Rhonda Bracey: At Random

A few hours after I landed in Dallas,  I went to the Alan Jackson concert at the Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie,  about 15 miles south of the airport. The support acts were Ashley Monroe and Jon Pardi. Pardi rocked it!

But the main event was always going to be Alan Jackson on this 25th anniversary tour.

And he was as good as he sounds on all those CDs he’s made.

He played a lot of his back catalogue of hits.  I didn’t write them down,  but there were heaps. Some that spring to mind were “5 o’clock somewhere”, “Drive”,  “Chattahoochee”,  “Itty Bitty”, “Where were you (when the world stopped turning)”, “Summertime blues”. (There’s always Google… This site lists the songs played at concerts by various artists, including the set list for the concert I attended: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/alan-jackson/2015/verizon-theater-grand-prairie-tx-6bcb8a12.html)

I had an excellent seat and have made some observations (after the photos) about attending  a concert in the US,  which is certainly a different experience than I’ve ever had at an indoor concert at home!

(notice the hats!)

Observations:

• people wear hats to concerts and don’t take them off… baseball caps, cowboy hats mostly
• denim and boots and country shirts are everywhere – and that was just the women 😉
• everyone brings in food (nachos, hot dogs, fries) and copious amounts of drink (24-ounce cans and cups of alcohol) from the vendors in the lobby
• people wander in and out at will when the performer is playing, not just in the breaks
• sound system was excellent
• no phone reception for me, but then I’m with T-mobile, not Verizon, so I guess that wasn’t a surprise
• it was freezing inside the venue – it was chilly  outside, but they had that air con right down to about 35F, I reckon. I’m very glad I’d taken a jacket.
• some people need to learn what’s appropriate behaviour for the situation. Two ladies near where I was needed to get a room, and the chap directly behind me spoilt my night by using ‘Dallas’ very loudly and often and in a way that reminded me of Elaine in Seinfeld yelling ‘Stella!’. Others near me told him to shut up,  and he did for a while but then would start up again,  even in the middle of a quiet ballad. Again, appropriate behaviour for the time and place…

So, I’m driving into town late yesterday afternoon to get my hair cut. As I’m turning at a bend in the road to get to a T-junction, I see something splashing furiously in the estuary close to shore. It’s not a windsurfer, a kite surfer, a rambunctious dog, or a human that I can tell. It looks like a HUGE fish — perhaps a shark or dolphin? A couple of walkers see it too and stop to watch. I turn onto the main road, park, grab my phone (my camera was at home), watch for traffic, then run across the road and down an embankment to get closer.

It’s a dolphin! Actually two dolphins, but only one was herding/hunting in among the black swans. The other stayed out a bit, though I saw it’s dorsal fin few times. It was high tide, but the estuary is fairly shallow so the water where it was hunting was probably not much more than a metre (yard) deep. It swam through the flight of swans, causing them to scatter and get out of the way.

I took as many photos as I could (almost into the sun, and with the pressure of a looming appointment time), and downloaded them this morning to see what I was able to capture. I only got one clear photo of the dolphin splashing, but it’s proof I really did see them 😉

What’s so remarkable about this for me is that I didn’t know that dolphins came that far up the estuary. In the map below, (1) represents where I *know* they hang out, (2) is where I saw them (some 4 km into the estuary from where they hang out in the Indian Ocean), and (3) is where I saw them again on the drive home from the shopping centre about two hours later — they were still there, again with one hanging around and the other making a BIG splash (I didn’t get any photos of this second sighting). A couple of years ago I saw a couple of dolphins in the estuary near where the ‘C’ is for ‘Old Coast Road’ on the map, near the ‘Bunbury Golf Club’ label, but I’ve never seen them this far up.

When I visited a friend in Seattle a few years ago, he was housesitting a fabulous house. He showed me the upside roller blinds in the kitchen/dining area, which I thought were just brilliant for letting in light while maintaining privacy. With normal top-down blinds, you have to pull them all the way down to get privacy, and that can block out light, especially if they are block-out blinds. But with these bottom-up blinds, you pull the blind up to the height you want to give you privacy, but there’s enough space above to let in light and air.

As I needed to change the impractical slimline metal venetian blinds we had in some rooms, I looked at window treatment options that would maintain privacy, let in light, and allow the window to be open to let in fresh air, without the window treatment impeding any of those things. For the spare bedrooms, I choose vertical blinds as they fitted all the criteria.

But for the second bathroom and toilet, I had to think outside the box. Verticals, curtains, and side-opening honeycomb blinds weren’t practical for either situation, and top-down roller or Roman blinds would have impeded air flow and only given privacy if pulled all the way down.

I remembered those bottom-up blinds in Seattle! So I went searching on the internet and in local blinds stores and found that all the local retailers were unfamiliar with bottom-up roller blinds, but most had a honeycomb (aka duette, cellular) blind option that could be opened from the top or bottom — or both. In all cases, they didn’t sell many — possibly because they are fairly new to Australia, but also because they are MUCH more expensive than the usual top-down honeycomb blinds.

But that’s what I wanted.

They were installed yesterday and I’m very pleased with them. They are VERY practical. In the second toilet, they allow ventilation through the top opening of the window (the old venetians either blocked this, or rattled a lot whenever there was any wind), and can be pulled open from the top to allow privacy, while also allowing light. In the second bathroom, there’s a large fixed window with a small left-opening window at the top. This type of window is ideal for this sort of blind as the blind can cover the main window (thus offering full privacy), without covering the top section — thus allowing light and air into the room.

Thanks Craig for showing these to me in Seattle!

On my morning walk I see lots of livestock (horses and cattle mainly) and birds. The cattle usually hang out in a couple of paddocks and are often quite some distance from the path. But this morning several of them were close to the fence, and while wary, didn’t run away when I approached with my phone to take some pictures of them. Unfortunately, photographing black cow faces is as hard as photographing black cats 😉

Sometime around Christmas, a neighbourhood property (5 acres) got a few new residents. First were two miniature horses, followed a few days later by about six Dorper sheep (one ram, some ewes, and some juveniles). The horses are very friendly and will come running to the fence when I walk by on my morning walk.

I got to meet the owner this morning, and he said they just love carrots and he would be fine with me bringing some to feed them when I walk past. He also told me the names of the horses — Sandy (the female with the blond hair and tail) is about four years old, and Angus (brown mane) is about a year old. They are just the cutest things!!!

I had to go in for a minor medical procedure today — just some tests that required a local anaesthetic to the region, a small nick and then the taking of a couple of tissue samples. The room had a nurse, the doctor who performed the procedure, and a sonographer who manipulated the ultrasound thingummy so the doctor could tell where to take the samples from. The procedure itself was painless, but it was a bit scary lying there by myself while all these things were happening around me. Sure, they told me every step of the way what would happen and when, but still… it’s not the most pleasant situation to be in.

What was a comfort, however, was the close presence of the sonographer who had to stand on one side of me while leaning over to manipulate the ultrasound for the doctor. The warmth of that human body was incredibly comforting and helped me relax.

I have no idea who she was, but just that touch and her warmth soothed me. At the end of the procedure, I mentioned to all three women in the room how comforting that was.

I hope medical professionals don’t shy away from such contact in the future for fear of litigation or accusations of inappropriate touching. It was amazing how calm an inadvertent touch such as this made me feel. I can now see why it’s so important to touch the hands or body of someone who is dying.

(Update: Results are all clear!!)

Getting the new window treatments installed was the impetus for me to rearrange the layout of my sewing room. I now seem to have much more open floor space — shifting the cutting table next to the sewing table removed a ‘pinch point’ as you walked in the door and another when you tried to get to the stored goodies in the wardrobe, and putting the ironing board in front of the window lets much more light into the room (even if I didn’t have the new verticals). I still have plenty of light on my sewing table and the view is just a small turn of the head away.

That white record/CD cabinet holds lots of fabric — the CD drawers are the perfect size for fat quarters. The portable design wall (not shown) is on the opposite side of the room to the window, and the wardrobe is to the left of the white cabinet.

My Sweet Sixteen lives in the living room 😉

When we bought our current house, the three spare rooms had very wide and very heavy slimline venetian blinds. While I don’t mind the look of them, their sheer weight made them a pain to raise and lower, and they were pretty useless for ventilation as the windows open from right to left, not bottom to top like the venetians. So if you wanted some privacy AND some fresh air, you had to endure the rattle of the wind in the venetians and had to either raise them fully to access the window handle, or push your hand between the slats (thus bending them) to grab the window handle and open the window.

This photo shows one angle in my sewing room from 2011 — you can see part of the floor to ceiling venetians.

I bit the bullet and had all the venetians in these rooms replaced last week! I loved the look of some of the blinds on offer, but like the venetians, they just weren’t practical. Those that opened sideways that I particularly liked (e.g. panel blinds) couldn’t be adjusted for light, ventilation, or privacy — they had to be partly or fully open OR shut, and there wasn’t really a middle ground to satisfy my requirements for letting in some light as well as fresh air, while maintaining privacy. Even though I’m not a big fan of vertical blinds, they met all my needs (and were the cheapest option, though that wasn’t a primary consideration). I got the blockout ones as two of these windows get direct early morning sun. And to minimise the ‘look’ of verticals, I chose a colour to match the paint on the walls.

Since installing them, what I like is that I can pull them back to let in much more light, AND have the window open to get fresh air, or close them up fully or partially according to the light and breeze.

You can see from these photos that I had to clean stuff off the sewing table! It’s the cleanest its been since we moved in 😉 In fact, it was the impetus for shifting my sewing room around…

If the temperature changes didn’t tell me that summer was coming, my garden would! From late November into December (at least), the agapanthus put on a fine display, and some of the varieties of yucca flower heads are starting to die off.

This is a long story about how two people who met 40-something years ago met again recently. But first some back story…

Very old history

Between 1890 and 1903, an English family had six children — four sons and two daughters. We’ll ignore the two girls for this story as one stayed in the same English town her whole life; the other came to live in Australia, but she isn’t part of this story.

Two of the sons went to Canada as young men and joined the Canadian armed forces. One (Alfred) died in World War One while fighting for Canada in Belgium; the other (Fred) was declared medically unfit for service and remained in Canada for a while. Another son (Jack[1]) emigrated to Canada and joined Fred, then Jack[1] emigrated to Michigan to work and to start a farm. Meantime, Fred went back to England and then he and the youngest son, Charles, emigrated to Western Australia (1923).

Charles was my grandfather, and Fred and Jack[1] were my great uncles. Fred died in Western Australia in 1967, so he’s not part of this story either. Jack[1] remained in Michigan his whole life, although he did take a trip back to England in the 1970s to meet up with Charles and the sister who had remained. Jack[1] died in Michigan in 1995, aged 95. Charles lived in Western Australia from his arrival in 1923 until his death in 1981.

Mid-20th Century

Jack[1] had three children — two sons (H and C) and a daughter (J). All lived in Michigan for much or all of their lives, with only C moving to Florida and then later Iowa. All married and had children (my second cousins).

For those who know I have family in Michigan, it is H’s family whom I visit.

1970s and 1980s

In the early to mid 1970s, some of the distant family from Michigan were living in Sydney, Australia and on their circuitous way back to the US, they stayed in Western Australia with my parents for a few days and then with me (in Perth) for a few more days. I was never quite sure how we were related (like most teenagers, I had no interest in the family tree then), but have since found out that Jack[2] was a nephew or cousin of Joan, who was married to C. Jack[2]’s wife at the time, Judy, was with him, and it was Jack[2] and Judy who visited me. In other words, they were likely 2nd or third cousins once or twice removed! And only related by marriage to C. Judy was even further distant as she was related by marriage to Jack[2] and then he by marriage to C. It’s complicated…

When Jack[2] and Judy were staying with me, they gave me a sweatshirt from Michigan State, a sweatshirt I wore with pride for several years before it wore out! At that point I had never been to the US — and nor had most Australians — so to have a sweatshirt from a US university was a ‘big thing’ 😉 This sweatshirt appears again later in this tale…

In the mid-1970s, I lived in Carnarvon, Western Australia and would occasionally go out fishing with friends. Yes, this is relevant…

Skip forward to the mid-1980s, which is when I lived in Canada for a year. I visited my Michigan family twice that year — once at Easter when I first met many of them, and then again at Thanksgiving (or thereabouts). I spent most of my time with H and his family, including my great uncle Jack[1], but never met H’s daughter S as she lived away from home at the time.

Are you still with me?

1990s and 2000s

During the 1990s and 2000s, I had the opportunity to travel to the US on numerous occasions, and whenever I could, I visited H’s branch of my Michigan family. At some point, I eventually met my second cousin S and her family. She moved around a bit in the intervening years, but eventually settled in northern Michigan, some three to four hours’ drive from H and the rest of his immediate family.

Early October 2014

In the week before I left on my recent NZ and US trip, my husband and I were watching an Australian food show — ‘Paddock to Plate’. The host/chef was in Carnarvon and showing the produce from there, including some pink snapper he had caught. During the 1970s when I lived in Carnarvon, I caught a couple of magnificent pink snapper and told my husband that the TV host’s fish were just tiddlers compared to what I’d caught. I went to my old photo albums and found a photo of me proudly holding up my pink snapper, which I showed him.

His first reaction was ‘Is that you?’ followed by ‘Why are you wearing a Michigan State sweatshirt?’ So I briefly told him that some people called Judy and Jack[2] gave it to me and that they were from Michigan and had spent time with me in Perth many years ago (about 40 years ago!), and that they were distantly related somehow. Neither of us thought any more about it, though I did wonder what had ever happened to these distant relations of mine, and thought I should ask how they were related to me when I got to Michigan in about 10 days’ time.

To be honest, after that sweatshirt went into the ragbag, I had completely forgotten about Judy and Jack[2] in the intervening 40 years. When you’re not even 20, you really aren’t that interested in relations from afar 😉

Mid October 2014

I hadn’t been staying long with H and L (his wife), when L mentioned that Judy was now working for S in her store in northern Michigan! And when I later got to S’s town, I met Judy again, some 40 years after last seeing her! She is S’s right-hand person in the store, and they didn’t know each other or that they were vaguely related by marriage until relatively recently.

Judy had been a customer of S’s for a while, then S offered her a job. At one point after they started working together, something came up about a school (a small high school in rural Michigan, three hours away), and they did the ‘Do you know so-and-so…?’ thing and found out that S’s uncle C and his wife were related to Jack[2], Judy’s ex-husband of many years.

That was freaky enough, but when S mentioned to Judy recently that her cousin Rhonda from Australia was coming to visit, they put two and two together and Judy realised that it was me — the person she had stayed with in Perth all those years ago! Much squealing and ‘OMG’ing ensued, I believe 😉

So after 40 years, I got to re-meet the person who had given me a sweatshirt that I remember so fondly. Judy and her husband had dinner with us the only night I stayed with S and her husband, and we marvelled at how spooky it was that we’d caught up again and the circumstances. Especially as I’d only talked about her less than two weeks before.

As I said, cue the Twilight Zone music about now…

Judy and I are now Facebook friends 😉