Monkey Shines

This has been a tough week for me.

I was working on blog piece last Sunday about my family history. My grandparents owned a fine furniture making company in the Boston area. They specialized in beautiful early American and English furniture styles, mostly made of mahogany. The business was passed to my Uncle Tony who eventually retired to South Carolina. My cousin Tony took over the business after his father retired.

I could not remember the address of the company, but remembered that the original site of their business was in an old carriage making factory that was torn down and turned into what is now a famous landmark in Boston.
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I have this vision. I am dressed like a ninja, gripping my trusty Florian Ratchet-Cut gardening pruners. I sneak from desk to desk and…snick…snick…snick….cut the heads off of every rose in all the bouquets delivered to the office for Valentine’s Day.

There is nothing like Valentine’s Day to make single women feel like Janice Ian at seventeen.
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Houston has two seasons. Winter, which starts around mid-December, is when the entire city bundles up in coats and gloves and scarves and complains that the 40 degree temperature is bone-numbing. Summer, which starts about Valentine’s Day, is when we rev up the AC and life is back to normal. Some days, the humidity is so bad that it’s like breathing through a wet dog, but those of us who are over thirty appreciate that it keeps us from getting all wrinkly.
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November 5, 2008

After all was said and done, this was quite an experience. The power in my house was off for almost three weeks. I had no telephone service or internet connection for over a month. The office was closed for over two weeks.

I’d like to share with you what I learned.
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January 27, 2009

Jane and I moved to the Garden Villas area of Houston within a year or so of each other. It’s a great neighborhood to live in. The lots are large – about an acre. The roads are lined with huge old pecan trees that arch over the middle of the streets.
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I have two sisters (Susan and Karen) and two brothers (John and George). I was the second born, arriving a year after Susan – actually, one year, twenty seven days, four hours and ten minutes. Karen was born four years later, and then came John two years after Karen. Mom and Dad waited ten years to surprise us with George. Actually, I think George surprised all of us, but that’s another story.
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Sunday, February 1, 2009

I’ve talked a little about our neighborhood. Truthfully, the neighborhood is divided into three sections.

We have the upper crust who live in the streets to the north. They have big houses, landscaping, maids, masseuses, part-time jobs and more fun. That’s where Maryanne and Kennon live.
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November 02, 2008

So. Hurricanes should never be allowed to hit when it is dark outside. That’s my new rule.

Friday night at about 6 PM the winds started picking up. Until then, it had been a picture perfect day – sunny with a few clouds, a light breeze. Had I not been watching the news, I would never have known Ike was approaching. Near our neighborhood, homeless people live under a bridge that spans Sims Bayou. I wonder if they had any idea what was coming?
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October 07, 2008

So. I have been thinking about this hurricane. It’s possible to think a lot when there is no electricity or internet connection.
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Well, in my experience of cleaning, there is the “good” clean and the “bad” clean” and the “immaculate clean”.

The “good clean” is when you manage, in a relatively short amount of time, to straighten the house up enough to have well-behaved company. (Well-behaved company is that group who will not open closet doors, look under beds or write their names in the dust on the top of the refrigerator.)
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