Wow. It’s
November. Already
Okey-dokey,
so. About October. It wasn’t a terrible month, overall. The hearing in my right
ear is evidently gone for good, and when I talk I sound like a sick bullfrog. However,
a lovely woman named Dawn Willis (she’s a nurse here in Roswell) gave me some
hearing aids. These hearing aids were donated to St. Andrews Episcopal Church
by a widow whose hubby used to wear them. Dawn, whose husband goes to St.
Andrews, snabbled a pair for me. So I got an expensive pair of hearing aids for
absolutely nothing. Well, a guy had to die, but we all have to do that
eventually. Also, even though my voice is shot, I re-joined the Trinity United
Methodist Church choir. I figure nobody else in the choir can sing, either, so
I fit right in. It’s fun to sing again, even though I’m a relatively rusty
tenor nowadays.
The
best thing about October was that I got to visit my California friends and
relations (my two daughters and my younger grandson) and attend my fifty-fifth high-school reunion.
A
few old (well, vintage) dancers and I got together at Canter’s Deli in Los
Angeles, where we had fun and I ate pastrami! I love pastrami. Here are John
Pulver, Robert Jablon, Me, Art Aratin, my daughter Robin, and Nicki Aratin. Had a
great time. I miss my friends.
I
had more fun at the John Muir High School Class of 1963’s fifty-fifth reunion
than I thought I’d have, mainly because I got to see the two other women with
whom I played flute in the Eliot Junior High School band. We haven’t been
together as a threesome for… well, more than fifty-five years, anyhow. Here we
are: Phyllis McKown, me, and Janet Levine Goldberg. It was such fun seeing them
again!
Also took a little trip to Kernville, where my older daughter and her husband live. Kernville is a charming place, and Anni and Razmik live right across the street from the Kern River. It’s beautiful up there. Here are Anni and Robin feeding ducks and squirrels beside the Kern River:
Anni
is a knitter of almost everything. She gave me some dog sweaters that were too
small for my dogs, but that fit my buddy Jacob Torres’ Chihuahuas admirably.
Here they are:
Robin
also took me to see the Los Angeles Memorial Pet Cemetery and Crematorium in
Calabasas. This cemetery was established in 1929. Petey from The Little Rascals is buried there,
along with hundreds of other pets, from dogs and cats to birds and pot-bellied
pigs. Some kindhearted volunteers revamped the place in 2003. Guess it had
become rather run-down in the years between 1929 and 2003.
Whenever
I visit California (where I was born and lived for most of my life), I always
try to eat food I can’t get here in Roswell, New Mexico, because Roswell is in
the precise middle of nowhere and has no East Indian, Middle Eastern, or
Japanese restaurants. I managed to scarf down three (count ‘em) falafel wraps.
Not all at once.
My
great good friends, Karen and Dale Boggs, allowed me to spend the night after
the reunion at their spectacular house in La Canada. Dale is a mad scientist (PhD
in math and physics), and he can rule the entire house from his armchair in the
living room. Karen and Dale have a cat named Molly, who isn’t generally fond of
strangers. For some reason Molly liked me. When I told her I wanted to take a
picture of her, she stuck her butt in my face. I considered this a delicate
courtesy on her part, so here’s a picture of Karen along with Molly’s butt.
And
here are Karen, Dale and me, sans
eyeglasses, which evidently shone too much for the camera.
The
day after the reunion, Karen and Dale went with me to Yes! Sushi. There we were
joined by my younger grandson, Riki, who is also a mad scientist and got along
with Dale like gangbusters (where’s that expression come from, anyway?) Riki
got the all-you-can-eat sushi. The waiter kept showing up with platters of various sushi rolls, and Riki ate it. All. Amazing sushi-eater, Riki:
And
then, because I whined about my thinning hair on Facebook (I’m almost 73, so
thinning hair should be expected, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be liked),
people began telling me about on-line wig shops, and I bought a wig! I think it’s
charming, although the wig has a heck of a lot more hair than I ever had. Here's an incredibly unflattering picture of me in my wig, holding my new cane. That's Scrappy nosing the floor beside me:
So
let’s move on to the book giveaway. I gave so many books away in October, I
hardly have any left, but lemme see what novels currently reside inside the
boxes in my office. Aha! Found some. It’ll be hardback time at the House of
Howling Hounds in November. At the end of the month, I’ll give away two of my historical
romance novels: SIERRA RANSOM and CACTUS FLOWER (there’s a line in this book
that always makes me laugh, although I’m not sure why); and two Mercy Allcutt
books: THANKSGIVING ANGELS and FALLEN ANGELS. FALLEN ANGELS won the 2012 Arizona/New
Mexico Book of the Year Award for mystery, by the way. Not bad for someone who
doesn’t enter contests, huh? Someone else entered it for me, which was nice of
him.
If you’d like to visit my web page, here’s the link: http://aliceduncan.net/ . And if you’d like to be Facebook friends, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925
Thank you!
