Barbra P
09-10-2011, 11:54 AM
My Mother died Thursday, not unexpected, and one of the ways I dealt (coped?) with it was to dress, dressed on Wednesday too when we knew it was very near. Anyway Thursday was also when Southern Calif. had its big blackout and of course it was hotter than Haiti on Thursday and even hotter indoors. When the power went off there was just a bit of breeze beginning and as the afternoon progressed it soon became much cooler outside than inside so quite a few of the neighbors were out in their yards. I decided it was too hot to retreat indoors and if any of the neighbors hadn’t already seen me dressed then maybe it was high time they did.
The woman next door has seen Barbra and we chat whenever we are both out, but her sister was visiting on Thursday. The first thing she said to me was, “I love your turquoise sandles, where did you get them and were they expensive?” We then had a nice chat about how I had bought them at Avenue and they were not expensive; she also asked about my top and I explained that I bought it at Avenue on sale for $5.
Directly across the street is a Hispanic family, all women, and I’m not sure if they represent three or four generations. I’ve been rather discrete when they are home because the youngest is just entering her teens. Well they came home, got out of their car – young daughter included – looked over and went inside. But shortly came out and the daughter and mother came over to talk just as if nothing was unusual; they thought it was hot and because the power was off the air conditioning wasn’t working and the house was and when was the power coming back on, etc. Later the sister came out and we talked for the better part of an hour, she was fascinated and full of questions and several times she told me she couldn’t get over how pretty I looked. She wants to take me to Lips, the club with the female impersonators.
Later I walked the dog around the block but it was late enough that everyone had gone back inside. Well, except for Ken and his family. Ken is in a wheelchair and spends his days sitting in his garage watching the world go by; I try and visit once or twice a day. Ken knows I dress but I have never gone over dressed because there are two very young children. Well he called out from the dark so I walked over and we sat and talked for awhile. Neither Ken, nor his two adult daughters, nor his son-in-law acted like anything was unusual. A bit later I made a second visit when we could see some lights coming on off in the distance, and then Ken rode his cart over to my place to talk. Ken’s oxygen machine won’t work without power and he can’t lay down without his oxygen.
Bottom line, while many felt the blackout was a disaster it was a blessing for me for it afforded me hours of distraction, keeping me from dwelling on the day’s other event, and it afforded a number of my neighbors to meet Barbra and I'm happy to say thet all seemed comfortable with and even enjoyed talking with Barbra.
The woman next door has seen Barbra and we chat whenever we are both out, but her sister was visiting on Thursday. The first thing she said to me was, “I love your turquoise sandles, where did you get them and were they expensive?” We then had a nice chat about how I had bought them at Avenue and they were not expensive; she also asked about my top and I explained that I bought it at Avenue on sale for $5.
Directly across the street is a Hispanic family, all women, and I’m not sure if they represent three or four generations. I’ve been rather discrete when they are home because the youngest is just entering her teens. Well they came home, got out of their car – young daughter included – looked over and went inside. But shortly came out and the daughter and mother came over to talk just as if nothing was unusual; they thought it was hot and because the power was off the air conditioning wasn’t working and the house was and when was the power coming back on, etc. Later the sister came out and we talked for the better part of an hour, she was fascinated and full of questions and several times she told me she couldn’t get over how pretty I looked. She wants to take me to Lips, the club with the female impersonators.
Later I walked the dog around the block but it was late enough that everyone had gone back inside. Well, except for Ken and his family. Ken is in a wheelchair and spends his days sitting in his garage watching the world go by; I try and visit once or twice a day. Ken knows I dress but I have never gone over dressed because there are two very young children. Well he called out from the dark so I walked over and we sat and talked for awhile. Neither Ken, nor his two adult daughters, nor his son-in-law acted like anything was unusual. A bit later I made a second visit when we could see some lights coming on off in the distance, and then Ken rode his cart over to my place to talk. Ken’s oxygen machine won’t work without power and he can’t lay down without his oxygen.
Bottom line, while many felt the blackout was a disaster it was a blessing for me for it afforded me hours of distraction, keeping me from dwelling on the day’s other event, and it afforded a number of my neighbors to meet Barbra and I'm happy to say thet all seemed comfortable with and even enjoyed talking with Barbra.