Tag: Lydia

Pinterest and other things

When the Mets had an 11-game winning streak, I had to root for them.

LPG artI finally found a use for Pinterest. I’ve had an account for a while. People follow my Pinterest page, but I don’t know why, because there was literally nothing there, since I didn’t know what to do with it.

I’ve seen other people put what seemed to me to be random photos, irrespective of things such as copyright or context.

Then I realized that I can never find pictures my sister posts on Facebook, that my eldest niece, Rebecca Jade, gets lots of pictures taken of her, and that the Daughter is starting to experiment with the camera (it’s her piece on this page).

Maybe I should have put them on Instagram, which I don’t have, and don’t have the inclination to learn at this time; or some other platform, such as the “cloud”, which has burned me before with music I had, but lost.

I’m not going to make a great retrospective effort, but I’ll use Pinterest as time and inspiration allow.

Also

Someone asked what to do to help the folks in Nepal after the massive earthquake: this article has some suggestions.

There are now eight music videos posted on YouTube from First Presbyterian Church in Albany, seven from various First Friday performances, and one from a recent worship service.

I was a Yankees fan from way back, but when the Bronx Bombers were going to play the New York Mets in the Subway Series, and the Mets had an 11-game winning streak, I had to root for them. They lost but rebounded the next day.

Flipping through the channels, I caught part of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Here’s President Obama and Cecily Strong, from Saturday Night Live.

I saw the end of an episode of the ABC-TV show Grey’s Anatomy, and I figured McDreamy would buy the farm the next episode. Then he did. The fan base is all upset, but the show has done such egregious crap before (the shootings in the hospital, the plane crash)… whatever.

This coming Sunday, MeTV is airing the MASH finale, along with new interviews with members of the cast and production team. Like half the US, I watched it. I found it lugubrious and overlong, and I haven’t seen it since. I’m thinking about watching it again for the first time in over 30 years.

I probably need to do a lot more short posts like this, for time reasons. I’ve had posts I want to write, but have not had the opportunity.

The Lydster, Part 133: In someone else’s blog

When the project was just getting started, Lydia would scour the neighborhood to find bottles and cans to bring to school.

TanzaniaWaterCatchment_girlbucket_lgOn Saturday, March 14, I briefly went to this pancake breakfast, but I had an all-day meeting involving the Albany Public Library to attend, so I needed to leave.

Later, I discovered that my wife and daughter had been interviewed that morning by a College of Saint Rose student named Molly-Kate Webster for a blog in the Times Union.

I found this all mildly amusing because I too have a blog for the TU and I almost NEVER mention them there, mostly out of a sense of their privacy.

Anyway, the story ran a couple of days later in the Pine Hills blog.

A pancake breakfast and garage sale to raise money to build a well in Tanzania, Africa took place Saturday morning at the Pine Hills Elementary School…

Students who began the project came out to support the pancake breakfast. Fifth grader Lydia Green said that she was the first group to work on the well project. Back then the community didn’t know as much as they know now and they are excited about where it is going.

“It is pretty amazing that little kids could raise this much money,” said Carol Green, Lydia’s mom. They enjoyed hot pancakes and Lydia even picked up a play horse from the garage sale.

When the project was just getting started Lydia scoured the neighborhood to find bottles and cans to bring to school, her mom said. If students brought in 10 bottles and cans they received a homework pass. The project teaches kids to learn more about others, she said.

Now, I DID write about the Daughter vigorously collecting bottles last year. But I was not aware of the Tanzania well angle. This puts the homework tradeoff in a whole new light.

Oh, and she really loved that horse, washing, then brushing her mane in the week after she bought it. (It IS a she horse, I am told.)

The Lydster, Part 132

She gets a thrill when she gets a question right on JEOPARDY!

Lydia.NYCThis is probably true: the Daughter will be taller than her mother, and quite likely, her father. She’s about 5 feet, 4 inches tall, which is about 1.6 meters.

She is generous of spirit, contributing her money to causes, especially those involving dogs and cats.

She relishes being helpful. She teaches me about current music, even as I share with her the Beatles and Motown.

She is quite good in math, instinctively, though the showing of the work, especially with those bar charts, is tedious for both of us.

She LOVES reading, but some of her “compare and contrast” writing assignments suck the joy out of it.

She gets a thrill when she gets a question right on JEOPARDY!, and at least once she got an answer that none of the three contestants could come up with.

She probably watches the news too much, though I was the same at her age. (But the news didn’t seem so grim then: Cold War and racial tension, whereas now it’s terrorism and ethnic tension.)

She went to two funerals this year, one for a person she cared deeply for.

She still likes it when her mother and/or I watch the scary parts of the movies with her, e.g., in Brave, when the mama bear was in peril.

She still loves her papa, and he’ll always love her.

The Lydster, Part 130: Bonnie Deschane

The night before Bonnie’s death, The Daughter was crying, had trouble going to sleep,

heart-in-handsAbout ten years ago, The Wife met this woman named Bonnie. She worked at a B&B just a block from our home and also was employed at a Bruegger’s Bagels.

She was looking to make some extra money and wanted to know if The Wife knew anyone looking for someone to do some house cleaning. Since we had had a new baby and were still in that always-tired state, my bride engaged her to come to our house once every week or two. Eventually, we all became friends.

Four or five years ago, she had a bout with, I believe, emphysema, and we visited her in the hospital. The good result of that event was that she quit smoking.

Bonnie called at least once a week, and we probably saw her at least twice a month, going out to eat at Friendly’s restaurant or some diner. She was a classic Luddite, and never did get to really do much with the computer.

She had a massive coronary “event” on January 13, and died the next day at the age of 68.

Bonnie was the first person The Daughter really knew who died. She had met my mother, but that was from a series of infrequent visits, many of which she no longer remembers. But she related to Bonnie quite well, appreciating how she would say “Good morning, Carol, Roger, and Lydia” when she left messages on our phone.

In fact, the night before Bonnie’s death, The Daughter was crying, had trouble going to sleep, and woke up about 4 a.m.

That makes THREE people I knew personally who had died in the first TWO WEEKS of 2015.

The Lydster, Part 129: I Don’t Like Reggae

It went to #1 in the UK, but only to #44 in the US in 1978.

dreadlockholidayThis will surely shock some of you, but one day, I was singing a tune while sitting at the computer that just popped into my head. I couldn’t even really remember it, except for a chorus: “I don’t like reggae (oh, no), I love it (ooo yeah.)” Don’t own the recording, couldn’t even remember who performed it, and I may have misremembered the lyrics.

As it turns out, the song was called Dreadlock Holiday by a UK group called 10cc, which, in an earlier incarnation was the king of bubblegum music. The song has an interesting back story. It went to #1 in the UK, but only to #44 in the US in 1978. LISTEN HERE.

Though she has, to this day, heard no iteration of the song, save for mine, the Daughter started using it, plugging in all sorts of people and creatures:
“I don’t like Papa (oh, no), I love him (ooo yeah.)”
“I don’t like Mama (oh, no), I love her (ooo yeah.)”
She puts in the cats’ names, or her friends’, or even sports, like soccer, appropriate, since the original song mentions cricket.

The Wife suggests that the Daughter is becoming more and more like her (The Daughter’s) father. I could deny it, but it would be pointless.

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