Just Random

Tonight as I was making dinner, I was cutting up some beets. I love beets, but we just started having them regularly. I guess I assumed that no one else liked them. One day I thought I'd just give them a try and everyone (who eats like a normal person) likes them very much. All these years, beets could have been part of the menu.

Working with the beets made me think about my grandmother, Hartie. She was the kind of grandmother that loved being with children and was always teaching us things by engaging us in her activities. We adored her and soaked up her wisdom and guidance like little sponges. I recall one time that I was helping her in her kitchen. We were getting ready to put up pickled beets. She'd had them in boiling water and as she was straining them she gave me this little pearl...
"If you're ever in a vegatable peeling contest and you get to pick what you peel, pick beets." She then proceeded to show me how, after being boiled, you could squeeze the beet right out of the skin. I was sure she was right, in a peeling contest the person peeling beets would certainly come out the champion. This memory always makes me smile and I feel the love I still have for her well up inside me.

Then I was thinking, in 2009, how absurd a vegitable peeling contest sounds. I guess there could be an event like this somewhere in some small town at the county fair. But it almost sounds ridiculous to me. So much changed in her lifetime. She'd tell us stories about how she and her siblings would run out to the road to see the first car in town go by. She lived to see a man go to the moon. Of course, THAT was something that was pure fantasy when she was young.

I can't even begin to predict what I'll see in the remainder of my life. How much more technology can we absorb? I'd like our technological efforts to more away from entertainment and be more focused on curing diseases, feeding people and eliminating all types of suffering. And I hope we find some solutions to the damage we've done to the earth. I know I don't need an even bigger tv.

********

Arielle has all her college applications in. Most of the schools have notified her that they've received her application and are waiting on her transcripts. They're also sending her their marketing materials. Yesterday, she got a big color brochure from Indiana University. While I didn't go there, I spent a lot of time on that campus as a teenager. I was startled by my feelings as I looked at those familiar limestone buildings. They were very strong and all about home. I would love for her to go there and give me an excuse to make regular trips to southern Indiana. Of course, I'm going to keep my mouth shut because this decision is about her, not me. But it's all kind of ironic to me. I remember a time that I couldn't wait to leave Indiana. I never thought I would yearn for it like I am. I never felt homesick for Indiana while my mother was still there but now that it's no longer home, I'm longing to be there. Who knows how I'd feel when I got there and was faced with the fact that the stability it represents to me, is gone.

******

The Dead are going on tour this spring. There are going to be several performance in the north east. Aaron's brother is a HUGE fan and has been to countless shows. We talked about him coming out here and all of us going to two together.

Today the tickets for the entire tour went on presale at noon EST. Larry was trying to get tickets for two other shows he wanted to attend, so I was to get the tickets for the New York performances. I started trying to get on the site a little before noon. For the next two hours, I tried to get on the site. Larry and I were checking in with one another regularly but neither of us was having any luck. Larry was also communicating a few other friends of his that were looking for show tickets. No one got in.

Finally, I made it into a "holding area" where I was on a queue to order tickets. Finally, the ticket order comes up and I entered my request. Guess what! SOLD OUT! Larry didn't do any better, nor did any of his friends. No one got tickets. It makes me sick because we KNOW that a vast number of those tickets were gobbled up by brokers. I looked on a couple of sites and sure enough, there were seats being offered at up to ten times the actual cost. Isn't ticket scalping illegal? Why is this not considered scalping?

*****

Here in the northeast, we're getting ready for a real blast of bitter cold, COLD weather. I wish it would come with a foot of snow. It seems that Long Island winter is tempered by the water that surrounds us. I love getting snowed in at least once a year.

*****

Monday is my birthday.

********

Berkeley is doing much better. His hot spot is almost healed. He had to wear one of those clear cone collars for about 10 days. I had no idea what a pain in the ass those were...for both him and for us. He knew it was there, but he didn't get that his head now took up three times more space. He was knocking into everything and scraping it along the wall. And every time he did, it made a loud noise. I felt so sorry for him, it had to be incredibly loud inside the cone. He was constantly bumping into me...and he was a total hazard if he was around me on the stairs. We're all glad we're done with it...hopefully for good.