Caroling, Christmas Trees, Catching up with Friends...and Losing Uncle Ted

This was a week with a lot of ups and downs and most of it without my car which meant a great deal of walking!  Tuesday's rehearsal with the Boys & Girls Club carol singers was emotionally difficult;talking with Nancy that evening helped. Wednesday's performance was hugely fun and satisfying. Thursday we found out that Dale Sr.'s uncle Ted had died of the pnuemonia he had contracted in the hospital, and went to buy our Christmas tree. Friday and Saturday I spent writing Christmas cards and cleaning. Sunday I had invited a few close friends to stop by, which turned out very nice, even though still hadn't brought in the tree, nor decorated it. It's been cold and windy much of the week, which makes it feel more like Christmas.

Tuesday I ended up having an emotionally difficult evening. In the morning, I had cheerfully packed a lunch and coffee walked up to the library, about five miles. I got there in time for my computer tutoring session at ten, but he called and canceled because after a night with their sick baby, they had just taken her to the hospital. I spent the day enjoying having time to write the blog about the Idaho trip, map out my travel website and check the links,  make lists of what still needed to be done on it, leave holiday messages on "e-mail members" on all my meet-ups.

At 4 PM I walked the quarter-mile to to the Boys & Girls Club for the caroler's last rehearsal. I allowed myself to become completely mentally discombobulated by a very rude staff-member, sent to "help" me as we rehearsed in a separate room who kept criticizing what I was doing and how I was doing it, in front of the kids. As all staff members at the B & Gs Club have always treated me with warmth and kindness, the rudeness was completely unexpected, and caused me to start forgetting some of the words of the three songs we were doing, though I'd practiced them so many times.

Afterwards Dale Sr. came to pick me up, and I was in tears the entire ride home. A long phone call with Nancy (punctuated with my blowing my nose loudly into a bandana handkerchief) helped a great deal. She had me think back to how I felt physically when the verbal attack was going on (a panicky tightness in my chest) and to figure out in my mind what the fear was that was sending my body into that panic. This fear might be illogical if analyzed unemotionally, but to my physical, sub-conscious self it was a very real fear, a way of alerting me that there was a very real danger happening.

By re-living the experience with Nancy, I realized that I what I felt was fear of losing my good standing at the Club, the respect of the children, and ultimately of losing the drama club itself. It helped to bring up these fears and visualize them, because it was so obvious that one rude employee was not going to cause all of those things to happen!

 I also told Nancy how much I feared  having to ride the bus with this same rude girl the following evening, as it would just be the two of us with the kids again (she would be the driver). Nancy suggested that if the person were rude again, I concentrate on observing my own reaction, and my emotions would be less likely to snowball.

(My extreme reaction to this person's behavior might be partially explained by my eight years, when I first started with the school system, of having to work for a teacher who would belittle me in front of the kids, and then still expect me to take them to the library on my own and have them respect me enough to behave perfectly.)

The following evening, the kids' performances (at a restaurant-bar, at an assisted-living place, and at the Village Inn restaurant) turned out to be wonderfully fun and satisfying. The kids were so excited, sang with loud gusto and enthusiasm, and the audiences were completely bowled over. Members of the Board of the Apache Junction Boys & Girls Club, adults in red shirts and "santa hats" sang behind the kids, and afterwards showered me with compliments.

(I made this sketch because I wanted you to get an idea of my little group of carolers, but the Boys & Girls Club policy is not to put photos of any of the kids on the internet.) I did use a photo to help me make the sketch. For the same reason, I made no effort to get good likenesses of the kids.

That same formerly rude young woman was absolutely charming to me, all evening! The directors must have noticed that I was upset when I left the night before, and said something to her. Her friendly attitude was a great relief! (In the future, however, I'll have my guard up, and I certainly will never ask for her help again, if at all possible.)

Thursday was another long walk, a phone consultation appointment with my estate lawyer, and an evening trip to the Christmas tree lot. I walked up to the bank where my savings acount is, about four miles, to get a cashier's checks for a large bill which was due. Then a couple of miles back down Starbucks. Out on their patio I called John C. Lincoln, the estate lawyer who is doing the re-write on my will. (He complimented you, Nancy, on how helpful and knowledgeable you were to him during his phone calls with you.) I really like Mr. Lincoln and am glad he's not retired yet.

Dale Sr. came to pick me up and said that his uncle Ted had died, in the hospital, from pneumonia which developed while he was in recovery from a heart operation. We went to Safeway for some groceries and ran into Dale Jr. in the parking lot. We talked about Ted, a real character who was once Sheriff of Pinal County.

Then we went to buy the Christmas tree. The lot smelled so good because all the trees were sitting in plastic tubs filled with water, keeping them fresh. One of the salesmen took this "selfie" using my phone before I even knew what he was doing. It was a pretty original sales technique; he didn't know that the other salesman already had his claim on us!

I called Lawson when we got home to tell them about Uncle Ted; they were quite fond of each other. Ted had told me that he really missed Lawson when he moved to Phoenix. They used to see each other at Dale Sr.'s Wednesday "guys' nights".

Friday and Saturday I spent writing Christmas cards (about fifty of them) and doing some cleaning because I'd invited a few friends to drop by on Sunday.

Dale's aunt Donna called and told us that Ted's funeral would held on January 7th. It seems a long time to me, but it may be that they wanted to wait until after the holidays. She seemed to be doing all right. She has a lot of family living near-by, their son Jeff and his family. It also helps that they live in a development which has a club-house and ladies who are ready to make the arrangements for the buffet afterwards. I called Lawson and told him of the arrangements.

Ted and Donna came to many of our parties, including the most recent one which we held in September to honor my friend Laure's June graduation.

I woke at 3:00 AM Saturday, to winds whipping around outside, strong enough that one could hear some crashing sounds around the neighborhood. (Trailer awnings coming down). I woke having  to go to the bathroom and found that Dale Sr. was up reading. He'd tried several times to get to sleep and failed. He made a fire and went back to bed, and I sat looking at the cheerful fire and listening to the wind outside. I even slid open the back patio door (security door still closed) better to hear the wind! It was wasteful to have the fire going with the door wide open. But I have always loved listening to the wind.

Sunday was nice, even though I never got the Christmas tree brought in and decorated. I did get the house nice and clean and brought out some of the delicate blue-and-white German dishes, and started rolls and stew meat. My friend Sylvia, and Merrill and her husband Joe came by about the same time, in the early afternoon, and we had a nice chat.

 I enjoyed using the delicate cups and saucers, dishes, and told Merrill the story of the old lady giving that set of dishes to Dale Sr., and that I had said to myself, a couple of years ago,  that I could no longer allow myself to keep them unless I actually used them once a year at least. Merrill's husband Joe chuckled. Merrill said, "He knows he could get rid of a lot of stuff if we used that rule."

Laure was the other friend who stopped by, and she came in the early evening. We had a good conversation with red wine and treats, and exchanged Christmas gifts. I decided having an "at-home" day for a few close friends was a nice thing to do during the holiday season.

Yesterday morning's dental appointment was much easier than expected because the cavities were so small. The usual numbing shots weren't even needed. They didn't clean my teeth because the periodontist prefers to have that done at his office at the same Wednesday appointment as the laser gum surgery.

 In the evening Dale Sr. and I went out to Gold Canyon to visit our friend Marilyn, who is slowly recovering from pneumonia. Dale Sr. had made her a tub of the turkey noodle soup he had made from the smoked turkey carcasses and meat left over from Thanksgiving. In addition, I took her a container of the "Aunt Sis' Brown Sugar Cookies" which I'd baked Sunday. (Following Kathy's example, I'd not baked them, or any cookies, for about a decade!)

 Marilyn is having to spend a lot of time helping her father, who is in his nineties, care for her mother, who has more and more signs of dementia (and often, a nasty temper). I am not at all sure that they have money to pay to hire someone to care for them full-time, and it looks like that time will be soon. (It makes me realize, for the nth time, how lucky we are.) I believe that her parents do own their home, though, so perhaps they can do what is called a "reverse mortgage" and use the equity in their home to pay for their care-takers.

Dale Sr. and Marilyn:

You could tell that she was running out of breath easily. Hard to get that woman to rest!

Love,
Lennie

A Hectic Week, and Wonderful Idaho Weekend

Hi all, It's Tuesday morning; I got back yesterday evening from a great weekend in Idaho with John and Kathy. 

I had a rather hectic week leading up to the Idaho jaunt.

Monday I went for a wheel alignment and ended up without my car all day. The place, which Discount Tire had given me a $59 coupon to, was only a mile away. I walked home and later walked back there to get the car. They had to replace the wheel bearings.

Tuesday the Taurus wouldn't start and I walked to my computer lesson, and back...about seven miles total. Meanwhile, Dale Sr. figured out that the problem was only the old worn-out key, and also figured out that the reason the spare key wouldn't work was that it had no computer chip and this made the car think it was being stolen! He drove me to Ace Hardware, and I was able to get a new key made by having them copy the spare key (keys with a chip are around $80!) in time to get to drama club in the afternoon.

Wednesday I had the dreaded appointment at the periodontist. (Dreaded because my regular dentist had sent me there because he feared that my gum disease might have become dangerously worse due to missing two of my quarterly cleanings this year). It was quite a relief to find out I will not be losing any more teeth at this time, if and only if I get right on it and have laser surgery to remove some rotten infected tissue at the base of the pockets. The surgery will take place on December 21st, and I'll still be on a liquid diet through the 24th and a "mushy diet" for three weeks after that. (I e-mailed the family and Madelyn responded that she would contribute a delicious bean soup to Christmas dinner, how nice!)

Some time next year I will have to have a more extensive surgery. The periodontist will take some tissue from the roof of my mouth, where it is not needed, and insert it into my lower front gums, below the gum line, which will raise up the gum line and better protect my front teeth from bone loss. I have made an appointment to have this done in early June, after the end of my Mesa Community College semester but before Dale Sr. leaves to go up to the Northwest for his annnual fishing vacation.

The December laser surgery will be around $3,000 and the June procedure $5,000.  I sure will make sure not to miss any of my quarterly cleanings in the future! 

I'm going to make all four cleaning appointments for the whole year, so that if I have to miss one, the other appointments will already be made.

On the way to the periodontist I noticed that my old Taurus was making a high whistling wine. The third day in a row that my car was having problems! I called my regular mechanics shop from the periodontist (having forgotten my phone) and their receptionist said that the car should still be okay to drive home, it probably just needed greasing. I called my Arabic tutor and cancelled my lesson.

Thursday, after watering everything and doing most of my packing, I took the car up to the mechanic's and they gave me a ride to the Boys & Girls Club. Drama club, this month, means practicing Rudolf, Frosty, and Jingle Bells for a performance at an assisted-living place. Dale Sr. came to pick me up from there and take me home. I felt so tired that didn't feel like doing the things I still needed to do before the Idaho trip. I fell right asleep and set the alarm for 2AM so I'd have time to shower, pack, and get all the dishes done before the shuttle came to pick me up at 6AM.

Dale Sr. sent some frozen smoked tuna and salmon with me, for John and Kathy. It turned out that my bag had to be searched because frozen stuff looks like water to the ex-ray machine! When the inspector saw the frozen salmon, she said, "Smoked salmon! Can you come back with me to my house?"

Kathy had told me that they had not had snow, so I was delightfully surprised to see, from the plane window, Boise covered with a fresh blanket of snow! Kathy came to pick me up from the airport. The sky was thickly overhung with fog, and it was cold enough that mittens and scarf and ear-warming headband were welcome. I had thick fur-lined boots which I'd worn on the plane because they would take up too much space in my carry-on.

Driving through Boise was like driving through a living Christmas card. You could feel the cold air if you leaned near the glass of the car windows.

We got to their house in time for me to join in with John's Friday music jam, three guys named Roberto, Jim, and Mike. It was really nice, until Jim got upset at the end and started picking an argument with Roberto. It was fun trying to keep up with the chords and add some harmony to the choruses.

Their back yard was so lovely.

Saturday was taken up with prep for the party. The buffet menu list was converted into ingredient lists separated into produce, dairy, deli, etc.

John was fine-tuning the carol-singing set-up. It still has the same software it did way back when they brought it to Campus Dr., but a couple of years ago he replaced the old fat monitors with newer ones.

Out into the cold for the shopping, passing a park where a flock of dark-grey geese were eating grass from the circle of bare ground around a tree. A fine silting rain froze into little icicles on the trees, but was not enough to melt the several inches of snow on the ground.

Our first stop was to see their long-time friend Marcia, at her stall in a bustling indoor crafts market. It was great to see her, and I bought a couple of scarves. (John and Kathy always go to Marcia and David's for Thanksgiving.)

Then on through Boise,

 We hit WinCo for most of the groceries, it had a much larger selection of natural foods than I'd expected.

Then to Trader Joe's for the wine and cheese, and a state-licenced  liquor store for the hard liquor.

At Trader Joe's, a "wine advisor" was answering questions from a milling group of shoppers in the wine corner of the store. I asked her for a suggestion for a reasonable red wine, and she suggested one that cost around $8.99.

"I think she wants more reasonable than that," I said, as Kathy had told me they usually don't spend more than around $6.

A customer, a burly cheerful guy in a stocking cap, leaned in and grabbed up a bottle from the shelf. "I'll show you the best $4 dollar bottle of wine you'll ever buy!" he boomed. We did buy three bottles of that wine, and several other labels also. The $4 wine did indeed turn out to be good (luckily!).

In the afternoon we cooked and prepped some of the food for the party. My contributions were to make a tuna salad out of the one of the pieces of smoked tuna which Dale Sr. had sent, a spinach yogurt cottage cheese dip, and to cut up veggies and the onion/parsely/garlic/carrot "trito" to flavor the crock-pot beans.

That night, John made a dessert of "s'mores", using a unique method of melting the chocolate:

The next day was more cooking and prep, furniture rearranging, and short naps for John and me.

Kathy made our old family cookie recipe, "Aunt Sis' Brown Sugar Cookies". They really did turn out good.

The party really was quite wonderful. It was about half again larger than last year's, as Kathy said, "This time the 'maybe's' all came."

There was a great variety of food; added to by contributions of the long-time attendees of the party. Everyone raved about the salmon Dale Sr. sent. Their old friend Larry always brings a couple of plates of deli chicken, all cut up and ready to set on the table. Marsha brought those pin-wheel things made from tortillas, cream cheese and chopped green onion. One of the daughter-in-laws brought a peppermint devil's food cake and another guest brought a cherry pie. A true "groaning board".

Some of the new people were from John's music jams, some of whom had been asked to this party for several years but had not attended before. Those with church-choir experience enabled them could jump right in to sight-sing the alto and bass parts, I loved that rush of male voices coming in and out of some of those arrangements. (The younger generation has been attending the annual singing party since they were small children, so they know many of the parts by heart.)

There were only about three of us in the soprano group, and none of us were able to reach the high "g" which we all used to be able to reach. I and one of the other ladies talked about doing some practice during the year to get it back, such as singing scales.

Marcia and David's kids brought their grandchildren this year. It added to the fun that there were two young  boys going up and down the stairs, alternately hanging out with the party or playing ping-pong in the basement. And a little girl with a delightful smile, who spent much time leaning against her grandma Marsha, holding the little sponge tone-thing in her hear, and sort of taking part in the singing.

Those who took part in the singing would drift in and out between the singing and socializing; it was very relaxed with much laughter.

 John and Kathy's long time friend Larry is really a sweetheart and has had a difficult time for the last few years. There was a divorce which he did not want, and then a heart operation. John got to know him decades ago, through their work at Hewlitt-Packard. Larry now has his first grand child: his son and daughter-in-law brought their month-old baby, who calmly slept through all the noise and later, after she woke, looked around with a gentle, alert gaze as she was held by this person and that person.

 
Below, Kathy holds the tiny little girl while the baby locks eyes with her mother.  (Kathy, you are welcome to send these two photos to Laurie and Larry, or any other photos you think they might like, or any photos to anyone whom you think would like them.)

Larry's ex-wife attended the party, for the first time since their divorce, which both Kathy and John felt was a very nice development.. She was the first to arrive and was a great help in finishing the deviled eggs in time. She had left him several years ago, and had not attended the party since then. They are not getting back together, but just lately have become friendly again. I noticed that their kids, though not exactly cool to their mother, were not exactly warm towards her either.

There is a really nice thing about being introduced to a group of friends of a family member. I received immediate friendliness and warmth from all of those people, just based on the fact that I was John's sister! Pretty special!

Similar to what happens at Campus Dr., the carols eventually morphed into the singing of other favorite songs. John moved the party downstairs. Some of the people had left by then, so we all fit into his music studio.  It was really hilarious the way the young women were singing their songs, sometimes only a verse or two of each before someone would mention another one and off they'd go on that.

this

By means of constant urging, Kathy succeeded in getting everyone to take something home with them, and we were left with what Kathy quoted Madelyn  as describing as the perfect amount of food left at a party, "a little of everything left, but not too much of anything".  There was quite a bit of the spinach-cottage cheese-yogurt dip left over (I think next time I'll go back to making that dip with sour cream), but John and I had it for breakfast the following morning, with crackers, and it tasted good then. The broccoli salad and left over cooked chicken were the mainstay of the quick pre-airport lunch which Kathy kindly set out, for us to eat in the short time between when I finished getting ready and we had to leave for the airport.

A wonderful visit indeed. In addition to all the activities, we had some good conversations.

John told me some of his memories of attending Daddy's Friday lunch group at the faculty club. I write them here because I had not heard them before. You had to be invited to the group, which used one of the separate dining rooms, and they only invited one person from any one discipline (with some exceptions). Joe Tussman was philosophy, George Foster anthropology. They discussed all kinds of topics, politics, university issues, and news of the day. Albert Bowker was a member, but Erich Lehmann.was not, which I had not known. The discussion lasted about an hour and a half.

John said, "Papa would always go to the little bar at the Faculty Club and get a bottle of Anchor Steam beer."

I was sad to hear that John and Kathy will not be coming to Berkeley for the holidays this year. Travel is increasingly difficult, and travel during that crowded time decidedly more so. 

Love,
Lennie
 

Resume for Volunteering, B & Gs Club Christmas Songs, The Last of DACA

Well, it's a longer blog! It's the first week since before the campaign that I didn't just wake up and sit there like a zombie, I'm into my usual habit of early AM writing. Also, I've finally mastered the new process for backing up photos on Windows 10 (it's supposed to happen automatically, but on mine it does not.)  did not

It has been cold and clear, or cold and overcast.... a little bit warmer today....

Dale Sr. cleaned out the chimney a few days ago and we have been having fires in the morning and evening, decidedly chilly. I am still rehearsing Christmas songs with the group at the drama club, twice a week. Now they are telling me that we are singing at three places, they've added Philly's (a restaurant-bar) and Village Inn. I'd thought it was only the assisted-living place.

I wasn't that nervous about them performing at the assisted-living place, but at Philly's and Village Inn, people I actually know might be among the customers.

(During "Frosty the Snowman", one of the little girls makes this poster "dance around".)

Melissa Taylor called from MCC about my request to tutor ESL classes in the spring. (This was the lady from the International Students desk whom I originally left my information with, the same one who told the receptionist, an older Muslim woman, that their office didn't deal with volunteers any more, which made the receptionist very angry and she pulled me aside and told me that it was rude for Ms. Taylor not to talk to me and then gave me a hug!) So they had me take my information to another woman with an office in the library.

But Ms. Taylor, from the International Students desk, was the one who called Friday.


I was rather taken aback because she said that volunteering might conflict with the labor laws. Thus they would have me do something different, such as leading conversational groups to practice talking English.

She also asked me to send a resume! I told her I didn't even know what had to be in a resume! She said it could just be simple, some basic information. I had fun, starting to figure out what I should put, when the computer suddenly started doing updates, which it did for an entire day and a half! So I probably have to start over.
Friday I finally cleaned out my car, which I'd gradually been filling with stuff since the start of the presidential campaign, before taking it to get a wheel alignment done. Turned out I had to make an appointment and the wheel alignment is being done as I write this.

Early mornings I'm wearing my comfy old "Sweet Home Blue Chicago" sweatshirt, Peruvian hat, fuzzy throw...fire in the Ben Franklin....and coffee with milk. I am the epitome of "cosy"!

 

(I know I've included the above photo in last week's blog, but I like it so much.)

I am so glad Dale Sr. is still agreeable to going to the gym three days a week. Here he is on the stationary bike. He only does from 15 to 20 minutes, (which leaves him huffing and puffing) but it's a start.

Friday afternoon I had to go to Walmart for various items:  varnish for a front window improvement, glitter and red permanent markers to finish the poster for the Boys & Girls Club kids' caroling, and items to donate to the Restoration Project (the group which houses and transports deportees between their arrest and their hearing a car seat and three sizes of diapers). It felt really good to buy these items to give away!

There was a kind of holiday excitement in Walmart, more groups of several family members together, chattering away about how this or that purchase would fit into their holiday plans.

That evening I ended up going out to a restaurant with Michelle, her sister Danielle, and the kids! I was on my way to Starbucks to Google directions for the church where the DACA clinic would be. On the way I stopped by Dale Jr.'s house to give Shelby the furry brown Santa hat I bought for her at Safeway. Michelle and Danielle the two younger kids were about to go to Los Gringos Locos to eat.

Danielle arrived and invited me to join them, and I did! I just had an O'Doul's non-alcoholic beer because I'd already eaten. It felt really nice to go with them. Michelle would not have asked me, she just wouldn't have thought of it. But she seemed perfectly comfortable to have me there, and I was glad I'd accepted.


  Ethan was really cute interacting with the receptionist, when we first got to Los Gringos Locos. In the glass cabinet under the reception counter, there was a display of brightly lit colorful objects: ceramic chile peppers and so on, he dropped excitedly to his knees to look at it. Then he started playing peek-a-boo with the girl behind the counter, who was enchanted. Then the receptionist opened a door at the back of the lighted cabinet, and he laughed out loud to see her face when he thought he was hiding with her!

Little Shayla continues to be the most self-possessed baby I've ever seen. She is not fazed by anything, just continually investigating whatever she is interested in.

At Starbucks I got my directions to the Saturday clinic, and  also Googled directions on how to make those Scandinavian woven paper baskets. (I know I used to know how, but I'd forgotten.)

Written Sunday early AM, Dec.
Nice day yesterday. The beading/embroidery meetup worked well, about seven attended. Three of them were quite interested in the paper baskets. The heavy art paper made nicer baskets but harder to weave them. The two I wove, I gave to Kristin and Heather, two of the Starbucks managers who are always so friendly to me, both there on that busy Saturday morning.

I had been concerned that our group wouldn't have a good place to sit. It was too cold for us to be outside (though a bright sunny day) and I knew that the usual heavily-Republican group of retirees which is there every morning would be taking up the large table. I pulled a double table  out from the walls and got some extra chairs for it. But just at ten AM, the other group all left and I and the one other person who arrived right on time were able to move over and claim the long table.

I left right at noon and drove, rather anxiously, over the freeways into central Phoenix. The First Congregational United Church of Christ is at second and Willeta, in a run-down neighborhood, but with large fancy buildings not too far away, gleaming in the bright sunlight.

Luckily, someone was still there from the who could unlock the door to the kitchen for me so I could leave the baby car seat and the diapers in the pantry adjoining the kitchen, where all of the Restoration Project donations were piled. (The church does a lot of outreach to homeless people, so everything is kept locked, and the lady who leads the DACA clinic does not have a key to the room kitchen.

The DACA clinic (I had thought the letters meant Deferred Action for Children of Aliens, but they really stand for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.....sometimes referred to as the "dreamers") was shorter than usual, only two hours, because there were no new applicants. There were only two applicants who were finishing up applications started previously.

(It takes a while because the clinic is every two weeks, and they end up coming two or three times, each time it is figured out which papers are still missing. The application is a large folder with colored papers separating each quarter-year for every year the DACA applicant has been in the U.S., and for each quarter there must be some sort of proof that the child was in the U.S.)

It is sad that no new applicants are beginning the process, with Trump as the president-elect, they are scared to come forward. (The ones who started already, they mostly decide to take a chance and finish their application and have it sent in. Laura tells them that she can't advise them, it's their decision, but that she herself thinks that if those who have had a successful application will not be deported.)

I asked Laura, the woman who runs the clinic, how she started doing this. She said that she used to be a member of No More Deaths (a group which takes water out to points in the desert, for people who are crossing the desert) and through them found out about the DACA clinic in Tucson run by a group called Keep Tucson Together. She had left No More Deaths and was looking for something to do, so she started Keep Phoenix Together. She has one volunteer lawyer helping her. They have helped many, many people make successful applications. No one whom they have assisted has had their application refused, as long as they followed the directions.

There are other lawyers doing the same kind of work for people, but they charge a fee.

I made copies, and also ended up entertaining Laura's delightful three year old girl, Isabella, so that Laura could work undisturbed. Except for the occasional interruption such as, "Look, Mommy, the lady make a pretty rainbow!"

I got home by seven, and told myself I had time to cut out the navy-blue jacket I want to finish by next weekend (when I go to Idaho), but could not find the effort. I went to bed with glass of wine and watched a Miss Fisher's Mystery instead!

Written Monday AM

I had promised myself that I'd do a whole Christmas-preparation day yesterday, ha ha!  I thought I'd get the house cleaned, buy a Christmas tree, do some decorating and write Christmas cards. All I ended up doing was getting a little way into the cleaning! So many things lying around in the wrong place! I did feel good to make a start on it, and I did find my misplaced tweezers! There have been a couple of times (a thorn, and a sliver of glass in Dale Sr.'s foot) when I really had missed them!

Love, Lennie

Thanksgiving in Apache Junction

The nighg t before, Cam and Dale Sr. and Dale Jr.

Lighting the fire in the AM

Cam came over to hang out

Ethan likes to line up his little Lego men on things. First he swang on the swings and then decided it was a good place for his Lego men.

Shelby protests

Michelle and Shayla

i

Ziggy waits expectantly for a turkey scrap hand-out

You can see the smoke rising from the smoker, to the right of the fire pit. On table are a jar of sun-tea, and a restaurant-type steam-table container holding barbecue sauce to swipe the turkeys with

By the time we finished cooking everything,

The last two days have been quite cold (for here)

"Super Moon", Volunteering for DACA, and Dale Jr.'s International Scout Club Ride

We had a beautiful clear night for the "supermoon". The second photo was taken early the following morning.

Last Saturday I took a step toward fulfilling a promise I had made to myself: that if Trump won the election, I would do some volunteering to help immigrants. My friend Ann was already helping at a clinic at a church in Phoenix, helping applicants to the DACA program to collect the necessary paperwork and fill out the application forms. (DACA means Deferred Action for Children of Aliens). I believe this is the category which is referred to as "dreamers".

The first few times a volunteer helps out at the clinic, they merely "shadow" someone who has already been trained.

In order to apply, the applicant must show proof of living in the USA for every quarter of every year since their parents brought them over the border. The boy who was applying was 16 years old and had been brought over the border by his parents when he was three years old. He had received "Student of the Month" awards for every semester he had been in school. His report cards were all A's and B's.

It was the second time he and his mother had come in to the clinic. This time she had brought the paperwork which  had been found missing the visit before. Doctor's records, report cards, those Student of the Month Awards, even a bill from a power company.
They were still missing proof for the boy's pre-school years, and for the current semester (as he'd not received report cards yet this fall). Luckily, the woman who runs the clinic works as a counselor in the Phoenix school system and she was able to use her work internet to bring up his attendance for the past few months, and print it out! For his pre-school years, the mother was relieved that that she could bring in tax records, doctor's shot records, and paperwork from the WIC program (all of which she had at home.)

I was able to help by making copies as Ann checked off the paperwork. For instance, a report card might show proof of residence for two different quarters of the year, so a copy mist be provided for each quarter. There was a little portable copy machine right in the same room.

When Ann was done with checking off everything, Laura, the woman who runs the clinic, came over and double checked that everything was there. The clinic has a 100% success rate; all applications which they have sent in have been accepted. There was one application which they helped with which was not accepted, but in that case the applicant was told that some documents were still missing, but chose to mail everything in anyway, though they were warned not to do so until the missing documents were added.

I was able to use my Spanish to chat with the mother of the applicant, and soon the law student who was shadowing Ann was asking me for this or that Spanish word. So I felt useful. Next time I go I will probably make copies for him, as he has now been deemed ready to check off the paperwork himself.

The actual typed form is filled in by a woman who has volunteered at the clinic for a long time, as the applicant and/or their parent looks on.

Ann also picked up some donated diapers and a car-seat from a store-room at the church which is used by an unofficial group which houses illegal immigrants who have been discovered and are waiting for their hearing. We dropped off these items at an apartment where two students were hosting a family who were waiting for their hearing. This group is not connected at all with the DACA clinic. Ann herself has hosted some of these people, Guatemalans one weekend and two Haitian women another time. They had been in Brazil working in the sugar cane fields and now that that work was over they'd attempted to enter the U.S. and been caught. Ann is braver than I!

If these illegals have no where to stay while they wait for their hearing, they must stay in a group jail cell, without beds (Ann said) even if they have babies with them and even if it's an over-night stay.

When Trump assumes the office of president, he plans to end the DACA program. So, since the election, the clinic advises people that they are taking a chance. (If they enroll, that there is no guarantee that a successful application will protect them after January 20th.) The woman who runs the clinic feels that people who have already been accepted into the program will continue to be safe from deportation, and that when the program is cancelled that it will be stopped only for future applicants. But she warns all applicants that she has no proof either way.

Friday afternoon I went to the travel agent and bought tickets for the weekend in Idaho. I was not sure I had enough on my card to buy them on-line. I will leave Phoenix Friday morning and return Monday afternoon.

I had gotten so behind with everything during all that campaign volunteering, plus the weekend trips to Jerome for Halloween weekend and the Berkeley weekend. I'm finally starting to feel that I'm getting "caught up".

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day, cool wind, bright sunshine, huge brilliantly-white clouds with some gray shadows.

Dale Jr. stopped by last night. He showed us some photos on his phone of the ride he went on Sunday, with the International Scout club of this area. I asked him to send me this photo. He has been on two of these rides, and has really enjoyed them (even though his engine came loose half-way through the first one and other club-members had to help him temporarily chain it back on. He quoted one guy as saying, "You haven't lived until you've broken down on a ride!"

His International Scout was given to him by his grandfather Eb before Eb died, and Dale Jr. has spent a lot of time and money getting it to where it was road-worthy. I'm so glad to see him having so much fun with it.

Cool photo, huh?

Love, Lennie