Happy Late Night, my Darling,
Thank you for the birthday wish this morning. :) I had a very nice day, went to three parks total. First I went to Limekiln Canyon for a short hike at 3pm, after shopping with my sister Vickie earlier. Then at 4:30 I took Pearl and The Kobester to Lake Balboa. It was a gorgeous day, and we saw many paddle boats on the water, and people walking dogs. Kobi saw a giant Great Dane and was very impressed.
At 6:30, I drove up to Aliso Canyon and met Grimsley there for an evening walk. The place gets dark early and kind of turns into Sleepy Hollow at dusk, but we had just enough light to hike all the way to the north end of the canyon and then turn up the hillside to a rural road that goes back down eventually to civilisation. The whole loop is about two miles, and that was fun too. It was dark out when we finished.
A great birthday all-in-all, with many nice greetings on FB, and lots of time spent in nature. Plus, the main event was the concert last night. My hearing is about 75% back to normal, haha.
I liked the pic of you taking a picture by the side of the pond, at whatever park you were at. I'm glad it has warmed up for you guys. Now you can enjoy outdoor weather for many months, plus you will be going back to AZ soon. :)
Tomorrow morning, church and choir. We have a pretty easy one to sing ("Cast Your Cares Upon The Lord"), because it's a very short song and the sopranos sing the first half of it. But the tenor part, while brief, is legato - soft but sustained - so I will try to "give it shape" as our director always says.
If I am not mistaken, you have a show tomorrow night with Versus Me and also Sarah's band, so I hope you have fun. That you will get great shots is given, so I will look forward to seeing them!
See you in the morning and then after church.
I Love You! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Iron Maiden at The Forum (Good Lordy Moses)
Happy Late Night, my Darling,
Well.........wow. I have been to some loud concerts in my life, but tonight was one of the loudest if not thee loudest when pure force of sound is taken into consideration. With Iron Maiden, not only do you have the band, but their fans too. I had not been to a Maiden concert in 28 years, and they played big arenas back then too, but in the years since, the fans have become fanatical. Maiden is their band, and one of the catch phrases that singer Bruce Dickinson has always used has been "Scream for me (insert name of city)".
So tonight, when he yelled that out, "Scream for me, Los Angeles"!, it sounded like pandemonium.
Bruce yells it out a lot, in between verses of a song, so the music is always going when he yells "scream for me", and you get the combined roar of the music and the crowd, and it was positively deafening.
Music to be performed as you are storming into World War Three, with crowd cheering you on.
I jest, of course, about that part, because Bruce (a talker in concert) always makes short speeches about togetherness, like tonight : "It doesn't matter what color you are, or if you're Bruce Jenner or what you believe in - if you're an Iron Maiden fan then you're family". That's the IM philosophy, and that's why the fans feel and act like a unit. All that matters is the music, and they (we) all love it. But having not been there at IM shows for the past three decades, I have missed that growing experience of family. Everybody's got an IM shirt on, everybody sings along....I mean, it was intense.
I think it was The Heaviest Metal Show I've ever been to.
I realise that I say something of that nature about every show I go to - lol - but because the technical aspects of rock concerts have grown exponentially from the earlier days, now you have sound that's off the charts, that sounds like WW3 as I said. I don't mean that sound wasn't good in years past - it was great and even incredible in the 70s. And the loudest concert overall that I've ever been to will always be Cal Jam, just because of the sheer amount of sound equipment used. But that was an outdoor show, where the sound can expand.
So indoors in an arena like The Forum, the sound is held within. And when it's turned up to the max with a band like Iron Maiden, then simple "loud sound" becomes "force of sound".
Even David Gilmour at The Hollywood Bowl was very loud, in decibels. But it was loud in a milder way.
At any rate, enough about The Loudness. What I am really trying to convey is The Force of the music.
Now, Grimsley texted me that he walked out. I can simultaneously understand that, and also think "well too bad". I saw a Dad standing near me who had his little girl on his shoulders, and I thought, "well, that kid is gonna remember this for the rest of her life", much as I will never forget California Jam, my first concert.
This rock n' roll thing is getting interesting at this point. Bands we have loved for our whole lives are retiring.
We fans never could have imagined that. Rock bands don't retire! We're all forever young. Rock music and especially rock concerts are in the moment. Nothing is more "be here now" than a rock concert.
Yet the musicians are indeed getting older. You'd never know it by the shows they've been putting on in recent years, many of which are peak efforts for various bands, career highs.
And with some of them, or really all of the bands that I've loved for decades that I've seen recently, it's like they've been saving the best for last. And now, with the sound technology being what it is, a band like Iron Maiden can put on a concert that sounds like the end of the world, in pure Force Of Sound.
This is how our era of rock winds down, with Monolithic shows. Bands going out in a Supernova.
Bruce remarked at the end that "you never know if we will make it back to North America".
Bands always used to say, "see you soon", or "see you next time". But we aren't in that era anymore.
Now we are going out with a bang.
If Iron Maiden ever do come back this way, absolutely do not miss them, even at the expense of your hearing. :)
See you in the morning, Sweet Baby. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Well.........wow. I have been to some loud concerts in my life, but tonight was one of the loudest if not thee loudest when pure force of sound is taken into consideration. With Iron Maiden, not only do you have the band, but their fans too. I had not been to a Maiden concert in 28 years, and they played big arenas back then too, but in the years since, the fans have become fanatical. Maiden is their band, and one of the catch phrases that singer Bruce Dickinson has always used has been "Scream for me (insert name of city)".
So tonight, when he yelled that out, "Scream for me, Los Angeles"!, it sounded like pandemonium.
Bruce yells it out a lot, in between verses of a song, so the music is always going when he yells "scream for me", and you get the combined roar of the music and the crowd, and it was positively deafening.
Music to be performed as you are storming into World War Three, with crowd cheering you on.
I jest, of course, about that part, because Bruce (a talker in concert) always makes short speeches about togetherness, like tonight : "It doesn't matter what color you are, or if you're Bruce Jenner or what you believe in - if you're an Iron Maiden fan then you're family". That's the IM philosophy, and that's why the fans feel and act like a unit. All that matters is the music, and they (we) all love it. But having not been there at IM shows for the past three decades, I have missed that growing experience of family. Everybody's got an IM shirt on, everybody sings along....I mean, it was intense.
I think it was The Heaviest Metal Show I've ever been to.
I realise that I say something of that nature about every show I go to - lol - but because the technical aspects of rock concerts have grown exponentially from the earlier days, now you have sound that's off the charts, that sounds like WW3 as I said. I don't mean that sound wasn't good in years past - it was great and even incredible in the 70s. And the loudest concert overall that I've ever been to will always be Cal Jam, just because of the sheer amount of sound equipment used. But that was an outdoor show, where the sound can expand.
So indoors in an arena like The Forum, the sound is held within. And when it's turned up to the max with a band like Iron Maiden, then simple "loud sound" becomes "force of sound".
Even David Gilmour at The Hollywood Bowl was very loud, in decibels. But it was loud in a milder way.
At any rate, enough about The Loudness. What I am really trying to convey is The Force of the music.
Now, Grimsley texted me that he walked out. I can simultaneously understand that, and also think "well too bad". I saw a Dad standing near me who had his little girl on his shoulders, and I thought, "well, that kid is gonna remember this for the rest of her life", much as I will never forget California Jam, my first concert.
This rock n' roll thing is getting interesting at this point. Bands we have loved for our whole lives are retiring.
We fans never could have imagined that. Rock bands don't retire! We're all forever young. Rock music and especially rock concerts are in the moment. Nothing is more "be here now" than a rock concert.
Yet the musicians are indeed getting older. You'd never know it by the shows they've been putting on in recent years, many of which are peak efforts for various bands, career highs.
And with some of them, or really all of the bands that I've loved for decades that I've seen recently, it's like they've been saving the best for last. And now, with the sound technology being what it is, a band like Iron Maiden can put on a concert that sounds like the end of the world, in pure Force Of Sound.
This is how our era of rock winds down, with Monolithic shows. Bands going out in a Supernova.
Bruce remarked at the end that "you never know if we will make it back to North America".
Bands always used to say, "see you soon", or "see you next time". But we aren't in that era anymore.
Now we are going out with a bang.
If Iron Maiden ever do come back this way, absolutely do not miss them, even at the expense of your hearing. :)
See you in the morning, Sweet Baby. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Friday, April 15, 2016
Von Trier "Antichrist" + Love
Hi Elizabeth,
Happy Thursday Night. Tonight at the CSUN Cinematheque we saw a film by director Lars Von Trier called "Antichrist".
Good Lordy Moses, now I can say I've really seen it all. Von Trier is a controversial director who is also kind of full of himself, and when he is in the news it's either for one of his provocative films or because he's yet again said something extremely un-PC. I had only ever seen one of his films prior to tonight, "Dogville" with Nicole Kidman (which I watched with my Mom about 12 years ago), and I don't remember much about it except that it was filmed and performed like a stage play. It was very stylised and probably went right by me because the story wasn't very interesting. Still, I am aware that Von Trier is a big name at Cannes and in the art film world in general. He seems to have a bug up his you-know-what about something, but I'm not sure anyone but him knows what it is.
"Antichrist" could be viewed as a straight-up psychological horror film, and if you watched it that way, as horror, it's a very well made and effective film. I was thinking, "Man, if I watched this on Halloween night, I'd be jumping out of my skin". The movie is ostensibly about a couple - the man a therapist, the woman his patient - who lose their small son in a tragic accident. They retreat from their apartment to a cabin in the woods, and that's when it turns into The Blair Witch Project and The Exorcist and Psycho all in one. I mean, it's not like any of those films, but those three give you a general idea. The woman is crazier than a hoot owl, as they used to say. I think I'd rather have Leatherface coming after me than her, in this movie.
Von Trier is an excellent technical director, and he makes use of all kinds of interesting optical techniques to present a very haunting film.
But he also turns up the violence to the max, and adds in a very grotesque sexual element that would make parts of the film either disgusting for some people, or at the very least a turn-off.
For me, well.......I am more or less unshockable, but......there are a couple very gross shots.
As a pure horror film, I'd say it's one of the scariest ever.
But why add the grossness?
And the answer is because it's Von Trier, who - from what I've read about him - insists on rattling people.
But he does so with an agenda that's only clear to him.
If I were a film critic, interviewing the guy, I'd ask:
"So what exactly are you trying to say"?
It's one thing to be obscure, and it's often a good thing, and with the greatest of the art film directors, their message comes through anyhow. But with Von Trier, in the two films I've now seen (and the others I've heard about), he doesn't seem to have a message. He just seems pissed off about something, but you can't figure out what.
To sum up : as a horror film, if you watch it on Halloween, it will scare the hell out of you (and gross you out).
But just as a film/film, as a movie recommendation, I'm afraid I would not recommend watching it to all but the most hardened filmgoers (like me), because of some of the imagery......
Other than that, a normal day. I liked your short clip this morn on FB, and you are right about the girl looking like she's right out of an Anime, it's all in her hair, the way it's combed, and her eyes, and the upward angle you shot it at.
I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing!
Well, that's all for tonight.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Happy Thursday Night. Tonight at the CSUN Cinematheque we saw a film by director Lars Von Trier called "Antichrist".
Good Lordy Moses, now I can say I've really seen it all. Von Trier is a controversial director who is also kind of full of himself, and when he is in the news it's either for one of his provocative films or because he's yet again said something extremely un-PC. I had only ever seen one of his films prior to tonight, "Dogville" with Nicole Kidman (which I watched with my Mom about 12 years ago), and I don't remember much about it except that it was filmed and performed like a stage play. It was very stylised and probably went right by me because the story wasn't very interesting. Still, I am aware that Von Trier is a big name at Cannes and in the art film world in general. He seems to have a bug up his you-know-what about something, but I'm not sure anyone but him knows what it is.
"Antichrist" could be viewed as a straight-up psychological horror film, and if you watched it that way, as horror, it's a very well made and effective film. I was thinking, "Man, if I watched this on Halloween night, I'd be jumping out of my skin". The movie is ostensibly about a couple - the man a therapist, the woman his patient - who lose their small son in a tragic accident. They retreat from their apartment to a cabin in the woods, and that's when it turns into The Blair Witch Project and The Exorcist and Psycho all in one. I mean, it's not like any of those films, but those three give you a general idea. The woman is crazier than a hoot owl, as they used to say. I think I'd rather have Leatherface coming after me than her, in this movie.
Von Trier is an excellent technical director, and he makes use of all kinds of interesting optical techniques to present a very haunting film.
But he also turns up the violence to the max, and adds in a very grotesque sexual element that would make parts of the film either disgusting for some people, or at the very least a turn-off.
For me, well.......I am more or less unshockable, but......there are a couple very gross shots.
As a pure horror film, I'd say it's one of the scariest ever.
But why add the grossness?
And the answer is because it's Von Trier, who - from what I've read about him - insists on rattling people.
But he does so with an agenda that's only clear to him.
If I were a film critic, interviewing the guy, I'd ask:
"So what exactly are you trying to say"?
It's one thing to be obscure, and it's often a good thing, and with the greatest of the art film directors, their message comes through anyhow. But with Von Trier, in the two films I've now seen (and the others I've heard about), he doesn't seem to have a message. He just seems pissed off about something, but you can't figure out what.
To sum up : as a horror film, if you watch it on Halloween, it will scare the hell out of you (and gross you out).
But just as a film/film, as a movie recommendation, I'm afraid I would not recommend watching it to all but the most hardened filmgoers (like me), because of some of the imagery......
Other than that, a normal day. I liked your short clip this morn on FB, and you are right about the girl looking like she's right out of an Anime, it's all in her hair, the way it's combed, and her eyes, and the upward angle you shot it at.
I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing!
Well, that's all for tonight.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Beautiful Pic + The Kobester (not the dog) + BP
Happy Late Night, my Darling,
That was a beautiful picture of you this morning, taken by your friend, and a very pretty dress or blouse you are wearing. I'm glad you enjoyed Arizona. I've gotta see it one day myself. :)
Today was low key, still de-stressing from the experience yesterday, so I went for a quick hike at Aliso Canyon which is close and easy. Aliso is like Santa Su as far as pics go, I've kinda covered it, unless I see a really unique pattern of light or something, so I didn't take photos. But I did have a relaxing walk, and things are pretty much back to normal here at Pearl's. Thank goodness.
Tonight was the grand finale, for Laker fans, of Kobe Bryant's 20 year career. He's been a Laker all that time, since 1996 when you were just about to turn four years old. :)
Yeah, sports....I know.
But we do love The Original Kobester (meaning "before The Dog") here in L.A., and tonight I listened to the game on radio (don't have cable in my apt.) and it was one of the most exciting games I've ever experienced. Kobe scored 60 points, which very rarely happens. It was such a great send off for the fans.....
Other than that, I've just been reading my books and trying to hold down the fort here at Pearl's. I've also been sort of monitoring my blood pressure on my Mom's old bp machine, which is another story. I got kind of obsessed with "numbers" because my brother-in-law mentioned that he was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I am not a "doctor person" (to put it mildly), and I am a typical male in that regard I suppose. But I do try to take care of my own health, and I know all about healthy eating, exercising, and meditating and maintaining a positive attitude to avoid stress.
But my bro-in-law's talk of diagnostic "numbers" got to me. Nowdays, you've gotta know your cholesterol number! Your blood sugar number! And most importantly (so they say) your BP number. I hadn't checked mine in years. In my late 30s and early 40s, on the occasional check it used to hover around 140/90, which believe it or not was considered normal until 2003. That's when this obsession with lower BP began, with the medical field.
Anyhow, I hate all that stuff, and I just have always gone by how my body feels, and have been blessed with great health. But I got all freaked out with the idea of "numbers" because of listening to my bro-in-law, and so I checked my bp with Mom's digital machine, and it was about 137/85. That's actually better than it was 10 years ago, and it's pretty good for a guy my age. But they have this obsession with so-called "perfect" blood pressure now, so I am back on the No Fun Diet, which is low sodium (among other no fun things), and I am also trying to cut my caffeine intake in half, though it wasn't high to begin with.
I mean, I have no other risk factors. No family history. My parents both lived into their 80s, Mom to 82 even with smoking, and Dad to 88 with Herculian drinking. They never worried about this stuff, though they were both on meds for bp for many years.
I don't wanna ever be on meds, for anything. So I am gonna try to bring my bp down naturally, and if I can get it down to about 135/82 or thereabouts, that'll be good enough for me.
The last time I checked it, just two days ago, it was only 132/80 when I woke up. Not too shabby!
So if I can just get it to stay somewhere in that range throughout the day, then all is well.
I'm not a huge fan of the Medical Establishment because they get a person like me all freaked out on this stuff. I ask myself, "what did people do for thousands of years with no diagnostic digital numbers to worry about". The answer is "they lived their lives". And they got exercise. And in those days there was no processed food. So maybe I'm doing some things right anyhow. :)
On a happier note, I did see a post by you just a little while ago, and it had a baby in it. Now, the post itself was also about a medical issue - vaccines to be exact - but I will go out on a limb and guess that, maybe, you meant it as a Sweet Baby post.........(I hope you did)..
Well, that's all for tonight. I will see you in the morning.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
That was a beautiful picture of you this morning, taken by your friend, and a very pretty dress or blouse you are wearing. I'm glad you enjoyed Arizona. I've gotta see it one day myself. :)
Today was low key, still de-stressing from the experience yesterday, so I went for a quick hike at Aliso Canyon which is close and easy. Aliso is like Santa Su as far as pics go, I've kinda covered it, unless I see a really unique pattern of light or something, so I didn't take photos. But I did have a relaxing walk, and things are pretty much back to normal here at Pearl's. Thank goodness.
Tonight was the grand finale, for Laker fans, of Kobe Bryant's 20 year career. He's been a Laker all that time, since 1996 when you were just about to turn four years old. :)
Yeah, sports....I know.
But we do love The Original Kobester (meaning "before The Dog") here in L.A., and tonight I listened to the game on radio (don't have cable in my apt.) and it was one of the most exciting games I've ever experienced. Kobe scored 60 points, which very rarely happens. It was such a great send off for the fans.....
Other than that, I've just been reading my books and trying to hold down the fort here at Pearl's. I've also been sort of monitoring my blood pressure on my Mom's old bp machine, which is another story. I got kind of obsessed with "numbers" because my brother-in-law mentioned that he was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I am not a "doctor person" (to put it mildly), and I am a typical male in that regard I suppose. But I do try to take care of my own health, and I know all about healthy eating, exercising, and meditating and maintaining a positive attitude to avoid stress.
But my bro-in-law's talk of diagnostic "numbers" got to me. Nowdays, you've gotta know your cholesterol number! Your blood sugar number! And most importantly (so they say) your BP number. I hadn't checked mine in years. In my late 30s and early 40s, on the occasional check it used to hover around 140/90, which believe it or not was considered normal until 2003. That's when this obsession with lower BP began, with the medical field.
Anyhow, I hate all that stuff, and I just have always gone by how my body feels, and have been blessed with great health. But I got all freaked out with the idea of "numbers" because of listening to my bro-in-law, and so I checked my bp with Mom's digital machine, and it was about 137/85. That's actually better than it was 10 years ago, and it's pretty good for a guy my age. But they have this obsession with so-called "perfect" blood pressure now, so I am back on the No Fun Diet, which is low sodium (among other no fun things), and I am also trying to cut my caffeine intake in half, though it wasn't high to begin with.
I mean, I have no other risk factors. No family history. My parents both lived into their 80s, Mom to 82 even with smoking, and Dad to 88 with Herculian drinking. They never worried about this stuff, though they were both on meds for bp for many years.
I don't wanna ever be on meds, for anything. So I am gonna try to bring my bp down naturally, and if I can get it down to about 135/82 or thereabouts, that'll be good enough for me.
The last time I checked it, just two days ago, it was only 132/80 when I woke up. Not too shabby!
So if I can just get it to stay somewhere in that range throughout the day, then all is well.
I'm not a huge fan of the Medical Establishment because they get a person like me all freaked out on this stuff. I ask myself, "what did people do for thousands of years with no diagnostic digital numbers to worry about". The answer is "they lived their lives". And they got exercise. And in those days there was no processed food. So maybe I'm doing some things right anyhow. :)
On a happier note, I did see a post by you just a little while ago, and it had a baby in it. Now, the post itself was also about a medical issue - vaccines to be exact - but I will go out on a limb and guess that, maybe, you meant it as a Sweet Baby post.........(I hope you did)..
Well, that's all for tonight. I will see you in the morning.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
A Scary Day
Hi Elizabeth,
Well, we sure had a bad scare this morning here at Pearl's. As I have probably mentioned at least once, I don't often get a full 8 hours of sleep during nighttime hours, because Pearl herself rarely sleeps through the night. Her biological clock gets turned around backwards, which is a phenomenon known as "sundowning" in people with dementia. So, very often she will think it's morning at Midnight, and I will have to actually show her the black night sky, looking through the window, to convince her otherwise. Or she might wake up at 2:30am, fully dressed and ready for breakfast. Many nights - more often than not - she wakes up on average about twice a night, say at around 2:30am and then again between 4 and 5am. And the reason I am alerted to this is because of Kobi the dog. He follows Pearl everywhere, he sleeps in her room, and when she wakes up, so does he.
And then he starts barking, and he has a very loud, sharp bark.
So the point of this preamble is to point out that during normal sleeping hours, I don't get consistent sleep. My sleep is broken up into 2 hour stretches almost every night. Consequently, by the time the Sun comes up, I am still not fully rested. You can always tell, afterward, by whether or not you can remember dreaming. If you can remember it, that means you had some REM sleep, which is the important kind.
Well, nowdays, because Pearl is nocturnal, I have been getting my REM sleep somewhere between the hours of about 7 and 10am. Prior to that, I sleep in one to two hour stretches as mentioned above, because the doggie barks and I wake up.
So, this morning was the usual pattern, and at about 6:15am I was up for the third time, and at that point I gave Pearl her breakfast, and I fed Kobi too. Then I went back to sleep.
He barked one more time at around 8am, and I came out to let him out front to go to the bathroom. Now I was exhausted, so I went back to sleep once again.
Finally I got a little quality sleep, and when I woke up, it was a few minutes after 10am.
Pearl has a cleaning lady, and she comes over every Tuesday, usually about 11am. This time she was a few minutes early, and I heard her coming in just as I was putting on my shoes. We both converged in the living room, and I said "hi", and I noticed Pearl was not in the living room, where she would usually be. So I went to her bedroom, because sometimes when she's been awake all night, she goes back to bed and falls asleep in the morning, after eating breakfast.
But she wasn't in her bedroom.
Well, that has happened a couple times before, and the house is not big; it's a 1950s mid-century modern tract home, you can walk the whole thing in less than a minute. I scanned the bathrooms and then went out directly into the front porch area. No Pearl.
By now I was pretty nervous. I walked rapidly into the backyard. No Pearl.
Several months ago, around December of 2015, we took away Pearl's key to the front gate, because she had had an episode where she had come out onto the porch area at night, in the cold, when I was not there, and she had closed the front door behind her, and she had locked herself out. And she had been out in the very cold night for about a half hour before our neighbor heard her calling out. Our neighbor has a key, and that time she let Pearl back inside the house.
But the final barrier to the street is a locked iron gate that separates the house and porch area from the driveway and street. Her daughter and I figured that it was best to let her keep the front door key, in case she ever got locked out of the house again (even though she really doesn't know how to use the key anymore), but we also decided that it was very important to take away her key to the front gate.
Because if she ever did go out the front door when I was not here, at least the front gate would be locked, and she could go no further than the porch. Without a key to the gate, she could not get off the property.
Or so we thought.
Well, back to this morning. After I checked the house and backyard, I very quickly went from being nervous to highly stressed. I realised : "She's not on the property". She's gone. Pearl is 91 and has moderate but advancing dementia. Holy smokes.
Both the cleaning lady and I jumped in our cars and drove in separate directions. "You go that way and I'll go this way"! We combed the neighborhood, which is old style Valley from the 1950s. It's all residential for about a half mile in every direction. It's one big housing tract, with quiet streets. I thought, "well, however Pearl got out, she can't have wandered far". Pearl moves very slowly. On dogwalks it takes us fifteen to twenty minutes just to get to the end of our 1/8th mile street.
But as I drove through the curving streets, I wasn't seeing her, and I started to get very, very, worried.
And I wondered, "how the hell did she get out"?
And then it hit me : "Oh yeah.....Tuesday is also the day the gardener comes. And he always leaves the gate open as he works from the front to the back yard. The gardener has a key, too.
So somehow, a Perfect Storm of circumstance had struck, and Pearl had first gone out the front door, which she never does anymore, and then she had gone out the open gate......
.......and all when I was asleep.
I felt horrible as I was driving, looking for her. But I thought, "I have to sleep sometime". I couldn't help it.
It would never have occured to me in a million years that she'd even go out the door onto the porch, let alone out a gate that just happened to be open.......because it was Tuesday.......when the gardener comes...
I was not yet in panic mode, because I always try to gather myself when situations arise. "Maybe she tried to walk to church". Tuesday is Golden Agers day, as you know. The church is a quarter mile down the street.
I drove there and went in. No Pearl. No one had seen her.
So I drove back to the house, and thinking back on the events of the morning, I would say I was still not panicking, but I was certainly praying, and thinking - analyzing - a mile a minute.
The cleaning lady drove up a moment after I arrived, and I said, "she's not at the church......I guess I'll have to call 911".
I've never had to call 911 before, for any reason.
But I did, and gave the operator all the details. Pearl's description, etc.
"We'll send someone over", she told me. "In the meantime, you can try calling the nearest hospital".
I had been thinking all the things that run through your head when something like this happens : "Did she fall down? Could some weirdo have picked her up? Good Lord, what could it be"?
I am her caregiver, and even though I try my best every day, it's not easy to keep up with a person who has dementia. Such a person is usually slow moving, but in other ways - ways that you don't always think of - they can be relentless. People with dementia get urges. Urges to "go home", to a remembered childhood location. Or to any number of other places and scenarios. And when they are in the grip of such an urge, they can fixate on it for days. And because a person with dementia basically does not sleep, in anything resembling a normal pattern, the caregiver really has to be on his or her toes to keep up.
Dementia creates a very slow but extremely determined kind of energy. And it can be relentless.
So I called 911. And the police came. I gave them the basic rundown, and they said they were gonna drive the streets themselves first, before resorting to a missing persons report. They said they'd check Northridge Hospital, too. It's about a mile away.
In the meantime, while they were gone, I drove back to the church. "Please God", I was thinking....but no Pearl.
I called Pearl's daughter to give her the news, and it was no fun to do so. Really scary it was, at this point.
Five minutes later I was back at the house again, and now the cleaning lady and I were both standing out front, scanning the street with our eyes and waiting for the police to return. A couple of neighbors had noticed all the commotion and inquired what had happened, and gave sympathies.
I was in and out of the house, with nervous energy. On the phone with her daughter.
Then, from out the dining room window, I saw the police car pull in to the driveway.
When I saw the backdoor open, and saw an officer get out of the back door, I instinctually knew they'd found Pearl. I walked out the front door, past the porch and through the gate.....
....and there was Pearl, being helped out of the front seat of the squad car (they use SUVs now) by the officer.
Thank You, Lord.
"We found her up on Stagg Street". A half mile away! How did she get that far?
"She was sitting in a chair in front of a house, the people who live there had seen her..."....
Me : "Thank you, officers. You really saved the day".
I thanked them profusely, for I had driven past that same spot on my search earlier, and hadn't seen her.
The stress of what had happened didn't hit me until a little while later.
And it has kinda wiped me out today. It was a very scary episode indeed.
God bless the LAPD and thanks to them for finding her. I am so glad she was safe and unharmed.
We are gonna make sure that the gardener locks the gate every time he passes through it, from now on.
And we are also gonna see if Pearl's doctor can prescribe anything that might help her "sundowning", to maybe improve her sleep pattern and hopefully turn her hours around back to normal.
So that's my report for today. I am so grateful that things turned out okay.
Such is the job of a caregiver.
I hope all is going well for you.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Well, we sure had a bad scare this morning here at Pearl's. As I have probably mentioned at least once, I don't often get a full 8 hours of sleep during nighttime hours, because Pearl herself rarely sleeps through the night. Her biological clock gets turned around backwards, which is a phenomenon known as "sundowning" in people with dementia. So, very often she will think it's morning at Midnight, and I will have to actually show her the black night sky, looking through the window, to convince her otherwise. Or she might wake up at 2:30am, fully dressed and ready for breakfast. Many nights - more often than not - she wakes up on average about twice a night, say at around 2:30am and then again between 4 and 5am. And the reason I am alerted to this is because of Kobi the dog. He follows Pearl everywhere, he sleeps in her room, and when she wakes up, so does he.
And then he starts barking, and he has a very loud, sharp bark.
So the point of this preamble is to point out that during normal sleeping hours, I don't get consistent sleep. My sleep is broken up into 2 hour stretches almost every night. Consequently, by the time the Sun comes up, I am still not fully rested. You can always tell, afterward, by whether or not you can remember dreaming. If you can remember it, that means you had some REM sleep, which is the important kind.
Well, nowdays, because Pearl is nocturnal, I have been getting my REM sleep somewhere between the hours of about 7 and 10am. Prior to that, I sleep in one to two hour stretches as mentioned above, because the doggie barks and I wake up.
So, this morning was the usual pattern, and at about 6:15am I was up for the third time, and at that point I gave Pearl her breakfast, and I fed Kobi too. Then I went back to sleep.
He barked one more time at around 8am, and I came out to let him out front to go to the bathroom. Now I was exhausted, so I went back to sleep once again.
Finally I got a little quality sleep, and when I woke up, it was a few minutes after 10am.
Pearl has a cleaning lady, and she comes over every Tuesday, usually about 11am. This time she was a few minutes early, and I heard her coming in just as I was putting on my shoes. We both converged in the living room, and I said "hi", and I noticed Pearl was not in the living room, where she would usually be. So I went to her bedroom, because sometimes when she's been awake all night, she goes back to bed and falls asleep in the morning, after eating breakfast.
But she wasn't in her bedroom.
Well, that has happened a couple times before, and the house is not big; it's a 1950s mid-century modern tract home, you can walk the whole thing in less than a minute. I scanned the bathrooms and then went out directly into the front porch area. No Pearl.
By now I was pretty nervous. I walked rapidly into the backyard. No Pearl.
Several months ago, around December of 2015, we took away Pearl's key to the front gate, because she had had an episode where she had come out onto the porch area at night, in the cold, when I was not there, and she had closed the front door behind her, and she had locked herself out. And she had been out in the very cold night for about a half hour before our neighbor heard her calling out. Our neighbor has a key, and that time she let Pearl back inside the house.
But the final barrier to the street is a locked iron gate that separates the house and porch area from the driveway and street. Her daughter and I figured that it was best to let her keep the front door key, in case she ever got locked out of the house again (even though she really doesn't know how to use the key anymore), but we also decided that it was very important to take away her key to the front gate.
Because if she ever did go out the front door when I was not here, at least the front gate would be locked, and she could go no further than the porch. Without a key to the gate, she could not get off the property.
Or so we thought.
Well, back to this morning. After I checked the house and backyard, I very quickly went from being nervous to highly stressed. I realised : "She's not on the property". She's gone. Pearl is 91 and has moderate but advancing dementia. Holy smokes.
Both the cleaning lady and I jumped in our cars and drove in separate directions. "You go that way and I'll go this way"! We combed the neighborhood, which is old style Valley from the 1950s. It's all residential for about a half mile in every direction. It's one big housing tract, with quiet streets. I thought, "well, however Pearl got out, she can't have wandered far". Pearl moves very slowly. On dogwalks it takes us fifteen to twenty minutes just to get to the end of our 1/8th mile street.
But as I drove through the curving streets, I wasn't seeing her, and I started to get very, very, worried.
And I wondered, "how the hell did she get out"?
And then it hit me : "Oh yeah.....Tuesday is also the day the gardener comes. And he always leaves the gate open as he works from the front to the back yard. The gardener has a key, too.
So somehow, a Perfect Storm of circumstance had struck, and Pearl had first gone out the front door, which she never does anymore, and then she had gone out the open gate......
.......and all when I was asleep.
I felt horrible as I was driving, looking for her. But I thought, "I have to sleep sometime". I couldn't help it.
It would never have occured to me in a million years that she'd even go out the door onto the porch, let alone out a gate that just happened to be open.......because it was Tuesday.......when the gardener comes...
I was not yet in panic mode, because I always try to gather myself when situations arise. "Maybe she tried to walk to church". Tuesday is Golden Agers day, as you know. The church is a quarter mile down the street.
I drove there and went in. No Pearl. No one had seen her.
So I drove back to the house, and thinking back on the events of the morning, I would say I was still not panicking, but I was certainly praying, and thinking - analyzing - a mile a minute.
The cleaning lady drove up a moment after I arrived, and I said, "she's not at the church......I guess I'll have to call 911".
I've never had to call 911 before, for any reason.
But I did, and gave the operator all the details. Pearl's description, etc.
"We'll send someone over", she told me. "In the meantime, you can try calling the nearest hospital".
I had been thinking all the things that run through your head when something like this happens : "Did she fall down? Could some weirdo have picked her up? Good Lord, what could it be"?
I am her caregiver, and even though I try my best every day, it's not easy to keep up with a person who has dementia. Such a person is usually slow moving, but in other ways - ways that you don't always think of - they can be relentless. People with dementia get urges. Urges to "go home", to a remembered childhood location. Or to any number of other places and scenarios. And when they are in the grip of such an urge, they can fixate on it for days. And because a person with dementia basically does not sleep, in anything resembling a normal pattern, the caregiver really has to be on his or her toes to keep up.
Dementia creates a very slow but extremely determined kind of energy. And it can be relentless.
So I called 911. And the police came. I gave them the basic rundown, and they said they were gonna drive the streets themselves first, before resorting to a missing persons report. They said they'd check Northridge Hospital, too. It's about a mile away.
In the meantime, while they were gone, I drove back to the church. "Please God", I was thinking....but no Pearl.
I called Pearl's daughter to give her the news, and it was no fun to do so. Really scary it was, at this point.
Five minutes later I was back at the house again, and now the cleaning lady and I were both standing out front, scanning the street with our eyes and waiting for the police to return. A couple of neighbors had noticed all the commotion and inquired what had happened, and gave sympathies.
I was in and out of the house, with nervous energy. On the phone with her daughter.
Then, from out the dining room window, I saw the police car pull in to the driveway.
When I saw the backdoor open, and saw an officer get out of the back door, I instinctually knew they'd found Pearl. I walked out the front door, past the porch and through the gate.....
....and there was Pearl, being helped out of the front seat of the squad car (they use SUVs now) by the officer.
Thank You, Lord.
"We found her up on Stagg Street". A half mile away! How did she get that far?
"She was sitting in a chair in front of a house, the people who live there had seen her..."....
Me : "Thank you, officers. You really saved the day".
I thanked them profusely, for I had driven past that same spot on my search earlier, and hadn't seen her.
The stress of what had happened didn't hit me until a little while later.
And it has kinda wiped me out today. It was a very scary episode indeed.
God bless the LAPD and thanks to them for finding her. I am so glad she was safe and unharmed.
We are gonna make sure that the gardener locks the gate every time he passes through it, from now on.
And we are also gonna see if Pearl's doctor can prescribe anything that might help her "sundowning", to maybe improve her sleep pattern and hopefully turn her hours around back to normal.
So that's my report for today. I am so grateful that things turned out okay.
Such is the job of a caregiver.
I hope all is going well for you.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Vibrations Against The Air
Hi Elizabeth,
I'm just checking in to say hi. I hope all your projects are coming along well. I liked your new pics on Flickr. I always try to save some really good ones to post there myself, because the resolution is better than on FB. I sure hope to get out and do a hike pretty soon, but it's just been harder this year. But soon I will, and because we have had some rain (including the last two days), the trails and hillsides should look a lot different, much greener and with wildflowers and native plants.
I saw an excellent movie last night, "Love And Mercy", a biopic about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. In the movie, he is played by two actors - Paul Dano (when he is young and his star is rising) and John Cusack (when he is in his 50s). Both actors knock their roles out of the park, as does the rest of the cast. Even if you are not familiar with The Beach Boys music, the movie stands on it's own as the story of a musical genius struggling against schizophrenia while trying to get the music out of his head and onto tape, and in later life dealing with the controlling influence of a domineering psychiatrist. Really a great movie, one of the best depictions of a real life person I've ever seen put on film, and also as it shows how music was created in the studio, by Brian Wilson, who had a tough life but is still going today at 74 years old and has triumphed in the end, largely because of the woman who became his wife, who saved him from his tyrannical doctor. It's funny, because the name "The Beach Boys" seems like it might not correlate with musical genius, but when you really listen to what they were doing, with the rhythms, melodies and criss-crossing harmonies, there is no doubt. God Bless Brian Wilson. :)
I saw your post with the amazing contraptions that look like living Miyazaki creatures. Wow! Imagine the dedication it took to put those together. It's not only an engineering feat by the artist, but also a probable knowledge, on his part, and a belief in, the type of higher mathematics I am trying to comprehend in Roger Penrose's "The Road To Reality", in which he explains (for those who understand "the language"), how things are measured against each other, and in congruence with each other.
The mathematics of curves, and spin, and geometry and torsion, would all play a part in building those "living creatures" that have no motorised power other than the wind and their own mechanical design. So the math comes down to creating a fantastic structure (with "legs" for motion), that will move forward when it interacts with a directional wind.
In reading the Penrose book, for me, I obviously have to just skip past almost all of the calculations, as would anybody who isn't a math major, and a top-level one at that. But when you just read the words of the book, you can understand it, somewhat, on an intuitive level.
I think that's what you have to have to create the living Miyazaki creatures out of plastic bottles and tubing. You have to have a high level understanding of the engineering that is involved.
But more importantly - probably much more, I think - you have to have an intuitive understanding of the Living Plastic Creatures themselves, and in that way, by first intuiting them, and then creating them and bringing them to life, the artist is doing something similar to what Brian Wilson did.
He is bringing The Wind, or the air, to life.
Pretty amazing.
Well, that's all I know for tonight. Good singing will be had in church tomorrow morn.
Goodnight, Sweet Baby. See you tomorrow.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I'm just checking in to say hi. I hope all your projects are coming along well. I liked your new pics on Flickr. I always try to save some really good ones to post there myself, because the resolution is better than on FB. I sure hope to get out and do a hike pretty soon, but it's just been harder this year. But soon I will, and because we have had some rain (including the last two days), the trails and hillsides should look a lot different, much greener and with wildflowers and native plants.
I saw an excellent movie last night, "Love And Mercy", a biopic about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. In the movie, he is played by two actors - Paul Dano (when he is young and his star is rising) and John Cusack (when he is in his 50s). Both actors knock their roles out of the park, as does the rest of the cast. Even if you are not familiar with The Beach Boys music, the movie stands on it's own as the story of a musical genius struggling against schizophrenia while trying to get the music out of his head and onto tape, and in later life dealing with the controlling influence of a domineering psychiatrist. Really a great movie, one of the best depictions of a real life person I've ever seen put on film, and also as it shows how music was created in the studio, by Brian Wilson, who had a tough life but is still going today at 74 years old and has triumphed in the end, largely because of the woman who became his wife, who saved him from his tyrannical doctor. It's funny, because the name "The Beach Boys" seems like it might not correlate with musical genius, but when you really listen to what they were doing, with the rhythms, melodies and criss-crossing harmonies, there is no doubt. God Bless Brian Wilson. :)
I saw your post with the amazing contraptions that look like living Miyazaki creatures. Wow! Imagine the dedication it took to put those together. It's not only an engineering feat by the artist, but also a probable knowledge, on his part, and a belief in, the type of higher mathematics I am trying to comprehend in Roger Penrose's "The Road To Reality", in which he explains (for those who understand "the language"), how things are measured against each other, and in congruence with each other.
The mathematics of curves, and spin, and geometry and torsion, would all play a part in building those "living creatures" that have no motorised power other than the wind and their own mechanical design. So the math comes down to creating a fantastic structure (with "legs" for motion), that will move forward when it interacts with a directional wind.
In reading the Penrose book, for me, I obviously have to just skip past almost all of the calculations, as would anybody who isn't a math major, and a top-level one at that. But when you just read the words of the book, you can understand it, somewhat, on an intuitive level.
I think that's what you have to have to create the living Miyazaki creatures out of plastic bottles and tubing. You have to have a high level understanding of the engineering that is involved.
But more importantly - probably much more, I think - you have to have an intuitive understanding of the Living Plastic Creatures themselves, and in that way, by first intuiting them, and then creating them and bringing them to life, the artist is doing something similar to what Brian Wilson did.
He is bringing The Wind, or the air, to life.
Pretty amazing.
Well, that's all I know for tonight. Good singing will be had in church tomorrow morn.
Goodnight, Sweet Baby. See you tomorrow.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Friday, April 8, 2016
Tree Of Life
Hi, my Darling,
I hope you had a nice day, with success and fun on whatever shoot you are currently working on. The only post I saw pertained to Trapt, and I think they were in Detroit. Maybe you are touring with them? Just a guess of course. :) Post if you get a chance, and if you want to.
Tonight we were back to Thursday Movie Night at CSUN. We had finished up all seven of Tarkovsky's films, so now we are watching films that the Professor chose as being influenced by The Tarkmeister, and we started off with "The Tree Of Life" by Terrence Malick. I am a big fan of his first two films: "Badlands" and "Days Of Heaven", the latter of which is one of the great cinematography jobs of all time. I saw "Tree" when it came out about five years ago, but I saw it on dvd, on a TV screen, and I wasn't ready for it's constantly circulating camerawork and meandering story. I probably watched it at a bad time or wasn't in the mood because I didn't like it that much.
This time, I thought it was tremendous. Sometimes, if a movie has promise - even something in general that you can find to like about it - then it can help to go back and watch it a second time. Being a fan of Malick, I have always liked the spiritual nature of his films, and that was what I did like the first time I watched "Tree Of Life". The film's abstract nature was off-putting on first view, but I liked the message.
So I was more prepared to watch it on this second viewing, because I knew what was coming. Also, I was seeing it on a movie screen, which makes a difference.
This time it blew me away. What a beautiful film, with such a spiritual message.
Well, that's all for tonight. Hope you are still with me.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I hope you had a nice day, with success and fun on whatever shoot you are currently working on. The only post I saw pertained to Trapt, and I think they were in Detroit. Maybe you are touring with them? Just a guess of course. :) Post if you get a chance, and if you want to.
Tonight we were back to Thursday Movie Night at CSUN. We had finished up all seven of Tarkovsky's films, so now we are watching films that the Professor chose as being influenced by The Tarkmeister, and we started off with "The Tree Of Life" by Terrence Malick. I am a big fan of his first two films: "Badlands" and "Days Of Heaven", the latter of which is one of the great cinematography jobs of all time. I saw "Tree" when it came out about five years ago, but I saw it on dvd, on a TV screen, and I wasn't ready for it's constantly circulating camerawork and meandering story. I probably watched it at a bad time or wasn't in the mood because I didn't like it that much.
This time, I thought it was tremendous. Sometimes, if a movie has promise - even something in general that you can find to like about it - then it can help to go back and watch it a second time. Being a fan of Malick, I have always liked the spiritual nature of his films, and that was what I did like the first time I watched "Tree Of Life". The film's abstract nature was off-putting on first view, but I liked the message.
So I was more prepared to watch it on this second viewing, because I knew what was coming. Also, I was seeing it on a movie screen, which makes a difference.
This time it blew me away. What a beautiful film, with such a spiritual message.
Well, that's all for tonight. Hope you are still with me.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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