Love, As Always, Pete

The Weekly Letters, by A. Pedersen Wood

May 25, 2005

Dear Everyone:

If you guessed tomorrow is “ARMA night”, you’re right!  That’s why I’m writing this week’s Letter a day early.  The monthly meeting of the Mt Diablo chapter of the Association of Records Managers and Administrators (International) will take place tomorrow evening in Walnut Creek.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find a speaker, so it will be a very small group at the meeting.  On the plus side, the meeting should end much sooner than they usually do.

In other news…

Last autumn, when the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland, Oregon, announced it’s schedule of plays for the 2005 season, “Frankie” and I got together on the phone and planned when would be the best time for all of us to attend.  We decided on the second week in June.  I then logged onto the new OSF website and ordered tickets for all of us.

That would be:  Mother, “Frankie” and her two daughters, “Rosa” and “Liza”, me, “Jeannie”, “Alice” and her daughter, “Park”.  That would make for a posse of eight “Wild and Woolly Wood Women” representing three generations.

I knew from the beginning that “Rosa” and “Liza” would only come if both of them were available.  That way they could hang out together.  So it came as no real surprise when “Liza” got into some class or other that would preclude her coming and that meant “Rosa” would bow out as well.  No problem.  That still left six of us.

But it turns out that “Alice” has been trying to find an airline that would fly her and “Park” out to Ashland for less than $1000.00 since last January with no luck.  Also, “Alice’s” been having some problem with her back (I think) and wouldn’t be in a position (no pun intended) to sit for up to three hours for a play.

Now the number has dropped down to four.  I was counting on having more of a “support group” to help get Mother around in the wheelchair that we planned to rent.  Then “Jeannie” mentioned that being off work for a week in June was “the worst possible time” for her.

So we talked and decided maybe the best thing to do was scrap the Ashland trip all together.  After all, for some years the reason for getting together in Ashland was, really, to get together.  To see Mother and each other.  Time to look at the bigger picture.

Our new, and improved, plan is for “Jeannie” and me to fly up to Lake Oswego, collect Mother, and fly the three of us out to New York to spend some time at “Alice’s” place.  She has that nice, big house.  She wouldn’t have to travel and would have some time for her health issues to sort themselves out.  “Frankie” could probably drive up to join us.  “Rosa” might even be able to drop by for a while.

We spoke with “Alice” and “Frankie” that day and they are both in favor of the new plan.  And Mother approved when I spoke with her last weekend (while “Jeannie” was in Monterey with “Marshall”).  However, we will have to remind Mother from time to time about the upcoming trip so she doesn’t get caught by surprise.

And instead of mid-June, we’re looking at the last week in July, more or less.  My action items are to return the Ashland tickets and arrange for air travel.  If I can get better prices by going Wednesday-to-Wednesday rather than Saturday-to-Saturday, we’ll go that way.

So that’s the plan, subject to change without notice, of course.  And who knows, we might make it to Ashland next year.  We’ll keep a good thought, anyway.

Love, as always,

 

Pete

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