Beautiful Oasis

My incredibly creative and wonderful husband has done it again!! What started out as a little idea of mine - perhaps a little corner pond off of our patio - has turned into another Harry feat. I started digging a spot the winter of 2009 and then it sat there, a useless hole, during the hot summer months. Sam and I took up the cause again this past winter, digging drywall buckets of gravel and coral rock out and Harry carted them a few at a time to an empty lot we own for fill material. At times, the job seemed impossible. We discovered mamouth chunks of coral that needed the assistance of the laws of physics and a hammer drill to unearth. I began to contemplate the value of TNT. The project then began to snowball. We needed a waterfall. We needed electrical power and a pump house and underground pipes and drainage. Harry dragged beautiful coral rocks back from a rental property a few at a time. We moved a behemoth landscape rock from the front and another purchased in Miami. These rocks entailed platforms, rollers and Harry the Pharaoh and Carolyn the slave, rolling the monsters to the backyard and into place. Harry built a platform for the waterfall out of cement. "It is too big" I lamented - it turned out to be perfect. Matt's brother in law Ryan, who was visiting, made the mistake of asking one day if there was anything he could do to help. Next thing he knew, he and Matt moved a citrus tree and dug trenches. Sam helped. I helped. But the hero was Harry, who envisioned and created this absolutely delightful, and soothing, water scape.

The Empty Nest

After a visit from Jack and Matt, Matt's brother-in-law Ryan, and Sam's friend Amy who lives in San Fransisco - and then everyone departing including Sam (for a visit "up north"), it is quiet around Manatee Insanity. Too quiet, perhaps.

This was the 2nd Annual Urich Boy's Fishing trip, but the weather did not cooperate one bit. The winds were consistently blowing enough to make a trip out to the Gulf Stream unpleasant and not doable with Jack on board. We were disappointed, but filled the time with activity. Harry and the boys and I headed over to Sanibel Island on the gulf coast for a couple days. Jack wore us out with swimming in the ocean and pool and a night time flash light adventure down the beach hunting for shells and crabs. We teased Grandpa Harry a good deal over a crab that scurried toward him instead of away, and according to Jack, he "screamed like a girl" when the crab landed on his foot. We ate seafood and Matt was able to visit with a college buddy who happened to be staying with his family on the island. I appreciated that Matt would discuss politics for hours on end with Harry and give me some relief!

When Uncle Ryan "Ry-Ry" Fitzpatrick arrived, we feasted on Doc Ford's Yucatan shrimp (a dish recreated from a favorite spot in Sanibel) and the younger crowd hung out long after Jack and his grandparents went to bed. The next day we drove to Marathon to swim at the motel, did tourist activities and also did some evening shark fishing. Our last day was spent in the secluded and sheltered mangroves catching snappers and a last dinner out with a nightcap at the Pilot House bar that has underwater lights and glass in the floorboards and tubes to feed the fish. Jack ended the night with a solo dance to the band playing "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Good taste.


Jack went to the airport, wearing his new shirt backwards since he liked the design and his new pirate gear. I wonder is the TSA took his plastic sword away?

I miss them. And, I am sure that in a few years, I will be able to have both Ruby and Jack here for Grammy Care's Day Camp. Jack loves Florida and did not want to leave. When I asked him if he wouldn't miss everyone in Ohio, he told me he could go there on holidays! I encouraged him to work on his Mom. Maybe they will come back some day!

Tripping

I have calmed down from my confrontation with the TSA, but I am not done. I have researched the new scanning device, which are called, in some reports, a virtual strip search. There are questions about safety from exposure. And, the TSA itself stated that the scan was to replace pat downs. Apparently they forgot to tell the folks in Albuquerque. I will be writing my protest letters to my congresswoman and such, but of course, I will get the usual canned responses I always do. I remember being a child and a real treat was to get our feet xrayed in a machine in the shoe department in the downtown Youngstown department store we went to for our oh-so sturdy Stride Rites. The radiation hazards associated with shoe fitting x-ray units were recognized as early as 1950. The machines were often out of adjustment and were constructed so radiation leaked into the surrounding area. Who knew?? And who knows what the effects from these body scans will be.

On a more positive note, my trip to Albuquerque was to visit my stepdaughter Jezebel, her husband Matt and there two babies, our grandchildren, Jenavieve and Anastasia. This visit followed my trip to Ohio the week before to attend my granddaughter Ruby's second birthday and visit her brother Jack and parents, Matt and Megan.

Ohio weather was lovely. Warm days and cool nights. Everything looked so lush but I found myself missing palm trees. I didn't think that would ever happen! I did enjoy seeing grass though, and Matt and Megan's looked particularly beautiful since they had a new sprinkler system installed. Down here, grass is difficult to grow so rock and coral are substitutes in many yards. Several highlights of the visit were: Ruby kissing my hand after I arrived and telling me she missed me. Jack lying in bed with me sharing stories and telling me "someone loves you more than anything in the whole world - me!" Our birthday dinner at the famous Tony Packo's and Megan's sister going into labor and delivering a beautiful baby girl the next morning with Megan there to witness. Jack and Ruby and I going to see Toy Story 3 - Jack wearing the new pajamas I gave him that he didn't want to take off.


The trip to Albuquerque was very different. Albuquerque is in the high desert and the scenery is so very different. Much of the landscaping is called "zeroscape" and it is very architectural with stones, cactus and soil. With mountains in the background, and very expansive skies, it is quite striking. Matt and Jezebel live on the Rio Grande river in a very interesting contemporary home built by an architect. Since Jezebel is an artist and has a gallery, the home is simply furnished with plants and art. And now, toys and baby equipment. Everywhere. Their daughters are 15 months apart. Jenievieve is 19 months, very sweet and soft spoken. I am very struck by how much she resembles Sammy as a baby. Anastasia is a very sweet baby also, and they are very lucky. We all went to dinner at a very upscale restaurant and fortunately had a private room, but nonetheless, the kids were wonderful. Ana needed some bouncing and fussing over because she is the opposite of her sister - she bellows! We visited Jezebels gallery in Madrid (where part of the movie "Wild Hogs" was filmed) and if you want to step back in time to the hippy dippy days of the 60's - this is the place. I love the town and Jezebel's gallery is just beautiful with her lighting. We also visited Matt's office. How about having your own ping pong table and exercise equipment? We enjoyed spending time and catching up, because we don't get to see them as often as we would like.

Homeland Security - Big Brother

I am so angry right now I can not stop vibrating internally. Something snapped today and I think as Americans, we need to stop our complacent attitudes and start looking carefully at how our rights are being infringed upon.

I fly frequently because I have family scattered all over the country. The benefits of that are airline elite status, upgrades and many comforts that average people don't always get. But, like all people, I have to go through this insane airport screening. First, we allowed ourselves to be checked for metals and our bags scanned. Sometimes our bags were searched. I have had items removed (children's rounded edged scissors, nail clippers). Solution - check your bags. OK, so now we have to pay to check bags. Then we had limits on liquids. How many people have lost items from that? A $10 bottle of special shampoo here, a medication there - expense has been enormous if you look at an entire population. The number of TSA agents has increased. Who pays their salaries? Slowly and insidiously we are being more and more controlled by a government that has created a fear factor. Does it make sense that on board, I can get a can of Diet Coke and break it in half and create a weapon but I cannot carry on my toenail clippers? Consider the number of flights daily in the world and how many of those are compromised by terrorists?

Scan my bags, OK. Scan me for metals, OK. I won't like it but I will tolerate it. But this new body scan that makes you raise your hands above your head while they see you under your clothes is not OK. But today was the final straw, for some reason I was selected to be "patted down." So the female TSA officer comes over and tells me she has to touch my breasts but just with the back of her hands. Standing out in front of the entire airport. I said no. That was not OK with me. That is an invasion of my privacy as a citizen. So she said she would have to call her supervisor who came over and announced loudly "well, that is all right, she just won't make her flight today." By then I was ballistic. So they called security who told me if I didn't cooperate he would send me on the bus out of the airport! I asked him if he wouldn't care if someone wanted to pat his wife down in public and touch her breasts. He gave me more lip. I told the TSA person to take me into a private room and they did their pat down. What for?? My dangerous under wire bra which I am going to turn into a mechanism to pick the lock of the door into the cockpit?

If you know me, then you know that I am slow to blow but this just turned me into a real bitch. I couldn't even believe how I lipped off. I mean, I could have been back in college yelling in a Vietnam war protest at the "pigs." I have just had it with the treatment of humans as cattle in airport security. I am frightened by the invasion of our privacy by Homeland Security. We need to reclaim our country, our privacy and our dignity. I still had to go through the "procedures" but I sure didn't do it without a public display of my opinions and I am not embarrassed, but proud. I have names and badge numbers and believe me, I will write my letters.