Chuck, John and friend
The Tujunga wildfire
I don’t know how well you can see the smoke in the picture, but as I was driving home in the afternoon I was stunned by the amount of smoke pouring in to the sky and how clearly I could see it. The cloud is call a pyrocumulus cloud and is the result of all the smoke rising in the air. I am not in any danger from the fire, but it is close enough where I can see lots of smoke clearly and where the air outside my condo smells like an ongoing barbeque. The weather is hot and dry; thank goodness there are no Santa Ana winds or this would be even worse. My friend and coworker, Jerry Mullady, has parents who live in Acton and were evacuated early rhis morning.
Kerry and Fran
God does LOVE us and answers our prayers – not as we expect. We have been praying for Fran, whose company has been long under attack by a big money info mercial thief. But she has had to stay away from travel, which was devouring her time and often kept her away long times.
This past week she was there to observe Kerry experience pains, which of course he made less of. She got him to the hospital where they tested and put him into intensive observation and testing. During the night he had two heart attacks, 2nd bigger than first. The hospital moved him immediately to Summit Medical (specialists) and they operated (80% of left side artery blocked). The surgeon told Fran a third heart attack, possibly the fatal one, was imminent. AMAZING – he came home yesterday (these days I believe fear of infections and expense make this decision). He is resting and Fran is busy caring for him and setting up/reading the many medications. They are quietly being together. Please give them some days for this settling in and rest – it has been a terrible week emotionally – before phoning.
Please pray his recovery continues. I don’t know how well you know. He and Fran are very much in love. They have had many blows against them in business this past (over a year), which seemed to continue - he was recently laid off when the company he worked for closed down permanently. He is a caring, wonderful person. Kids rush to him. He is so steady and calm – perfect balance for more dramatic, our Fran. And them together is what makes parents happy for their children. Kerry is one of six children – and one of his sisters, Leslie, just was found to have polyps in her colon. Ken and Mary Tucker, Kerry’s parents, have been stressed this year, too – a wonderful family.
If Fran had not been home for these longer periods, he would NOT have been in the hospital where he was quickly, rightly, administered the right care. I have heard so many times and seen in my own life how many times the body sends out warnings before – which are ignored, misread, laughed off, etc. (especially for heart attacks and strokes), long before the fatal and or debilitating event. Here, in a much more IMPORTANT WAY than money, business, material. Each of them, FRAN AND KERRY, would be so lost without each other.
Do pay attention to warning signals from within you. And please pray Kerry’s recovery continues and continues, TOO.
I have included a link to a Youtube video of Me eating a 6 pound ice cream sundae. It was for a contest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x_8XTn_xyQ.
Check this out – in the grand tradition of doing anything for a laugh, KK’s oldest son, Patrick Uberti, goes for it with a big bowl of ice cream.
Let him know what you think!
You go, girl!
click on this link to see the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA0kfwsY0nI
It’s pretty funny and was done a few years ago at the high school where I teach English, John Burroughs High School in Burbank, CA. I usually find an absurd take on being in a high school environment and then start devising scenes. When this happened, I was lucky to have a student who was in to making films and he agreed to help me in the last few days of the school year. I enlisted the help of several colleagues and a few students and we shot the video mostly on the fly. I have a rough cut of it for a long time and was finally able to connect with my student, Jacob Chase, and we spent a few hours together and gave the scenes a narrative arc that I think plays well.
Jacob is now an up and coming filmmaker – he just finished a cool indie feature called “The Four-Faced Liar” which he and his producers are hoping to screen at Sundance. Check out Jacob’s website:
While you’re a t youtube, check out the other videos I have posted if you haven’t already done so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_MeCtuaiRs
Here are some photos from Rick Rigali all the way from Tennessee.
If you look real close at the first photo, you can see Rick standing next to some corn – he doesn’t say if the corn is from his own field or if was just wandering around and stopped for a picture to show all his relatives what corn looks like before it gets to a supermarket.
Rick and Kelly would love to have visitors! These photos are the first inducement.
Rick Rigali in a field of corn
A Tennesee hummingbird
A Tennesee butterfly
KK, Gray, and Sam
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