Day 9 in India

The latest from Aunt Sharon in India
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Good Morning,
We just got back from Delhi, where we went to the Taj Mahal, and seeing it was a great experience. We flew to Delhi and then went by car to Agra. Krishna had hired a driver to take us around while we were there. We checked into the hotel and off we went.

Now I took our local Amador County newspaper, The Ledger Dispatch, to have our picture taken with it in front of the Taj Mahal, and then I could take it to the Dispatch and they would put it in the paper saying "Ledger Dispatch goes to Taj Mahal." So here we are going thru the check point to see if we had things not allowed and I get there and they say THROW AWAY THE  PAPER!!! So I turned to Callie and said "Screw this, if I can't take my paper in I don't want to go," and started walking away.  She followed me and said "Momma don't be like that, here is what we can do" and she crammed the paper down my pants. The Ledger Dispatch went to the Taj Mahal.

The main building and most beautiful is a tomb for the king's wife, and also for him. She died at the age of 38 bearing her 14th child, a girl. Of the 14 only 6 lived to be adults. It took 22 years to build it. We got up early next day and went to a fort which was also very nice.

I would also like to say that for the wedding I wore saris, one Krishna's dad bought and one Krishna's mom gave me when  Krishna and Callie got married. And Bob got an Indian outfit and wore it.

When we were in Bangalore, when Bob and I went into our hotel room, there was no electricity. Bob checked and said "YES you are right." So he went to the phone and said "It's so dark I can't see the numbers." So I got out my handy dandy Solitare game that I play that has a light and we called room service. Then Bob started looking around and noticed there were 2 things attached to the key. He found a slot by the door, put it in, and on came all lights. About that time someone showed up with a flashlight.

Tonight we say goodbye to Krishna's dad and off we go to Thailand. While were were in airport at Delhi I saw this guy  dressed in white and had a white hat and I thought I should get a picture of him for Paul so he could see what a chef looks like in India. About that time he puts a mat on the floor, kicks off his shoes, kneels down and starts to pray along with about 4 more. A chant sounds 5 times a day and it's time for Muslims to pray.

Tomorrow starts the last adventure of our trip and hopefully I can write one time about that. Callie and I plan to get a massage every day and shop. Krishna is planning something special to do for Bob's birthday, which is the 8th.

While we were going to Agra we saw camels, monkeys, and elephants. I think the camel looks really proud. Also I might add I used one of those toilets with a hole in floor. I rolled up my pant legs and squatted and pretended I was at Silver Lake going behind a tree.

     Good Bye from India
     Sharon

On The Road Again

Beware drivers! Jan is back on the streets.

Yesterday morning, Fullo drove my car and I to the driving specialties place to have hand controls installed. K met us there, we left the car, and all went to breakfast at IHOP. It was pretty darn good. When we got back to the car place, the RAV4 was finished and waiting. I had to wait for Darryl, the driving evaluator, to check me out, though.

The other 2 went on their way and I waited for 3 hours. I got to nap, sitting up in my walker, for half that time. This is a newly acquired skill. I used to see people do it in the bus station and just thought they were drunk or stoned. Maybe not, maybe they were just old enough to nap easily.

I'm not sure Darryl was happy to see me, but at least half of his mouth was smiling. The other half was talking, of course. We got in the car, he quickly located the emergency flasher button, which in my car is conveniently on the passenger side, and away we went.

I was soooo happy to be back driving my little car. The controls are good, not obtrusive. In addition to the hand controls and blinker extension, they installed a little knob on the steering wheel that swivels and lets you do turns with one hand. It's very retro, like something you'd see on a jalopy in the 60s. At first I thought I'd hate it, but I soon discovered that a person would have to have 4 hands to drive without it.

We went 'round and 'round Gold River for an hour. Then I was certified and got to drive home. I'm happy to say the drive was uneventful and that once home I got the walker out of the car by myself, and managed to drag it and myself up the front steps without collapsing into a pitiful heap. Thank you God.

This morning I made it to work for the first time since November BY MYSELF!!

It was much easier today than it was yesterday with Darryl in the car. I had a hard time driving and listening to him at the same time. He has a wealth of driving hints that he intersperses with sad stories about his family and occasionally smacking the emergency flasher to get the drivers behind us to back off. It was definitely a sensory overload for me. Finally I told him, "I don't think you're bipolar, I think you're just very good at multitasking. I'm not. I'm a linear thinker. For example, I need to know at least halfway down this block which way you're going to ask me to turn so I can get the steps figured out in my mind." Translate: Please shut up and just tell me the essential information.

Twice he told me, way too late, to make a left turn at intersections with no stop sign. I just kept going straight and said, "You didn't tell me in time, I'm not going to swerve across traffic to do that." Geez.

So now I just have to deal with DMV and the insurance company and hope my legs keep getting stronger. And get a handicap permit.

Are you guys having problems with the "Comments" function on this blog? Aunt S told me, right at the beginning, that it wouldn't let her leave a comment. I think I fixed that. Let me know if that isn't so.

Jan

Days 3-8 in India

Here is the latest report, prefaced by some communication between Aunt Sharon and me.

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Sharon
I love your stories, I'm putting them on my blog. Tell me if you don't want something posted.

Dear Janice,
Anything I write can be shown to the world. It's a 3rd world country, and that's the way it is here. Bob is doing great - he loves the food. He is eating, let's just say, and with his hands, like the locals. Plus, even more, he is fitting in with the family just great.

Love, A. Sharon
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Hello,
It's 9 am here and around 7 pm there. Today is a day of rest after 5 days of wedding things.

Thursday at 10 pm we got on a train to go to Bangalore, that is where bride's family lives. We got on a sleeper car and the plan was to sleep and wake up in Bangalore. Actually I did sleep rather well after I plugged up some holes that cockroaches were coming out of. Callie said I was a trooper but I really didn't see any crawling around above my head and I was already asleep. The bathrooms were American but I was told when you flushed it went right on the tracks.

Bangalore is more modern than Madras, they actually have dividers between both directions of traffic. We got to the hotel at 6AM and slept a few hours and got ready to meet Anu's (the bride) family. We went to their house and had a very good lunch went back to hotel rested and then went to party at a resort. Bob had a great time dancing with the pretty girls and looking at them.

The next day we had to catch a plane back to Madras at 10 am. There was a taxi strike called for by government so we had to have the taxi by 6 am or no ride to airport. So it was a 4 hour wait. When I told this to Ray he said then you didn't have to worry because you always like to get to the airport early. So when we were told to go to gate 3, you go there and get on a bus and the bus takes you to the plane.

That day when we went back to the house it was family time and everyone came and blessed Vasu. Even I was family and blessed him, and then we ate. The next day was the wedding and we were up early and went to the resort, had breakfast and then the wedding which lasted until lunch time.

There are so many things that are done that I will just say Vasu and Anu were well wished. They had many things in their hair besides flowers, some rice, sugar and many kinds of spices. and I now know where the term tying the knot came from because when they finally stood up the clothes they were wearing were tied together. We then ate again came home rested and went back for the reception.

Yesterday it was Krishna's family who welcomed the brides family to their home. We ate in 3 shifts. Now the food for all these meals was served on palm tree leaves and when everyone at a table is thru eating they just roll up everything and toss it. Then they put new paper down and start over.

Today is a rest day and Krishna is taking us sight seeing. I asked Krishna if we could go to a 4 star hotel for lunch. I love the food but am ready for something less spicy. Tomorrow we go to Delhi and the Taj Mahal, so will try and write again when we get back here.
Love from India
Sharon

Terror, Mary Kay, Friends and ABBA

Was Friday a difficult day for you? It was for me and for some of my friends.

The day started well for me. My week of being chauffeured ended with a ride from cousin N. I have never wished for a longer ride to work until this week. It was so wonderful to see a happy face every time I opened the front door in the morning. Thank you to the aunties, cousins, and buddies who helped me out. Hugs to you all.

Friday after work Fullo picked me up and we went to a Mary Kay demonstration. I am not a discerning consumer of cosmetics, so this was something new in my regimented life. I got to spend time with 4 other ladies, two of them old friends I haven't seen in a while. It would have been totally wonderful except for the steps.

I go up and down my own steps every day. Not very well, but if I take my time and concentrate I can do it. The steps into Fullo's house are not as bad as my own, but they're different. I totally lost it about halfway up and wished I could just be swallowed on the spot. On the way home, I had to do the steps again. My buds said, "Just lean on us." I was terrified. I could just see the 3 of us in a heap at the bottom of the steps, trying to sort out which broken limb belonged to whom.

One problem is even though I am considerably lighter than I've ever been, I still see myself as XXL. I can't imagine anyone but a Samoan or an NFL lineman capable of holding me up. Well, we made it down the steps just fine, and I guess the moral of this story is "Trust Your Friends." Sidenote: I can testify that Mary Kay cosmetics don't wash off with tears. It seems to be good stuff.

Today some company stopped by. Friend B did the woodbox and some other thankless chores and we sat and talked for a while. The other JJ came and fed the horses and also checked the woodbox (storm coming in tonight, you know). Then I had a visit from one of the neighborhood kids, all grown up and in his military uniform, accompanied by his new wife. How did all that happen so fast? Everything about them is so shiny and new, they sparkle. One of the wonderful things about living in a community where neighbors have known each other for generations is the treat of watching kids who you've known since their birth grow up. I got a hug before they left, too. What more could you want?

Tonight I put batteries in the remote and figured out how to use my CD player. That is a major accomplishment in itself. Then I put on ABBA Gold and bicycled in the living room for 30 minutes. I'm up to 5 miles. I learned the kitties don't like ABBA when the volume is up around 45. They all cleared out of the room. Or maybe it was the smoke from the fake bike as those pedals spun?

Hope you're all tucked in tonight and have no problems with the storm. With the new windows, new roof, extra insulation, and a full wood box, this old house is pretty cozy.

No news from the travelers today. They may have to wait until they're back in Chennai to send email. Or maybe they're just having too much fun.

XOXOX
Jan

Cycling Through the Living Room

It's hard to get enough exercise when you don't walk very well and aren't strong enough to lift weights. Isometrics are pretty much the only thing I can do right now. Or could do. Yesterday when I got home my new "bike" was on the porch. It's a little device that sits on the floor. It has pedals and you sit in a chair and pretend like you're riding a bike.

My friend B was over last night and she helped me put it together. I was having problems, not because of being crimpled, just because I can never manage to follow instructions and assemble anything. It seems like I always have to break something to make it work.

After B left I sat down, determined to pedal 1 mile. I turned on the radio for some peppy music and it was tuned to Channel 6 (PBS, sound only, of course). There was a Latin Dancing competition in progress, and that music was appropriate, so I left it on. It was funny.

I didn't need to actually watch anything. If the narrators said someone's costume was extravagant, my mind concocted its own version. The mind made up dances, too, though sometimes it would wander and the dancers had ice skates on their feet.

After a while I noticed that there was no one competing in the Latin Dance contest who had a Latin surname. In fact, every single person seemed to be Russian. The Canadian team was Russian, both teams from New Jersey were Russian. All these teams from all over everywhere, and all were Russian.

How is that so? Does no one else dance? Do we only allow Russians to immigrate if they are dancers? I wonder if there's a lot of dancing we don't know about going on out in Rancho Cordova?

I made it through the first mile and figured another one would be no big deal, after all I've cycled 50 miles a couple of times in my life. Well, so that was 20 years ago, but 2 miles is only twice around the field behind the house and that's no big deal.

This a.m. my knees are pretty stiff. But it feels good just to FEEL anything. Tonight I think I'll put on ABBA Gold, really loud because that's the only way to play it, and try for 5 miles.

One more thing. This a.m. I was checking out the news online (Huffington Post) and found a link to a video that showed Paul McCartney and an audience singing "Hey Jude." I was in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and got to sing along with Paul and 15,000 other people in the audience. It was incredible! And you know, it's mandatory, if you hear "Hey Jude" you have to sing along. So I was sitting there singing at the top of my lungs and Charley the cat came running. He was all over me with his paws on my face and a really concerned look on his own, like he was wondering "what's wrong with her, why is she making those awful noises?"

Luckily for Charley, I only have 3 notes I can sing and ABBA doesn't use any of them, so I don't feel inclined to sing along with them.

OK, so one more thing I've learned. Don't take your blood pressure with music playing in the background that has a loud base. A digital monitor picks that up and you'll think you're dying when you see the reading.

Jan

Day 2 in India

Here is the second installment from Aunt Sharon in India. The photos are from Bob. Top, left ro right, Aunt Sharon, Callie, an Indian friend. Bottom, Bob and "the outside guy."
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Good Morning,
It is 5:17 am here and I am awake. Krishna has taken Ramana to the train station, he is going ahead of us to help with the wedding. We are leaving this afternoon and also going by train, but it will be an overnite trip. I asked Krishna about sleeping conditions and he said the train goes about 20 MPH and there are bunks but there are 3 levels of them. So this will be another experience.

Yesterday Callie and I went shopping at a high-end jewelry store while Krishna and Bob did something else. Callie bought some very nice jewelry and then asked where a ladies room was and they sent us to the basement and around the corner to this small room that only had a hole in the floor. Me, I was prepared to hold it till my bladder burst, but Callie was desperate and used it. Krishna said that most Indian people know this and go before they leave home.

Krishna took us to the beach, it's on the Bay of Bengal and we watched the sunrise yesterday and it was very beautiful. I have never seen the sun that orange.

Callie and I also bought saris for the wedding and we took them to a tailor to have a blouse made. I also got your top made for yours, Libby.

Now before I end this book let me tell you about traffic here again. Picture yourself in a race and everyone is lined up in a row and you see a small gap and cars, motorbikes, bikes, carts being pulled by oxen, goats, dogs and people all heading for it at the same time. Oh, I also forgot buses that have 2 buses together and horns honking. They all get thru, even the cars and everything coming the other way. The driver said that is because the top speed is 20 mph. When someone wants to cross a street they hold out their hand and start. Krishna, when he dropped us off at the jewelry store, said meet us across the street, it will be easier to get you. I said NO WAY WILL I CROSS THAT STREET!!!! The driver cracked up. Well we ended up having to walk up 2 blocks thru people begging, one lady even grabbed my leg, and other taxis trying to get us to ride. In a way it was scary.

Bob bought several recipe books on India cooking. Also the first meal we had here I sat at the table and asked for a fork. They looked at me and gave me one. Bob, he said OK, if you don't use a fork, I'll eat your way. So he used his hands.

That's about it for now, the next few days will be the wedding.  
   Love from India   Sharon

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I've had a great time riding to work and back with friends and relatives this week, luckily the traffic has been a lot easier here than it is in Chennai. I find the idea of hooking a goat to a cart intriguing. Maybe the goats in India are better-tempered than ours. I don't have a cart, but anyone who'd like to try hooking our goat up to the wheelchair is welcome to try.

Jan

Day 1 in India

The following is from Aunt Sharon, from Chennai, India
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HI,
I am trying to use a laptop, so this will probably take awhile. We got here yesterday after a very long flight. We made 2 stops on route. The first was Taipei for one hour and then Thailand. That one was 8 very long hours. One good thing was that Callie,Krishna, Bob and I had a 1 1/2 hour massage, it was nice because we got to take 2 showers. One to began the massage and one when it was finished.

While we were in Taipi we lost Bob and couldn't find him (he said he was looking around and forgot the time). We were almost the last ones on plane. I told Callie I wasn't getting on plane till I saw Bob, She said don't worry Krishna will find him and just then they showed up.

Today we shopped till we dropped, Libby I found you a pretty orange sari, Roni I found you some pretty material, and Patti you I found a nice birthday present.

Now let me tell you about driving in India, there are no traffic rules, it's organized chaos. I asked Krishna what happens if someone gets hurt and he says that rarely happens because the person who is at fault gets immediately beat up and that's something everyone wants to avoid. Everyone honks their horn, one to say get out of my way and one to say I am behind you. Or just here I am. Picture a very narrow street with cars, motor bikes, bikes and people, dogs all there going in every direction top speed 20 MPH and dodging each other.

I asked Krishna how come ambulances had no sirens and he said there are one billion people here and one won't be missed if he doesn't make it. But I did hear one siren today and that was from a police car. The  food has been very good and today we had lunch at a Sheraton hotel.

I know some of these words are spelled wrong but this is a difficult computer. So I'll talk to all of you later.

Love From India Sharon
PS  I got a nice sari to wear to wedding today 
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I love this! It's like going on vacation without having to get shots and sit on the plane. Thank you Aunt Sharon for sharing with us. I should have told you, you can't lose Bob even if you try. He always shows up at the last minute. But thanks for keeping an eye on him anyway.

Mass Murder?

When I walked into the living room one morning (well, actually I shuffled with the walker) and found this scene, I first thought the poor kitties had been the latest victims of a mass murderer. There was no blood and gore, though. Maybe it was a gas leak?

But there is no propane in my house. The only thing that leaks gas occasionally is the kid. Would that kill cats? I don't think so, both of these cats (top Velcro, bottom Charley) sleep with Bob. Bob is, however, partly a descendant of the Miller family. And the males of that family have a national reputation for excellence in flatulation.

Just about the time I was heading for the shovel, Charley woke up and stretched and yawned. Velcro soon after.

That was a close one!

Got an email from the happy traveler. It was short: "In Bangkok." Well, OK, but I thought they were going to India first. It doesn't really matter, I know they're having a good time wherever they are.

I'm having a good time, too. My friend Fullo went through the house like a whirling dervish and we filled the recycle bin and the garbage can. You can actually see Bob's bed. Now I'm wondering if the vacuum cleaner will survive all the airsoft pellets in the carpet? Anyone have experience with this?

I'm starting to get my transportation schedule lined up for this coming week. I'm really looking forward to riding with people I haven't been able to visit with for a while.

Jan

Wonder Boy

Some of you only know my son Bob through his adventures showing chickens. He was very good at that. He has other talents, too. He's great with animals - well, except for the goat. But how was Bob to know 5 years ago that putting on his motorcycle helmet, getting on his knees, and challenging the goat to a butting contest would turn the animal into a would-be assassin?

There are other aspects of life that Bob is still learning to master. One is living like a human being instead of a vagrant. He always goes off to school or work clean and tidy, but might wear the same clothes at home for days on end. This he does to avoid doing his laundry. He can keep 90 percent of the household dishes in his room without breaking them because he stacks dirty dishes intermittently with dirty laundry. He can usually find his bed in all this mess, but if that's not possible he is able to sleep quite nicely almost anywhere. I can easily imagine him living in a self-constructed cardboard hovel somewhere along the river, cheerfully enjoying the company of other vagrants or 4-H camp staff in the great outdoors. (As long as there's a place for his computer and a DSL hookup.)

Well, Bob is leaving for a long and wonderful trip to India in a few days. He's going with relatives and I know they'll all enjoy this. I've been telling him for 2 months that he needs to clean his rooms before he leaves because anything that's left on the floor is headed for the dumpster. I am not physically able to do this myself. I might be able to toss a match on the pile and hope that the towels on the bottom of it are still damp enough to keep it from spreading to the rest of the house. But luckily I have helpful friends.

Moms, they are. And the bunch of us are starting to get antsy waiting for the kid to leave so we can get started. I'm sure this will be as fascinating as a treasure hunt. Stay tuned.

Driving Evaluation

I had my driving evaluation today. How exciting!

I stopped driving back in November when my legs pretty much stopped working. Well, I could shuffle along on a walker, but I couldn't lift my leg to put the foot on the brake, for example. Luckily son Bob has been available to drive me to work and back, which is the only place I really needed to go. And friend C helped out by driving me to doctor appointments.

I finally decided to stop waiting for my fairy godmother to show up any day and sprinkle dust on my head so I could miraculously start driving again overnight. So I inquired about getting hand controls for my RAV4. This is how it works: you contract with a driving school to have a driving evaluator come pick you up in a car that has alternative controls. They take you out for a couple of hours and evaluate your needs, and if it looks like you might be able to function capably, they make recommendations to an installation place. You take your car and get the equipment installed, then the evaluator comes back and certifies you in your own car.

This is all a bit pricey, but as we know life isn't easy, let alone cheap.

My appointment today was at 11:00. I got up at 7:00. In the world of the crimpled, it takes a long time just to get dressed and make it look like your hair was combed. Four hours was more than even I needed, but I knew it would take a couple of cups of tea to get the blood pressure up to human level. At 10:30 I started outside. I wanted to tackle the front steps by myself. I have been doing the steps OK for a while, but someone else takes the walker down or up. Today I did the steps and the walker by myself. And I didn't just stand at the top of the stairs and kick it down, I actually figured out a civilized way to do it. And yes, it was scary. But just as I reached the end of the sidewalk, here came the driving guy.

He came striding out of the car with a big smile, "Hi, I'm Darryl and I'm your driving instructor, do you have dogs that bite? who owns the Hodaka 90? I love it out here, I'm bipolar. What's your handicap? I have something wrong with me that makes me paralyzed for a month at a time but they don't know what it is....blah....blah....blah. 30 minutes of blah. Definitely a social personality. That was OK, it gave me some time to sit in the car and doodle with the controls. Finally Darryl got in the car and explained them to me. He had the car pointed toward the highway. I said, "I'd rather drive out in the fields for a while first, if you don't mind."

So for another 30 minutes we drove around the Christmas trees on the gravel roads. Hand controls are not easy. The brake and the gas are on the same handle. Push back to stop, pull down to accelerate. You have one hand on the steering wheel and one on the control all the time. To use the turn signal, you have to take your hand off one of these.

I decided right away that my right foot works well enough to handle the gas pedal, and it does. So when the gravel roads got dull, I decided to drive on the creek levee for a while. This actually made Darryl very quiet. Well, so the thing is only one lane wide and you can fall off both sides. Also Darryl had just washed his car and there were mud puddles. It wasn't too bad, though, until we got almost to the end where the road merges back into gravel and fooey! a drainage ditch had been cut right through the track. So I had to back up all the way on the narrow road with drop offs on both sides.

Darryl became VERY quiet at this point. He stopped telling me about his book, about his abusive parents, about his 28 pills a day for bipolarity.

But hey! no problem. The only problem I did have was coming down off the levee, I pushed on the lever to brake and got the gas instead. I said, "hit your brake! hit your brake!" (because the instructor has one, you know) and it took him a while to figure out I was talking to him. It would have been no problem, we were only heading for an empty field and were going pretty slow. We would have just needed to call for a tractor to pull us out. But he uncurled his toenails and stopped us in time.

The hand control is sort of like the accelerator on a motorcycle. You know, if you have to hang on and accelerate at the same time and don't watch the angle of your wrist, you can overaccelerate (isn't that right Aunty Mo?).

Then we made a sidetrip to Dairyland Seed so Darryl and John could talk Hodaka for a minute or two before we hit the highway.The highway wasn't too bad, except that Darryl is very paranoid. Whenever I would go exactly 55 and some speedball was right on my tail, Darryl would hit the emergency blinkers and get them to back up. And for the whole trip he told me tales of horror from the highway, what can go wrong if you do this or that. Luckily for Darryl I understand only too well people who are over-rooted in reality. Some call them pessimists, I see them as realists.

When I get the car converted, you can believe that I'll be out in the back 80 on the gravel roads, trying stops and starts and things that require coordination. I still don't see how you use the turn signal when your hands are already busy. There is a long thingy they can attach to the turn signal that makes it stick out further, but you still have to use your hand to trigger it.

I have some volunteers to help me get back and forth to work, and I think I'll stick to that for a while. For one thing, it will give me a chance to visit with someone different every day. For another, I am really not ready to do the stairs by myself yet. Someone suggested a ramp. According to specs, it would have to be 30 feet long. Sounds more like a skateboard park to me, and could be even more exciting than the stairs.

I'll let you know when I finally do hit the road so you can all stay off it for a couple of weeks.

Still in Progress

I haven't really figured out how to do anything on this blog yet. I know, a 10-year old could probably show me. Don't know any of them.

I have a driving lesson tomorrow a.m., a driving analysis actually. To see if I can handle hand controls before I have them installed in my own car. I've been pretty much crimpled since before Thanksgiving and even though I've had drivers, I'm really looking forward to some freedom.

Day One

My young friend K keeps saying I need to have a blog. Maybe so I won't send her 4 page emails? She has led me to believe this is simple enough even I could figure it out. So far, not so good. I flunked posting photos. I have flunked changing colors. But I'll keep trying.