Puppet floods sun on videoed porsche Bed
“Melika and Tom gave us a mattress and box spring,” Nazy explained.
“Why?” I replied. “Did we let them sleep on the one we have?” I thought.
Flashback 1973 Atlanta, Georgia
Nazy’s parents, The Admiral and Mrs. Safavi, were visiting us in Atlanta. Following Persian Tradition (which was explained to me at length) we gave them our bed. (Nazy and I slept on rollaways.) And the end of the visit, The Admiral handed me a stack of $100 bills.
“Buy two good beds,” he explained. “Good ones,” The Admiral thought, “before we come again.”
End Flashback
“It’s full circle, Nazy, Now our children are acting like they are the parents.”
“No, Dan. Friends who moved in with Tom and Melika brought their own bed. We need a bed for the guest room and...”
The new mattress set was thick. In SHORT (or actually in TALL), the new set was much farther from the ground than our existing set.
“Does it come with stairs?” I asked.
“It is new technology, Dad. Like a smartphone.” Melika explained.
“A smartphone isn’t thicker and heavier than a dumb phone,” I thought. “Do we have crampons and ropes?” I asked Nazy.
“In storage, Dan.”
“We will use the ladder,” I replied.
Later in the week, Melika and Nazy drove to Los Angeles in our car. Melika left her car, the Porsche, for me to use while they were gone. It was an interesting juxtaposition: Melika’s bed resides in the stratosphere; the car seat, in contrast, is skateboard height.
Nazy and I also went to see the Blind Summit Theatre presentation of “The Table” a puppetry performance that, duh, takes place on a table. It’s a hard to describe a show with a puppet that reenacts the last 12 hours of Moses’ life in real time. Three people manipulate the puppet in full sight of the audience - but amazingly, you easily begin to think of the puppet as a person. In fact, Nazy went overboard.
This week, the Movember video developed by Tom and Ali to raise money for cancer research was posted on the web. Melika let me know that
“... you have a cameo, Dad.”
“A cameo? Cameo?! My agent said a st*r shot. He said it would be a career-making experience.”
“Dad! You were in a video with Tom.”
I thought of Clementine Churchill’s comment about her husband Winston. “He likes to be the center of attention. If he’s at a wedding, he wants to be the bride. At a funeral, he wants to be the corpse.”
“You’re right, Melika,” I replied. “Did you know that Tom has a lot in common with Winston Churchill?” “I wonder if Tom wore white when they got married,” I thought.
If you’d like to see a fun video (I show up at 3:36), go to.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_qCBUtV_GE; you can donate to a good cause (and pump up Tom’s position) by clicking http://us.movember.com/mospace/3355417. Their team is now in 8th place nationally.
While cleaning out the (gasp!) storage, we found one of Nazy’s unfinished porcelain projects. It lacked only the final firing.
“Look at this!” I exclaimed. “You signed it. ‘Nazy, 1986’. This vase is older than you.”
“It’s an umbrella stand, Dan,” choosing which error to correct.
“It’s also taller than you,” I replied. (Insufficiently under my breathe.)
Nazy found a kiln provider in Ventura and we drove down with the umbrella stand. The kiln pilot had lots of questions. Silly questions like what temperature was needed?
“We just want it fired.” Nazy explained. Reasonably. ‘I don’t have a clue,” Nazy thought. Accurately.
“But if I fire it too hot, it will melt. Are you willing to take that chance?”
“Of course not,” I interjected. “This vase..”
“Umbrella stand, Dan.” Nazy interrupted.
“ ... is a beloved family heirloom. If you melt it, my dear wife might be able to cope, but offspring will be put off about their loss of inheritance.”
“Inheritance?”
“We were going to break it into three pieces when we kick the vase.”
“Umbrella..”
“But if you melt it into a solid piece of, eh, congealed pottery, we will have to change our will. Does your insurance include a provision for legal advice?”
In the end, we left the piece with at the Kiln store - and we’re on pins and needles waiting for the result. It cost a lot because they insisted on a ‘solo run’. (“A meltdown won’t damage anything else.&rdquo
While we were having pottery fired, a plumbing breakdown flooded Mitra and Stefan’s dance studio. Following Nazy’s advice, I tried to be positive.
“It is possible to dance in water. I remember a scene in Mama Mia with swim fins.”
“That’s not the Tango, Dad.”
It’s been a real challenge, but the entire Oxygen Tango community got behind work to fix the space problem - while ignoring the landlord’s suggestion that they dance on wet concrete.
Finally, Nazy and I also had time this week for a stroll along the beach. We were able to see a great sunset. An early sunset because..
“Why do they have daylight savings time during the summer when there is already a lot of daylight?” Nazy asked. Reasonably.
“I think it has something to do with kids going to school in the dark.”
“So coming home in the dark is better?”
“Well.” I replied. Succinctly and unhelpfully)
