transition

The day before my birthday, we had a very hard loss. Our two dogs, Zoe and Sadie, were romping and running all over our newly planted back garden, chasing squirrels and each other. And then, they weren't. This was sometime around 4pm, Jenny was home, but didn't think much about it for a while, and then she missed Zoe.

Thinking she'd gotten out, Jenny searched all over for her, but the sad discovery was that she had dropped in a corner of the yard, looking almost like she'd been running at full speed (legs akimbo) and just collapsed. Whatever, she was gone, and Sadie was distraught... in fact, we all were, as it sunk in. Heart attack? Don't know. She was but six, and it was indeed a tough six years -- she'd had surgery on both front elbows at six months, major cancer surgery and radiation two years ago, and routinely got sick from dissecting miscreant squirrels she managed to catch in the pasture. But she loved life, and she gave it everything she had in terms of enthusiasm and passion. Not unlike Jenny and me???

I couldn't write about it for awhile, and someone asked from the last posting, "one dog?", so I thought I should explain. Anyway, she was the greatest sister and littermate for Sadie. Sadie just moped around for two weeks, maybe three, and now she's got a little more spring in her walk, thankfully. But GUESS WHAT -- we all do, although Sadie doesn't know quite how good it will be, and she might not even recognize it when it happens, at first. WHAT? you might ask. Well, of course! The puppy was born last Sunday, and we pick her (or maybe him) out of the litter in early October, and she comes home later that month. This will be our seventh purebred Black Lab -- are we traditional or what? Works better to have two at a time (three is one too many, we also know)

Charger was my first Lab; he welcomed Jenny as a nearly blind, deaf but very lovable old dog of twelve who lived two more years, about as long as Labs go. We then got two seven week old puppies, Blarney and Murphy. Murphy died of a heart attack or seizure at 18 months, and Kringle replaced him (Blarney thought a little puppy was the dumbest thing we could do). When Blarney died at thirteen, we brought a rescue dog, Molly, home. Molly was a wonderfully smart dog, half yellow Lab and half Chow; unfortunately her Chow tendencies were hard to train out of her, so eventually this was a painful situation for all of us.
When Kringle died at thirteen of cancer, we brought two new pups -- Zoe and Sadie -- home at a time my parents were living with us in a three bedroom rancher in Summerland near Las Vegas (and they were not exactly dog people, whew, INDEED). Molly helped raise them, and they turned into the most wonderful Labs, affectionate and loving but also with a good bark for strangers that doesn't bother Jenny late at night at all.

Sorry for the reminisces; our dogs are really our children at this phase of our lives. Wonderful companions, loyal beyond belief, and loving always. Love to you all, Chuck

The Garden up closer

Couldn't resist one more picture, this one of the steps to the 'back forty' for which the path is barely visible at the top of the pix. This path and the retaining wall, and the plantings were all a few days in place before the party. Jenny plans things this way -- to get me to 'perform'.

Garden Party pix

Michael Roberts shared some pix of the garden. This one shows the patio in part, plus tables on the lawn. There were also four tables up on "tee boxes" behind where he is standing -- new squared off lawn areas to level out the sloping 'back forty'.

The rock work and the new plantings all held up fine; I was pleased to say the least with how well it all worked. Imagine that we ordered heaters (and used them) for the August 7 soiree! As Jim Didion said, "what is this about global warming?"

The caterers weren't too happy about running up and down all of the waterwashed bluestone steps, but our remaining Black Lab, Sadie, thought it was a nifty idea.

the birthday party

well, as Ricky Nelson's song said, "people came from miles around, everyone was there"
It was an incredible assemblage of family and friends, seventy plus to celebrate seventy years. Held in our back garden, the evening was cool and clear and the flowers obliged by blooming profusely.
Unbelievably, the CEO of HP, the "squeaky clean" Mark Hurd so revered on Wall Street, resigned the day before in an inexplicable 'non-sexual encounter' with an associate, and the party was abuzz with conjecture and invective. This guy was probably the sleaziest duplicitous CEO of a large corporation in America -- almost the same as the crafted Tiger Woods persona.
We used nametags, since a lot of the friends came from disparate backgrounds -- folk I've met over a long time, interwoven on occasion but not that many people knew each other 'ahead of time'. The name tags had logos on them as an icebreaker -- Yenta, an airplane to signify traveling together, companies we worked at, hobbies or civic groups, family... And then Jenny told a story about each and every one of the attendees to everyone. Mesmerizing, enchanting, as was the evening
I came away feeling so blessed, so lucky in my life, with such good friends and family to nurture me. Truly magic

where did the time go

My gosh, here it is almost mid-July, and nearing the "autumn" of my days, meaning that I turn seventy in eight days!

The time does fly by, especially when you're having fun. And I have been having some, indeed.

A big trip happened in May/June, traveling to Long Island, NY for a Board meeting (where I resigned as Board Chair after five years), then to London (where I gave a talk for HP Enterprise Group, a FIRST!) and HP Bristol Labs and then to Warwick Business School for a fun evening about Innovation. Then on an early morning flight to Madrid, followed by a late-evening flight to Sao Paolo, Brazil where I was part of a Monitor Group three-day workshop. On the back end, I stopped over in Lima, Peru, which turned out to be fortuitous and exciting.

There is an ancient city about 200 kilometers from Lima north along the coast, built some 5,000 years ago, with nine ceremonial pyramids, built all at once some 400 years before the Egyptians got with their program. This historic site called Caral is hardly known, and gets very few visitors. I had a car, driver, and guide to myself, as well as the assistant curator of "the dig" for several hours. Regal treatment for a truly fascinating experience. Go check out http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1269

Coming home after a whirlwind two weeks, I was glad to be back in California, but surely privileged to have had the excursion.

Easter 2010

We were off to the Marin (CA) headlands, specifically to the Tiburon Yacht Club, yesterday to celebrate Easter with Jenny's Irish-Catholic paternal family side. 54 worthy souls showed up, on a sodden rainy blustery day out on a spit in San Francisco Bay. Beautifully stormy, and the kids made the Easter Egg hunt a piece of cake even in the downpour (1.1 inches of rain in 3 hours). Volleyball, crochet, and sack races all got scrubbed, but the conviviality and love flowed like always. Meredith surprised a few cousins with news that her twin girls (now 3 years old) will have a baby joining them in August; Tommy Dowley brought a lovely girl to the party -- a diver on the Berkeley diving team (whose major is PHYSICS, hooray!). The hit of the day for at least one attendee was the platter of barbequed oysters -- scrumptious!!!

springtime in Menlo Park

A shot of our backyard last week, a teaser so to speak.

The rock walls are about half done, but I got enough of them in place to plant some tulips, daffodils and ranunculus, which you can see blooming here. It has been a nice spring, with plenty of gentle rain so far... and the heifers look pregnant in the pasture

Life is good at our house, although moving the twelve yards of dirt that I had delivered last weekend, along with six tons of rock, was a little daunting