Time


My mother bought this clock in México

Today my brother Danny called me. I can’t remember the last time he called, but I was supposed to help him move some kind of media center into storage. The last time I was supposed to help him I kind of lost track of the time and forgot I was supposed to help him that day. He always forgot to write down my cell phone number, or he would have got a hold of me because all I was doing was shopping for bananas, apples, and oranges. That seemed to take up my entire attention span. Hence, I forgot I was supposed to help my brother.

So, anyway, I get to his condo and I immediately see the Aztec calendar/clock. “Is that the same clock that we had in our basement at 2509 W. Marquette Road?” I asked. “It is,” he said. I immediately took a picture of it with my digital camera that I had brought along for just that purpose. Well, not specifically to take a picture of the Aztec calendar/clock that used to be in our basement at 2509 W. Marquette Road, because I didn’t know it still existed, much less that my brother Danny had it hanging in his living room wall at this very moment.

Lately, I’ve been taking my camera with me to more places just in case I see something worth photographing. Danny tells me that he took the clock hands off because they had somehow broke. Gee, I wonder how? I’m surprised that the clock survived at all because we used to play very rough in the basement. Things were always flying in our basement and caroming off the ceiling or the walls–if not objects that were never designed to fly like pillows, sofa cushions, or books, then human bodies such as my brothers or me.

Now that I look at the picture of the Aztec calendar/clock, I wonder: Who was the genius who thought of putting a clock in the center of the Aztec calendar. I’m not sure where it came from, but my mother probably brought back as a souvenir on one of her many trips to Mexico. No matter how many times my mother went to Mexico, she always brought back more souvenirs. She wanted to move and live in Mexico, but since she couldn’t, she was bringing Mexico back to Chicago, one souvenir at a time.

DDR

Developing pictures


How long ago did we take this picture?

Lately, I’ve been looking at a lot of pictures. Mainly so I can put some on my website and blog. My family in Mexico enjoys looking at them, too. However, I’m not much of a picture taker. And I’m even worse at taking the film in to get developed. I took this picture of my twins when they were one and then forgot to develop the film for what I thought was only a year or two. When I finally got these pictures back from the developer, my sons were already in kindergarten!

The problem with not immediately developing the film is that the pictures always looked rather yellow. My sons always looked yellowish in pictures. (I shall refrain from making off-color jokes here.) Of course, I don’t have a problem developing pictures I take with a digital camera because I love computers and I immediately upload the pictures to my computer. That’s why I love digital cameras. A lot less driving to get pictures developed. And, I also bought a printer that scans and prints photos, so I actually save time and money. So now I have all these pictures to sort through and figure out which ones to use on my website and which ones to share with my family in Mexico. Of course, I get sidetracked whenever I look at the pictures. I start reminiscing about the past and I forget what I had started out to do in the first place. Not that I’m complaining because that’s kind of fun.

DDR

Books


This is only 20% of my library!

I love books. Especially leather-bound editions. I have many leather-bound books of the classics. I like to surround myself with these books while I write. I feel inspired when I do. I feel that my writing should be much better because I’m surrounded by all these great writers. I’ve actually read most of the books I own. Some books I have reread several times, like the humorous ones by Groucho Marx, Stephen Leacock, and Max Schulman.

When I downsized my library (I gave about two-thirds of my collection to the used bookstore when I got divorced and had to sell the house), I kept all my leather-bound books, which cost me a pretty penny. I also kept the books that were autographed by the author. I’ve met some famous writers who came speak at the University of Illinois at Chicago for conferences. I usually take their book that I’ve already read and ask the author for his or her autograph.

I used to love reading humor books (and I still do), but many were out of print, so I would go from one used bookstore to the next where I bought many of them. One day, I saw a book by Bob Hope–I thought Bob Hope was hilarious–and when I opened it to look for the price I saw that Bob Hope himself had autographed it. So obviously I had to keep his autographed book.

DDR

Chicago Public Library


Shh! No talking in the library!

I’ve been going to the Chicago Public Library since I was six. I’m not sure why, but I always loved being surrounded by all those books. For a while there back in grade school, I used to hang out at the library with my best friend Patrick. We would sit there reading joke books and asking each other riddles. We had a lot of fun while trying not to laugh too loudly.

Then, something terrible happened to the libraries. There was an enormous change of attitude toward the patrons by the librarians. None seemed too interested in helping us, the readers, in the 1970s. That was about the time that I started buying books instead of borrowing them from the library. I loved owning my own books. Of course, that was a time when I actually had time to go back to my books to reread them.

In the 1980s, the library began to computerize its tracking system. The computers were always down and they had to resort to the old paper system whenever I checked out a book. Then, lo and behold, some reporter discovered that the City of Chicago awarded the computer contract through patronage. That’s the Chicago Way! And no one was really shocked. I hated going to the library because the librarians stared daggers at you if you asked for help to find a book or if you wanted to check it out. And just forget about even trying to get a book delivered from another branch. I just stopped going to the library.

The last few years, however, our library system has been thoroughly modernized. I think it started improving when Bill Gates donated Microsoft software to the library. Lately, I’ve been patronizing the library regularly. When I got divorced and sold our house, I had to move to a smaller house. So, I had to get rid of two-thirds of the books that I had accumulated over the years. Now, I borrow books instead of buying them. And this is where the library comes in. The library in the picture above is within walking distance of my house. I don’t even have to go to the library to order the books. The computer system works perfectly now. I look up whatever book I want and if the library system owns it, I can get it delivered to my library where they will hold it for a week. I’m just amazed by how efficiently the library works now!

DDR

Election


I voted!

I’ve been switching from channel to channel watching the election day coverage. I enjoyed watching the Spanish stations, but I switched back to the English stations when John McCain delivered his concession speech because it was translated into Spanish. I wanted to hear his speech in English. But I can understand that there are American citizens who would rather hear it in Spanish. In addition, there are many people in Spanish-speaking countries who take great interest in American politics. When I went to Mexico last July, many of my cousins kept asking me about the presidential race. They were curious about the race between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. The questions just never stopped. I got the general idea that they would vote for Obama if they could vote. I’m not sure how to interpret this.

DDR