We had (vegetarian) sushi in downtown Hayward.
Father’s Day with Alexandra
Category Archives: Family
Darby Family Reunions
Nelson Family Reunion in Ohio
Shando and Joe’s Third Anniversary
After some anniversary shots in our house and backyard, we had a vegetarian meal in the lovely Rockridge part of Oakland at “Millennial,” and then walked over to this “home-made” (delicious) Smitten/Red Wagon ice cream place that we didn’t previously know about, with a diversity placard in the window.
Happy birthday Alex & Barbra!
Alex became 25 on the 20th and Barbra became 75 on the 24th.
Monterey Again
Ganglion Cysts
From standing on the NYC subway and holding the strap-hang with my left hand for two decades while reading the newspapers (this was mostly before it was practical to read the news on a mobile device), I developed a ganglion cyst (actually two) which was starting to affect my mobility, not to mention being unsightly. At least the subway is my theory on how these developed. So even though I haven’t lived in NYC for ten years now, I had a surgery earlier this month to have them removed because they were getting bigger. “Bible bumps” do not effectively go away if they are hit with a big book or even drained at the doctor’s office. I wanted something that was sure to work, so the surgery required I be put under general anesthesia so they could be removed from a plastic surgeon by the root, which was all the way down to the tendon or bone. I had to wear a splint for two weeks, but fortunately it was not on my dominant hand, or I would have probably never had this done. My daughter visited me right after the surgery and brought me these beautiful flowers.
Post-fire Renovation of Mom’s House
My siblings and me in the kitchen of the family house in California that we grew up in on and off since 1971, a few days before my sister Sabina was born. Renovations will finally completed soon. Now that it doesn’t have an attached family room that was there for 27 years, you can see the Hayward Hills much easier, and it’s a lot brighter. The house isn’t even recognizable to us without Mom’s “stuffs.”
Adagio
I remember in one of our family trips back from the Sacramento area I was playing music with my Mom in the front seat. Shando was always a gentleman and sat in the back when she rode with us. I loved it when an old classic that Mom knew would come on, whether it be from Italy or some other place. She loved Nat King Cole, Julio Iglesias, Engelbert Humperdinck and Josh Groban even. Caruso was a classic Italian song I never quite mastered memorizing, but it was a song she obviously knew well. Playing music in the car kept me awake and in some cases minimized her nagging me, although now of course I would take her nagging me about anything I miss her so much.
One time an Italian song came on that I knew the words to, and my mother was floored. I’ll never forget her cackling in laughter, cracking up as I sang Lara Fabian’s Adagio in the original Italian. She could not fathom that I would memorize an Italian song that she never heard of and she just thought it was the funniest thing in the world that I was singing in her mother tongue. It’s an extraordinary song by a singer who is of Italian heritage from Belgium and my Mom just enjoyed the heck out the moment, and I was so proud that I could share this moment with her serendipitously. I think it helped Mom to believe that I would never truly be far removed from our family in Calabria if I could accomplish something like this without her knowing. The odds of that song coming up out of the tens of thousands on my 180GB iPod was kismet, because I never again had a chance to sing that song to my mother. The important thing, though, was that we had a magical musical moment and I got to impress her and show off to her.
Here are the lyrics in English and then Italian:
I don’t know where to find you; I don’t know how to look for you
But I feel a voice in the wind that speaks about you
This soul without a heart waits for you slowly
The nights without skin; The dreams without stars
Images of your face that pass suddenly make me hope still that I will find you slowly
I close my eyes and I see you
I find the way to the door from agony
I feel it beat in me
This music that I’ve invented for you
If you know how to find me; If you know where to look for me
Embrace me with your mind
The sun seems to me extinguished
Ignite your name in the sky
Tell me who you are; The one that I want lives in you
The sun seems to me extinguished
Embrace me with your mind; I’m lost without you
Tell me who you are and I will believe in us
You are music, slowly.
Non so dove trovarti, non so come cercarti
ma sento una voce che, nel vento parla di te
quest’anima senza cuore aspetta te adagio
Le notti senza pelle i sogni senza stelle immagini del tuo viso, che passano all’improvviso mi fanno sperare ancora che ti troverò adagio
Chiudo gli occhi e vedo te trovo il cammino che mi porta via dall’agonia sento battere in me questa musica che ho inventato per te
Se sai come trovarmi, se sai dove cercarmi
abbracciami con la mente il sole mi sembra spento
accendi il tuo nome in cielo, dimmi che ci sei, quello che vorrei, vivere in te
Il sole mi sembra spento, abbracciami con la mente
smarrita senza di te dimmi chi sei e ci crederò
musica sei, adagio…
Granite Bay Visit for Late Xmas
