Mr. Roger's Kitchen

kitchen through the years - circa 2004 - the light blue era with oak

When I sprang the news on Paul that it was time to paint the kitchen he said, "Paint the kitchen? We just did that!" Yeah, like five years ago. My how time flies. I did love the brick red color - but I picked it out and we painted it before the new cabinets were installed. After they went in I realized it was a little overkill on the red, but didn't have the heart to make Paul repaint right away.

So I waited. And enjoyed the red for what it was. Vivid! Pictures on the wall really "popped". That's an HGTV term. As a matter of fact it was an episode of HGTV that convinced me that it was time - time to paint. It was that show where the people want to sell their house, and the Realtors critique it. This couple had - gasp - a red kitchen! The decorators said they should tone it down. It was time.

The nice thing about living in a small town with a good decorating store is they keep records. American Homes has my chips! Paint chips that is. I selected the green that went with my other colors, but went one shade light - a little number called "woolen vest". Bringing to mind Fred Rogers.

On Friday I picked up a quart of woolen vest just to see if we liked it. Paul was in charge of painting due to my bum shoulder. (I'm schedule to see a surgeon on the 21st) He painted a few areas that night and the next morning it got my seal of approval. We got a whole gallon to finish up. The great thing about the new paint you can buy today is that is has no VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and therfore no smell. It's better for the environment and our health.

 Now if I could only talk Pablo into stainless steel appliances! It's amazing what you can do with a little paint.

Lifeguard confessions (Part 2)

Marci Merrick - as seen from the high guard chair

Those work/study basket kids got an education working at Sunnyside pool that summer. The two I remember are a boy and a girl - Sharon, a skinny 15ish girl, and Rod? a boy of similar age. Both were shy, at least at first. As they got to know us they loosened up though. I don't know if the education served them well or not...

Aha - I just remember Pat Allen was another guard I forgot to mention, along with his bro Mike - both really nice guys. They were Sunnyside neighborhood kids - blue collar parents. Cindy Sheppard and Kim Waters too needed to depend on their earnings and student loans for college. Thinking back, I was still at the age when I took it all for granted how much my parents had provided for me - a college education, money for a car. I hope I wasn't too snotty about how fortunate I was.

The lifeguards were on 15 minute circuits - depending on how big the crowd was that day. There was the tall chair near the deep end of the pool, a station where a guard hovered on the side of the pool in shallow end, and another chair on the other side in the middle of the Olympic sized pool. There were 3 diving boards - a spring low board, a high dive and a medium. Even though we didn't have slides and other fancy schmancy stuff - that high dive was as thrilling a thing as I ever got myself to go on in a pool! Three meters is a long ways down!

The lifeguard chairs had microphones - which made me all powerful. It's a godlike feeling. "No Running, 3 Springs and off the board, That's it you're outta here, Break Time". Or "Pool is closed due to lightning" was a fave when we were burned out and needed a break.

The sound system carried tunes from the day that still take me back to that time.
The only radio station we could get to come in was WOW, which wasn't our fave station, but I do remember hearing some good bands like Commodores, Foreigner was new - had to go to Omaha to buy their LP, my buddy Robyn loved Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town" because her bf was on an Henningsen Construction road crew and they traveled.

Sunnyside had a loft above the office - accessible via a wood ladder. Shag carpet and bean bag chairs were up there along with extreme heat. I spent a lot of time reading up there, sweat rolling off me.  I also made a latch hook rug that summer (remember those?).

Mark had sent me flowers to end the year...then he broke my heart..I found out later he was dating someone else too!

I was a little lovesick - I had been dating Mark, a guy from Fort Dodge who evidently decided summer was a good time to cut ties - but he didn't tell me, he just blew me off. In the pre-cell phone, email world, I sent him a couple letters that were un-requited. Perhaps all my wild partying was my way of dealing with heartbreak. Or it maybe it was just was fun to do...

Sometimes in between guarding gigs we'd sit on our towels and sun - you know with Baby Oil, frying like meat. We'd read Cosmo magazine and gossip. My dermo Ava Feldman is helping me remove evidence of that time in my life - annually frying off pre-cancerous spots.

After-hours in the loft we sometimes played a lil game called "Chugalug". Yes folks, the lifeguards were a bunch of crazy partiers. We never drank during pool hours - but at 9 p.m. - closing time, we got our party on. Heck, I learned to do a flip after a few beers. (I was too chicken without beer). And we didn't just drink at the pool - we drank all over SW Iowa - the Super Bowl, The Villa and other bars around town, Oakland, Greenbriar.

I remember driving over to Audubon on Saturday night with Kim and others to see a live band at a bar - (The band was called the Uglies from Creston with a singer named Mike Bullock. I can't remember my own kid's names sometimes but dumb stuff like this is stuck in my mind...). I don't know what we drank (did they have rufies back then?) but I ended up laying in the parking lot somehow getting pea gravel in my purse - I found it the next day. I hope I wasn't driving. Another time I helped at a swim meet - serving as a timer. After hours in the hot sun, I decided that was a good night to try gin and tonics at the Super Bowl. Five of them on an empty stomach. I still don't drink gin to this day..

There were no swimming lessons on weekends (thank goodness!), and Sunday was always a big hangover recovery day. But it was also pool cleanup day. Not always a good combo...We'd go early and float in the pool on rafts, rehydrating with water and laughing about the events of the night prior. But eventually Marci and Cindi would crack the whip. It was time to clean the changing rooms and pool deck. That's how I learned to clean toilets ya'll - you see at home we had Leona Wheatley - the cleaning lady. We'd also sprinkle stuff call HTH (it was like powdered bleach) on the bathhouse floor and on the pool deck and then hose it down, scrubbing with brooms.

Sunday nights were usually quieter - I needed to stay home sometimes! And please don't let me give you the impression all the lifeguards drank each and every night. I'm sure there were plenty of nights we didn't. I just don't remember those boring nights!

But it's no wonder my mother invited me not to come home that next summer. Who would want a crazy party animal like me around? Someone who was partying hard, only stopped at home long enough to sleep, eat stuff and do laundry. So even though most of the rest of the gang went back to the pool, the summer after my sophomore year I got to go to Grand Junction, Colorado to take a couple summer credits at Mesa Junior College and hanging with big sissies Susi (who lived there) and Cindy (who lives in Vail). It was much lonelier (I lived in the dorm by myself for a month), and less alcoholic, but  I grew up a bunch. And when I got back in early August I was still able to sub at the pool a bit before heading back to ISU.

You know they say, what goes around comes around. Our daughter Amy was a lifeguard the summer after her senior year in high school and the next summer. Her stories are just starting to trickle out. We were relieved when she stayed in Ames after that. You were right Mom.

Confessions of a former lifeguard

Creston built a new pool some 15 or so years ago - despite the modern look the noises are the same as my lifeguarding years

On my walk route today I ambled (but on a quick pace Deb, I swear) by Creston's public pool. Certain things in life take me back to my lifeguarding days. Songs of the day, pool noises, the way the sun sometimes shines on my face at a particular angle...I can't explain it - but that too takes me back.

What can I say - it's the best possible job a kid can have. And I had it that summer after my freshman year of college - the summer of 1977. It's a great job especially when you're working for the Merrick girls - Cindi and Marci (perhaps one of the nicest peeps you'll ever know) and with the rest of a great cast of characters, some of my best buddies. Sally Rodgers (of course was my longtime friend and college roomie, gorgeous but anaware, dorkily funny, smart and loyal). But others became good friends - Kim Waters (who became my sidekick homegirl that summer), Cindy Hmmm last name is escaping me? lived near Lally's. Thank you Ted - who filled in the blank. Cindy Sheppard (another very nice kid I got to know & corrupt that summer), Nellie Juhl (our resident hippy), Cathy Hjortshoj (so funny and cool) and Julia Hoilien (I recently blogged about how much I admire this chick) worked the treat stand with her mom. Candice Drake filled in as a sub. I know I'm forgetting people. Todd Pellett was one guy - I'm sure there were others. Ted Simpson taught swimming lessons.

It was a pretty vigorous schedule - at least during swimming lesson season. I'd go to the pool at 8 or 9 in the morning and be there through 9 at night. But what else did I have to do? I got one day off a week. I'm sure my mother appreciated having me out of the house. In fact she invited me not to come home after the summer after my freshman year. That fun for ya Mom?

A typical day: I would arrive at the pool in my 1977 Red Chevy Monza hatchback - just prior to 8 or 9 a.m. For four weeks in the summer the Red Cross hosted swimming lessons. For the first two weeks "city" kids attended. Their moms would drop them off - some sticking around to watch little junior swim. Other kids rode their bikes to lessons. Often Fantastic Faye - a local figure would hang out outside the fence on his own bike "Silver".

During the next two weeks, it was the "country" kids turn - delivered from places likes Cumberland and Anita in big yellow school buses. Skinny and chubby lilly white kids with plastic bags containing their towels, some with pink nose plugs. Shivering in the cold morning air - in the unheated pool.

I earned every penny of my ($2.25/hr?) teaching under the tutelage of Grand Puba Nancy Pellett, who was following in the footsteps of Betty Lou Pellett. Mom had once taught lessons with Betty Lou, so I was a pool rat from way back.

This was before Red Cross came up with fancy names for swimmer levels. We had Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Intermediate and Swimmer. Of course there were a gazillion beginners - to graduate they had to front float and back float. Some kids are just sinkers and ya gotta feel bad for them. But this is one time when a chunky kid can shine when they float like a cork! We did have "aids" (14 year old helpers) to assist instructors, but darn it sometimes I had to get into that frigid water to instruct. (I bet those parents watching were thinking - "about time!" I know that now that I have viewed similar situations as a parent). All in all - I learned a lot as a swim instructor. Like I knew I didn't want to be a teacher!

After wearing myself out instructing for 3 to 4 hours, I usually had an hour break before I needed to begin guarding lives. Sometimes I got a takeout sannie from pizza hut. Why did they do away with their hoagies with Italian dressing, man they were good! If I didn't go there, Lally's next door or the former A&W - now called Town and Country Drive In. Mona Jones worked there - she'd whip me up a patented Dr. Pepper float with fries. If all else failed, I went home - "Hi mom I'm here to make mess and eat your food."

At one the pool opened for biz. The kids came streaming in. We were daycare for many of them - a pool pass is a cheap alternative to a sitter. Little guys - Dusty and Ricky are two names that come to mind - would arrive in just their trunks with a towel. They were to entertain themselves all day at that pool.

Each pin was numbered

Work/study staff, low income high school kids, helped man the office, checking passes, taking money and dealing with baskets. What baskets you ask? Sunnyside Pool (what a cheery name) didn't have lockers, we had baskets and changing rooms. Each basket had a corresponding pin - a sturdy looking thing that could be quite a weapon if need be!

This blog is getting a bit long (I'm a windy old broad), so I'll start a Part 2 later. We're (meaning Paul, due to my unfortunate shoulder problem) painting the kitchen this weekend and I've got errands to run. And despite the poker-like pain (I know I'm milking it) I plan to clean everything from the top of the kitchen cupboards that just didn't look that dirty until we got it down. I have an appointment to see a surgeon on the 24th since therapy doesn't seem to be helping. Dang it's hell to grow old. It's likely an old lifeguarding injury - blew my whistle once too often or something...

Back to the Standard

It's been a long time. In fact I hadn't been to our fave DSM bar, The Standard, since Pablo headed for the hills. Creston that is - in the hills of Southern Iowa, when Paul's temp job in in the big city was completed in April. Today that changed.

the floor is beautiful inlaid tile

Today I had an Environmental Management System workshop at the Ola Babcock Miller State Library Building near the Iowa State Capitol. I love that place - so full of artsy touches. And there's something about working where there's a cannon in the yard...

After the workshop, I took our consultants - two visitors from Ohio to The Standard. Both Cory and Tom seemed to enjoy the place just as much as I do. They tried local brews from Newton.

Cory at left, just became engaged to be married in September. Jeff is the bartender. Tom on right is building a new home in Ohio.

Jeff the bartender remembered me, after I ordered my signature lemondrop (only 1...I was driving). There was a musician that started at 5 p.m. - we quite enjoyed his tunes. Cory and I ordered the fish tacos and they were yummy! It was nice to be back, but I missed having my honey by my side...

I'm such a freakin' baby

And it makes me mad! Geeeez. My friend Thea is battling cancer - 2 kinds! And I'm all down in the dumps about shoulder pain. What a wimp.

Thea tells me she's starting a new regimen of chemo now. You may recall she has multiple myeloma and kidney cancer. F'n stuff. She just got out of the hospital again - after getting a port put in to drain her lung. Yet when people visit she remains upbeat. What a lady!

Me? I went through the removal of Imelda, my unusual tumor last February. She (a tiny painful blob) was in my left elbow. Then in March I started feeling pain in my right shoulder. What the hell? Is it from my Wii workout routine? I have no idea. But the thing continues to get more and more painful.

A few weeks ago I broke down and saw Sheryl Young ARNP about it. She set me up with Geri the Physical Therapist. I was sure I was on the road to recovery, But so far not...it's still damn sore. My shoulder blade is winging out. Geri says I need to retrain it and tuck it back in. (Geri and fam love hot air balloons and therefore Creston and Balloon Days).

Last week I broke down and called Sheryl again, complaining about the constant pain. She agreed to give me a steroid shot on Thursday. Once I got the shot, I felt immediate relief - at least right at the site of the shot. Movements that had hurt before were not painful. Other parts of my arm still hurt but not the back of my shoulder.

At least until I decided to ride my bike. I could have sat around all weekend - and maybe I'd still feel better. But I was happy to ride my bike with Paul. Until later, when the should began hurting. And it's hurt ever since. So now I've had an XRay, which showed nothing, and I'm set up to see a surgeon in a couple weeks. Good thing too cuz I felt half queasy today due to pain. And mad. What a wienie!

It's number 901!

• I am a prolific blogger, yes indeedy! I just noticed that my Jim and Lindsay blog was number 900. Wow. That's a lot of writing. Mostly about nothing. And the stuff of my life. You know what that means...I've been commuting for a long time!

• Tonight I picked up my supper (a chicken sannie) at Charley's Steakery and Fresh Grilled Subs at Jordan Creek Mall. Yeah, deciding where to eat was a big decision...but the sample guy got me. Good marketing! I got a big kick out of the order-taker. She said something like (insert foreign accent).

"What you like Ladeee? You want fries with that Ladeee?" You know it just takes an attitude like that to make a difference in this world. There are a lot of people standing around waiting for others to hand them a living. This woman learned a language and works hard every day. Making me chuckle along the way.

• Paul reported to night that Odie the Wonder dog killed a baby bird. She had feathers coming out of her mouth like Sylvester the Cat on cartoons. He texted me "Killer Doggy". I bet she feels very self-satisfied.
• Our dog big 'ol wiener dog Jud (1958-1973 - yes, I named my son after my dog) used to hunt rabbits all the time. We had a clay drain pipe that stuck into our yard from our house. Rabbits loved to hang out in there and taunt him. We'd get Jud all excited pointing and yelling "Rabbit Jud Rabbit". He'd dig around the pipe and bark. I don't think he ever caught a rabbit though.

• Today is Mom's 83rd birthday - nearly 15 years after she died. I wonder what kind of old lady she would have been? Now that Susi is 60, 68 really doesn't sound all that old. I really wish she could have found the strength to quit smoking when she was younger - like in her 40's. Would it have made a difference? I don't know but I'd like to think so.  

Lindsay and Jim got married

It's been a long time coming. Jimmy Ide and Lindsay Grose dated eight years. Yesterday they were married on a beautiful June Saturday in front of 350 people. Father Kenkel, bless his heart, tried to start the ceremony without the bride!

Jim is the son of Dan and Barb Ide. He attended St. Malachy School, just a year behind Amy and is now back working in Creston as a pharmacist at HyVee after graduating from the U of I last year. Lindsay also graduated from Iowa with a 4 year radiation technologist degree. Her mom Susan is one of my homegirls. I admire Susan, who works for the Dept. of Human Services, a great deal. She's fun and easy to talk to. Her husband Brian, besides being a hottie, is really nice.

Back to the wedding: The groom carefully seated all the grandparents and parents. The bridal party walked in the the music played joyfully by Linn Baker. And Father said an opening prayer. I looked at Paul like??? What the??

Then Linn quickly played the bridal march so Dick Grose could walk his daughter up the aisle. I'm sure Father was at first confused (he's in his 80's) and then embarrassed. But he said something like - "whoops, guess we better not do this without the bride!"

Thank goodness the ceremony was co-celebrated with Reverend Pete Brantner, who kept Fr. K on track the rest of the time. Pete did the homily, telling the story of how Jim proposed to Lindsay in a hot air balloon in Arizona. Pete talked about the couple's commitment to each other. I like hearing good speakers - pastors like Pete, talk about marriage. It helps reaffirm my feelings for Paul. Not like I'm wavering or anything...but it's just good to hear a relationship pep talk once in a while. It's been 30 years ago since someone said those words directly to us, you know! We really had no idea what we were in for.

The reception was fun! The speeches by the co-best men, Patrick Walsh and Andy Ide were very touching. You can tell they think so much of this couple. The food was great - barbecued chicken and beef. The cake was great too. There were cookies in the shape of...you guessed it - hot air balloons, thanks to Jim's cousin Kaylie Crittenden.

Nearly all my homegirls were there. Nancy was a bit tired, after running the Dam to Dam in Des Moines (12 miles) earlier in the day. Patti, Deb, Diana, Joan Weis, Mendy.

We were excited that Jud and Kara had decided to stop and stay with us on their way home from Ames that night. We talked them into coming by the reception as Jud knew both the bride and groom. Fun to see him chatting with Creston peeps. And I got to do a little dancin' of course! Love Shack - my wedding fave, and my girls always gotta dance it with me. Good night.

Have a great life Jim and Lindsay! You sure started it right.