Andy

So Andy Williams has died.  He would do well to seek out my mother in the land of souls.  She was a terrific fan of his.  Unbeknown  to me at the time, I too was becoming a  fan of the crooner  (actually I should make crooner plural) albeit a closet crooner lover.

In the summer of 1961, shortly after the red measles disaster at 1514 12th Street, we acquired a STEREO system in our living room.  It was components, long before components were cool.  But my Dad was cool, so it was inevitable.

Guess who was  not satisfied?

I wanted one of those long console models, with graceful carvings over the fabric of the speakers and a sliding door on top to cover the turntable.  Or just a Hi Fi set up.   No,  we had dual three foot by two foot high speakers, big enough to have their own knickknack adornments on top.  The speakers could be strategically placed (and always were) for maximum sound quality.  Dad taught me, which didn't do much sooth me, that if the sound is accurate, you will hear it coming right smack dab at you.  These were pre-surround sound days.

Those speakers,  of premier quality,  were used in the living room until the household closed up shop for good in 2009.  Almost fifty years is a pretty good run.

Well the component system arrived and along with it about 100 albums of various artists. I do not know how that  huge pile of 33 1/3 RPM's  came into being.  Did my Dad just go wild one day at Deveu's Music Store or was it some package deal?  It even came with a two tiered storage rack.  Whether Andy Williams was in the original C pack I don't know, but he was soon crooning out his magical songs when Mom was doing her daily household work.  Itunes has the exact album for a mere $9.99.  I suppose the original platter is in Chicago with Tom, as are the speakers.

Those songs: Tonight, Three Coins in a Fountain, The Twelfth of Never, It Might As Well Be Spring, Moon River, Misty, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, If Ever I Would Leave You, Days of Wine and Roses, I've Grown Accustom To Your Face,  and the Christmas fave ~ It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, yours truly knows the words to all those songs.  I can even  play a few on the piano, with a  healthy smattering of mistakes.

I really did enjoy Andy and his life became even more acclaimed for me knowing he was in the Kennedy circle of friends.  Point  getter for this writer, a dedicated Kennedy watcher.  He sang Battle Hymn of the Republic at Bobby Kennedy's funeral.  I was glued to the TV set those long days in June of 1968.

Andy Williams, the  entertainer, had a part in my youth, but then so did Robert Goulet, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme, Bobby Darin and Mom's big pile of Longines Symphonette Albums.  I learned to love all their music, thanks to Evie and the components.

Rest in Peace Andy.

Post note: Hi Fi isn't in my spell check.  Am I that old?

The Glasses?

I am on Grandma duty with my little Mercedes for two night and three days (really only half days times two and one full day sandwiches between the sleeps).  The house caves, cooking escalates - only to satisfy a three year old, sorry Ron  and I get behind on my routine.  Now as the little princess sleeps I am catching up on what I missed on CBS This Morning.

None other than Penny Marshall, the lovable Laverne.

She has written a book about her life, though it isn't over as yet.  "My Mother Was Nuts," by Penny Marshall.  Yea, weren't they all at one time or another?  Or from the  viewpoint of my children, "Yes, there were and still are."

So the venerable TV queen turned director was on this morning to promote her tome.    But what is with the glasses?

I could only think it was  a clever way to disguise those wrinkly hunks of under the eye skin we have,  some more than others I may add (ME!).   It came across as so 70ish, something Janis Joplin would have done, and come to think of it, I think she did.

I love  the way Penny  has fluffed out.  My fluff is a direct result of alcohol infestation.  I am going to guess hers is too.  After all her mother was nuts, she has a book to prove it.   Now what is my excuse?

Red Laser

I just love technology.  And the more I use it, the more I love it.  Today I am embracing the iPhone.  Not the new iPhone 5 that all the world is raving about (they should be raving about the Apple stock price which went over $700.00 yesterday).  No, I'm raving about my two month old 4G and what it can do.

To set the stage of my excitement, yesterday I received my new rewards card, why I don't know.  It is the same as my old one and it certainly wasn't because I was wearing out the previous one.  I'm not really a CVS fan.  So  anyway the vendor gives me two options: put the card on a ring for easy use at the till OR scan it to my smart phone.

The last time I had a few rewards cards on a ring, the ring fell off with the cards, along with a cute Seattle Space Needle key chain; all lost forever.  So much for that plan.  It was time to move-on-up to the world of scanning.

I'm not exactly "new new" to the scanning arena as on my old Android phone, which I later liked about as much as CVS (more on that later),  I had an app with a scanner but it really wasn't much of a mover or shaker, needless to say  I seldom used it.  After the Droid was dropped and certain areas on the screen didn't work well, I didn't use it at all.

Fast forward to the land of iPhones and my new rewards card.  After reading the card "how to."  I knew I needed  a scanner on my phone in order to optain the bar code.   I click to the App Store  and the first one on the search was Red Laser - FREE!!! It had almost five stars behind it so I looked no further.  Download....

 This cool app will let me put all my rewards cards on my iphone.  How amazing is that?  And better yet, I get 30% off my entire bill the first time I use it.  Yes, I know I will have to go into CVS, but I can then figure out the next step: how to use the reward card in the store!!

Addendum: Why I don't like CVS.  I have gone in the store for a purchase of a sale item and guess what?  They are out of the product.    I once went in looking for Selma Hayek cosmetics  that were on sale.  The sale paper came out on Sunday, the very day I was in store, and the Hayek shelf was bare.  Just a little too suspect for me.  I don't want to be duped into a special stop so I have crossed them off the list...until I got my 30% reward offer.

Technology  saw me coming!

Back In My Groove

After a whirlwind summer, one thing after another, I am back in my office with every intention of  some consistent posting.  I repeatedly amazed myself, all summer long, with one excuse after another to refrain from writing.  I do have to concede:  the upstairs is not air-conditioned so my little nest often was a steam bath.

THE VIEW

Now it is the 18th of September and my office view is still green leaves, although a tour of the valley, as recent as yesterday, shows the gold is arriving.  The newspaper remarked it will be a weak showing of adornment, related to the drought, but it still will "color-up."


Twenty years ago today - on a Friday,  about this exact time- 10:00 in the morning,  I was sitting on the piano bench listening to Jim Sewick give devotions to the SVCC residents.  I looked out over the Mouse River valley and the trees were in full autumnal ornamentation.  It struck me at that moment, what a glorious area we live in.  Maybe the devotions were drumming home to me the splender of our world and our Creator always at work.


Quite a memory you ask?  Well, the secret to this retrospection is that on the 19th of September, 1992, my fourth son was born, Carsten Jacob Espeseth.  Tomorrow he will be twenty, leaving his teen years behind and entering the twenties.   The 18th of September I remember well.

Will I  remember forty years from now, September 18th?   I will be 98 and may still be coming up with excuses!