales manager was consulted and after what seemed like forever, we were all brought into the same room to hear the news.

The van came as is. That meant we had to take it with all the bells and whistles they packed on, including the bicycle rack on top.  We had absolutely no bargaining power for price. If one of us didn’t want to buy it for $31,000, they had a back up buyer right there. Of course we wanted the van, but we were trapped.  We had a big vacation coming up in two weeks, plus it was the dark blue color that was our first choice.  We were still in.

So, the brilliant idea of the sales manager was to flip a coin for it.  I was flabbergasted.  Really?  Flip a coin to see if we were going to get a chance to buy a $31,000 van?  It was surreal.  Of course the 8 and 12-year-olds were quite excited and quickly chose heads.  We all watched breathlessly as the coin was thrown in the air, landed on the floor, and then slowly rolled across the room.  As if we needed to prolong the misery, we watched it roll and roll and roll.  When it finally landed on heads, the kids jumped up and down exuberantly yelling, “We won!”  But somehow it didn’t feel like we really won.  Under normal circumstances, I know we would have been able to bargain them down a little on price and not have all the unnecessary drama connected with spending that kind of money.

In the end, we had a fabulous vacation to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and Maine.  We loved the Odyssey’s size, comfort and ride.  The van had a great life with wonderful trips and memories.  It was packed with kids for most of its life, held lots of musical equipment for gigs, and brought our boys to college.  It lasted 12 years and traveled 198,500 miles before we traded it in last spring for another Honda.  I am sold on Hondas, but I can do without flipping coins.

Two weeks after "winning" our van, it waits on line for the catamaran fast speed ferry from Bar Harbor to Nova Scotia.

Coming up soon…another car buying story…

Confessions in Europe

Going to confession is not one of the more looked forward to parts of religion, even for religious people.  It is difficult to confess your sins to someone, especially if that person knows you.  In most cases, you go to the church you attend to confess and you obviously know the priest, or he knows you. It may be embarrassing which deters some people from going, especially young people.

While on a student trip to Europe in 2008, I encountered an interesting event.  We were in Rome visiting St. Paul’s Basilica, also referred to as St. Paul’s Outside the Walls because it is literally outside the ancient walls of the city.  It is the second largest of Rome's four ancient major basilicas.  The largest is of course St. Peter’s in Vatican City.  The other two are St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major.

When we arrived at St. Paul’s, we had one hour in total to visit the church, take photos, use the restroom, buy water, or whatever else we needed to do.  This may sound like a lot of time, but it really isn’t.  An hour flies by.  The reason why being punctual is so important with group travel is that your school is not the only school on the tour.  We were a group of 18 but there were several other schools with us as well, filling the bus.   So being late would mean holding up other groups of people as well as throwing off the schedule of remaining things to do each day.

For years now I have been lighting a candle for my niece, who has been ill for many years, in every church I visit.  The kids inside saw me doing this and some lit candles too.  There were also many confessional boxes lining the side of the church with priests ‘on duty’. Above each box was a posted sign saying what language(s) the priest spoke.  One of the students asked me if she had time for confession.  With 15 minutes to go, I figured she was safe.  Another student saw her going and got in line too.  As other students were rounding the corner near the confessionals, a few others wanted to go. 

A few minutes later I had to round up the remaining kids in the church and direct them back towards the bus.  I was missing one boy.  When I found him, he saw one of the kids leaving the confessional.  He said he wanted to go too.  So now I had a decision to make.  If I let him go, we would be late.  But how on earth could I say no to a teenage boy who wanted to go to confession?  I waited for him and we walked back to the bus together, to the wrath of the group director. 

I tried to explain that I could not say no to a teenager who wanted to go to confession.  If you read my past blogs, you know I like a schedule and like being on time, as much as, if not more than the next person.  I knew that I should have said no, but I couldn’t.  Shame on me?  I think not this time.

The bus seemed lighter that afternoon.  Perhaps it was because of the lighter consciences of some of the students, or maybe just the mood that being in such a beautiful basilica can put you in.  In any case, I was pleased with our hour ‘and ten minutes’ even though I was wrong to be late.  

One of the English speaking confessionals

Inside St. Paul's Basilica

Part of the outside front of St. Paul's

More of the outside and grounds

Gravity Boots

Back in July of 1982 I took a trip to California with my friend Marguerite.  We spent a week in the bay area and a second week in Los Angeles.  While visiting our friend Donnie in San Jose, he introduced us to gravity boots.  He asked if we wanted to hang, and naturally we thought he meant hang out.  But we soon learned a new meaning of hanging.

He took us to a nearby playground where there was a chinning bar.  He clipped these metal space-like contraptions to his ankles, jumped up to the bar, did a leg up, hooked his boots to the bar, and let go.   There he hung upside down from his ankles.  He stayed there for a few minutes, then lifted himself back up to the bar, unhooked, and came down.  Being a runner, one benefit he mentioned was that the stretching out of your back is great for runners since running does just the opposite.   I was excited to try it.

The first time I tried the boots, it was a little weird getting used to the blood rushing to your head.  I think I only stayed inverted for a minute or two.  You need to build yourself up to longer hang times.  But, I was hooked on how great I felt afterwards.  It was very relaxing and my body felt refreshed and revitalized afterwards.  So, I went and bought myself a pair.   

When I got back home after vacation, my parents and friends got a kick out of watching me at our local elementary school playground hanging upside down.  Some of my friends even tried it.  Heck, we even used to do inverted sit-ups back then.

Fast-forward three months...  I convinced Marguerite that we should move to Los Angeles and in October we packed both our cars with all we needed for our new lives out west.  We borrowed CB radios and started our 7-day journey.  The CBs were invaluable to communicate with each other, coordinate rest stops, and many times just to keep each other awake. By the end of each day, our backs needed a good stretching out after being compressed sitting for about 10 hours.

After we checked into the motel each evening, we asked the front desk clerk where the nearest playground was.  We got some strange looks, but imagine if we did this today?  The clerk would probably call 9-1-1 as soon as we left.  Anyway, once we found our chinning bar, we hung and stretched which revitalized our bodies in preparation for the next 10-hour day in the car.  

Without those boots, I know our backs would have been in bad shape after seven days of this routine.    

When we arrived in Los Angeles, I needed a job and wrote to the Gravity Guiding Systems in Pasadena, where the company that made the boots was located. I was so impressed with their product that I thought maybe they could use me somewhere.  I gave it a good shot, but there were no job openings.  In the end, it worked out for the best, since I got a great job close to where we got our apartment.  But I digress.

I continued using the gravity boots for many years.  I was a 36-mile a week runner for many years and my body told me when I needed a good ‘hang’ to decompress my spine. There are other devices that have since been invented to invert in a gentler manner, but I never bought one.  My chiropractor has long since taken the place of my boots.      

Although I no longer use the gravity boots, I still have them.  They are tucked away in their original box in a closet downstairs.  I don’t know why, but I have no intention to toss them, as I have tossed so many other items while lightening the material burden.  They are just one of the things I want to hold on to.

This is me 'hanging' in a park in San Jose in July 1982.

My “Not” Bucket List

Nowadays it seems like so many people are creating a Bucket List, a list of things they want to do before they die, or before they turn a certain age.  I never gave much thought to creating one.  They seem to me like they would put a lot of undue pressure on you to achieve so many far reaching and sometimes expensive endeavors.  But I do know that there are some activities that I have no interest or intention of ever doing, despite the fact that these things are popular on other people’s lists.  So here are the top 10 things that I would never have on my Bucket List, if I had one.

1) First of all, I will not be jumping out of a plane. It doesn’t matter where the plane is flying, how high it is, or who is flying it.  It doesn’t even matter if you put Brad Pitt or George Clooney in the plane, I would still have absolutely no desire to scare the living crap out of myself and do something that is so incredibly insane.  Jump out of a plane?  Really?  Why?

2) Secondly, I will not be swimming with sharks.  I like to swim and I love the ocean.  I don’t particularly like when fish are sharing the ocean with me however, and I would be less inclined to like it if the fish were large and dangerous and had sharp teeth.  Even if I had on protective gear, this would not be an activity I would enjoy.

3) Speaking of animals, I will not be attending any bullfights.  The closest I got to this was touring a bullring in Spain.  That was all fine and good, because no animals were present.  Watching animals gore each other, or worse, goring people, is not my idea of entertainment.  I am an animal lover and this would make me ill to watch, not give me a thrill.

4) Even if I was in shape, I would not like to climb Mt. Everest or any of the other high summits of the world. I read Into Thin Air and got the inside scoop on what the climbers really endure and how far they will go to reach the summit.  I am grateful that I don’t have that urge.  Besides, I hate the cold. 

5) I would want to bungee jump off a bridge as much as I would want to cut off my fingers one at a time.   This ‘thrill’ may be right up there with skydiving for some, but for me the thought of your body bouncing up and down like a yo-yo is nauseating.  Granted I do have a fear of bridges, so voluntarily falling off one would not be on my list of things to do.

6) Some people, including my husband, would travel to the moon if they had the money.  This interests me 0%.   Spacesuits, weightlessness, peeing in a bag, eating dried food, and worrying where your oxygen is coming from are not things that excite me.  I like this planet just fine, most of the time, and prefer to stay here.

7) Riding the largest roller coaster in the world, or the largest Ferris wheel for that matter, is another no-no.  I am not fond of paying good money and waiting in line for hours to get the crap scared out of me.  I think I made that point earlier in this list.  And yes, Ferris wheels are scary because of their height, not their speed.  With my luck, our ‘car’ would be stopped at the top and I would be with people who thought it was cool to rock the car.  No thanks.

8) Being elected to a political office would not be for me either.  I leave that stress to those better equipped to hold their tongue when listening to irrational people or requests.  I try to avoid discussing politics whenever possible because I like my friends, regardless of their political affiliations.  Therefore, I would not like to alienate half of them by taking office, which would mean being “Republican” or “Democrat” all the time.

9) I don’t feel the need to milk a cow either.  Farmers are having a hard time keeping their jobs nowadays, so why tread on their territory?  I like pouring my milk from a container just fine.

10) Finally, I don’t need to run away and join the circus for a day.  I have lived through the years where my life was a circus and luckily things turned out well.  I prefer to give the jugglers, fortune-tellers, and clowns a break and not ask them to put up with me for a day.

I would love to hear from you if you have a Bucket List and how that is going.  How do you approach fulfilling the things on it?  If you do not have or want one, why not create a Not Bucket List like I did?

Are You Smarter Than a 6th Grader?

Are you smarter than a 6^th grader?

Time to break up the blog entries with a fun quiz.

Answers are at the end….No cheating!

1.     What three parts of speech does an adverb modify?

a)     past, present, future    

b)    noun, pronoun, proper noun

c)     verb, adjective, adverb

d)    verb, pronoun, adjective

2.     Which is an example of personification?

a)     The flashlight was as bright as the sun.

b)    On this night the moon spoke to me.

c)     Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

d)    The delicious potato chips were crunchy.

3.     Roses are red

Violets are blue

This poem is old

And so are you!

This poem is written with what pattern?

a)     ABCD

b)    ABAB

c)     AABB

d)    ABCB

4.     How many mistakes are in this sentence?

You’re mother should of taken alot of pitchers with her camera becuase its knew.

a)     4

b)    5

c)     6

d)    7

5.     Where did the 12 greatest gods and goddesses live?

a)     Zeus Mountain

b)    Mt. Vesuvius

c)     Mt. Whitney

d)    Mount Olympus

6.     How many pronouns are in the following sentence?

I went with Mary to get her car but it was not where she thought it would be so she asked the neighbors if they moved it.

a)     4

b)    6

c)     8

d)    10

7.     What is foreshadowing?

a)     When an author gives a hint that something may happen later in the story

b)    When an author leaves you in suspense at the end of a chapter

c)     When an author gives a false clue to throw you off the trail

d)    When an author gives dark details which make you sad

8.     What does genre mean?

a)     A poem that does not rhyme

b)    A kind of literary work

c)     The male main character in a book

d)    The evil character in a book

9.     How many syllables are in a Haiku poem?

a)     17

b)    25

c)     11

d)    It does not have a specified number of syllables.

10.  Which sentence is correct?

a)     The boy’s hat was left on his friends car.

b)    The boys hat was left on his friend’s car.

c)     The boy’s hat was left on his friend’s car.

d)    The boys hat was left on his friends car.

Scroll down for the answers.

ANSWERS: 

1.  c

2.  b

3.  d

4.  d  - Your mother should have taken a lot of pictures with her camera because it’s new.

5.  d

6.  c  -  I went with Mary to get her car but it was not where she thought it would be so she asked the neighbors if they moved it.

7.  a

8.  b

9.  a

10. c

So, how did you do??  Let us know...

Security at Hospitals

While visiting a friend at a hospital this week, I was reminded of how easy it is for anyone to enter a hospital.  I didn’t have to sign in, get checked, or say whom I was visiting. I could have walked into anyone’s room while no one even knew I was in the building.  Granted, the last thing people want to deal with is being hassled when they enter a hospital, especially since many are visiting a sick relative or friend, and have other things on their mind.  While I appreciated not having to be patted down or take my shoes off for a metal detector, there was something a little too free and open about the situation. Somehow I would have felt better if I was, at the very least, required to sign in.

Other businesses and large facilities take simple precautions with visitors.  Many require them to sign in and sometimes even wear a visitor badge. Although this practice may also be done to aid them with their operations, it is also a first line of defense for the safety and security of the people in the building.  Is the visitor signing in acting suspicious?  Do they have the name of the person that they are supposedly visiting?  Are they carrying something questionable?  In addition, there are simple databases that can be scanned to see if someone is wanted or has caused trouble.  Signing in also provides a record of who was in the building with a time frame. There is a front desk person or secretary there anyway, so what harm would there be there asking visitors to sign in?  This does not discriminate against or violate anyone’s rights. 

Schools are also very diligent nowadays with student and staff safety.  In the wake of recent school violence, entry doors are now locked during the day, lockdown drills are held, and other precautions are taken to ensure everyone’s safety.  One thing many schools do universally is have visitors sign in.  This simple step is easy to implement and execute and does not offend anyone.  It assures that the visitor has a reason to be there.

According to security experts, incidents of angry patients returning to get revenge are increasing.  Last year, the Joint Commission — a nonprofit organization that accredits U.S. hospitals — reported that since 1995, there have been 256 assaults, rapes or homicides at hospitals and health-care facilities. Of those, 110 have occurred since 2007.  This fact was taken from the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.  Patients in hospitals are more vulnerable and less able to physically defend themselves against an intruder. And what about the stories of people entering hospitals and stealing babies?  Thank goodness these scenarios are still rare, but they do happen.

Not to mention, hospitals have drugs…lots of them.  They are supposed to be locked up but even so, what better place is there for a person desperate for drugs to break into than a hospital?  Hospitals have many rooms and spaces to avert discovery. 

When I was in Santa Monica Hospital when my first son was born, I was obsessing the first night that my new baby might be crying in the nursery or worse.  I rang the bell for the nurse to bring him to me and what was probably 15 minutes seemed like an hour of waiting.  I kept him there the rest of the night.  My worst fear was that he would be taken. Yes, I know my hormones were probably in overdrive, but then again, there was no security in place to stop this from happening.  Nurses have things to do and can’t keep an eye on every patient every second of the day.

Maybe some hospitals do have a sign in policy, but the ones I have been to lately do not.  I would feel better staying in a hospital that did not let visitors come in the door and wander all over.  Let’s start with a sign in sheet and visual screening.  Would you object to that?