"Oppertunity - - oppertunity - - is knocking at your door.
Oppertunity knocks but once, and don't come back no more.
But if you're Howard Richards
You'd be wise not to answer the door"
"There was a cat named Rory
- who suggested something gory"
"Like a rabbit gona grab it, just like Charlie Babbit"
"Why Don't We Do It in the Rhode?"
"A, B, C, D, Can I bring my friend to Tea"?
“You better leave, my Boneskat all alone!” - Is that ME singing?
"Honey, I'll be in by One [AM], - - or Two, - - or Three"
In a phone conversation with Ron Rhodes in late July 1998, which may be the last time I"ve talked to him, he said that he had this "friend" who was a female, who he was going off camping with next weekend. Christians love to use euphamisms. And one wonders whether in the night they might put their sleeping bags together and to a little kanoodeling.
Robert Whiticker died this past week. He was the photographer who shot the famous butcher block meat scene with the Beatles as the original planned album cover for Yesterday and Today. I was under the impression that Klaus Voorman had been the one who designed the Revolver album front. They are playing this early Fleetwood Mac song that was in inspired by “Sun King” and it’s a Fleetwood Song I never heard before - - Albitros, and Sun King is the right answer. Before this they played “Stepping Out” that refers to John Lennon putting on his “space suit”. Early Fleetwood Mac was different. KLOS played a number of “blue” songs, a number of which I missed such as “Polytheme Pam”, “Girl” and “She Came in through the Bathroom Window”. I heard “Famous Groupies” and “Maggie Mae” and “High High High” and “Why Don’t We do it in the Road”. This last song is so perfectly executed, every note, that listening to Anthology is a real come-down for me. Don’t mess with a master-piece. Anyhow we all know that Dick Llyle wrote “Deliver Your Children” and pulled a gun on Paul Mc Cartney and said “Dire things will happens if this song does not appear on your next album”. This is an overcast Sunday September 25, 2011, and it’s three & a half days to the rapture, which might just even be better than “Twelve segments to Beer”.
Before that it was Meet the Press. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahoo was on and he played “Cheech” to the interviewer’s “Chong” in the Los Cochinos skit. Netenyahoo tried to be the diplomat side-stepping all of the host baiting being thrown his say saying “Well you know what Clinton said” and the Prime Minister kept saying “We know that the Palestinians have lived there a long time and we want to give them a State of their own but they don’t want it and in 2000 and 2008 they had a good chance and came close but they scuttled it”. The PLO may have renounced Hammas but they still nurse hopes of driving Israel into the sea after they do become a state, so what’s the point? Then they had Michael Bloomburg on, who also tried to be diplomatic in discussing Obama’s hopes but also Rick Perry and Mitt Romney have been picked on too much. Maybe
The big news of the day of course was the visit to Mom for dinner last night. As you may or may not know Dee stopped by last week to drop off a bunch of stuff including [material deleted at this point] At any rate there is a conflict as to whether [name] was there with her when Dee was over because Judy said that [name] was already in Hawaiiai but [name] says that Mom got confused and didn’t remember that [name] was there, but in Dee’s letter no reference was made to [name]’s actually being present, as Judy pointed out. However as to the content of the rest of the material it had a lot of framed pictures of old relatives including several of Nana as a young woman. There were also hand made geniological charts and one chart was copied by Uncle Bob. But it wasn’t done in the usual “generation” style fork format. Instead there was a list of names and diagonal lines showing the offspring. Naturally I looked for us three kids and we were there. Pete Richards' first wife, [deleted], was plainly listed but for his second wife it just says Judy question mark. Bob didn’t know her last name. Pete will probably cross out [wife]’s name and include Judy’s last name. What dawned on me from this chart was the high importance of the Miller clan. Other names prominently featured were “Dutton”, which kept showing up, and some R name like Ramsey. It seems that Charles Miller was a famous Mormon. His wife, Anne Miller, came from England and she led a hard life there- - and her own mother went through a lot of hard ship. Charles and Anne lived in Missouri in the 1840’s apparently, and were both Mormons but Charles wanted to move to Utah with a Mormon caravan. His wife Anne and their son and two girls started out but didn’t get too far when Anne wasn’t up to the rigors of covered wagon travel. Uncle Bob tells a rather different story from the Mormon geniological version. In his version son John Dutton Miller stowed away on the covered wagon and when they realized he was on board they were in another state and it was too late to turn back. Nora was just in here barking orders at me. Anyhow according to Uncle Bob’s version John renounced Mormonism and none of his descendents were Mormon except for one descendent who later married one. (?) But the official Mormon version has it that Charles couldn’t bear to leave his son John behind so took him with him. Meanwhile Anne was left back in Missouri and didn’t fare well and died of some disease. And her two daughters were orphaned at ages 13 and 8 or something. Hannah became an “entertainer” and earned her living that way. (That wasn’t a euphemism for “stripper” is it?) And then some evil cousin came on the scene and stole all mother Anne’s fancy dresses and cut them up and sold them for cloth. Meanwhile daughter Hannah eventually came west with her husband and rejoined brother John and Utah and recognized him as her sibling right off after not seeing him for fourteen years. There was included a big picture of a bearded Charles Miller, and the name sounds vaguely familiar from some place. Charles Miller married another wife in Utah, which was no big thing for Mormon’s of course. But we are descended from Charles and Anne Miller through their son, John Dutton Miller. And there were photos of John as a small boy. But how did the last name get changed anyhow? How come Charles Dutton isn’t also a Miller? To complicate things further of course as you know we have a half first cousin, Anne Miller, who was the mother of those three little girls, and the last time we saw them was in Chatsworth on December 31st 1966, which was my birthday, of course. I remember that day because one of the kids had a walkie-talkie set up and me and Pete were roaming the streets of that Chatsworth tract talking to each other. I thought that Nana said that these girls were 12, 9, and 6 from a card she got. But that was a card from a later Christmas and the girls weren’t that old when we saw them. Of course Bonnie Jean is the youngest daughter and she would be my half 2nd cousin. We learned of her birth at that Labor Day 1963 barbecue in Uncle Bob’s back yard of his house in Riverside- - where he seemed to not spend much time, as I recall. And of course they [Bonnie Jean and husband] would occasionally visit Mom and Dad at their Laguna Hills house, but the last time I saw Anne Miller was that December 1966 Chatsworth visit. I’m a little confused because is there like any endogamy going on- - like someone’s family tree didn’t fork, or is it a complete coincidence. Uncle Bob did nothing to clear up the confusion. Of course Bonnie Jean has a husband and teenage kids of her own and her last name is Beuwer or something like that now. This is taking a whole lot more space than I thought. Anyhow Charles Dutton was born in 1876, which makes him ancient to have a grandfather that old. There was preserved his first job application he wrote at age 13, which is kind of a “pristine bullet” type document so well preserved it’s suspicious. I mean, I’ve seen my old report cards from grade school in my baby book and this thing was in emaculate condition. [name] remarked on how neat the penmanship was “for a boy”. I wouldn’t give it any calligraphy awards. Of course in those days thirteen meant the end of grammar school. But it was a white collar job he applied for and got. So Charles was a regular “Dario Hernandez”. Anyhow he married Elizabeth Massy or Massek or something in 1898. Here is where the Math gets a little tricky. First of all it’s good to know her first and last name after all these years other than just as Charles Dutton’s first wife. We kind of skip to around World War I. Charles and Nana were either dating or just gotten married and Charlie got drafted for WW I or something and was shipped to a HQ in the South, like Mobile or some place, and Nana came and visited him there. But Charles didn’t like the way the commissioned officers treated the lower ranks. Charles also wrote in a letter that “government censorship of information is not necessary. The people themselves should be allowed to decide for themselves”. Of course the key date in this soon to be sad saga is November 24th 1924. Dad would not yet have been one year old. Cue up the Temptations song, “It was the 24th of November – a date I’ll always remember”. This date has the two 24's in it and it's also the "historic" date that Jesus was actually crucified, according to one source [extensive material deleted here] I did forget to mention that there were pictures of Nana and Ruth and Irene, and some of Charlie Jr. - - and of course I’ve met Ruth and Irene but I never met Charlie his entire life and I remember Dad announcing he had died. There was a photograph of Charles Jr. at age 15 or so, and [name] thought it was the Senior but I knew it was a different person, and it was. He had blondish hair. Anyhow Daisy was not in any of the photos, at least that were there. She was the youngest of the four Charles Dutton siblings. [name] remarked that Nana looked the same age as Ruth and Irene. Actually she should be older. Nana once said that Daisy, the youngest daughter, was eight or nine years younger than she was. I’ve got a bit of a problem with the Math here because Nana was a small child in 1898 when Charles married Elizabeth. So the other siblings would be older than Daisy so there is somewhat of a problem of having all four siblings born after 1898. Just to refresh [name]l’s memory, I saw Irene and Dairy regularly as a small child and up through the summer of 1957 they were a regular holiday feature when they could make it. But both women lost their husbands in 1958. [back to narritive] Of course then in the year 1938 when Dad and Uncle Bob were teenagers, there was some kind of a bequest of money to all six Charles Dutton children of two thousand dollars to each child. I’m not entirely sure of the precipitating event of this bequest of money. Anyhow Uncle Bob bought a new car with his money AND had his teeth straightened, and also did other things with his money. Two thousand dollars went a long way in 1938. There were other relatives discussed I haven’t mentioned here. Of course Emily Babb was Nana’s mother and she was born in 1856. I knew that from an old family Bible.
Let’s talk about the rest of the visit, for heaven’s sake. As you know [name] said he would call - - and 3:25 rolled around and I figured I should change into those kaki slacks to be more presentable. Paul eventually called. He and Judy eventually showed up about a quarter to four. Judy talked extensively about her work and problems she is having with the government and a troublesome neighbor, who quite possibly is mentally ill, who says Disneyland is sending out people to spy on him from the trees. But he apparently ratted to the government about certain stuff. Judy talked about how screwed up the Post Office is as to delivering packages. We talked about politics and I decided not to be combative under the circumstances. I was surprised how quickly we got to the freeway off-ramp to Mom’s. Mom met us in the lobby and we signed in. People were already congregating in the dining room at 4:30 though it was way early. We went to her room and settled in for a period. She said she’s glad she isn’t on the first floor because there would be more foot traffic past her window. Judy had printed up that story about my coffee business and possible government hassles I would face, were they so inclined. OK I’ll vote for Ron Paul next year. We got a corner table in the dining room by the front window seated at a square rather than round table, the four of us. We got a menu and I had the barbecue chicken sandwich and a baked potato and had split peak soup, which was really good. And yes, I do like to pepper my soups up as a rule. Though at my apartment the number one embellish to my soups by volume was oregano. I had cherry pie for desert. None of us went to the salad bar, which is a definite break with precedent here. I wasn’t sure it was included any more. I was a little hungry but Mom gave me her extensive spinach. And I also had about half of her “spelini” ice cream. I guess this is a popular Italian combination of chocolate, pistachio and raspberry or something. I only got the one cup of coffee with no refills. There was also about a half an orange included.
Back to her room we took the elevator this time and there was a lot of delay and I almost used the stairs again. Mom still likes to use the stairs and Judy called them “Mom’s stairs” because nobody else goes that way. Don’t tell any of the drug dealers in town. But Mom is increasingly unsteady and it probably would be wise to have someone with her. Although Mom seemed to have some kind of an arthritic hip problem by the way she was walking. I went and selected a picture calendar for next year, although I anticipate returning there before the year is out. She showed us a picture of herself at age at fifteen I was quite familiar with. We were kind of wrapping up the whole family history bit a little after eight but then the next hour or so was spent in the pills crisis. We turned on Mom’s computer and Mom is getting better at it though she’s never going to feel comfortable on computer. There were all these blood pressure medications. She’s stuck with Atenelol all these years. I took that for maybe six weeks in the latter summer of 1999 and it wierded out my personality and made me depressed and moody. Of course I hear the same people who market Atenelol also make Noodle Roni, so that explains a lot. (Hey folks, that’s a joke) There was talk about carbohydrates during dinner and Judy said they are much more of a dietary problem than fats are and maybe Mom ought to lay off the cold cereal and have bacon and eggs instead. Interesting. Anyhow Mom was confused about taking 25 or 50 mg of the drug Kozar, which Judy said damages the heart muscle. And the doctor got confused and put her on a third drug. My Mom’s blood pressure readings are not as bad as when I was on alcohol, but not good. They would range from the 140’s to the low 160’s with the average in the low 150's with the low reading at 85. I wanted to leave because I didn’t tell Donnie I’d be out and I was getting tired anyhow. [name] suggested it was I was having a nicotine fit. Well, that was part of it. But we never resolved whether Mom was taking 25 mg or perhaps 75 mg of Kozar if she was taking both colored pills. The clock said eight after nine at the reception desk where we signed out. My watch said ten after. Judy spoke of the dangers of “poly pharmacy” on the way home. Oh - - Nana used to refer to her husband as “Henry”. That’s different. I told Judy I had never seen Mom that mentally fuzzy and she admitted to having periods of mental confusion or “senior moments”. She had some bananas she wanted to get rid of. We got off at Katella and took the Disneyland rout home, as is our custom. When we got here it was coming up on ten to ten. It was an informative evening.
I’m typing this after lunch now and let’s wrap this up soon. Then I can figure out what to edit out when I post this. Ah yes- - I’m going to let Dick Chaney proofread this first. Anyhow all five cigarettes were still in the pants pocket. I had two more last evening. I was talking to Marsha about these social networks people are expected to be on now on computer. I told her there was facebook, and twitter, and now Google plus, which I could get on for free since I have a Google account, I imagine. I told her I really had no interest in social networking and people hacking my account and stealing my pass word, though that could happen now. I told her that people post all kinds of things about themselves like old high school photos and their whole life history but I really wasn’t into doing that. Bill was still up and watching TV at ten to ten which surprised me. He said “Donnie has already been around with medication”. I don’t think Bill had any idea of how late it actually was. I met Donnie down stairs and he was a good sport as always. I told him I had absolutely no idea that I would be in anywhere near this late.
There is a whole bunch more stuff I was going to throw in but we don’t need to flesh anything out. There is ample material besides the embellishments would only prove unnecessary and worse, confusing. It’s still overcast. The past days have been the coolest, most overcast days here in a long time. Mom mentioned my getting an eye examination and I mentioned a lot of people lately had made reference to getting eye exams making me wonder whether they might have reinstated the program. We are on page - - well just turned seven - - and I’m going to include other stuff from yesterday and this morning in this file. I weighed myself on her scale and came off seven pounds light. Her scale runs light anyhow. But I’ve had these bouts of flu or whatever and I think more coffee increases my matabelism. I asked Loretta if she’d heard of John Miller in the Mormon church and she hadn’t. I just thought he was someone famous.
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