Weekend News

Eating Scottish lamb pies these days. My grandson Leif needs to have surgery removing his tonsils and adenoids on Monday. Aidan, Dylan and I will go his soccer game Sunday night.

KQED retirement party will be on Monday, November 18. Looking forward to seeing old friends.

My BP remains very low. Home health care people come by often.

-30-

Lights of My Life

The best part of growing old and being sick is when you get the chance you just tell people the truth. After all, there is nothing else to tell.

I have many lights in my life.

-30-

Alice's Restaurant

One of the strange and wonderful things about my life was going to Alice's Restaurant in Woodside on the peninsula. Arlo Guthrie, they told me, lived just up the rode and sometimes came there.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57gzA2JCcM

Political Aches and Other Pains

Most friends I talk with think things are going to get worse in this country before they get better. That we have an obviously corrupt President is awful, but we do.

I can't imagine what retired people who don't care about politics do all day. I guess they play cards or golf -- both great activities that don't happen to appeal to me. I watch CNN and follow the news through the online editions of our greatest newspapers,

Trump will be impeached. Does anyone care?

***

I've become an expert on falls. What you hurt when you fall doesn't become clear until a few days later. Tonight (it's past midnight here), I realized that during my latest fall I wrenched my right shoulder. I fell asleep early and woke up due to this new pain. I can barely lift that arm.

Now I'll stay up for a while and contemplate our latest political aches. I'm trying to imagine how anyone can defend Trump based on facts. The reality that I have spent half a century discerning the difference between fact and fiction leaves me feeling powerless about my profession's impact.

Look, I get why white people feel anxious about how the country is changing demographically. But unlike many white people, I know many non-white people. There is no pattern between goodness and badness by race or color or creed.

My shoulder hurts because I fell. My head hurts because I think. My heart hurts for our fate as a nation unless we can shed our racism and come together.

-30-

Boring Health Stuff

I fell last night and cut my right arm.

A home nurse came today. He has three kids, two boys and a girl. They like to play soccer. He comes from Nigeria. He took my blood pressure over and over -- it kept registering too low: 80/50.

I'm not sure what to do about that. I take BP meds -- maybe I should cut back?

He said he'll come back Friday. Hopefully my BP will be better by then.

-30-

Electoral Nightmare Scenario

From the Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-nightmare-scenario-for-2020-a-tie-that-cant-be-broken-its-conceivable/2019/10/28/38879e20-f9a6-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html

I read the Post and the Times every day. In that way, I'm sure I'm old-fashioned.

This story presents a fascinating scenario -- an electoral tie in 2020. The Supreme Court needs to rule in two cases before then to prevent this from occurring.

***
My sweet daughter Sarah Daisy visited my yesterday afternoon.

We cried a lot, reviewing our lives. She is divorcing her husband, Larry. She is taking her three beautiful boys to visit Laila and family in France for Thanksgiving. James (12), Leif (10) and Oliver (8) are wonderful grandchildren. So polite and well-brought-up.

The kind of boys with the potential to make great men. Thanks to their Mom.


-30-

Re-imagining a Life

The problem with trying to write a memoir is you go over everything in the past yet again, good or bad. In my case, some of this is painful. I've never fully faced the anxiety that has dogged me for decades and never discussed before except with a therapist.

Remembering can be scary because it is reliving traumas.

But then comes the good part -- imagining the life I might have had. To start, I have had a wonderful life. The big picture is beautiful: six kids, seven grandchildren, two ex-wives and lots of friends. I helped produce lots of good stories and mentored many younger people.

I could have done more -- that is the issue. I could have done more. Much more.

-30-

-30-

Special Birthday!

My youngest, Julia, is 21 today! Now all my children are adults...I left her a v.m. and hope she has a lovely day. She has always been sweet, smart and beautiful. And very kind.

Additionally from an early age, she wouldn't let us dress her. She had her own sense of style by 3, such as mis-matching socks, which eventually caught on at school.

She also proved adept at solving disputes among her friends, such as triangles among girlfriends.

As a soccer player she had a nickname -- "Thunderfoot." Man could she launch the ball.

Julia is modest. I think she under-estimates her gifts as an artist and an athlete. Her time at Oxbow boarding school at age 16 helped cement her skills as a visual artist. I have three of her pieces in my apartment, They give me great joy.

This summer, given my illnesses, she was so sweet and helpful. She started talking with me again, after the difficult teen years. I love her voice, in all senses of that word.

I love you, Julia Matthiessen Weir!

-30-