Yes, that’s for all you fiends who love Les Mis as much as I do.

The A-Team, navigating Mt. Everest

Once in a while, I get to see all four grandsons in one weekend. With my kids’ schedules, it doesn’t happen very often. But this time, the planets aligned and the A-Team spent some time with us on Thursday and Friday. It was divine. We played with cars and trucks, went to the park, rode some trikes, and had races up and down “Grammie’s big hill” in the back yard. It was a great couple of days. Funny how a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old can revive the young in an old hag. I loved it.

The dads and the Js

On Sunday, Mavis and I started the day with our weekly Bob Evans klatch. Then Lars brought the A-Team and joined us for lunch at our place. After taking dogs to the park and relaxing in the afternoon, we met Seamus and his family at the park for ice cream and conversation with the Js. While we ate and the Thriller played with Justin, I realized how special the weekend was, and in spite of how I’ve complained and harangued about the annus horribilis at school this past year, I am extremely fortunate to have my family near me.

I got nothing to complain about.

I hope all your Fathers Day celebrations were fun. Did you get together, or just relax at home? And the Indians won, too — how about that? (So did the Cubs, RD, I know…)

Today is a micro-mini-odyssey. We’re driving two hours to West Virginia (across the Newell Bridge, where you can see right through the surface to the Ohio River below, icky) to visit the Homer Laughlin China Company, where I will spend a glorious morning in the Seconds Room, choosing some lovely Fiestaware pieces, while the Thriller plays the dutiful beast of burden, hauling stuff to the car for me and waiting patiently (or not) for the second part of our day — the casino. Many many thanks to Mavis and her family for watching Pax and Remy for the day. Won’t they have fun…

All right, coffee’s done. Time to hit the “country road” to WV. Photos tomorrow. Ciao!

And it’s not just because the Thriller surprised me with new Fiestaware this week (int he fantastic?).

Rather, it’s on account of my buying a cheapy record player, and revisiting my childhood this morning by playing what could be the defining collection of music from my growing up years: A Treasury of Christmas, bought by my mom around 1970, as a member of the old Columbia Record Club. Long since lost to the garage sale or the dustbin, I repurchased it on eBay several years ago from a vintage vinyl store, and put it away in hopes of transferring it to CD one day. I was happy to get it back out for a test drive.

I put LP #3 on the turntable this morning over coffee, and from the second I heard the intro to The Christmas Song, sung by Johnny Mathis (his interpretation and phrasing on this 1958 classic is an absolute masterpiece; my favorite rendition of all time), I was transported back to 1974, lying on the living room carpet in front of my parents’ massive stereo (it looked a lot like this), singing along and learning every lyric and turn of phrase. His version is truly one of a kind:

As I sat listening, an enormous sense of nostalgia and reminiscence flooded into the headphones. Almost a melancholy of sorts; so many great memories of Christmastime in my family, mostly from the late 60s-early 70s. It was wonderful to relive them. And of course, I sat and bawled. How I wish Mother and Dad were here so I could share these memories with them.

Christmas in June: a beautiful way to start the day. Here’s hoping the Cavs can finish the evening in the same fashion…

(As if I needed one.)

This morning, I bought a Jensen JTA-230. What’s that, you ask? It’s this. And everything old is new again…

Let the restocking process begin! Why on earth did I ever get rid of all those old albums and 45s? Mavis, the collection we once had, oh my…remember that? Ah, well. The good part is that I have a pretty much infinite birthday and Christmas list for the Thriller, which should make him happy. Let’s get started, son.

As I told David in a comment this morning, I have restarted reading The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino, which I’d last read in its entirety in probably 1976 or so. Its famous scrolls chapters are inspiring me to shake the hatred and cruelty that surrounds me in the news and on social media, and to focus instead on improving myself in order to be a positive influence on others. Too easy to sit around and complain, when in fact we might be happier — and even live longer — if we develop the habit of seeking and bringing joy. I aspire to that.

It’s party day for Mr. A! Hard to believe #3 grandson turns #3 on Monday. He’s such a big boy, talking like a magpie and doing big boy things like yard work and caring for his little brother and playing with trucks and cars. I love being Grammie.

Happy weekend, fiends!

Because you’re all dying to know what I’ve been doing, ja?

Well, don’t you know, I woke up at the butt crack of dawn, just like normal. Do you do that when you take a vacation, or do you automatically switch off the internal alarm and sleep in? And for the pensioners among us: Is your sleep time the same as it was for all those years of being on the work clock?

First thing I did was rejoice that I didn’t have to get dress clothes out of the closet and run for the shower, the coffee maker, and the road. After that, I lounged in the bed a bit longer, reading news on my phone. Then I got up and put some laundry in, talked on a chat with some teacher friends, made the coffee, read some stuff that supremely honked me off (I gotta quit that), mixed up some banana bread from the too-ripe-to-enjoy-naked fruit on the counter top, and sat down to write to you. And now it’s 9:45……….what to do now, what to do now….

These are the kind of mornings I could get used to. Well, until I went stir crazy from teenage attitude withdrawal.

Daughter-in-law Hannah is having some minor surgery this afternoon, so I will go sit at the hospital with her mom and Seamus, then head off to the toy store for some fun shopping for Mr. A’s third birthday party on Saturday. This evening, we’ll take Pax & Remy to the park for a workout, after which I will call it a night with writing to Kay, followed by some mindless tube watching.

And I resolve for the rest of the day to avoid reading things on social media that make me want to hunt down that Louisville Slugger.

Happy Wednesday, fiends — and that’s likely all you’ll get in that vein, as the time has now come for me to completely forget what day it is.

*Don’t worry, I don’t plan to do a day-by-day play-by-play. Although I thought about it…

So. The Thriller and I — against our better judgment because we have a ton of home improvement projects to finance — need to get away this summer. Since we’re all up in the air regarding a trip to Europe (tentatively scheduled for next summer, but…), we’d like to take a one-week road trip someplace, but we can’t figure out where.

Originally, we thought about Mackinac Island. You know, stay in the Grand Hotel, see the beautiful grounds. But then…meh. I dunno.

We briefly talked about Yosemite, because strangely enough, on both of our western US odysseys, we never went there. We just weren’t in the right place at the right time, so we couldn’t squeeze it in. And of course, if we go west to northern California, we would stop in and see Kay & Bob. But we’re still not sure how the summer’s going to shake out.

So tell me: where would you go if you could take a road trip right now? What’s interesting to see? We’ve been to the 48 contiguous, but certainly haven’t seen anything approaching “everything.”

We’re not beach people, although we love to visit beachy areas where there’s other stuff to do.

Any suggestions? We’re open. And have I told you we’re down to nine (9) school days left?