Friday family photo--the laundry

This is the laundry at Lakeside after I decided the dryer was unsafe. Pink, blue and cream are our colors

I've had a lot of jobs in my life time from newspaper carrier to agricultural worker to author to librarian, however for 57 years I've been a housewife. Let me tell you my most exciting laundry story. I've been buying bargain laundry detergent my whole career, but recently bought a small jug of Tide. Hey. It works. My husband does all the hard stuff and gets really dirty. His work jeans look fabulous.

A surprise for our anniversary

I knew my husband attended a one day art class at Lakeside this summer, but hadn't seen the results.  It's a pendant he painted of the Marblehead Lighthouse, with lake, trees, sky and sailboat, and it's an anniversary present.

Winding down the season at Lakeside

Yes, it’s September. But chilly here on Lake Erie. The heat is on in the cottage! We return to Columbus today after church on the lakefront and breakfast. There was a terrific, end of season program last night—Riders in the Sky—a cowboy quartet, their 10th time at Lakeside and I think we’ve seen most of them. They showed some Roy Rogers footage; it was great fun played to an almost full Hoover auditorium. Then we picked up Bob’s paintings at the Patio restaurant and went to the fireworks.

This morning will be my final walk—I’ve been getting 4-6 miles a day, something I can’t do at home unless I get in the car and drive to the park. I still need flat areas for walking or I’ll irritate the bursitis. Here I’ve got streets that 10,000 years ago were Erie’s shoreline.

I’m watching EWTN thanks to Roku, which has worked well this summer with no cable TV. A Mother’s Day gift from our daughter and son-in-law. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen is on, still going strong after all these years. I remember my parents watching him; a real pioneer in religious TV. He’s talking about people marching and protesting in the streets who have no program or ideology, not even a coherent Marxism, so I assume this one is from the 1960s, but it plays well today.

We’ve decided to keep the cottage, year by year. We’ve got more help now and Bob is hiring more than he used to. He bought a new light for the hall and probably paid the handyman more than the cheap fixture cost. He thought our nephew would be coming near the end of summer and could do it, so when that didn’t work out, he hired a local man. Next year it will be a new washer dryer, and maybe new carpet for the porch. This has faded, but then 30 years isn’t bad

Monday Memories--sailing

Saturday, August 26, Bob went sailing with Tom, our neighbor, Jim another neighbor and Tom's brother Steve.  He often goes out with Jack, Tom's 12 year old son on the sunfish, but Tom also has a 32' sailboat with a cabin with bathroom and shower, small kitchen.  They were out about 2.5 hours.  I went to the end of the dock to see them (Bob called), but they didn't get very close.

Friday Family Photo Lakeside 2017

Bob and his sister Deb heading to Hoover for an evening of music.

 

 

Checking out the new pool and wellness center at Lakeside. Deb and Sue went to water aerobics.

Trash talking in Lakeside

A strike for equality. Bob watched the "sanitation engineers" in the giant blue garbage truck doing the north south route deftly tossing sacks and cans Tuesday. "Hey," he said, "There's a woman on that truck, and she's really good--moving fast." Knowing that she was probably earning a higher hourly wage than a librarian or an RN, I thought, "YES! You go girl." Then later when I was walking to the Farmer's Market, I saw the truck doing the east west streets, and the same worker jumped down to grab the garbage. It was just a guy with a "man bun" and a slender build. So disappointed.

The new swimming pool is changing lives

I’ve always known Lakeside was a special place for people with limited mobility, especially for the elderly. An equipped van brings residents here from North Shore Retirement immediately outside the gates (although many walk in), there are many ramps, special wellness seminars, and most importantly, events to keep the mind and body active.  I think I’ve seen more walkers, wheelchairs and special scooters here in Lakekside than anyplace in my life. I’ve been watching Marky for decades maneuver the streets.

Marky has cerebral palsy (CP), a physical disability that affects movement, muscle tone and posture. Despite the CP, he is very independent and while at Lakeside he lives in a wing of his parents’ cottage and at home in independent living. His special scooter makes him mobile and he’s made many friends over the years. When a pool and wellness center was announced, like all of us, his family watched with curiosity,

“I didn’t have a clear picture of how it would be,” his mom Becky Donithan said “I was unsure if we would have enough room or if it would be too crowded. But when I first saw it, it was incredible. I knew it would be great for our family.
With the ADA-approved lift-chair and the entry ramp for his scooter, Marky is granted access to an activity like he never was before. At his IDLA home, Marky exercises on a treadmill for about 10 minutes each day, but swimming works a whole extra set of muscles.

“He can’t walk on land, but he can walk in water,” she said. “It was such a special moment for Marky and our family when he swam in Lakeside for the first time. It’s given him the opportunity to get in the pool and have the freedom to feel and look like everyone else.”

Marky’s whole family was in tow for his first day at the pool. Parents, grandparents, siblings and cousins gathered to swim as a family. He had only ever been swimming a few times before in his life, but he has become significantly better at it with each visit to the pool this summer.

“He would live here all year if he could,” Donithan said. “This place is a little piece of heaven for him because he can be himself and it is just so safe and accessible, especially now with the pool.”

From the Lakeside Blog

Hoover entertainment, August 9

We had a fabulous program last night at Lakeside Hoover Auditorium. Dave Bennett seemed to be a quiet, refined jazz clarinetist/quartet who played the pop classics from the 30s and 40s, then he worked up into the 50s, with a sweet "Earth Angel," picked up the electric guitar, did a little Elvis and Johnny Cash, then took off his sport coat went to the piano and did three or four Jerry Lee Lewis numbers. I thought he’d destroy the Steinway! At one point he picked up some extra sticks and played a mean drum solo. Unbelievable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3dBLOOXUec

  Rockin the 50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVZ73BMa9oo

He recently appeared in Dixon, IL.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyZMspoKmAY

Sprucing up at the Bruces

A new look for the porch. We bought our summer home in Lakeside, Ohio,  in 1988 (actual house with plaster walls, basement and fireplace built in 1944) and had planned to remove the mid-80s, not architecturally appropriate porch. However, over the years we learned how great it was, solar gain in the winter so we could use it off season, and tight enough for AC in the summer. The problem was, it faded and discolored over 30 years and was sort of white, grey and yellow. So Wednesday it was painted to match the trim. The guys did a great job, and had painted the house in the spring. In the fall, the deck will be repainted, because it will require sanding and prep that Lakeside doesn't allow during the season.

Wildlife talk at Lakeside

I attended a wildlife talk at Lakeside today (huge crowd). I left when the speaker got to the creepy crawler part. But the kids love that stuff.  The most common squirrel in Ohio is the flying squirrel and we have over 260 eagle nests. Again, children were told not to pick up bird feathers because only Native Amercians can use them. The Migratory Bird act has probably saved billions of birds and was passed in 1918, but the Department of Justice clarified the religious use of bird parts in 2012.

“The Department of Justice has taken a major step forward by establishing a consistent and transparent policy to guide federal enforcement of the nation’s wildlife laws in a manner that respects the cultural and religious practices of federally recognized Indian tribes and their members.”

 Fine. But you would think other religions could be respected for marriage and locker room traditions.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-policy-tribal-member-use-eagle-feathers

Wednesday was a busy day at Lakeside

On Wednesday morning the ladies of the herb group met at the train station and carpooled to the Mulberry Creek Herb Farm on Bogart Road and had a lovely talk by owner Karen Langan.  She was raised on the farm next door, and after meeting her husband during her post graduate work in horticulture they began this organic herb farm 21 years ago.  What a delightful place just to soak in all the beauty.  There were also chickens (eggs for sale) and a peacock and an Eagle Scout troop dismantling one of the green houses to move to another area. After her talk we had a chance to browse until about noon.

Then three of us went to lunch at Manny's Sports Bar at Rt. 250 and Bogart Rd.  Great food and very pleasant surroundings. I rode with Susan, who lives in Texas and inherited her mother's Lakeside cottage about eight years ago. We had a wonderful time with girl talk and finding out who we knew in common.

Although it was picnic in the park night, we both had eaten late lunches at restaurants (Wednesday is Guys Club and they boat to local restaurants) and weren't in the mood for hot dogs and baked beans, so we just had tomato soup and rhubarb cobbler for dinner.  We're both enjoying reading novels (mine is a Debbie Macomber and he's reading Agatha Christie) on the porch, but also took a walk by the lake to see the craft show developing for tomorrow's tour of homes.

The program at Hoover was Ciaran Sheehan who with his friend Sarah Pfisterer and a wonderful pianist (don't remember her name) performed a beautiful selection of Broadway tunes.  They had both been in Phantom of the Opera, and he also performed for us "Bring him Home" which he sang at the funeral of Vice President Biden's son.  He was born in Ireland, and the publicity says he began singing in high school and toured with a heavy metal band. He went on to study acting and voice, and made his debut as Babet in Les Miserables. He's also been a producer and has done 3 PBS specials.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4591397/ciaran-sheehan

Friday on the porch and around Lakeside

I'm reading my third Fannie Flagg novel this summer. Great porch reading. Funny. The four books I brought with me, "Why I don't call myself gay; how I reclaimed my sexual reality and found peace," "Ipad for Seniors (for dummies)," "The creed; professing the faith through the ages," and "Rethinking possible; a memoir of resilience," made it out of the book bag onto the end table, but no further.

I believe O.J. was guilty as sin of those murders, and probably over-punished for the minor crimes. I'm sorry he'll be released, but he did the time on those charges. And I'd never heard of the that band Linkin Park or the guy who committed suicide.  I wonder what the rate is for that profession? Suicide is highest among older white men--at least in this country. https://psychcentral.com/news/2016/01/07/why-older-white-men-have-highest-suicide-rate-in-us/97289.html

The author of this Imprimus article was listening to her three children argue. "It was at this moment that I had one of those sudden insights as a parent. I realized that my oldest was a constitutional conservative, my middle child a libertarian, and my youngest a socialist with totalitarian tendencies." We have a Democrat party full of socialists with totalitarian goals in this country. They hate free speech.  It's not the 60s anymore.  https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/lefts-war-free-speech/

Black men who in their private lives love white women, pretend to be anti-white and racist to blacks in their own community says this black man in a Tucker interview. He loves the fruit, hates the tree. NYT should have dumped that race baiting article on white women on sidewalks (which I didn't read). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYTNEjKTxFA

Although I only attended three of this week's offerings on Russia, they were all interesting, especially the film that was premiered here on the Lakeside grounds. Russia is the world's largest country by landmass, beating out runner-up Canada by around 2.8 million square miles. It includes nine different time zones and shares land borders with 14 neighboring countries. 1/4 is in Europe and 3/4 in Asia. It's rich in resources. It has a dictator, but the USA spent years coddling other dictators. Remember Fidel? It would have been a great ally and trading partner but something went very wrong during the last three years of Obama's reign's and Clinton's stint as Secretary of State. What are the Democrats trying to cover up by blaming everything on Trump, who wasn't even a candidate in those years?

Until after the 2012 campaign, Obama and Putin were close. What did Obama do to change this, and why blame Trump who wasn't even on the radar as a politician. This is a rhetorical question, of course.

Home Free, a "vocal band" put on a fabulous show Friday night at the Hoover in Lakeside. Pretty much a packed house--lots of covers of Oak Ridge Boys, Statler Brothers, Alabama, etc. Loved Elvira. Nice Johnny Cash Ring of Fire, too. A few of the hip hop genre I thought were inappropriate for our regular audience, but they are a quality, fabulous group. Don't miss them if they are performing near you. I think the next 2 are in Canada. Amazing sound--all vocal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXQpDDcrN-w

Almost every morning I've been having grilled fresh vegetables for breakfast.  Then I'm good for the rest of the day in case indiscretions like chocolate chip cookies or rhubarb cobbler suddenly appear. Every day is different, but I always add some brown mustard, and that really helps the blandness. Today (Saturday) is onions, yellow peppers, zucchini, broccoli, but others times it's cabbage, mushrooms, celery, green peppers and carrots.

ENCORE Chamber Music at Lakeside

Monday night's program at Lakeside Hoover auditorium was stunning. Not a group I'd ever heard of, but one that builds my faith in youth, in music, in live performance; it was delightful--even the woman I sat beside who was 90 and told me about her life. ENCORE Chamber Music is a 6 week summer academy of Northeast Ohio which sends its students into the community to perform. Jinjoo Cho, who has played with the Lakeside Symphony many times is the artistic director and narrated the program of Mozart, Holst and Tchaikovsky. http://www.encorechambermusic.org/mission-overview/

A native of Seoul, South Korea, Cho moved to Cleveland at the age of 14 to study at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM).

She is a gold medalist of the 2014 Ninth Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, the first prize and orchestra award-winner of the first Buenos Aires International Violin Competition in 2010, and first grand prize at the Alice Schoenfeld International String Competition
.
Cho finished her Bachelor of Music degree both at the Curtis Institute of Music and the CIM. She also received her Master of Music and Professional Studies from CIM.

                                            

Friday book review, Just Mercy

“We will ultimately not be judged by our technology, we won’t be judged by our design, we won’t be judged by our intellect and reason. Ultimately, you judge the character of a society . . . by how they treat the poor, the condemned, the incarcerated.” Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy.  Today’s book review at the Lakeside Women’s Club.

When I see compelling phrases like this, which incidentally I believe, I am left to wonder why is it the Left see this in Communism and Islam, in cooperation with Iran and ignoring why so many seek to come to the U.S., illegally and otherwise? No poor person was ever elevated by Communism or dictators unless it was by becoming a government lackey, spy or bureaucrat.

Stormy morning July 13

Because of the storms, I couldn't walk the lakefront at 6 a.m., so I waited until 9. I saw a whole different population of dogs, grandparents, babies and birds. There was the college crew of groundsmen in matching shirts removing trash; mommies and daddies walking the babies in strollers instead of the early a.m. patrol of grand dads in golf carts so the rest of the cottage can sleep; a gull with a fish almost as big as he was with 3 senior citizens taking photos; grandma with 3 lovely teen granddaughters, but I got a whiff of cigarette smoke (very rare here) and I think it came from granny; walkers on their way to buy donuts at the Patio Restaurant (only serious joggers are out at 6); some "spiritual" but not religious groups at the pavilion; but no skunks--they don't like the activity and daylight, but are visible earlier.

Photo by Beth Sibbring Jennings of the lakefront near Vine St.

Happy July 4

Ready to set our chairs up for the July 4 parade.  Thank you, neighbors, for the nice backdrop.

 

 

 

Monday Memories of a great Sunday

Is it too early to recall what a lovely day Sunday, July 2, was at Lakeside?

After enjoying a brunch at the Patio, we all went our separate ways for awhile--me to a nap after I made a pot of soup, Bob went down to the lake to help with Kids' Sail, and Dan and Joanie (our niece and nephew) went up to try out the new pool which had been dedicated the day before. Then at 6 p.m. the Central Ohio Brass Band played at the gazebo in Central Park and the lake looked fabulous.  After that we had a stroll along the lakefront to look at the sculptures people make from the rocks. Then an evening to good conversation on the porch.  A perfect summer day.

So many people waiting--someone had to leave to get in.

And Danny didn't have his sun screen!

Steele Memorial with Central Ohio Brass Band

Enjoying the concert and the beautiful view

Hollyhocks and rock sculptures along the lakefront

Dogs on my morning walk along the lake

Dogs. I don't have a dog, but I think I understand them, having had many in my childhood. Most dogs have well behaved owners, but some could use some training--the people, I mean. We're at our summer home, many owners and visitors have dogs, and that's a lot of sniffing, barking and eliminating activity. Every morning on my walk along a quiet, still lake with people still asleep, the owner of a water loving dog (like a spaniel or Lab) takes his dog into the water and throws rocks. The dog goes berserk in the water--especially when he realizes it's a rock and he can't retrieve it. Yip, yip, yap, yap. I can hear him for at least a mile.

Then there's the guy with the dog the size of a Holstein calf. Same coloring, too. No visible poop baggie, but maybe he's putting it in his sweatshirt pocket? Blankets will be going down tomorrow for the fireworks. Watch out, folks.

And the poor little overweight doggie who looks like a black and tan Dachshund with some white. His little short legs can barely keep up with his 14" companion and his abdomen is dragging. Seems it might be more beneficial to get him some diet food before the strain of keeping up with a healthier dog.

I've seen a few pit bulls. Do you really need to crop their cute, soft, floppy ears like that? Unless you plan to enter them in ring fights, is that necessary?

http://www.jennyspups.net/Pages/CCP.aspx

https://www.thedodo.com/ear-cropping-cruel-1212872917.html

Brunch at the Patio

Our niece and nephew from Indianapolis are with us at Lakeside to celebrate the July 4 holiday.  After church on the lakefront, we went to the Patio Restaurant for brunch. The weather is gorgeous today (Sunday) and I hope it holds for the festivities.  We had a great program last night at Hoover Auditorium, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

Missing potato masher

After complaining for 4 years that my potato masher and blender had disappeared, I dashed to Wal-Mart on a Friday afternoon and Lake Erie traffic looked like the beltway in DC. I also got caught in a massive thunderstorm. But I succeeded. Mashed potatoes, steak and salad for dinner tonight. And Dutch Apple pie ala Marie Callendar.