Sad ending to a missing person news story

My last post was on Aunt Mare's 95th birthday, which was September 1st. Just 13 days later our world changed. My Dad drove his car to a park 'n ride lot to take a bus to a Casino near San Diego, something I'd never understand, but something he loved doing. He never made it there, and he never came home, and it wasn't until Sept 29th that his car was found at the bottom of a ravine about 50 miles north of where he lived. The only way he was found was because another car went down the same ravine about a week later, and after 6 days, that wonderful, persistent family found him. He was alive, although injured, but my Dad didn't survive. The crashes were unrelated, but the cars ended up inches apart.

We'll never know what happened, and I'm not sure why people still speculate. He may have gotten lost and/or confused. It doesn't matter. The most kind, sweet, quiet, gentle man (and I'm not just saying that because he was my father), left us as one of the top internet stories online and on the TV news. Even Brian Williams mentioned the story on MSNBC Nightly News, although the real story was the survivor, David LaVau.   Just ask Jay Leno of The Tonight Show, who had a follow up story late in November where he interviewed Dave and his son, Shawn, but never mentioned my Dad.  He mentioned that there was another car and the guy was dead, but that's it.  It would have been respectful had he mentioned my Dad by name, but whatever.  The LaVaus mentioned how their heart went out to the family of the other guy when they were first interviewed by the news, and that was clearly from their hearts.  Thanks, Jay, and thanks Tonight Show.  Clearly you coached the LaVaus on what to say this time.  You ought to stick to entertainment and not try to do news, and I'll stick to The Late Late Show and not The Tonight Show.

We met the LaVau family and were grateful to be able to thank them in person. Had they not persisted in finding their father, both families may still be wondering where their respective fathers were. We met David LaVau when we stopped by the hospital on our drive back home. We had a sad ending, but the two weeks before when we had no idea wher my Dad was, what happened, or what we should do, were worse.

That's my Dad in his Navy uniform MANY years ago. (top left, grandpa, Aunt Mare, her husband Uncle Sol, and next to my Dad is Uncle Eddie). Aunt Mary, the oldest sister, is the only one remaining.

This picture wasn't all that recent, but it's a nice picture of my parents

What I learned from this was that most people are kind, and help others when needed. Some of things people offered and did were amazingly generous.  One person I know from business offered to take a vacation day from her job and go to my clients, if I needed that. 

I also learned that some people are mean and opinionated and should keep their opinions to themselves. I'm glad my Dad didn't see the "Jerry Springer" episode when my aunt decided to scream at me for being a bad daughter. She did this in front of my mother, who was beside herself trying to figure out where to look for my Dad.  My Dad may have been the only one who would have stood up to her (besides me), although I didn't need any help. I don't usually brag, but I was awesome. I never said anything I'd regret, and I'm proud of that. She did, but I doubt she'll think so.

RIP, Dad. You were loved by many.

Happy birthday, Aunt Mare!

Today is Aunt Mary's 95th birthday! Aunt Mare is the person I named this blog after because it was started as a knitting blog(although lately it's become a random photo blog) and whenever we used to see Aunt Mare when we were younger, she was knitting and if she'd stop we'd tease her and say "Knit Mare, Knit". Happy Birthday to Aunt Mare!

Last weekend was Flea Market Weekend. There was an Antique Faire and Flea Market on Sunday and many many many garage sales on Saturday and Sunday.

We walked and walked and walked and then walked some more. One of us has more stamina than the other!
Alex is checking out some of the things I bought. I found a barely worn pair of Avia athletic shoes and a barely worn pair of Natural Sport walking shoes for $2 each pair, a Statue of Liberty for my collection for $1 (they were asking $2 but I asked if they'd take $1 since I didn't really need another), and the books were free - the top two from a neighbor who wouldn't let me pay, and the other in a "free pile" around the corner. Will found some stereo equipment. It's hard to see the black shoes, but they are really cool and sell for around $60 new. I can't find them on the web site so I'm guessing they were bought a long time ago and shoved in a closet and not worn. Same for the Avias. SCORE!
This was for sale at one of the garage sales. It's just fun to look at the stuff, even stuff I wouldn't be buying!
One a regular day there might be one or two cars parked on our street, but on Sunday it was packed with people everywhere! The first flea market Sunday that we lived here (4 years ago) I woke up, looked out the window, and was surprised to see all the cars! Now I expect it!


It was a fun weekend, but by 2 pm I was saying (quietly) "OK, folks, the party's over, it's time for you to all go home".

This is a real picture, and I know it because I took it. My friend who is an animal rescuer/wrangler/whisperer has 4 kittens that someone found and gave her because they knew she would know what to do. She's socializing them, the feral mom has been fixed, and now she's hoping to find homes for these guys. The problem with being a rescuer is that you end up with too many cats before someone gives you 4 that they found.

They are ADORABLE. I was in instant cat love. I was there last week and the tabby (who is not from the same litter and is a little older) has the most gorgeous markings. He let me put him on his back and pet him for a long time. I went back last night and the black female let me hold her for a long time. I even got a purr out of her.

Random Photos - Mostly cats

Does anyone know how difficult it is to get a good picture of all 3 cats at one time? Like trained seals, there has to be food involved.



Alex loves the banana toy that came with Ziggy!

Mowry has claimed the new cat perch. Someone gave this away. It's in almost perfect condition. I don't usually go when they post an address, but we were on our way out and it wasn't out of the way, and it was still there, so we took it. I prefer when someone posts, and then if I claim it, they put it out for me and then give me their address.

This was at the Niles car show a few months ago. I learned to drive on one of these, but not the SS bucket seat edition.
Don'tcha love it when people are so oblivious they don't realize people need to get by them on the sidewalk? This was coming from the Fremont Art and Wine Festival. GET OUTTA MY WAY!

Random feline pictures and other things

I haven't updated this blog in awhile, so I thought it was time to post some pictures. Random, of course, many of felines.

I took this picture near Mission Coffee because I have some of these succulents, but I liked the way they are grouped. I wish snails would stay away from my plants. I won't use poison, but I won't hesitate to throw a snail across the driveway to its timely demise.
Awwww, Alex on the left (I can tell because he's bigger and his front paws are whiter) and Ziggy on the right (he was shaved, so he's got less fur!).
His fur is growing back and he looks gorgeous. I'd like to keep him a short-haired cat but I also don't want to have his shaved very often.
Ziggy tried reading this book too. It's pretty good, but not as good as the two Michael Connolly books I recently read.
Is that me? Nice card. I could have posed for that.
Sometimes Ziggy and Mowry will sit very close together.
One day while riding home on BART, I captured this picture from the train with the doors open at the Oakland Coliseum on a game day. Go A's!

This is one of my favorite houses in our neighborhood because of the old window and the roses being trained in the shape of a heart.

Cats and a Lovely View

Friday evening we headed to Livermore to Cornerstone Church where Will's friend, Eddie, gets music gigs for the Church's singles night for "Eddie and Friends". It's always a nice event - potluck food, desserts, great music. Unfortunately, there is a lot of traffic on 680 headed in that direction at 5:45 pm on a Friday. Are we in LA? The traffic would make it seem so, but the empty hills tell me it's Pleasanton.The church is HUGE. It was once a sports facility, complete with a climbing wall. It was one of the first warmish days on Friday, so they decided to have the gathering outside. Luckily the music was inside (with huge windows open) and I was inside because it didn't stay warm once the sun went down. Duh.
Yesterday we took a long walk to a health event that was being held in Union City where a friend had a booth. Unfortunately, the event was way way way at the far end of the lake area, and she was gone by the time we got there. The total walk was about 5.25 miles, which is a long walk for us. This path is a block and a half from our house.

It was overcast, with some blue skies peaking thru. The clouds looked ominous, but no rain, just some wind and a little chilly. It was fine walking, but my friend froze sitting at the booth most of the afternoon. What's really odd is that today the sun was out and it was MUCH warmer. It's 73 degrees out right now! Just 1 degree above my perfect 72 degrees!

This is from the side of the lake where the event was held. You can see Mission Peak, and that's BART going by (lower ish left side of picture above water). We live kind of behind where the BART train is. The picture of these flowers with the blue sky and clouds behind came out much better than I ever thought. I love my new camera.


Ziggy looks good with this shave. It looks strange in the picture, but it's growing in and is really pretty, sleek, black, and soft. It's EASY now to tell which is Ziggy and which is Alex! I don't have to look at the whisker, the paws or anything else!

Cats and Car Show and Garage Sales

Ziggy went to the groomer at his Vet because he got very matted and hates being brushed. This was actually taken on the way home from the vet, but he still looks scared and unhappy.

His head and paws were not matted, so the groomer was able to give him a lion cut. The good part was that she was able to do this without sedation. She mentioned before that she might try muzzling him, but I didn't ask for details after it was done. It looks like he'd be creepy to touch, but he's actually very very soft.

The Amtrak going by the Niles Depot. The hills are turning brown.Today was the Niles car show. In past years it's been hot for this show, but today I was wearing a fleece, a scarf and at one point I was wearing knitted fingerless mitts. Brrrrrr.

One of the cars in the show was an Edsel.

Here's the interior of the Edsel.


Can you see the cows lined up along the ridge to the right of the Niles sign? I also like how you can also see the sign for the Niles train depot along the roof of the building.

We're both wearing socks knitted by me!

I was invited to a preview of an estate sale on Thursday evening. I bought a fruit picker, a CD of Judy Garland music, a cushy pillow (that is actually purple and not blue like it looks here), and a funky illuminating magnifier.
I thought this prescription bottle was interesting because it matches our green bathroom, and it is from a pharmacy in Fremont. It's not THAT old (Dec 1974) although I guess that was awhile ago, but it's not quite antique!!

The ball field at Niles Elementary where I was watching really dark clouds. Is this really May?

We went to a neighborhood garage sale where we could park and walk, then to Ohlone Flea Market and then to the car show. I found this crinkly blouse for $1.
This tablecloth was 50 cents. Our former neighbor bought us one in greens and blues. I saw it at an art fair and it was very expensive. We finally got to use it in this house with our avocado green stove. I found a round one just like this blue and yellow one at a garage sale a few years ago, but this huge rectangle blue and yellow tablecloth will work really well when the table is extended.

Garden/yard, the neighborhood, and cats, of course!

GARDENING/YARD: My lavender plants are amazing. Some would say "out of control". I planted three different kinds when I saw how well the one planted by the previous owner was thriving. She kept it well trimmed. I let it go crazy! Actually, I let all of them grow like crazy. The bees love the lavender plants. Lately I've even seen big black bumble bees on them. I've even seen hummingbirds on the one out front.

The lavender plant below is the same plant as the close-up picture above. Notice my blue 55 gallon water container. We save rain water in buckets that comes off the roof when it rains, transfer the water from the buckets to this container, and then I use the water in the container to water individual plants when we're not doing a big whole-yard water. The fig tree in front of the lavender plant was given away by someone on Fremont Freecycle last year. It had no leaves, and I'm not sure why he gave it away, but so far it seems to like my yard. I may have to transplant it into the ground at some point.

Last year was the first year for this small raised bed. I'm not convinced it gets enough continuous sunlight due to the tall trees around it, so next year I may move it. This year I'm growing lemon balm (top left), tomatoes (top right), yellow squash (because they didn't have zucchini when I was shopping) (bottom right) and cucumber (bottom left). I forgot that last year the cucumber died about 15 minutes after I planted it. This year it is growing, but I'm not sure it will actually grow any cucumbers. Something else next year!

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: We try to walk at least 5 times a week for as close to 1/2 hour as we can. It's probably not enough, but it's better than not walking at all. We walk all different routes - around the neighborhood, downtown, along the quarry lakes path. This is Second Street between two large plants looking down the old, tree-lined sidewalk.While at the Niles Plaza concert on Sunday I took this picture of the socks I was wearing. I knitted these with Deborah Norville yarn. The yarn was a surprise - it was really nice to work with, and I love the way they fit. I bought more of this yarn to knit a gift pair of socks.

We drive under this train trestle as we go out of town, and I've always just missed capturing this shot of the train overhead. Timing is everything!

These beautiful irises were at a house in the neighborhood.

CATS: Mowry was on my lap while I was watching TV and knitting. His expression cracks me up. It didn't photograph well so I cropped it, but his long tail was wrapped around me and was even funnier than his expression.

Does this cat look like he could let out a mean hiss? Will was trying to brush Alex so he wouldn't end up matted like Ziggy, and while I wasn't there, the report said he hissed at Will. Will is his absolute favorite human and frankly, Alex wouldn't care if Will was the only human he ever saw in his entire life ever (except maybe when he climbs on me purring, and then he leans on me in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping), but even his favorite human got hissed at - how dare Will try to brush Alex!

Alex is BIG. He weights about 22 lbs (weigh yourself with the cat, weigh yourself without the cat) and we both did it for confirmation. He's tall, wide, long and just Maine Coon. If not purebred than mix, but true to the MC breed. The windowsill, on the other hand, is rather narrow. Mowry goes up there all the time, but then Mowry weighs about 13 lbs (which isn't SMALL for a cat, but compare....) and he's narrow. Imagine sitting on the loveseat, as I was, and watching my BIG BOY try to climb onto the windowsill, which he actually did. He usually goes behind the TV to do this, which could be worse, but Will has the TV secured down for just the reason (and earthquakes, of course). The silly part is that Alex walks across the windowsill to the other side of the window, then climbs onto the 2nd level of his cat tree, then on to the bookshelf, and then up to the top of the cat tree. There must be an easier way!

Taken another time, here is Alex walking across the window ON the windowsill.

Final destination - top of the cat tree!