huh....

I forgot my blog last night

     I think this is the first time I have forgotten to write in over 2 years.
     803 posts....and last night was  the first time I have forgotten.
     Yes, there were days I did not feel like writing, so my messages were short.
     But forgot?
     Hope that is not a sign.

Whaa whaa whaa

I have to get a blood test tomorrow

     For 99 percent of the population, that is no big deal.
     But for the 1 percent like me, it is.  (Huh.  I am in the wrong 1 per cent.  I would rather be in the have so much money don't know what to buy next 1 per cent.  But I digress.)
     I don't like needles.
     I don't like shots.
     I don't like blood draws.
     Never have.  Never will.
     When I was in high school, or maybe my freshman year at college, I had a wisdom tooth that needed to come out.  My family dentist said I needed to go to an oral surgeon.
     So I went to this man, who was on the sixth or seventh floor of a building down by Lawrence and Broadway in Chicago.  The El tracks were right outside the office, but several stories down.
     I thought they were just going to look at the tooth and schedule an appointment.
     But the nurse gave me a shot.  When I saw the needle, I got woozy.  After the shot, I swear the El tracks came right up to my nose, spun around 10 times, then went back down and repeated their crazy dance.
     And I almost fell out of the chair.
     I had to lay down.
     In a little while, they put me back in the chair and he eventually pulled the tooth.  He then packed my mouth with gauze and sent me home.
     It was about 95 degrees.  And since I came from a car less family, I was used to walking so I didn't bring any money for bus fare.  I walked about a mile and a half home, in the heat, mouth packed with gauze that by the time I got home was all bloody.
    And all the way home I was thinking, what kind of doctor pulls a tooth on a 17 year old kid who doesn't have any money,  or a parent with him, or even asks how I'm getting home?  Come to think of it, I don't know if he even got paid for pulling it.  Oh well.
     But, again I digress.
     When Jackie and I went for a blood test to get married, I nearly fainted.
     When I looked at Emily's finger with the pin in it, I nearly fainted.
     When I got my first blood test to check my liver because I take a cholesterol medication, I nearly fainted.  The second time, I had to lay down, because....well, you finish the sentence.
     Now I take off my glasses, look the other way, sometimes I hum a Beatles tune, and I talk constantly.
     I ask if the needle is new.  If the person is experienced.  If there is any risk of a natural disaster during the time my blood is actually being taken.
     The nurses laugh, because they think I am joking.
     But I am not.....I don't like needles.
     Emily gives me flu shots and I am fine, as long as I don't look at her, the needle, the arm, the medicine packet.  And I close my eyes and hum.  I am better, but not great.
     I envy people, like Jackie, who sit down and get poked and are fine.
     I don't think I will ever reach that level.

time saved = time lost

I seem to have found a few hours

    One positive side effect of my trip to Cuba is not playing spider solitaire.  I seem to have found about 2 hours a day extra to read and do other things.
    But, with the Cubs on, I find I have lost those two hours!
    Dilemma:  I love the Cubs.  I love to read.  I can't read when the Cubs are on because I listen to the game.  I either have to give up reading or give up the Cubs.
    I  could explain my need to wtach.  Like the Cubs have not won in my life time;  I've seen lots of terrible baseball, so it's nice to see some good ball; finding the games is a challenge since they seem to be on three different channels; (and in keeping with the Rockford TV stations' Code of Incompetence not all of them are carried in HD.  It's obvious, because they all look short and squat.)  I just like baseball., it's been very, very good to me.
    So.....watch or not.....hard to choose.
    But right now the Angels are coming up in the second inning and I am missing the action.
    I guess my mind is made up tonight.
    Go Cubs Go!!
   

Play ball!!

I am thinking about being 10 again

     No, I have not invented a time machine.
     But when I was about 10, my parents bought a house and I had my own room.  One of my prized possessions was a white Philco radio that sat on a fold our desk.  The desk was very neat and I am sorry my mom got rid of it when she sold the house...but that is a different story.
     A white radio on the black desk.  The radio had a hump in the middle, and a golden dial with an arrow that showed what channel you were listening to.
     And I only had three channels that I listened to....WLS, sometimes WCFL, and WGN.
     Dick Biondi, Riley's Raiders, top 40 surveys and Chicago Cubs baseball.
     I was thinking of that today.  The Cubs are opening against the Angels out in California, first pitch at 9 p.m. our time.
     When I was a kid, I would hate those west coast trips because I was usually in bed well before the third inning.  But I would have that radio on, listening to the Cubs battle the Dodgers and Giants.
     I remember the voices of  Lloyd Petit, Vince Lloyd, Lou Boudreau, Jack Quinlan .... the golden voice of Jack Quinlan.
     And I remember the Cubs not being very successful, despite the heroics of Ernie Banks.
     I won't be listening to the game on the radio tonight....hopefully I will find the channel for TV.
     I know I won't make it to the end of the game.
     But at some point, when I close my eyes, I'll hear that white Philco radio again.
     Go Cubs Go...this is the year!!

not again

I am tired of hearing some things over and over

     Call me irritable, but some things just are getting my craw lately.
     Among them the following:

Let's make America great again.

Wait until next year.

Derek Rose missed tonight's game because of an injury.

It's 29 degrees currently in DeKalb.

I'm moving to (fill in the blank) if (fill in the blank) wins in November.

Will it bite?

Why can't you put your stuff away?

What are your dirty socks doing on the counter?

The Bears are looking for an impact  player on defense when they pick in the first round.

Omaha!  Omaha!!

No, our chip card reader does not work yet.

Please stop eating the grapes before you buy them.

I won't vote for any of those people!

Mike Madigan.

     There.  That;s it.
     How about you??

were have all the people gone....

I have a final thought...again

    Someone asked me why my pictures from Cuba  don't have a lot of people in them.
     Interesting, I thought.
     One of the things that struck me about Cuba was the number of people.  There were dozens at every bus stop in town, sometimes it seemed like a hundred people were waiting for a city bus.  Side streets were crowded with families.
      But I don't have pictures of any of that.
     I often saw people lined up for the bus when I was on our bus....and pictures through a tinted window at 30 mph don't come out very well.
     I walked the Malecon, the long sea wall walk that separates Havana from the Atlantic, and hardly saw anyone during the day.  But at night, the sea wall and walk were crowded with people and families.  Our guide called it the world's largest sofa.
     When I looked at my pictures, I have some crowded street scenes, but they are in touristy areas... so the people may be Brits, or Canadian, or Russians, or Americans.......probably not Cubans.
     I don't know if that is a government accomplishment, or  if those areas where tourists go are more expensive and out of reach of most Cubans.  Or maybe both.
     But the streets were crowded.... people do live there.... I just didn't capture them in pictures.
     So.......here are a few scenes that feature crowds, but they are not really indicative of the numbers of people we saw on corners in areas out of the tourist area.

taken through bus window....looking down a side street off a main road

passageway off a boulevard

tourist zone

just a house .....

In the tourist zone

Malecon hardly had people during the day... at night it was a gathering place.  Note the four lanes of traffic.  In Havana, cars have the right of way.  To get to this spot I crossed 8 lanes of traffic.  There are no crosswalks and few traffic signals.  Cars and trucks will not slow down for pedestrians, but they do honk!  The capitol building is in the center of the picture

reflections

I think it's a wrap

    Well, there you have it.  My Cuba trip, as best I can recall.
     I think Dan had a great time, I know I did.

A boy and his tobacco drying

     My memories of the night at the mural project, the visit to Hemingway's villa, the paladar lunches in the country, daquries in Hemingway's haunt and mojitoes in general will stay with me for a long time.
     For those who missed it.... a mojito is a drink.  Take some mint leaves, crush them in a glass.  Add some natural sugar, then pour in two ounces of rum and add some soda.  Garnish with a lime and presto, instant refreshment on a hot day.

Hollowing out a palm tree to make a seat

     In one of my early posts I mentioned the difference between CUCs and Cuban pesos.  Pesos are basically what the Cuban people use

on an everyday basis.  A CUC is a convertible peso, which is what tourists use.  So products can have different prices.  In one shop, a pint of rum was 4.5 CUCs  or 134 pesos.  By the way, 134 pesos is a huge sum for a Cuban person.
     So many things I didn't mention..... the US embassy, school kids, crossing streets, ...I could spend days  writing about it.  And maybe I will.  Who knows?
     I would go back again....and hopefully, I will get that chance.  But I am not holding my breath.
     So, in parting, some pictures of general interest.
    Thanks for reading this....I do appreciate all your comments and likes and just the fact that you bothered to read it at all.

A man and his oxen....obviously

Dashboards have changed in 60 years......where's the wheel cover??

Most cars have been made into converts.... but some original sedans still exist

Hemingway did not shoot this in Cuba

Fidel's field of flags

This is the US embassy, behind the field of flags.  At one time there was an electronic scrolling message across the upper part of the embassy.  It gave messages that the Cuban government did not like, so they erected maybe 100 flag poles in the plaza across the street.  Then they hung huge black flags, which effectively blocked out the message on the embassy.  The US discontinued the messages and the flags came down, all except one.

Across from the community center created by the crazy mural people

It's made with car parts..

Part of the mural project

The street was lined with sculptures and  murals... all done by artists of all ages at the community center.

We are all in this together

Hopefully I can remember this....Elena was a woman in the neighborhood of the community center.  She was elderly, but every night she would walk to a bench at the end of the street and sit.  Every night.  She would sit for hours.  She did this for years.  One day she was asked, why?  She replied, she was waiting for her love to come back.  So the mural people created this bench in her memory.

The mural project people impressed me!  This statue is of an older gent in the neighborhood who loved to dance.... and still does.  When they were casting it, an elderly woman approached him and said to make it life like, it needed good teeth...so the woman went home and found her mother's teeth, which she had saved for years, and those teeth were put into the statue.  Real teeth....never seen that before  in a statue.

Cathedral in Cathedral square

window in the cathedral

I don't think it was very seaworthy

School kids in Cuba wear uniforms.  These are elementary kids, because they have red and white.  Middle school is gold and white and high school is blue and white.  Kindergartners wear the sdame uniforms, but they do not have a scarf....that comes with first grade

This garden was in the yard of a gallery opposite the cathedral.  The wall was done in tiles...I counted 26 rows up, and 40 across.  The garden was a quiet spot in the middle of a city of 2 million people

part of the garden wall

I

OK, I used to know why people rub his beard.....I think it was for good luck, or that you would return one day, or that it was fun to do.  You could also pull the finger....but I don't think this bronze statue would have farted.  I have no idea what it is pointing to.

little girl was in a wedding at the fort where I took the car pictures

owner of the tobacco farm where I bought rough cigars

building in back is the barn where tobacco is hung to dry

In the lobby of the OnCuba magazine....this is a cut paper work, about 6 feet hight and four feet wide....should have had a person in for perspective

They are a fun people!