Elliot’s Science Project

Last week my 11 year old neighbor boy Elliot asked me to help him with his science project. We did it today after school

Elliot

I baked the cake before he arrived so it would be cooled off.  We took turns rolling out the Fondant since it was so hard. He did the rest.  In case you are wondering, it is not modern art.  It is  a model of a plant cell.

The cake is Blue Velvet.  He loved the blue which proved my sister Dee Dee was right.  She said Elliot was too creative for a plain old white cake, that I better buy the Blue Velvet she saw at Giant Eagle.

My friend Connie Metro was concerned about how he would carry it to school. She suggested using the lid from one of the bankers boxes I brought my personal stuff home in when I retired.  So that is what we did.

I think Hilary Clinton said it takes a village to raise a child.  We are proof it takes at least 3 old ladies.

The cake is beautiful.  He will surely get an A on this science project.  We had a heck of a good time doing it.

Satire: 20th Century Style

This CWRU/Laura and Alvin Siegal Lifelong Learning course began on March 24th.  Three novels are being discussed: Brave New World by Huxley, A Clockwork Orange by Burgess and Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street.  The Lifelong Learning program is really extensive, offering numerous courses in locations throughout the Greater Cleveland area.  The Satire course is being offered on Mondays for 8 weeks at the Rocky River Public Library.

There are 9 students, 7 women and 2 men, 1 of the men is a retired executive of a company my first lawyer boss represented – what a small world that some one from a past life should be in that class. One man and 3 women of the 9 are 90+ years old.  At 76 I may be the youngest in the class.

First day the instructor asked us to go around the circle introducing ourselves and to include an interesting , little known fact about ourselves.  First was the 90+ year old man.  I know his age because he told us but that wasn’t his little known fact.  Years ago he had been in a little theater production with a famous movie star.  He described that experience building up to the reveal – the name of the famous movie star.  And OMG, he forgot the movie star’s name.  So he said “he was short and pudgy and had black hair” but those clues didn’t help.

The next woman – I think she is only 87 years old – introduced herself.  And in the middle of the third person’s speaking he raised his hand and said “Peter Lorre.”  Now you young readers probably are thinking “Peter who?”   Peter Lorre is probably most known for his part in the movie “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.”  He died shortly after his last movie “The Patsy” in 1964.

Over here in Cleveland our retired people just keep active and learning forever.  No sitting at home in a rocking chair.  These lovely people comb their hair, get dressed up and go to the library to discuss literature. That is how we roll in Cleveland.

If you don’t believe it, just ask Betty White.

Universe Speaks

I have been feeling pretty sorry for myself ever since I retired. I guess the universe got sick of it and said, “OK, if you insist on moping around, lets give you something to mope about.”

Last Wednesday, the day Ohioans will remember for its 2-mile truck and car pile up on the Ohio Turnpike, I had my own pile up.  While driving home from Rocky River on Detroit Road (OH Rt 254) for no apparent reason at all – no turning or braking or anything – my car spun out into on-coming traffic with two cars approaching.  I turned the steering wheel and luckily the car responded, went back into the right-hand lane, but jumped the curb and continued sliding sideways into a utility pole.

When the car came to rest wrapped around the pole, the pole was right outside the drivers side window.  If the door could have opened the pole would not have allowed it to open.  The glass in the window was gone but apparently it slid down into the door as there was no broken glass. I was just sitting there behind the wheel uninjured in total silence. No cars stopped and no one came to see if I was OK except for the woman who lived in the house.  She asked if I was OK and then reached in, took my hand and prayed to god, thanking him for sending a guardian angel to protect me. I am not a religious person but it was very sweet and comforting.

I used my cell phone to call Ralph and the Rocky River police and crawled over the console to get out of the car.  I was stiff and sore for a couple days but I swear my worst injury is a strained knee from getting my right leg over the console.

Insurance company confirmed today that my beautiful red Honda Prelude is totaled.

I want to thank all my friends for the messages expressing happiness that I didn’t get injured and condolences for the loss of my much loved car.

“I didn’t get dumb. I just retired.”

Several years ago shortly after my husband retired, he said those words to me.   I didn’t know what he was talking about or why he said that.  But now that I have retired myself, I know how he felt.  In one day’s time I become totally irrelevant.  Colleagues at work who claimed they didn’t know what they would do without my  participation figure it out pretty darned fast.  They don’t call with questions.  In fact they don’t call or email at all.

If it was just the work people it would maybe be understandable.  But it is not. It is everyone.

I happen to have a non-work relationship with former work colleagues. At those events they greet me  with words like, “It is nice to see you again” as though I were a dottering old aunt who came uninvited to Thanksgiving dinner.  Then they turn away to continue their conversation.  My input is not relevant.

I had lots of girlfriends.  One group is five women I have known since 5th grade.  We get together several times a year for lunch.  For years they were asking when I was going to retire so we could meet during the week instead of Saturdays.  When I announced my retirement date I expected them to be cheering but they were disappointed.  I think one of them commented that there would be no more stories about or souvenirs from business trips.  Now I am just ho hum. I don’t even have any illnesses to talk about.  How much more irrelevant could I be.

I used to drive myself downtown to work everyday and to most other places I needed to go.  Since I have retired my husband thinks I need to be driven everywhere.  If I say I am going to a store, by the time I come downstairs from putting on lipstick and getting my purse, he has his jacket on and his car keys in his hand, waiting to drive me there. And when I am at the cash register he rushes over to watch me pay.  I guess he thinks I got too dumb to handle my own money.

But the saddest is that my family used to be proud of my accomplishments.  I could hear it in their voices when they spoke to me or about me.  Now I don’t have any accomplishments for them to be proud of. I am the dottering old aunt who came uninvited to Thanksgiving dinner while my family rush about in their important lives. #

A couple months ago I had the opportunity to talk to a more successful blogger than me.  She has 2500 or maybe it was 25,000 readers where I have only 25.  She told me I needed to establish a theme and suggested that anything I thought or felt about retirement would be shared by other retirees.  And if I found a clever, humorous way to write about it, I would get more readers.  Well Stacy, I don’t like retirement and I don’t find anything humorous about it, so this is going to be hard to do.  But next Monday I am starting a Case Western Reserve/Siegal Lifelong Learning course on Satire.  Maybe I can learn how to be more clever and to write in a more humorous way.

See the Latest Movies with Ultimate Coziness

We went to see Monument Men this evening.  I really wanted to see it because my friend Mary and I had read Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World’s Most Coveted Masterpiece by Noah Charney last year at the Cleveland Museum of Art Art and Literature book club.  It was a fascinating book, as were some of the materials in the CMA library, including a voluminous list of art pieces that Hitler instructed his people to find.

But that is not what this blog is about.  It is about the renovations made to the theater and how difficult and humorous it was for two old retired dinosaurs to master the new stuff.

The add in the newspaper for the Westwood Town Center theater read: “Now you can see the latest movies with ultimate coziness.”  We know now that meant, “Dottie and Ralph, go to the Regal Cinema at Crocker Park.

The lobby and refreshment area had a totally different configuration.  Right by the door was a desk with a perky young lady sitting behind a computer.  I asked the ticket taker what that was about.  He said it was “Customer Service.”  If I had questions or needed something she was there to help.  Well, other than sell me the winning Power Ball ticket, I couldn’t imagine what she could do for me.

But that was just the beginning.

Aug. 26: My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday.  39 again.  Well, actually 39 again, and again, and again….  So many agains that it has made me kind of sad.

What was special about this birthday?

Fawn Back?

This afternoon I went into my backyard and saw a tiny fawn running along behind his mother in the backyard of the house around the corner.  Could it be the same fawn?

Two comments:  We live in an area that was subdivided into 300 ft. deep lots so there is a large open rectangular space of backyards.  There are many trees that obstruct view but no fences.  It is beautiful but very open.  And #2:   Maybe it is good to be retired.  Otherwise I would not be able to enjoy the natural phenomena.

Watermelon Rind Pickles

When I was a girl my stay-at-home mother made this delicacy every time we had watermelon.  I made it a couple times when Robin was young so she could have an opportunity to taste it but have not made it in decades.  Since this is “Life After the R Word” I didn’t throw away the rind from the watermelon we had this past weekend and used my free time this morning to make it.  Yum.  It is as good as I remembered.

For details and the recipe…

The Book Club’s 10-Year Anniversary

Our ten year anniversary was in March 2013.  I waited to make this post until I learned to display pictures by myself.  I had a one-to-one lesson on pictures and managed to insert the cover of our July 16 book.  See upcoming books.   But when I dragged the picture from the meeting, it was upside down, showed the legs of the table and no people.
I go for another lesson at the Apple store on Thursday so will try again.  Thanks for your patience.

Apr. 4, 1966 to Apr. 4, 2013 = 47 Years

Today would be my 47th anniversary at Jones Day if I had not retired on 12/31/2012.

I started at Jones Day as a legal secretary on April 4, 1966.   The Firm had two offices, one in Cleveland and one in Washington, DC and the Firm name was Jones, Day, Cockley and Reavis.  I was 28 years old and my daughter Robin was one month short of being 7.

When I retired I was 75 years old, had enjoyed 3 distinct careers at Jones Day, which then had about 2700 lawyers in 14 domestic and 18 international offices and I had worked under 5 Managing Partners – Jack Reavis, Alan Holmes, Dick Pogue, Pat McCartan and the current Managing Partner, Steve Brogan.