Sunday, March 1, 2015

Winter in California 2014

Please forgive my spelling and punctuation, I'm a plumber and not an English major. Just read and have fun.
We had an uneventful trip to our home in California from Thailand. 

This winter was a little different, in my head, as Mom had passed away in September. Mom, you will always be loved and remembered. 

It was nice to be home. 

On my birthday, I got up early and went to see the folks at Flagship Health Care Center in Newport Beach.  I'm told that what you do on your birthday is what you will do the rest of the year.  

It is also a good excuse to eat a donut as I'm taking a bunch of donuts to these folks.

Yes, I'm on a diet. Daeng is trying to help me and she told me if I loose 30 more pounds I can be on top. 

After the visit to Flagship I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my driver's license.  Because I'm really old they had me take an eye test and written test.  

With my glasses I passed the eye test, I wear them all the time anyway, and the written test.  I thought it was a little strange that the man doing the written test made me stand for the taking of the test.  Anyway, I passed everything and they renewed my licence in California for five (5) more years. 

By the way, I love these glasses because when I wear them I can say: "I've got a heart on!"


My sister, Diane, found this old Christmas card from 1961, back in the day I was young, skinny and had lot's of hair. 

Christmas was very relaxed this year.  

Daeng was very happy with Santa, also. 

Spending time with friends over the holidays is always wonderful.

I had plans to take Daeng to New Orleans in February to give her the Mardi Gras experience.  When she found out how much it was going to cost she said: "NO, we can feed 16,000 meals to the kids in Thailand.  I could not argue with her. 

We also want to thank all the folks that donated money to help the "Kids in Thailand".  As many folks know we try to help the kids here on the Myanmar (Burma) border to have food, shelter and a friendly environment to learn. 


My Mother, before she died, told me she wanted Daeng to have the "Happy Bears" that I had given her many years ago.  You can see them in many of the pictures of Mom as she wore them almost all the time.

If you look closely at them you know why they are happy. 

Even though I typed the note in Daeng's card I got wet eyes when I read it to Daeng. The grieving process continues.   

You can always tell when Deang is in a good mood. I call it her food language. 


Here is an example. 

We think the best part of returning to California is to hang out with friends. 

Here is a picture of two of our friends. I call them the "Mud-Flap Girls" as they remind me of the pictures of girls on truck mud-flaps. 

We also got to spend some time and break bread with our friend Tom Rhiel and Catrina Bowman.  Tom has been doing websites and videos for us for many years, Thanks Tom. He also is a very funny man!

Catrina has a collect of Buddha's that we like to add to when possible. Her collection won an award at the Orange County Fair this summer. 

Daeng hand sewed the apron that Tom is wearing in the picture.  I think he looks great in it. 

It doesn't matter which home we are staying, there is always Thai rice and peanut butter. 


We, along with many other people in the world, think Jasmine rice is the best rice. It has a very nutty flavor. 

Our friends, Michael and Charlotte, took us to the river for Super Bowl.  

Daeng likes Laughlin better than Las Vegas.  She says that folks are more friendly in Laughlin.  

You can tell by the smile on her face, she does like to play the machines. 

Here is a picture of Daeng with here favorite American Breakfast. 

We did spend a little time in the Sport-book. 


Everyone else won but at the last minute I lost.  What a stupid play to pass the ball.  Oh well, it's only money.

While getting the thousand of old records ready to try and sell I came upon this old, beat up picture of me.  

It is back in the days when I would do anything to get attention. 

That is a lot of fire!  Brings back found thoughts of AMACO 100 Octane gasoline. 

That was the best tasting!

Over the last 70 plus years we have accumulated thousands of records, tapes and CD's.  Our Mother also had a ton of 78 and 45 rpm records.  Some looked good but we did not know what to do with them.  


A friend, Jeff Baker, suggested we take them to Ameoba Music in Hollywood as he had sold some of his collect to them.  They are the largest independent record store in the world. He said they were very honest and fair. 

We took the tons of records and dropped them off while we went to visit our friends, Lahna Turner and family. 

We had a fun time with them, as always.  We went to Sweet Lady Janes in Hollywood and ate pie. It was kind of like John Travolta in the movie Michael. We just had slices instead of the whole pie. Thanks Sweet Lady Janes for putting up with us. 

The unfortunate part is all those old records in front of Daeng have almost no value.  They gave us enough money to pay for our gas. The nice part is they are gone and out of our way. 

Well, it's time to get ready to fly back to the "Land of Smiles" for the spring.


We had our car serviced by Omar at 1 Stop Complete Auto Care. It is wonderful to find a repair garage that cares about you, the customer.  

Thanks Omar and good bye Simpson Chevrolet Dealer Service. You guys suck!

We will see you all again in June. 







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