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When I talked to Bob about an hour ago, he an...
January 30, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
When I talked to Bob about an hour ago, he and Cousin Ron were making a beeline for the exit of the VA Hospital, keeping a low profile and not making any unnecessary noise!
He had a bit of an infection, but it is apparently improving and they decided to cut him loose.
It will be awhile before he's good to go - for example, no driving for six weeks - but there's nothing that has to be done tomorrow. Anna will come down for a little while, unless she gets a job in place right away. Many hugs, and
thanks, Sadie and Yayoe, for your cards, which Bob appreciated. Love to all, om
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Seraph, Robbie, Isa and I went for a quick co...
January 28, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
Seraph, Robbie, Isa and I went for a quick coffee at AJ's, the neighborhood coffee shop, then drove in to see Bob. The new aerial tram, which goes from the hospital complex on the hill to an additional complex on the riverbank, was
free to the public, but on a ticket basis, so we decided we'd have to save it for another time. Bob continues to mend, and we feel very lucky. I have to go back to Eugene today to catch up with my office. Love to all, and Jamie, I'm anticipating the minestrone soup.
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Big relief; I left Bob yesterday afternoon co...
January 26, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
Big relief; I left Bob yesterday afternoon complaining about hospital food, so it appears that he's on the mend. Hospital staff people still are dropping by and saying things which usually include the word "miracle", and I am
in fact quite convinced. In the meantime, I am most grateful to Seraph, Robbie and Isa for sharing their household. Love to all, mom
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Hi, I'm in Eugene, and doing a quick posting ...
January 25, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
Hi, I'm in Eugene, and doing a quick posting before heading back to Portland with clean laundry. I left Bob looking quite good yesterday, and understand he had lots of company yesterday afternoon. Eric and Mollie had done a fine job of house sitting, and Mishca looked well fed and only mildly pissed off at being left behind. I got over to see Jenny and the boys, but missed Adam and Jamie. Adam, thank you for your posting help, and I hope you are feeling much better. In the meantime, I'll try to keep up with postings. Much love, and give a little thank-you prayer to your god and/or goddess of choice.
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Hi, Seraph, Robbie and Isa have all left for ...
January 24, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
Hi, Seraph, Robbie and Isa have all left for school and work, and Ripley and I are left to update everyone on Bob's condition. He was out of surgery about 4:00 a.m. on Monday morning. He was awake if not really alert by Monday evening.
Yesterday he was awake and sitting up, able to spend time with his sister and her husband, who drove down from Seattle, and his cousins Ron, Bill, and Bill's wife and daughter. His brain seems to work fine, and they didn't have to cut out all his sense of humor. Aric and I will meet this morning at the hospital and I'll take Aric down to Eugene. One of Bob's doctors made an off-hand remark about being released on the weekend, but I'm going to wait and see. Much love, and remember the fortune cookie. You are protected by the silent love around you.
At Sadie's suggestion, I did talk with one of the counselors at the hospital; I was having some strong memories of when Dick died, as well as a lot of guilt. (Since Bob and I both had some food poisoning, we took Cipro, but Bob stopped after a couple of pills. I thought he was sick because he stopped taking his Cipro, and chewed on his sorry little butt all the way from Prague.) Much love, and thank you for your good thoughts and phone calls.
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I'm sitting here with Seraph and Robbie, and ...
January 23, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
I'm sitting here with Seraph and Robbie, and we're about to go out to dinner to celebrate Isa's birthday. I haven't slept since yesterday morning at 7, so I'm here for a rest cure. I left Bob with Anna and Aric, being quite articulate
and amazingly cheerful. I don't have any explanation for why he lived through being very sick the night before we left Prague, four airports, and three plane changes.
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Adam, I agree with Seraph
January 18, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
Adam, I agree with Seraph. Thanks for all your hard work in keeping up this site. We do take it for granted now. Apologies, Seraph, I completely forgot about your weekend at the cabin, and we appreciate being able to sleep before heading south. Would you give Isa 48 hugs and 48 kisses? We'll leave her presents at the house. And how could she possibly be six years old. It seems a moment ago that Robbie would bring her in to work and, bad grandma that I am, we'd made her crawl. Much love, mom
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Hi, we arrive 1/20 at 10:50 pm
January 18, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
Hi, we arrive 1/20 at 10:50 pm. American Airlines 2266 from Chicago. Seraph and Robbie, we may ask to stay over with you guys that night. Bob is being a brave soldier, but he definitely has some intestinal bug, and I'm not sure how he'll feel by Saturday. I ate the same stuff, but started to take my Cipro right away. (There was a brief moment of neurosis when I thought, Aha, a quick way to lose ten pounds, but it passed.) Bob is taking his Cipro too, so I'm hoping for a better day tomorrow. If you'd rather leave the car at the airport earlier, we'd still have to call when we got in, but at least you wouldn't have to be out late at night. Love you, and it's very strange to imagine you all getting up and getting going, when it's five p.m. here, except of course for Sadie, who's about ready for her 11's.
Love, mom
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Well, it's hog heaven for them of us who are ...
January 18, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
 Well, it's hog heaven for them of us who are interested in pre-history. We spent yesterday afternoon at the National Museum special mammoth hunters exhibit as well as their amazing permanent exhibit. The museum says that this was the original home of the Celts, who then expanded their territory about 400 BC. The Museum owns many of the artifacts you see in text-books, and on loan to other exhibits.
We haven't gone out today yet, as Bob seems pretty under the weather. Our goal for today was to go to the Communism Museum and the Sex Machine Museum (I kid you not, gentle readers, there is a Sex Machine Museum in Prague. Travel is so broadening!) Even weirder is that there are literally 500 TV channels, with only the BBC and a bunch of evangelism channels in English, and about 10% are soft core porn channels in Italian or Arabic.
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Bob's snoozing away gently; we walked around ...
January 16, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
Bob's snoozing away gently; we walked around Prague Castle all afternoon in distinctly nippy weather, and he's still getting over a flu bug from Shimla. Prague Castle was once home to Good King Wenceslas, and you all remember
how "brightly shone the moonlit night, though the wind was cruel" and believe me when I say I could identify with that
"poor man, gath'ring winter fu-u-el". I had on three pair of socks and three jackets! The castle is amazing, apparently the largest continuously used castle complex in the world, and on the World Heritage list. Prague is hog heaven to an architect.
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As you can tell, we were both much taken with...
January 16, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
 As you can tell, we were both much taken with India. It's a place on the world with such extremes of weather that people have learned to survive only through cooperation and a hoarding and careful use of resources. There is also an artistic bent which is so old it must now be part of people's DNA. Having seen how things are made, by hand and not by machine, I will never again sneer that something is a cheap trinket.
We are in Prague, and for the first time have good wireless. Hopefully this will last, and I'll post more. I do want you to know about Bob and the Monkeys. Monkeys in much of northern India are everywhere, sort of the equivalent of squirrels in Eugene. Well, on our way back from Jaipur, we were stopped at the roadside for a photo op. Most of us took cute pix of the cute little critters. Bob, however, managed to offend one of them, obviously the Monkey King, and the two of them had a face-off, with perhaps a bit of posturing on both sides, and at least some hissing on the part of the monkey. Try to picture Bob in a face-off with a squirrel, and you have the idea. He grumbled around about Bad Ass Monkeys for the rest of the time in India. (He just wandered by and told me not to portray this as all his fault. "Everyone always takes the monkey's side in these things. I'm tired of it."} So, love from us both, winning friends for America in foreign climes.
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We are sitting in a wonderfully shabby hotel ...
January 13, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
 We are sitting in a wonderfully shabby hotel in Delhi, much better than the Imperial and the Sheraton. I walked out the door of the hotel onto a narrow street teeming with
the shops the ordinary people frequent, food stands, an occasional cow or pig(pigs, not being sacred, don't seem so plentiful, but they still are one of the primary garbage systems.) People are incredibly lovely, speaking, asking questions,"Tell us about yourself" one young man asked, practicing their English. This reminds me of Africa.
We leave for Prague tonight. We saw the Himalayas near Simla, and had lunch with our driver's sister's family in
Chandarigh. She has a son, eight, who, along with his friends, took me for a walk. I'll post more later. Love, Om
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This country is amazing! We saw the Taj Mahal...
January 07, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
 This country is amazing! We saw the Taj Mahal and various resplendent buildings today, the Agra Fort, with breathtaking marble and sandstone carving and marble inlay with malachite, turquoise, lapis lazuli and various semi-precious stones. Right now we are sitting in a hotel which
in the past was the palace of one of the governors, and in the background, we can hear the reverberations of a drum,
sounding a lot like the drums at the summer drumming festival, announcing a Moslem wedding.
The two lane road from Agra to Jaipur was crammed not just with buses, trucks, vans, three wheeled vehicles, tractors pulling all manner of wagons, vehicles constructed entirely
of parts from a variety of other vehicles, but cows, herds of sheep and goats, camels pulling wagons of logs and overfilled bags of fodder, bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, and an occasional monkey. We saw our first snake charmers yesterday. Dez, look these cities up on your map!
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After a lovely farewell dinner here in the ho...
January 05, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
After a lovely farewell dinner here in the hotel, we bid a very fond good-bye to DP and Rama, their younger daughter Swati, an art student in Paris, and her boyfriend Fredo. We leave tomorrow morning for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Bob is muttering and swearing at his suitcases, in the apparent hope that his wrath will make all the remaining unpacked objects shrink and hop into his bags. He has brought to India, in addition to three pairs of shoes, three jackets, miscellaneous clothing, an additional two pillowcases, a towel, plastic knives, forks and spoons, 2 freeze dried meals for two, a glorified bunsen burner,beef jerky and many beef jerky products (one of which is
called something like Beef Steak Chunks)and innumerable bags of food. And you guys worried that no one could come close to Dick. Love to all, mom
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I'm sitting here in Indian dress, which broug...
January 05, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
 I'm sitting here in Indian dress, which brought smiles, compliments and nods of approval everywhere we went today.
When in Rome, wear a toga!
I can't even begin to describe the chaos of the streets of Delhi. There are no lanes, and the correct way to pass the vehicle in front is honk your horn and wait for them to signal if it's not safe. Given the volume of traffic, this method leads to a chorus of horn honking. There are rickshaw cabs, cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and in the old sections of the city, an occasional horse or donkey drawn cart.
We have enjoyed Deepti's family and friends so much. The reception last night, with all their family and friends, was a visual feast as well as a literal feast, as all the women came in their most sparkling sarees and gold jewelry.
I think I said earlier that Bob's ex-wife, Debbie, loaned me a couple of outfits, the one which I'm wearing and one,
more formal, which I wore last night.
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We are well, going to the third wedding event...
January 04, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
We are well, going to the third wedding event - first evening was the girls' henna party, the next day the wedding, and tonight the reception. Delhi is overwhelming in every single way - traffic, people, noise, smells, religion, beauty and ugliness, all crammed in to the same space. Bob is a wonderful travelling companion, and we are
having an amazing time. The Imperial is an oasis of colonial denial in the midst of chaos. We rent a car and driver for about $30 for eight hours. It's like Africa; people time costs nothing. I'll post more later. Love you all. Mom
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Wow, next year we're all coming to |Prague fo...
January 01, 2007 by Sue in Wielesek
Wow, next year we're all coming to |Prague for New Years Eve! Fireworks, music, and wall to wall people! We're in the Prague airport waiting for our flight. This city is crazy cool. We'll be in Delhi tonight, and will be at the Imperial Hotel. Love, from the imperialistas.
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