THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER
VOLUME131 NOVEMBER 2019
Dear Family and Friends,
I had barely recovered from all the
excitement of Kay and Richard's wedding with our entire family
together when something I had suspected for a few weeks was
confirmed.
Emmy Lou is going to be a big sister in early May!
Sean and Sarah had come over for lunch
the last weekend in September with Emmy Lou dressed in a shirt that
announced her new status but I failed to read what was written on the
shirt for ages until Sean insisted I do so! I recall Ava Claire
wearing a similar shirt when Owen was expected and failing to read
the message that time too!
A few days later I was on my all
expenses paid trip to Los Angeles with Sarah ,Sean, and Emmy Lou: I
was baby-sitting while they attended Derek Sanchez's wedding (no
children) being held at The Terrace Live above the Grammy Museum.
It has been many years since I have
needed to check luggage prior to going through security as I always
travel with a large purse and one carry on bag that I can pack for a
week or month! I am very much into color coordinating my travel
wardrobe so that I only need one other pair of shoes other than the
ones I wear for the flight, and I pick outfits to mix and match with
one basic shade of navy, black , beige or brown. Until the evening
before our flight I had forgotten how much paraphernalia it could
take to travel with a baby. Sean called and asked if I had any idea
how much my bag weighed. Of course not so I put it on the scales and
gave him the number – apparently it was low enough to please him as
he was worried that we were going to be over the weight limits on the
budget friendly Spirit airline, on which he had booked our flights.
I was told that we would be consolidating luggage at my house before
we drove to the airport the following afternoon. The good news was
that we were going to be spared hauling all our luggage out of the
car in the long term parking lot, getting it all on to a shuttle bus
and then off again at the terminal because Josh texted me the day
before to say he was going to be home from his travels to Colorado
the next day early enough to drive us to the airport and would pick
us up five days later!This was all taking place on a Wednesday – a
day I babysit Owen so I had Coryn pick him up an hour early as we
needed to get to the airport before the evening rush hour traffic. Of
course he was not happy about having to leave after a short reunion
with his beloved uncle Josh and not being included on our trip!
Once at the airport we went straight
to the baggage check in with our consolidated bags. I was sharing a
suitcase with Sean, plus we had two other ones, a stroller, a
pac'n'play and a car seat. I remember when I flew to England for a
month's stay forty years ago with four month old Marc in a baby
sling, a diaper bag and one suitcase! It seemed to take awhile to
get all our luggage and ourselves checked in. Then we had to show our
boarding passes and ID's again before going through security but
thankfully we had time to eat dinner before our flight left to
arrive in Los Angeles around ten O'clock..
Emmy Lou was very good on the plane,
having a wonderful time interacting with all the passengers and crew
who were very good with her. One of the flight attendants was giving
the safety spiel by our seats prior to takeoff and was using Emmy Lou
as his assistant. She probably paid him the most attention of any
passenger ever on a flight! She truly is a happy and beautiful baby!
She loved climbing up the back of our seats to interact with the
people who were very baby friendly behind us and hanging out over the
aisle greeting everyone coming and going to the restrooms. Since we
were traveling at her bedtime she also slept some of the time.
Once in LA we took turns holding Emmy
Lou and getting our bags collected so that we could hook up with Bryn
who was bravely dealing with the chaotic airport traffic to pick us
up. There is a lot of construction going on directly outside the
terminals so we headed over to a nearby parking lot and hoped Bryn
would be able to find us. It took a bit of time due to the traffic
congestion but once he pulled up into an illegal parking spot we
quickly loaded everything into the car, got Emmy Lou in her car seat
and headed off to Marc's work place where he was going to take me
home with him while the others stayed at Bryn's place. Sean dumped
his stuff out of our shared suitcase , gave it to me and off I
trundled behind Marc where his car was parked at least half a mile
from our meeting place. I asked why on earth he hadn't just parked
closer and he mumbled something about parking restrictions - hard to
comprehend as the place was deserted at this hour of the night!
However once on the drive back to his Condo in Torrence I mentioned
that Sarah, Sean and the baby were planning on meeting up for lunch
tomorrow. Marc was so excited that someone wanted to visit him that
he insisted on stopping at a grocery store so he could pick up some
meats to smoke. I can't say I have ever shopped at was one O'clock in
the morning for me before but I helped Marc select fruit, salad,
wine, a chicken, bratwurst and steak. I also grabbed some ginger
beer, breakfast muffins and yogurt to avoid Marc's high fiber
breakfast cereals. As we all know I do not need help with my bowels.
Once home Marc was marinating and
salting his meats while I was pleasantly surprised to see that his
bathroom was actually clean enough to use after Josh had made a few
upgrades for him. The blue tub still needs to go! Marc was still
clanging pans and pounding meat as I decided to crawl into bed – an
inflated mattress. Marc assured me that it was new and unlike his old
one did not lose air all night.
As I was trying to drift off to sleep,
he mentioned that he was going to have to set an alarm for the
middle of the night so he could put his meats in the smoker on his
patio for the hours it would take for the process to be complete in
time for lunch.
Of course I heard him sliding the patio
doors, banging around in the kitchen and using words I would never
use when he dropped something- just as I had finally fallen asleep of
course. I greeted him in the morning by letting him know that my bed
had deflated overnight, that I was reduced to pulling out a sleeping
bag in his closet to keep warm as a top sheet was not sufficient to
ward off the chilly night air and that I was definitely sleep
deprived and hoped that there was going to be a lot of coffee
brewing.
Marc immediately checked his air
mattress and discovered that after inflating it he had failed to
replace the plug!
Marc is a coffee snob so I had to
suffer through the grinding of beans, something about a French press
and the smallest coffee pot I ever seen, which yielded just two cups
of coffee. I would have happily drunk several cups of instant coffee
but every cup necessitated the repetition of his agonizingly long
preparations. I suggested he could use a bigger coffee pot – oh he
did have one but he much preferred the results using the small one.
My help was enlisted to help with
turning the meats in the Smoker – Marc explained that this had to
be done as quickly as possible as apparently once the oven door was
open the thermostat would start dropping precipitously. I stood
ready on the patio opening and closing the door as fast as I could
and Marc was delighted with my skills exclaiming that this was the
smallest drop in temperature ever since he had been using a Smoker.
I decided not to burst his bubble of happiness by raising the
question of how healthy the consumption of smoked meat was for one.
Sean, Sarah and Emmy Lou arrived and
they too had apparently had a poor night's sleep. Emmy Lou was
completely off her schedule and had hardly slept which meant they
hadn't either. But Emmy Lou was very taken with all the decorative
pieces Marc has displayed in his living room ( dumpster fodder in my
opinion )She was soon grabbing his bobble heads and teething on his
hand held back massager! She had a wonderful time slobbering all over
the items on his coffee table as Marc looked on, appalled that no-one
seen inclined to rescue his treasures. Fortunately he had cleaned up
his dump before we came, even washing his walls and cabinets but only
as high up as he figured Emmy Lou could reach! You could definitely
see the dividing line.
Once his guests had headed back to
Bryn's in Korea Town hopefully early enough to avoid the rush hour
traffic jams Marc and I decided to get some early evening exercise in
by walking to a Hawaiian themed restaurant where we had a very
delicious fresh fish dinner and picked up a very tasty bakery dessert
to take home with us to enjoy with a glass of wine.
The next day Marc had to go into work
for a few hours so I entertained myself until he returned home about
lunchtime. He asked me if I had any idea's about what he could do to
his kitchen ceiling to remedy the missing ceiling tiles. His false
ceiling featured T-bars and amber plastic tiles that probably dated
from the sixties. I saw only two choices, replace all the tiles with
new ones as it would be impossible to match the existing ones or
better yet take the whole thing down and enjoy the extra ceiling
height which would probably make the kitchen appear larger. Marc was
nervous about how we would dispose of the ceiling. He said it was
absolutely forbidden to put construction material in the condo
dumpsters. Mother explained that we would be breaking all the
materials into small pieces and throwing them into the dumpster in
heavy duty black trash bags. Marc was somewhat appeased by this news.
I asked him if he had a step stool and some tools. Much to my
amazement he produced a tool box (probably something Josh or Bryn had
put together) and a small step-stool that fortunately gave me enough
height to climb on the kitchen counters to start my demolition work.
I suggested that while I was on the counter Marc might want to get on
the step stool and help. Fortunately for him his phone rung at that
time with a work call that saved him from two hours of physical work
as his phone rang constantly after the initial call. Of course Marc
would have been of no help any way as his fear of heights would never
let him get above the first rung of a ladder! Removing the tiles was
easily done, removing the T-bars was more of a challenge as they were
nailed rather than screwed in and so I had to use a flat head
screwdriver, needle nose pliers and a hammer claw to get them out of
the walls and ceiling. Marc looked at the large rectangular tiles and
wondered how we were going to make them small enough to fit in a
trash bag. I demonstrated by smashing one on the floor. Marc was
horrified claiming that it was much too dangerous for him to tackle.
So I broke them and he put them in a bag. Next came the long T-bars.
We carried them out to the patio and I demonstrated using my foot
that with a little effort they could be bent up into smaller lengths.
I left Marc with this task while continuing to clean up the mess
inside. When I checked on Marc's progress he was grunting and
groaning but had accomplished nothing. I took over berating him for
spending a hundred and seventy dollars a month for a gym membership
to stay in shape when he couldn't even bend metal like his sixty
seven year old mother who has never worked out in a gym in her life!
What a waste of money!
Later that afternoon Marc took me to
Redondo Beach where we dined at a seafood restaurant on the pier and
then walked along taking in the view of the sea and numerous house
boats moored to the pier which Marc suggested might be perfect for me
in my old age. Since Marc gets sea sick just looking at a boat I
guess he would have a great excuse for never visiting me! Afterwards
we stopped in the town for coffee at some place filled with couches
and chairs, books, laptops and students. Marc shared that this had
been one of Bryn's favorite places to hang after he had moved to LA,
moved in with Marc, quit his job and taken a few months to find
something he thought he might find interesting. For part of that time
Josh and Sean were also staying with Marc. Nothing like brotherly
love!
On Saturday we drove to Bryn's and what
a drive that was. I had made Marc remove an old ladies looking
macrame beaded car seat back rest that he thought was massaging his
back as he drove. In reality it was not comfortable to lean against
so he was constantly grabbing onto the steering wheel and lurching
back and forth. It reminded me of his head banging days rocking out
to Metallica and Gun's and Roses. I said it was a miracle that
someone hadn't shot him as he looked possessed, like a rabid dog
that needed to be put down. I was amazed that no-one had called 911
on watching his bizarre behavior behind the wheel – I am his mother
and was tempted to do so myself.
Without his back rest to distract him
Marc was focused on his GPS which he accused of deliberately taking
him on the most circuitous and complicated route as he berated every
other driver on the road for their driving skills! I calmly explained
that he should either follow the system or switch it off and take the
route he was familiar with – after all he must have driven into
down town Los Angeles hundreds of time over the years. But apparently
he was not familiar with Bryn's area so he decided to follow the GPS
and all was well for a while until it directed him to get off one
freeway onto another when he thought he was going to be driving up a
city street. I offered to drive several times but …... somehow we
eventually made it into a parking garage suggested by Bryn and had to
walk some distance to his place which he refers to as the penthouse
suite
Bryn had just moved three flights up
from his previous apartment in the same building when one became
available on the top floor offering a panoramic view of down town Los
Angeles -when it is not shrouded in smog. Bryn met us at the
building's gates and led us to a tiny elevator which took us up to
his apartment. I asked how he had managed to move his furniture –
perhaps there was a freight elevator? No there wasn't, he had paid
for movers to carry his possessions up the stairs as he had put his
back out – at the gym! Seems both my boys would be healthier
without their gym memberships!
I have to say his place is very nice,
furnished in mid century modern style and very spacious. His living
room has lots of windows, exposed brick, hard wood floors and plenty
of space for a dining table. He has added a bar from a British pub
since my visit and is planning on building a window seat for lounging
on while admiring the view. The kitchen has been completely redone
with European style cabinets, in two tones, solid surface counters
and stainless steel appliances. The bedroom has two walk in closets
and is large enough for a big bed, sofa and more ! He also has two
other walk in closets off the living room. The bathroom is a great
size too, quite the find!
Marc volunteered to stay for dinner
with me and Emmy Lou while they all went to the wedding, Bryn had to
make an emergency run to his tailors as his pants were not ready the
day before. Bryn says the prices of tailoring is so reasonable that
he has virtually everything he buys tailored because it looks so much
better! I can only think that maybe all those years I used him as a
child model for my store must have had an undue influence.
Bryn was in a grey suit for this
wedding, with the same hipster length pants that look like high
waters to me or capri's. He had a polka dot bow-tie and a man bun to
complete the look. I suggested adding a pair of chopsticks to his bun
for an ethnic touch! His date for the evening was Sydney, with whom
Emmy Lou instantly fell in love . She was smitten by her silky smoky
gray dress, stiletto heels and her highly decorative finger nails. I
of course was delighted when I heard that Bryn was taking a plus one
with him but Marc assured me that he had known her for years and that
they were just great friends. She is a beautiful girl with a fun
personality!
Emmy Lou soon had Uncle Marc pushing
her around the apartment in her stroller and everytime he would take
her out she would insist on getting right back in. I suggested that
we could take her for a stroller ride around the neighborhood but
Marc was not keen on this idea at all so he kept wheeling her around
until he decided to hide the stroller in one of the closets. It
didn't take Emmy Lou very long to find it at all and she was so
thrilled with her self that Marc felt duty bound to push her around
again. She had Uncle Marc enslaved !
Marc left when Emmy Lou was ready for
bed to meet up with a friend and I was intrigued to look out of
Bryn's windows to see all the people still walking out in the streets
despite the late hour. Unfortunately Emmy Lou woke up shortly before
her parents and Uncle Bryn arrived home close to midnight and it took
awhile to get her back to sleep. Bryn graciously offered his bed to
me for the night and I was too tired to care if the sheets were
changed or not! He slept on the sofa while Sean and Sarah used his
blow up mattress which was much nicer than Marcs!
I heard Emmy Lou fussing before the
crack of dawn so I got up to take her hoping her pregnant mommy would
be able to get some sleep! I fed her a bottle and ended up pushing
her around in the stroller just like Marc. Eventually we were all up
and ready to fly home. It took a couple of trips to get us and our
stuff down in the tiny elevator and of course Bryn had to get his car
from wherever he had parked it. Once again the airport traffic was a
nightmare but eventually Bryn was able to drop us off at our
terminal! He actually put his car up for sale that day as he decided
Ubering everywhere was much easier! He was tired of constantly
searching for a parking space and then having to move his car from
one street to another to comply with city ordinances. Life is so much
easier in the Midwest!
On October 22nd Bonnie and
Gary Neihaus spent a night at my house on their way back from
Colorado, I was so happy to see them as they have had a very
difficult year with their health issues, Gary had spent three months
in the hospital previously this year. They are hoping to be able to
travel to California to spend Christmas with their girls.
Within a short time of their leaving my
house I got a phone call from Ming-Lee with news I was not remotely
expecting: a routine brain scan revealed a new tumor. I was feeling
so positive about Ming's chances of beating this terrible disease as
he has been so active, eating well, exercising like a fiend that I
was totally convinced he had conquered his mountain. It was a shock
but fortunately the surgery to remove the tumor went well – he was
only in ICU for one night afterwards and then moved to a regular
room from which he was discharged within a day and was home for the
weekend with his family! He even posted pictures of them playing
family board games! I swear Ming-Lee is invincible!
 |
| Ming-Lee happy to be home after his second surgery! |
I remember how he used to scare me to
death by climbing into the big drainage pipes near Melody Terrace to
explore and of course telling him not to had no effect! I was
convinced he was going to end up being sucked into the water
treatment plant covered in raw sewage. Then I had another panic
attack when I found out that he was riding a bike across the
Mississippi river bridge to visit a girl in Niota. The bridge is
narrow – too narrow for bikes and cars in my opinion! I was
convinced that he would come to a nasty end but Ming-Lee has always
been fearless and always succeeds
I am driving out to Indy later this
week to celebrate Ming's 50th birthday – how can my
children be approaching senior discounts? I will also be proudly
watching Claudia perform in her school play “Radiation Girls”.
And children you have something to be very thankful for this season
as I will be writing another letter very soon detailing this trip and
my previous visit to the Remsburgs earlier this month! So thankful
to have you all in my life! Love Mother
I awoke to a text shortly before the
baby was born to let me know what was happening and that Josh would
be arriving with Emmy Lou soon. Once again Sarah delivered one month
and two days before her due date! I guess we should all place an
educated bet on the next baby's birthday!
