Way Out West

That's Steve McLaughlin up there. He's quite a guy. In addition to being my age, we share interests in painting and music.

He was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Water Polo team in the Rome games in 1960.  He didn't get much time in the pool, but he can log it. He was there.

He speaks at least three languages. First there is Montebelloan, his native tongue. (Montebello is a suburb of Los Angeles in between East L.A. and Pasadena.) Then there is English, a discipline he honed at L.A. State. The third lingual mastery is Mandarin Chinese, one he had to learn being responsible for building IBM facilities in Shanghai. (He is just retired from being in charge of IBM's world wide construction for 30 years.)

That's his wife Nikki up there, a life long friend of Peggy.  Nikki is a retired legal secretary, who plays the ukulele and some mean tennis. Seems like her San Jose team is always playing for some national title somewhere.

They have four grandchildren.  (That's a vital statistic that will have greater essence later.)

They are part of a three theme trip to the San Francisco Bay area for a week.

 

 

That is my sister Brenda with the dark hair sitting next to Peggy.  Brenda is an artist who lives in the Oakland Hills near Berkeley and Montclair. We showed up for a reception at a showing of Brenda's work in Piedmont.

 

Oh! Brenda has four grandchildren. (They are a pretty vital statistic in her life.)

But here comes the third reason we were Way Out West.

This is my stepdaughter Rhonda.

 

 

Here's her husband Mark.

 

But you've likely already figured out the reason for and major joy of our visit.  All these  people are pretty cool, but WE got to spend a week babysitting little Maren Noel Muschanow. WOW!  

 

(So far she is an only grandchild.)

She is six months old now, AND I HAVE A NEW AND ABIDING RESPECT FOR PARENTHOOD.  If you ever just want to do a little exercise in FOCUS?

That's it.  Nothing clever or deep in this posting. Just thought I'd let you know what we've been up to. Ta!

(Yeah, I changed a diaper.)