The Gift Of A City

Don and Karen Simons gave me San Diego for my birthday.  Well, not the entire city.  Just the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, the Hotel Del Coronado, the Old Globe Theatre, Montgomery Field, a helicopter ride and a plate of Philippine noodles.  It was way too much loot to fit in my carry-on bag for the flight home to Sacramento.  I left everything as it was except for the noodles, which I ate.

Also included was a breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Murphy, Jr.  Mr. Murphy is a former Navy lieutenant.  He was also the education officer of the Subic Bay Naval Station in the Philippines in 1962 where he confined Seaman Browne  to the base until Seaman Browne passed a high school GED test, the tyrant.

Mr. Murphy later served as the executive officer of the USS Pueblo, the Navy spy ship captured by North Korea in international waters in 1968.   The 82 crewmen were imprisoned under medieval conditions for 11 months of physical and mental torture.  He co-authored a book about the experience:

http://www.amazon.com/Second-Command-Uncensored-Account-Capture/dp/0030850754

Mr, Murphy – he will always be Mr. Murphy to me.  Navy training takes lasting grip --  is also the recipient of the Navy Marine Corps medal for lifesaving.

Don and Karen Simons volunteer as tuxedo-clad ushers at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, a replica of its London namesake where the son of a glove maker named William Shakespeare staged his plays.  The Simons thought it would be a socko idea if I volunteered to usher too. 

So packed my second hand tuxedo for the occasion, a performance of  Buyer And Cellar.  The premise is an out of work actor hired to perform as a dress shop clerk in a fake mall in Barbra Streisand’s basement where the estimable Ms. Streisand is the only customer and very picky one at that.  Her character is never seen.  Actor and author Jonathan Tollins is the only presence on the theatre-in-the-round stage for an hour and forty minutes of very funny monologue.  He was given a well earned standing ovation.

So, my thanks to Don and Karen Simons, Karen’s mother, Wanda, and the family’s feisty ball of white fluff, a pooch named Cody, for a week of the best birthday ever.

-o-

Comments?

Thanks so much for keeping me in the loop of your words. Whether they are old memories and fresh ones, I've found keeping memories written down to reread on occasion is a bit of reliving it that goes down well. Life isn't as much a plan for tomorrow as it is a whole bunch of memories of yesterday re-experienced at a certain age.

I hope you remember your great birthday present and that your fish lives plenty long to give you untold numbers of stares through the deep aquarium address he now shares with you. --- ZoZo

It’s already cut my toxic TV habit by 80%.

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Happy belated birthday.  By the way, have you named your fish? (Not that it'll come when you call it, but it seems it's the thing to do.)  - Beaty

I have.  Since it’s a Betta fighting fish, I’ve named him Rip Finley, Fish Ninja. 

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Good job, as usual.  – Bob

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Wonderful as always!  -- Juli

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Sounds like a great birthday!  Glad you had fun!  -- Shannon

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You lucky dog!!  -- Wht

My New BFF - Best Fish Friend

                            

Spent time with my two of my favorite ladies last week:  Blythe, age 10 (almost), and her grandmother, The Lady Karen.  We met at a coffee shop halfway between Sacramento and the Bay Area, where Blythe lives and where Lady K was visiting.  They brought gifts of licorice candy and a new best friend:  a fish.

Oh but not just any fish, but a genuine tropical orange and purple ninja fighting fish, called a Betta.  The fish came with a combination ninja dojo and bachelor pad water tank, a water filter, a light, some stylish fish furniture and accessories, and enough food to keep the fish in fighting trim.

Thing is, it doesn’t have another fish to fight. That’s a good thing if you want to keep your Betta on a long term basis, but there are reflecting surfaces on the inside of the tank.  This way it can happily hurl threats and insults at what seems to be another fish without risking injury and other fish mayhem. 

I haven’t told the fish that it’s only seeing reflection of itself and I don’t plan to.  It might get depressed and just sulk all day in a hidden recess of the stylish fish accessories  and be no fun at all. 

There are other benefits to having an active fish in an aquarium.   For one thing, it relaxes me.  For another, I spend less time watching TV and more time watching the fish. Unlike the TV, the fish doesn’t blab doom and gloom about the economy, reveal the personal secrets of celebrities I’ve never heard of, or try to sell me anything for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.  I find that refreshing.

I have made one minor lifestyle change now that the fish and I are roomies: I don’t make tuna sandwiches where the fish can see me. That’s just good manners

-o-