Have you ever done "The Wave"????

I was straightening the top shelf of my linen closet this morning when I came across incontrovertible evidence that I am a sports fan.

Why my linen closet, you ask?  Because Miami teams. . .I'm talking Heat, Dolphins, Marlins and the long gone Panthers. . .  all seem to resort to colorful towels of various sizes when things are going well.  Especially during playoffs.

In addition to the Heat "wavers" in the photo below, one of which dates back to a 1997 semi-final game against the Knicks where I believe we got beaten, and the '98 Playoffs when we won.  I have two giant beach towels, one for the Dolphins and one for the Marlins (that was prior to the recent arena bruhaha) and a true relic from the one time the Panthers played in the Stanley Cup in 1996 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Yes, I threw rats on the ice at that one.

My season ticket days to all of these teams are also long gone, preferring to watch on the flat screen TV from the comfort of my bedroom, but the wealth of tiny towels on that top shelf brought back a wealth of sports memories.  Grandson Adam was my companion of choice for Dolphin games until he left for college.  The "significant other" learned to be a fan of all of the above teams once we became a couple some 18 1/2 years ago and went to all the games together.

Gee, how come I have nothing for the University of Miami in my closet??  I certainly sat in the old Orange Bowl for enough games starting back in 1957 when I arrived in Miami.  I think I have a tee shirt somewhere that commemorates those memories. 

I'll take a photo of it for you as soon as I find it.  Wave if you have one also.
#   #   #   #

Have scissors. Will cut.

We are a well greased machine, Mariane and I. 

We meet every Tuesday morning at 8 o'clock sharp at the front door to WLRN, Miami's public radio station to read on air to the visually impaired..  Two copies of the day's Miami Herald are waiting for us, placed there by "our leader", Mario Lozado, the head of the station's Radio Reading Services. Without missing a beat, we take our preferred seats before the not-yet-live microphones and start the process of cutting up the newspapers into four 15 minute segments:  Local  / Regional, State & National / Editorial & Opinion Columns / Business, Sports & Health.

We go live at 9 sharp, so that first hour is used not just to select articles to be read, but to cut and chop them to a readable size. . .in other words, we edit.  And I have to admit, we have our own biases as we do so.  Since time is limited for each segment, we tend to read the articles that (1) will hopefully appeal to the mature age of most of our listeners, and (2) more than likely, will be something that happens to particularly interest us.  A good example was this morning's sizable article on The Heat Repeat!.  If you are not a Heat fan, you might not understand.

Since we never actually see or hear from our listeners, I always wondered if anyone was really listening.  Out of curiousity, I queried my friend, Virginia Jacko, the CEO of the Lighthouse For The Blind.  Her response: "Are you kidding!  I can't tell you the number of people who depend on listening to all you readers."   Makes volunteering worthwhile, doesn't it?

An unexpected benefit of these Tuesday morning sessions is a delightful new friend.  We may be of different generations, but we get along famously, not to mention that I am Godmother to young Leo Pantin-Parish, the newest member of Mariane's family, who recently sat for his portrait.  (See photo.  OK, so I am showing off.)

WLRN could use some additional readers, I'm told.  If you're interested, call Mario at 305-995-2218.  I promise  you, you won't be sorry.
#   #   #
Photo captions:  Mariane, ready to go "live" and Leo The Lionhearted

Time to be nostalgic. . .

Today is Father's Day and I'm remembering my own father.  I always felt we had a special bond because I was born on his birthday. . .October 19th. . .family legend said it was just a few minutes after mid-night, as if my Mother hung on until the date offcially changed before giving birth to me.

My sister Fran and I have talked about how lucky we were with our parents.  They both were totally supportive of us our entire lives.  Daddy. . .we called him that until the day he died, although Mother was always called Mother. . Daddy thought his two daughters were the most beautiful and the smartest girls in the world.  Both parents never stopped telling us they loved us.  You can't buy that kind of security growing up.

I'm also thinking this morning about my grandson Adam.  This is his second Father's Day and he is an incredible father to his son Grayson.  Fathers today are a different breed from my generation.  They are "hands on" Daddys, who very much share the load.

With that in mind, I made one phone call this morning to say "Happy Father's Day" to my daughter Andrea's father.  He came into our lives when Andrea was five years old, and he is still very much a loving Dad, Grandfather and Great-Grandfather. Divorce doesn't change that one bit.
#   #   #   #
Photo caption:  My sister and me, with our Dad.   Yes, I had bangs even then.