The Heat Wave continues and Adam West~~~~

Hello Darklings,

The Heat Wave continues, although temperatures are a little cooler where I'm at, its still triple digits inland.

Using the misters have helped a lot cooling things down,  Doyle and I slept in the screened in back porch,  so did Coralline and Chris and my sister in law Maureen,  my brother had to go home and guard the house,  the twins are at their Aunt and Uncle's place he has air conditioning and a pool.

Sorry, being an elder Goth I will not go pool side during the heat of the day, give me the evening with the stars and the moon(if it's out) soft candle light and the pool as a reflecting pool of serenity, playing soft music and drinking chilled Chablis.   I know what I like.

With this heat I've not been able to really hunt for Goth like things,  the hot sun drives away the Fog and the bats,  however Doyle needs to get a new vehicle,  he's been using the company cars since his own car was shot up by a very angry criminal culprit,  the insurance company totaled it out.  I am so Glad he didn't borrow my car.

So he will use the company cars while on assignments, take public transportation to work, but at my insistence I've been encouraging him to look at the Nissan Rogue Midnight Edition in Magnetic Black,  I mean everything all black, black wheels, black body, dark interior and good gas mileage.

Very Goth if you are car shopping, I like it.  In a way it has a sort of Bond-like quality.

And I also got lucky and found some of my favorite nail polish in "Bite the Bullet"  Sally Hansen,  I will not wear the tropical colors, although I did find a few summer cotton dresses in black with white tropical flowers,  and a new sun hat in black.    I mean the lightest color I will wear is "Wet Cement"  which reminds me of burying the bodies when I want to get rid of them (sorry my fiendish mind is working).

Doyle and I started watching the Dirty Harry series with Clint Eastwood, we are in those hot vengeance mind thoughts of late.  I think it has something to do with the heat.

And I'm still devastated, another icon passed away earlier this month, Adam West T.V's Batman, he was 88,  the last time I saw him was when he made a guest appearance on "The Big Bang Theory"  He managed to keep working even after being typed cast as Batman, but frankly I liked his tongue in cheek performance, a friend of mine gave me a copy of his "Back to the Bat Cave" autobiography, I think I'll read it this weekend.

But the City of Los Angeles has done a beautiful memorial, they lit the Bat Signal on City Hall.  He will always be remembered.

Later Darklings

Farewell Batman, you are always in our hearts....

Of the Heat, "Dancing like an Egyptian", Margaritas, Truck crashing into funeral holmes and Blood Tests~~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well where do I start first???

I guess with the Heat, we had an unseasonable (although the weather man says it does happen) Heat wave here, and we are still getting through it.  There were some glitches with BART not much but enough to cause delays,  and the cooling system at work is so old it just could not handle it properly.

But at least we were out of the sun, the heat trapped in the "canyon's" of tall buildings makes it hotter, just blazing and inland it went to triple digits , it still high today.

Down in San Diego there having fires destroying homes, and we've been having problems as well,
I think the heat has affected some of the staff.  Our boss said it was O.K to play music on the radio to get our minds off of the heat, the next thing I Knew several of our staffers, Hank, Chris, David and Josh, went dancing across the room with towels on their heads like Ancient Egyptians and were dancing to "Dance Like an Egyptian", you know with all those crazy stiff arm movements, and then Brenda brought out non-alcohol Margarita's Lots of Ice.  It tasted good,  the boss gave up and said "If you get some work done I'll over look this."  We did, but it was fun.

I wore my long cool black cotton clothing, wore a black straw hat, used Neutrogena's Sun Screen at SPF 100 level and also used my black parasol, this pale skin is not going to get a tan, I do have to look my Elderly Gothicness.

If any of you have seen my earlier posts about Dark color clothing being able to block the sun's rays, do re-read it.   And I bought several bottles of Neutrogena's SPF 100 Sun Screen, Summer is starting early and the heat is making people crazy, even me.

There has been a lot of grief in the news and a few surprising things, but I think one of the more bizarre is a truck delivering supplies to a Starbucks lost control and crashed into a 90 year old Funeral Home, the truck caught fire and burned up the outside stucco of the building but nothing was damaged inside----as least no deceased customers had an unexpected cremation, and the person who lives above the funeral home and is a caretaker (a woman) was not hurt, the driver and passenger survived with minimal injuries.

The owner of the family owned and run funeral home, said that the Stucco facing prevented the fire from spreading and gave the firemen time to get there and prevent it from doing interior damage.

I've always remarked to people who drive pass me at a high rate of speed "Slow down, they'll hold the funeral for you!"  But Starbucks and a funeral home????  I love the bizarreness of it.

Well Coralline and I have chosen the nail polish color for Summer, she insisted I not wear a very dark color for the Summer Months, telling me that after Labor Day it would be perfectly alright.

I, of course, raised my eye-brows at this edict but decided to see where this would lead,  Well for Mother's day we got to my Brother's house for the Bar-b-Que but it looked like the grill was going to be fired a bit later in the evening and frankly with the weather it worked out just fine. 

Where my brother lives there's a CVS less than a block from the house, so making sure Doyle, the dogs and our elderly neighbor were comfortable, Coralline and I took a walk and there we looked at all the newer nail polish colors being offered for the Summer.

Most of them were too bright or glittery for me and I wasn't happy with the grey greens, and Coralline didn't want me to wear reds or corals or bright greens so we were looking at the blue palette and finally with the ESSIE brand we settled on two colors both a sort of Periwinkle Blue but one was slightly lighter than the other, I settled for "Boxer Shorts" and Coralline went with "Teeny Bikini" (the lighter color).

The shade is just right for Gothicness with a Summer bent, darkish but not too dark and not to light, Summery without being dull.  Coralline gave her whole hearted approval.  And at the Schools she's at for the last few weeks, they will permit color nail polish, and bright and fun hair clips, with the School Uniform. 

Frankly the color goes with almost everything I wear from blacks, greys, dark blues, dark purples, deep maroons.  So I'm all set as they say.

The bar-b-que was hosted by my brother and Doyle and the Boys, us women folk did not have to lift a hand, they even did the clean up although Coralline did have to help, after all she said "Its Mom's Day".

My Sister had a lovely time visiting her children and Brian had a chance to see his kids as well, but I do have to say on the way there and back we saw a lot of places with long lines of people waiting to eat.   Thank goodness the weather was great for a bar-b-que.

Then the Heat Wave---Oy Vey!!  and the Silliness Oh Boy!! But what can you do??

I took today off from work because I had to go to the lab for fasting blood work, Doyle is having a problem with the car, it was the starter motor, so here I am fasting, fasting, getting a headache, getting light headed and all I can do is drink water when I'm dying for coffee and a aspirin.

And because of my light headedness I don't dare drive, so Doyle calls the repair shop and has the car towed in and fortunately its near the hospital, so the owner loans his car to us and Doyle drives me there and when I get there the lab has moved, so I've got to walk a block and a half in the heat, for some vampire to take blood out of me,  But she made it painless remarking how nice and hydrated my veins are, and loved the color of my nail polish and where did I get it. 

Well that was nice.

 I had taken my coffee that I had made and put into a heat container, with me, as soon as I gave 3 vials (one was large) of blood and the Urine sample, I started gulping that coffee ignoring that it was still hot, it tasted so goooooooooooodddddd and topped it with an aspirin.  

We drove back to the repair shop and miracle of miracles they had a spare starter motor in stock and we were on our way, but Doyle did take me to lunch at our old retro-favorite the Merritt Coffee Shop, and even though it was lunch time I wanted Bacon and Eggs with whole wheat Toast---I know heart-attack city---But there are times when I don't care.   

Now I'm unwinding, Sis called and said she was picking up the fixings for a nice spinach salad with the pre-cooked grilled shrimp from Trader Joe's, We all ready had lavender Lemonade on ice, and Doyle took the insulated bag with some blue ice to buy Lime Sherbet for dessert.  

Tomorrow night we are going to the Friends of the Library Book Sale out at the old Navy Base, I'm so looking forward to that, one never knows what treasure one will find.

And now I'm going to flop on the couch with a fan on me, we have a box fan at floor level for the dogs and we are going to get cool and nap till dinner time.

Remember My Darklings Neutrogena SPF 100 Sun Screen.

Of Easter and a Time Machine~~~~

Hello My Darklings,

I know I haven't posted for a number of days, but things happened. 

For some reason our phone line became disconnected so Doyle was working with me using our cell phones, finally our neighbors phone to get the line re-connected.   It was an error on the phone company's part, they thought it was the house next to me that had been abandoned by the former owners.

Then with the last major rain storm (although not bad) one of the gutters separated, so had to have that repaired.

Then Doctor appointments, dental appointments (teeth are fine, and body is coming along fine) and all my therapy, time flew by.

Easter, although a bit drizzly, was lovely. 

 Doyle and I went to mass at one of the older Catholic Churches.  He surprised me with a lovely Gardenia corsage, I thought they weren't in season yet, so how he did it I have no idea, but I enjoyed wearing it all day.

Then we went for a drive in my vintage car, we even dressed as if we were from the 1940's, although I did have to use wheel chair a bit because my back wanted to act up. And Belladonna came with us everywhere we went.  Except into church.

We had an early lunch at our favorite restaurant, then Doyle took me to the See's Candy store and bought a 2 pound box of chocolates with soft centers (I do love See's), we drove down Oakland's Broadway, past the Paramount Theatre and the looks from people seeing the old car, so many "thumbs up",  people pulled up along side us to ask what year it was made,  and were surprised to see how we were dressed and the music we were playing.

We drove around Lake Merritt and then up to Piedmont to St. Mary's cemetery, it was too wet to step onto the grass, but I could see my parents graves as Doyle put flowers on them for me.   Then to Alameda and down along Shoreline Drive, it was a bit cloudy to see the San Francisco skyline too well, we then drove back to the old Naval Air Station and admired the U.S.S. Hornet.

Then, before it got too late we went to my favorite antique and vintage shop and I found two pair of shoes from the 1940's that were almost new and fit beautifully.  

Eventually we worked our way back in a loop going down Doolittle Drive and then back along East 14th Street to home, and although sometimes driving along East 14th can be dangerous, the traffic was light and everyone who saw us looked like we had come out of a time machine,  the rain had stopped so we rolled down the windows and because I have a tape deck under the dash, we played Big Band music. 

Doyle has a friend that worked up about a dozen Tapes so that they sound like radio broadcasts with news breaks and music and commercial  announcements from the 1940's. 

The looks on some people's faces when they'd hear our "radio", once person asked us "Which President?"  and I replied "Why President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he's the current president."

The look on the young man's face was priceless,  he acted like he'd seen a ghost!!!   Both Doyle and I loved it.

But then I was getting tired and Doyle saw that I had gone my limit for the Day and we drove home.  Fortunately Doyle had picked up what was going to be our dinner the night before and only had to be warmed up.

I floated the gardenia's in a crystal bowl of water so that it's scent could fill the room and I could admire it for a few more days.  Doyle suggested that I'd look into finding silk gardenia's to make into a permanent corsage, a good idea.

We watched one of our favorite crime drama movies "The Blue Gardenia" with Alan Ladd and then relaxed and read and listened to our favorite CD's until it was time to go to bed, my sister Marie had called and she was doing well and would be coming home the following day.

It was so much fun to "go back in time" even for one day. 

I hope all you Darklings had a wonderful Easter.

I'll post more later.

Later, Darklings

.

Of Gardens and Cars and Orchids~~~~~

Hello My Darklings,

The car has turned out to be just wonderful!

I can easily get in and out and there is plenty of room in the back for Coralline and Miranda should we need to go somewhere.  The trunk space is just right as well.

I found myself getting a bit tired but fortunately Doyle brought the wheelchair for just in case.

Today we'll go back and finalize the deal, but we are traveling in  Louise's car so she can drive me home and Doyle can drive the new car. 

Doyle, and rightly so, is concerned that I am not up to par to drive yet as I still have to take medication.  

My bruises are fading away finally but with some it will take longer,  I can go up and down the stairs at least once a day now, but if I want to take a nap I'll still be using the spare room on the ground floor.  I'll be seeing the Doctor again tomorrow, he is concerned about my weakness although it could be a complication from having that horrible virus.   But the therapist insists that I do walking at least around the house and garden to keep the muscles in tone and to slowly build up strength.

The weather here has turned cloudy and they are predicting rain for the Easter weekend, personally I hope it holds off, but Doyle says we will take our drive.

I'm hoping the Doctor will allow me to at least go to my work one day next week just so I can see how things are progressing,  I still will not be able to go back to work full time for a while, but some of my staff are concerned with a few things.

Several of my friends came by yesterday late afternoon with orchids for the hot house, the cybideiums as they are more hardy than the Catalaya's.  And although the Hot house is not completely ready they will do well in there as it currently stands.   They placed them around the indoor pond giving it a strange Gothic exotic look to it, as a matter of fact it has given me idea's for that area.  And they chose cybideiums that have a deep purple colors to them,one is almost a deep brown.  

My regular gardener who trims the trees, has been removing the invasive weeds and mows the lawn was just in awe of their exotic beauty, we talked about their care and he is very familiar with them as he has cared for the same type with his other customers, but he asked if it would be alright for his wife to assist as this was going to be more work and I said it would be fine.

My accountant and I have been going over the finances for the trust for the house and grounds as well as my income, but I insisted that my sister sit in as sometimes my head gets a little fuzzy, but the bottom line is that the income for the care of the house and grounds is more than enough to cover everything.  Which relieves my mind.   It is my intention to bring the house and grounds back up to it's glory but with a few interesting twists to it.

I know that if anything happens to me it will go to my sister who feels the same way as I do about it.

Strangely last night Marie and I started reminesing about family and events, and with so many years to look back on things and considering how our own life experiences have molded our outlooks, we were able to view a number of things without the extreme pain that we use to feel.   And also how they formed us.

I'll talke about this more later, my Darklings.  Right now Ella has my lunch prepared and the Therapist will be coming early so we can take care of the car deal later.

Later.

Of family and cars~~~

Hello My Darklings,

Well Doyle has looked over the car and has test driven it, he's put a deposit on it to hold it after explaining to the sales person why we needed to come back today (Me of course),  so we are going in a few minutes to look and test drive the car.

My therapist won't be here until the later afternoon, so the timing is perfect.  If it's comfortable for me that will be perfect,  there is also a pre-owned certified Jetta that he also looked at so we will compare the two.

Ella will wait at home to greet Louise in case we've not returned by noon.

I had a wonderful visit with Coralline and her family, the boys played and explored the garden but were carefully watched by their father (they can get into mischief).  I was so glad that the bruises had gone done and didn't look as bad, but Coralline was upset by what had happened.  I assured her that every day I was getting better and stronger, but that for an elderly person it takes longer.

Easter Coralline's family is going to visit her Mother's relations for Easter dinner and this time their Grandma is NOT cooking.   Coralline is hoping that she can visit on the weekends during the Summer break and I assured her that would be possible.  So we made plans,  her Mother was just appalled by the idiot who hit me, his thinking he can fight this.   We know its just arrogance.   My brother is just glad I'm alive, men view things differently than women, some can deal with illness and some have a hard time, my brother is the latter.

Marie left early this morning to see her clients and already I've been getting phone calls from work about some of the progress of some of the projects, and they've e-mailed me information on it---nothing like working from home, but there are limitations.   I think I'm getting restless and want to go back to work, but not until the doctor says so.

And now I must go Doyle is ready so car shopping it is.

Later Darklings

Of New Old-Cars~~~

Hello My Darklings,

With Doyle out of town I found myself missing his company, but he called this morning saying that his assignment is done and will be flying in late tonight and for me to not wait up.

It was good hearing his voice and he said he was being a bit of a "buzzy bee".

While he was gone he's been having a friend of his who is very car knowledgeable looking for a car for me.

His friend is zeroing in on a certified pre-owned Honda Acura TL 2006 year (I hope I have this info right).

Tomorrow Doyle is going with his friend to look this car over and get "the Car Facts" on it.   But the reason why its being sold is the owner is moving out of town, going over seas to Hong Kong and it is too costly to ship it over.

I trust Doyle's instincts on this car and said if he feels good about it so will I.   And It will be very, Very reasonably priced.  I didn't even care what color it is, just to have a vechile to drive without putting my vintage car in jeopardy is important to me.

So it is possible by Easter I will have a "nearly new" car.   But we shall see.

Now my sister is encouraging me to have lunch, grilled chicken salad with cranberries and a touch of soft blue cheese, and this delcious Ken's Cider Vinagrette.   And Coralline will be here with her folks, I'll be so happy to see her.

Later Darklings.

Goth my Ride~~~~

Well Darklings,
One of the last vehicles that an elder Goth should ride in (with the exception of an ambulance) is a Hearse, unfortunately one is usually not aware that you are riding in a hearse unless you are a spirit or own a classic vintage hearse.

Which brings us to what type of car should an elder Goth drive, Hmmmm well it depends upon one’s pocket book and how strange one wants to be.

Frankly I’d love to own a Hearse, drive it around with a coffin in the back, just to freak out the “Muggles”. But buying, restoring and owning a Hearse is not an easy thing. You have to be a dedicated Hearse owner for such an undertaking.

To quote one Funeral Car owner:

“Having a funeral car is not easy, the hearse car is very big, and so you will have to adjust your self for driving a mini-van size car. It’s also hard to maneuver in u-turns and narrow roads. And it will take a long time to find big enough parking spaces. But you are a hearse driver, the deads can wait.


By driving the most gothic car in the world, you can expect the same remarks as you get from people who don’t like or understand the gothic subculture. Some of them doing it because they think that you are a real funeral driver, other will mock or look at you like a freak. The best way to deal with it is to scare them off. Tell them gothic things, like you love the smell of dead corpse instead the car air freshener, or that you are out for digging graves.


The funniest thing you can ever do is to tell them that you have a PhD = Professional Hearse Driver.”

I like that “PhD= Professional Hearse Driver”. Even a bumper sticker that says “My other car is a Hearse”, I really like that, it suits my perverse sense of humor.

The first thing one has to consider is income; owning a car, any kind of car is not cheap, monthly payments, upkeep, gasoline, insurance, licensing, smogging, cost of parking lots, garaging your vehicle, your own driver’s license. And a Hearse does use up a lot of gasoline.

Even if you buy your car 2nd hand or gently used, you have to take into account all those factors, plus any repairs not mentioned or covered by the previous owner.

I have a friend of mine who purchased 2nd hand a 1991 Camero convertible, it was a bit of a concern for her to buy a car nearly 20 years old, but there was something about it that she liked. The engine had been completely re-built 2 years previously and it had not been driven hard since the re-built, so she had her mechanic check it out from stem to stern, and yes there were a few things to fix, before it would be street legal, it was tested to see if it would pass smog and it would, and it was in need of serious paint and interior work, but her mechanic was comfortable with it.

So she purchased it upon her mechanics say so, she started with all the “things” to make it street legal and to insure it was running perfectly, the next thing she was debating was to have it painted, it was at one time a sort of funky maroon, but she had it taken down to the body, had body work done to it, including chroming the bumpers and such, then she had it painted black, several layers of black with a high gloss finish. (She had to re-register it with the new color), replaced the convertible cloth to black (it was white –more like dingy grey), but then the interior needed some serious thought.

She had the interior painted black with black leather type upholstery, but with the piping done in red, blood red. The carpeting was also in black, as well as the steering wheel and column, the gear shift handled needed to be replaced so she had it done with a chrome skull, the locking buttons were also chrome skulls. For some reason on the back bumper was a trailer hitch, but since she knew she wasn’t going to be towing anything she put a Skull on it with the eyes that light up when the brakes are applied.

Now she could have left the front grill as it was but instead she ordered a custom one made to look like a spider web and in one corner a spider but with the body made into the shape of a skull. By the way my friend is 55 years old, she laughs when she drives her car “The Black Widow” around. Frankly I love it. But her car is for around the local area, she has like me, a more basic car, a black Honda Civic, very dependable and reliable.

Some people would go with a Black BMW, and paint blue flames or put blue, or purple neon lights underneath, but it all depends upon the limitations or restrictions as placed by the local law. Don’t go so over the top that you could get pulled over.

As I said like my friend I do have a dependable black Honda Civic for long drives out of town, only because both she and I can afford to maintain two cars.

What is my Goth Car? I have a 1940 Ford Sedan, all in high gloss black, it’s interior is a very dark grey with maroon piping, I also found a pair of hanging vases that some of the limo cars that were used to transport the family to the cemetery would have had mounted in their interior, that was discontinued in the mid 1950’s so those were a find and I had them installed. The poor thing was a mess when I came across it over 30 years ago, it took 3 years of work and a lot of sacrificing and several 2nd jobs to get her restored. But it was worth it, when I park her I put up a sign that I found in an antique shop that said “Funeral Car”, no one touches it, because it looks incredibly other worldly. And in the vases I’ve put these beautiful fake white orchids that look incredibly real. Some of the looks I’ve gotten are really funny.

I have the original AM radio that works but I installed underneath a small cassette deck that plays tapes of funeral music or Gothic chants, so with a flick of a concealed switch I can go from radio to cassette in an instant.

Years ago I had hoped to be able to get my Grandmother’s car, a 1940 black Buick but she willed that to my brother, who takes very, Very good care of it, he and his wife are members of the Art Deco Society and love to dress up like a gangster and his Moll.

So when I came across the Ford at a price that was a steal I leaped at it.

Now your Goth car or van does not have to be painted Black, it can be the darkest possible blue or purple, even a blood red if you like, one older Goth that I know has her BMW with a white pearlized paint job, it gives the car a very ghostly otherworldly effect, and she has the interior all white, it had to be special ordered and she had the money to have it done. But remember as with any car you want to Goth up it all depends upon what sort of accessories you want to add to it, keeping in mind that it has to be street legal.

One younger Goth person I know has a Dodge panel Van, he fixed up the interior with black upholstery for the two front rider seats, in the back he has a couch that looks like an open coffin that one can sit in like a couch, along with beautiful hanging lights, that he puts candles in when it’s parked, it comes with a gothic style table, and includes a cooler than can run off a battery or portable generator to hold food and chilled white wine. It almost looks like a romantic gypsy caravan in a way; as part of his carry accessories, he has a customized E-Z up to extend the seating area to hold a portable gas bar-b-que if needed, or any extra chairs.

He uses it mostly for outdoor gatherings, like star gazing especially when the meteor showers are active in the sky. But sometimes he goes to outdoor pagan events and sets it up with the E-Z up tent and does tarot readings.

It’s painted Black but he has an image of a castle in the moonlight painted on one side and a mini-stain glass window mounted on the inside of his side door.

I have to admit that it’s hard to describe, one would have to see it to enjoy its sensuous interior.

Then we have to consider cars that were driven by the Munsters, I know there were two of them. Also we need to throw in Elvira’s convertible and the Batmobile and the Green Hornets’ Car and also the possessed car from that horrible horror film “The Car” (I mean the film was terrible but the car was just thrilling).

Here are some links for Gothmobiles, they are mostly in the UK but it will give you an idea: www.lavenderpillow.co.uk/Goth_Motors.html/ and www.gothiclimousines.co.uk If nothing else it will give you ideas of what you can do.

For Hearse Clubs we have our original Grim Rides at www.grimrides.com and the Hearse Club www.hearseclub.com and well as www.phantomcoaches.org/

I’m going to put these several links on my side bar for you to easily find, just to give you Darklings some idea of how much you want to “Hearse or Goth Your Ride”.

Later Darklings.