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description=The US Pacific Coast, some Atlantic Coast. Tech and Work. Computer games. Culture. Where I live now. Whatever feels like home. And a few memories of business school.;

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to be their in home caregiver it happened my mother died of dementia on february 1 2013 she was 92 in their home until the last week of her life she had an excellent quality of life until almost the end we brought in hospice care and other caregivers though not full time until the end caregiving became very difficult this explains my lack of blog posts in 2012 and 2013 basic living was hard enough there was no time for anything else my father died of congestive heart failure on april 24 2013 he was 91 in their home until the last three and a half weeks of his life what was good for his heart was bad for his kidneys his death was hard in a different way my father did not have dementia he was himself though older and slower we had a very good two months together dementia is different i do not believe that a person with dementia is gone as in she is not my mother anymore the person is there of course but you can see their capabilities slipping away they become different from what they were before you can see clearly that there is no turning back death is inevitable it was not like that with my father i go on i am living in the house which is now mine and my sister s i do not plan to erase memories of them but i am slowly making the house more my own sometimes i wonder if i am channeling my parents i will start with my father my father my father was a retired industrial engineer retirement in his 60s freed him to do what he wanted he and my mother traveled more often but not always with their daughters i planned most of the trips my father also enjoyed his home very much he liked to make things he made most of the furniture in their home my father made cards for his wife and his daughters using the colored pencils my sister gave him the cards were sweet adorable funny sometimes you can see his light pencil markings of the design he marked out the design before he colored it in my father was a planner this is my favorite card i do not know the year before i move here in 2009 some years before it shows the best of my parents my father made this card for my sister and me i am not sure of the year after there were no more large pieces of furniture left in the house to make my father wanted to make things that were practical but more artistic and on a smaller scale he taught himself to make coffee tables and end tables inlaid with mosaics he made from kitchen and bathroom tiles ceramic solid colors no designs on the tiles he was careful with their money so he and my mother went to stores that sold tiles and asked the store clerks if he could buy the remains of odd lots and discontinued tiles i think he told them what he planned to do he might have shown them often they gave him the tiles for free it s hard to resist two cute little old people telling you what they planned to create with kitchen and bathroom tiles here are two end tables from the outdoor screened in porch yes i know i need to put something on the wood there is some leakage from the roof of the outdoor patio aren t they lovely top of an end table my father made he made the mosaic using ceramic tiles he cut up photo taken 2014 another mosaic table my father made photo taken 2014 how do i channel my father i like to make things and i like to work in a series like my dad my father loved to work in series and i make cards too but i don t plan as much when i make things i use materials that respond better to an iterative process i am not an engineer but i am a computer person business it and i love tech so i took some of his methodological approach and organization to other facets of my life and i ve color coded and labeled the cables and power chords of all the devices connected to my desktop at both the device and the computer end that s organization my mother i think my mother had a naturally better design sense than my father it came to her easily she had a knack for putting things together she had a good sense of style a classic youthful look she loved pants and stopped wearing dresses entirely when women could she had a fine design sense but she didn t like to make things that involved much in the way of organization or planning my mother loved growing things most of all i stick it in the ground and it grows she said she could get roots out of any cutting along with outdoor plants her plants and flowers on the closed in porch the solarium we sometimes called it the sun room were amazing and the plants and the flower boxes on the screened in patio were also very pretty this was a way for her to exercise her design sense i don t like outdoor in the ground gardening all that much though i ve done it i like container gardening i ve maintained the indoor plants and added to them i channel my mother when my sister comes over to visit i show my sister all the new blooming things exactly like my mother did i say look at this it is blooming this started to bloom i rooted these collies coleus plants and look how well they are doing just like my mother from the sun room view from the sun room 2014 the gerbera daily is blooming snow outside blooming plants inside view from the sun room 2014 my mother rooted a cutting from a bouquet of flowers from hawaii that my sister sent her the little cutting is now over three feet tall and shows no signs of stopping view from the sun room 2014 and so i go on posted in home house nature parents pennsylvania tagged home house parents pennsylvania 1 reply summer swimming changes goodbye to my california connection posted on september 5 2012 by amarez 1 summer swimming at my local community pool in pennsylvania was the best ever before the pool opened june 2012 the office where i bought my season pass june 2012 rope dividing the sections august 2012 diving area is beyond the rope august 2012 swimming in the lap lane looking at the diving area august 2012 you can barely see the seam at the bottom of the pool diagonal line that i use to swim in a straight line august 2012 goodbye to outdoor swimming for this year august 2012 this leads me to changes currently i work at home doing something a bit different from what i usually do for a living i worked for over a year for a company based in california most people who work there work remotely there are people i work with all over the us and a few other places and i love telecommuting that changes in the middle of september i am taking a job with a local organization i have to go there every work day though it is the easiest commute ever two stoplights at the edge of my small town get on the good freeway the modern one not the good luck merging in traffic one two protected left turns right after the exit and i m there it s not a great time for me to get a job outside my home but the job is a good one i like the organization and i will be doing work i value the job was too good to pass up but what this means is that after three years my last california connection is gone i can t exactly pretend i m just passing through though i won t retire here i live here in the house i grew up in and i ll go to work every work day to a job in this area i m reminded of those movies where a person who has lived away returns home and discovers something there s usually a lesson some connection some reestablishment of roots some closure sometimes an appreciation of the simpler life i don t feel any of those things my life is not a heartfelt movie and wait my recruiter who got me the job here he lived in california for years and liked it there s always a connection posted in california pennsylvania swimming tagged california pennsylvania swimming 1 reply merry christmas from my california posted on december 24 2011 by amarez reply memories of my california i will be back merry christmas happy new year north beach point reyes national seashore california march 2006 palo alto baylands november 2008 posted in california san francisco bay area tagged californnia san franciso bay aren leave a reply the shore ocean city in between posted on december 16 2011 by amarez reply unlike california new jersey beaches or the shore as it s called have a season if you go to a beach town in the off season the shops next to the ocean the ones on the boardwalk if your beach town has one will usually be closed in the season july and august mostly also june the weather is good the ocean breezes provide some coolness everything is open but it is very crowded i loved going to the ocean as i called it in california in fall winter and spring it was beautiful the seasonal rains didn t happen every day and they turned the dry landscape green the weather was mild the end of february and march were wonderful times to go i didn t go much in the summer i spent the summer swimming in my pool new jersey is different winter means snow cold ice and bad weather for travel and many hotels are seasonal open from the end of april to the first week in october so shoulder season is the time to go my sister and i stayed in ocean city new jersey in june and september june was a little crowded but not too much and everything was open september was not crowded at all some places along the ocean the boardwalk were closed in september though they were probably still open on the weekends both times we went were magical i had a wonderful time the drive in over the route 52 causeway bridge into ocean city going over the route 52 causeway to ocean city new jersey june 2011 continuing over the causeway into ocean city june 2011 this was the place where my sister got our wonderful beach chairs the chairs she got have a canopy you can attach to the back of the chair you can flip it back when you don t need it you don t have to mess with a sun umbrella the best place to buy beach chairs ocean city new jersey june 2011 we stayed at the ocean 7 hotel wonderful 60 s pop retro charm with contemporary comfort our room had a little kitchen http ocean7hotel com ocean 7 hotel the wave motif june 2011 ocean 7 hotel exterior mural june 2011 ocean 7 hotel walkway to our room june 2011 we were very close to the beach ocean city view from the front of our hotel room june 2011 ocean city new jersey dates from the 1880s http en wikipedia org wiki ocean_city _new_jersey it has a famous boardwalk a wooden walkway for pedestrians often found along beaches http en wikipedia org wiki boardwalk ocean city is what is called a family oriented place along the boardwalk there are rides for children a ferris wheel miniature golf and shops with beachy type junk food french fries funnel cakes frozen custard you can also eat pretty well it s a dry town the place does not sell alcohol though you can certainly drink in your room i have mixed feelings about this i like to have a glass of wine with dinner but it is wonderful to not run into drunks on the boardwalk or the beach there s a lot of drinking in new jersey beach towns ocean city has shops plenty of them and if you look carefully you can find good things to buy particularly during the september sales the place is full of retro charm ocean city boardwalk at night i have no idea what venue this is june 2011 ocean city boardwalk at night june 2011 ocean city boardway in september some places are closed september 2011 ocean city new jersey boardwalk in september lovely overcast day september 2011 in september we had pizza at mack and manco pizza wonderful thin crust pizza the place felt regional local in a good way something you don t always experience in a beach town and they don t close in the off season they are always open mack manco pizza spectacular pizza september 2011 wonderful ocean city mural mural ocean city new jersey september 2011 and the ocean beautiful timeless atlantic ocean beach at ocean city new jersey june 2011 atlantic ocean june 2011 ocean city beach with local vegetation september 2011 view from the ocean city music pier september 2011 the music pier and the atlantic ocean september 2011 we go home leaving ocean city going back over the causeway september 2011 going home goodbye ocean city september 2011 posted in atlantic ocean california new jersey popular culture swimming water tagged atlantic ocean california new jersey popular culture swimming water leave a reply philadelphia this year posted on november 27 2011 by amarez reply as big cities go philadelphia is quite nice even nicer now that i go in on the train via the adorable colmar station this is where i ve been this year reading terminal market http www readingterminalmarket org this is a farmer s market in a permanent indoor space in a lovely historic building next to the convention center the food is good the shops are good there is a local winery store blue mountain vineyards and cellars a local winery with excellent wines http bluemountainwine com i almost wept when i stopped there given pennsylvania s ridiculous liquor control laws don t get me started and the local culture i ve mostly given up on the wine thing here blue mountain makes great wines though it s not easy to buy their wines given that it s a local winery and pennsylvania s liquor laws and the local liquor stores are so terrible i had the chambourcin which was excellent also interesting because i was not familiar with the grape reading terminal market fish sign april 2011 reading terminal market blue mountain vineyards and cellars sign april 2011 philadelphia international flower show http theflowershow com home index html springtime in paris was the theme for 2011 the flower show is huge it takes over the philadelphia convention center the show consisted of a number of gardens with a paris theme and a market where you could buy things i had a good time though i learned why it is never a good idea to go on the weekend it was very crowded through rose colored glasses philadelphia international flower show march 2011 a bed of roses philadelphia international flower show march 2011 philadelphia international festival of the arts street fair http pifa org streetfair another paris and french themed event it was not crowded in the morning but more crowded as the day went on the food was good the performers were good the sights were good some interesting arty things butterfly puppet philadelphia international festival of the arts street fair april 2011 ferris wheel philadelphia international festival of the arts street fair april 2011 la ville radieuse the radiant city a philadelphia international festival of the arts 2011 collaboration on the day i went to the street fair i went inside the kimmel center a performing arts space a spectacular building with a hundred fifty foot barrel vaulted glass roof http kimmelcenter org facilities tour there was a site installation la ville radieuse by mimi lien an artist and set designer http pifa org journey lavilleradieuse 2 the interior of the kimmel center was magical there was a replica of the eiffel tower all in lights above me moving on wires was a plane trains and a dirigible my photographs do not do it justice la ville radieuse kimmel center april 20...