Showing posts with label Gerrit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gerrit. Show all posts
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
25 December 2013: Christmas Day ... clear and cold, ice in Dancer's water bowl ... the luminaria bags are collected; sand trashed, bags recycled, candles kept ...
Kind of a cool image, I wrote: Thought it was frozen solid but just a layer had formed
on Dancer's water bowl this frosty Christmas morn.
It's difficult to come to this digital page and compose at the end of the day for you forget the memorable moments of a day, even a Christmas day, when it's just the two of you and phone calls from Lindsay and Liz and Gail and Nick and sharing with Susan about a book by Elizabeth Gilbert, who you friend on FB because she loves the social media (you heard her interview on WHYY with Marty Moss-Coane (had no idea how to spell it), who is the author of mega-best seller Eat, Pray, Love and who has written a book, I thought she would be interested in and which I sent her a New York Times review by Janet Maslin called The Signature of All Things, which I offered to get for her but have not heard
back. I friended her on FB and wrote a wry comment about a photo she posted of her in 1976 at age 7, yes, she was born in 1969 on a tree farm and her sister is a well-known author, too. Splendid, creative childhood with parents who nurtured their true artistic selves.
Yes, I an enamored. She is lovely and so talented and intellectual.
Went to Snapfish and uploaded pics of the Finn Family to give back to them what they gave to us, two lovely printed photos. Still have to figure out how to get a assemblage of maybe 4 photos in one display to send to them. I will do it.
back. I friended her on FB and wrote a wry comment about a photo she posted of her in 1976 at age 7, yes, she was born in 1969 on a tree farm and her sister is a well-known author, too. Splendid, creative childhood with parents who nurtured their true artistic selves.
Yes, I an enamored. She is lovely and so talented and intellectual.
Went to Snapfish and uploaded pics of the Finn Family to give back to them what they gave to us, two lovely printed photos. Still have to figure out how to get a assemblage of maybe 4 photos in one display to send to them. I will do it.
On Christmas Eve, when I found a Nintendo Wii, thanks to Muhammad at Best Buy, the handsome close-cropped bearded young man, and I ate my usual veggie omelet at Mary's Kountry Kitchen and go to share dad's passing with Mary, at the cash register, and Shelley, serving but not me on this day, I did not find something for Stacy. I had wanted to.
Well, this evening, it hit me. Get her something personal. A photograph. One that we have displayed for years in its frame ... dad and mom laughing and enjoying a moment at a meal at Cindy's wedding reception from some 30 years ago, now that's personal and meaningful. So, I wrapped it and combined it with a Christmas card that I'd written earlier, left a message on her home phone (she was at work tonight, doing the holiday as it was her turn) and placed the present and card in her mailbox. Afterward, when I'd finished my 2 miles plus walk with Dancer, I phoned her cell and she answered at the hospital. She did seem put out but anxious that I called. She thought something might be up with mom. I told her about mom being placed on Hospice and then about looking in her mailbox ... she closed by calling me "Ru". Nobody but my mother has ever called me by that shortened version of my name. Got a curious pang in me about Stacy. No, it will never be but I have a strong feeling of like/love for her and what she's done for my mother, specifically, and my father, too. She has been an extraordinary neighbor and she is an extraordinarily beautiful person.
Well, this evening, it hit me. Get her something personal. A photograph. One that we have displayed for years in its frame ... dad and mom laughing and enjoying a moment at a meal at Cindy's wedding reception from some 30 years ago, now that's personal and meaningful. So, I wrapped it and combined it with a Christmas card that I'd written earlier, left a message on her home phone (she was at work tonight, doing the holiday as it was her turn) and placed the present and card in her mailbox. Afterward, when I'd finished my 2 miles plus walk with Dancer, I phoned her cell and she answered at the hospital. She did seem put out but anxious that I called. She thought something might be up with mom. I told her about mom being placed on Hospice and then about looking in her mailbox ... she closed by calling me "Ru". Nobody but my mother has ever called me by that shortened version of my name. Got a curious pang in me about Stacy. No, it will never be but I have a strong feeling of like/love for her and what she's done for my mother, specifically, and my father, too. She has been an extraordinary neighbor and she is an extraordinarily beautiful person.
What am I truly thankful for on this Christmas Day 2013:
- Being able to spend Christmas with my mother for perhaps the last time.
- Having friends like Marli and Gerrit Stam who really enjoy spending time with us and are just terrific.
- Family like Marissa Finn who can give gifts that touch the core of our being.
- Being able to share a part of your life with another in the form of a treasured photo that you feel is a proper way to say "Thank You" for all you do Stacy Casaletto.
- Understand that when mom calls to answer that call without anger and show only love because we only have one shot at this thing called life, as Gordon Roth, my bass compatriot in the UUSMC choir so eloquently put it last evening.
- The genius of David Attenborough and his animal films. Just finished watching the World of Mammals on Netflix tonight. Just extraordinary commentary and stunning photography.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
26 October 2013: On this brilliant Saturday morn in late October, started dad on O2 this am, for a short period, due to shortness of breath, he's making his bed now (8:18 am) ...
THE DAILY DANCER: Chilly in the AM in Delaware, I brought her inside and although initially restive, she calmed and then needed to be outside once the sun came up..JPG)
Juliana Jimenez, waitress/cook/eponymous co-owner of "Juliana's Kitchen" with
her husband Edwin, serves a steak entree to Doug last evening, Friday, 25 Oct. 2013.
Norma was there too and we went at the suggestion of dad, who remembered our memorable
visit in mid-May when I found the restaurant on Yelp and then later, posted a review,
which was still on the site when I checked last night.
Got him into listening to some music ... YESSS!!! ... here, to the song cycle by Schubert about the miller's daughter, Die Schone Mullerin (sic), with tenor Patzak and pianist Klien. He mouths the words to the lieder and asked, at the end of the first side, to hear some more. Now, as I type this, I have Mahler, Das Lied Von Der Erde (please excuse my German spelling) -- Song of the Earth of thereabouts, regardless, it's Mahler that dad loves -- on with the same tenor conducted by Bruno Walter, a lifelong friend.
Saw the two pics below downstairs, decided to copy them and post them. Got an edifying commentary from Cindy, who lives in Naples, FL, now about the photo below. Will post her comments below the picture.
"I believe your parents were with you intermittently at my wedding. They drove you i believe. They were at
the restaurant during the reception, but I feel like I remember them dancing too???
Anyway I love this pic!! Can really feel the emotion there! Might have been august '84 at the reception.
.... And yes I apparently have a double lol!!" FB comment by Cindy Aiman Stimeck
Their traveling days, my parents pose at Iguacu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina.
Just a fantastic road trip into the country of Pennsylvania courtesy of the driving prowess and GPS ability of his droid phone, one Douglas Alan Nyhoff. We traveled roads that I did not know existed and in several cases, the road narrowed to the width of almost a cart path and the GPS intoned or showed that their was civilization ahead. Speaking of which, we passed Amish plowing their fields with horses and just on the horizon were 21st century banks and a Sunoco gas station. What a proximity and there was a hawk, some vultures, several deceased deer (one in the back of a pickup and the other on the side of the road), and the fall colors and the leaves sweeping across the narrow roads, navigated expertly by my brother while he looked down at his phone to get directional aid. Little harrowing but he's one heckuva of a driver and is very conscientious, although he did run his sports Audi into another car while looking at his phone causing $10K of damage to his fancy sports car.
Tonight, to the initial anger and upset of everyone, I took it upon myself to invite Gerrit and Marli to our house for flounder, which Doug and Norma picked up at Acme, among many other items, because of an e-mail that stated that they planned to come over in the late afternoon with a platter of Marli's famous Dutch cooking. Well, I just knew that mom would love preparing the food and she has, even though she is winded and that means asking for a few Xanax, but she is in her room and plans to walk to balcony to greet our guests when they arrive. The flounder, soaking in butter, will be put in shortly, along with carrots. Doug bought salad and the Stams will bring their dish. Should be interesting. Stay tuned.
I managed to get off and walk Dancer for a short one around Bark Park and get to Acme for dog biscuits and then the needed napkins. I think we are ready for our impromptu dinner party.
Gerrit Stam gives mom and dad a slide show after a dinner of flounder, sausage, carrots, salad, and companionship with the Stams. The pics were from a recent short trip to western Maryland where they saw a bear and beautiful fall colors in Hancock, Maryland, where the width of the state, from Pennsylvania to West Virginia is less than 2 miles.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
12 October 2012: Cassado, vicodin scare and find, new profile pic of us, ... Lohengrin, Tine, Sophie, Oma, Opa, Marli, Gerrit, Stam, Stam-Schouten
Day began with turmoil. The Vicodin in the pewter watering jar was missing and dad was frantic. I took it easy and felt that we needed to report the presumed theft (we could not find it), but cooler heads prevailed, called Doug and he said to just go to the pharmacy and get a refill, BUT, et voila, it was found, by dad as apparently it was sitting on the coffee table (doubtful?) all the time, in plain view. Well, I was playing detective and saying the only person who had access to it was Stacy since she was in the house doing mom's hair and later brought groceries into the house and placed them in the frig and freezer. Thank goodness we did not go any further. Will have to be more careful in the future with those dangerous and addictive and expensive narcotics.
"That was beautiful ... never knew this record," dad said ... (and probably never will as it is not available on Amazon and only found it on eBay where the bidding was complete and the purchase price was a whopping $33.00. Did find a great blog, "Vinyl Fatigue", where the writer, a vinyl record audiophile and collector like dad, extolled this recording. Dad agreed entirely with his opinions of the work after listening to it on YouTube.
It truly is a classic.)
This is often his position as he listens to the YouTube audio and the video if he is up. More times than not, he is just too exhausted.
This photo below of mom is from yesterday before Stacy came over to do her hair. I gave her treats to give to Dancer, but not before she had her stay and listen.
"Oh, please give me my treat," implores Dancer to her grandmother.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Nothing wrong with Dad's hearing as he listens, again, to the Ravel Piano Trio with Menuhin, Cassado and Kentner on YouTube, but is bothered by Car Talk on the Bose radio downstairs. I go downstairs and turn it off. He could, he says, continue to listen to this music all day but certainly not tainted by the intrusion of Click & Clack, the car guys, Tom and Ray Magliozzi. Both my parents still have extraordinary hearing.
I check out the blog by Lawrence Austin's, Vinyl Fatigue, and then send that link after sending the YouTube link to the Ravel Piano Trio to Ruth Berry Facebook page.
Dashing fellow Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937),
seen here by his piano.
Went on an hour plus walk with Dancer to DHS, now still with no people, and onto Carousel where I took a big loop and interacted with the horses, got a shot of Dancer by one and the same horse poking its head beyond the fence to grab some better looking grub. Both events got posted on FB, the former right away, the latter when I got home.
Kept their distance but were intrigued, momentarily, with interspecies communication.
Speaking of which I got a call from mom at about 12:45 when I was by the DHS band room and she said that she and dad were hungry. Took about 20 minutes to get home (walked over 3.5 miles), prepared both a single slice of cheese, ham and tomato and some hot tea which was served to them, both recumbent in the bed upstairs, like royal highnesses. Dad ate only 1/2 of his and brought his tea downstairs, wobbly and spilled some as he headed for the couch in the addition with Heifetz playing favorites on the Bose, which I had selected and turned up rather loud (turned down posthaste because of his sensitive hearing).
Signed on to my Tumblr account (niclins) and usual password and placed 10 photos on the initial blog. It looks interesting. Nick says you can post anything on the web site, that it is very user friendly and accessible. Will try to experiment in the future. He said it was a great place to keep a blog.
As Lohengrin plays on WRTI, a SF Opera broadcast, and the 3rd Act fireworks begin ushering in the upcoming melody, here comes the theme that dad sang earlier and I doubted, ringing clearly, it is the tune - "Here Comes The Bride" sung by the chorus -- and I am chastened. I have returned from Bachetti's and Pathmark with goods totaling about $75.00 (left the receipts on kitchen table, he likes to tabulate and always asks if I need money, I tell him that I have over $1,100 in my checking account), but this is his routine of the day and the mail's arrival gets him up, slowly from the couch, and walking, hesitantly, to the table where he takes the letter opener and then brings the trash can to his side and then begins to open the mail, with one swift sweep for each envelope as Lohengrin plays on in the background.
A call from Gerrit this late afternoon and another request to stop by only this time they brought their daughter, Tine (pronounced Tina but it's Dutch spelling and the name of Marli's mother), and her daughter, Sophie, 2. Dad was initially annoyed because he was feeling the cancer today but pulled himself up and we had another delightful visit. Tine is lovely and her daughter is just a lovely handful. Brought Dancer in and she did some lovin' on the toddler and Sophie responded with some reserve but delighted in the dog. Gerrit went to the computer (he is a nerd and had a thumb drive with a number of Dutch TV shows that took nearly 20 minutes to download into the computer ... they are amazing and I think dad will love them. Also, some text files about the lives of Gerrit and Marli. Fascinating man this Gerrit, who is called Opa by his granddaughter. Marli is Oma.
Oma and Opa with their granddaughter Sophie.
Dancer gets into the picture with Tine, her daughter Sophie and her Oma, Marli Stam-Schouten.
Tina checks out photos of Sophie on her iPad with Oma and Opa, aka Marli and Gerrit, watching.
And Marli's food, a sauerkraut (zuurkool) and onions and potato dish with beef sausage added, was consumed wholly.
I wrote in an e-mail to her:
"Dear Marli,
"That was beautiful ... never knew this record," dad said ... (and probably never will as it is not available on Amazon and only found it on eBay where the bidding was complete and the purchase price was a whopping $33.00. Did find a great blog, "Vinyl Fatigue", where the writer, a vinyl record audiophile and collector like dad, extolled this recording. Dad agreed entirely with his opinions of the work after listening to it on YouTube.
It truly is a classic.)
YouTube link is, as always, just fantastic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al7I97UsuYA
This is often his position as he listens to the YouTube audio and the video if he is up. More times than not, he is just too exhausted.
This photo below of mom is from yesterday before Stacy came over to do her hair. I gave her treats to give to Dancer, but not before she had her stay and listen.
"Oh, please give me my treat," implores Dancer to her grandmother.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Nothing wrong with Dad's hearing as he listens, again, to the Ravel Piano Trio with Menuhin, Cassado and Kentner on YouTube, but is bothered by Car Talk on the Bose radio downstairs. I go downstairs and turn it off. He could, he says, continue to listen to this music all day but certainly not tainted by the intrusion of Click & Clack, the car guys, Tom and Ray Magliozzi. Both my parents still have extraordinary hearing.
I check out the blog by Lawrence Austin's, Vinyl Fatigue, and then send that link after sending the YouTube link to the Ravel Piano Trio to Ruth Berry Facebook page.
Dashing fellow Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937),
seen here by his piano.
Went on an hour plus walk with Dancer to DHS, now still with no people, and onto Carousel where I took a big loop and interacted with the horses, got a shot of Dancer by one and the same horse poking its head beyond the fence to grab some better looking grub. Both events got posted on FB, the former right away, the latter when I got home.
Kept their distance but were intrigued, momentarily, with interspecies communication.
Speaking of which I got a call from mom at about 12:45 when I was by the DHS band room and she said that she and dad were hungry. Took about 20 minutes to get home (walked over 3.5 miles), prepared both a single slice of cheese, ham and tomato and some hot tea which was served to them, both recumbent in the bed upstairs, like royal highnesses. Dad ate only 1/2 of his and brought his tea downstairs, wobbly and spilled some as he headed for the couch in the addition with Heifetz playing favorites on the Bose, which I had selected and turned up rather loud (turned down posthaste because of his sensitive hearing).
Signed on to my Tumblr account (niclins) and usual password and placed 10 photos on the initial blog. It looks interesting. Nick says you can post anything on the web site, that it is very user friendly and accessible. Will try to experiment in the future. He said it was a great place to keep a blog.
As Lohengrin plays on WRTI, a SF Opera broadcast, and the 3rd Act fireworks begin ushering in the upcoming melody, here comes the theme that dad sang earlier and I doubted, ringing clearly, it is the tune - "Here Comes The Bride" sung by the chorus -- and I am chastened. I have returned from Bachetti's and Pathmark with goods totaling about $75.00 (left the receipts on kitchen table, he likes to tabulate and always asks if I need money, I tell him that I have over $1,100 in my checking account), but this is his routine of the day and the mail's arrival gets him up, slowly from the couch, and walking, hesitantly, to the table where he takes the letter opener and then brings the trash can to his side and then begins to open the mail, with one swift sweep for each envelope as Lohengrin plays on in the background.
A call from Gerrit this late afternoon and another request to stop by only this time they brought their daughter, Tine (pronounced Tina but it's Dutch spelling and the name of Marli's mother), and her daughter, Sophie, 2. Dad was initially annoyed because he was feeling the cancer today but pulled himself up and we had another delightful visit. Tine is lovely and her daughter is just a lovely handful. Brought Dancer in and she did some lovin' on the toddler and Sophie responded with some reserve but delighted in the dog. Gerrit went to the computer (he is a nerd and had a thumb drive with a number of Dutch TV shows that took nearly 20 minutes to download into the computer ... they are amazing and I think dad will love them. Also, some text files about the lives of Gerrit and Marli. Fascinating man this Gerrit, who is called Opa by his granddaughter. Marli is Oma.
Oma and Opa with their granddaughter Sophie.
Dancer gets into the picture with Tine, her daughter Sophie and her Oma, Marli Stam-Schouten.
Tina checks out photos of Sophie on her iPad with Oma and Opa, aka Marli and Gerrit, watching.
And Marli's food, a sauerkraut (zuurkool) and onions and potato dish with beef sausage added, was consumed wholly.
I wrote in an e-mail to her:
"Dear Marli,
Not three minutes ago these words were spoken by my father:
"Thank you Marli, that was very good."
Simple food. That's what I love, he went on to say. And he ate two helpings. He finished the bowl (which I have to get back to you) and he so needed the calories. Your cooking is magical.
Again, you and Gerrit and now Tine and Sophie reaching out in so many ways to my parents is a gesture of great humanity and love. I cannot offer you enough thanks for your kindnesses.
All the best to you and yours,
rudy
P.S. What a treat it was to meet your daughter Tine and your granddaughter Sophie. You are such a lovely family and you just can't beat "Opa" and "Oma" for "Grandpa" and "Grandpa". So heartwarming to hear Sophie say those names."
"Thank you Marli, that was very good."
Simple food. That's what I love, he went on to say. And he ate two helpings. He finished the bowl (which I have to get back to you) and he so needed the calories. Your cooking is magical.
Again, you and Gerrit and now Tine and Sophie reaching out in so many ways to my parents is a gesture of great humanity and love. I cannot offer you enough thanks for your kindnesses.
All the best to you and yours,
rudy
P.S. What a treat it was to meet your daughter Tine and your granddaughter Sophie. You are such a lovely family and you just can't beat "Opa" and "Oma" for "Grandpa" and "Grandpa". So heartwarming to hear Sophie say those names."
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