This Post Is Much Too Long

This entry was generated over three months' time, but I tried to keep the narrative chronological.

June 15, 2016

When I talked to my sister Kittie this week, she commented that I hadn't made a blog entry since March. Part of the reason is there wasn't much happening. Part of it was my lack of motivation to write.

I went to the auditions for "Billy Elliot," sang and danced and did not get cast. I wasn't miffed, as acting is not my forte. I tried out in the first place because, in my experience, casting adequate males, especially in a musical, can be difficult. I was offering myself up in case they needed male bodies on stage.

Natalie and Uncle Pete at
Cameron Park Farmer's Market

One of the things that spring brought was an opportunity to open the windows and air out the house. When I did, cat hair and dust bunnies emerged from every crack, corner and crevice in the place. The downstairs vacuum was out of bags, and they're impossible to find. A1 Vacuums over by Papa Murphy's Pizza did have them, so I dropped in. After some conversation, I had purchased six bags for the vacuum and also a Dyson cordless.

The Dyson is amazing; about the size and weight of a can of coffee but with the suction of a full-sized vacuum and motorized heads for bare floors, carpet and one just for stairs. I actually use the thing quite a lot. The only downside is that it only holds a charge for 15-20 minutes, then it needs at least three hours to fully recharge. But doing the floors, or the stairs, or the upholstery each takes well under 10 minutes, and I have the canister (with the bags) as a backup.

The family gathers for Natalie's sixth birthday

Mark, who took care of snow removal in the winter, is now taking care of the yard for me. His only fault is that he doesn't invoice me. I had to ask for one, and he'd racked up a couple months of mowing, so I owed him $245. The yard looks really great, though, and he has a handle on eradicating the weeds, so I'm happy.

I've been trolling the want ads and Craig's List, looking for a part-time job and a table for the kitchen. One job advertised (image prep for a yearbook publisher) was through Manpower, so that meant going down and filling out lots of paperwork, watching a half-hour video on what chemicals you shouldn't drink and how to pick up boxes.

Me, Steve, Pam at free
summer concert in the park

They wanted to test my computer skills, but they had no tests for Adobe products, so we saved some time there. Never heard anything back, as was the case for the few resumes I've sent out previously. I'm assuming I'm too old or over-experienced in most employers' eyes.

Just this week there was an ad on Craig's List for a part-time office assistant in an "arts association." I e-mailed a cover letter and resume Friday of last week, so if I hear anything, it should be in the next week or so. And I'm still looking for that table.

I vowed that I would keep all aspects of the presidential election out of these pages. It's so bizarre that it really deserves its own blog, and there are millions of people on Facebook and Twitter putting in their two cents, and I just can't compete with the information and entertainment value there.

But I just had to share this:

August 30-September 11, 2016

I started a post back in June and forgot about it. I just returned from the family reunion in California and I've promised everyone a blog post, so here goes.

To pick things up in July, the weather has been much muggier and hotter than last summer, even the locals have said so.

Back in June things got warm enough that I stopped using the furnace. A day or two before that, I had turned it on and heard a grinding noise. There was a good six weeks before things heated up enough to think about using air conditioning, so I didn't worry about getting the system fixed.

The first weekend when it was going to hit the 90s (and humid), I thought I'd better get someone out here to look at the furnace and let me know if the AC would work on its own. The folks at Bagniefski HVAC sent over the same guy who replaced the dehumidifier pump last summer.

This year's PRiDE poster

He checked things out and said the furnace part would be about $700. He also pointed out that the system was almost 20 years old and due for replacement. I had known this when I bought the house, so I told them to put together a quote for replacing both the AC and furnace. I was pleased to find out it would be under $5,000. So I told them to go ahead and replace it.

Also in June, I gave up finding chairs for the living room anywhere locally and went online to find something I liked that was affordable. I did find the chairs I wanted that were the right scale for the room. They arrived, and I had a fun week figuring out how to put them together, since they arrived without instructions.

In early July, I got a reply from the part-time administrative assistant position. The art association turned out to be the Pump House, our regional art center here in La Crosse. I had a phone interview with Toni, the director of the center. I think it went pretty well. She said they were still receiving applications and I would be contacted, whether I was picked for a second interview or not.

This year's drag poster

Also in early July, I finally saw a doctor and got back on my blood pressure medication. I had gotten to the point where I was feeling like staying around for a while. It was time to put an end to mourning Steve, to leave Pasadena and California behind.  But damn, it's hard to get back into the habit of taking pills every morning.

The same day of seeing the doctor, I drove out to Ettrick and Steve, Pam, Emily and I drove up the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi, stopping along the way for some lunch. We got to Red Wing, which used to have a pottery outlet which included a Fiestaware store with all their current products available.

When we got there, the outlet was closed, along with the Fiestaware store. We had to make due with a quick look inside the local theater (beautiful architecture) and heading back home. I'm sure I could just jump online and order the dishes in a couple minutes, but the drive north was a lot more fun.

My birthday is in July (the 29th), and Pam, Steve and family gave me a surprise party by showing up at my house on the Sunday before. Steve and Pam had given me the birthday present of a table and chairs for outside, and this time they showed up with a small gas grille, brats to grill, and a chocolate ice cream cake that was unbelievably rich (there's still some in the freezer).

Kitchen table closed

Alesha and I met for a newsletter meeting at the Center the next day. Alesha is one of two people temporarily replacing Jackson, who resigned as director of the Center in June. She let me know that Alli, who had up until then been editing the newsletter, was going to put together this next issue and then would resign.

Also on the agenda was putting together posters for La Crosse PRiDE and the annual "So You Think You Can Drag" fundraiser. (Most Pride celebrations happen in June, but for some reason the Center holds theirs in September.)

I did some preliminary designs for the posters and started putting the newsletter together once Alli got the copy and pix to me. All of this had to be out of my hair by mid-August so I would be unencumbered when I left for California and the family reunion, being held in Oceano this time.

Kitchen table open

That same week my search for a drop-leaf table for the kitchen was finally over. I found the perfect one on Craig's list. It was in a second-hand shop in Houston (across the river in Minnesota, about 20 miles away). With Steve's help (and his van), we went over and got the table. The woman said it was handmade by a man in Yucatan (not far from Houston). Solid walnut with beautiful grain, it has a couple scratches. It was my birthday gift to myself. With it, I think I'm done furnishing the downstairs.

On the week I was leaving for the family reunion, I sent an e-mail to Toni at the Pump House, letting her know that I would be out of town for a while (and hoping to get some kind of update about the job opening there). She e-mailed back, asking if I could come in for an interview that Friday. I said I would be on the road somewhere between San Francisco and Pismo Beach on Friday, but I would be happy to interview anytime after my Aug. 25 return.

Mechanic inspects plane

My itinerary was to leave La Crosse on Wednesday the 17th, fly into San Francisco and visit with my friend Kathy Shields for a day, then rent a car on Friday and drive down to Oceano for the reunion. And so I left for the La Crosse airport Wednesday morning, checked in, went through security and started to wait. And wait.

The plane arrived and was in the process of boarding when the airline announced that they had found mechanical problems; they were waiting for a mechanic to show up and check it out. So we waited. And waited. Finally, we were asked to go down to the check-in counter to reschedule our flights, since they had canceled this one. So 42 people (the flight was full) headed down and queued up for the unhappy process of rearranging their flights.

Sunset from the deck at our vacation house

It was soon obvious that there were no flights out until Friday. Everything was booked. They were offering to bus folks to Minneapolis the next day and flying them out of there. People were angry and a few were getting downright abusive. By the time I made it to the counter, the two women were getting frazzled. Not only were they having to tell people they weren't making their flights, they were also having to return each and every checked bag. It being a small airport, they had no crew in the back to help out, and they scurried from computer terminal to the back, searching for luggage.

As I approached the counter, the woman there had big, flustered eyes. I had been thinking about how to resolve my problem. It became quickly clear to me that I wasn't going to make it out in time to visit in San Francisco, so I was thinking of flying straight into San Luis Obispo airport, but that meant adding a third leg to my flight, and I didn't want to spend any more money. She looked up from her computer terminal, ready for another round of fending off customer outrage. Our eyes met. I smiled.

I leaned in and said, quietly, "I think you're doing a fabulous job," and her face relaxed and she smiled. "OK," I continued, "Here's what I think will work for me," and put forth my plan to fly out of La Crosse on Friday (two days hence) and connect with a flight into San Luis Obispo.

Having someone be pleasant about the situation (after all, it wasn't her fault), she dug down into the reservation system and put together a flight that would work for me, even though it meant getting to the airport at 5:30 a.m. No charge for the extra leg, and she threw in three meal vouchers to boot. She went back and got my bag, smiled and thanked me. I'm hoping I helped make her day a little more tolerable, perhaps providing an example of how to deal with adversity in corporate America.

Jessie and Mark in Oceano

When I got back home, I checked on Expedia for my new itinerary, and what I found there didn't make a whole lot of sense. The new flights were shown, but also a bunch of junk that didn't seem to relate at all, so I called the airline, got a customer rep and explained what was happening. Not only did she confirm the flight changes, she also removed the junk and built a return flight plan as well. She had to go to her help desk, and then they had to go to their help desk, but it all got cleaned up.

Also, Toni had e-mailed, asking for an interview with me the next day. I answered back, saying that, indeed, I would be able to make a 5:30 p.m. interview Thursday. We had a really good interview, she showed me around the facility, and I left feeling pretty good about it. The only thing that threw me was when we were going upstairs to the small theater space and she asked, "Are you OK with stairs?" like maybe I needed a walker. After nearly an hour and a half, I felt like I'd made a good impression.

And so onto my flight out West on Friday. I got into San Luis Obispo around 3:30, picked up my rental car and went to find the house we were sharing in Oceano. Now, Oceano is the only beach in California that allows motorized vehicles, It is a haven for RVs and ATV enthusiasts, and the various vehicles were lined up several blocks long when I arrived, blocking my access to the street our house was on. With a little help from Google maps, I found a back way into the warren of vacation rentals in which our house was situated and found the place.

Dolphin statue in Morro Bay

Jim, Carla and Chance had already arrived, and I was thirsty. There was nothing to drink in the house and, even though I was fairly worn out, I grabbed Kittie and we went to the store to stock up on drinks for 10. Steve drinks Pepsi, I was drinking Coke, the girls would want beer and I picked up sparkling water just to be healthy. We had dinner at the local Mexican restaurant.

Around 10:30 I headed back to SLO airport to pick up Steve, Pam, Amanda, Emily and Natalie and their bags. Kittie and David met me there, and we all headed back to Oceano. Back in the house, Amanda and Natalie, Emily and I were staying in the "kid's room." Jim and Carla were in the downstairs bedroom, Steve and Pam were in the master bedroom and Chance was staying in the garage.

Saturday was a hang-out-together day, punctuated only by a trip back to the airport so Steve could pick up a rental car (the agencies close at 10 p.m., so they couldn't pick one up when they arrived), coordinating plans on who was doing what the rest of the week. Also, my friend Jessie had come up to visit, and we spent most of the day together, mostly hanging at the house.

Jessie had gone on Air bnb and found a tipi for her accommodations. It took me a while to find the place, but it was a real throwback to the '60s, very much a hippie kind of place. The proprietors lived on several acres with other members of their family, and the owner had built the various accommodations himself. Being an artist (ceramics his specialty), he had created a spiral staircase out of old gears and tools, and the rooms made of found objects and old patchworked building materials. It was all wonderfully creative and quaint.

Steve at the Meadow Park

It was great spending a day with Jessie, catching up on all the things that don't make it into correspondence. When I dropped her off after the day, I told her the next day was a family picnic, and she didn't need to come if she didn't want to. She had planned to head back to Irvine anyway, so we said goodbye. It was great to see her again.

Sunday was, indeed, the family reunion picnic. Jim, Carla and Chance did not attend, but the rest of us headed to San Luis Obispo for the get together. Brother David and his family were meeting us at 1 p.m. at Meadow Park in SLO, and it was sort of pot luck.

Dave, Jaden and Steve

When we got there, Thomas, Dave and Alain's next-youngest son, was there with his girlfriend (a very attractive couple). They helped put up the shade structure while David and Kittie started up the fire. Having brought hot dogs, we did not know that Thomas and his girlfriend were vegetarians. Even so, they hiked over to a convenience store with Kittie to get some Match Start, since no one had brought any lighter fluid.

Around 2 o'clock, Dave, Alain, their daughter Kittie and youngest Jaden arrived with a load of really good food, most of which was vegetarian, thankfully. Really good pasta salad. Dynamite deviled eggs. The rest of the afternoon was visiting and catching up. I was walking from the barbecue area to the bathrooms and a thought washed over me and I smiled: Mom was very happy we'd all gotten together.

From left: Pam, Kittie, Thomas & girlfriend (rear),
Jaden & Kittie McD (front), Alain and David (rear) and Natalie

There were two other excursions (well, three) we took. On Tuesday we all headed out to Morro Bay to window shop and have lunch at the Galley, where Steve had a summer job many, many years ago. The food was really good and I found a really nice art glass bowl for the dining room. (Just because I'm finished furnishing the first floor doesn't mean I'm finished with the accessories.)

On Wednesday there were two excursions: the women went to Santa Barbara for the day and I headed up to Monterey to meet up with Kathy, since I hadn't been able to visit her due to the travel plans snafu. I arrived around noon and we met at the aquarium. There was a mix up in that she arrived earlier and bought me a ticket. I bought my own ticket before I knew, so she got a refund.

Steinbeck statue at Cannery Row

We walked down Cannery Row to Sly McFly's for a rather overcooked hamburger and walked around the waterfront before heading back to the aquarium. The last time I had been there, they had just opened their Jellyfish exhibit, and I wanted to see it in its final state.

There were lots of jellies! and there was a circular tank with a current with schooling fish (mackerels) and a million-gallon deep sea tank with huge sharks and tuna swimming to and from, disappearing into the distance.

The final stop was at the otter tank, trying to get some photos of the little guys just before their feeding time. They were romping around in anticipation of their meal, and it was almost impossible to get one in focus and not moving.

Jellies

It was really good to visit with Kathy again, and I was glad she was willing to meet me halfway. Monterey was a really great place to meet, since the next choice was Salinas or Greenfield or King City, none of which are really destinations.

I got back to Oceano around 7 that evening. I had to pack and be ready, since I had to get to the SLO airport before dawn to make my flight back. SLO to Phoenix, several hours of layover, Phoenix to O'Hare airport, several hours of layover, Chicago to La Crosse, getting in around 10 p.m.

Lots of jellies

The next day I had a second interview arranged at the Pump House, since the president of the board of directors hadn't been able to attend my first one. It was at 5:30 on Friday. It went well and I genuinely liked Ryan (the president), as we shared a passion for theater and, in particular, intimate performing spaces like the one on the second floor of the Pump House. They also let me know that they had had over 60 applications, and I had made the cut to the top four.

Otters and fish

Two days after arriving back from California, there was a get-together for Ettrick Days at Pam and Steve's place. Any of these occasions are overrun by Solbergs (Pam's side of the family), and usually the only place I ever interact with them.

Pam knew I was interested in getting a mature kitten in hopes of having a playmate for Patty. In July, I had tried to bring in a full-grown cat but Patty fled from her and she, in turn, cornered and attacked Patty. It was obvious to me that neither one wanted to share the house with the other. That lasted only one day and I returned her to the rescue couple who were trying to find her a permanent home.

Deep sea tank

So when Pam found a stray kitten in their garage, she offered her up as Patty's potential new friend. I met her (Gracie) at Ettrick Days and she was totally sweet. I had brought a carrier just in case, and that evening Gracie came home with me.

Gracie made herself right at home, and Patty hissed at her the first time they encountered one another. Patty reacted to Gracie's presence as she reacts to most new things: by hiding under the bed upstairs. In the meantime, Gracie found every lost ball and cat toy in the house (most of them under the couch, which she was small enough to crawl under).

Gracie and Mark

In the following week or so, Patty grew grudgingly accustomed to Gracie, even tentatively touching noses. But every time Gracie chased Patty, trying to play, Patty would turn on her at some point and hiss vehemently. Gracie just didn't understand.

And Patty became very aloof towards me, keeping to herself and not sitting with me. Every time she entered a room, she would scope it out, searching the nooks and crannies for where Gracie might be hiding. Meanwhile, Gracie had taken to climbing into the compartments of the entertainment center/TV stand, snuggling up to the warm cable box and unplugging various connections. It got a little irritating, having to pull out the whole setup and search every cable until I found what was unplugged and discovering where it should go.

On the Tuesday after Gracie arrived, I got an e-mail from Toni letting me know that they had offered the position to someone else. That was a letdown, to be sure, but after a little grousing, I replied, thanking her for considering me and saying I'd be interested in doing volunteer work, particularly related to the theater. She replied that Ryan had been running the theater space pretty much on his own, and that he would probably be interested in having me share some of the running duties (lights and sound) for the various productions they have come through the theater.

Riverside Park, the Mississippi at sunet

I contacted Ryan and he was very enthusiastic about getting me involved. Sometime in the next couple weekends we'll get together to familiarize me with the systems and perhaps schedule me to run some performances.

Now on to another travail: a few days before I left for California, the dryer decided to stop heating, so I called a guy, recommended, who does appliance repair. He showed up and took a day to find out what was going on. He did tell me that the machine was "amazingly clean," and that I shouldn't need to replace it for a long time.

He came back the next day with someone who "really knew about Maytags" and the two of them figured out the problem was "a part that never breaks" but it did. Phil (of Phil's appliance repair) found a replacement part and finished the repair that afternoon. It's so nice to have it back. It's also good to know, according to Phil, that "you're gonna have these machines forever." Now the water heater's the only appliance left to need replacing anytime soon.

Final concert of the summer

I had mentioned Gracie and Patty to Kathy in an e-mail, and she replied, relating her experience with an older cat and a kitten. She said when the kitten arrived, her cat did the same thing, and was a changed cat ever since, keeping pretty much to herself.

I thought about that and came to the realization that Patty didn't want to have a cat friend. She was plenty happy being the only cat in the house, and keeping Gracie around was only alienating her. So last Friday, I popped Gracie back into the carrier and returned her to Ettrick, where she was warmly welcomed by humans and dogs. The two cats already in residence are rather indifferent to her. Most important, Natalie loves playing with Gracie when she visits, and she's in Ettrick far more often than she's here visiting me, so she was happy to see Gracie's return.

When I came home that evening after returning Gracie, Patty had figured out that I had removed the interloper from the house, and she was affectionate and loving, though I had caught her once or twice checking in the corners, just to make sure there's no one there.

The day before Gracie's return, Steve, Pam and I went out to dinner at (ironically) Gracie's, a greek place near UW-L. Pasted in the front door were the two posters that I'd done for PRiDE and So You Think You Can Drag?! I pointed them out and I think Steve and Pam genuinely liked the work.

Mississippi River (left), Black River (center), La Crosse River (right)

After gyros, we went down to Riverside Park for the last installment of Moon Tunes, a free series of concerts in Riverside Park every Thursday during the summer. This one was R&B themed, and soon we were heading for the international gardens at the north end of the park. It's a series of gardens inspired by the various sister cities La Crosse has around the globe. They had expanded them since me last visit with two more gardens. The additions also included a nice sitting area right on the river, where the Black, La Crosse and Mississippi rivers conjoin. The sun was setting but I got a few usable images.

So that just about catches us up. The warm and humid days are starting to give way to cooler days and much cooler nights. I have caught one or two trees in town starting to turn to autumn colors, so we're counting weeks until things start to change. I'm feeling good that I replaced the furnace and I'm looking forward to seeing some savings on the heating bills this winter.

Heron statue, Pam and Steve

Another newsletter is on the horizon, and I have a feeling that I'll be editing as well as laying out this one. This weekend was PRiDE, so hopefully we will have a good recap of it and the drag show, which was moved from the Cavalier Theater downtown to a larger venue at the La Crosse Center, the town's convention facility. Then there's the Halloween Gala fundraiser in October, so I'm shooting for early November for the fall issue.

And I'm trolling the newspaper, Craig's list and other venues for part-time work again. I want to try and find something meaningful, and not just a job to fill some hours and make a little money. The Pump House gig would have filled the bill, but it obviously was not to be. Perhaps getting involved in running shows for them will create that connection that will find me meaningful employment.

And hopefully, there will be more posts here on a more frequent basis. It certainly would be better than taking several days' work processing all these photos and writing this never-ending narrative in lieu of more punctual posts.