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The Bob
D'oh! I forgot to ask Grandma the
tombstone question. Argh.
I was planning to visit her after they moved her from the hospital to the hospice, but she went sooner than I expected. She had a terminal heart disease, and was losing memories. I think she was mostly mentally back in time about five years or so. The doctors had given up and were just keeping her comfortable, except for the damned oxygen tubes (they must be annoying). Mom was happy that on her last day Grandma recognized everyone in the room. Then she went to sleep and left. Mom's OK; Gina talked with her yesterday and Mom said that after three days Grandma's absence was beginning to sink in and she was feeling low. I'm fine too. Just enjoying the waves of family nostalgia, intermingled with general philosophical thoughts on the human condition, and all of those unknowns associated with life and death. I was very lucky to know Grandma, and all of my grandparents. They were warm, generous, humorous people who taught me so much about this world. Friday night Luisa invited us to the Carriage House in Baltimore for a party. We drove TV-Tom, Luisa, and Greg in our car, and by the time we got to the party there were nice big flakes of snow coming down. There was a band there, I forget the name, but one of the guys in the band played a damn fine didge. I recognized him as one of the people I jammed with at Starwood a couple years back.  During
the party we met an interesting, eccentric, quiet guy named Bob
Pyle. Bob had fascinating questions and a unique humorous wit. One of
the questions that he asked Gina was: if she could eat, sleep, or watch
TV in Greenbelt, Buffalo, or Fort Lauderdale, forever, which combination would
she choose? After discussing it, Gina chose sleeping forever in
Greenbelt, because she dreams a lot. While talking with Bob we learned that he sleeps from 12 to 14 hours a night, and he collects 60's stuff. He invited us to a 60's party at his house in Ellicott City on Sunday. Later we went upstairs to Mark's very strange second level of his amazing carriage/ware-house-turned-house. He gave us a tour and a synopsis of his plans to renovate and connect to a nearby building. The place is huge! We sat down upstairs to get away from the smoky crowd downstairs, and after a while we realized that it was probably time to go home, since the only people upstairs with us were the ones we drove to the party. We drove home through a snowstorm, and when we got home I cooked up some vegan reuben sandwiches: cook bread in a pan with margarine, add avocado, sauerkraut, and salad dressing, fry a little longer, and serve. Everybody liked their sammiches a lot. On Saturday we spent some time eating at the New Deal Cafe with Kory, then came back to our house to watch a strange DVD he had rented, called Let America Laugh.  On
Sunday we went to Bob's 60's party. It was a small affair; only his
roommate Joe was there when we arrived, so we drove a short way into
Ellicott City, window shopped a little and ate at a coffee house I have
never seen before called Bean
Hollow. Then we went back to Bob's. He was there, and lots of other
people were, too. We didn't know anybody.G: But it was a friendly crowd. Bob had lots of '50's and '60's furniture, art, and objects. One of his Friends, Abby, had put the soundtrack to Hair on the record player, much to Bob's chagrin. We hung around eating stuff, looking through books, and chatting. Before we left, Bob had a contest for the best '60's outfit. Not many people dressed up much, and  I
was
wearing knee high boots, a black and white paisley dress that was
probably made in the '60's, a poodle-fur-looking jacket, a hair band,
some appropriate makeup, and a big stained glass peace sign necklace.
There was only one real competitor, a fellow wearing brown corduroy
bell bottoms, boots, a yellow printed shirt that closed tight around
the neck, and a burnt orange shirt over that. He also had an
appropriate haircut and had a bit of a George Harrison look to him. But
I was chosen as the winner, and Bob gave me the choice of some objects
as a prize. I chose some strange looking bottle openers. J:
We
brought a drum, some shakers, our wood frog, and a dijeridoo, just in
case others brought instruments and wanted to jam. Turns out they did;
party goers brought a couple guitars, a flute, and multiple little
percussive things. Bob brought out a four string banjo that was made in
the 1860's! It sounded great; no frets so you could do
some nice note-slurring stuff with it. Well, Bob could. We played some nice
music together. One of Bob's friends, Tony, sings protest songs as Yikes McGee. He sang a new song
titled Hello Mama, It's Me,
Osama, where he made some interesting rhymes like "kidney
dialysis" with "get me outta this."It started snowing again so we headed home and took Booda for a walk in the snow. By then the snow was deep enough that Booda had his usual snow trouble -- ice-balls building up between his toes. He's been wearing booties a lot since then. On Monday NASA had closed the Goddard center due to the snow, so I got paid for sledding, hah! After sledding on the USDA farm hill with Dorian, Luisa, and a guy named Jeff, Gina and I drove through more ice storm to see Alfredo. We watched the last two Ed Sullivan shows that the Beatles appeared on. Great stuff, and some of the acts and commercials were quite alien to today's culture. The Beatles were by far the best act on both shows. On Tuesday after a short stint at work (they closed Goddard early) I slid home and Gina and I threw a spontaneous dinner and movie party so Alfredo could see That Thing You Do. Alfredo is a big Beatle fan, and Gina says That Thing You Do is a must see for Beatle fans. Alfredo, Peter May, Luisa, Dorian, and Rich & Izolda & Athena showed up. We had some delicious stew on rice with spinach leaves on top, and other foods too. After everyone had left except Rich and Izolda, Rich accidentally let me know he never saw Head. So, while Izolda and Gina walked the dogs off to her house, I made Rich watch Head. He was a good sport about it; I didn't even have to duct tape him to a chair. Rich didn't hate it as much as some of my friends, he said he thought it was a really good film but he didn't understand why it was in my top 10 list. I will continue to insist the movie is deeper than most people are willing to allow. And it's funny, too, even after the tenth viewing. And the music's great. So there. |
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