My Baby Done Gone and Growed Up

Today is an auspicious day.  All of my children are now in the second act of a two-act play called life.  My youngest, my baby, my Laura, has turned 40.  Zounds! I have 3 other children who have, at one time or another, hit the big 4-0h, and one who has just tripped over the half century mark, but none of those anniversaries had the impact of this one. ALL of my children are now 40 and older.  In short, I have no offspring in the 30s.  If we do the math, that makes me...carry the one...old.  As if 9 grandchildren didn't do that already.  (I imagine I will have similar feelings when Tracy reaches 60 (OMG), but with any luck I won't have to blog about it.)

I feel a bit cheated by having had so little time with Laura after her mom and I divorced, certainly not the years I had with her sisters during their youths.  I have scant few pictures of Laura to recall those times, as most of them stayed with her mom.

Not sure when this was, but pre-divorce, I think. 

 

She tried hard...but...

 ...maybe the arts.

 

 

What a cutie....

 

And talented...

Our real bonding came when I introduced Laura to snowboarding in 2003.  She was determined to get it, at all costs.  Her instructors were amazed....that any human being would submit to that level of physical punishment voluntarily. 

Here's my Righteous Babe the evening before Day 1. She was still young then. New England is icy!

Laura and friend, pre-slopes. She was excited.  Did I mention the ice?

Over the years, she acquired a taste for the snow and we took more family trips, though that was the only one she and I did together by ourselves.  One trip we went to Colorado with Brant, also an acolyte of the board--but that is another story--and all looked great... at first.

Early in trip:

End of Trip:

 And so it went for a while...Laura uphill, Laura down....But, at some point, we got the babe a decent board and her health started looking up.  Well, almost...there was that trip to Montana...oh, well, nevermind.

During the many child-bearing years of her siblings, Laura was a fantastic aunt.  You could always count on Aunt LaLa to make the kids laugh or, better yet, to take care of them.  She loved (and still loves) them all.  Her twin nieces lured her out to California in 2008 and we East Coasters have been sad ever since.  Occasional Christmases are not enough!  This is one of my favorites from one of those trips.

But LaLa hankered for some progeny of her own to raise, and in the fullness of time, I had to perform my last official act as Dad.

...which, of course, led to this:

I am amazed by what she does, and how she does it. Managing a family of two men, one big/one small, while running a personally demanding business is beyond hard.  It can't be impossible, because she is doing it.  And doing it well, amazingly even (I hear things).  The fact that she has now officially slid into middle-age makes it even tougher.   Hang in there, Laura, good things are coming. And Happy Birthday, Baby.

It's Getting Close...and Stinky

I liked the second Presidential debate better than the first--more civility. Except from the moderator. That title is a joke, none of them are moderate anythings.  VP Pence hit hard on the fracking issue (the Dems are lying about it, but that should not surprise anyone--they lie about everything) and the court packing scheme.  Tell us your plans, Joe.  He didn't.  He waffled, as politicians think they can and/or must, it seems.  When asked if he thought the American people deserved to know his stand on court packing, he said, clearly and distinctly, "No, they don't." (The best thing about Trump is that he is not a politician, he is a businessman.)

In the second debate, the President hit hard on fracking--hint, hint, they're still lying--and the unadmitted shenanigans by the Biden crime family in China, Russia, Ukraine, and who knows where else.  Influence peddling like there was no tomorrow.  Let's hope there won't be.

The sad part of this revelation about clear criminality is that many Americans are jaded about it--"that's just how things are in Washington." That is a disservice to the few public servants who don't sell themselves.  Joe should be in the Big House, not the White House.

BIDEN-HARRIS 2020

P.S. Kamala is on the left (natch)

 

Grossi's Day, comes and goes.

Ursula Johanna would have been 96 today if she could have held on.  But that was so improbable as to stretch to impossible.  Her life had been a lot for any human to take on, and I really think she was ready to go.  Without Waldo, it was even tougher.  But she loved her birthday, more than any of us. (I try to ignore mine, and have been actively doing so for the last 20 years.)

Every October 8th is a short pause in the journey of  life, to stop, stand still, and think, holy moley, what would she (and my life) be like if she were still here.  Crazy, Daddy-o. 

Here are some shots of her in happier times.

This has always been one of my favorites, not sure why. I suspect she didn't like it much because she seemed so vulnerable in it.  She was a handful at that age...by all accounts.  If you look closely, there is a resemblance to one or more of her great-granddaughters.

 

 

 

 With Waldo,  early days.  They seemed to have a good time together then.  I don't remember much about it, and they rarely showed that side to me.

 

 I think this is Tracy. Mother hated that I made her a grandmother by 45, though she soon got over it by playing with the cause.  Some people are almost that old when they give birth themselves. Yikes!

Later, during her last few months, she still ruled the roost, mostly because it wasn't worth the grief to go up against her.  She must have been very lonely.  It terrifies me when I see parts of that face looking back at me from the mirror.

    

This is a great one, despite the fact that I am in it. Four  generations...wow.  And the littlest one in the picture now towers over the other two remaining.  Life is indeed strange.  And fleeting.

The Veep Debate

Wow.  That was not as awful as I had anticipated.  Unless you count the myriad lies told by Senator Harris and the hideously slanted questions from the moderator.  How can a rational human mind not see right through that?  Oops, I forgot there are no rationale Dems.  My bad.  If Sleepy Joe and Kreepy Kamala win the election, I hope to all things sacred that Joe can hold out for all 4 years, because the only thing worse than a Biden presidency would be a Harris administration.  Oh, I do so hope America hasn't totally lost its mind come November.

I understand if you don't like Trump...TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is a powerful thing.  Then please vote (i) for Pence, for America, or (ii) against Biden, against Socialism, ... like I am doing.

This is the sign that should be in the yard: