ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER THANKSGIVING DAY

LOTS OF THINGS FOR WHICH TO BE THANKFUL

Here we are, on Thanksgiving Day, 2018, and I’ve decided to write another entry on this blog.  I have more to say than I feel comfortable trying to squeeze into a Facebook post, but my Facebook buddies can read this because I’ll link to it. As an old coot, I’ve seen many of these Thanksgiving Days and every year I am, indeed, thankful for the wonderful things I have in my life.  I’ll list a few for you and maybe it will stir some memories of your own.

THANKFUL FOR MY SWEET SUSIE

Right at the top, I’m grateful for my sweet, loving and VERY patient wife, Susie.  We’ve been married for 51 years - and counting - and through it all she has been at my side, supporting me as we waded through five relocations, a couple career changes and, for the last more than 15 years, as I tried to enlighten the public with my political (and other) observations.  She’s been there as health issues slapped me around.  She is the BEST thing that ever happened to me in my life - and I’ve had a LOT of great things happen to me!

THANKFUL FOR MY PARENTS

I’m thankful for my family.  My parents, Bob and Dorothy West, were both hard-working people who did everything within their power to create a loving home for my two sisters and me.  Through their example we saw good, caring people.  Through their simple lesson of kindness and friendliness to others we learned a lesson that cannot be acquired through a costly education.  We learned how to treat people.  I learned to read sitting on my Mother’s lap at a very early age and that became foundational for everything I’ve done in life.  While working with my Father I saw, through his example, that through hard work, honesty and fairness a person  CAN succeed in business.  Although never wealthy, they found ways to permit us to do things that interested us - to help us to spread our wings.  I’m not sure we fully understood the sacrifices they made on our behalf until much later in life.  I miss them every day.

THANKFUL FOR MY SISTERS

I’m thankful for my two younger sisters, Linda and Cheryll.  I’ve learned a lot as I watched them navigate life, though the good and bad times.  I admire both of them for their steadfastness, the choices they’ve made and their accomplishments wives, as single Moms and as mothers to three wonderful children and grandmothers to a half-dozen lovely grandkids.  I’m thankful for my elder step-sister, Margaret, but have lost touch with her and her boys.  Things happen like that.

THANKFUL FOR AUNTS, UNCLES AND COUSINS

I’m thankful for my aunts and uncles, all of whom have now passed, and for their kids - my cousins.  They all have played a major role in my life and I’m happy some of us still remain in contact.  I love them all.

THANKFUL FOR SUSIE’S FAMILY, TOO…

I’m thankful for the wonderful family I became part of when I married my sweet Susie.  Her immigrant parents showed the world what newcomers to this country can accomplish.  They were smart, hard-working, kind, genteel, people who knew how to laugh and spread love to all around them.  Her three brothers are wonderful, successful men, who married wonderful women and who have become parents of nine great children and are now grandparents to eleven terrific kids.  I love them all.

THANKFUL FOR FRIENDS, OLD AND NEW

I’m thankful for old friends and new.  As we have traveled through life we’ve met some wonderful folks, many of whom have become not just correspondents, but good friends. I still meet a few high school classmates for lunch quarterly, but those numbers are dwindling.  I still have lunch most weeks of the year with a man I’ve known since the first day of kindergarten.  We share great childhood memories and a love of sports, so there’s never a loss for things to chat about.  We will celebrate our 60th high school reunion next year, when we will gather with many of our classmates to, once again, share wonderful stories of our lives.  I’m very lucky to have remained in touch with so many of those folks who helped shape the early years of my life.  Sadly, there will be many fewer this year than in years past.

THANKFUL FOR LARRY MOORE

I’m thankful for those friends who have passed on.  Life and circumstance takes its toll… sometimes much too early.  Those of you who have followed this blog know that I lost my best friend for 57 years, Larry Moore, 15 years ago when he succumbed to injuries from a motorcycle accident.  As I sat at his bedside for the six weeks he was in the Trauma Intensive Care Unit in that Las Vegas hospital, trying to help the doctors attending him to make the decisions that would return him to us, I spent a lot of time contemplating our lives together.  I almost always smiled - sometimes laughed out loud - as I thought about our adventures together.  It was almost like a Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn story.  And, of course, there were times when I had tears running down my cheeks, too.  Not a day goes by that I don’t miss my friend.

THANKFUL FOR OTHERS, TOO…

And, there were many others who were part of my life that have left us.  Each of those, whether friend or family, made an impression on me and my life and I’m thankful for them.

THANKFUL FOR MY MILITARY BUDDIES

I’m thankful for the men with whom I shared a service commitment during the middle 1960’s, when the Vietnam War was heating up.  Some, like me, were draftees - summoned to serve due to the pending escalation of that war.  Others were volunteers, most of whom had signed up before Vietnam began to boil.  Together we shared the obligation of military service, even though it was not popular at the time.  I’m still in touch with some of them, or their surviving families, and am grateful for those relationships.

THANKFUL FOR MY BOSSES

I’m thankful to those men who helped nurture and shape my life in the business world.  Most of them are now gone, but certainly not forgotten. They saw things in me that I did not, and advanced my career much more rapidly than I could have expected.  They taught me to trust my gut in many circumstances, just as they trusted theirs when it came to opportunities made available to me.  When I leaped, head-first, out of a safe business nest into the world of consulting, it was due  in great part, to the confidence they had in me.  It turns out they were right.

THANKFUL FOR THE EDITORS

I’m thankful for those editors of local newspapers who published my early submissions and encouraged me to write more.  Many of them offered me a column, for which I have always been thankful, but always chose to respectfully decline.  I didn’t want to write on assignment.  I may occasionally submit something for them to consider and I’ll always be thankful if they print my thoughts.

THANKFUL FOR THE KIND WORDS

I’m very thankful for the kind words and encouragement of those who felt my contributions to the community were worthy of recognition.  It’s heady stuff when the blog, the work product of a simple, old guy with too much time on his hands, is recognized as the best in Orange County - twice - and when the editors of the Daily Pilot chose to include my name of those 103 individuals they felt were “influential” in the community - several times.  

THANKFUL TO THE CITY STAFF

I’m thankful to the men and women who work for the City of Costa Mesa - many of whom have become my friends - for, not only their professionalism and steadfastness in bleak times, but for their recognition of my support for their efforts.  A high point of my life was the day they presented me with a plaque of gratitude.

THANKFUL FOR YOU, TOO

I’m thankful, of course, for those of you who have read this blog over the years.  I’m thankful for those who chose to participate in the discussions here, to keep the dialogue going on important issues.  We’ve had some interesting discussions, where some of you tried to show me the error of my ways - usually unsuccessfully.   I will always be thankful for those discussions.

THANKFUL FOR MY DOCTORS

In recent years I’ve been very thankful for the doctors who now attend me more often than I would like.  I’ve worn a couple of them out and had to replace them with new guys.  Still, now that I’m well into my seventh decade of existence, it’s not unexpected for joints to need lubrication, critical parts to need tuning up and more attention paid to this old carcass in general.  I’m thankful for their patience as I ignore too many of their suggestions.  I’m working on that.

THANKFUL FOR FACEBOOK, TOO

On that note, I’m thankful to still be here, pounding on this keyboard, sending my thoughts to you all.  I’m thankful for you and my Facebook buddies - I hesitate to call them “friends” because darn Mark Zuckerberg has actually diluted what that word once meant!  Still, I’m thankful for his creation, which allows me to stay in touch with friends and relatives who live far away - to share their lives on an almost second-by-second basis, with photos of personal and family triumphs (and tragedies, too).

YOU WON’T SEE MUCH FROM ME

Now that this election is over and, for all intents and purposes, the races are decided, it’s very unlikely that you will see much more from me here.  I’m generally pleased with the outcome and look forward very much to watching Mayor Katrina Foley and the new team that will join her on the City Council dais next month begin to re-establish the goals of our city to conform with the wishes of the voters, so clearly stated in the last two elections.  Although there will always be something to write about in my town, I’m going to try very hard to let someone else do it.

ENJOY YOUR LIFE - JUST THROW THAT BALL!

And now, Susie and I want to wish you all a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING.  I have been, and continue to be, thankful for the part you’ve played in my life.  I hope you find ways to share your love over this holiday.  You just never know what kind of a curve ball life will throw you - like our 4 year-old great-nephew, Chase, who was diagnosed with leukemia last week and faces years of chemotherapy ahead - so be sure those you love know it.  If there are things you want to do, do them.  Play this game of life like you’re the Rams and Chiefs last Monday night - just get out there and throw that ball!  We love you all…

Happy Birthday, My Friend...

REMEMBERING MY FRIEND
As some know, Larry Moore, my best friend for 57 years, passed away after six weeks in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital in Las Vegas as a result of a motorcycle accident on his way home from that city the end of 2003.  I miss my friend every day and mark his passing on the anniversary of that date and on this date, July 30th - his birthday.  That image above is the last photo taken of us together just a few months before his passing.

HE WAS LOVED BY MANY
My bud was a retired Los Angeles Police Officer - 31 years on the LAPD - and a man who made friends everywhere he went.  He loved his two daughters and has missed his two grandchildren grow up.  His eldest daughter, Kara, is now a Detective with the LAPD. 

A MAN OF MANY TALENTS
Not only was he a cop, he was also an athlete - a terrific swimmer and football player - and a wonderful composer and singer.  At his retirement party he was joined by his good friend, Bobby Sherman, as they belted out tunes to the Karaoke machine.  He cut a record or two and actually was the opening act on local television when The Righteous Brothers performed.  Here's one of his tunes, co-written with Eddie Cochran.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMIGO... WE MISS YOU EVERY SINGLE DAY
I always loved this image of us together - that halo effect seems perfect.  Happy Birthday up there, amigo...

A Sad Remembrance, Again....

THIRTEEN YEARS...
Today, December 19, 2016, marks another sad anniversary for me.  On this date in 2003, at 6:37 p.m., my best friend for 57 years, Larry Moore, passed away in a hospital in Las Vegas following six weeks in the Trauma Intensive Care Unit after a motorcycle accident on a remote desert road.

WE TRIED TO BRING HIM BACK, BUT...
As some know, I spent those six weeks at his side, exercising my durable power of health care he bestowed upon me a decade earlier, trying to help the staff return our friend to us.  Sadly, it was not to be.

FROM THE BEGINNING...
I've written about my friend every year on this date to commemorate the huge part of my life he represented from the very first time I ever saw him when we were about 5 years old.  My mother and I were walking down to the local shopping area when we passed his house.  We heard this little voice yell, "Hey!  Look at me!"  We looked back the driveway we were passing and there, standing on top of his garage roof, was this little guy with a smile  beaming from ear to ear.  And with that he jumped off the roof onto the grassy patch between two concrete strips that formed the driveway.  That was the beginning of a wonderful, lifelong friendship.  I wrote about him a year ago HERE.

HE WAS A FRIEND AND MENTOR TO MANY
Today, as I think of my friend, I will remember all the wonderful times we shared.  I'll remember his 31 years of service as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, the last half of which he performed as the Athletic Director at the Police Academy.  I will remember the impact he had on every single officer during his tenure in that role, especially those who competed in the Baker-to-Vegas Challenge Cup Relay, which he and his partner on the job, Chuck Foote, created.

SO MANY MEMORIES...
I will remember all the wonderful family times - the holidays, the vacations and just hanging out as young guys.

TO THE END...
With those last few hours burned in my brain, remembering how the staff worked and worked and worked to bring him back from that last crisis when I finally had to tell them to stop and let him go, I leave you with this bit of advice, made even more relevant after my own little health event earlier this year.... Do not wait to tell those you love how you feel about them.  Larry and I knew how we felt about each other - we were best friends in every sense of the word.  So, today - use the holiday as a reason if you need one - make sure those you hold dear KNOW it.  Give them a big hug and tell them you love them.  Life is short.

Remembering My Friend, Again...

A GREAT FRIEND
Today, July 30, 2016, would have been the 75th birthday of my friend, Larry Moore.  If he was still alive we and our families would find a way to celebrate this day together as we did so many times during the 57 years he and I were best friends.  Instead, we simply remember what a wonderful man he was, and what a great friend he was to so many people.

I MARK THIS DAY EACH YEAR
I've written about his each year, marking his birthday and also marking the day he passed away in December, 2003.  Last year I wrote about him HERE.  This year, with all the tragic loss of police officers lives across the country, I think of him more than ever.

THOUSANDS OF FRIENDS
Larry was a member of the Los Angeles police Department for 31 years and he spent the last half of his career as the Athletic Director at the Police Academy.  This plaque is mounted at the Police Academy in his honor.  He had tens of thousands of friends around the world from his law enforcement activities.  I knew many of them and considered them my friends, too.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMIGO
Today my wife and I will mark this day with some special quiet time and remember all the wonderful times we spent with Larry.  I hope each of you are fortunate to have such a great friend in your lives.

We Mark Another Sad Anniversary

REMEMBERING MY FRIEND
Each year for the past now dozen years, as the Christmas holiday approaches, I've marked this date with great sadness.  Today, December 19, 2015, marks another anniversary of the day my best friend for 57 years, Larry Moore, passed away.  Those of you who have been frequent readers will recognize this story, and you can read about it in greater detail in the entry I posted two years ago, HERE.

FRIENDS SINCE AGE FIVE
Larry Moore and I were best friends for most of our lives - ever since that day my mother and I saw him jump off his garage roof, which was preceded with a cheery exclamation, "Hey, look at me!", and off he went, landing on the little grass strip between two concrete runners.  Yep, that was the beginning.

LARRY THE ATHLETE AND LEADER
We grew up together, closer than most brothers, and shared almost every special moment in our lives.  We dated some of the same girls, participated in some of the same sports - although he was a much more accomplished athlete than I.  Although not a man of great physical stature, he excelled in football, basketball and water sports - swimming and water polo.  In the case of the latter two, he continued to participate in those sports until late in his life, and continued to excel.  During his 31 years with the Los Angeles Police Department he continued to swim and play water polo until the day he retired.  As Athletic Director for the LAPD for the last fifteen years of his career, he and his partner on the job, Chuck Foote, created the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay - one of the most grueling footraces in the world.  He created an event called "The Toughest Cop Alive", in which competitors would engage in eight individual events in one day, things like swimming, running, rope climbing, weight lifting.  It's truly ironic that, during his six-week battle for his life, he was, indeed,  "The Toughest Cop Alive."

WE'LL NEVER REALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED
My friend died in Las Vegas following six weeks in the Trauma Intensive Care unit of a hospital as a result of a solo motorcycle accident on a lonely desert road as he headed home from a visit with friends who lived just outside of Las Vegas.  We'll never know what caused him to crash - maybe it was inattention, trying to tune his radio - but whatever it was, he missed a turnoff, continued on up a grade to a point where the desert road leveled off, crossed a double railroad track, then made an immediate left hand turn.  Larry didn't navigate the turn, layed the motorcycle down out in front of him as he had been trained to do as a motorcycle officer with the LAPD, and began to slide.  At one point his tires slipped off the smooth, raised double yellow line onto the weathered, coarse asphalt, which just reached out and grabbed his tires and slammed him to the ground like a rag doll.

SAVED BY STRANGERS
Foreign tourists, themselves lost on that same road, saw the dust and rushed to his side.  Still conscious, he identified himself and told them he was badly hurt.  They summoned a railroad work crew that had been working on those tracks nearby, who had the wisdom to call for a helicopter, which transported him to the closest hospital - in Las Vegas, about 70 miles away.

SEVERE INJURIES
I held his power of attorney for health care, so was called immediately.  I drove to Vegas as quickly as I could, arriving the next day, not knowing what to expect.  What I found was my friend near death from injuries one might associate with a beating with a baseball bat - fractured ribs, fractured transverse processes of the spine, a broken hip socket and - as was discovered when he first arrived at the hospital - a torn descending aorta.  Thus began a six-week vigil by his side in that hospital room as the staff tried every trick in the book to bring him back to us.  And, eventually, it looked like he might actually make it.

A VERY DIFFICULT DAY FOR HIM
Twelve years ago on this date I left the hospital just after 6:00 p.m. after having spent the past dozen hours at his side.  He'd had a tough day following an emergency surgery the evening before.  He seemed to be safe and stable in his room and the staff was busy completing the paperwork about this latest emergency, so I headed back to my hotel with a stop at a Wendy's for some takeout food before settling in to write what had become a regular email report to his many friends.  But, before I got five minutes down the road I was recalled to the hospital.

THINGS LOOKED BLEAK
When I arrived I found his attending physician and a half-dozen associates in his room.  He had suffered a cardiac arrest - just as he had the evening before as he was being wheeled in to the operating room for that surgical procedure.  This time it was very grim.  I stood in the doorway next to his doctor as she orchestrated many attempts to bring him back.  She would give directions, the staff would respond, then look at her for more instructions.  Finally, after one more attempt with a defibrillator, they looked at her... then at me... and I knew it was time to stop.

At 6:37 p.m., December 19, 2003, my friend lost his fight.

INFORMING HIS FRIENDS
I spent the next several hours notifying his family and closest friends.  Among the first calls I made was to his eldest daughter, Kara, who proudly followed her father to the LAPD.  Before I left the Trauma Intensive Care unit every staff member on duty sought me out to offer their condolences to me, and to his thousands of friends.  During the six weeks he was there they had grown to admire and love my friend, and the fighting spirit he demonstrated every day.  As my sweet wife said that night as we discussed Larry, "He just made everyone around him feel loved."  I then decamped to my hotel room and wrote the email to his friends that I never wanted to write.  What had begun six weeks earlier as a nightly email communication to a handful of people ended up being communications relayed among literally thousands of people, including one dear friend who was reading them in Antarctica.

SHARE YOUR LOVE....
So, on this sad anniversary, let me remind you, one more time, to tell the people you love how you feel.  Don't wait, because you just never know what kind of curve is ahead on the road of life.  And, as always, I want you all to know how grateful I am for your readership.  Not all of you agree with what I write on these pages, but you continue to read - thank you for that.  This is the final photo of my friend and me.  He was a wonderful man and I miss him every day.

Happy Birthday, Larry... Mi Amigo

MARKING MY FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY
Those of you who are long-time readers of this blog know that each year on this date know that I mark this day, July 30th, with a remembrance of my dear friend, Larry Moore - my best friend for 57 years until a tragic accident took him from us eleven and half years ago.

I'VE WRITTEN BEFORE
I've written many, many times about him and our friendship and love for each other.  You can read other entries HERE and HERE... and there are more.  Type his name in the search block at the upper left corner of this page to find more entries on my friend.

PAINFUL MEMORIES
Suffice it to say that I still miss my pal after all these years.  I can still recall spending six weeks at his bedside in the Trauma Intensive Care Unit of the University Hospital in Las Vegas, trying to help keep him with us after he crashed his motorcycle on a desolate road on his way home from that city.

FAMILY...
I recall the many trips his former wife and two daughters made across the desert to visit my friend, to hold his hand and talk to him although he couldn't respond.  He was proud of them both.  His eldest daughter, Kara, became a detective with the LAPD.

VISITING THE SITE
I can still recall as though it was yesterday driving out to that site and seeing the skid marks caused when my friend tried to navigate the 90 degree turn he didn't see coming.  I can still recall the memorial my wife and I built alongside that road in his honor so many years ago.

THANKING THOSE WHO RESPONDED
I can still recall returning to that site and, quite by accident, coming across the railroad work crew that a few weeks earlier had rushed to his aid and the training and wisdom to call the Life Flight helicopter to whisk him to the hospital, and having the chance to personally thank those men for their quick action that gave us a fighting chance to save Larry's life.

THE FRIENDS...
And, I can still remember the steady stream of friends who traveled across the desert to see their friend, even though for almost all that time he was not conscious and couldn't acknowledge them.  Because of his 31-year career with the Los Angeles Police Department and in his role as Athletic Director of the Police Academy for the last half of it, he knew thousands of cops from all over the world.  The emails I sent out each night - which began as short notes to a half-dozen friends and ended up being distributed to more than 1,000 people each evening near the end - struck a chord with those folks from as far away as Antarctica.  He was a man much admired and much loved.

SHARING ANOTHER BIRTHDAY
Today my friend would have been 74 years old.  He briefly knew his grandson - a spitting image of his grandfather and who just graduated from high school - and never knew his granddaughter.  He left us all much too early and is missed every day.  Happy Birthday, Amigo.... I miss you still...

Police Events Scheduled This Week

NOT YOUR "NORMAL" WEEK AHEAD

Following Easter Sunday the week ahead in Costa Mesa brings some of the normal stuff - council meetings, committee meetings and the like.  I've already written about the agenda for the City Council meeting on Tuesday, HERE, but this week is special for a couple other reasons.

COFFEE WITH A COP - IN THE EVENING!
Wednesday evening, from 5-7 p.m., residents have a chance to attend the next "Coffee With A Cop" event at the Panera store, 235 E. 17th Street.  This is the first evening event, so more of you may be able to carve out some time to drop in for a chat with some of our Costa Mesa Police Officers.  This site is near Staples just west of Orange Avenue.

 

THURSDAY "TIP-A-COP"

Then, the next evening, Thursday, April 9th, you have ANOTHER chance to meet with members of the Costa Mesa Police Department as they serve you at the fundraiser for Special Olympics at the Claim Jumper Restaurant and Saloon, 3333 Bristol Street, from 5-9 p.m.  

BAKER-TO-VEGAS!

And, while we're talking about the men and women of the Costa Mesa Police Department, kudos to the entire team who recently participated in the Baker-to-Vegas Challenge Cup Relay - one of the toughest athletic challenges any of them will ever face.  I'm proud to say that my best friend for more than 57 years, Larry Moore, created that grueling challenge 31 years ago with his partner on the job, Chuck Foote, and it remains on the calendar of thousands of men and women in law enforcement world-wide.  You can learn about it HERE.

 DISTRACTED DRIVING AWARENESS MONTH 

And, a little reminder from the CMPD.  Recently they distributed an announcement about April being "Distracted Driving Awareness Month".  Law enforcement organizations will be working on increased educational opportunities during this month.  Here's the text of that message.

Just to help you understand the problem, here's a little video that might drive home the point.  A viewing hint: If you're viewing this page on the Home Page and see the archive information cluttering up the image below, just slide your cursor over to the right side of the page and click on the title of this post before beginning the video.  It will take you to this page by itself, without the archive information intruding in the image.

So, be advised that every second you allow yourselves to be distracted while driving is one that could put the lives of yourselves and others in jeopardy.

Have a great week...