Nina Trutko Reed, Jan. 19, 1916 to Jan. 24, 2014

It's been a year since my mother died and I still unable to come up with a way to memorialize her.  Of my parents and their siblings and spouses, my mother was the last. 

This is my first attempt at imbedding a video from YouTube to another website.  It's a humorous look at the scientific method and critical thinking and why these both are in such short supply in newspaper headlines that scream "New Study Shows..."

Hodo Ҫakshiri 10/5/38 - 5/17/13

Hodo was my cousin by marriage. Life circumstances prevented a close acquaintance but not a fond one.  I remember him as unfailingly cheerful and engaging.  The world is a poorer place for his absence.  This is the text of the comments delived by his son Alexander at a memorial gathering for friends and family.:


     Hodo Cakshiri was born near his early childhood home of Poloske, Albania on October 5, 1938. He conquered his first life challenge when he had to be delivered in a hospital some distance away. Times were difficult in Europe and foreign troops repeatedly trod through his village. On one occasion when the family was fleeing for their lives, an uncle told Hodo's mother to just throw him down to the side and save herself since she could make more babies. Gladly, she carried him on.
     The family eventually sought safety and moved to the port city of Durres. Their home was not to stay their own, as one by one rooms were taken over by the government. Despite not having enough food, and no shoes, Hodo was an excellent student and attended mechanical school. When large tractor drivers were needed, he was sent to the eastern border with Yugoslavia. When his thoughts turned to escaping across the border, he knew he had to move quickly for fear his manner might give him away. He ran for his life, while others less fortunate were shot trying. He never again saw or had contact with his mother, his father, and two of his sisters.
     Communist Yugoslavia put him in prison for months. When released he made an unsuccessful attempt to cross into Greece, and was returned to prison. His second attempt was successful and he spent time in a refugee camp and at a mechanical school. The American Army came giving tests that only Hodo passed. He was enlisted, became a tank driver, and spent five years in Germany, including cold winters on the Czech border. There were also good times, and he had a daughter he named Jeanette, who would later gave him grandsons Jake and Kobe. He re-enlisted for three more years and went to jungle training school in Panama, to Korea at the border with North Korea in the winter, and saw action in Viet Nam.
     Sergeant Hodo received an Honorable Discharge and began his civilian life in California. He drove heavy trucks, including those that were used in construction of the Simi freeway through the pass from the San Fernando Valley. He was parking celebrity cars in Beverly Hills and running his own lots when he met Barbara. They dated, and got married 42 years ago. They lived on the west side of Los Angeles and bought their first of several houses. He opened a deli and worked for the school district. They took their first of many trips together, spending 11 weeks driving throughout Europe.
     They moved to the San Fernando Valley and were excited to welcome into the world their son Alexander. Desiring a calmer life, they moved to Arroyo Grande on the Central Coast. Hodo worked at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant until they were once again thrilled to become parents of their son Robert. They returned to LA briefly, but spent the remainder of their years together on the Central Coast. Whenever he was home, Hodo could be seen outside where he enjoyed taking care of his plants and trees. The family had many good times together as he drove their motor home throughout much of the United States and through Canada to Alaska. They also traveled together to Hawaii and through Europe. Hodo knew first hand the difficulties of life in Albania. He went to extraordinary steps and risk to bring two nephews, then a niece to America. In recent years he lived with the effects of a stroke, but persevered. His family expanded when Robert and Alexander married Silvia and Rui, and each gave him a grandson: Owen and Leotrim. His children and grandchildren were the light of his life. He could never get enough of them and cherished their time together, their phone calls, and looking at their pictures.
     Hodo met and stood up to a number of medical issues, particularly in his last six months. In every case he conquered the challenge and continued to live life fully to his last day. He passed away peacefully in his sleep. May he forever rest in peace.
     We love you. We miss you. We will always remember you.

Ginger Root

     My garden has a new inhabitant: ginger! A little guerilla gardening in reverse has brought me some ginger root which I planted in a public place at least 30 years ago. I've been thinking about this for months and finally was in the vicinity of this place 2 weeks ago. I boldly parked and walked in, no one was about, I loosened the soil with my trowel and 2 big pieces came out. Into the plastic bag they went and I was gone in 5 minutes. Back home, I planted the largest piece in front of my house. I had a long root and some above-ground green stem. I suspect that, in time, this stem will die away so I am anxiously looking out for a new stem to push its way up through the soil. One of my outdoor cats has been seen lying on the soil under which the rhizome was planted and so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she won't destroy any new shoot.
      The smaller piece I put into the public flower bed at the top of the driveway, which is quite close to my own garage so I can keep an eye on it. It already had a small shoot on it and it appears that the shoot has survived. Before the daring daylight guerilla strike, I had taken a piece of purchased ginger and simply put it in a pot of soil on my front steps. I kept it somewhat moist but nothing happened for 3 or more weeks, hence my urgent need to collect from my 30-year old plant, before spring was over. What did I see this very evening while sitting on my front steps, combing my stray cat? A green shoot peeking out from the soil of that pot (see photo). When I planted that little chunk of rhizome, it seemed to me it should grow, given the right conditions, despite having been harvested many, many weeks before and having sat in a big pile at the grocery store for who-knows-how long. It took its time but now I have hopes of 3 ginger plants and the future harvest of my own fresh, edible ginger root.

Nasturtiums in the Garden

 

All my posts, to date, have involved family business.  Today I want to publish a few photos of my "garden".  I put that word in quotation marks because what I have is a couple of patches of dirt on the southeast edge of my unit, it is generally heavily shaded, and there is no outside faucet for when I need to water.

  For several years I have had a lush growth of nasturtiums in spring.  At left you can see my cat, DJ, who appreciates the greenery as much as I do.  I can't remember when I first sowed purchased seed, but that one time is all it took.  The plants drop seed like crazy and some will germinate the same season.  They also will germinate in the fall and winter.  By early spring they will be everywhere.    Nasturtiums do fine in shade, and I do get some sun in the middle of the day.  I hate to tear them up until they are fading in summer's heat, but that means it's a problem to start anything else.  The mass of greenery hides snails which nibble on the nasturtiums but it hardly shows.  But they'll also nibble on, and destroy, anything else I might plant.  At the moment I have a couple of tomatoes and gourds, which are doing OK, protected by tin cans with both ends cut out as protective barriers.
  A friend with a much sunnier garden has tomatoes with fruit already the size of ping pong balls.  Of course, she planted started plants, while I grew mine from seed and my seedlings seemed to be very slow in getting any size on them.  The sun, and not so much the size of the starts, is the biggest difference, I think.

Another Sadness

The last of the siblings of my father's generation has passed away. My uncle, Ted Raddish, died on Tuesday, June 22, only 4 1/2 months after his Emma.

Although his memory was failing him, his sense of humor never did. He was as ready as ever with a clever riposte if you were foolish enough to give him a straight line.

Despite some difficult experiences in childhood, Ted's innate good nature and solid common sense turned him toward all those things that are the foundations of a decent and satisfying life. There was nothing grandiose or showy about him and there was everything cheerful and good. I miss him....I miss them all.

Emma and Ted at Thanksgiving 2009

Attached is the last family photo in which Emma and Ted appear was taken at the home of cousins Lisa and Joe Snyder. Although in ill health, Emma did not like to miss seeing her family. It was a beautiful fall day. The air was warm in the middle of the day and we ate out of doors, as usual.