Five years ago this very second I was in the hospital in Mission Viejo filming the first video below of a crying baby boy who would come to call me “Ca-wee”. Five years later, little Andy is the light of all of our lives. In ten years I’m going to show him the second video and wonder if he still has his soap and ketchup bottle collection? Let’s hope so! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!! xoxo
Andy, minutes after birth and 5 years later “eating wind”!
For his birthday, Lisa hired “The Lizard Wizard” and Andy’s dream of holding an alligator came true. He even liked the tarantula and the cockroach (unlike some of the kids…and adults)! What a brave little boy!
Happy Birthday Andy Bear!
Even Mommy got in on the action!
A princess and three handsome princes??
Direct from Madagascar came this cockroach!
The expressions on this little boy’s face were priceless!
In August, less than 2 months before he died, my Uncle George visited his hometown of Iron Mountain, Michigan and went fishing with his brother. To say my uncle loved to fish was an understatement. I think the only thing he loved more, was his wife, his grandkids and his brother! Despite a cold rain that day, my 81 year old uncle and his brother hiked more than 100 yards through the woods, carrying a heavy canoe to a secret fishing hole. They had quite an adventure that day, and his brother wrote a story about it that was published in the local paper:
IRON MOUNTAIN – It was tough, but the end reward was worth it all.
Let’s just say our fishing trip seemed doomed from the start. It was a bright shining day when I picked up my brother George. Then things started to go a little bad.
While in the truck, we noted we both forgot sunglasses – number one mistake. We picked up the canoe at the camp and drove a few miles to a lake in the Republic area.
Then, two senior citizens still had to carry the canoe 100 yards through the woods to the lake. Got to the lake, ready to launch the canoe. We soon discovered that the paddles, life jackets, and fishing poles were back at camp.
Back to camp we go and we were back to square one.
Once again, back at the lake, ready to go. Then the minnow bucket tipped – minnows all over the ground. Hand-picked them up (a few even lived); now we are on our way.
While pushing the canoe out, we sank in mud up to our knees. Two seniors stuck in mud. But we got out and soon were floating across the lake. We paddled quite a ways and got set to put a dead minnow on the hook.
One hour into fishing and not a bite. We figured it was the minnows’ fault. We would not give up just yet.
Brother George decided to have a sandwich, took a couple bites and it fell out of his hand into the bottom of a slightly wet canoe. It seems things were getting worse.
But then the perch started biting.
In five minutes we had three 12-inch perch on the stringer.
Somehow, stinger and all fell out of hand overboard. All perch were gone.
Now for sure he was ready to call it quits. I talked him into staying because the fish were starting to bite.
Bottom line, 30 jumbo perch (10 to 13 inches) in a couple hours of fishing. We were happy and finally did call it quits for the day.
Getting the canoe back out of the woods to the truck was harder than getting in. Somehow that canoe got at least 100 pounds heavier.
I should mention on the way out I lost my pocket knife and Brother got poked in the eye with a tree branch and we crushed the minnow bucket.
We were glad to get back to camp in one piece.
But the doomed trip turned out to be a great success. We will both remember it for a long time and George now has a fishing story to tell when he gets back to California.
I’m sure it was the highlight of his vacation.
I’m staying with my aunt this week, and obviously there are reminders of Uncle George everywhere. I smell his cologne in the bathroom when I shower. I’m sleeping on his pillow, which I find comforting. Tomorrow, friends and family will gather to celebrate his memory. We’ve been trying to keep this week as normal as possible for the kids. Last night we made caramel apples which they loved:
Tressa, Andy, Dar & Tommy
Great Grandma (Aunty LuLu) with kids
Andy likes taffy apples!
Oh Brother let’s go down…down to the lake and fish
And finally, I couldn’t let today pass without acknowledging a birthday. Chazz turned 1 year old today!! In that year, I’ve taken over 700 photos of him:
Update: Despite yesterday’s incredible news, which I still encourage everyone to read below, my beloved Uncle George passed away peacefully this morning, with none of the extraordinary, damaging measures that he had to endure for the past week. I fully believe that is the way he wanted it. He made the most of his last night with us, and it rivaled the best of our family parties…and we throw good parties! Had he survived, his quality of life would have changed drastically and he wouldn’t have liked that. He fought until the end and surrendered on his own terms, enjoying time with his family. I’m so glad that I began making videos of his stories lately. He was the best story teller I ever knew, and I will always look back at these videos fondly and remember a life well lived. As I left the hospital last night to take my aunt home, I told him I loved him and he grabbed my hand and said “I love you too Care.”
Click Play, Above Right. “Now don’t forget, this is going on Internet.” “That’s all right!”
Uncle George remembered so much about his life and loved to share his memories. When I told him that I wanted to start recording him on video, he laughed, but I think he really liked the idea. The first story told in the above video is actually pretty funny. It involves a drunken train conductor and some young girls hitting on my uncle (who was even a stud back then) when he worked in a hotel after coming home from the war. The second story involves my aunt scouting for Nazi & Japanese war planes in Iron Mountain, Michigan (of all places) during WWII when she was in high school. The third story is a retelling of a joke they used to play on their (less favorite) nephew.
What a roller coaster of a day…from the time I took my aunt home on Sunday night and Lisa stayed the night with him wiping tears from his face, to when he extubated himself and started talking, saying it was the happiest day of his life, to twelve hours later when he died.
I posted the following blog at 2 AM this morning, a few hours before my uncle passed away:
Regular readers of this space know of my fondness for my Uncle George. You’ve watched him celebrate his 79th, 80th and 81st birthdays with me; laughed at the stories he told on his 60th wedding anniversary to his 82 year old “cougar” of a wife, my “Aunty LuLu“; and listened as he regaled me with stories of the “old days” that always ended with a hearty laugh. At 81, he’s far more fit than I am. In fact, he still works as an usher at the Angel’s baseball stadium, a job he loves. My aunt and uncle spent several weeks in Michigan over the summer while I was in Italy, and while there my uncle contracted a mild case of pneumonia. When they came back, he had lost a little weight, but since he’s strong as an ox, he didn’t let it affect him much and he continued to work around the house and go to his job at the ball park.
When I went to their house for my regular spaghetti dinner a week ago Thursday, he said he was feeling much better and even gave me an inhaler for my asthma that had been prescribed to him for his pneumonia, which he said he no longer needed. We all laughed and remarked that it was pretty sad that I was sharing medicine with my 81 year old uncle, because HE didn’t need it and I did! I didn’t take a photo that evening (like I usually do), as I remember thinking he still looked a little thin.
Fast forward to last Tuesday. My uncle was working the Angel’s game, but asked his boss if he could leave early in the 7th inning. As he went to leave, he collapsed and fell backwards hitting his head. As it turns out, there was a nurse waking by in the stadium. She immediately began giving my uncle CPR until the paramedics arrived. They determined he had gone into cardiac arrest due to a fatal arrhythmia, and shocked him back to life with a defibrillator. He was taken by ambulance to University of California, Irvine Medical Center where he went into cardiac arrest a second time and was paddled again.
Sunset from the hospital window
When I arrived at the hospital Wednesday, on my way to San Diego for a business trip, things didn’t look good. He was hooked up to a ventilator that was breathing for him, and his blood pressure was dangerously low. An angiogram revealed that a bypass he had more than 20 years ago was nearly completely blocked, and his heart was only pumping at about 15% capacity. Though there’s not much they can do about the heart problems at his age, they were hoping to wean him off the medicine so he could breathe on his own. And the waiting began. We all tried to keep a positive attitude and make the best out of a bad situation by laughing and letting him hear us laugh.
I was even able to get quite a bit of work done Friday afternoon
Back on the chain gang
The kids never went in, but they were a welcome distraction!
By Friday we all had to wear scrubs while visiting due to the possibility of infection. Also, he was beginning to develop pneumonia again. I stayed with my aunt, and as each day wore on, my uncle looked sadder and sadder. Because he was intubated (had a tube down his throat breathing for him), he couldn’t speak. Things culminated this morning as his medicine wore off and it became increasingly clear that he did not want to be there. It finally got so bad, that the doctor asked the family leave for two hours, and that’s when something remarkable happened…
Auntie holding Uncle’s hand…
When everyone was out of the room and the doctors thought he was sufficiently restrained and sedated, my uncle proceeded to pull the tube all the way out of his throat! Alarms sounded and the family was called back to the hospital. I had actually taken Tommy & Andy to see the movie “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs“, and by the time I arrived back at the hospital, my uncle was sitting up in bed, talking and breathing on his own with no IV or additional medicine! This is one really strong man! His first words to me were, “Now that you’re back, we can start the party!” I pulled out the inhaler he had given me the week before and he laughed! Obviously his heart is still very sick and my aunt understands that; but it was so nice, after a week of interminable waiting and hoping, that we were able to talk to him and laugh with him tonight. He’s still sharp as a tack, and as we left he was trying to get out of bed to close the blinds (a definite no no!). We’re taking it one day at a time from here, but I think my aunt will be able to sleep well tonight!
Earlier today while he was still intubated
Enjoying a little 3D normalcy with the boys
We called him “Doctor Doom & Gloom” but the comments on Facebook are trending in his favor (in the looks department at least)! He had nothing on my uncle though:
Move over Doc…you could have never competed with this!
Laughing, smiling and breathing again! After a stressful week filled with a literal Nurse Ratched, lots of Diet Coke, gallons of hand sanitizer and more than a few tears, a family gathers around its patriarch.
One of my favorite photos of me and my uncle, taken on his 80th birthday last year
Today was the first day of school for Tommy & Andy. Growing up in the Midwest, the first day of school for me always involved getting up early, the cool air hinting of autumn and me and my brother walking to the bus stop hesitantly, wondering what the new school year would bring. (I wasn’t a popular kid until I got to college believe it or not….I was kind of the class clown in grade school, but then withdrew in junior high and high school.) I even remember my first day of Kindergarten. I cried and screamed…and didn’t want my Mom to leave. Andy however, took it all in stride today, bounding off with his teacher ready to start his academic career. He insists on being called “Andrew” in school! When his Mom showed up to pick him up, all the kids were lined up in a row. They were allowed to leave when the teacher called their name. When she said, “Andrew, you may go”, Andy let out a loud, joyful squeal and ran into his mother’s waiting arms saying “I missed you Mommy”. (Sound familiar??) That’s a memory Lisa will cherish the rest of her life. Good luck in school this year boys! xoxo
Unfortunately, Andy & Tommy missed President Obama’s speech to school children on Tuesday. Tommy would have surely enjoyed it. Speaking of the President, I was appalled last night as I watched his speech to Congress. I immediately posted this on my Facebook page and apparently I wasn’t alone in my outrage!
Glee was on later that evening though, and it put me in a better mood. Just like this video always does:
Lastly, the fires here are mostly under control, but the sunsets are still spectacular. We took Chazz up to Runyon Canyon the other night and I got these shots:
He met up with another Rhodesian Ridgeback (Chazz is Rhodesian mixed with Boxer) and they played so well together. Apparently Rhodesians always play the same way with each other and they had a ball!
I took the center photo in the summer of 1997 while sailing around the island of Manhattan on my boss’s yacht. It was a picture perfect New York day. One I’ll never forget.I took most of the other photos on September 11th, 2002.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE “In an interview, President Obama has said that picking up his dog Bo’s poop is one of the highlights of his day. The interview was published in ‘The Journal of Depressing Metaphors for the State of America.’” — Conan O’Brien
Today, September 2nd, is Claudio’s birthday, as I am sure many of you know. I wanted to get more ideas about his new professorial life and, bingo, found some delightful quotes at RatemyProfessor.com. Here are some highlights, in my view…
“He is very knowledgeable in the subject matter, and even if he is sometimes slightly unclear with his initial explanations,…”
“His accent can be amusing at times, but in a good way. He is perfectly comprehensible.”
“Dr. P. is a world class professor.”
“One of the best professor [sic] I have ever taken in my life.” (lovely insinuating were it not for the obvious sign of poor grammar…my favorite quote in the group)
“This man is helpful, knowledgable [sic] and is willing to help you in whatever way possible.” (Do tell, Dr. World Class!)
“He really knows what he is talking about,…” (Ha! This one had me rolling on the ground)
Happy birthday to you, old friend!
I am looking forward to seeing you all in a few days! Luisao, any chance you can plan a last minute trip to SoCal this weekend?! Claudao, nao se preocupe que vamos falar mal de voce esse final de semana, com aquele carinho de sempre.
Abracos, m
From: Carey Anthony
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 11:18 PM
To: Marcelo
Cc: The GLY Gang
Many of you don’t remember that back in the early 90′s, before the Internet or ratemyprofessor.com, I used to collect Claudio’s evaluations from when he was a T.A at University of Illinois, because he spent summers in Brazil. My all time favorite went something like this:
Q: Did you learn a lot in Professor P’s class?
A: I didn’t learn a thing. I was too busy looking at his dreamy eyes!
15 years later, the eyes are more cloudy than dreamy and we won’t talk about the hair…
I was looking through my old diaries last night, and found this and sent it to Claudio. He wrote this in my calendar in 1991: “Birthday of the nicest Brazilian ever”. I’m sure Marcelo might have something to say about that my dear!
His reply:
From: Claudio
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 9:23 AM
To: Carey Anthony
THANK YOU!!!!
The scheduler was funny! To imagine you still had hair to cut… good times!! :) Ugh, Vicious!!
From: Carey Anthony
Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 9:39 AM
To: Claudio
Ugh! You want to talk about hair!!?? Be careful darling. It may be YOUR birthday, but my old calendars hold lots of other secrets as well. Feliz Anniversario
The weatherfinally broke today. It was a little cooler with a touch of humidity in the air. We needed a break! Saturday it was 105° F (41° C) when Lisa & the kids and I took Aunty Lulu & Uncle George out for ice cream:
The fires did make for amazing sunsets all last week:
Whenever I need to smile I’ll just look at this picture of Buster!
Joel and I went to see District 9 over the weekend and we both enjoyed the movie. It was about 1/2 hour too long, but entertaining. Kind of a cross between Close Encounters and The Fly! There were a lot of blatant racial parallels that I won’t go into now. As someone who has been to Johannesburg though, it was a sadly appropriate setting for that movie.
The fires are far enough away that my home isn’t in any danger, but they’re still too close for comfort:
On the way home last night this is what I saw from the car. I’m surprised there weren’t more accidents on the freeway from people looking. It was an amazing sight to see:
The air today was an eerie, quiet yellow making the sky look like Dijon mustard. About 6:00 tonight I went up to my roof and shot this photo.
After taking this, I went back inside with my mask!
And finally, I got some very sad news today from Margie:
From: Margie Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 6:34 AM To: Carey Subject: Daisy
I had to have Daisy put down today. I am very sad. She fell off the bed & broke whatever was misplaced in her back. When I picked her up she immediately lost her bowels & her head started rolling to the side. When I took her outside she tried to stand but could not. Later I will pick her up – couldn’t bear to be with her when they put her down – and bury her on the farm. Can’t stop crying every time I think about it, so I’m going to try not to think about it.
I’ve got a bunch of good friends flying in for the weekend starting Thursday. It’s going to be non stop. We’re going to the Hollywood Bowl for my 44th birthday Sunday. I’ll try to post as I have time. Have a good week everyone!
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE “The state of California is $30 billion in debt, and there’s no way we can pay it back, so what we’ve decided to do is set it on fire and collect the insurance.” – Jimmy Kimmel
Lisa & Joel went to the Angels game tonight so I picked Tommy & Andy up at soccer practice. It was still over 90° at 5:30 and Tommy was so hot, but a real trooper. It was his first soccer practice, and I’m scared he may have too many of my genes because at one point they were practicing stopping the ball with their feet and when Tommy stopped it the coach said, “OK, hold it”. So Tommy proceeded to pick up the ball and hold it. I don’t know much about soccer at all, but I’m guessing that wasn’t what the coach meant, LOL. Afterward we went to the new Sonic, and it was really good. I had a Diet Cherry Limeaid, which was quite refreshing in the heat. The dog days of summer are clearly upon us. It’s usually not this hot in California! When we got back to Dar’s the boys and I took Buster & Roxy for a long walk. Luckily there were no sacrifices involved:
The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true, owing to precession of the equinoxes. The Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.
Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies” according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813.
The boys are now sleeping (with Buster) and I figured I’d write a quick blog. There’s absolutely nothing interesting going on in the world right now. Aside from Ted Kennedy overload and the “murdered model” media mayhem. Ugh. I just read that they found her car in the Trader Joe’s parking lot 3 block from my house. I’m glad I wasn’t there today for that zoo.
Last night, Andy consistently beat me at Wii for hours, and I’m sure I got carpal tunnel in the process!
This morning I woke up early and was unusually tired. Even though I didn’t fly here, I brought my travel bag, full of travel sized items. In my stupor this morning, the toothpaste and the Neosporin looked remarkably similar:
They didn’t taste similar however, as this reenactment shows:
OK, I didn’t really put it in my mouth this morning…but I almost did!
“Lessons learned from Mother Nature [could] help airport security screening checkpoints better protect us from terror threats — if governments are willing to think outside the box and pay heed to some of nature’s most successful evolutionary strategies for species adaptation and survival.
“Biological organisms have figured out millions of ways, over three and a half billion years of evolution, to keep themselves safe from a vast array of threats,” said Raphael Sagarin, a DukeUniversityecologist who co-edited the book with Terence Taylor, an international security expert.
“Arm races among invertebrates, intelligence gathering by the immune system and alarm calls by marmots are just a few of nature’s successful security strategies that have been tested and modified over time in response to changing threats and situations,” Sagarin said. “In our book, we look at these strategies and ask how we could apply them to our own safety.”
“A study of animal behavior suggests that advertising your security procedures and continually conveying to others that there is a state of elevated threat only helps inform potential terrorists of loopholes in the procedures, while keeping the general population uncertain and nervous,” Sagarin said. Species such as marmots, which continually emit warning calls to each other even when no immediate threat is present, force the other animals in their group to waste time and energy trying to figure out if the implied threat is real, he noted.
Evolutionary models and ideas also can be applied to non-terrorism threats, such natural disasters and the spread of infectious diseases, he added.
“Whether you’re dealing with al Qaeda or an emerging pathogen, studying animal behavior teaches us basic principles of survival,” he said. “You can’t eliminate all risks, so you have to focus on the big ones, while adapting to minimize risk from the rest. You have to be aware of your environment, understanding that it’s constantly in flux. And when it comes to adapting and responding to threats, a centralized authority can get in the way. Individual units that sense the environment, with minimal central control, work best.””
And now comes word that you’re no longer allowed to bring snowglobes through airport security! Sorry middle America, time to find a new cheesy souvenir. What will they think of next? Urinals at the X-ray machine, so we don’t bring our piss on planes? Idiots!
“A glass eye, filled with weaponized ebola. A small child with a belly full of C4. A man with his blood altered biochemically to be a powerful explosive. A Muslim that has spent the last two decades training in the art of the Ninja, and has just mastered a technique to deliver fatal nerve-strikes from across the room using only the focused force of his own chi? WHY DO WE NOT WORRY ABOUT THESE THINGS? Oh… yeah. Because at a certain point we have to make the decision to accept the most minute possible risks or to continue rocking back and forth on the floor whimpering while in a pool of our own urine.“
In other news, yesterday, Lisa and I went to The Spectrum to see Inglourious Basterds (I loved it). We also saw that they are auctioning off Designer Dog Houses built by celebrities. Obviously, Chazz needs this desperately, so here’s a real live PayPal button to donate to The Hotel Chazzfornia Fund. Bidding for the auction starts at $20,000.00, so dig deep!!
Chazzitat For Humanity – Put a roof over Chazz’s head!! DONATE NOW!!
Speaking of Chazz, Claudio sent me an email with a video attachment of him playing soccer with some kids. To wit:
Carey Anthony
Chazz Playing Football 2 messages
From: Claudio
Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 8:09 PM
To: Carey
Chazz has made it to 3 soccer practices with kids at the park. He is very popular around there. Several people call him by name and gather around to see him play. The coach has a separate soccer ball for him already. The first-timers get instructions on how to play with Chazz. Although the 8 and younger kids who are his usual teammates were not there today (when I remembered to take the camera), he still had fun.
I got quite a few funny videos, but most are too big to attach… This is the only one that can go. -Claudio
From: Carey Anthony
Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 8:35 PM
To: Claudio
It’s clear he got his football skills from MY side of the family! Ugh!! Too big to attach??? The 90′s called. They want their ridiculously huge email attachments back!!
Ever hear of YouTube, YouDork???
And where the hell did you film that from? The Goodyear blimp??? I can see that when I’m not around Chazz’s care is left to amateurs. We’re going to have to decrease your visits with him.
I had a bunch of meetings in Orange County this morning, and I was running late. I didn’t get out of the house until 10 AM, hoping against all odds I could drive 60 miles in 60 minutes (a ridiculous goal in Los Angeles on the best of days). Sure enough there was a major accident down by Disneyland. The highway was covered in peaches and grapes. A produce truck had crashed with a car. It was a nasty accident, and I was stuck in traffic for an extra hour.
After a long day of meetings I hoped to turn the day’s tide by heading to Aunty LuLu & Uncle Georgie’s house for spaghetti. They’ve been in Michigan since I left for Italy, and they just got home. I’ve been missing that Thursday spaghetti for 2 months now! Dar joined us for dessert, and I began the long drive home at 9:30 tonight. As I walked up the stairs in the hallway outside my condo, I realized that the carpet outside of my unit was squishing. Never a good sign! As I walked in the beautiful lobby of the Hotel Careyfornia and headed towards the kitchen, this is what I saw:
I’m not sure if you can see from the photos, but the hardwood floors were soaked. I don’t know if it came from an upstairs neighbor or what. It sucks! The water is filled with shredded lettuce and who knows what else. I’ve not had good luck with produce today. Needless to say, it’s now 2:30 AM and I’m waiting for a call back from a 24 hour plumber. This isn’t great timing, as I’m leaving Saturday for a week. When it rains it pours.
One bright note…Andy finally lost his toenail! And guess who visited him? LOL. I got this text from Lisa the other night:
Little Andy banged his big toe in the door today, and the toenail was hanging by a thread. He was crying at dinner, so I told him that when the nail fell off, he should put it under his pillow and the “Toe Fairy” would come overnight. His parents immediately shot me a “what the hell does the Toe Fairy bring!?” look! Andy instantly stopped crying and started laughing! As we said goodbye from the car, he was still talking about the Toe Fairy as the following video will attest:
“Bye Blog Weaders”
So the question is, what do you think the Toe Fairy should leave under Andy’s pillow??
the camp and drove a few miles to a lake in the Republic area.
Now for sure he was ready to call it quits. I talked him into staying because the fish were starting to bite.
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