California for Mothers Day

Tuesday 5-4-10 3:15 AM


It’s dark, it’s really, really early, I’ve only had one hour of sleep because of a sinus headache, and slept only because I took an Ibuprofen, drank hot tea, ate dark chocolate, and turned up the fireplace and crawled under a warm blanket.

It is still cold and dark outside as we take off into the sea of clouds, headed for California (well, Seattle, enroute to California). When I open my eyes it is almost time to land and the morning light shows that we are floating above the clouds as we slowly descend allowing glimpses of city lights as Seattle is waking up and beginning to move. I knew there was at least one “LEO” (law enforcement officer) on the plane to Seattle, but it wasn’t until we started to disembark that I realized that there were two, maybe three, on board.

A Starbucks tall caffe latte, a walk through the Fireworks store, my favorite shop in the airport, and then the tram to the “N” gate for the next leg of the trip to CA to see my mom, my son Jim, and others of my family.

Sitting at my gate watching the air traffic come and go, I saw what appeared to be a large passenger plane, except it had no windows, was painted a flat white, and absolutely no marking of any kind to identify it. Strange!!!

One of my new favorite things to pack in my carryon bag is Gold Bond hand sanitizer; a non-alcohol based sanitizer, so my hands don’t feel rough and dried out--and it smells good.

I am ready to go…ready to get to CA…ready to sleep on the plane…ready to quit waiting.

When I woke we were about fifteen minutes out of Oakland. The sun was shining and I had a clear view of the waves lapping at the CA coastline to the west and the green hills to the east (they are not golden brown and parched but green because of the unusually large amount of rain CA has had this year), low tide leaving the bay flats looking like a receding hairline and a ferry heading to Vallejo.

I can see highway 4 going east to the hills heading to Antioch and Pittsburg; the mothball fleet squatting like old grey soldiers in Suisun Bay, Martinez where I grew up, and it all makes me thinks of the song “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever”. When there is no smog you really can see everything from 10-15 thousand feet up. Briones Park, Tilden Park, now it is a 180 and we are almost ready to land.

Mary picked me up and we stopped at BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse at the mall for lunch. Mary recommended the BBQ chicken salad with extra crunchies on top. Moist chick with a sweet bbq sauce, chopped lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, black beans, and corn, with a southwestern creamy dressing topped with thin French fried onion rings--I now have a new favorite salad. Kelly called while we were eating lunch and when I told her where we were having lunch, she said she was mad at me; BJ’s is one of Kelly’s favorite restaurants in Las Vegas.

Richard was at my mom’s gardening when we arrived and he showed me my new birdhouse decorated with pearls (real pearls), beads, candy wrappers, a watch, rhinestones, and lots of love. Thank you Richard, the birdhouse will be treasured and I am thankful to have such talented friend.

Kelly called again right before dinner and said she was jealous I was having grandma food. She will be here in July and can feast then.

Mom and I checked out her garden in full bloom. Mexican sunflowers, Iris, lambs ear, roses, geraniums, roses, hollyhocks, and daylilies all growing in the wonderful warmth of the sun.


Wednesday 5-5-10

Mom had raisin bread for breakfast and I had hot coffee. Mom went to work in the garden and I went to Home Depot. Paint for the picket fence in the front yard, wasp spray for the nest in the garage attic, and a plant for the garden. Happy Mother’s Day mom.

Next stop Safeway to buy groceries to fix dinner. Tonight it is going to be pork chops, rice, and vegetables seasoned with sweet chili sauce. Thursday night we are having Greek pasta salad with chicken.

Mom laughed when I returned home carrying a plant in my hands. She was sitting on the patio with a cold drink, taking a much deserved break from her morning gardening chores. I asked her if she thought I could walk into Home Depot without buying a plant and she said no. I bought her a ruby pink double flower Australian Tee Tree shrub. Now we just need to find the right place to put it.

I worked on painting the fence in the front yard (I did not complete this job because of the rain and cold, so Richard will need to finish for me). And bend and dip and stretch and brush…oh my legs are going to get a workout today.

Mary came for dinner and we watched a little TV before we got down to business playing canasta. I won a game! They must have taken pity on me and let me win. It was a good day.


Thursday 5-6-10

Up early to take mom to get blood work done (just routine). We picked up Mary and went to breakfast at the Copper Skillet Courtyard in Martinez. Good food, good portions, good prices.

Back to the house for a short nap after a big breakfast. Four hours later I woke up. I have a really bad sinus headache and it has just zapped me of my strength this afternoon.

Mary came for dinner and mom fixed an apricot pie for dessert. A little TV and then we played one game of canasta. I was in bed by 11:00 PM trying to sleep off the rest of the sinus headache.


Friday 5-7-10

Two migraine pills for the headache and I was ready to go. I’ve switched to southern sweet tea instead of the coffee, and a piece of mom’s raisin bread. Mary came and we all went to Lowe’s to check out their garden department.

Later that day…163 bulbs (ooops…I planted Mary’s bulbs in mom’s garden), 16 plants, and 2 packages of seeds and I am dirty, tired, and ready for dinner. Mom’s garden is going to look wonderful when all these plants come up and start blooming. Dinner plate dahlias, iris, snap dragons, rhubarb, red astabile, hydrangea, and gladiolus in red, yellow, pinks, purples, and reds.

Back to BJ’s for dinner (thank you Mary).

We watched mom’s favorite TV shows--wheel of fortune and jeopardy--and then we played canasta.

The best part of the whole day was getting my very first happy mother’s day grandma card in the mail: “Grandma Marrs from Kyler and his mom and dad.” I love it.


Saturday 5-8-10

Larry sent a text message saying he sent mother’s day flowers to Kelly and cottages to mom, Mary, and I. Cottages? Maybe a plant in a cottage style planter? Oh and the end of his message said, “I bought a Droid phone.”

Well the cottages arrived a short time later. Corsages is what he meant, not cottages. What a nice surprise.

Mary and I did a quick shopping trip to Costco and the lunch buffet. Every other aisle had samples, way too many sweets. The best taste test was the chili and cheese tamales and the Kinders bbq sauce on beef trip tips. I bought several bottles of bbq sauce for Larry because that was his only request when I came down.

Mary dropped me off and went home and I went to Lowe’s for garden mulch and to Sears to fix a low tire.

We fixed pizza for dinner and played canasta.

Sunday 5-9-10

Mary picked us up for church and we wore our corsages, Mary has a green rose and white orchid, I had a green carnation and white orchid, and mom had a white gardenia.

It never rains in CA…haha. To the east it is dark rain clouds, to the north it is dark rain clouds, to the south it is grey skies, and from the bedroom I can’t see what it looks like to the west, but probably not sunny.

In church they gave all the mothers a pedometer to measure how many steps a mother takes in a day. Any guesses?

Michael left a happy mother’s day song on my cell phone. I tried to call him back but couldn’t reach him.

James, mom, Mary, Jim, Heather, Poncho, and I celebrated mother’s day with bacon cheese hamburgers, fresh strawberries, chips, brownies, cupcakes, and southern sweet tea. James barbequed the hamburgers; the really big hamburgers, dinner-plate size hamburgers.

Poncho had flowers for Mary, mom and me and Jim and Heather arrived with flowers for each of us also. (I did make it home with my flowers from Jim and Heather)

I had small gifts I made for mom and Mary. Mary gave me a bottle of Secret Obsession Parfum by Calvin Klein, and Marc Jacobs perfume and lotion. Score!

Kelly called to wish me a happy mother’s day. I heard from all my kids, so it was a really good day, a great mother’s day.

After everyone left, mom, Mary, and I played canasta till 11:30 PM.

On the way home mom said “this was a fun day,” and that is what mother’s day was all about--making my mom happy.


Monday 5-10-10

It’s just another day in paradise…or so the song goes. It’s cold, it’s windy, and the rain is on its way. Mom and I spent a quiet morning talking, reading, the paper, and watching TV.

I went to Mary’s in the afternoon to clothes shop in her closet. Mary is a clothes gourmet so when she cleans the closets I love it and Haley loves it because Haley gets her shoes.

Mary’s friend Sid gave her a little book of friendship sayings and he teased her about reading it and said I should read it to her. So right before our canasta game I read the little book to Mary which made her smile and laugh and she could then tell Sid she read the book…sort of.

We checked in on all the relatives since they were on tornado watch, and everyone is okay.


Tuesday 5-11-10

I bought a box to ship home my new wardrobe and assorted gifts. We stopped at FedEx and then mom and I went to Mary’s.

I checked in for my flight on Wednesday, downloaded some music (note to self: bring a bigger memory flash drive next time). Sid came over to help hang Mary’s vintage print in the living room. So how many holes does it take to hang a picture? Two to hang the picture and three more to fix the mistakes. We measured across, down, measured the picture, checked for level, cross hatched marks to mark the spot--ready to hammer in the hooks. Wrong hooks. Sid and I walked over to the hardware store and got the right hooks and now we were ready. No; let’s check it one more time with a level and a square. That meant getting them out of the truck and we had to wash them before we could use them. Measure Twice, cut once is what my dad always said, but this is measure, measure, measure, and one more time to make sure. Okay, now we were ready. But the picture is crooked and not centered. This doesn’t make sense. We checked the marks and everything is evenly spaced on a level line. A new hole to make a correction only it doesn’t work. Again with no success…we don’t know what the problem is. Sid has me help him take the picture off the wall and as we do he notices that one part of the wire is sitting on top of the hanger not caught on the wall hook. Now it is straight. Just don’t look behind the frame or you will have to patch and paint the mistakes that really weren’t.

We had lunch at the buffet, and the back to mom’s to play canasta. We snacked on pepper jack cheese and chips for dinner.

I’m all packed, packed again, and again, I think I can get it all in.


Wednesday 5-12-10

Mom made sure I was up early. We had our morning tea and raisin bread. Mary is bringing another bag of clothes to go in my suitcase….hope it fits. My carryon now holds my birdhouse Richard made for me, my camera, my bottle of perfume from Mary, my aprons mom made me and that is about all that it will hold…oh, I forgot the lemon bars.

Mary arrived and we are off to the Oakland airport. I look a little strange lugging an overstuffed 50.3 pound suitcase, my small carryon that also has my mother’s day flowers from Jim and Heather tucked into the strap, and my new long black suede coat that Mary gave me. I look like I am heading to Alaska…well it is Bellingham.

I cleared security and now I will walk the airport terminals until it is time to board at 12:10 PM. There is always an art display in the Oakland airport and this time it was about bicycles. 

There are no flights out of Seattle to Bellingham when I arrive so I will have a three hour layover arriving home at 6:20PM. A long day filled with a sad heart leaving my family and a happy heart to see my husband. Maybe Larry would move to Sacramento????

Well God was watching over me and the 2:35PM flight from Seattle to Bellingham was delayed and I was going to get home early even if my luggage arrives later.

Thursday 5-13-10

No sleep because I had a 7:30 AM board meeting for GRADS.

In The Hood...A Mother's Day Present

My oldest son, Jim, is a police officer in Sacramento California and I have always wanted to do a ride-a-long with him. Several times we have set it up and something unexpected has happened and I have had to cancel out. This year I was going to be in CA for mother’s day with my mom who will be turning a young ninety-three in June so I planned a few extra days so that I could do my long awaited ride-a-long.
I drove up to Jim’s home on Friday morning on May 7th and we went out to lunch and then stopped by and took lunch to his girlfriend Heather before it was time to go to work. Jim works on the Southside of Sacramento in what his cousin Mike (he works as a correction officer for the State of CA) refers to as the hood. Mike laughed when he found out I was going out on a Friday night with Jim and said to be prepared because you never knew what would happen.

We pulled into the secure parking lot at the station and Jim unloaded several bags of his gear into the car we would be patrolling in that night. We then pulled up to the building and unloaded two sheet cakes and three dozen muffins that I had brought to share with Jim’s co-workers. Jim said his co-workers/friends had a sweet tooth and I wanted to do something nice for them. We parked the car and then Jim left me in the roll call room while he went to change and get ready.

I met several of his friends and they all asked me if I was excited and ready to go out. They wanted to know why I wanted to do a ride-a-long, and I told them I wanted to know what Jim’s job was like. Soon the room was filling up with uniformed officers, all taking a seat to get ready for the sergeant and roll call. I was asked to stand and introduce myself at the end and tell why I was there. This was my mother’s day gift for me, to watch my son on a typical Friday night on the Sacramento Police Force. For me, the joy was to see my child, grown up and doing what he has always wanted, and knowing I succeeded as a mother in helping him realize his dream.

We took the last of the equipment out to the car and Jim made sure everything was ready to go as he snapped the shotgun in place between us. I asked if there was a panic button and he showed me where it was. He then explained about the onboard cameras, computer, and radio equipment. Wow! It’s not like the old movies where the police just jumped into a car and sped away when they were called. Today is high tech with new equipment being updated to protect the officers and provide information in case of an arrest.

Our first assignment was to take a prisoner, being brought in from the previous shift to the jail, to reduce overtime cost. The evidence was left at the station to be logged and sent later with the report the arresting officer wrote up. Jim placed his handcuffs on the suspect before the other officer’s handcuffs were removed and then the woman was placed in the back seat of our car. It wasn’t the suspect’s first time in a police cruiser or the judicial system, but she wasn’t fighting or complaining--just taking it all in stride, and as a matter of fact. We arrived at the county jail downtown Sacramento and waited for the security camera to verify who we were and then the large gray oversized roll-up doors began to ascend and we drove into the dark cavernous parking garage. The first order of business is to leave all weapons, guns, mace, stun gun, etc, locked in the trunk of the vehicle for everyone’s safety. We entered through a secure door and into the medical unit. The suspect was asked about medical history, illnesses, drug use, alcohol use, and women’s medical issues. I had to look away when she received a tetanus shot, not just because I hate needles, but the thought of the shot was causing her distress and I felt empathy for her as she was almost in tears. We moved back out to the computer station for Jim to finish his paperwork and then the prisoner was searched and photographed before she would be booked into jail. Jim said she would probably be in quarantine for up to twenty-four hours before being put in with the regular prison population.

Back out to the car and on the streets. Jim checked his computer to see what was happening in his sector-- B4. There are six sectors in the city and each is divided into three sections. It was early on Friday and it was quiet so we met up with his partner, Khang, to arrange a probation warrant arrest. Each team has been asked to take on a project to help improve their sector and, in turn, improve the city. A small apartment complex is what they are working on as they are trying to be a friendly face in the community and keep the residents safe. Another team joined us so there were a total of four officers responding to a suspect with outstanding warrants. I was allowed to get out of the car and go with them, just to hang back a little until given the okay to proceed with them. The renter allowed the officers into her home but said she didn’t know the suspect. After a quick search of the apartment, with her approval, and after verifying some personal information, we left. The children all smiled as we walked by and they played in the parking lot--and that is positive.

There was a call about a resident who assaulted his caregivers. This was not the first time the police had been called to this address. Everyone was calm when we arrived. The resident had taken his medication before we arrived and the caregivers did not want to press charges. Jim and his partner talked to the resident and made sure he understood what could happen to him and what his caregivers did not want to happen to him. The caregivers were told what their options were.

As we left to cruise the streets, an accident report came across the radio. Jim checked the location and radioed that we were on our way. Both cars had been driven to the side of the road and a fire truck was blocking one lane until the police arrived. No injuries, just lots of glass shards covering four lanes of traffic and broken automobile parts dangling from both vehicles. Jim’s partner began interviewing one of the drivers and Jim spoke with the other driver. They checked both vehicles for damage, talked with witnesses, and checked the scene of the accident. They told both drivers how accidents were handled in Sacramento, to contact their insurance agents, and gave them each cards with information to obtain police records in about two weeks. We stayed at the scene until both vehicles were towed.

In some parts of this sector, the houses and building windows are covered with bars to keep intruders out. Some businesses hire armed and unarmed security companies to patrol their business to keep them and their customers safe. Other parts of the same sector have older, well maintained homes, the lawns groomed, and large shade trees line the streets. It was while patrolling through one of these neighborhoods that Jim noticed an older Ford Bronco with a missing front plate. Jim ran the rear plate and found that it was registered to someone on parole. As the vehicle pulled into a driveway, Jim radioed in his location, told me to stay in the patrol car as he approached the vehicle with his hand on his gun. At this moment I looked at the situation sitting there in the car realize that my child is all grown up and ready to draw a gun if need be. Technology is so sophisticated in today’s world, but it still has glitches, like the couple of seconds the dispatchers couldn’t hear Jim on his radio and you can hear them calling out to him. It was strange to hear my son’s voice over the radio letting dispatch know he was okay and his partner had arrived. She immediately stood to one side of Jim, backing him up with her hand on her gun ready to draw if needed. The driver was asked to exit the vehicle and was then handcuffed and searched. A small plastic bag was found in one pocket which was secured as evidence and the suspect was put in the patrol car. His car was searched for drugs and no warrants came back on the driver. His driver’s license had expired and Jim confiscated it, and his registration was out of date. Jim and his partner determined the amount of marijuana was less than the state codes for arrest and wrote citations for the other items and released the driver. The drugs were weighed, logged, and recorded for evidence, then sealed in envelopes with tamper-proof tape.

A call came in asking for back up for another accident. One officer was already at the scene and Jim and his partner both responded. The first officer was flagged down by a citizen to report an earlier hit and run accident when a second victim stopped to report another accident that had also happened earlier in the day. Jim took care of the second victim while his partner and the first officer tried to get all the details on the first call. #2 was taken care of and left just as a citizen approached the other two officers to report someone had abandoned a vehicle that looked like it had been in accident several blocks away and matched the description of the hit and run. We stayed with #1 while the other officers went to see if the car was still parked. They radioed that the victim should follow us to ID the car in question; and it was. So one accident that happens in another part of town #1, moves a few blocks down before the driver flees #2, the victim flags down an officer at another location several hours later #3, and then they find the hit and run car blocks away #4. What are the odds in a city this size and hours after an accident that you could find the other car? Well the only thing that might be stranger is that at an hour and a half after we had been on the scene and were about to finish up paper work with four officers working this accident, a car pulls up and the hit and run driver gets out and walks down the street and says, “I did it, I’m sorry.” So much for being through with this accident. The officers interviewed the driver, asked his family, who had come with him for support, to move back to their vehicle and tried to sort out all the details. The victim from the hit and run was overly excited that the police found the driver, and she sent her mother to bring her family to the scene. It could have been a volatile situation but both parties just wanted to get the facts sorted out and no one yelled or got angry. In the end it will be up to the insurance companies to sort out who did what to cause the accident and who will be responsible. It is not always black and white when you first look at something. You need to ask questions, and sometimes ask again, before you can see the bigger picture.

Well, most restaurants in this part of town are closed at 9:30 PM or had stopped taking orders. As Jim and his partner sat in a parking lot doing reports and seeing if they needed to respond to any other calls, it happened to be the same parking lot of the restaurant where we had planned to meet my nephew Mike and his wife, Tiffeny, for dinner earlier. Life as a police officer does not revolve around set schedules for dinner once you are out on the street. We said hello, gave a hug, and then we were off patrolling again. It was quiet for a Friday night so Jim asked permission to take a dinner break. We ordered a pizza which we took back to the station and shared with several other officers.

The last call of the evening was a citizen who was wandering around a parking lot and the security guard was worried about her. She didn’t seem to respond to Jim when he called her by name as he approached her and she looked dazed and lost. She didn’t want to go home; she didn’t have any money, no place to stay for the night, no family to call, and no more options. Jim’s partner tried talking to her but with the same conclusion. They couldn’t turn her lose and have her turn up as a missing person or worse. She didn’t want to talk about why she didn’t want to go home, so they had no choice but to send her to the mental health hospital. She had been on medication, but her insurance had not started before she ran out of medicine, and by the time the insurance began she had been off the medicine several weeks and was lost again in a world she couldn’t control. Since it was almost the end of our shift, someone from the graveyard shift transported the citizen to the hospital, again to save overtime in an ever tightening budget in not just California, but every city and state.

The evening ended as it began, with a woman in crisis but at very different levels of understanding and control of their world around them. As a Christian I found it very hard to think of women, children, and families all over the United States dealing with violence either by their hand or at the hand of someone else. Health care does not exist for a large majority of the population and without it they are caught in vicious circle that ends badly, in many instances. Police men and women have sworn to protect and help the communities they work in, and yet have to fight every day some of those same people who are looking for an easy way out.

My night on the streets was probably a typical night. No lights and sirens, no big drug busts, no shoot outs, or high speed chases, just the everyday struggles the people in these neighborhoods live with. This was just one ten hour shift in a four day work week for my son. I’m thankful I could share a few hours to see what his job and that of his fellow officers is like. They are everyday people, like everyone else, just trying to make a positive difference.

Happy Mothers Day...Mom

Make a Smilebox greeting

Mothers Day Poppers

These little poppers are made from a cardstock tube, fabric scraps, bits of ribbons, felt flowers, a little sparkle fiber, and filled with Almond Roca.

I made one for my mom and one for my sister who I will be celebrating mothers day with this year.