My Cousin is Remembered

Even though my cousin passed away in March, his memorial service took place yesterday, July 27, 2020, at Ft. Logan Cemetery. It was an exciting time for me because I would meet his family, which were also my relatives. I remember him from when we were children and my Mother would visit her brother and drag my brother and me along with her. In my uncle's family there were seven children but the two cousins we hung around with were the ones closer to our age. We would play together and they showed us around their farm. One cousin was my age and the other was slightly older than my brother so we got along well. The Memorial Service today was for the one that was my age.

For the three-fifteen memorial service we met at Ft. Logan and followed the procedure of waiting in our cars until a military vehicle would lead us to the Staging area where the ceremony would take place. We all wore masks, due to the Coronavirus, and we were told to stand six feet apart. A veteran read either a prayer or explanation but I could not hear what he was saying as he had to speak through his mask and I was toward the back. From somewhere came the sad bugle sound of Taps. Four men shot rifles into the air and each loud crack made me jump. Two young female soldiers stood at attention and then slowly and precisely unfolded the large American flag. Then, they proceeded to refold the flag into a neat triangular bundle. One of the soldiers knelt in front of my cousin's daughter and with a few words, which I could not hear, the flag was placed in her hands. The two soldiers then left the area and we all faced a huge, golden bell. A soldier struck the bell around five times making a loud and reverberating sound. I felt as if the sound echoed in my heart!

The family was then led to where my cousin was interred. The identical white tombstone with his name, branch of the service, and his dates from birth to death. I did not know the family members since I had not been around as they grew up and not seeing their father, my cousin, for over thirty some years or longer. It did not take long to meet my cousin's children, an ex-wife, spouses, etc. We took pictures and then left to meet at The Monterey Restaurant in Arvada where along with a meal there would be a slide show and a few eulogies.

One son looked so much like my cousin, his father, I could not stop looking at him. I felt a sadness that I had not been closer to my cousin. It is strange how families tend to drift apart and I wonder why. One thing I do know is that my cousin had some handsome children and they are all friendly and nice. Things I learned were that one daughter has lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years with her husband and three children; one got her degree in architecture, many in the family are artists and creative, one is a tattoo artist, one served in Iraq two different times, and all I could think was how proud my cousin must have been with his children and grandkids! My cousin was a builder of homes and some of the homes, I have been told, are huge with four levels. He would build the homes he lived in and his last home is located somewhere in Northglenn.

I have a feeling that if he was looking down at his family he would have been very happy. His children had stories about his life and there was lots of laughter from those present. I am happy I was there to share in this family's memorial for they are also part of my family!

"A family is a circle of love, not broken by a loss,

but made stronger by the memories.

We are forever blessed that God

connected us to you."

Internet Quote

A Forest of White Tombstones

Anyone that knows me, knows I have problems with directions. It seems that I get lost more times that I find my way! If my instincts tell me to go right I had better go left because I have learned my first inclination will be wrong. Yesterday I attended a memorial service for a cousin at Ft. Logan and almost panicked because there were so many roads that seemed to go on forever. Seeing some workers, I stopped and asked for help in finding Staging C. One of the workers came to my assistance and got into a golf cart and told me to follow him.  I thanked God as he led me over, around, up and down the many roads until we arrived at the place where I should be for my cousin's service.

My heart felt heavy to see all the white tombstones and to know that each one represented a soldier. How many mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, children and friends must have cried tears for their beloveds. This was the second time I was attending a service at Ft. Logan, and I was very impressed at how organized the whole service is arranged. Arriving to the area everyone stays in, or near their cars, until we are led to where the service will be. In a covered area, a soldier reads a prayer or history, there is a four gun salute, tap is played and it sounds so mournful, two soldiers unwrap the flag and refold it, to present it to a loved one and a huge, golden bell is struck about five times.  Each time the bell was struck the loud bong reached deep into my heart.

It is an impressive ceremony for any soldier or veteran and I was glad I could be in attendance for my cousin who had been in the Air Force.

"I respect every soldier, 

from every country,

who serves beside us in

the hard work of history.

America is grateful and

America will not forget."

George W.  Bush

Hard Work Pays Off

On Saturday, July 25, 2020, my granddaughter graduated from Erie High School. This is always a big occasion but in this case, it was extra special. She did not enjoy school and tried to quit a few times but luckily her Mother persisted on her daughter attending school. A few years ago, my granddaughter was having such a bad time at school that it was decided to have her take classes via the Internet. When I would see her and ask her about school she would reply with "fine." I hoped that she was doing all right with the computer classes.  When I heard she had not passed the Internet classes, I felt bad for her and prayed that she would not give up on her schooling.

She and her mother moved to Erie, Colorado, where she enrolled in high school. Again, when I would see her and ask her how school was going I got her standard answer of "fine." Sometimes she would tell me her classes were hard. I continued praying that she would not become discouraged. I knew my granddaughter was smart and could not understand why she did not care for school. I know she had problems with reading when she was younger and wondered if that might have had something to do with her not liking school. I also know she was good at math but she told me she did not care to work with numbers.

And then, this year she let me know that she would be graduating, and I gave a sigh of relief.  She had made it and now had her high school diploma. One huge step in her moving forward in her life. Her next decision will be if she continues her education. Whether she does go on with her education or not, I am very proud of my youngest granddaughter because I know she struggled but managed to win out at the end!

"It always seems impossible

until its done."

Nelson Mandela

A Surreal Moment

It appears that in the pandemic era we are in, I need to go grocery shopping about every two and half weeks. Before the Coronavirus I might have gone shopping weekly, if not more often. Yesterday was the day for my outing. Never in all my years did I think I would enjoy going to the grocery store as I do now. I do not wear my mask in the car, but slip it under my chin and when I arrive at the store I pull it up over my mouth and nose.

In the car as I drive to the store, everything seems so normal. No one in their cars is wearing a mask and it seems as if there are as many cars as before the virus hit. At the store, seeing the masked shoppers lets me know that things are different. Other than that, everything else seems normal and the same as before the pandemic. Prices on items also seem to be higher than I remember. It used to be I would buy five grocery bags full and the bill would come to around $80. Now, I have three bags for the same amount of money and basically I am purchasing the same items. I really noticed it yesterday at Heiney's Market in Wheatridge. Last year the peaches were around $2.89 a pound and now they are $3.49 a pound. The green chile bags are also selling for more than last year.

I can understand the rise in prices because of businesses not being able to stay afloat and struggling to stay open. The odd sensation that came over me had nothing to do with the price, but with how normal everything seemed to be. The only thing different was that we were all in masks and there was no chatting between shoppers. Yet, if I did not know about the coronavirus, it would be difficult to think that there was something wrong in my world today!

And then I come home and listen to the news and that is a scary thing because it does not seem possible that so many persons have died of Covid 19. Also every day the number of patients goes up. It is hard to put my observations when I am out and about with the statistics I am hearing on the news. Now that is a surreal moment!

"That which does not kill us.
makes us stronger."
Friedrich Nietzsche

Pandemic Is Making Me Feel Dumb

Knowing myself, I realize that in many cases, I do not like to face reality and prefer to bury my head in the sand. Yet, how could I have gone through my life and not heard of some people. During this pandemic I have watched a lot of Netflix and found that there are some persons that are completely unknown to me! And, depending how long we continue to stay indoors I wonder how many more documentaries of famous people I will watch.

Walter Mercado, an astrologer, happened to be popular among the Latinos/Hispanic groups in Mexico, South America, the United States and Italy. He would let people know their astrology signs and what to expect in life. Yet, I had never heard or seen him on television. He was followed by millions of people and I wondered why I had never known about him or at least heard of him! He was a flamboyant dresser with sequined capes, lots of lace, and difficult to tell if he was a man or a woman.  His outfits reminded me of Liberace. The footage shows how he believed in love and never made a negative statement; everything out of his mouth was positive.

Alejandro Sanz is a Spanish musician, singer and composer. After winning 17 Latin Grammy awards and three Grammy's I would have thought I might have heard of him, but didn't. He is handsome and has a nice voice bordering more on rock than ballads.

Wynn Handman was a teacher, director, and producer leading many to become great actors; Richard Gere, Faye Dunaway, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, plus others. He brought out talent in actors and writers and some of the plays were, in my opinion, weird. I would call him outrageous by some of the  subjects he chose and I am not sure I would have enjoyed his plays. One quote that he mentions was, "We only live when we don't live on in others."  I liked the quote and agree with it   He died on April 11, 2020 due to complications of Covid 19 at 97 years old. Surely when famous people's deaths are listed, I should have known Wynn Handman and something about his life! But I didn't.

John Coltrane was a jazz musician playing different instruments but known for the alto-saxophone and composing music. I find it difficult to understand jazz so this documentary left me outside of the music but people who do understand jazz gave him stunning reviews. One commentator was President Clinton and he, along with fellow musicians remarked on how innovative Coltrane played.
I realize that a musician's ear is so different from mine and felt lost when I heard some of his many arrangements. His life appealed to me because he hated war, wanted his music to spread love and one of his quotes was like a prayer: "Humbly ask to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music."  He died on July 17, 1967  at forty years of age of liver cancer.

Clarence Clemons another sax player and he played with Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr's All Time Band but I had no idea who he was. It surprises me how spiritual some musicians are and how their main motive is to bring happiness to listeners. Clemons, in the documentary said, "My purpose in life is to bring light and joy to the world. "He is described as a big man who was a great saxophone player. Interesting that President Clinton also commented on the talent of Clarence Clemons. He died in 2011 at the age of sixty-nine of complications of a stroke.

Since I have been hooked on watching documentaries I have seen some known persons that I recognized. The five mentioned above I had no clue as to who they were and that made me feel kind of dumb! Why had I never heard of them?  I attended a Bruce Springsteen concert in the early 80's and wonder if Clarence Clemons was on stage with him. I realize I cannot know everyone on this earth yet I feel good that at least the five mentioned above I can now say I know something about them! All five of the men believed in love and treated each other like brothers no matter the color of their skin!

If it had not been for the pandemic of Covid 19 I probably would never have learned about them because my life would have been more involved than watching Netflix!

"Music is the shorthand of  emotion."

Leo Tolstoy

A Book I Could Not Put Down

It has been awhile that I have read a book that completely takes over my interest but this story recommended by my family was such a book. The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne has 582 pages and I read it in three days. It is a story that has so many subjects beginning with incest, Catholicism, cruelty, adoption, unwed mother, homosexuality, murder, pimping, famous writers, parenthood, love, masturbation, friendships, drugs, Aids, muggings, families, marriage, lies, travels beginning in Ireland and moving to Amsterdam and then New York before returning to Ireland, 9-11 attack, politics, sadness, humorous, death, and somehow the ending ties up all the loose ends and ends in a fairly happy manner! I laughed or smiled by some of the characters' actions and cried in other parts. The author does a wonderful way of describing scenes that makes one feel as if one can see, smell, taste or hear what is going on.

Politics in Ireland made me angry at how cruel people and how backwards the country seemed to function. I wanted to shake some sense into some of the characters. It was interesting to see how women were treated, almost as if they did not have a brain in their head! Females were sex objects and men could do as they pleased!

Yet, there was good and kindness shown by some of the people, yet confusion on how some of the characters acted, especially the main character, Cyril Avery, who is telling the story. I liked some characters while others made me angry at their stupidity! The story takes the reader through Cyril's life from birth until almost death and it is a fascinating life!

My family did not read the book but listened to it as they drove to Colorado from California. They mentioned that the person reading was a man with an Irish accent and he had a pleasant voice. I looked the audio up on the Internet and learned that the reader's name is Stephen Hogan. I am not sure if I prefer reading or if I would enjoy someone reading the story to me but I think reading is my preference.

"Long before we discovered that he had

fathered two children by two different 

women, one in Drimoleague and one in

Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood

on the altar of the Church of Our Lady of

The Sea in the parish of Golun, West Cork

and denounced my Mother as a whore."

John Boyne

Blame Covid 19

The saga of getting a new bathroom floor began around the end of May. First I had to go to Home Depot to pick the floor I wanted by looking at all the floor samples. Then I ordered the one I wanted.
The sales person ordered my selections. A few weeks later I was called to return to pay for the work and I had to return to the store. I was called to come in and pick up the material needed minus the side border because it was not in.  My son-in-law picked up the three boxes and was told they would call me when the remainder of the order came in and if I wanted it delivered it would be $75 extra.

Three days ago I received a call that remaining order was in and I could come pick it up. Today I went to pick up the order and wondered if it would fit in my car. This is when a truck is needed! The sales clerk brought up my order and said she would be right back. She was gone about fifteen or twenty minutes and said she could not find he material. She then wrote down some numbers and left again but returned fifteen minutes later with a male worker. They could not find the order. I asked if they could deliver it without charging me since I had already waited over half an hour. A lady supervisor was asked and she said, "Due to the Coronavirus we can not use our small trucks to deliver." The thought that entered by head was that Covid 19 worked as an excuse! I replied, "I am a high risk person and I have been standing here for 45 minutes with many persons walking by me!"

Just then another man, who also acted like a supervisor, came by and said, "I will go find the order." He returned and said, "The order is not where it is supposed to be and we will deliver it as soon as it is found. We may have to reorder the material if we cannot find it."

After thanking them, I left the store thinking I had lucked out because the order would be delivered
without a charge when ever the goods were found. Later today I received a call that Home Depot had found the material and it would be delivered on Sunday morning.

I do not know when the bathroom floor will be installed but, at least, the project is moving forward!

"All problems have solutions."

Steven Magee

Help Arrives From California

My family arrived on July 6, 2020, for a visit and to see if I needed any help with chores around the house. I gave them my list of what I would like to have done and early on July 7th, they began on the west side of my house where there were sucker trees growing behind the large bush and next to the house. My son-in-law sawed the trees and my daughter  cut the large branches into smaller pieces and put them into the large trash container. When they finished the narrow area behind the bush looked nice and clean without the suckers!


Moving right he began working on stabilizing  my mailbox. When the wind would blow the metal box would become detached from the post and hang sideways. He added a wooden slat to the post and screwed the mailbox to the wood. Let the wind blow because the mailbox is now secure!

He swept my garage and front porch, dislodged a wasp nest from the porch and tossed it into a bag that ended up in the garbage container, repaired a single curtain rod bracket that had pulled away from the wall, picked up three large boxes from Home Depot that will be needed when the floor in the bathroom is done, hung a heavy framed picture on my bedroom wall, replaced the porch light cover and trimmed low hanging branches in the back yard. Together they cut the large branches into trash bag size and swept and cleaned the patio. Three large bags were filled with the branches and since they did not fit in the trash bin, the bags were placed along side the container. I wondered if the trash men would pick up all the trash. Made me happy when I looked out and everything had been picked up!

The one outing that we did was to go to Old Town Arvada, yet it felt odd because everyone had a mask, a homeless young man coughed and we backed away in a hurry, and some of the restaurants had people sitting outside. I have a feeling that people are trying to act normal but it seemed 

 subdued compared to before Covid 19!

When the work was finished for the day we sat in the patio where there was a cool breeze. I enjoyed hearing about my granddaughters and I told them about Spirit of Christ gatherings and trips.  Dinner time we ate outside and I really enjoyed their company! On their last evening with me, my daughter had us get behind the trimmed trees for a photo op!

"Family is like branches on a tree, 

we all grow in different directions,

yet, our roots remain as one."

Internet Quote

Scary Nest on Porch

I never would have noticed a cute nest on the porch ceiling. Perfectly built cone stuck to the wood and was I surprised when my daughter said it was a wasp nest. It was grey and about two and one-half inches round and about two inches long. In a way, the way the smooth gray cocoon tapered down reminded me of a toy top.

With a putty knife, my son-in-law slid the knife along the top of the hive, let the hive drop into a plastic bag and sealed the bag with a couple of wasps inside. I felt fortunate that there weren't a slew of wasps flying around ready to attack!

I am sure that other nests have been around my porch because I would see, what I thought were bees, flying around my front door. I wondered why they picked that area because I do not have flowers to attract them. Since they were not a bother, I never paid much attention.  Maybe I should have looked up and maybe I would have seen a nest!

My curious nature made me look up information regarding nests. I found out it could have been a nest for a hornet, wasp or yellow jacket; all three like to sting! A surprise came as I read the article that fake nests are made with paper, crochet, or cloth and sold to hang on or around porches or eaves.
The artificial nest keeps other insects away.

The Difference Between Bees And Wasps

Bee: 

Pollinates flowers, 

produces honey,

helps the environment, 

and will only sting if provoked.

Wasp: 

Basically is a mean asshole!

Aunty Acid

Do Numbers Lie?

Readers to my blog just hit 64,000 and I wonder how many actually read my blog. I have eleven followers that seem to read my stories but I wonder about the other thousands that must click on my blog.  The countries with readers are the United States, Portugal, Germany, Romania, United Kingdom, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Canada, Spain, Turkmenistan, France and Ukraine. I hope that who ever reads my articles and short stories enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them!

"A blog is only as interesting

as the interest shown in others,"

Lee Odden

Exciting Genealogy

Driving up to the large grey building in Salt Lake City, Utah, it was a beginning for me to find records of my ancestors. I had always been curious about where my parents had originated and this was the place, I had been told, where I could research and find out about them.  On that visit around the mid-eighties I did not learn much because I did not know what I was doing. I found names I recognized but that was about all.

My position at Centro San Juan Diego of the Archdiocese of Denver had  been abolished and now that I had time on my hands I decided to work on my history. When I found out that a cousin of mine was also working on our ancestors, she and I became partners in trying to see how far back we could go. In the 90's we visited relatives in Greeley and LaSalle and drove to New Mexico to gather more information.  For about 4 or 5 years I worked on genealogy, drove twice to New Mexico to meet other cousins, attended a genealogy workshop in New Mexico and slowly I learned about where my Mother had originated.  Recently I was contacted by a 2nd cousin who is working on our family's genealogy and it has got me interested in genealogy again.

New information she sent me and was new to me were articles in El Independiente Newspaper from  New Mexico. The articles are written in Spanish but the following is a gist of what is written.

The Independiente Newspaper of 1895 has an article regarding fifty men

 who left the Union group and going to the Republicans because of the

 Union trying to stop voters from voting by physically striking,

 throwing rocks and hitting with wooden sticks.

Listed in the article are my great-great grandfather and my great-grandfather plus a great uncle with possibly his son. She also sent me information of my great-grandfather's military records, a wedding announcement of an uncle and an obituary of my great-grandmother. I am impressed with the work my second cousin is doing and the new information she has sent me.

In an other article my great grandfather is offering a reward for the return of a black horse, a mare and a colt. Sounds like thing were not too peaceful if horses were being stolen in that era!

Yesterday my son-in-law hung up a picture of the altar screen that my great-great grandfather donated to the San Jose Parish in Laguna, N.M. Two years ago when I visited the church the priest gave me a poster of the altar hanging. I had it framed and it is now in my bedroom.  I feel so proud to be able to look at it and know that it was given to the church by my relative.

"The sacrifice our ancestors

gave  yesterday gave us

today and our tomorrow."

Stephen Robert Kuta