A Charlie Brown Christmas

 

Ol Tannenbaum

 Ok, I admit, I am currently watching a Hallmark Christmas movie.  The plot is all the same, everynight, Nov. thru Dec. and even July.  I won't mention that in all those Christmas movies, Christ is seldom mentioned and even mispronounced when referring to the Holidays.  It has become generic.

I spent my high school years in the southern part of the state of Washington.  Minority of 1.5.  It was known for DB Cooper and Mt. St. Helens.  Vancouver, Washington.  you always attached Washington as most would assume that I was Canadian.  One winter, some friends of mine decided to cut down their own Christmas tree.  The National Forest was within spitting distance and for a two dollar permit, you could cut down your own tree.  

We suspect our selected trees were destined for toilet paper, as the problem is that one forest looks like any other.  In other words the National Forest is indistinguishable from Weyerhauser land.  Weyerhauser was the paper company that owned their own mountains of trees and often were responsible for those patches of bare land on the back side of the mountains.  A former beautiful landscape that looked like the barren hills of LA sprinkled with toothpicks.  Most roads were barely one lane, soaked in oil (vs asphalt) and shared with large logging trucks that ate Volkswagens for lunch.

 In a forest, all trees look alike and ironically size is hard to judge.  We should have figured that out when we had trouble tieing them down to an old Dodge Dart.  Youth sees no obstacles or common sense.  At the time, my dad and I lived in a duplex above the garage.  The driveway sloped down to a depth of a basement.  My sister was home for the holidays and was watching from the upper window.  When I propped the tree upright in the driveway, she could look straight ahead at the tip of the tree.  I had to chop off about a third off the bottom of the tree.

The other issue of a natural forest, all trees look the same, Mother Nature does not naturally shape trees to resemble the neighborhood Christmas tree lot inventory.  Christmas tree growers trim and shape specially bred trees for our holiday pleasure.  I think the natural trees of Washington and Oregon look more like mature Charley Brown trees.  I had to take the discarded bottom, take selected branches, drill holes in the trunk and insert to fill the large gaps.  Dr. Frankenstein would be proud.  

I have spent the rest of my adult life selling Christmas trees.  I worked the Lucky Market Tree lot when I worked my way through college, the YMCA tree lot for my son's Indian Guides program and the West High Entertainment Unit tree lot.  I found myself ordering, pricing and hoping we sell out.  Competition was Home Depot, the Pop Up tree lots down the street and the famed Torrance Y lot. I would personally pick and deliver trees to family friends.  Ironically we have for years decorated our house with artificial trees due to ours son's allergies and asthma.  Our latest is from Costco, including lights.

I need to get back to the Hallmark movie to see how it ended.  I have yet to see one where they don't get together, but I keep hoping.  Bahhh Humbug !!

Remembrance

 Cancer and Chemo seems distant and memories faint.  Three years is not that long ago.  I was watching a NHK program following a young lady diagnosed with breast cancer.  From diagnosis, to surgery, to chemo, radiation, then adjustment back into society.

It was interesting as it was a different path than my colon cancer, but then during one interview during her chemo treatment, I saw the look in her eyes.  That look pierced through the tv screen and hit me square on.  I recognized the look, but more than that, I felt what she was experiencing.  That chemo feeling midway through, both physically, mentally and emotionally.  Something I thought faded from my memory came rushing back.

People can sympathize, commiserate, but not fully understand.  That yeuchy feeling, dreading the next pill, next chemo infusion, next feeling of your body adjusting to the poison flowing through your veins.

But that look.  May you or your loved ones never recognize that look.

Mrs. Wada's class

I Surrender

 I have been anti Social Media for some time, but find myself being slowly sucked in.  First it my cousin Grace to view her photos posting, then it was Instagram to follow the grandkids.  This week it was because of Covid 19.  The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival went virtual on Facebook.  I had to catch up on the ins and outs of Facebook in order to share the info.  Of course that didn't work without our live in tech support after he woke up.  Had to supply him with my precious supply of Philz coffee.

Well, I finally gave in as I open my Facebook bookmark multiple times a day.  Yes, at least two the three times a day.  My downfall?  I joined a Facebook group on the Far Side.  People post their favorite Far Side cartoons and cartoons from other artists with the same bent sense of humor.  This is one of my favorites.

Aging Scars

Nine years since bypass surgery.  Quadruple bypass (4 out of 5)

I still haven't gotten use to the scar down my chest. 

 

From Johns Hopkins Medicine

"Your doctor uses coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) to treat a blockage or narrowing of one or more of the coronary arteries to restore the blood supply to your heart muscle.

Symptoms of coronary artery disease may include:

• Chest pain (check)

• Fatigue (severe tiredness) (check)

• Palpitations

• Abnormal heart rhythms

• Shortness of breath

• Swelling in the hands and feet

• Indigestion

  
  

  I remember tubes connected everywhere, machines beeping, nurses (the best!!), Sam Miyamoto's legs,  the rumble of the portable XRAY machine coming down the hall, cold XRAY plates, and constant blood draws.  You learn to just go with the flow, and let them do anything to your body, poke, cut, stitch, shave, insert, poke again.  The right leg ankle is still stiff from the artery removal.  

  
  

9 years

 Im not sure what this day is.  It is 9 years to the day that I had my heart attack.  I remember it being on a Thursday night at a West High Entertainment Board meeting.  The sharp pain on my left side below the collar bone.  A sharp, deep pain, that went away after awhile.  Then it came back about this time of the night.  It becomes a blur after that.

Is this a celebration? Anniversary? Im not sure.  Im still here, with scars too many to count both physical and mental.  Then I saw a picture the other day that put it in perspective.