Monday, February 16, 2009

Downright Chilly In Here

Hello, folks!

Thanks for the kind notes. I miss you, too. I’m visiting my sister right now – the one with an Internet connection. It’s quiet here. She lives on Lake Ontario, I mean – right on the shore - and the beach is a frozen ice dune. Here’s a shot from her deck:










Brrr!

My father won’t eat. We ask him to eat something and he’ll say “BAH,” or “I said NO.” From what I’ve experienced, dying people are not as photogenic or eloquent as Lifetime movies would have you believe. Mostly, they are frustrated and in a terrible mood. There are endless moments filled with uncomfortable silence. And even if you bring a funny cartoon or a bag of candy to the hospital, chances are good that your father might tell you to throw everything away. It happens.

My father has lived for years without being able to breathe. I wonder how long he can go without breakfast, lunch and dinner? I keep telling him that old age will not respond to a hunger strike, but he will have none of it. We aren't even Irish!

Dad and I sit some more, me in my attractive scarf and him with his breathing mask, with lots and lots of nothing else to say.

More tomorrow.

Your Pal,
Mojopo

P.S.: Go Sasquatch! More polls soon. Promise.

59 comments:

J9 said...

MOJO,
been thinking about you and your dad, and hoping this will be a smooth transition for him, but it doesn't sound like that's what he wants, so it will be whatever he needs it to be.

Anonymous said...

When it's time for me to die, if I'm one of those who is fortunate enough to know it's time and if I'm able, I think I'll wander off by myself to do it, like an Indian in a western movie. Maybe that's what your dad would like, Mojo. At any rate, he has a lovely daughter. Peace to you and your family.

I don't think I've ever seen Lake Ontario. Not even in photos. Thanks for.

Anonymous said...

Your father is fortunate to have you, Mojo. I'm sure he knows.

LV

Anonymous said...

When my grandfather was in the hospital, we had a notebook in the room. At first we wrote observations about how he was doing. But it quickly developed in a kind of letter or collections of letters for him. Everyone in turn wrote his/her thoughts or what we would like to tell him.

LV

James said...

That's a great photo, Mojo. Thanks for sharing it.

With regard to Life not living up to Lifetime, well, my Father in law was a little like that, too. I'm keeping you in mind.

Anonymous said...

Nice idea LV! Mojo I hope your Dad gets what he needs to feel comfortable. And no, dying people aren't usually kind or polite. They have other things on their mind!! ((((Mojo and Dad and family)))

\\Speedy//

Anonymous said...

When it's my time to go, I hope I can go to sleep and just not wake up.

Old Hippy

Unknown said...

Mojo, sending you a big hug.

Paula said...

Mojo, I'd heard about your dad and I've been keeping you both in my thoughts. Sending you a hug too.

Unknown said...

Just stopping by again to say "I love you and miss you, Mojo."

Anonymous said...

Mojo, come home.

This weekend is the one before Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) in Louisiana. We drink and dance and go to parades to beg people on floats to throw worthless crap at us that we covet like treasure. And we drink. Some of us, not me, shake our tits at people. We all like tit shaking!

When we are on the streets drinking and shaking tits, we dance along to something called Second Line, which is mobile New Orleans brass, but when we are tired of being in the streets, we cram into little joints along the French Quarter where we can drink and dance to anything from blues to jazz to zydeco! If we are lucky, we will find Ms Mojo in disguise playing accordian and singing with her band The Bayou Gypsies!! Really, not kidding! Mojo is a zydeco queen!

Here is a clip of Mojo and her band singin Take Me to the Zydeco. She is in disguise, remember, but you know it's her because of the hat. (Mojo loves her some funny hats.)

Let's have a peek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGfdwbnHOpk&feature=related

Anonymous said...

I will not shake my tits until Mojo comes home.

Unknown said...

A.T., you are the sweetest anony I've ever met. :-)

Anonymous said...

Please come home MJP!!! We miss you!!! (((mojo)))


\\Speedy//

Anonymous said...

Whasmatter? Don't they have cyber cafes there in Olcott Beach? No? Damn!

Missing you, Mojo. Really, really, really missing you.

Anonymous said...

*tink*tink*tink*

The sound of my tears hitting the keyboard.

Speedy said...

See??? You have to come back now. a.t is sad!!! :-(

Anonymous said...

tink, tink, tink...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8cMy-Jmoso&feature=related

PapaPig said...

Sorry I haven't been here much. I have been in this isolation funk thing.

Saw Stevie Wonder at the White House. I think it finally hit me then Obama really is President.

Pigs don't cry a lot, after all we are raised for bacon. But I think that is what happened.

Anonymous said...

tink, tink, tink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr9FK_CpVA8

Anonymous said...

tink, tink, tink...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD7sqGJ3NBg

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbR3K9DEAjI

Anonymous said...

Hey Mo!Jo!Po! Just wanted to drop a line and say you and your Pops are in my thoughts.

Go Team Sasquatch.

Oh and P.S. What the hell is the change your vote opiton on the poll. This isn't the Senate Chambers.

Speedy said...

A little news from Olcott Beach. 700 half naked people swimming in below zero weather for money. That's crazy!!!! =)

OLCOTT: Lions, bears geared for 40th Polar Bear anniversary

About 700 to Swim for Sight in Lake Ontario

By Bill Wolcott
Niagara Gazette

The Olcott Lions Club is prepared for 700 swimmers or more to brave the carved-out beach on Lake Ontario for the 40th year celebration of Swim for Sight on Sunday.

A few thousand frigid fun-lovers are expected to join the event, which begins at 10 a.m. with tailgate parties. The Polar Bear Queen contest will be held at 1:45 p.m. Children under 18 go in the water at 1:50 p.m. At 2 p.m., the swimmers will dunk their toes into the cut-out portion of the beach or go in head first. Some of the bears go in all the way, and some are too smart to stay.

The nuttiness — which started as a lark out of Mike’s Black Stallion Bar in 1968 — has grown almost every year, according to Bill Clark of the Lions. There were 700 girls and boys, men and women registered to swim in 2008. That’s up 100 from 2007.

The swim draws about 2,000 to 3,000 spectators.

“We’re unable to count them,” said Clark who has been chairman of the event for 10 years and involved with the swim for 15 years. “It used to be 250 swimmers when it wasn’t organized.”

All the swimmers are registered and they have helpers allowed on the beach. The registration fee is a minimum of $10, and swimmers get a Polar Bear T-shirt. Many swimmers raise more money through workplace sponsors and employee contributions. In 2008, the Lions raised $15,000, which went to several charities. Lions Club programs aid the blind and visually impaired.

The Lions’ work begins before Christmas. All the previous swimmers are contacted, sent a brochure and invited to return. About half of the swimmers are repeats.

“It takes a special character and there’s plenty of them,” said Clark who works for NYS Emergency Management. “They get into it. It looks good, we’re getting a lot of interest. We have concerns with the down economy.”

Swimmers wear costumes, bikinis, team shirts and some paint their bodies. Limousines are rented and buses are chartered by churches and bars. Participants are urged to wear sneakers and bring dry clothes, a blanket, camera and a helper. They go through a checkpoint on the stairway to the beach.

Mike Zehler of Newfane was a top-money raiser two years ago with the help from his father, Tom Zehler. Mike, who now attends college in South Carolina, became a polar bear when he was 15 and a student at Newfane. He continued to raise money until he went away to college.

“He thought it was for a good cause,” the father said. “Probably somebody dared him. Mike jumped in the water, and I raised the money. I figured it was a good deal. He couldn’t raise the money.”

Mike, who had long blond hair and was called Tarzan, started with the under-18 group, which goes in the lake first. “He would go under water, to the end of the open pit and then go back. He come out with good lacerations on his legs,” his father recalled.

When Tom moved to Newfane, he watched his first Polar Bear. The son of an Air Force lieutenant colonel who made his home in many states saw an old guy with a Speedo going for a dip with the wind chill at minus-20 degrees.

Tom Zehler worked for Lone Star Development, which has offices in 45 states. He got pledges from out-of-state contractors.

“I turned 50,” he said. “If local contractors donate $5,000, I’ll jump in without drugs or alcohol.”

The top fundraisers in 2008 were Dave and Melissa Mika and their workplace supporters at Independent Health; Mary Taylor of Burt; Mike Wrobel of Williamsville; Joseph LoBrutto of Grand Island; and Tracy Dehn and David Corbett of Niagara Falls.

Unknown said...

I miss you Mojo.

Smokey said...

Mojo,
My thoughts are with you...
It is not easy to watch a parent die, but being there is a comfort for them, even when no words are spoken. And you as well, though you might think otherwise.

Anonymous said...

When Mojo comes back, I'll be nice to sasquatches, promise.

LV

Anonymous said...

I find myself just gazing at her avatar for hours. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

I am awakened in the middle of the night by these words: "Mojopo lives in Chicago and eats hotdogs from Costco." Over and over. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Cute little avatar. Sigh.

PapaPig said...

Hope things are ok for her and just hard to get on.

I could just be very emotional time and she just doesn't want to get on. I have been there. Actually I have been there a lot lately.

I wanted to post here just so those that wonder if anyone even does I am still kicking.

Piggie :@)

Speedy said...

We're here PapaPig! Just waiting patiently for the lovely and talented Ms. Mojopo to return.
((((Mojo & family)))

Anonymous said...

Scientists have discovered a new species of bamboo coral on Hawaii's coral reef! Didja know?

If Mojo were here, she'd probably want to talk about that, I betja. Also, Paul Harvey is being buried today. Surely, we'd want to discuss Paul Harvey! Everybody love / hates Paul Harvey!

Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Oh, look! I like Sasquatches is gaining on Whatever man, whatever. Hope for humanity.

Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Think I'll just tear my teeth out one by one and count them while I wait for Mojo.

Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Who wants Haagen Das?!






Sigh.

Anonymous said...

And now there's a story about an Ill-annoy preacherman who was shot and killed while delivering a sermon on what? I don't know. But if Mojo were here, she'd know, and you can bet yer life she'd tell us about it in resplenditious Mojopo manner. I luffs me some Mojoposts!

sigh.

Unknown said...

An.Tu and all. Stopped by to say Hola! And if Mojo is here to say, I miss you and hope you are okay.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Minnie. I miss her too! I really, really do. I've been floating around them webnets looking for something -- anything! -- to try to ease the throes of Mojo withdrawal. It ain't happening. I needs me some Mojopos.


sigh

Anonymous said...

I'm not superstitious, but I have an itch in my left foot that's telling me, if we can muster up just two more votes for I like Sasquatches, Mojo will come home.



sigh

Anonymous said...

Come on, come on! Two more votes and we have our Mojo back!

Anonymous said...

The poll is closed! I was going to give two more votes for sasquatch but the poll is closed! what does it mean? When's Mojo coming back?!

LV

PapaPig said...

Paul Harvey like him or not was part of American broadcast radio. I listened to him sometimes, sometimes would change the channel.

His passing I guess was timed to the same year as DTV Transition.

Dummies delayed it and he could not wait.

Speaking of which, why did they delay DTV? I have been watching my local stations in digital now for years. Yeah, I have an outside antenna, have had all my life.

Speedy said...

Hi Poppa! They delayed DVT for all the "challenged" people who didn't get a converter box and are too cheap to sign up for satelite TV. That's all we make laws for anymore is stupid people.... Don't get me started!!!!

PapaPig said...

DTV delay was the small peak into how political Obama really leans toward.

Yes I voted for him, McCain/Palin would have made us forget about Bush faster but in the totally wrong way.

There are many of us that converted to digital over a year ago, that are now plagued with months more interference from analog stations we though would go away. I have 2 channels that I can't see all the time because the danged anal-logs are still burning their blow torches.

The Delay was wrong on so many levels, don't get me started on that! If anyone does get me started be prepared.

PapaPig said...

Know what, we need to form a circle, fill our mojo bags with things we think will bring MJ back. Then meet somewhere to virtually dance until she returns.

I got my mojo working, but it just doesn't work on you............

Anonymous said...

Oh my god! You're right, LV! The poll is closed!!! This omen is worse than the DOW dropping 7000 points! We-are-doomed.

Speedy said...

I think the poll expires on a specific day. Nothing to gett freaky about.... We know Mojo is doing what she needs to do to take care of both herself and her family. Miss you lots MJP!!!(((Mojo & family)))

Anonymous said...

Speedy, I'm happy that you and the others are still here to comfort each other.

Someone offered ice cream? chocolate?

LV

Anonymous said...

Sure, chocolate, vanilla, choco-nilla swirl, or rocky road. We need the comfort of Haagen Das. And scrotch.




sigh

Speedy said...

My favorite comfort foods.... Scotch and Haagen Das!!! =)

Anonymous said...

Perhaps we should light a campfire and have a sing-along while we wait.

One thing's for sure, I'm going to wait as long as it takes to get our Mojo back. When I think of all my misadventures on these here webnets prior to finding this site, I shudder. Me and Scrotch have been all over these www's and we've been dumped off a whole bunch of em simply because the dumb clucks who run em don't have a wide enough sense of humor to know that me and Scrotch don't mean any harm to any living thing, not even cockroaches. Mojo gets it. I'm stickin' with her!

Anonymous said...

Oh.My. God. Have we got some shit coming down now! Chuck Norris and Texas are about to secede from the Union! Christ! this means another civil war, don't it? Or not. Personally, I say let em go and take george bush with em.

http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/2009/03/president-norris.html

Anonymous said...

the campfire is a good idea! I'm sitting with you atu, but probably you will regret it when we start singing. I brought some marshmallows with me

LV

Anonymous said...

We can tell scary stories, LV!

Did you hear about the vampire that was unearthed in Venice? Really.

Anonymous said...

tell me about the venician vampire, atu.

LV

Anonymous said...

I've heard about the dracula fish though
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7935482.stm

LV

Anonymous said...

LV, a few days ago, there was this archaeological dig on an island right off from Venice. This island was a place where the bodies of medieval plague victims were buried in mass graves, and the archaeologists were diggin em up for whatever reason. One of the corpses was of a woman who had had a brick inserted in her mouth when buried. One of the scientists explains that this was a common practice in the middle ages when it was suspected that a corpse was actually a vampire. The article I read said that during the plague years these mass burial sites were opened often to inter new bodies. Sometimes the bodies already in the gravesites had not been there very long when the graves were reopened, so some of the corpses in them might have only begun to putrify. One of the stages of putrification is for the intrals to liquify which sometimes causes a corpse to become bloated. When the gravediggers found corpses like that they believed the corpse was bloated from drinking blood -- a vampire. Wedging a brick way deep into the corpses jaw was to prevent the corpse from reanimating somehow. That's what they found in this archaeological dig -- the skeletal remains of a woman who had a brick wedged in her mouth. A vampire. Scary.

Anonymous said...

My wife has tried the same thing to prevent me from drinking my scrotch and eating our neighbors. It doesn't work. I don't drink that fancy-schmancy single malt shit. The scrotch I drink melts bricks.